Do You Know Your Ideal Customer?

One of the biggest barriers to receiving heaps of referrals is an unclear ideal client profile. If your referral partners, clients, and customers don’t know who is a perfect fit for your products, programs, and services, it will be difficult for them to identify their own friends, family peers, and contacts who would greatly benefit from hiring you, buying from your company, or learning from you — and in turn difficult for them to refer people to you.

What do the top 10-20% of your clients have in common? Here are some tips to help you find your business’s ideal customers:

Define your product or service from the customer’s point of view. What does your product do for your ideal customer? What problems does your product solve for your customer? What needs of your customer does your product satisfy? How does your product improve your customer’s life or work?

Demographics: Define the ideal customer. What is his or her age, education, occupation or business? What is his or her income or financial situation? What is his or her situation today in life or work?

What problem do you solve for your ideal customer? Determine the specific benefits your customer is seeking when they are buying your product. Of all the benefits you offer, which are the most important to your ideal customer? What are the most pressing needs that your product or service satisfies? Why should your customer buy from you rather than from someone else?

Where are they? Determine the location of your exact customer. Where is your customer located geographically? Where does your customer live or work? Where is your customer when he or she buys your product or service? Where do they spend their time online?

When are they your customer? Determine exactly when your ideal customer buys your product or service. What has to happen in the life or work of your customer for him to buy your product? What time of year, season, month or week does your customer buy?

Determine your customer’s buying strategy. How does your customer buy your product or service? How has your customer bought similar products or services in the past? What is your customer’s buying strategy? How does your customer go about making a buying decision for your product?

Your ability to clearly define and determine the very best customer for your product or service will determine your success in business.