How Can Knowing Your Ideal Customer Make you Rich?
There are riches in the niches.
Knowing and working with your ideal customer is a principle that will solve most of your customer relationship experiences. Some businesses believe that their ideal customer is anyone that shows up to their door with money. Please, don't do that.
“You want 100 people to think you’re AMAZING, not 1,000 people to think you’re just ok.”
Other businesses are afraid to isolate their niche because they don’t want to miss out on sales. But in an effort to please everyone, you become interesting to no one.
Instead, you should be creating a niche target market where you develop strong relationships with people.
pick your ideal type of clients
Think about high-end luxury cars. If you go to the gas station and fill the car up with the lowest grade fuel, should you be surprised when there are problems down the road? No. If you are filling up the beat-up 10-year-old Pontiac with the highest grade fuel, your car won't get any better.
Jack of all Trades, Master of None.
Here's another way of looking at this. Let's say you are a remodeling contractor, and you have a client that also wants you to do landscaping. Can you do this? You sure can! But is this your core business? You're not stocking the right inventory, you're not buying goods at the right price, and you don't have the skilled labor on hand to get the job done. The answers are "no!"
When it is all said and done, you ultimately end up with an unsatisfied customer. There is wisdom to understanding what you're selling, and who you're selling to.
Struggling to know who your niche target is? Look at the projects from your company history and ask yourself these three questions…
1.) Which projects did I feel the most successful with?
2.) Which projects did my clients seem the happiest with?
3.) Which projects offered services, a process, or value that other competitors can’t offer?
From there, narrow down the correlations you see in the types of clients you worked with. Were most older or younger, male or female, city or rural, luxury or budget? Asking these types of questions will start to reveal a very specific person. In marketing, this is called a target persona. When you start to view everything you do through the eyes of that persona, you will keep attracting that perfect client, aligning with what they want, and delivering work they are thrilled with.
We’ve covered WHY a target customer is key to a better business. Still struggling with HOW to identify your target persona? Look for our next article, “Three Ways to Identify Your Niche.”
