Presentation (expanded with more text) given on 1/26/11 to The Circuit Consumer Product Circle

1. Identifying, Targeting
& Attracting Your
Perfect Customers
A Presentation to
The Circuit’s
Consumer Product Circle
January 26, 2011

2. Why You Are Here Today
“Your ability to clearly define and focus in on the customers
who can most rapidly buy your product or service will be
essential to your business success.”
- Brian Tracy
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“Most entrepreneurs aren't clear about their ideal customer.
For this reason, they waste a lot of time and money trying to
sell their product to people who aren't good potential
customers.”
- Brian Tracy
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3. Why I Am Here Today: To Help Save You . . .
Lots of Time! Lots of Money!
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4. Can We Agree . . . ?
• Your ability to find a customer, sell to that customer, and
satisfy that customer so that he/she buys from you again
should be the central focus of all your entrepreneurial
activity.
• The greater clarity you have about your perfect customer,
the more effective your marketing efforts will be.
• The most important activity is to identify the very best
customers for your product, and then focus all marketing,
advertising/promotion, and sales efforts on this particular
type of customer.
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5. Identifying Your Perfect Customer
What is involved?
• Define your product from your perfect customer’s
perspective
• Define your perfect customer for the product you sell
• Determine the benefits your perfect customer is seeking in
buying your product
• Determine the “location” (where) of your perfect customer
• Determine the “timing” (when) your perfect customer buys
your product
• Determine your perfect customer’s buying strategy
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6. Your Perfect Customer Identity – Benefits Focus
It’s primarily about product benefits, NOT features
• Entrepreneurs typically sell on product features.
• Customers usually buy on product benefits.
Ask yourself:
• What does your product do for your ideal customer?
• What problems does your product solve?
• What customer needs does your product satisfy?
• How does your product improve your customer’s life/work?
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THINK from the customer’s perspective -
THINK product benefits!
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7. Your Perfect Customer Identity – Profiling
Mentally profile who might be your perfect customer
Ask yourself:
• What is his/her age, education level, occupation, etc.?
• What is his/her income level or financial situation?
• What is his/her situation today in life/work?
• How might he/she behave? What might he/she do?
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Begin to THINK about your perfect customer as an individual
and – considering your product very carefully – personify that
imaginary perfect customer, both demographically and
behaviorally.
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8. Your Perfect Customer Identity – USP
Let’s get more specific on product benefits
Ask yourself:
• Which benefit is most important to your perfect customer?
• What is the most pressing need your product addresses for
your perfect customer?
• Why should your perfect customer buy from you, rather than
from a competitor?
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THINK about how you are going to sell to your perfect
customer, in terms of the specific benefit to highlight and help
differentiate from the competition (unique selling proposition).
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9. Your Perfect Customer Identity – “Location”
“Location” - Where are they when they buy your product?
Ask yourself:
• Where is your perfect customer geographically?
• Where does your customer live/work?
• Where is your perfect customer when he/she buys your
product? On the phone? In a store? Online?
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THINK about how your perfect customer is going to buy your
product. Where do you have to sell it so it is available to
them? What channels of distribution will you use to reach
them and make your product available to buy?
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10. Your Perfect Customer Identity – “Timing”
“Timing” – When are they ready to buy your product?
Ask yourself:
• What has to happen in their lives or work for him/her to buy
your product? Is there a life event that triggers the need?
• What time of year or season does your perfect customer buy
your product? What other occasions or reasons prompt the
buying decision?
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THINK about how your perfect customer is going to buy your
product. Is it situational/occasion-based or seasonal?
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11. Your Perfect Customer Identity – Buying Strategy
Buying Strategy – How do they decide to buy product?
Ask yourself:
• How does your perfect customer decide to buy, or not buy,
your product?
• Has he/she bought similar products in the past, or not?
• How does your perfect customer go about making a buying
decision regarding your product?
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THINK about your perfect customer’s likely decision making
process regarding your product.
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12. Targeting Your Perfect Customer (Niche = Target)
Now we are further refining your perfect customer by
focusing on a niche market. So, what is involved to
identify the right niche for your product?
• Unique needs: “Members” have similar needs, but needs
that are unique to the rest of the market
• Product is a better fit: Your product meets their needs better
than what the competition offers
• ROI: You can economically market to this group
• Group size: Large enough group to generate enough
revenue to remain profitable
• Opportunity: “Members” are not targeted, or ineffectively so
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13. Your Perfect Customer Target – Unique Needs
Niche has unique needs from the rest of the market
• These unique needs should be relevant to your product and
industry
• Geography can also play a role since market segments can
vary dramatically even within an industry
• ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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THINK about your industry - Can you isolate a group that has
unique needs that are relevant to your product?
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14. Your Perfect Customer Target – Better Product Fit
Your product better meets the need than the competition
• Your product must be more attractive in some way than
other products available to customers
• Simply offering a compelling reason to meet a special need
might work, and may be related to some aspect of your
business rather than something product specific
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THINK about how your product – or your business overall -
can better meet a certain group’s needs
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15. Your Perfect Customer Target – Better ROI
You can market more economically
• To obtain a decent ROI on a modest budget, the niche must
be easy to identify and reach for your marketing efforts
• The key is often to find ways to narrow your marketing
efforts to seek qualified prospects
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THINK about how easy or difficult it is to identify and reach
the niche market and how to qualify prospects economically
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16. Your Perfect Customer Target – Group Size
The niche is large enough to remain profitable
• You must have a niche that will allow you to have a
sustainable business over time
• It must make sense financially for your business
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THINK about the likely size of the niche market to be
assured that it is financially viable to pursue long-term
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17. Your Perfect Customer Target – Opportunity
The niche is not being targeted, or ineffectively targeted
• The best niche market for your product is one in which no
competitor is targeting, or no competitor is targeting
effectively
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THINK about the overlooked niche, not the obvious one, to
find the potential opportunity for your product
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18. Attracting Your Perfect Customer* (Thoughts)
What is involved to attract your perfect customer?
Both mental (thoughts) and physical (actions)
Understand the Law of Attraction and its application to
bring perfect customers who value your product, further
refining who was identified and targeted earlier.
• Be on purpose with your company mission
• You have the power to attract the customer you desire
• Like attracts like: So, who do you like?
• Choose collaboration, not competition
• Your customers (and employees) want you to succeed
• Create a business atmosphere of accomplishment
* From Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity, by
Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez
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19. Your Perfect Customer Attracted – Mission
Be on purpose with your company mission*
• Become clear about whom the business is meant to serve
• Hire only people who are truly aligned with the mission
• All products, practices and structures are also aligned
• Trusting money is a natural by-product of staying on mission
•-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A business that stays true to its mission is an attractive
business.
* From Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity, by
Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez
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20. Your Perfect Customer Attracted – Power
You have the power to attract the customer you desire*
• If you can envision it, you can manifest it
• We all have a natural ability to attract
•-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Realize you have the power within you to make the perfect
customer you envision a reality through attraction
* From Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity, by
Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez
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21. Your Perfect Customer Attracted – Liking
Like attracts like: Whom do you like?*
• The principle of reciprocity applies
• Confidence attracts confident customers
• When we value our business, potential customers will also
•-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Believe in yourself as an entrepreneur and business owner
and others will believe it you as well
* From Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity, by
Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez
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22. Your Perfect Customer Attracted – Collaboration
Choose collaboration, not competition*
• Have an abundance mentality and a giving attitude
• Have the perspective of collaboration
• The idea of a perfect fit – perfect customer + perfect provider
• The power of two – or more (whole greater than the sum of
its parts)
•-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Focus on what is possible in working together, realizing there
are opportunities for everyone, and that no one is a perfect
provider
* From Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity, by
Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez
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23. Your Perfect Customer Attracted – Support
Your customers (and employees) want you to succeed*
• Others are working “with you” – not “against you”
• Discounts and special offers typically do not bring you
perfect customers
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Perfect customers you attract will want to support you and
your efforts
* From Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity, by
Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez
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24. Your Perfect Customer Attracted – Atmosphere
Create an atmosphere of accomplishment*
• Be grateful in your interactions
• Share your gratitude with others
• Emanate a sense of your accomplishments
•-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Those who are confident in their efforts, grateful to others, and
emanate accomplishment are more likely to attract perfect
customers
* From Attracting Perfect Customers: The Power of Strategic Synchronicity, by
Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez
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25. Attracting Your Perfect Customer (Actions)
What is involved to attract your perfect customer?
Both mental (thoughts) and physical (actions)
What are some more practical ideas can we apply to
attracting perfect customers?
• Branding your business
• Creating competitive advantage (“USP on steroids”)
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26. Branding Your Business – Defining Your Brand
Think of your business as a brand: What does that mean?
• It is a promise that you make about what your business will
deliver to the market
• It should be something unique and meaningful (and distinct
to your business)
• It could be something tangible or intangible
• It must be something that your prospects and customers can
expect to derive or experience by engaging with your brand
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27. Branding Your Business – Purpose & Promise
What is the brand’s purpose and promise?
• Brand Purpose is a concise explanation of why your brand
exists in the market
• Brand Promise is the unique benefit derived by engaging
with the brand
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28. Branding Your Business – Proof & Personality
What is the brand’s proof and personality?
• Brand Proof are the reasons to believe the brand’s unique
promise
• Brand Personality is the distinguishing characteristics of the
brand – identifying what your brand is and what your brand
is not
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29. Branding Your Business – Communication
How do you communicate the branding effectively?
• It is typically necessary to develop a visual brand identity
(name, logo, tagline, etc.)
• Using the results of the branding exercise, identify the brand
message you wish to convey to your perfect customer that
will resonate with them
• Develop brand standards for your marketing and sales
materials to support your branding efforts
• You must communicate your brand consistently, in everything
you do, and do so in a clear and compelling way
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30. Creating Competitive Advantage*: What is Required
Competitive advantages MUST:
• Mean something positive to customers
• Play an important role in their buying decisions
• Be quantifiable and tied to the bottom line
• But above all, they must be true
* From Creating Competitive Advantage, by Jaynie Smith
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31. Creating Competitive Advantage*:
The Customer Knowledge Disconnect
• We use imprecise, vague language that our customers
don’t notice, believe or understand
• We claim a competitive advantage that we don’t
consistently deliver
• We stress advantages that aren’t that important to our
customers
• We fail to stress specific advantages for each of our target
markets individually
* From Creating Competitive Advantage, by Jaynie Smith
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32. Inexpensive Ways To Identify, Target & Attract
Perfect Customers
• Complete the exercises!
• Ask Susan and me for assistance!
• Conduct secondary research on your industry and product
• Discuss it with employees, if applicable
• Vet it with business advisors
Gaining different perspectives and input is crucial!
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33. Customer Research: The Research Value Disconnect
• Entrepreneurs generally think they know their customers
so well that customer research is unnecessary – one
reason many of them fail, unfortunately
• Relationship customers will not tell you the truth when it is
bad news; they will lie rather than upset you (too
uncomfortable)
• When pressed, they will nearly always tell you the reason
is price-driven – well, congratulations, you have now
become a commodity!
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34. Customer Research: The Benefits
• Customer research identifies what customers want and
whether or not your business is meeting their needs: an
essential activity to ensure long-term business success
• If you do NOT have customer research in place, consider
making it happen: the return on investment quickly
overshadows the cost
• Identification and full evaluation of your business’s
competitive advantages: uncovers even more benefits of
your product or service that you ever thought possible
before going through the process
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35. Customer Research: The Benefits
• Armed with this new information: sales efforts can
experience significant growth
• Continually assess the competition, and whether or not they
are doing something better than you are doing: Find out
what they do and make certain your sales efforts
outperform them every single time
• If they do something better, only invest to copy or improve
upon what they do: IF it provides you with a competitive
advantage (otherwise you may be wasting your time and
money)
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36. Customer Research: Match Objective w/Method
Qualitative Assessment Or Quantitative Evaluation?
• Depends On Your Learning Objective
• Qualitative Assessment (“focus group” - discussion guide)
- Gather Different Perspectives
- Determine How People Think
- Good For Qualifying (Probing)
- Use A Consumer Panel
• Quantitative Evaluation (“survey” - questionnaire)
- Identify Opinion/Behavior Patterns
- Determine How Many People Think A Certain Way
- Good For Quantifying (Statistics)
- Use Online Survey Tool
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37. Customer Research: Ask The Right Questions . . .
To Get The Right Answers Avoid The GIGO Principle
• Qualitative Assessment
- Very open-ended line of questioning
- Include indirect questioning if possible
- Who?; What?; Why?;, When?; How?
- Always probing for deeper understanding
• Quantitative Evaluation
- Typically close-ended questions
- Attitudinal questions and behavioral
questions (past and future intent)
- Include profiling questions to classify
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38. Additional Q & A - Thank You!
Dennis Devlin
President/CEO & Leading Consumer Storyteller
Consumer Clarity
Clear Insights. Clear Strategy. Clear Results.
P: 859-372-6688
M: 859-391-2532
F: 888-820-9534
dennis.devlin@consumerclarity.com
www.consumerclarity.com
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