Before we get into it, I wanted to mention that the wonderful Eryka Peskin is hosting me for a virtual book reading of my book, Heart Centered Business, next Thursday, September 12. Details are here.
Okay, here we go on why you might not want to base your marketing off your past clients.
When folks come to work with us, and they start crafting their marketing message and identifying their audience, they of course, naturally, look to any past clients they’ve had.
Although I get it, I also encourage them, and you as well, to slow down, and be with this.
Because here’s the problem: If you haven’t been consciously marketing to any particular kind of clients before, then the people you’re getting may not be the people you want to be reaching.
Here’s an example. A client of ours did a whole bunch of profound healing modalities, but had been only really marketing their bodywork/massage. So, nearly all of their clients were bodywork/massage clients who were stiff, or injured, and wanted massage.
The problem is that these clients rarely wanted any of the deeper healing work, and she found it really frustrating.
Our client then got themselves stuck in a loop of thinking about the clients they’d had over the past year or two, even some of their favorite ones, and yet still felt like they were having to hard sell the deeper healing work.
This is a way more common situation than you think. And, it can be so frustrating.
The really frustrating thing is that our client was actually fairly decent at bringing in massage clients, but she just didn’t want more of those. So despite having some real movement in her business, in her marketing, in her desire to reach people she really wanted to work with, she was starting pretty much from scratch.
That’s hard, emotionally! To go from a place of feeling at least somewhat competent, to really being a beginner again. How does she reach people who wanted deeper healing work? It’s a very different message than, “Hey, stiff muscles? Let me help you!”
If this is your situation, can I invite you in to a more playful, experimental attitude? While it’s beyond the scope of this short article to describe how to create an effective message, let me give you some first steps.
- Let go of your current client base. I don’t mean actually fire them- keep the money coming in and doing the good work you’re doing! But, do let go of referring to them in your heart and mind as you begin to step into reaching out more consciously.
- Start to look around- who is struggling in a way that you could really help them with what you *really* want to be doing? And of those, what kinds of clients are you most drawn to?
- Step into their shoes. Connect with the experience of what it is to be struggling like that, and to really want help. Can you describe that with empathy, care and love, without seeing them as broken? Seeing the struggle and seeing the perfection?
Try writing a short paragraph from that perspective. For instance, for our client, she looked around saw people struggling with intimate relationships, reproducing patterns from their family in ways that were really painful.
She ended up drafting something like this: “I see you, in a relationship with someone you really care about. But, no matter how hard you try, when things get difficult, you end up acting just like one or both of your parents, or someone else in your family. It’s causing so much struggle unnecessarily, and it may even sink your relationship. You love your family, you love your partner, but you need to find a way through that doesn’t have you accidentally bringing the worst of your family to your partner…”
Rough, but not bad. Empathetic, but not making the potential client feel broken. Seeing the best in them, and also seeing the struggle. Nuanced, embracing, and VERY different than the clients that she had been seeing.
Although, as I said, there’s more to it than that, that paragraph is a great start.
If you take a few minutes, without any expectation that you’re going to arrive at a final, perfect anything, but just play with the three steps I list above, what do you get? Especially knowing that any group you start to think about doesn’t have to be your final choice.
Let’s get you out of the rut of clients that aren’t getting or asking the best of you, and instead see you with a business full of people who love all the gifts you have to bring.
With love,
Mark
Small group coaching?
I’m currently running a small group coaching group, and thinking of starting a second group. If you’re interested, let me know. I’m thinking no more than four people…
