Inquiry into Target Market
Use these inquiry questions to expand how you think about your target market. Go through them
today and answer them to the best of your ability. Come back in about 3 months and see if any
of your answers have changed. Then, make it a habit to revisit these questions regularly as you
grow your business. The answers will help keep your marketing on track so that you continue to
attract the very best clients for you.
As you answer these questions, keep in mind that there are no wrong answers. Answer them to
the best of your ability and avoid as much as possible answering simply, “I don’t know.” If you
don’t yet have enough experience in your business, give your best guess. Often our
subconscious knows things that our conscious mind is unaware of, so simply putting pen to paper
can help you discover those hidden pearls of wisdom.
Since your ideal target market is composed of people who will get the most out of working with
you AND who you will enjoy working with, the first questions are about them and the second
section is about you. Your answers to both sections are important as they will help you to get a
complete picture of your ideal target market.
You do not have to answer each individual question posed here: strive to provide at least one
answer per bullet point. The other questions are to help you find an answer if the first way the
question is asked doesn’t inspire you.
Questions about Them:

What problem do you solve for people? How do the people describe the problem? What
symptoms or effects do they experience? How do they complain about this problem to
their friends and family?
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
What secondary problems do they have? What other problems do they complain about
that are related to their main problem or main thing you help them with? A disorder is a
group of symptoms that affect people usually at the same time – can their problem be
described as a disorder with multiple symptoms? If so, explain what that might be.

What solutions have these people already tried on their own? What are the best known of
the do-it-yourself solutions that they might have tried? What solutions would help them if
they knew about them?

What must they know and/or understand before they can understand the value of my
solution? How must they see the world or their place in it? What are the pre-requisites
for the solution that you offer (imagine your solution is a graduate program – what
classes would they need to take before applying to your program?).
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
What questions are these people asking about their problem that you can help them
answer? What keeps them up at night? What don’t they know that they don’t know
about their problem (what can you educate them about)?

How does what you offer help these people with their problem? What are the benefits
they receive from working with you? What can you help them do that they can’t do on
their own?
Questions about You:

What kind of people do you most enjoy working with? What characteristics do they
share? What kind of people do you not like to work with?
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
What special skills or experience do you bring to your coaching clients? What are your
unique gifts that make you different than other coaches offering the same type of service?
What are your personal strengths and weaknesses, understanding that which is which will
be defined by the prospective client not by you (for example, your ideal client will see
your “in your face” attitude as a strength, whereas clients who are not ideal will see it as a
weakness).
Once you have answers to these questions, you can further refine your ideal target market with
demographics. Demographics are things like age, gender, marital status, and income. But don’t
start there. Start with these inquiry questions first so you can begin to get a picture of who you
want to work with from the psychology of their problem, how they see those problems, and how
their problems relate to who they are as a person, first.
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