Best Of: How to Find Out What Your Ideal Clients Want
It’s easy to think we know what our ideal clients want but oftentimes we use words and phrases that they aren’t using, so there is a big disconnect in the messaging to attract the people you want to help. One common example of this we see quite often is thinking something along the lines that our clients want “a more vibrant and healthy life” when that’s not what they’re thinking at all because that’s very broad and pretty general. They’re thinking about something much more tangible, measurable and/or specific, and that’s why understanding what they truly want can make all the difference in how many clients enroll in your programs. People want something concrete if they are going to make an investment.
We’re bringing back an episode we did a while back that shares 3 simple ways to find out what your ideal clients truly want, so you can – A. Attract more of your ideal clients and B. Have more paying clients.
You’ll use the information you gather in places such as your website, sales pages, landing pages for your free offers. You can also use it for some of your free content such as blog posts, podcast episodes, and social media content, including videos.
The good news is that this is actually really easy to do, and we’ll kick things off with #1:
1. Your Facebook group. If you have a Facebook group or any other online community, you can find out a ton of information about your ideal clients there. The first way to utilize your group to find out what your ideal clients want is to use the membership questions feature to screen people before you approve them to join. When you go to your admin tools section of your Facebook group, you’ll see the option for ‘membership questions’. You can ask up to 3 questions, and one of them should give prospective members the opportunity to share their top struggles and challenges with you. A simple question to ask would be “What is your biggest struggle with ______________.” So, if your niche is helping women balance menopausal symptoms naturally, it could read something like this: “What is your biggest struggle with your menopausal symptoms.” This should be a one very short, concise question, so people know how to answer it. You want to keep track of the answers and look for common words and phrases they’re using to describe the problem. One way to keep track of these answers is to use Google sheets, and you can just copy and paste the answers. When you use the same words that your audience is using, they are going to feel like you really understand them, and that helps them see you as a possible solution.
Another way to use your Facebook group to find out what your ideal clients want is to use occasional polls, direct question posts and paying close attention to questions that are posted and conversations that are going on. Polls aren’t the best because they aren’t open-ended questions, but if you’re narrowing down some options, it can be helpful to get some input. For example, if your niche is related to gluten-free living, a poll question could be: What would you say is your biggest frustration when it comes to eating a gluten-free diet? Poll answer #1. Finding affordable food options. 2. Preparing meals. 3. Eating out. Then allow people to add their own answer if there is something else that is a top struggle for them that’s different than the choices you list.
A direct question post would be where you ask a question which can give you more information than a poll. You can ask the same question I just mentioned about “What is your biggest frustration when it comes to eating a gluten-free diet?” but leave it as a regular post and people can add their answer in the comments.
Facebook groups are great because most of the members already have a level of trust with you, so they will feel comfortable being open to sharing their answers.
2. Discovery Calls: Yes, these calls are designed to enroll clients, but they are also meant to find out what your clients really want and see if you are a good fit to help them. Discovery calls are going to give you the most detailed an in-depth information. This is why really listening during these calls and taking notes is critical. When you ask the right questions, you are going to get invaluable market research about where they are struggling the most, how they are feeling about it, what they actually want and why they want it. Most people will open up to you during this call and you’ll get a lot more detailed information, you’ll hear their tone of voice and emotions, and you’ll have the chance to ask follow-up questions if you need clarification.
Asking questions such as: What is your biggest struggle with this right now? What has been the biggest roadblock for you? How would it feel if you reached your goal or had this problem solved? can give you a ton of great insights into what they really want and why.
If you want a complete step-by-step discovery call script, so you have more great questions to ask, you can download my free Ultimate Health Coach Toolkit which also includes a Food Diary, Meal Planning Worksheet, Exercise Log, Coaching Session Template and more.
3. Surveys to your email list.
Surveys are another great option for gathering information about your target audience. You’ll get a lot more responses when you offer an incentive. We’ve done this several times with great success and we like to offer Amazon gift cards because everyone likes them. You can offer two $25 gift cards and let people know you will be choosing two winners at random – include the deadline of when they need to complete the survey and pick a date then you’ll announce the winners.
You can use surveymonkey.com for this if you want, and make sure one of the questions you ask is for their email address, so you can notify them and send the eGift card. Even though survey monkey is a paid service, it’s the easiest way we’ve found to use surveys.
You don’t have to limit this to just your email subscribers since you can also share the survey link on social media and in your Facebook group.
Your survey doesn’t have to be super involved. You can ask 3-5 questions to find out what their biggest struggle is that relates to your niche, what they have already tried, how is it impacting their life and what are their top 1-2 goals.
Start with whichever of the 3 options we shared seems easiest to you right now and you add more later if you want.
Let’s recap the 3 ways to find out what your ideal clients want:
- Your Facebook group – screening questions, polls, direct questions
- Discovery Calls
- Surveys to your email list
These are all great ways to do market research.
Take the information you gather and compare it to your current messaging and see where you can make some changes and/or additions to make it really grab the attention of the people you are trying to reach. Remember, you aren’t trying to attract everyone – you only want to get the attention of your dream clients. This will take a little time to figure out, but it will be so worth it because you’ll be enrolling more clients.
Be sure to download my FREE Ultimate Health Coach Toolkit with 7 essential health coaching resources, including a detailed outline/script for your discovery calls.
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