Are you working with the right customers?
For many of us, starting our own business meant working with the same type of customers we’d served in previous work incarnations, and doing the same kind of work we’d always done.
Because often that’s what it takes to get the bills paid when you’re starting something new.
But sometimes we realize, after months or even years in business, that we’re still working with people we’d rather not, doing work we don’t really enjoy, and wishing our business could be — different.
- Do you wish you could do more of the work you enjoy, and less of the work you don’t?
- Do you often find yourself hoping you don’t have to work with particular clients again?
- Do you fail to get referrals for the kind of work you really want to be doing?
- Is working in your business less enjoyable than you thought it would be?
- Do you find yourself regularly having to justify your work, your fees or your timelines to customers and prospects?
- Do you feel like you need to give prospects and clients the impression that your business is bigger than it is?
- Do your sales efforts fail more than they succeed?
Let’s face it – owning your own business comes with plenty of challenges. How many of us are willing to do the hard work required over the long haul if we’re not enjoying the work we do, or the customers we work with?
I’d venture there aren’t many.
But how can you change the course of your business, to do the work you really love for the people you really want to serve?
Do you know who the right people are?
To pull this off, you need to know who the right customers , and how to resonate with them. And you need to be able to describe them so they’ll recognize you’re talking to THEM.
Being able to describe your ideal customers isn’t just a “nice to have” — it’s the only way your ideal customers will know how perfect you are for them.
If your prospects can’t understand with absolute clarity that you solve the very problem they’re having, they’ll pass you by. And if your message is something along the lines of, “We do anything, for anyone”, you can be sure that they won’t see you as being focused on THEM.
Find your Audience Axis
It may seem counterintuitive, but focusing on a narrower target audience is the secret to growing your business.
I call this finding your Audience Axis — the target market around which your business revolves.
Instead of trying to be all things to all prospects (and instead having limited appeal to any of them), your laser-like focus on a SPECIFIC audience, with a SPECIFIC problem you can solve, makes it abundantly clear to any of those folks that you’ve devoted your whole business to helping them.
And having a clear focus on your audience, and demonstrating that focus in all you do, can bring remarkable changes to your business:
- Be known for the work you love to do.
- Spot the right prospects, and quickly identify the wrong ones.
- Get more referrals, and get them for the right kind of work.
- Know the messaging that will resonate with your ideal audience, and the language to use.
- Know where to find your best prospects, and what to say when you do.
- Find a never-ending source of ideas for new offers, new promotions, and new content.
- Give everyone who knows you an easy way to refer exactly the kind of prospects you want.
- Find enough of the right customers that you’re able to comfortably turn the wrong ones away.
- Find more success in your business, with less stress.
You can intentionally steer your business in a new direction.
Even if your customer base isn’t where you want it to be right now, you can change it.
But in order to do this effectively, you need to know where you’re headed. You have to find the audience that’s your perfect fit — one that you want to serve, and that will wonder how they’ve managed so long without you and the solution you offer.
That’s where our resources come in. You can learn to do this, and we can help.
Let’s get started!
Are you ready to shift your business to work with the customers you really want?
Terrific! Let’s do it!
Step 1: Read my free ebook, “Stop Selling. Start Solving.”
This short read will give you a sneak peak at a mind-blowing, simple and powerful approach to discovering and defining your ideal audiences.
Step 2: Take my online course, “Find Your Audience Axis“.
It offers five simple steps to identifying your ideal audience.
Each module will take you about 15 minutes to watch, and then you’ll have some homework to do. It’s manageable, it’s fun, and you’ll finish with a new perspective about your business, and new clarity about what you’re doing and who you’re doing it for.
You’ll learn a straightforward approach to use when shifting the focus of your business, evaluating prospective customers, or finding new markets.
You’ll also join a lively community of amazing people using this same approach to find their ideal audiences and redefine what they do every day.
Give it a try, and give your business its best chance to succeed.
I’d love to have you join us.