What’s one of the most common reasons so many trainers, consultants, and coaches hit a plateau in their business?

They try to cast too wide of a net with their messaging.

Instead of focusing on the types of prospects who are most likely to become ideal customers, you end up with a generic, watered down value prop.

But picking a specific and targeted audience feels too risky, right? After all, there are so many types of problems you COULD solve for so many types of customers. Why limit your options?

The challenge with this approach is that a generic value prop doesn’t really resonate with anyone. It’s just kind of…there. Like Muzak in a department store—your message just blends into the background.

This kind of watered down messaging doesn’t resonate with the ideal customer types who would really value your particular solution to a problem, and fails to filter out the non-ideal customer types who just aren’t a good fit for your unique strengths.

Rather than building your training, consulting, or coaching business around your strengths and competitive advantages, you can end up chasing whatever projects or client work happens to land at your feet.

That’s why one of the most important marketing-related questions you need to ask yourself is…

“Who are my ideal customers?”

There are many ways to develop an ideal customer persona, including:

• Their current and desired future state.
• The specific challenges they face, and the impact of those challenges.
• The specific solutions you can offer them, and the impact of those solutions.
• The friction points you’ll need to address (fears, biases, objections).
• How your strengths and solutions fit that specific customer type.

Ask yourself: “How would I define my ideal customers? What attributes do they have in common? Have I captured these attributes in a clear customer persona document?”