20 Questions To THE Perfect Customer!
Posted on April 21, 2008 by Ed Roach
We in business have tendency to want to leave no stone unturned when it comes to generating income. Are you targeting your efforts to reach your best target audience? Are you aware of just who this audience is? A good exercise would be to identify this person. To perform this task you have to build a demographic profile. Remember – the profile is of the person that you make the most money from. Once identified, you will want to locate more like them.
Here are some questions to ask yourselve regarding your most profitable demographic profile:
1. Are they male or female?
2. How old would they be?
3. What income level?
4. Are they philanthropic?
5. Are they married?
6. Do they have kids? (if so, what age are the kids?)
7. Are they community minded?
8. Union or non-union?
9. Are they American or not?
10. Republican or Democrat?
11. What vehicle do they drive?
12. Visible minority?
13. Aggressive or passive?
14. Introvert or extrovert?
15. Do they read the local newspaper?
16. Are they joiners?
17. Are they handy around the house?
18. Do they own a single family dwelling? or a condo?
19. Are they a sports fan or culture fan or both?
20. How much money do they spend with us?
Answering these questions will give to a solid base to determine your perfect customer. Using census data or a market research source, identify more of this demographic profile within your community. If you charted the outcome on a map, you will typically see clustering of locations. This is because similar demographic groups tend to live close to one another. Market to these target locations. This will save printing and distribution costs by avoiding areas not identified as a target group. Now you not only know your perfect customer but where they live too.
Similar Posts:
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About Ed: For 25 years or so I have developed positioning strategies for small businesses that helps to differentiate them. I appreciate working with companies who see the value of going beyond mere slogans and have a desire to sell from compelling positions. Opportunities come to light in every discussion. I consult predominantly with small business and and implement the solutions developed. I've had the pleasure of being interviewed in all media regarding branding small business, most recently in "America's Best" magazine and the "Christian Radio & Music Industry" trade magazine. I am available for speaking engagements and I have authored "The Reluctant Salesperson", an Introvert's Guide to Selling. Contact me if you are looking for practical advice on bringing your corporate brand to the next level. I also have international speaking experience including a recent event in Prague, Czech Republic. I am currently working on a branding conference in Mumbai, India for next year. I can be contacted directly at: 519-324-9536 or ed@thebrandingexperts.ca Blog: TheBrandCorral.com Twitter: BrandCorral Facebook |
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Discussion: 8 Comments
8 Responses to “20 Questions To THE Perfect Customer!”
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Robert Kingston
- 21st Apr, 08 04:04pm
Just what I needed Ed. I’m making an Access database right now and I’m deciding on the customer data I want to collect. Answers to some of those questions would be difficult to get though, so I’m guessing these are asked sparingly.
A new way of finding customers in the future might be to look to the social networks of your current customers. Have you heard of Google Social graph? Basically, it’s an initiative by Google to map out the social connections of the Web through collecting semantic data. That means, when I link from my blog to your blog as a “colleague”, people will see that connection. For marketers that look at these connections, they could reasonably determine that being colleagues, I’d be likely to be interested in the same sorts of products/services as you, otherwise, I’d be more likely to tell you about those services. I can’t really begin to describe the way it works, I guess you’ll need to see the example for yourself:
http://socialgraph-resources.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/samples/findcontacts.html
Ed Roach (author comment)
- 21st Apr, 08 08:04pm
Good show Robert. Yes, the questions are suggestions to help build a profile. Take away some or add a few of your own. Thanks for the insight on the social networks. I was wondering about what their real use would be to me.
Ed
Vera Raposo
- 22nd Apr, 08 02:04am
Thanks Rob for posting this, I’ll certainly have a look myself as well.
Also Ed, what I noticed with my business is that I had a core group of customers who purchased core product from me, it was those customers that I focused on not only to get new customers but to also make them so happy with me that they would come back and buy more all the time.
So if someone from that core group wanted a specific item, I worked my butt off to get that item in for them.
Of course I still gave great service to customers with other interest I just made sure I had what that core group needed as much as possible.
Melissa
- 23rd Apr, 08 04:04am
Great stuff! I actually do both market research and small biz marketing coaching, and these questions are some of the first concepts that we teach!
And yes while it may be intially difficult to get those questions answered, you need to focus on who your market is. If I had a dollar for every business owner who says their market is anyone and everyone, I’d be rich! Another way to zero in on your customers is to take a look at the data that you already have.
Look at sales records, talk to your customers, find out all you can about them. Track buying trends-is there a time of year/month/week that your sales spike. That might be a clue into buying trends, which you can then leverage to increase sales target new customers!
Ed Roach (author comment)
- 23rd Apr, 08 10:04am
Great additional insight Melissa. Is there any business out there whose target audience is – “anyone and everyone”? I can’t think of one off the top.
Ed
Melissa
- 24th Apr, 08 07:04am
Thanks Ed! I can’t think of anyone either who would fits the category of “anyone and everyone”! Yet so many people say that very things while networking!
Look at iPod. We all know what it is, yet their marketing is only targeted to the Gen Y crowd. But that doesn’t stop people in other generations from buying them, does it? Everyone can, in theory, use an iPod, but apple choose to target the under 30 crowd. And are they hurting for business? NOPE!
Just a thought!
Ed Roach (author comment)
- 24th Apr, 08 01:04pm
My favorite is “our people make the difference”. This is a popular differentiator with many companies. But the simple truth is every employee in every company is special, it is hardly a differentiator. It is more the easy way out, instead of defining exactly what separates your brand.
Ed
Walt Goshert
- 26th Apr, 08 02:04pm
It’s a focus on the 80/20 rule.
Your top 20% of your “perfect customers” typically drive 80% of your revenues and profits.
So, if you want to leverage growth in your business, focus on finding more folks like your top 20%.
And, conversely…
If, you have the guts, follow the Jack Welch Theory of Client Management:
Fire your 20% least profitable clients.
These people are costing you money and time.
Money and time you need to spend on attracting more like your top 20%.
Simple. Not easy to do.
Walt