Who do you want to serve? What does your perfect customer look like? There’s a whole world out there. Technically you could sell to anybody but without a clear idea of who you want to work with, you’re just going to be part of the noise.
Being specific about who your ideal customer is enables you to tailor your offering to them and to build meaningful relationships. Your ideal client is someone you have more in common with than just that you have something to sell and they are looking to buy. You want them to pick you because you are the go-to person for them to work with.
Who are you a good fit for?
When Jeffrey Shaw wrote his book Lingo, about how to discover your customers’ secret language, and started promoting it he was surprised to find people kept asking him: “How do I know who my ideal customer is?”
When I spoke to him on episode 278 of Youpreneur.FM, he said: “We have to start with what is our skill set? And also, what are the unique characteristics that our ideal customer would embrace about us, right? What can we bring to the table that's unique? It actually starts first understand kind of a little more of a self-study, what makes me unique, what makes me stand out, what am I particularly good at?”
You want to inspire and delight. The easiest way of doing this is to work with people who are looking for someone like you. They will already be predisposed in your favor and appreciate what you have to offer. Defining who you are, helps you to start building a picture of who your perfect customer is.
Work with people who are looking for someone like you. They will already be predisposed in your favor and appreciate what you have to offer. Defining who you are, helps you to start building a picture of who your perfect customer is. #Youpreneur Click To TweetCreate a portrait of your perfect customer
Don’t worry if you’re not an artist, this exercise doesn’t mean painting your customer. Although if you do think in pictures a sketch note or illustration might help you.
Creating a portrait of your perfect customer, what some people call a user persona or an ideal customer avatar, allows you to get inside the head of the person you want to connect with. You need to build a snapshot of who they are. This will enable you to connect with them and build a person to person relationship.
Here are the main things to think about and some examples of what to write down. You don’t need oodles of notes. Just a snapshot.
What are their problems?
What keeps your perfect customer up at night? What would they pay someone to do for them or to come up with a solution for?
Knowing what your customers’ pain points are, the issues they are struggling with, means you can step right in and save the day. Whether they want their garden landscaped or need their tax return sorting out, step into their shoes and see the world through their eyes.
What makes your ideal customer tick?
Now you need to start thinking about defining your perfect customer’s character. Who are they? What is important to them? Everyone has different interests and motivations.
Start to get even more specific. What’s their background? How do they occupy themselves? Do they see the glass as half full or half empty? Where do they live? How old are they? Where do they shop? What do they love doing in their spare time? How do they spend their money? What would you talk about if you went for a drink? Would that drink be tea, coffee, wine, beer, whiskey or a green smoothie?
You want to build a rapport with your perfect customer. Personalization helps you to stand out. People want to know that you truly get who they are. If they are raving Formula 1 fans or love to cook at the weekends, then talking about these things will help them to think of you as part of their circle.
What are your perfect customer’s habits?
Sit down and think about what your customer does all day. Start with when they get up in the morning and write down key details up until they go to bed. Do a version for during the week and at the weekends. Think about how and when they go to work and come home in the evenings. What rituals they might have like catching a game on a Saturday or lying in with the papers or magazines on a Sunday.
Do they listen to podcasts? If so, which ones? Maybe they prefer to watch YouTube videos. Perhaps they spend their evenings watching classic films in the company of Cary Grant, Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart.
Again, you are getting to know them and understand the world they live in, everything from what they talk about with their friends to whether they are affected by the latest rail fare rises. If they go for a run every Sunday, they are likely to be interested in talking about health and fitness. If they have a young family, they are likely to be watching kids’ TV at 6 am. They will also be sleep deprived.
Once you have a clear idea about your perfect customer’s problems, interests, demographics, and habits you will know what to talk about apart from the benefits of your product or service. You will also know when it’s a good time to call them, where they hang out and where you should market your services to get your name in front of them.
You can now dovetail who you are and what you do with their lives.
Chris founded Youpreneur® in 2015. He is a serial entrepreneur, keynote speaker and author of the bestselling books “Virtual Freedom” and “Rise of the Youpreneur”. He hosts our podcast, live events and coaches our clients inside the Youpreneur Incubator. Chris is based in Cambridge, UK.
