9 September 2022
TOPIC: Growing Your Firm
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In this blog, we are breaking down how to create your ideal client. If you’re struggling with finding high-quality clients, this blog will be very beneficial for you!
Create Your Ideal Client Profile
The first step in finding your ideal client is creating your ICP (ideal client profile).
This profile is designed to help you narrow your client search to a specific group of people.
Creating an ICP will help you market your services, negotiate with clients, and provide clarity.
There are a few questions you’ll want to answer to complete your ICP. We will list them below.
Here is the list:
- Who do I serve?
- Where do they live?
- How old are they?
- What is their gender?
- Where do they work?
- What is their role?
- Why do I need to communicate with these people?
- What do they want to buy?
- What is their education level?
This list could get even longer, but it’s a good start to building an in-depth customer profile.
The whole point of building out this profile is understanding your client’s demographic better.
Ideal Client Psychological Profile
Next, we will want to identify the ICPP (ideal client psychological profile).
These questions are here to give you an idea of what your clients think internally.
This will help you understand your client on a deeper level which will improve your client communication.
Here is a list of questions for the ICPP:
- What challenges are they facing?
- What are their goals?
- What do they value?
- What are their interests?
- What blogs do they subscribe to?
- What are their behaviors?
- What are their feelings towards your service/product?
- What common challenges do they face?
- Where do they commonly like to hang out?
Now when answering these questions, you might encounter some questions you have no clue how to answer.
That’s perfectly okay. You want to do all the research you can and then make an estimated guess.
You can test your theory when marketing your services and talking to clients.
You want to remember to come back to your client profile and update it with your new findings.
Focus on the client’s problem You want to focus on things that cause problems for your ideal client.
Ask yourself: What keeps my client awake at night?
If you can answer this question, it’ll make all the more sense for the client to want to work with you.
Your client wants to work with someone who understands them and their pain.
Doing your due diligence now will pay dividends later when prospecting for new accounting clients.
What don’t you like as an ideal client?
Sometimes when I speak to accountants, they tell me they have no idea what they want as an ideal client.
Often, they just feel things out and see if they like the client after hours of communication.
From my experience, one of the easiest ways to determine what you want in a client is first listing what you don’t want in an ideal client.
Think back to all your past clients and try to recall the ones that weren’t so great.
Maybe it had nothing to do with the client personally, but you didn’t like the work involved in helping that client.
Some accountants refuse to work with clients who don’t make a specific salary annually.
This exercise is vital because there might still be people who fall into the “ideal client” category you won’t enjoy working with.
Listing out the things you don’t like in a client will help you filter out those less compatible ideal clients.
What do you like?
After you create a list of things you don’t like in a client, you will want to create a list of things you DO enjoy.
Think back to all the past clients you have helped that turned out to be a success.
Think back and ask yourself why that interaction was such a success.
What about that client made you enjoy working with him or her?
The things you put on this list will be used to help you identify clients who will make a good fit.
Why creating an ideal client profile is important.
There are three important takeaways you want to have from writing out your ideal client profile.
- You understand the professional goals of your ideal client
- You know the personal goals of your ideal client.
- You can identify, qualify, and communicate value to your ideal client.
It might take some time to get answers to all these questions. You might have to send surveys and talk to your clients via email, phone, zoom, etc.
You may not need an answer to all these questions. However, the more you can answer, the better.
You will have better ad targeting, communication, and service when you are crystal clear about your ideal client.
Summary
Mapping out your ideal client will give you more laser-focused success when marketing your services, communicating value, and closing deals.
By creating your own ICP and ICPP, you will clearly understand who your ideal client is and how to reach out to them effectively.
Want To Learn More?
We created a blog that shows accountants how to pick their niches. So if you’re thinking about niching down but not sure where to start, this blog is for you!