How to Find Your Ideal Client (And Why Bigger Problems Mean Bigger Payments)

The Question Every Consultant Needs to Answer 

I've been working in what I call "the helping industry" for over 30 years. Coaches, consultants, speakers, trainers, mentors, accountants — you and I, we're all in the same game. We help people solve problems and capitalise on opportunities.

And in those 30 years, there is one question I come back to again and again with every single person I work with:

Who is your ideal client, and what is their biggest problem?

Those two things go hand in hand. You cannot separate them. The moment you try to talk to everyone, you end up talking to no one. The moment you try to solve every problem under the sun, you solve none of them with any real authority.

So let's get into it. Because if you can get clear on this — really clear — it changes everything about how you market yourself, how you price your services, and ultimately, how much you earn.

The Single Phrase That Changes Everything 

[IMAGE PLACEHOLDER: Quote graphic - "If you want a bigger payment, then you better solve a bigger problem"]

Here is a phrase I wrote that I've been using as a starting point in conversations about ideal clients for years:

"If you want a bigger payment, then you better solve a bigger problem."

Read that again. Let it land.

So many coaches and consultants I speak to are frustrated because their income doesn't reflect the value they deliver. They're talented people. They get real results for their clients. And yet, they're not earning what they're worth.

More often than not, the reason comes down to this: they haven't been clear enough about the specific, significant problem they solve. They've been vague. They've been trying to serve too broad an audience. And as a result, they haven't been able to command the fees that match the transformation they create.

If you want to earn more, you need to solve a bigger problem. And to solve a bigger problem, you first need to know exactly what that problem is — in your clients' own words.

Three Proven Ways to Find Out What Your Clients Actually Need 

There are three approaches I recommend, and you can use all three of them.

1. Ask Your Current Clients

This is the most direct route, and it's often overlooked. Go to the clients you already have and ask them: what were the problems you had that made you want to use my services in the first place?

What you're after here is what marketers call "voice of customer" information. You want their words, not yours. Because when you hear how they describe their problem in their own language, that becomes the language you use in your marketing. It resonates in a way that no amount of cleverly crafted copy ever will.

Your clients will tell you things like:

• "I was working all the time but still not making enough money"
• "I knew I was undercharging but I didn't know how to change it"
• "I had no consistent way of getting new clients"

Those words are marketing gold. Write them down.

2. Use Surveys

Both your current clients and your wider marketplace will respond well to surveys. People enjoy answering questions when they feel the subject is relevant to them. A short, well-constructed survey can give you a wealth of insight into the problems your potential clients are struggling with right now.

Ask questions like:

• What is your biggest challenge when it comes to [your area of expertise]?
• What have you tried already to solve this?
• What would your business look like if this problem were completely resolved?

The answers will surprise you. They will also guide your content, your offers, and your messaging in a much more targeted way.

3. Apply Your Own Knowledge, Experience, and Expertise

You've been working in your field for years. You know what keeps your clients up at night. You know the patterns. You know the common mistakes. Use that knowledge.

Think about the people you most want to work with. Then think: what do I know, from years of experience, is the problem they're almost certainly facing?

Start there. Develop a hypothesis and test it. You'll refine it over time, but your own expertise is a powerful starting point that many people underestimate.

Why "Significance" Is the Real Driver Behind Every Problem 

Now, here's where this gets really interesting.

When I look at the clients I work with; coaches, consultants, trainers, speakers, and I map out the problems they face, I can trace almost all of them back to one word.

Significance.

Or more precisely, the fear of insignificance.

Think about it. When someone is charging fees that are too low for the value they deliver, what's really going on? They don't believe they are worth more. They fear that putting their price up will push clients away. They feel, on some level, that they are not significant enough to command higher fees.

When someone is working all hours but not making enough money, what's the underlying driver? They haven't created the systems, the products, or the positioning that would allow them to earn beyond their own direct time. They're still swapping time for money because they haven't stepped into a more significant market position.

When someone lacks a consistent stream of clients, what's really missing? The authority, the visibility, the positioning that makes them the obvious, significant choice in their marketplace.

It all comes back to significance.

And here's the flip side of that. When you understand this, you realise that what you're ultimately selling your clients is significance. More money, yes. More time, yes. More respect from their peers, yes. But underlying all of that is the outcome of feeling truly significant — of knowing that you make a real difference, that your work matters, and that you are rightfully rewarded for it.

When you speak to that in your marketing, you speak to the deepest part of what your clients actually want.

How to Position Yourself as the Go-To Expert 

Once you've identified the problem your ideal client faces, the next step is crucial: you need to show them that you have a clear, step-by-step solution.

This is where so many professionals fall short. They identify the problem. They even talk about it in their marketing. But they don't make it absolutely clear that they have the answer.

When someone knows they have a problem, what they're looking for is a path from where they are now to where they want to be. They want a structured, credible solution that will get them the outcomes they're after. They want to feel confident that choosing you is the right decision.

So your job is to be completely transparent about three things:

• The problem — describe it so accurately that your ideal client nods along and says, "That's exactly what I'm experiencing"
• The outcome — paint a clear picture of what life looks like once the problem is solved
• The solution — explain, in enough detail to build credibility, how you get them from one to the other

When you do all three, you stop being one of many options in the marketplace. You become the obvious choice.

Now, I want to be clear about something here. There is a difference between giving away so much that people don't need to hire you, and giving away enough to demonstrate that you genuinely know what you're doing. The sweet spot is demonstrating expertise whilst making it clear that the real transformation happens when they work with you directly.

Niche Down to Stand Out 

Here's a thought that makes a lot of people uncomfortable when I first share it with them:

The narrower your focus, the stronger your position.

It feels counterintuitive. Surely, if you niche down, you're cutting off potential clients? Surely you'll miss out on opportunities?

In my experience — 30 years of it — the opposite is true.

When you are clearly focused on a specific problem for a specific group of people, something powerful happens. You become the go-to person. The expert. The authority. People who have that specific problem seek you out, rather than you having to chase them.

Think about it from a client's perspective. If you had a very specific business problem — say, you were a consultant struggling with inconsistent lead generation and you weren't sure how to price your services, who would you rather hire? A general business adviser who helps everyone with everything? Or someone who has spent years helping consultants and coaches solve exactly that problem?

The answer is obvious, isn't it?

When your marketing message speaks directly to a specific problem that a specific group of people have, it resonates at a completely different level. It cuts through the noise. It positions you as the specialist, not the generalist.

And specialists get paid more than generalists. Every time.

This is why identifying your ideal client and their biggest problem is not just a marketing exercise. It's a positioning exercise. It's a pricing exercise. It's foundational to everything.

What to Do With This Right Now 

Let me give you some practical steps you can take today.

Step 1: Get clear on who your ideal client is.

Not "anyone who needs help with X." Get specific. Are they coaches? Consultants? Accountants? What size of business? What stage are they at? What do they look like on paper?

Step 2: Identify their biggest problem in their own words.

Use one or more of the three methods I've shared: ask current clients, run a survey, or draw on your own expertise. Write down the specific language they use. This is the language your marketing needs to speak.

Step 3: Connect the problem to a deeper driver.

Is it significance? Recognition? Financial freedom? Security? Understanding what is underneath the surface problem allows you to speak to your ideal client at a much more meaningful level.

Step 4: Develop a clear, step-by-step solution.

What is your process? How do you take someone from where they are now to where they want to be? Write it down. Map it out. Make it tangible and credible.

Step 5: Build your content around the problem and the solution.

Your blog posts, your social media content, your emails, your videos — all of it should connect back to the problem your ideal client faces and the fact that you have the solution. This is content marketing done properly. Not shouting about what you do, but showing your ideal client that you deeply understand what they're going through and that you know how to help.

Repeat this consistently and something very satisfying starts to happen. People begin to find you. They share your content with others who have the same problem. They come to you already predisposed to work with you, because your marketing has already done the heavy lifting.

The Next Step 

If this has got you thinking, I'd love to continue the conversation.

The Paid Up Club is my free community where consultants, coaches, accountants, speakers, and trainers come together to work on exactly these kinds of challenges. Finding ideal clients. Pricing correctly. Generating consistent leads. Building authority. All of it.

It's free to join, and it's where I share a lot of material that goes much further than any single blog post can.

Click here to join free

And if you want to go deeper on pricing and the full framework I use to help professionals get paid what they're truly worth, my book PAID! covers all of it. It's the resource I wish I'd had 30 years ago when I started out in this industry.

Because here's the thing. You got into the helping industry because you're genuinely good at what you do and you genuinely want to make a difference. You deserve to be richly rewarded for that. And it all starts with knowing exactly who you help and what problem you solve for them.

If you want a bigger payment, solve a bigger problem. Start there. Everything else follows.