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Identifying Your Ideal Customer

Welcome to Identifying Your Ideal Customer – Part 6 of our series on The Power of Strategic Planning.

Introduction:

A significant portion of your strategic plan will be focused on marketing, pinpointing your ideal customer, and comprehending their pain points.  In part 6 of this series, we will delve into the art of identifying your ideal customer and gaining a deep understanding of their pain points, both of which are essential for crafting compelling marketing messages.  With the number of ads American’s are exposed to each day (between 6,000 and 10,000) it only makes sense to make sure this part of your plan is rock solid.

Step 1: Defining Your Ideal Customer

The foundation of any effective marketing campaign is a crystal-clear definition of your ideal customer. This involves creating detailed buyer personas or profiles that represent the individuals you are targeting. Consider these key elements when defining your ideal customer:

  1. Demographics: Start with the basics, such as age, gender, location, and income. These fundamental characteristics serve as your starting point.
  2. Psychographics: Delve into their lifestyle, values, interests, and behaviors. What drives them? What are their hobbies? What are their core values and motivations?

Step 2: Research Your Audience

To build accurate and meaningful buyer personas, you must conduct thorough research. Here are some valuable research methods to consider:

  1. Surveys and Questionnaires: Gather insights directly from your existing customers or prospective audience through surveys and questionnaires.  This is also a great way to build out your marketing list to be used during the launch of your marketing campaign.  We will discuss this in Part 7 of this series.
  2. Social Media Listening: Monitor social media platforms to discern the topics and issues that resonate with your potential customers.  The best way to get exposed to your potential customers is to engage with them on social media sites of competitors or industry influencers.  By being active on feeds that already have large numbers of followers you can really discern the problems this audience needs solutions to and craft a solution that will give them what they are looking for.
  3. Competitor Analysis: Study your competitors to gain insights into their customer base and discover any unmet needs or underserved pain points.  Read the reviews and look for opportunities to do it better.

Step 3: Understanding Your Ideal Customers Pain Points

Understanding the pain points of your ideal customer is paramount in creating a marketing strategy that truly connects. What is the problem they currently have that they need solutions for? Here’s how to gain insight into their challenges:

  1. Surveys and Interviews: Conduct surveys or one-on-one interviews to probe deeper into the specific problems or challenges your ideal customers encounter in their lives or work.  LinkedIn and other social media platforms allow direct polling that can be very helpful when testing potential solutions to a problem.
  2. Customer Feedback: Pay close attention to feedback from your current customers and that of your competitors. What issues or concerns do they frequently raise?
  3. Online Forums and Communities: Explore relevant online forums and communities where your target audience congregates. Analyze discussions and comments to uncover recurring pain points.  Alignable is the perfect place to ask direct questions of a target audience or listen to the questions asked by others.  Local Mom groups and community forums like Next Door often provide great feedback on what people are having issues with or need solutions too.
  4. Keyword Research: Use keyword research tools like Spyfu or Google to identify the most common search queries related to your industry or niche. These queries often reflect the pain points people are seeking solutions for.

Conclusion:

Identifying your ideal customer and gaining insight into their pain points form the bedrock of a successful marketing strategy which we will cover in more detail in part 7 of this series. When you deeply understand the challenges and issues that your target audience faces, you can tailor your offerings and marketing messaging to offer genuine solutions that resonate with them. This understanding is a dynamic process that evolves as your audience’s needs change, making it an ongoing effort that is well worth the investment. Stop just endlessly posting and engage with your social media audience, you might just uncover the answers you have been looking for.  Ultimately, by empathizing with your ideal customers and addressing their pain points, you pave the way for stronger engagement, brand loyalty, and business growth.  For help with your business roadmap reach out any time at TEC Resource Center or build your own roadmap with our newly launch Business Roadmap software.  Until next time we wish you much success in whatever path you choose.

 

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Time for the Holidays!

It’s interesting that you see this phrase used so often during the holiday season. Because this is the season that most feel they are time starved – lacking the time to get everything done.  This is what started me thinking about your time as a business owner.  A business should be more of a lifestyle than a job!

I want you to think about that for a minute!  A job is something people do to make money and it usually requires a strict schedule of working hours.  Although in the new post covid virtual work world that is more and more not the case.  A business is an asset that you, the business owner decided to build using your cash and sweat equity.  Make no mistake that building that asset is going to take time and a lot of energy.  But you are or should be in control of that time and how it is spent.

My wife had a saying she would throw at me whenever I forgot this.  “No one ever dies saying I wish I spent more time at the office.”  When your business is in its early infancy stage you will have a little less control due to the financial risks involved.  But you have control none the less.

Managing your time effectively can change your life.  If you allow others to steal your time, then you have lost control.  Even customers understand you have a life outside of your business and will more than understand your schedule might not allow for that call that they are trying to book during your son or daughters’ basketball game.

Workload

A study by www.gallup.com found that small business owners work as much as 60 hours per week.  That’s 50% more than the average employee.  Now I am not saying you should work less than your employees because that usually isn’t the case at least not until the business is in its mature phase.  But when you need time off to vacation or just recharge you shouldn’t feel guilty about it.  There is no reason you should not be able to cut out early on occasion to do something for you or the family you love.  I had a routine when my business was growing where I split my time between the office and home.  I would go into the office and work more normal hours, but I would then break so I could have time for dinner with the family.  After dinner many nights I would work at home to complete what needed to get done but I always tried to be there to share the days happenings with the kids and the wife.  My wife was right I never regretted taking that time to watch my children grow and the business never suffered at all.

Delegation

No this isn’t a dirty word, and your staff are not all idiots.  I was complaining one day at a business lunch about my shipping and receiving department and I had a CEO of a larger firm tell me that if they did the job as well as me then they would be the CEO.  He was right!  I didn’t hire an MBA graduate to run the shipping and receiving department – I hired a shipping manager for $75,000 a year.  The problem was mine; I expected too much and gave too little of myself to the person I hired.

In an article from www.americanexpress.com they summed it up well – “If everything in your company depends on you, it can only grow as large as your personal capacity allows.”  The problem is when you are starting out you are a solo entrepreneur, and everything is done by you.  As you grow things are moving too fast to start training people, so you still do it all yourself because the result the team is producing is just not up to par with your standards.

Delegation starts long before you hire your first person.  How can that be you say?  While you are developing the business you personally determine the best way to get things done and what the result should be.  Take the time to template the process so when you do hire someone you can easily train them on your way of doing things.  Spend some time before they start to orient them to the company and your way of thinking.  Listen to feedback because they might just have a better way of doing things.  It’s important to remember that there are tasks in the workplace that you should not be spending your time on.  Delegate them to people who are better at them than you.

The Team

Nothing is more powerful than a team of people aligned around a common goal.  If you can surround yourself with people smarter than you who buy into your vision for the company, you are well on your way to finding more time for yourself and growing a company with a great future.  The team will do the things you should not be doing in the first place, and they will make you proud of the results.  Your mission from here is to develop strategies that will allow the business to thrive into the future and provide your team the opportunity to grow in their careers.  Nothing will kill the spirit of a company quicker than stagnation.

So, take the time this holiday season to think about your business and your life.  Are you living your best life?  Has your business taken control of you, or do you have control of it?  A business has a personality of its own.  It needs to be fed with work and money, it is demanding, but it’s yours.  You are in control of its growth and its cultural development.  Think it over and make sure the business delivers you the life you were hoping for when you started it.

The team here at TEC Resource Center wishes you and your family a happy and healthy holiday season and a year of improved work-life balance.  Now Get It Done!

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It’s That Time of Year!

 

No, it is not the holiday season, it is the time of year to look at what your company has done and plan for what it will do over the next three to five years.  I work with countless business owners who before we met thought year end planning was a waste of time.  We have been doing the same thing for years and we are just fine!  It’s a waste of time and money to get the entire team together to think about what might happen!  My favorite is – Forecasting and budgeting is a waste of time, we never get it right anyway!

Does any of this sound familiar?  Spending some focused time and effort this time of year to better analyze what happened last year, both in your company and the industry has benefits far beyond creating Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) to measure success against in the future.  The fact is most companies large and small fail to hit the bullseye when it comes to forecasting.  If you have any money in the stock market this year you know that’s true.

Planning is about the agility and alignment of you and your organization.  As the owner you know where you want to go, that’s why you started the business.  Knowing which path to take to achieve the quickest results and having everyone onboard rowing in the same direction is where planning and budgeting comes in.

Imagine sailing to a Caribbean Island from New York without a navigational map or instruments to predict the weather, direction, or speed.  For the millennials out there, planning a road trip without your phone might be a better analogy.  Of course, we wouldn’t even think about doing these things.  Then why would you try to build a business without an up-to-date GPS to help guide the way.

Take time in the month of December to run the numbers, analyze the changes in the market and yes, get feedback from your team as to what they see as the best way forward.  Captain Kirk could never have survived without Scottie and Spock helping find the right path.  As the owner the responsibility to move the company forward is yours, but your team will be more loyal and work harder to make the journey a success if they helped create the plan to get to the destination.

Here is to a successful 2023.  All your dreams and wishes will come true if you plan it that way and get everyone aligned around the KPI’s that will guide you to your destination!  Let’s Get It Done!

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Leveraging Your Existing Customer Relationships

Strategic Planning

 

Your existing customers offer you the quickest and least expensive way to grow your company.  As we have covered in past articles one of the five focus areas for every business is the number of transactions you can achieve with each of your clients.  We all know how hard and expensive it is to attract a new lead and then convert them to a loyal and trusting customer.  It would be a mistake not to make the most out of your hard-earned relationship.  Today we will explore a few strategies to increase the number of transactions you do with your customers each year.

Cross Selling

We see this effectively used every time we go to a fast-food restaurant.  You order a burger and a soda, and you are instantly asked if you want fries with that.  A more subtle example is the store owner who places candy by the checkout register knowing well that Mom and Dad will succumb to the desires of the kids.  Shopify actually calls their upsell and cross sell option the candy rack.  As soon as you click the add to cart button, offers are displayed in the form of a pop-up, upselling and cross selling to the customer before they leave the site.  This is a proven strategy for increasing the number of transactions a customer will make during and after their initial purchase.

So, let’s say you are a hair salon and you have contracted with some hair product companies to display their products in your shop.  Most owners do this.  The question is will anyone ask the customer if they would like to purchase this product during their visit?  If you don’t ask, they will not buy.  If you do, it turns out that 34% of the time they will purchase an additional or alternative (more expensive) product at the time of purchase if they are asked.  Better still, open an on-line store that allows that customer to acquire the products they need to keep their hair style looking good between visits.  This store might just produce more revenue and definitely profit for the business than the shop itself!  By the way while shopping they will be reminded that it is time to book their next appointment.

Business Alliances

In the case of the hair salon, the distributor of the hair products sold in the shop is a good example of a business alliance partner.  An arrangement or contract between two parties to share in the revenue sold by the other party.  This is straight forward when it comes to distribution arrangements but what about other alliances.

Take the landscaping company who forms a relationship with an outdoor light company to help accent the beautiful plantings they install.  They don’t have the expertise to install the lighting so they find a company of similar quality that they can form a partnership with and share in the revenue added to the original project.  Think about your business.  Is there a product or service that your customer might buy from you that adds to the value of what you bring the client?

The painter who added window coverings (blinds, shades, curtains…) to his everyday offering increased the revenue of his company by 60% without spending a single cent on marketing.  They simply added this service as part of their normal quoting process.  The window covering vendor was thrilled to have met the painter and has since added many painters to his list of partners.

By the way, the profit of the painting job was increase exponentially because the painter added nothing in cost and a significant amount in revenue by forming the alliance.

Bolt-on Business

As a company grows it may make sense to add synergistic service units to the business.  I will often recommend a franchise business to an owner as an easy way to bolt-on additional revenue opportunities with very little up-front cost.

Take the case of the property manager who is responsible for renting and maintaining the properties for his customers.  They manage everything from the cleaning of the properties to the renovations to keep things looking new and fresh.  As a new business owner, it doesn’t make sense to do anything but find properties they can manage for a fee.  But as the business grows there is an opportunity to add multiple revenue streams by bolting on small low-cost franchises that will perform the cleaning, or painting or renovation work.  Obviously, the owner could go out and buy an existing business or start his own division in any of these categories but then he/she would have to learn the process of managing all these different operations.  With a franchise they come with the training, policies, and know how to run each business all for the low price of a franchise fee (normally between $10,000 and $50,000).

Often this strategy is proceeded by business alliances like those discussed above.  In this case it may be more appropriate to form a partnership or even an agreement to merge the two companies.  As a business owner you should never feel as if you are too small to think about these types of arrangements. I have seen many a large company formed by the merger of many smaller ones.  One word of caution when merging or joining organizations.  Culture is a very significant part of any company and if both parties don’t share the same philosophies when it comes to how things are done it can be disastrous for everyone involved.

Conclusion

As a business owner you know that there is nothing more important than protecting and nurturing the relationship you have with your customers.  There is no better way to do this than to have multiple touchpoints with that customer.  Leveraging those relationships by giving them multiple ways and multiple opportunities to do business with you is a win-win for both you and the customer.  They get to buy a service they need from someone they already trust, and you get to strengthen your bond with them by once again servicing them well.  Call me and we can brainstorm ways for you to leverage your relationship with your

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Happy New Year – so what’s the plan?

Strategic Planning

We have officially entered the new year of 2018; are you ready to grab that golden ring you have been working towards or is your plan to forge ahead and hope for the best?  Running a successful business is a lot like sailing a ship across a vast ocean.  The big difference is many business owners haven’t taken the time to map out their route with up to date navigational information and calibrated gauges that will assist them to take their journey safely arriving at their visionary port on time.

The thing about the business journey is the map of the ocean we will be crossing is forever changing.  Your competitors have changed, the products have evolved and the consumers are completely different than those the business started out with.  Today’s consumer is more informed, less patient, and has the tools available to assess products on a global basis in an instant.   If your plan is to stay the course I am here to tell you that course more than likely no longer exists in the marketplace.

Take the time today to reassess your journey and identify the reasons you are in business and where and when you will arrive at your final destination (mission, vision, values).  Update the market information necessary to ensure your offering will be well received by the end user and develop Key Performance Indicators (KIP’s) that will help guide your path when land is no longer visible.

Share this navigational plan with your team so they can assist you in the journey.  The power locked inside your employees will be the differentiator if you harness it and use it to drive a culture of success within your organization.  Ensure everyone shares the values you believe in by stating them clearly and often.  Only hire those who will add to the growth of the culture and divest yourself of those that detract from the mission, no matter how integral they may be to the business.    Your mission and vision are why you are successful, not any single employee.

Take advantage of the New Year and start planning today.  The time is right to get your entire team engaged in this new journey.  I assure you the excitement and energy this will bring to your employees is explosive and will give you the power you need to reach that final destination, wherever it may be!

Visit the TEC Resource Center and take a free strategic planning assessment (https://tecresourcecenter.com/strategic-planning-assessment) to assist you in determining how to get started planning the future of your business today!

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