Ideal client profile template

Role variants

The same skeleton works for Solo consultant, Fractional executive. Change the facts in brackets. Keep the structure.

Filled example

# Ideal client profile template

Name a buying situation, not a demographic cartoon. Solo and fractional both use the same sheet.

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## Filled example

**Practice:** Independent operations consultant  
**Problem I own:** Founder-led businesses where the founder is still the escalation point for every serious customer decision.

### Buying situation (not a title)

A founder who still takes the exception calls, after at least one senior hire has left because authority was unclear. Headcount roughly 20 to 80. Not a title hunt for "COO" or "Head of Ops".

### Authority and risk

They can start a 90-day container without a six-month procurement. The risk they feel is reputation with the team and with a handful of large customers, not a board deck.

### Trust path that actually works

Past client, peer founder, or an operator who left and still likes them. Cold lists have never produced a good engagement in this practice.

### Timing that makes them ready

A senior person has left, or a customer scare landed in the last quarter, or they said out loud that they are the night desk.

### Proof they can steal

One anonymised story: weekly forum, written exception rule, founder off the night desk.

### Who I will not take

A turnaround that needs a full-time operator in the building. A buyer who wants a slide strategy and no forum.

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## Blank structure

- Problem I own:
- Buying situation:
- Authority and risk:
- Trust path:
- Timing:
- Proof they can steal:
- Who I will not take:

Do not send a filled version as a first message to someone you have not spoken with. Use it after a real conversation, or as a draft you edit.