10. Understanding Your Ideal Client (Strategic Plan part 3)
Today (despite audio troubles) we are covering the importance of understanding your client avatar or ideal client.
IF YOU WANT TO CRAFT A CLEAR MESSAGE, SPEAK DIRECTLY TO YOUR IDEAL CLIENT, AND BUILD A MORE PROFITABLE BUSINESS - YOU NEED A CLEAR UNDERSTANDING WHO YOU’RE HOPING TO SERVE!
There is SO much information available on this topic. That's why today I'm sharing what I believe to be the most important things to understand about your ideal client - so that you don't have to waste your time on things that won't have as big of an impact on your business. Enjoy!
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EPISODE SUMMARY (AI-Generated)
In this episode, Dusty Hegge discusses the importance of understanding your client avatar or ideal client. She emphasizes the need to know who you're serving, why you're serving them, and how you can best serve them. Dusty provides tips for focusing on the person making the buying decision, understanding that you may have more than one client avatar, prioritizing understanding their core values and motives, and not holding too tightly to income brackets. She also suggests considering their hobbies, pain points, and problems, and how you can solve them. Dusty encourages listeners to review and refine their client avatar as they gain more clarity and understanding.
KEY TAKEAWAYS (AI-Generated)
Understanding your client avatar is crucial for building a successful business.
Focus on the person making the buying decision and understand their core values and motives.
You may have more than one client avatar, so consider different subcategories of customers.
Don't hold too tightly to income brackets, as pricing can vary based on individual circumstances.
Consider your client's hobbies, pain points, and problems, and how you can solve them.
Review and refine your client avatar as you gain more clarity and understanding.
TRANSCRIPT (AI-Generated)
Dusty - Client avatar (00:02.574)
Hello and welcome to More Than Ambition. I am your host, Dusty Hegge. I am a business consultant, a Squarespace website designer, and owner of Caffeinated Sites, which is a website template shop to energize your business. And today, we are talking about client avatar, sometimes also referred to as ideal client.
and it's one of the sections in your Simple Strategic Plan. So you can grab your own free copy of the Simple Strategic Plan at dustyheggy .com slash strategy. You can follow along here. Today, I'm actually gonna be referring to and kind of coming off of a lot of the content in the Complete Strategic Plan. So think about it like an app where there's like a free version that's like the light app, and then there's the paid version that has more robust features and et cetera.
And that's kind of what the complete strategic plan is. It's the more robust, the complete version of a strategic plan with a lot more content, a lot more space for ideation and brainstorming and thinking through your strategic plan. And that's what we're gonna be referring to today. And so you can grab the paid version of the strategic plan in my shop at dustyheggie .com. You'll see it right there, it's only $27. It's a really high value.
Google Doc that is packed full of goodness. But for now, if you would prefer, you can start with the free version and work up from there when you're ready to dive into the more complete version. But today we are going to be working off that complete version a little bit. So if you want to be able to follow along, go ahead and grab that and you can follow along with us. So we're going to be talking about our client avatar. And before we do, I want to kind of give you sort of an introduction to why this even matters. And before we can...
sell a product before we can build a product suite, which is really the core of your business in many, many ways. Before we can really do that, we need to know who we're serving, why we're serving, and how we can best serve them. Understanding your client avatar is one of those things that it's really easy to put the cart before the horse in this situation. It's really easy to dive far too much into trying to...
Dusty - Client avatar (02:19.182)
sort of hyper -focus on understanding your ideal client or your client avatar. Or the opposite is true. It's really easy to kind of not consider it at all. And in the beginning of a business, and really I would say even in a more advanced business, when you're building out a new offering or a new product suite, a lot of times we get the idea of the product we want to sell, the course we want to make.
the membership we want to create before we really understand our person. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. But it is important that we double back and consider, okay, who am I talking to with this offering or this service? And how is it going to serve them? And what about this person who's going to be buying from me tells me that they're actually, one, going to buy, and that two, this is going to be beneficial to them. And I can speak to them in a way that doesn't just make them feel seen and heard and valued, but actually,
sees them and actually is actually you valuing them through your offerings, right? And it's actually you serving them because the kinds of products that say a single father needs is going to probably be different than even from a father who's married. Like especially let's think the example I give a lot of time is for a daycare. So the types of services like let's say two dads both need daycare, but the kind of
that a single father might need for his children versus a happily married father is probably gonna be a little bit different. They're both dads, but they're probably gonna need a little bit more, they're each gonna need something more tailored to their position in life, to their role, to their whatever, right? And so the same is true for our customers and our clients. And so before we can really dive in to building out a full strategic plan in, particularly our offering suite, which we're gonna spend,
a lot of time talking about pretty soon. And it's probably my favorite part to talk about is building out a product suite. Before we can really dive into that nitty gritty, it's so important that we take time to be prayerful and intentional and consider who it is we're serving and why it is we're serving that particular person. So there really is a lot to talk about in this sphere of business strategy. There's so much to understand, so much to consider for client.
Dusty - Client avatar (04:38.286)
avatars in the online world and for good reason because like I said before it's going to be really difficult to communicate to these people that you're trying to serve if you don't really know who they are right so it's absolutely crucial piece but like I mentioned before it's really easy to focus in too much particularly in the beginning and so that's kind of what we're going to try and avoid today I'm going to try and give you some really key things to focus on and then remind you to just hold it all loosely.
As you build out your product and your offering suite, you might double back again and refine this section of your strategy. And you might have more clarity and think, oh, I thought I wanted to serve this person, but actually I realized I think these type of people would be better suited with what I'm offering. Or you might say, I really feel called to serve this group of people and the original product or offering that I made doesn't actually serve them like I thought. So I'm going to switch and tailor.
my product or service to better suit these people. And there's not a right way or a wrong way to approach it, but just keeping that in mind that the two go together like peanut butter and jelly and analyzing one is gonna help you clarify the other. And so it's kind of, there's not like a right place or a wrong place to start. I might be laboring this point too much, but I hope you follow. Okay, so the first thing we're gonna go through is some tips to just four tips in particular.
to help you kind of focus in on why it even matters. And so, and to kind of get your brain in the right space for talking about who your customer is or who your client avatar is, right? And so the first thing I would say is focus on whomever is making the buying decision. And this might seem really obvious, but I find it not to be as obvious as I assume. It's really easy to get carried away and be, whether we mean to or not, focusing on...
not the person who is making the buying decision. And by that I mean, here's a great example is if you're selling baby clothes, you're not going to be selling to the baby, right? More than likely, the mom is going to be buying those clothes. And so more than likely you're selling to mothers of little kids, right? But also a subcategory might be grandparents or friends or family looking to buy a gift for, um, for the baby or
Dusty - Client avatar (07:02.35)
probably more likely when you're buying baby clothes, a lot of times the gift is really for the mother, right? And so keeping that in mind in the way that you market is gonna change the words that you use, the features that you prioritize in the design of the clothing, and so on and so forth. The second thing is that you will probably have more than one client avatar. So just like in that example that I gave above, like,
It's not gonna be only moms buying baby clothes. Fathers will buy baby clothes, grandmothers will buy baby clothes, other friends and family will be buying baby clothes, and this gift giver example. And so seeking to understand who is your primary client or your primary customer, and then taking some time to think through what are some subcategories that will also be purchasing and that are equally important in the makeup of your business and that are people you equally want to serve.
And how can you serve them well? How can you position your products in a way that also will appeal to them without sort of overlooking your primary customer or client? Does that make sense? So kind of be aware that a lot of times what unites them is one underlining sort of like, I like to call it a heartbeat, one underlining value or core identity, one underlining heartbeat, so to speak.
that sort of unites all of these different sub -segments of customers or clients and trying to hone in on that. And that really pairs really well with your messaging and understanding that. But understanding that kind of core, whether it's a vision or values or impact or priority, is going to help you to be able to talk to a variety of groups of people but still keep a cohesive, tight message. The third thing is to prioritize understanding, which really
plays off the second, right? Prioritize understanding their core values, their character, and their heart behind why they make the decisions that they make. And everything else is secondary. A lot of times when I see business educators teaching like client avatars and the importance of understanding who you're serving, I see a lot of people focus too much time on details that ultimately don't matter, like hair color, for example. Or, or.
Dusty - Client avatar (09:20.878)
the style of clothes that they wear. And now if you're in a fashion industry, that probably really matters. But for the majority of us, that doesn't really matter so much. But maybe the reason why they chose that style of clothing, that matters. Their sort of thought patterns and their thinking and the why are they prioritizing these parts of their lives, understanding the motives of your ideal client or your customer.
is what matters. And so the outcome doesn't quite matter as much. So be careful when you, as you go through this process and think to yourself, what is the reason behind the decision? What is the motive? Because if you can understand what motivates your potential buyer, you are in a gold mind of information that is one, gonna help you to be able to create a much more profitable business, much more sustainable business, but also one that genuinely serves your people.
so much better. And that's, I know what you want here. The fourth thing and the final thing that I want to talk about in this section is although it really is a good idea to get a general idea of your customer or client's income bracket, don't hold to that tightly. A lot of people spend, this is another topic that a lot of people spend a lot of time on, is trying to understand a person's financial standing from a client.
perspective and it does make sense because if you know that a person is really low income, they're not going to buy a stop ticket like course, right? That just makes a lot of sense. And so it's okay to know those things in general, but don't hold to it too tightly because it's one, not our place to assume a person's financial position. And there's kind of some yucky labels that can sometimes we may be subconsciously put on a person when we think about money.
And so it's easy to get kind of carried away. It's also easy to look to ourselves, which is, I think, as ambitious, very impact driven, servant hearted entrepreneurs, ones that want to glorify God through our work. It's really easy for us to instead of maybe putting labels on other people and our clients or our customers to put them on ourselves and think, oh, how selfish of me to charge X price whenever they can't even afford X, Y and Z. And it's just a messy road to go down. And so having a good idea of income bracket is absolutely valuable to you.
Dusty - Client avatar (11:43.662)
That said, don't hold it too tightly because what you might think is charging too much might lead to your customer client a no -brainer because they want this solution that badly and for them a little bit of a higher ticket.
might actually be the thing that motivates them to follow through and get the results that they really, really desire and that you know will serve them really, really well. So pricing is a tricky thing. A topic we'll dive into more in another time, but some good things to keep in mind as you go through this section in your complete strategic plan. Okay, so I'm gonna kind of just go through and list off a few things to consider about pricing.
your customer base about your ideal clients about your client avatar. And so the first is just like the basics, gender, age range, general income bracket, keeping in mind what I just said, careers or titles. So it doesn't have to necessarily be a career as in they're earning money for this, but like a stay at home mom would be a title and hard work, but not a career in the same sense that like.
working in a corporate job is a career, right? And so there are different lifestyles that come along with that, different values oftentimes, or maybe same values, but different ways of living out those values. And all of this is really cool stuff to be able to try and understand and think through and quite honestly, pray through. Ask God to provide you with clarity of, okay, I wanna know better the people whom you've called me to serve, the people whom you are asking me to sell to.
so that I can do my job really, really well, so that I can glorify you, so that I can honor you and serve my people well through my work. And asking God for that clarity is a really important piece in this. So carrying on, thinking about what is most important to them. Like if you were to ask your ideal client or ideal customer, what is the most important thing to you in the world? What would they say? What breaks their heart? What makes them really, really angry? What like,
Dusty - Client avatar (13:48.974)
hurts them deep in their bones. Understanding that is another really, it's very telling of a person, of a person's values. And it's really valuable information for you. What is more value to them right now is another thing to think about. So what is more valuable, time or money? Because a person might,
say one, but then live out another. And so keeping that in mind as you get an opportunity to sort of survey your audience, as you get an opportunity to talk with people and to start to try and like work more one -on -one or even in group settings with customers and clients, keeping your eyes out for, okay, they might say this with their mouths or with their words, but what are they living out? And we are often not very good at
understanding our motives, like as in ourselves. Um, and sometimes having an outsider looking in, it's a little bit easier to say, okay, you're saying that money is more important to you right now, but it seems to me like you only really want money because you value time with your family a thousand times more. And there's not a right or wrong answer here. So that's just, remember that this is just.
data that these data points are not of moral value. One is not better than the other. It is just simply like information on a page that we can use to better serve our customers or clients. I think as we get into this topic, and this is a little bit of like a side tangent for you, but it's really easy to think, man, am I just manipulating people into making into buying? And what I would say to that is,
As you're going through this process of trying to better understand your client or better understand your customer, I want you to keep in mind that you can't do that well. You can't provide a high value service if you don't know who you're selling to, if you don't know who you're serving. And I would argue that it is very hard to manipulate somebody into making a buying decision when you're actually taking the time to really see them.
Dusty - Client avatar (16:03.438)
and really understand them and really know them and really love them. What happens when we get manipulated into buying something is, is typically the customer themselves, or like, let's say that if you are a customer or a consumer buying a product is maybe your lack of discernment or my lack of discernment. I've certainly brought things, but in the past that I really recently, actually, I bought a business course that I felt sort of like,
pressured into buying, but that pressure was all on myself. Looking back at her marketing messaging, it was not meant for me. It was meant for a very beginner. And as you can imagine, when I went through this course, I was like, I could have taught this course 10 times over. I wasn't the right person for it, but I really allowed myself to be swayed by this person's marketing because I wasn't being discerning. And that is not her fault. She was not manipulating me into making this buy decision. And her product was just fine for the person that it's suitable for, right? So we can keep that in mind as,
somebody who is selling a good or a service, right? Is that we need to do our very best to steward our position well as a person who's selling something, but it's not all on us, right? And the second thing that I would say is if you don't take the time to understand who you're selling to, understand who you're trying to serve through your goods and your services, then...
That is when it's a lot easier to manipulate a person because then you're just playing off of emotion. Then you're just playing off of arbitrary facts. You're not actually creating something that's really going to serve them. And when you take the time to know who you're working with or who you want to work with, you're going to be able to tailor your services. You're going to be able to tailor your goods, your messaging, your marketing in a way that doesn't just make them feel supported and seen, but actually supports them. That actually...
connects with them in a way that is human and real and kind. And that's what we're going for here. Okay, side tangent over. What are some of their hobbies or pastimes? How do they spend their extra time? What do they enjoy? Another good question is where are they spending their money and why? Trying to understand those motives. And so if you don't know the why or the motive behind everything right now, that's okay. I would say take a shot in the dark. Just start to guess, start to...
Dusty - Client avatar (18:22.446)
to say, I'm not sure if this is true or not, but this is what I'm thinking. And then as you work with people, as you see ideal clients, as you see ideal customers, or people you think, man, I think this is the person or the type of people with the type of character and personality and life circumstances that I would really love to be able to support and work with, read their social media content, engage with them and seek to understand them more.
from both a marketing perspective and a business perspective and also as like a human perspective. Like how can you really love them really well and then actually follow through on that and love them really well. Another thing you can ask yourself about your ideal client is what are some of their core values and explain what that is. So like if a person's core value is faith, for example, explain what that might mean to that person because some words,
Though they might have a concrete definition, in our culture they have multiple definitions. Like love, for example, comes to mind. The concept of love for a believer versus an unbeliever might look different. Or we might mean love as in a deep passion for something, or we might mean love as in incredible sacrifice for something. Right? And so there's not, a lot of times, again, there may not be a right or a wrong way to define this, but...
define it from the perspective of your ideal client or customer. So thinking through some of those core values will really, really help. Another thing to ask yourself are what are some pain points or problems that they experience? And then the follow -up question is more towards you and less about them. But what can you do to solve them, to improve them, and to help them? And why is this a problem for them in the first place?
So what are some pain points for them? What are problems that they experience in their day -to -day lives as it relates to your industry? And maybe even as it doesn't relate to your industry because things are really interconnected in ways that we don't often understand or see. So what are some common pain points that they experience? Why is it a problem for them? And then that follow -up question that kind of starts to get our wheels turning and our wheels thinking about building out our product suite is how can we solve that?
Dusty - Client avatar (20:39.566)
And so a lot of the stuff I would really recommend popping into your complete strategic plan and just brain dumping, just writing a bunch of stuff down, anything that comes to your mind, brain dump everything that you can possibly think of, any answer you can possibly come up with, put it away for a couple of days. And then in those few days, spend some time in prayer, ask God for clarity, ask God for discernment, and then come back to that document and refine it. The complete strategic plan and your simple, the free version, the simple.
strategic plan are documents that are meant to be reviewed over and over again, because your strategy should be sort of a living document. And the reason why I take that stance, and this isn't something that everybody teaches, but it's because we have to be able to be nimble and flexible in the way that we approach our business, particularly in 2024. Like if you want your business to stay on the test of time, the thing that separates businesses that have more longevity versus not.
are the businesses that are able to be flexible and make changes and roll with the punches without abandoning their core values and their core vision and mission, without abandoning the centralness of what it is they do and who it is they serve, but still being able to be nimble, those are the businesses that tend to stand the test of time. And so, okay, this is a lot of information and I hope it was really helpful. I hope it was really value packed.
Please take advantage of the free version of this strategic plan at dustyheggie .com slash strategy, because I really do believe it's gonna serve you very, very well. Most of the sections that I shared with you today are in the complete version, which you can grab in the shop if you would like. And I'll have direct links to all of this for you guys in the show notes.
But thanks for hanging out with me today. I am really loving being able to go through this strategic plan and in the near future I hope to offer some more in -depth courses where we can chat in a more one -on -one setting, keeping each like workshop down to just a few people. I'm thinking between five and 10 people so that way I can help you guys ideate and brainstorm and put together sort of your own responses for your own strategic plan. And if this is something that sounds interesting to you,
Dusty - Client avatar (22:58.382)
then I would really love it if you could let me know. You can find me on Instagram at Dusty Heggy and just shoot me a message and say, hey, I listened to your episode on client avatars and I heard you talk about the idea of offering, you know, one -off classes on different topics within the strategic plan. And I would really love to take advantage of that. The price point would be pretty low and the value would be pretty high. And so I would really love to be able to offer this, but I don't want to do it unless it's something that I know you guys resonate with.
And that sounds fun and exciting to you. So please take the time to let me know. That would mean the world to me. And since I'm asking favors of you, can you please take a moment to rate and review this podcast? I am working on building up a big library of content to serve you really well and to support you as you grow your own business and pursue these God -given goals. And I can't do that on my own. I need your support and I need your input and I want to be able to...
sort of start a conversation around these topics and how can we approach strategic planning through the lens of the gospel? How can we approach building a business, a profitable business that serves our people, that blesses our family and brings us such joy without abandoning kingdom values? How can we do this all for the glory of God and the good of his people and the benefit of ourselves? And
That is not an effort that I can do on my own. And so I would really love it if you would take the time to review this podcast, take the time to rate it if you're listening on Spotify, and please, please, please share this episode with a friend who you think is gonna enjoy it as well. Okay, that's all I have for you today. I will see you next week when we're going to be diving into, I believe, the next section in the strategic plan. All right, have a good one, guys.
