How much do we really know about our clients? Apart from the immediate sale do we understand what makes them tick? If we want to maintain and enhance our competitive advantage and our financial security we have to know more about our target market before we develop a relevant and specific marketing strategy that maximises our efforts and resources in reaching and serving our clients.
At the very least it is a sign of common courtesy and respect to know more about our clients so we can find out what is important for them. If we have a hazy vague idea of who our clients are we are likely using the ‘shot gun’ or ‘shoot everywhere’ approach which ends ups being a pot luck method where at best our advertising agent is the clear financial winner and we hardly make a whisker in terms of increased sales.
Firstly are we serving end users (retail) or value adders (business).
If our target audience are consumers we need to document a solid profile of who they are including: age, gender, occupation, household income, employment, education, marital status, family status, residential location, ethnicity, physical characteristics etc.
If we are in the business to business arena we need to narrowly define and document the characteristics of our clients in terms of: industry, product lines, size of business, type of business, location, outlets, online capacity, geographical coverage, financial status and a general description of their target audience etc.
This intelligence process should be ongoing as our respective marketplaces rapidly change and adapt like never before in commercial history. There are a combination of ways we can determine more deeply the demographics of our clients. We can ask ourselves and document what we already know about our existing clients. We can take our clients to lunch and find out more about them in business and outside of business and what they value the most in the relationship they have with you.
Once you gain a better feel for who your clients really are you can be much more attentive in how you communicate with them and the target audience they represent. If you do this consistently and well you will be miles ahead of your competition.
“…if one of you wants to be great, you must be the servant of the rest; and if one of you wants to be first, you must be the slave of all. For even the Son of Man did not come to be served; he came to serve and to give His life to redeem many people.” Mark 10:43, 44, 45
Have a tremendous week in Christ!
James Benjamin
Business Edge Perth & WA