Ideal Client Profiles Ignore Real People

Most business owners have been told at some point that they need to have an ideal client profile.

These profiles are meant to be tools to figure out who we’re marketing to and who we’re selling to. But in practice, they create a Frankenstein of demographics that don’t reflect real people.

These amalgamations of traits are also heavily rooted in white supremacist structures, ignoring whole humans for what we think are the most desirable pieces.

Ideal client profiles put you into an exclusionary mindset that actually inhibits how you market to people, how you attract people, and how you collaborate with people.

India Jackson joins Erica to discuss how these profiles go wrong, and why rooting your marketing in your values allows you to attract the customers, clients, and collaborators you really want.

Listen on your favorite podcast player or keep reading to learn:

• How ideal client profiles reinforce stereotypes and biases by forcing us to make assumptions based on demographics

• Why ideal client profiles are inherently exclusionary and racist

• How using your values to guide your client relationships gives you freedom to evolve

• Why values-based ideal clients are better customers and collaborators

An Unrealistic Amalgamation

On the Pause on the Play® podcast, India begins by describing the demographics that standard ideal client profiles are made up of.

These typically include demographics like income, geographic location, marriage status, whether they have children, race, age, and gender. They may also ask you to envision your ideal clients’ fears, personality traits, or profession.

And based on those characteristics, you as the business owner can plug in those demographics to target your audience for your marketing or when you purchase advertising.

Erica says that when she was taught these kinds of business basics, “I was given this idea that your ideal client is this amalgamation, this Frankenstein that you have created of all of these demographics and societal indicators and random guesses…that didn’t really tell you anything about them. But most importantly, didn’t actually let them be a real human.”

She says checking those demographic boxes never addresses a holistic human, “beyond can you fit in this very narrow, stereotypical box that I have created.”

India adds that relying on these demographic indicators forces us to make assumptions about people and can never account for their real lived experiences.

“Once you start assuming what someone cares about, what they’re willing to invest in, what their challenges might be, what their lived experience is based off of age, gender, and race, and money alone, might we be going into allowing our biases to perpetuate stereotypes?”

Who You’re Excluding and Why

Erica says that ideal client profiles are also inherently exclusionary.

“How many people were being left behind and not addressed because they didn’t fit into these narrow boxes?”

India compares it to gluing together pieces to create a whole, “and then we have a human, but it’s like a Franken-human.”

Erica agrees and says that “when you don’t go deeper into what the values are and why they matter when you are trying to identify your ideal client, who you want to work with…you really limit yourself and the possible outcomes that you can achieve when you partner with them because you are not looking for an actual whole human.”

The profiles judge or exclude people based on these demographics and assumptions, or, India says, “it’s selecting you because you’re the ideal in our society.”

And that ideal can’t be divorced from the arbitrary and white supremacist standards of our culture. 

As Erica says, “If you are not all of these things, if you don’t check these boxes, I don’t wanna talk to you. I’m not gonna market to you. You’re not important enough for me to spend my ad dollars on you. That is inherently racist and discriminatory.”

But if “your ideal client comes from a place of what matters, what it is that you share, what are the things that you differ on but you’re on the same page about learning more about those difference–aka reconsider your normal–and being able to figure out where you do share a passion for impact; that’s a very different place.”

It Has to Start with Values

India asks when you assemble a profile based on demographic information, “can you sit there and compile all those things together and be able to answer what are someone’s hopes? What are their dreams? What are their goals? Does that information inform what is a priority in their life? What they value?…What inspires them?…Can you answer those questions from that information? You can’t.”

And, she says, while your business or your brand can’t be for everyone, “when you are selecting who you are for, to say that it is based on a demographic, you do leave a lot of people behind. Also you’ve connected with people on the surface of who they are.”

But when you use values as the lens through which you identify ideal clients, “you open yourself up to have a diverse client base…that is also aligned diversity, that is real diversity, diversity that has a place where they can feel included and that they belong.”

Erica adds, “when you allow people to be able to show up in their entirety, you can show up in your entirety. Because when you paint somebody else into a box, you just painted yourself into one too.”

And showing up as your whole self allows you to create a brand and a business that can evolve with you, rather than leaving you feeling trapped by it.

India says, “When you are aligning what you support with what people publicly see, when you are building the relationships based on values to inform everything, then you have the freedom to change…and not lose people because your values stayed consistent.”

Which is why Erica says you have to start with values. “You need to know what matters to you and you need to have clarity. Then you can start figuring out how you want to partner with other people…But you have to start with yourself.”

Values Create Alignment

India says that things like ideal client profiles and other problematic business advice comes from a mindset of “how can we make money the fastest, what’s gonna sell the fastest, what’s gonna make the most money?”

And that perspective both leaves people behind and also doesn’t consider if the people you’re attracting that way are even an aligned fit for you.

“Just looking at who can afford what you’re selling the fastest doesn’t mean there’s any loyalty there. It also doesn’t mean that it’s pulling in the people that…you yourself are gonna enjoy working with and that you feel passionate about showing up for.”

Erica agrees that it’s vital to consider if you are “calling in clients intentionally that are a good fit, that you want to continue to work with.”

She recalls her conversation with Chelsea Stevenson about the amount of time we spend in our businesses and why it’s so important to have an aligned fit with your clients.

And that goes back to “are you clear on what your values are and what the values are of the type of person that you want to call in?”

Ready to Dive Deeper?

If you’re ready to be in action with your values, Pause on the Play, The Community is offering an opportunity to dive deeper and question what values really are, and what’s really happening when they’re touted as something you need to have, but you’re not sure what to do with them. 

Join us  for From Implicit to Explicit: Reconsidering What You Know About Values. Erica and India will discuss why pausing to establish shared meanings and definitions is an important part of understanding what your values are across your team and your life, as well as why personal values are so important for leaders.

Get access to this workshop, replays, community discussions, and more by joining the Community at pauseontheplay.com/community