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What you’ll learn in this episode:
Finding clients shouldn’t feel like a constant uphill battle, especially when you already have a solid offer and real results. In this episode, I break down why client attraction often feels harder than it needs to and I share a powerful reframe that helps you stop chasing leads and start speaking to people who are already ready to buy. If you’ve been working harder but not seeing the momentum you want, this episode will help you simplify, refocus, and create easier sales using what already exists in your business.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
- Why most client attraction problems aren’t actually lead problems
- The difference between marketing to curious people and ready buyers
- How your offer does more of the selling than you think
- Where your next best clients are likely already hiding
- One simple way to clarify your message and create momentum this week
And make sure to listen to the end, where we have something special for you. Spoiler: visit this link, sign up to access the worksheet, fill it out, and send it to us using the email listed at the bottom. You could be featured on the show and invited to get coaching on your business as a guest.
Mentioned in this episode:
Work/Connect with me:
Jessica Miller (00:01.582)
Hello, my friends. Welcome back to the It’s Your Offer podcast. I’m thrilled to be here with you today. Right now, I have so much energy about the topic that we are going to talk about today. I don’t even know where to start. My eight-year-old would say, you’re coming in hot, Mom. And that is how I feel about today’s topic. I am coming in hot with this topic at the tip of my tongue because I feel so passionately about this right now that I’m going to get on the airwaves and tell you all about it.
And in the course of this episode, I’m gonna let you know everything that you need to know about easily finding and attracting clients to buy your offer. And then if you stick with me, I am going to show you exactly what to say to make this happen so that you are clear, you are on point, you are talking to the right person in the right moment in a way that is cutting through all of the noise so that they raise their hands and come right into you.
I think this podcast is really going to blow your mind. I’m just gonna say it, I’m gonna stand on the post here and say that I think this is really going to change the way that you think about finding and attracting clients that buy your offers. In this corner of the internet, you know that we are all about doing things more simply, more efficiently, and more powerfully so that you get the result that you want in your business. And when it comes to
finding and attracting clients, I think this is one of the most powerful tools that you can implement in your business to finally get rid of wearing yourself out, chasing clients and money all day long and getting frustrated around like conversation after conversation or lack of conversion in your business. This is where that’s all going to stop. There are so many smart, capable business owners that I come in contact with
who have built solid offers, they know what they are good at and what they can do, and finding clients still feels heavier than it should for them. And I wanna say that it isn’t because you are doing something wrong. You are out there, you are talking to people, you are having conversations, there are sales calls, maybe you’re doing webinars, maybe you’re like showing up in the rooms. But what is actually happening in that moment is not
Jessica Miller (02:29.152)
that you’re solving the wrong problems. It’s that you’re solving problems at the wrong point on the buyer’s journey. We are interfacing with people and trying to solve a problem at a moment when they are not optimally ready to buy. Most people think that they have a lead problem when this happens. Like, if I just had more people that were going to buy my offer, I would be happy. Or if I just had more people coming in,
I would be happy, like it is a traffic problem. But in reality, it’s not a traffic problem because there are people and you are talking to them. The problem is they have a timing and readiness problem. And what I mean by this is that many of my clients and peers are talking to a lot of people and they actually have the leads. Like the traffic is technically there and they’re showing up and they’re having these conversations. However, the problem is
that the mental place that this buyer is on the buyer’s journey, the point that these leads are in is not the moment where they are ready to buy. Growth and conversion get easier when you stop having conversations that require you to convince people and start speaking to the people that are already deciding to buy. They are at the moment in the buyer’s journey
where they have already figured it out that they don’t want to go on anymore in the way that they’re going on and they are looking for somebody to help them. Okay. So, this idea that it is not a lead problem, and when we think it’s a lead problem and we are out there finding clients—and people use this language a lot, you might have used it too, I definitely have used it—when we’re out there finding clients, these are some of the behaviors that show up for us.
And you might be able to identify yourself in this, there is no judgment. But this is what it looks like when you’re out in the marketplace trying to find quote unquote clients, okay? You start doing things like this. You start posting, posting more, posting a lot. You start tweaking your messaging endlessly. It’s a constant, like how do I get people to understand what I’m saying? I need to just change my messaging all the time.
Jessica Miller (04:52.652)
You start feeling like you are explaining yourself over and over and over and over again. And why is this exhausting? Because when you are talking to people and needing to have those behaviors, you’re talking to people who are in a curious state, like they understand what you’re saying and they’ve thought about it and they’re interested, but they are not committed to changing it. They aren’t committed to changing it yet. They’re in a curious place where they’re gathering information,
or they’re thinking about it, but they haven’t decided. They aren’t at the point where they are ready to buy. And this is kind of sneaky because two people can look very much identical. And this is why I sort of reject avatar exercises when it comes to ideal clients from the perspective of like a demographic. Because you could have two Jess Millers. Let’s pretend, you know, there are two people that are just like me. They have a business.
They maybe are struggling with whatever problem that you are helping them with. Pretend it’s like web design, because you have a web design company. OK, there are two Jess Millers. They both have businesses, and they both have websites. One Jess Miller is having trouble. She thinks it’s a lead problem. She has heard, yep, I think I got to make my website better. Thinking about that, let me do some research. What does that mean? That’s Jess Miller number one. Jess Miller number two
has the business, she has the website, she has already bought into the idea that her website is causing friction in that lead gen process, and she’s had enough of it. She’s not gonna do it anymore. She needs somebody to help her. Two of the same exact people, however, when you as the web designer go and talk to Jess Miller number one, she is going to have a very different reaction and her actions are gonna be different.
She’s probably gonna listen to you talk about it, probably need to think about it, probably need to wait for some, you know, special moment to happen. Jess Miller number two, who’s done with it, buys immediately. She hears you and finds you. She already knows she needs you. And what she’s just been looking for is the you. She hasn’t decided yet who to buy it from. But when you come into her world, guess what you don’t need to do? You don’t need to convince her.
Jessica Miller (07:18.37)
You don’t even need to explain why. So, the difference isn’t who they are, right? Because again, people can look identical. If your target market is “coaches”, there’s a bajillion coaches. However, they are vastly different based on where they are on the buying journey. So, it isn’t about who, it’s about where on the buying journey they are. Selling feels hard when you are marketing to the people
who are not yet ready. They are not yet ready. Very traditional advice, as I mentioned, and why I reject this demographic avatar thing: traditional advice is like, flesh out your ideal client avatar. Tell me what they look like. Let’s talk about the pain points that they have. And I’m not suggesting that that isn’t a valuable part of the exercise. But the really important thing it leaves out is that it doesn’t explain the
buying behavior. It’s not leaning into the psychographic parts of this person that have brought them to the moment that they are buying, that have triggered them to go into the next step, which is look for somebody to buy from. It’s not leaning into the buyer moment and what is happening in that moment that is actually the trigger for them to convert to your offer. The moment somebody says,
I can’t keep doing it this way, that is the moment. That is the golden ticket right there. And understanding your buyer from that perspective is the key. It is the key. The better you do that, the more clients will find you, the easier they will be to attract. And guess what? The more they will buy your offer. Because they are in the moment where their number one priority is to buy something to solve this problem, okay?
So, there are three readiness levels, and I just wanna quickly break this down so people understand this intellectually about where people are sort of on this buyer’s journey and this readiness scale. So, number one is someone who is aware, but they are unconvinced. So, this is someone who has a problem and they’re aware of it. They’re like, yeah, this is a problem, Adam. I know this is a problem. And they’re in that space of exploring it.
Jessica Miller (09:42.763)
So they might be saying things like, I know I have this problem, or I’m just gathering info around this, or they’re doing things and they’re aware that this problem exists, but they decide they’re gonna deal with it later. It is not a priority in their mind. And the priority in that moment isn’t to actually solve it. Like they’re not at that place yet. What people need in that awareness stage is they need education; they need you to raise their awareness and
help them understand the problem and really buy into this. They also need proof that the problem is real, that you know that they’re experiencing it, but they’re not like totally bought into it. When you’re interfacing with somebody like that and why they’re not your best focus if what you want people to do is buy your offer, they are a lot of effort. It takes time and effort to educate people.
The timeline to move them from awareness to buying is long, and there’s low conversion because they’re not there yet. And again, this isn’t a judgment, that is where they are on their journey. There are businesses out there who have deep pockets and ad budgets and they’re defining a category and they spend a lot of time in that bucket. But it is not the fastest way to conversion of a paid offer.
It’s a very specific point on the buyer’s journey. Okay. The second step is where they’re convinced, but they’re overwhelmed. So, they sound like, I know I need help. I’ve tried a lot of things. You know, they’re just like, so many options. Like, they get it, but they’re so in the weeds that they haven’t decided yet. They’re still spinning. They’re spinning in that place. And so, what those people need is a lot more clarity. They need somebody to simplify things, like
put things in kind of their appropriate buckets and compartmentalize it. They really need someone who’s helping them decide. That’s the stage that they’re at. So, they’re aware, they’re convinced, but they’re overwhelmed. Like they haven’t sifted through it yet. It just feels confusing and heavy. And what they need in that moment is someone to help them decide. This is actually a very strong buying stage because they are close to deciding and close to buying.
Jessica Miller (12:05.464)
But they’re not there yet and they still need nurturing. And this is where nurture campaigns really come in powerfully. Like, these people will raise their hand, like they’ve picked up the signal that you’re sending out, but they’re not converting yet because they need to be warmed up, right? Again, they’re great. You’ve gotten a signal from them. Like, they downloaded your lead magnet. They bought into what you’re saying, but they still need nurturing and they need
to be coaxed along that buyer’s journey. The third place, the third step, and where you wanna be focusing is the ready stage. They are ready, but they are unsure who to trust. They have decided, they have committed, and they’re just looking for who can help them. This is a hugely powerful stage. And for all of us that have spoken to people who get it and they are ready, you know that that conversation is very
different. What you need to say to them, how long it takes, what it looks like—different ballgame, right? These people are the ones that are saying, I am done figuring this out. I just want this solved. I need the right support and I need it right now. And what those people need is a confident person who is going to tell them exactly what they need, so they need specificity. And they need you to paint the picture and connect the dots for them about what that clear
path forward looks like. Right. This is the person that, you know, comes in, talks to you, and you’re like, this is how it is. This is what it takes to solve it. And it’s really as easy as one, two, three. And they’re like, OK, and they sign on the call. That is the person in the ready stage. They are already buying something. They are deciding who to buy it from. And this is why it is so important to be clear and dialed in and visible and in front of
and talking to the right people at the right moment so that it is like a homing beam and you just pull those people right to you because they are ready, they hear you, it resonates and they’re coming. That’s it. Most people spend their time marketing frankly to level number one, to step number one. But most sales happen in step number three. People are talking to the awareness people
Jessica Miller (14:28.29)
like the awareness level people, but the sales happen at the ready level. Your ideal client is not a person. It is a moment in time. It is a buying moment in time. And I want you to really let that sink in because if all of your conversations were to the person who gets it and is waiting for you, how would that shift for you?
How would it shift what you’re talking about? How would it shift where you’re talking? How would it shift in your energy, your confidence? Like, what would you no longer be available for talking about because you don’t need to, because these people get it, they’re waiting for you. Okay, the tools in your toolbox need to be targeted to that person. One of the most powerful attraction tools in your business is, guess what, your offer. Your offer is one of the hottest attraction tools.
This is why I always say, it’s your offer. Because this same buying, finding client attraction power is also true in your offer, okay? Clear offers create relief. People that are ready to buy—and when they’re explained simply and on target—people are like, my gosh, yes, that’s exactly it. That’s what I need. When your offer is vague, if it’s over-explaining everything,
it creates a ton of friction for the buyer in the buyer’s journey. Vague offers cause—and here’s what I want to say, take a step back—vague offers and talking to the wrong person shows up like this. What happens when you have a vague offer or you’re talking to someone in the wrong point of the buyer’s journey? You have to explain yourself over and over. You have to convince them.
You kind of get that look sometimes back from people like they really don’t quite get it. And the truth is they don’t because they’re not in that place, right? It makes exceptionally long sales cycles. You get a lot more of that, like, let me think about it type language because it’s not clear. And that’s also true in the buying moment. You want your offer to be lock and key to the buyer at the moment. So, they simply get it. It’s clear to them. It’s speaking their language.
Jessica Miller (16:55.576)
And there’s nothing to think about because they’ve been waiting for you, okay? So clear offers, commensurate with this buying stage of readiness, they signal confidence, they signal out your non-buyers, they attract people who are already looking for you. They are already looking for you. And I see this all of the time with established service-based business owners, coaches, people who already have
demand and a good reputation. We start chasing people in the wrong places. And that is not what we want it to look like. So let me give you an example of what I mean by things being on point, where they’re specific. They’re calling in the buyer at the buyer’s moment. They’re not broad and they seem impressive, but they’re really vague. Like, it’s really vague. So, let’s take a brand
who has an offer where they say, I help business owners grow and scale—custom strategy, mindset, and support. They have like multiple ways to work together. There’s like a bajillion offers. The scope is flexible. They kind of bake bread every time. And the language that we often hear with this is, we’ll figure it out as we go. You know, we’re just like, we’ll figure it out as we go. Okay. What’s happening behind the scenes of a brand like this is all of the things that we talked about above.
Sales conversations become overly long because it’s vague and not specific. There is a lot of explaining. People often will say, it sounds great, I just need to think about it, because they can’t quite figure out specifically what they’re buying in relation to the problem that they have and what they’re looking for. And they have trouble figuring out what you’re really gonna work on with them. That sounds great, but like, exactly how are we gonna do that? That’s what it sounds like.
In businesses like this, the revenue isn’t usually bad. They’re not tanking, but it’s very inconsistent because the offer is inconsistent and the language is inconsistent. And the client attraction feels a lot heavier than it needs to, you know, for someone who’s operating in that level. So, on paper, a lot of times, you know, it can look like there’s nothing majorly wrong, but the business owner is experiencing that nothing feels really easy, right? It’s very…
Jessica Miller (19:21.83)
tumultuous and you get those peaks and valleys in your business and it’s like an emotional roller coaster. So, when you focus in on the buyer’s moments, you find that actually, like, the best clients are not coming to you at the beginning, right? These aren’t the awareness people. The best clients are coming after they’ve tried multiple things, after they’ve been overwhelmed and they’ve had enough of it, you know, after they were doing too much for the revenue they had.
And for my clients that I have worked with this on, some of the things that they say to me is, I feel like I’m working harder for the same amount of money. Or, I’m making the money that I wanted to make, but I’ve never worked so hard in my life, right? They’re in this rough place. And when people are ready to come and buy from you, and like my clients were, they’re not really asking, can you help me?
They’re asking, like, how do I do this better? Like, what do I focus on to make this simpler for me? How do I get this thing that I want with you? That’s what they’re saying. So, when we switch these things around to be more specific and decisive versus this sort of general, like, I help you with mindset and strategy, you know, to make your life better—if you were to drill it in more to the specifics of the buying moment for the particular people that you want to help,
it would sound something like, I help established businesses who are already doing too much to hit their revenue goals simplify their offers and focus on the one thing that will actually move the needle for them in the next 90 days. When you start to call people in like that, specifically, confidently, at the moment where they are having the problem and want the result, sales conversations get shorter. People show up saying, I feel like you’re speaking my language.
My gosh, that is exactly what’s going on. I feel like you are speaking to my soul. Or, this is exactly what I’ve been trying to figure out and get clarity on. That is how they start talking back to you. And what ends up happening is you get fewer objections, there are fewer and faster decisions that they need to make, and you get better fit clients. Nothing about their expertise has changed, right? They’re still focusing on the same things. They’re still…
Jessica Miller (21:45.371)
You’re not overhauling their business, and you’re also not overhauling your own business. But you’ve changed how easy it is for the right person to recognize themselves in your work. And the side note to this I want to say too, and I’ve said this on other episodes, and I will say it again just to kind of drive it home: with language like this, the most important person that needs to hear it is you.
Because when you speak to exactly the person who gets it, and you are helping them with the thing that is clear, and the results that you want to get them are clear, you show up differently. And you have a totally different energy. And all that confidence that we’re talking about, it just bubbles right up to the surface. Nothing kills your confidence, makes you second guess how smart you are, makes you think there’s a problem with your offer and your business
like talking to the wrong people. Like, nothing makes you overwork, over-effort, like be on the marketing content churn wheel, like not having the right words that are on point, okay? When your offer is clear, when your message is on point to your buyer at the buyer’s moment, your marketing can be calm. It’s totally different. And even if you are putting out a similar
message, meaning that you’re talking to the same type of problems and maybe the same type of results, the way you say it will be different, right? All the BS is gone. All the second-guessing is gone. All the worrying if people are gonna get it is gone because you’re talking to the people who get it and they get you and they’re looking for you, right? So
you do not need a new platform. You do not need 10,000 more leads to show up on your door. You don’t need to start from scratch. You need to be clear enough, confident enough, and able to connect the dots for people about why you and your offer can get them what they want now that they are ready to buy. That is the key. Okay? And where do you find ready buyers? This is another like million-dollar tip. Where do they hang out? Here’s where they hang out. They hang out
Jessica Miller (24:11.478)
in the pool of your past clients, right? People that know you, they get it. They’ve already bought from you. They are bought in. Current clients, they’re buying from you now. They understand what you’re talking about. They’re tracking with you. Warm leads that have raised their hand. There is a percentage of people that are sitting in your inbox, in your audience, in your world, that are ready to buy. They are waiting for you to speak to them directly and offer them something.
But we are so busy focusing on educating and talking to the masses of people who are in awareness that we are not talking to these people and putting the offer in front of them that they need to buy. Okay, so they’re in there. Referral relationships, someone’s already sold them. They’ve already heard that this buyer is ready and now they’re connecting them to you. Your existing audience, right? They picked up what you put down because they’re in this vein.
And again, there are buyers in there. So why does this matter? Trust shortens the sales cycle; proximity increases readiness. Sorry, I’m talking so quickly now, I can’t even speak. And as I’ve said a million times, the fastest money in your business is almost never new money. It’s there already, right? These buyers in the moment,
they are right in your business. They are close to you. You have to speak to them. You have to give them an offer to buy. And you need to be confident and clear about what it takes to get them the result that they want. Okay. So how do you do this? There is a very short document and I’m going to walk through it right now that you can go and you can download. And the link is in the show notes. I want you, if you are in a place where you’re like,
you know, driving or walking, you just think through this. If you are listening to this podcast, go to the show notes, click the link, and you can actually get the fillable worksheet that is two pages, and it is going to walk you through this right here with me, okay? So, don’t do that if you’re driving your car or walking, just, you know, follow along with me here. Okay, so here’s what I want you to think about. I want you to think about, number one, fill in the blank, my best clients
Jessica Miller (26:38.419)
usually come to me after they have tried what blank.
My best clients usually come to me after they have tried blank. My best clients usually come to me after they have tried to do everything on their own and they’re finally realizing that AI can save them ten hours a week and about ten thousand dollars. My best clients come to me after they’ve tried to DIY their own website. It looks like a four-year-old made it and it’s hurting their brand.
Okay, my best clients usually come to me after they’ve tried blank. Okay? Second prompt. At that point, they’re no longer asking if blank, they’re asking blank. So, if we use the website example, at that point, they’re no longer asking if or how they could do this better, they’re asking who can do it for them.
Okay, that’s an example. Okay?
And then if we think about this as a one liner, so then, okay, answer these questions. That’s what you want to ask. And then you want to bake it into a one liner that sounds something like this: I help people who are already blank, solve blank, so they can blank. I help people who have already built their website ten times over get out of their own way and get someone to build the perfect website for them.
Jessica Miller (28:19.426)
So they can spend the time on their business meeting their clients’ needs instead of chasing them all day long. OK. One sentence. So, I help people who are already blank solve blank so they can blank. This does not need to be perfect. It doesn’t need to be word-smithed to the nth degree. Here is the operative thing about this that’s so important. This one liner needs to be recognizable. It needs to be recognizable. Ask yourself, if
I was standing in front of a buyer that was ready to buy, would they recognize themselves in this line? Okay? So, wrapping this up, client attraction does not need to feel heavy. It’s information, right? It’s data, and we’re all about data here. When it is easy, when there is ease in your business, it’s usually a signal that things are aligned and they are moving. If it feels hard, if you are chasing clients all day long, if you are having tons of conversations, you have
a calendar filled with Zoom meetings and they are not converting, this is likely what is going on with you. And it is exhausting. It is the fastest way to kill your confidence and burn you out. So, I want you to go to the worksheet. I want you to fill in these simple things that we just talked about here so that you know exactly what we talked about today and you can make this be at the front and center of your brain. Okay, this is a tool
that makes the things in your business easier. Think about this. If you dial this in and you stop wasting your time and energy talking to the wrong person at the wrong time, and you start generating momentum and sales and cashflow in your business in a way that is predictable, in a way that feels amazing, what would it do for your business? What would it unlock for you? What would all of the other things that come after that look like?
Right? What would it mean for you if there was predictable cash flow, if it felt easy, and if you were loving this, right? What could you invest in? What could you spend your time doing? What could you employ other people to do that’s a win in their life, right? All of those things happen when we leverage the things that are right in front of us in our business and we do it better. That’s what this is. That is what this is. And every single person listening to this can do this. I promise you it will set you free.
Jessica Miller (30:45.194)
And you do not have to be a special snowflake in order to do it. You got this, okay? So, you do not need to work harder to find clients. You need to make it easier for the right ones to say yes to you. With that, everyone, I am cheering you on. I cannot wait to see your success and I will see you next week.
