One idea that I jump back to from time to time is my need to do a better job of identifying and targeting the best potential buyers for my business.
In talking with a lot of colleagues at a lot of different kinds of businesses, I know that this is a pretty common piece to think about.
What is also common is that we never really do a good enough job actually doing that.
Why not?
There’s likely no one size fits all approach here, but a lot of the failure to properly focus on our ideal buyers comes down to some form of:
- Not wanting to turn down business.
- Not understanding what value we produce for our buyers.
- Not being focused on new learning and applying that new learning to new markets.
That out of the way, here’s a quick cheat sheet to help target better customers for your business.
1. Look At Your Business Through The Eyes Of Your Customer:
In talking about strategy, I like to see that the first question you need to ask as you start the process of any sort of strategic planning is by asking: “What is the value we want to create for our clients?”
This is a close relation of that question.
To make sure you are hitting the right prospects, you need to start out by identifying what your business would look like if you were in the buyer’s seat.
How are you going to change them?
How are you going to add value?
What do you do that no one else does?
2. Paint A Picture Of The Ideal Customer For You:
I’ve struggled with this before.
But you really need to have a picture in your head of what your ideal buyer looks like.
What size business do they work in?
What role do they play?
How much budget do they control?
How many people report to them?
3. Where Are They?
With the internet, you aren’t really limited to one geographic location any longer.
At least in a lot of instances.
But maybe for what you do, you are.
Where does your client live?
How can you deliver your work best?
4. What Does Their Buying Cycle Look Like?
This one helps in planning.
You need to know how long it takes someone to make a buying decision.
You need to know how long it takes from the first contact to closing.
You have to know if they are a highly structured buying process or not.
You have to ask yourself a bunch of questions about the buying process so that you can realistically understand what it will look like to sell to this client.
Quick sale or long sale.
Or, something in between.
There are tons of other questions that you can ask, but start here. I think it will help.