Put Yourself In Your Clients Shoes updated August 2020
Putting yourself in your clients shoes doesn’t just make you a better therapist or coach. But when you can really identify your clients biggest pain points and their daily challenges it gives you greater insight into what your ideal clients actually want. It helps you understand what type of content your ideal clients likely are more likely to engage with. What type of products and services they are likely to invest in. Even what type of things will encourage them to remain loyal to your business.
But before you can put yourself in your clients’ shoes, you need to be 100% sure who your ideal clients are? If your a spiritual business even better if you know your soul client.
It’s far easier to put yourself in your clients shoes when you are perfect for each. If you are selling courses or products you want to know you are creating the type of course and product your ideal customers will buy. Your customers will actually benefit from. The more specific you are regarding your ideal audience or even better soul audience, the easier your business and marketing can be.
Questions To Help Put Yourself In Your Clients Shoes
Why do you choose one coach or healer over another?
From my own personal experience as a client, I know why I clearly choose one healer, therapist, or coach over another? Do you? For me, I am looking for a mixture of the right skills, gifts, expertise, and training. I know why I would invest a certain amount of money on one type of modality and on that therapist than another. It mostly comes down to priorities, alignment, and resonance. The solution that you are offering and how closely you match that.
What Is Client Alignment?
But I see a lot of spiritual business owners talk about alignment as if it’s just about resonance. Or just about having similar values let me explain. I literally know thousands of healers, coaches, and therapists. I can feel aligned with many of them in many capacities. But just because I like a healer or coach and feel a connection with them doesn’t automatically make them right for that sort of issue I have. Even if they say they treat my specific issues or use the modality the use.
Being aligned means a lot of different things. The more authentic and clear a healer, coach, or therapist is in their marketing. The clearer it is for your client to identify if you are a perfect fit. Clients don’t want to have to keep going around the houses finding the right person. If possible they want to find the person they can go back to. So it’s important you identify your Ideal Clients and Soul Clients.
Why People Don’t Come Back Or Don’t Stay With One Healer
There is a term in psychotherapy, counselling where we talk about therapist hopping. And yes, of course, that can be a very valid reason that clients don’t come back. They simply don’t want to do the work or are expecting too much.
But also in the holistic and spiritual industry many healers, therapists, and coaches are often not clear or accurate enough in their marketing. So as consumers we end up buying products or services that don’t exactly provide what they imply. That is why I say over and over again focusing on a niche and becoming an expert in a specific area, is one of the most powerful things you can do for your business.
The Power Of Putting Yourself In Your Clients Shoes
I have spent tens of thousands on my health and holistic education so after 28 years my main buying decisions are usually built on the results I am more likely to get. Having lived with very rare and serious health complications I tend to invest my money in highly experienced and competent therapists in the industry. Mostly those who have proven record, proven evidence who have helped clients like myself. My past experience has taught me that very few actually had the insight, the expertise or skills that I needed for my unique issues. But sadly all of the healing, holistic and spiritual training in many ways sets healers, therapists, and coaches up to believe they have the skills, experience, or training to help almost everyone or anyone.
Your Ideal Clients Need Evidence In Your Marketing
Now I am highly qualified and experienced in a wide range of healing, therapy, and coaching modalities so have better insight and knowledge of the industry of most clients. I no longer want to waste more money on just maybe’s and there are many clients who feel the same.
Put yourself in your clients’ shoes, most consumers are looking for as much a guarantee as possible. Your clients are looking for a solution to a problem they want solved. So they want evidence in your marketing that what you actually state you can help actually match up to their expectations, claims, or desires.
The Power Of Niching, Being An Expert In One Area
In any industry that appears saturated, clients are looking for comparable evidence of why they should go to you rather than someone else. Many modern consumers are sick and tired of falses promises and harmful psychological manipulation used in some marketing. That is why again it makes much more sense to niche in your biggest strength, your biggest area of expertise.
Clients Need To Trust You And Your Products
Most of us come into this industry motivated totally to help others but like every industry, there is the shadow side of this industry. Their is dangerous, unethical practice, a lot of naivety within students who enter into the industry from very poor fast-track training. I have personally experienced some shocking experiences. I have also lost count of the number of clients who have told me they felt totally manipulated by a coach, healer, or therapist. Most of us would never dream of coercing or manipulating clients to buy products that weren’t right for them. But it can be a tough business to be in and sometimes people get desperate.
Many many years ago, I had a Degree Qualified Holistic Practitioner tell me to put an aloe vera product in my eye. Now he assured me that is was completely safe for a rare eye condition I had and that he had researched my eye condition thoroughly but he hadn’t. Now I was a young woman with already threatened eye loss, very low eye pressure, that mainstream medicine could not help me with. This product dropped my eye pressure so low that I was told I was lucky not to have lost my eye or for my eye to come out of my eye socket. That was just one of many shocking situations I found myself in.
Potential Customers And Clients Need Evidence
I can’t stress highly enough, how much clients value that sense of connection and trust. So they need to see evidence of that in your marketing. You can do that by sharing your ethics and values, share your guarantees. Sharing who you trained with and how long your training was can help, this is something you can blog about. Even taking something like the reiki principles and applying them to your business ethos will help. In holistic and spiritual work we are meeting our clients’ needs not our ego’s needs.
Now if you still don’t know who your ideal clients or soul clients are. Check out my Free What is a Soul Client Course?






I totally agree with what you say Eileen 🙂 And what I know for certain is that my ideal client is ME! The content i create is what I myself need! Really enjoyed your blog.
Anna Jones recently posted…Willpower
thanks Anna your doing great keep up the great work
Great post Eileen, thank you for sharing, this really resonated with me. X
thanks Nina 🙂
Great blog Eileen, this just confirms that I’m doing the right thing and as Anna Jones mentioned above, I too think that my ideal client is me! x
thanks Kim your work is very inspiring youve made a great start on your first blogs
Thanks Eileen for sharing your (alarming!) experiences! Sian
thanks Sian
Eileen Burns recently posted…Why You Should Put Yourself In Your Clients Shoes
So sorry you went through not so pleasant experiences, but it sounds that is a thing of the past, and you now have more experience in knowing who to choose. Connection, respect, expertise, integrity and trust are key for me whether I am the client or the coach. Thanks for sharing your story and your thoughts. I especially love your second to last paragraph where you point how clients want a sense of connection and trust, and I love that you point out how we need to come from a place of service. The well being of the client is a must!
Liliana thank you I believe these experiences made me a better therapist and coach and you sound as if your definitely coming from a place of compassion and service 🙂
Eileen Burns recently posted…Why You Should Put Yourself In Your Clients Shoes
Hi Vern, we choose guest posting very carefully, it would have to be high quality and related to spiritual businesses