Working out who you actually serve best

Most attempts at this produce a document with a fictional name and a stock photograph that nobody opens again. The useful version takes an hour, uses your own records, and changes what your website says.

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Define your ideal customer from your own past work rather than from imagination: list the jobs that went well and were profitable, look for what those clients had in common, and write it in plain words. That description then goes on the website, so the right people recognise themselves and the wrong ones quietly move on.

Use evidence you already have

You do not need to invent a customer. You have served dozens or hundreds of them, and the record of which ones went well is the most reliable material available.

List your last twenty or thirty jobs. Mark the ones that were profitable, straightforward, and that you would happily repeat. Then mark the ones you regretted. The two groups usually differ in ways that are obvious once written down.

Look for the real pattern

The differences are rarely demographic. They are situational: what the customer was trying to achieve, how urgent it was, how much they already understood, who else was involved in the decision.

Look at these dimensions rather than at age or company size, which are easy to record and rarely predict anything useful.

  • The situation that made them call, and how urgent it was.
  • The size and shape of the work, not just its value.
  • How much they already understood before speaking to you.
  • Who else was involved in deciding.
  • How they found you, since good clients often arrive by particular routes.
  • What they valued most about the result.

Write it as a sentence, not a document

The output should be one or two sentences you could say aloud. We do best with people in this situation, who need this, and care about this.

If it takes a page, it will not be used. The test is whether somebody in your business could repeat it from memory after hearing it once.

Then put it on the website

This is the step that turns the exercise into revenue. The description goes on the homepage and the service pages, in the customer's own words rather than in categories.

The effect is quiet and strong. The right person reads it and feels recognised, which is where trust begins. The wrong person reads it and moves on, which costs you nothing and saves you a conversation.

Beware defining yourself into a room too small

There is a real risk of narrowing so far that not enough of those customers exist in your area. Specificity is powerful, and it has to meet demand.

The check is practical: are there enough of these people within reach, and can they find you? If the answer is no, widen the situation rather than the description. Same clarity, larger pool.

Revisit it when the work changes

This is not a permanent decision. As your capabilities grow and your prices change, the customers who suit you change too, and the description should follow rather than lag by two years.

Once a year, repeat the exercise with the most recent jobs. It takes a fraction of the time the first pass did, and it usually reveals a drift nobody had noticed.

How Licheo uses this

The copywriter agent needs to know who you serve best before writing anything, because a page written for everybody speaks to nobody in particular.

That description then runs through the site: the homepage, the service pages, and the questions each page answers, so the whole thing filters in the same direction.

Part of a larger guide

This page is one part of Better clients, not more. The other parts:

Questions people ask

How do I work out who my ideal customer is?
From your own records rather than imagination. List recent jobs, mark the profitable and straightforward ones, mark the ones you regretted, and look for what the good ones had in common. The pattern is usually situational rather than demographic.
Do I need a formal customer persona document?
No, and they are usually written once and never read. One or two sentences somebody could repeat from memory is more useful, because it actually gets used when writing pages and answering enquiries.
What if I serve several different types of customer?
Describe each clearly on its own page rather than blurring them into one general statement. What fails is the average description that fits nobody exactly and gives no reader the feeling of being understood.
Can I narrow too far?
Yes. Check whether enough of those customers exist within reach and can find you. If not, widen the situation you describe rather than diluting the clarity of the description.
How often should I revisit this?
Once a year, using your most recent jobs. As your prices and capabilities change, the customers who suit you change too, and most businesses discover a drift they had not noticed.

Speak to the customers you want

The agents write for the people you serve best, in their own words, so the right visitors recognise themselves immediately.

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