Ideal Client Profiles – and Dating Profiles – are broken

How many dozens of times have you heard a business coach lecture about your ICP? Your client avatar? Your target client?

I’m willing to bet that so many of those conversations end with a nice list of features for the client of your dreams. But too often we write these with the same ignorance of searching for love on a dating profile. But only if that amazing person has the right color eyes, height, location, within this age range, with that level of education, who does or does not drink and has the same 4 interests as everyone else online: travel, hiking, concerts and hanging with friends.

Are you bored? I sure am.

Every time someone pulls out their Ideal Client Profile with the most meaningless info like age and hair color, I would like to scream.

Because there’s absolutely more relevant information to consider when thinking about a client. Unless you’re literally speaking to an age specific issue like retirement homes, new high school graduates or babies starting solid foods, age is irrelevant. And even within those examples there’s a range to consider.

What if you asked yourself some of these questions about your ICP?

1. What is this person struggling with that interrupts their daily life? What do they zone out thinking about when they’re driving, or trying to fall asleep? What problem is so present in their lives and yet they are so helpless on solving it that they are sitting up on Google at 3am trying to find answers?

2. You already know the problems you solve and the solution you provide. But have you considered what is the actual, deep down, reason that someone hires you?

I recently went through this exercise with a client who was pitching themselves to be on a popular podcast. Their topic ideas were… a little boring. I suggested some juicier topic statements that would get the podcast host’s attention. Think through the whole range of audiences, I suggested, the podcast host wants a great conversation with different ideas. They also need something with a great hook to get more listeners. If it’s a bit controversial or different they know it will get more shares, more comments, more subscribers on social media. Each of these metrics makes the podcast more valuable for advertisers, allowing the host to charge more for ad placements. More popular podcasts receive awards, get community recognition and go on to have additional seasons or episodes. Think all the way through to the end of the journey, not just the first step.

3. How far is someone willing to go to get a solution? Location is one of the most arbitrary aspects of online dating. It amazes me that millions of people say, “I want to find my soulmate and live our lives together, but only if he or she is within this radius from my current location.” When it comes to your business location may not be relevant at all.

Ikea understands this model best as they don’t build stores in every mid-sized or larger town. They’re not Wal-Mart. Ikea understands that if their brand is strong enough you will drive 4 hours to get flat packed furniture. You will make it a weekend trip and you will enjoy that new bedroom set with a side of meatballs thankyouverymuch. 

How far you’ll go is also more than a matter of distance. How much time will someone commit? How much will they invest? What will they set aside to make this happen first? If your ICP doesn’t address this then you’re no different than the local plumber drawing a circle 50 miles around town and saying they’ll take all the clients in this area.

4. What is the ultimate impact of not getting a solution or fix? When I did collegiate debate it was a frequent joke that we could make anything lead to global nuclear war and extinction. Bad spending policy? Global nuclear war. Decision would make China angry? Global nuclear war. But in business we tend to do the opposite – what happens if someone doesn’t hire me or buy this widget? Uh, they’ll not make as much money and be sad. Womp womp. Pathetic. Going to the end of the line means asking “and then what?” at least a half dozen times.

For example, a lead chooses not to get their new puppy trained. And then what? The dog they’ve wanted for years and paid a lot of money to adopt from a reputable breeder is a bit hyper. Chews on the furniture. Hates the leash. And then what? You start to resent the dog for being difficult. You spend less time with her and things get worse. And then what? Your new and very expensive rug is totally ruined because the dog can’t even go outside to use the bathroom! And then what? Everyone in the family is fighting over taking care of her. And then what? She snaps at your young nephew and now the extended family don’t want to come over. And then what? You’re frustrated, stuck with a dog that’s unmanageable and expensive and you have to find her a new home and your kids are crying. And then what? You feel like you’ve made a terrible decision, let your family down and your energy is totally consumed with this dog you wanted so much and now can’t control and spending so much time cleaning up accidents that you want to scream.

When it comes to online dating, you can and should ask much more interesting questions than hobbies, favorite film and height. But even more importantly, when you’re building an ideal client profile you need to go beyond simple demographics and into the psychographics of what makes this person tick, what motivates them, inspires change and what will likely happen if they don’t change.

My challenge to you is to read your most recent client avatar and ask yourself if it is detailed enough to really describe the person you want to work with most.