Ideal Client Pain Points
Your customer doesn’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.
~ Damon Richards
Now that you have identified who your ideal client is, you need to understand their concerns, their struggles and how they seek help.
You need to figure out their “Pain Points”
Pain Points refer to the problem or the concern that is causing your clients to reach out in the first place. In essence, what is causing them pain or discomfort in their life? What problems are they trying to solve?
For example, you may work with clients suffering with depression, but their pain point may be the lack of connection with their partner, or their inability to participate in things they used to love? Unless your client already self-identifies as someone who is depressed, speaking to them about depression probably won’t get you very far. However, if you can speak to the aspects that are causing pain in their lives, you now let them know you truly understand their struggle.
Hint hint: This exercise will help turn your website copy into a client magnet!
The more you understand your client’s pain points, the better you can communicate how you can help them with those concerns. The more client’s feel they are understood, the more likely they are to want to work with you.
Again, imagine your ideal client profile that you created previously. Now imagine and list what concerns they have in your own words:
For example:
Depression
Anxiety
Trauma
Attachment
Eating disorder
ADD
Etc..
This is helpful for you to know what you are working with. However, these words are generally not how your clients would describe what is happening for them. You want your clients to understand that you get what is happening for them, and usually for that to happen, you need to get inside their heads a little bit.
In other words…
What is the “problem” in their eyes and in their own words?
For example:
Feeling low?
Choosing unavailable partners?
Thoughts they can’t get rid of?
Nightmares?
Unmotivated?
Panic attacks?
Lack of direction in life?
Trouble getting things done?
Consider what language your clients would actually use to describe the issue? What you call “depression”, they may call “exhausted all the time”.
Tip: A really great way to find this languaging if you are struggling to come up with it on your own is to go on Facebook and join various groups that are dedicated to the concerns your clients are struggling with. Notice how people describe their struggles. What are their complaints?
Now, brainstorm on how your ideal client already is attempting to solve the problem or resolve their concern.
For example:
Are they speaking to their doctor?
Support groups?
Self-help books?
Internet searches?
Alternative healing?
Others?
Next, write out how your client experiences the negative impact of their struggles in their day-to-day lives.
For example:
Struggle at work?
Lack of self-love, self-esteem or self-compassion?
Problems in their relationships?
Unable to trust others?
Self-harm?
Others?
This is going to be the key because your ideal client may not have made the connection between the real issue and their day-to-day struggles. Put on your clinical thinking caps to come up with where your client’s struggles may show up for them.
Then, write out what you anticipate the positive impact on their life while / after working with you… What would the outcome be in your work together?
For example:
More connected
Stronger relationships
Clarity around personal needs
Respectful communication
Reduction / elimination of panic attacks
Others?
Lastly, write out how your ideal client would FEEL if they achieved those outcomes.
For example:
peace?
sense of direction?
hopeful?
connected?
others?
When speaking to clients online or in person, you want to be able to speak to all of the above points and weave the story of their struggle and the transformation they can achieve into your conversations and your marketing.
Action Item:
Give a quick profile of your client’s answers to the above questions to the group and ask for help describing your client’s experience in their own words. We have an incredibly diverse group. Draw on everyone’s experience.