Do you ever feel like you are swimming upstream, trying to attract and connect with new customers? Wouldn’t it be easier for you to swim downstream, and meet them all in the pool?
Over the last 27 years, I’ve worked in sales. I spent 20 years in direct sales and the last seven years with my coaching business, Step Into Great. The one thing that I see in common with both, is resistance to defining an ideal customer.
Who are your ideal customers?
When building your business, you may be hesitant to get specific about a certain type of person you want to work with. You don’t want to limit who you can serve and work with right? I mean everyone can benefit from what you have to offer. I used to hear this a lot when I was in direct sales, “Everyone with skin is a prospect”. I have also heard it said across many markets that “it’s a numbers game”, “talk to everyone that comes across your path”.
Unfortunately, following these statements and not really defining who you want to work with, can lead to a lot of frustration and little results for your effort.
If you want to increase your odds of getting in front of the people who are going to listen to what you have to offer and if you see value in it, and say “YES”, then it’s important to define your ideal client.
How to define your ideal client
When you define who you really love to work with, who you can most relate to, and who will benefit from your product, opportunity, or service, you will dramatically increase the number of people that say yes to you.
I know, I can hear the resistant thoughts … I don’t want to limit the people I can serve; I don’t want to miss out on any new customers.
Here’s the thing. If you don’t get clear on who you want as a customer, you won’t know where to look for your customers, no one knows who to refer to you, and you don’t know how to talk to your future customers.
If I say to you, “I work with people who are building a business”, does that tell you who I work with, what I do or who you can refer to me? What if I say, “I work with women entrepreneurs who want to get more clients and customers”? Does that tell you a little more?
The more specific you get tells me what you do, how you do it, and with whom. So, it’s much easier for you to get referrals and for someone to know if you are offering something they want.
When you get specific with who you work with, you’ll know what their biggest challenges are, what they need, what they really care about and want. It will be much easier for you to convey the benefits to your prospective customer.
When I first started in direct sales, I was 24 years old and had no children. My target wasn’t moms because I couldn’t really relate to their challenges, needs, and wants. My target was working women that wanted to look better and feel more confident.
Here are a few tips to getting clear around your ideal customer and client:
- Look at all the current customers in your business, and pick out the people you like to work with most. Make a list of what characteristics they have in common. For example: do they all stay at home, have corporate jobs, like to do a certain activity etc. If you are just starting out make a list of the characteristics of people you like to work with and be around most.
- Look at what their biggest challenges, problems, or wants are. If you don’t know, interview a few people whom you think would be an ideal customer for you.
- What solutions do you have for them?
- What are their likes, interest, and hobbies?
- Where do they hang out?
- Once you have these questions answered, begin to create an avatar of the person you want to work with most – your ideal customer. Give them a name and a story.
Once you have done this, you are going to have a head start on where to find your ideal customer, how to talk to your prospective customers, what problems or challenges they have, and how you can be a solution.
This will definitely help you start swimming down stream and consistently land in a pool of your ideal customers.
A warm welcome to this week’s new subscribers! I’m so glad you’re here.