You have to know your “ideal client” if you’ve spent any amount of time online you’ll have seen this phrase mentioned in almost every live, webinar or freebie you’ve downloaded/watched and whilst it’s entirely accurate you do need to know who your ideal client is you also need to understand that an ideal client isn’t the only piece to the puzzle. 

I work with business owners every day and when I ask the question who’s your target market or niche? they almost always tell me who their ideal client is and then when I say but that’s not a target market or niche they look at me is I have 3 heads. But the fact is they’re not the same thing, there’s a difference just like there’s a difference between marketing strategy and sales process…I know another “what do you mean?” moment.

People confuse the marketing strategy and sales process almost every minute of the day, this results in them not really making the sales or getting the conversions, it also results in them running around in circles feeling as if they’re doing  a lot but getting nothing in return, that happens because they don’t know how to move people through the process and that happens because they don’t actually have clarity on what their sales process is! 

So what is the difference? Is there one? And why should you care if they are different?

Yes they are different and you should care because without all the pieces to the puzzle you’ll lack clarity, focus and the strategy that will really enable you to see the sales you desire. 

Target Market

Your target market is the target market you wish to work with, example a health coach wants to work with women in the weight loss arena, a graphic designer wants to work with nutrition based businesses..you get the idea right? The target market is the market in which you want to work, it’s not about saying oh my target market is a 35 year old friendly woman..no that’s not your target market. Your target market is in the market you wish to work in. 

Niche

Before we get into what a niche is let’s just clarify something….you absolutely do need to have one! If you think you’re going to come online and be everything to everyone and make sales then you’re going to be in for a surprise and not a good one. The quickest way to grow and audience and be seen online is to have a niche and be specific about it. Your niche is the area/topic that your going to focus in within that market. Example a health coach who work with women in the weight loss arena helping them handle their hormones so they keep the weight off. You’ve got the target market, the niche then takes you into the “what will you be known for” area, what will you specialize in? What will you focus on? That’s your niche.

Ideal Client

Your ideal client is who you ideally want to work with inside the target market and on the niche, this is where the “if I could have 10 million of the same client who would it be” comes into play, their personality, age, habits, life details…that’s your ideal client. Your ideal client is essentially the person you’d absolutely love to work with, it’s the finer details, it’s not just about the market but about the exact person inside of that market that you want to work with. It really is important to know who your ideal client is because once you know who your ideal client is you’ll also know who your ideal client isn’t which means you can use your content, marketing and sales process to filter out those who aren’t your ideal client!

All 3 of the above areas go into your marketing strategy and sales process to ensure you bring in consistent leads but you bring in the RIGHT leads instead of having a ton of leads that aren’t your ideal client or have no leads at all. But that brings me to my next point…the difference between a marketing strategy and sales process.

Marketing Strategy

Marketing and selling are not the same thing, period, they’re just not. Marketing is about opening the door to enable the sales to happen and that’s what your strategy is for, your marketing strategy is about opening the door so your ideal clients know you exist, your marketing strategy should act as the lead that opens the door to enable people to then enter your sales process and move through the system of buying. I find people who say “I market everyday but get no sales” ok how are you moving them from marketing into sales process and most people don’t have a marketing strategy let alone a sales process, they’re just “showing up” and expecting the sales to happen and that might be the case sometimes but for 99% of the time if you want to build a successful consistent business having clarity on a marketing strategy is important to get the biggest ROI on your time! Marketing strategy should get you in front of your ideal clients and show them that you have what they need/want.

Sales Process

Simply put a sales process is how people move from just knowing you exist into buying from you, I find that so many people are spending hours upon hours showing up with no results to show for it and the simple reason that happens in a lot of those cases is because they don’t even know how to move them into the sales area or that they don’t have the clarity on how people buy, showing up in Facebook groups is fine but it’s not a sales process I’d even argue it’s not a marketing strategy but hey that’s another topic. Fact is while there’ll be a % who won’t go through this process you have to have the focus on ok these are my steps to moving people through my sales process to go from knowing about me to buying so you can have clarity when prepping your content and activity, this way you’ll know what contet is needed for marketing and what content is needed for selling (because they’re different!) Sales process is capturing people from the marketing strategy and converting them into sales!

There we have it, they’re all different and your business needs clarity on all areas if you’re to get the sales and results you desire. Are you ready to have a 10k month strategy and sales process that actually works? If yes then schedule a FREE 10k Month Mini Strategy Call right here and I’ll personally help you map out a 10k month marketing strategy and sales process for your business.