Cast your mind back to last Sunday's email where I asked you that trick question about the difference between corporate and non-corporate clients. 

The answer being, of course, that it's irrelevant.

What's important is not some big lumpy group like “corporates”. What's important is your specific ideal clients and building a really deep understanding of their goals and aspirations, hopes, fears, problems and challenges.

The better you know them, the better your marketing will work.

But how do you get those deep insights?

Well, frankly, the easiest way is if you are one of them.

If you're very typical of your ideal clients (for example you used to be a salesperson and now you do sales training) then you'll find it relatively easy to understand what makes them tick.

If that's not you (or it used to be you, but you've been “out of the field” for a while) then I've always found the best form of research is to speak 1-1, directly to your ideal clients.

Nothing beats genuinely listening to your clients and potential clients explaining in their language what's important to them.

That said, you have to ask the right questions and respond in the right way.

A little while back I did an interview with Chris Laub on my podcast about how to do these 1-1 interviews to draw out the most insights for your potential clients. Chris shows us when research like this works well and when it doesn't, what sort of questions to ask to get beneath the surface and find real insights, and what pitfalls to avoid when doing research.

Click here to listen to the interview, I'm sure you'll find it helpful:

>>> Chris Laub Podcast with Ian on Client Research <<<