You wouldn’t get married to just anyone, would you?
Of course not!
You need to have a relationship first, feel an attraction, and be with someone who’s a good match for you. It makes a lot of sense to be picky in your personal life, but it’s just as important to be picky when you’re looking for new customers in your business!
When The Relationship Goes Sour
Many business owners happily accept any leads that come their way. Finding the right customers for your business, however, isn’t that different from finding the right spouse. If you get the right customer, everything is great for both parties. You make money, and they get a valuable product or service.
On the other hand, when you take on those wrong customers, it can be a nightmare for both parties. Relationship experts at eHarmony say that if you’re dating someone who seems impossible to please and constantly blames you for everything, you could be with a chronically difficult person. Does that sound like any of your current customers?
These wrong-fit relationships typically end badly because you never should have been working together in the first place. Understandably, someone finally decides to get a divorce.
Finding ‘The One’ (And Their Friends!)
You need to develop a buyer persona. Once you have a buyer persona, you’ll be able to target your content, your sales message, and your marketing toward someone who is more likely to do business with you. What’s more, they’ll also be a great match for your product or service.
Start by looking at your best customers. Make a list of what you know about them (or what you can find out about them online).
Conduct research using surveys to determine similarities between your best buyers. You’ll need to get at least 5 people to agree to chat with you for each buyer persona you’re trying to develop. You’ll also want to interview some customers who you think are not a good fit. That way, you can identify the similarities in your non-ideal customers as well.
Check with your sales team and other employees to find out who they feel are your best customers. Make sure you don’t simply look at the easiest customers to sell to (which may be the ones your salespeople prefer). Also look at customer retention, the number of referrals being generated by the group, how easy they are to work with after the sale, etc.
Once you’ve conducted your research, you can start to paint a picture of your customers’ …
- Goals
- Challenges
- Desired outcomes as they relate to your product or service
- Common sayings (for example, “no one can do it as good as I can”)
- Common objections
Armed with both demographic and psychographic info, you can start the process of marketing to your ideal customer. By homing in on your ideal buyer persona and catering your marketing message to attract those people, you’ll also discourage those who aren’t a good fit.
Here at The Newsletter Pro, we’ve found that when we attract our ideal customers, we have both happier clients and happier team members. We also have lower customer attrition and a more detailed marketing message that better attracts our best prospects.
As for your prospects, there are plenty of fish in the sea. But you’ll find the right ones when you focus in on your buyer persona. Soon enough, you’ll be living happily ever after with Mr. and Ms. Right Customer!
