How to Clone Your Best Clients -The Art of Authority Podcast Ep 8 - Mike Saunders The Authority Positioning Coach

Welcome to the Art of Authority podcast, bringing you interviews and episodes to help you radically optimize your authority and influence to become the go to expert in your field. Here's your host, authority positioning coach, Mike Saunders.

Hey, guys. Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach, here for another segment of the Art of Authority. Hey. So we've been talking about your authority positioning platform, which is what your message is is, and how you can communicate that message with authority and expertise so that people see you as the obvious choice. One of those topics we've been touching on is how to develop and communicate your competitive advantage. Well, now, once we have all that wrapped up in a nice, pretty red bow, right, we need to know who to deliver this to and of course, how to best deliver it to. But let's talk about target audience. In fact, I forget whether I mentioned this on another episode, but I came up with a little framework that I call Kattesa C A T A sa and the CA stands for competitive advantage. The TA stands for target audience, and the SA stands for strategic alliances. So when you know your competitive advantage so well that you can then articulate it very clearly, you then need to know who to articulate it clearly to your target audience. Then the strategic alliances are the people that already have the know, like and trust relationship with your target audience that you need to connect with. So how can you then communicate your competitive advantage to that strategic alliance group so that you can then get connected with them? And so we'll be talking through all of this in the authority positioning platform series here that we're doing on the podcast. So the thing that I want to bring to your attention here, for target audience, you cannot be all things things to all people, right? Have you ever heard of Pareto's principle? It's called the 8020 rule. About 80% of your business or your results come from about 20% of your, whatever you want to call it, efforts or connections. I mean, that 8020 rule seems to apply in so many things. So let's think about something. If you had 100 clients or 1,000 clients, or 10, whatever number you want to think about, if you want to double your business in the next year, how many do you need? You don't need that number that you have times two. Guess how many you need. So let's use the number 100 as an example. You don't need 200, you need 120. Now why do you need 120 to double your business? And it's not exact numbers, right? But the top 20% are the ones giving you most of your benefit. So if you can look at your client base and clone that top 20%, they're the ones giving you the highest revenue with the lowest, you know, they're not high maintenance, the lowest hassle, you know. So who are those 20%? Those become your target audience. So let's think about, let's think about duplicating them and that's something really important to think about. How do you duplicate those top 20%? Well, who are they? What do they like? And now you start getting into things like demographics and psychographics and geographics. So when I teach, teach marketing strategy for different universities that I teach for, these are very common, you know, demographics. Well, how old are they? And you know, it's the things you learn in college, right? And then geographics, obviously, what part of the country are they in? And then psychographics are things like what do they like to do? So think about as an example, what if you looked at your top 20% and you noticed that, you know, maybe you don't know their ages right off the bat, but you can give a good guess. Now you can always be reaching out, developing relationships with them and asking them these types of questions. Not in a weird creepy way, but you can ask questions to your, your clients and your, and your target audience by, you know, a survey. You can send out a survey link and ask a few questions. You have to be careful because people don't want to, you know, take a 30 question survey. But let's say that you do. Your best clients were, you know, 35 to 45 years old and they lived in a certain part of the country and they all, or typically or many times like activities. And let's just think about, you know, outdoor activities. They're really active outdoors. Well, you could start crafting your content to be able to attract those same people by mentioning outdoor things that you are do. And I was talking to someone this, this past week that likes to, you know, take long hikes and climb, you know, mountains here in Colorado. Well, he's been taking his camera or his phone, but he's been videoing his climbs. Not hard climbs, but you know, like climbing a 10, 12,000 foot peak. And that really connects with his audience. Well, what if his audience were CPAs that wore, you know, button up three piece suits and never like to leave their house? That wouldn't relate to them. So he knows his target audience. We need to figure this out. You need in your business to figure out who your best clients are, your best target audience. Because when you can articulate your best clients that becomes now who the bigger pool of your, of your prospects. So if you know your, your clients look like X, then if you can go out there and find out where they congregate, where they like to go online and offline, then you can get your message out in front of them a little bit better. So let's think about your target audience and let's think about some ways that might relate really well to, to that specific, you know, call it an avatar or a Persona. But you know, think about your, your, your best clients, your 20% and think about why they're your best clients. Think about this. What problems do you solve for them? You know, and it's really not just, oh, well, we fix cars, so that's the problem. We solve for them. Nope, that's not the problem. The problem may be, and I'm just making this up on the spot so that you might think of even better example than, than I can in this car example, the problem is not your car broke down. I can fix it. The problem may be that you need to you help families or leaders of families provide for their kids in a better way. And you're going, what? Well, if a car is broken down, you might not be able to get to your job. And if you can't get to your job too many times, you might lose your job. And that affects your income and that affects your family. So wow, you've got a better purpose than turning the wrench on that engine of that car. You see where I'm going with that? I think that's really, really powerful to think about. Back way back years ago when I in the banking industry, there was a trainer in the financial services world and he would teach you how to, you know, like ladder up and level up your questioning process with a prospect. And they would say something like, you know, hey, what are your financial goals? Well, I want to be able to whatever, fill in the blank. And they would say, oh, that's a good one. Why is that important to you? Oh, well, you know, it's important because. And they would, you know, give their answer. He's like, oh, that's really good. A lot of my clients say that as well. So why is that important? And I think it's kind of like you got to be careful because a three year old that keeps asking why, why, why? At some point is like, you know, that's enough. But if you can figure out and peel back the layers of that onion and figure out what's truly super important to that person, call it your target audience or your client. Now you've got something to talk about. So think about what keeps them up at night, so to speak. You know, I mean, some people do toss and turn and they can't sleep because of a problem. But what is that problem that you solve for them? And it might not be the first, you know, the first blush that you think about. So think, I was just talking to a colleague of mine on an interview and we were talking about speaking in public. And so many people are afraid of speaking in public, right? But it might not be the fact that you're afraid of getting up in front of people. It might be that you are afraid of being judged. And that's what, what we came up with there. And then another aspect of that is the confidence that you have in yourself, of your ab. Your expertise, the, the, the confidence you have in your content that you're going to be delivering to that, that group of people, whether it's on a Facebook Live or speaking in, in public, they all tie together. So if you were to say, I help speakers, you know, speak better, it's not the actual voice that you're helping them with. Sometimes it is their voice seeing. Sometimes it's their authoritative voice that you're helping bring out. Maybe it's their competence, maybe it's their personal development and all ramifications too, because then when you say, you know what, I want you to give a speech in front of four people tomorrow on your business. You could do that. But what if you added a couple zeros and was 400 people? Ooh, that would freak you out sometimes. Some people that would not freak out. So let's bring it full circle back here to target audience. When you know your true target audience and the people that you really are dialed into helping and you know what bothers them and you know, a couple layers deep of what bothers them, guess what another win is in discovering this information. They feel understood and heard. You ever, you heard, you hear the phrase, you know, empathy, you know, empathy is so great to have, and you need to empathize with people. And you need. And that's really true. But guess why that's important. It's because that person needs to realize that you are present enough in their interaction with them, whether it's even in person or if they're reading your content, even if it's a blog post or a video, they need to realize that he gets me. She gets me. Yeah, that is true. You know, have you ever had some speaker go, have you ever Had a time where. And you're kind of nodding your head going, yeah, that. Oh, my word, that's true. Well, when you can study and understand your target audience enough, and when I say study and research, it doesn't have to be laborious and long and drawn out. Sometimes it just means to. To watch out for some of these indicators and these opportun flags. Right. Sometimes it's just noticing. So when you can notice things about your target audience, your best clients, and you can notice and even ask, you know, there's no harm in sending an email to a couple of your recent clients to go, hey, why did you choose my. My package, my product or service, and see what they say. Maybe they say, well, you know what? You just seem really approachable. You know, you were just really helpful even before I completed the sale. You know, you just answered some other questions. I didn't even know that I had your. Your piece that you did what? Or your video that you did. You brought up something that I never thought about. And so I knew that if you had the answer to that, that you would definitely be able to help me with whatever. So I think that those are things that you need to keep in mind with giving and serving, being present, and noticing things about your target audience that you can then use in becoming empathetic. And that doesn't mean, oh, I'm so sorry that you have this problem. Uh, guess what it means. It means, hey, I noticed that you've got this issue. I know how to fix it. Right. If you came up on a, I don't know, an accident victim, and then you were a doctor and you saw that they were bleeding out, would you just stand there and go, would you like to have my medical package A, B, or C where we treat the wound with an end? No. You would rush in there and help them out. You wouldn't feel, you know, like, disingenuous by saying, I'm a doctor, would you like my help? Oh, they might reject me. No, they're in need. You've noticed their needs. So with your target audience, what is that need? And if that need goes unchecked, do you think that there could be some amplification of that problem in their life or business? Sure. Now, I think that that's where you can get sensationalistic. And if you use that too much in your marketing or in your interactions with them, they can go, come on, seriously. Like my example about, you know, the car. The car repairman, you're not probably going to say your tagline is, we help keep Families together, you know, come to our car repair shop. But you get the idea that it's more than just we fix cars. Maybe it's, we're the trustworthy car repair shop. Maybe it's, you know, we're the car repair shop with a heart. But the point is, you need to figure out what you do for your target audience, what their needs are, and be able to communicate to that. That to them so clearly that they. They literally either consciously or subconsciously feel like they get me. I need to talk to them. Because there's so many people that we have interacted with online or in person that we ourselves go, I wouldn't give them the time of day. Right. Because there's just something about them. So you need to be authentic in how you're teaching and communicating your value to your target audience. And so let's wrap up this segment with, we are talking about target audience. How to clone your best clients to that target audience to get more of your best clients, to get more of that 20%. Right? Well, to be able to do that, you need to be confident in your own messaging and in your own. Your own value to that target audience. You need to know who they are and where they are, and you need to know how best you serve them so that in your communication, whether it's video or written communication, that you can express how you serve and how you solve. Right? Serve and solve. So that they realize that you can be their coach, their guide, their. Their solution. And with that, you'll be able to really penetrate deep to that target audience. And that's what I want you to realize here is selling and marketing is very, very important in our businesses. But if you are not able to distance yourself from your competition by being seen as that authority and expert and influence like we talk about, as the authority positioning coach, that's what I do with helping my clients. But your target audience will not see you that way if you're not confident in what you provide. And here's something else. The more you see your own authority and expertise in action out there and getting results, you become more confident. So when you see, you know, hey, you know what? I was interviewed on that podcast, and boy, that guy out there on itunes. And I took that link and I put it up on my Facebook and I had three or four clients go, wow, that was a really great interview. Thank you for that. I learned something new. You start thinking, I kind of do have something to contribute and provide my client base. So the more you get out there and the more you give and serve and educate your target audience, the more you can clone and duplicate that top 20% so that you can build your business. So until next time, remember that building your authority is your number one priority. Make it a great day.

You've been listening to the Art of Authority podcast. Are you interested in building your authority positioning as the number one strategy to grow your business, brand and influence? Book your authority audit today. This seven point audit of your current authority position will uncover opportunities and show you how to be seen as a leading expert and authority your industry looks to. For advice, visit www.awarenesspositioningcoach.com.