This is one of the most powerful principles that can make the difference between traction and tire spinning in your business. Ask ten first-time entrepreneurs who will buy their product or service and a high percentage of them are so excited that they will scream “anyone!”

“Anyone who wants to improve their life,” will buy my coaching, a new life coach will confidently announce.

“Everyone eats, so the market is limitless!” an organic meat producer will exclaim.

“Whoever needs to lose ten pounds,” a personal trainer will declare.

Five years later, the ones who still think that will either be out of business or struggling without much real progress.

It’s certainly true that everyone could theoretically buy from you, but “theoretically possible” is not a marketing plan. Theoretically possible doesn’t tell you anything about how to effectively market your products or services.

Effective and efficient marketing campaigns are never targeted to “anyone” or “everyone.” They are targeted to people who want what you’re selling and have access to the money to pay you for it.

Big business has known this for years. Toy companies, for example, know that anyone and everyone is theoretically a potential customer. Parents, aunts, uncles, mentors, grandparents, and even kids, are all theoretically purchasers because nearly everyone in the industrialized world will buy a toy at least once in a given year, yet the toy companies know better than to spend their time and money chasing everyone.

That’s why you never see toy commercials during Formula 1 races or political debates. Even though the people who watch those shows are the ones who will actually buy the toy, the buying, the kids are the ones who both want the products and have access to the money to purchase them (their parents, holiday and birthday lists, etc.). Thus, the toy companies market to them.

The same is true for your business. Yes, it’s theoretically possible that anyone can buy your product or service as a gift for to your ideal customer, but “theoretically possible” is just as bad a marketing plan for you as it is for the big toy companies.

Instead, identify and then spend your time and money reaching out to the influencers and decision makers who want—and know they want—what you have to offer and have access to the money to pay you for it.

This process is called defining your “avatar,” or your one, ideal customer. Having a well-defined avatar requires you to consider the pain points of your ideal customer, their hopes, their dreams, how they live their lives, and how they want to live. Your avatar can have a name, a family status, a profession, and all the characteristics that any person would have.

The more specific you get with your avatar, the more helpful it will be for you to find them in groups to market to, so your advertising has a higher effective rate. For example, if your product or service helps young accountants efficiently build their clientele so they can spend more time with their family, your avatar is not “any accountant who wants to make more money and spend more time with their family.”

However, your avatar might be:

A twenty-nine-year-old father of a three-year-old girl and a one-year-old boy who hasn’t exercised since his son was born and is about fifteen pounds heavier than his comfortable weight. He is lacking in sleep and is bumping up against a tipping point at work.

He’s a senior accountant up for promotion. To get that promotion he is sure that he will have to put in more time over the next four years to build up a book of business, on top of the fifty to seventy hours per week he averaged over the past seven years. He knows if he does that he will miss two years of his kids’ lives and his marriage might be over.

His wife stays home to raise the kids and knows that he has been working towards that promotion since he was a seventeen-year-old dreaming of becoming an accountant one day. She supports him, but is overwhelmed with two small kids and needs support.

He’s so close and not sure he can get over the finish line without sacrificing his personal and family health and sanity. And he is no longer sure that he even wants to try. He desperately wants a more efficient way to start building clients. He needs a plan, and a wake-up call.

Compare those two descriptions. They describe the same person, but the second one gives you much more clarity.

The first description could encompass nearly every accountant. It could include someone in their fifties or someone in their twenties, and everything in between. It could include large-firm accountants, and solo CPAs working from their home office. You are left with very little information about who to reach out to or what to say to let them know that you can help them.

The second description tells you exactly who to target, what they want, and what they will pay for. It gives insights about where to promote (not at the gym, but perhaps on the subway lines leading to the financial district). It also gives you information about how to design and present your offering so that they recognize that you can help them solve a problem they know they have. You’re left not having to convince them that you have something they need, an expensive in very difficult process for businesses.

By knowing your avatar you will help more people, bring more value to the world, and make more money. You will waste less time and money because you know exactly who to market to and what to say to communicate the benefits of your offering. Your customers will also be happier because they are predisposed to wanting and needing what you’re selling before they even know you, resulting in your products or services being predisposed to helping them achieve something they want.

If you’re ready to turbocharge your focus, spend a few minutes describing what your one, ideal client would look like who wants and needs your product and has access to the money to pay you for it.

Once you see the power of a well-defined avatar, you will have more clarity with your marketing and never be enticed to try theoretical marketing again!

Disclosure: I am an independent ClickFunnels Affiliate, not an employee. I receive referral payments from ClickFunnels. The opinions expressed here are my own and are not official statements of ClickFunnels or its parent company, Etison LLC.