Four questions you MUST ask to get to know your customers

Whether you are designing a product, developing a marketing strategy or writing a blog post having a thorough understanding of your target marketing is vital. 

But how do you get clear on who it is you are talking to and targeting? Here are four questions you MUST ask to get to know your customers – and why you need to ask them.

1. Who are my customers?

What types of people are your customers? Are they a business or consumer? Male or female? Older or younger? 

Do they have money, or are they buying on credit? Are they impulsive or considered? Are they well educated or uneducated? Are they fun or reserved? Daring or cautious? Kids or no kids? Happy or unhappy? Are they making ends meet or living the high life? Are they worried about what others think of them?

What is important to them? What do they value most? Who do they trust? What media do they consume? What social media do they use? 

By asking who your customers are, you will discover how to speak to them and where to find them.

2. What do my customers really want?

What does your customer want from you, do you know? 

While your customers may justify their purchases logically based on the features or inclusions you provide, they don’t tend to buy because of them. Your customers buy based on what your product or service will do for them, save them, make them feel, or make others think or feel about them. 

So again, I ask you, what do your customers really want from you?

Is it to save time or money? Is it to have a certain status or level of respect? Is it to be first and lead the way? Is it to make them feel more worthy, attractive or confident? Is it to alleviate guilt, stress or grief? Is it to live longer? Is it to be more successful, prosperous or influential? Is it to be a trendsetter or forward thinker? 

By identifying what your customers really want, you will uncover how to market to them and what you need to say.

3. How motivated are my customers?

How great are your customers’ needs, wants, frustrations or challenges? How motivated are your customers to buy from you? Do they need and want your product or service or just like the idea of it? Is your product or service an essential or luxury to them? Do your customers know and acknowledge they need your product or service? 

By asking how motivated your customers are you can determine if your product, service or market is viable. You will also be able to identify the level of education you will need to provide and what you will need to do to motivate them.

4. What is holding my customers back from buying?

What are the reasons your customers won’t buy from you? What are some of the reservations they have? 

Is it price or timing? Is it a lack of awareness or understanding? Is it a lack credibility or runs on the board? Is it that you are too new or too established? Is there too much risk involved? Do they need it but don’t want it? Is there not enough proof of your claims? Is there someone influencing their decision?

By finding out what is holding your customers back you can identify ways to build trust, and calm concerns, fears and objections through your marketing. You will also be able to uncover what influencers you need to market to and win over to get the sale.

Do you know your target market as well as you should?

Amanda


To niche or not to niche?

It’s an age-old question that many business owners struggle to answer. But the truth is if you want your marketing to be as effective as possible you need your target market to be an inch wide and a mile deep. 

When you try to be everything to everyone you risk appearing irrelevant to those customers who you want and need the most. 

Still not sure? Here are four opportunities you open up when you pick a niche. 

1. Become the go-to expert

When you zone in on a niche, you naturally become a go-to expert. You are assumed to have more knowledge on the industry, area or market than anyone else who is generalising. 

As a result, people who start to target a niche can end up with more leads and a bigger following than when they worked more broadly. It becomes easier to find you, and you are perceived to be more relevant and valuable to your potential customers. 

Let’s imagine for a moment you need a business coach. You search around and narrow it down to two coaches with the same qualifications and experience level, but one specialises purely in your industry. Who would you choose?

2. Generate more sales

Perhaps one of the biggest fears around choosing a niche is the chance it could reduce sales. But when done well it has the opposite effect. 

When you target a broad audience, your message needs to be broad to appeal to as many people as possible. While this can still generate results, you will get far better results when your market is specific. 

When you target fewer people with more in common, you can tell more relevant stories, address specific problems and appeal to the right emotions to make your customer feel as though you are talking directly to them. 

This approach increases your chances of speaking the right words to the right people at the right time, creating more sales and more raving fans.   

3. Get more bang for your marketing buck

There is no faster way to blow your marketing budget than to target anyone and everyone. The more specific your audience, the more strategic your campaign.

Opportunities, strategies, tactics and influencers can all be better qualified when you know who you need to reach. 

4. Gain more loyal customers

When you serve a niche, your customer can believe working with you will be easier. There’s less groundwork and explaining to do because you already know their problems, issues, frustrations and needs, and have had experience solving them. 

There is also a perception that you will look out for their best interests, and be able to give them ideas and guidance about best practices and produce more tailored products or services to get their desired results. 
 
Because of this (and providing you do a great job) your customers are more likely to be more loyal to you in the long term. 

Do you work within a niche or do you generalise?

Amanda 


How to stay relevant in the mind of your customers

Few things can kill your business faster than becoming irrelevant to your customers. The hard fact of business is that change is inevitable, while you can be on trend and meeting needs and wants one day, there is no guarantee that it will be the same the next.

With greater competition, new technology and changing customer demands how do you ensure you stay relevant in the mind of your customers? 

1. Stay connected

When we start out in business, we are more open to input. In fact, we actively seek it to make sure we are on track and that our customers are happy. We value customer feedback, listen to concerns and promptly make changes to rectify problems. While some businesses continue this process, many others don’t.

It’s almost like there is a certain point in business where we know better. We have the experience and industry knowledge now, we know what is happening and what our customers want – so we no longer ask them. 

We detach and become so focused on growth and development that we lose that customer connection we so desperately need to stay relevant and meet growing needs. Our time becomes precious. We limit the calls and meetings we have and opt for an email – bulk email – to stay in touch and “save time”. 

We start to tell more than we ask, push more than we pull. But to weather the storm of changing needs and wants we need to connect with our customers. We need to understand their purchase decisions, why they make them and how we can make the experience better, and this comes from talking to them, not just looking at the numbers. 

2. Understand how your customers use your products and services 

When we developed our products and services we knew the problem they solved and how we thought they should be used. But that is only one perspective. Your customers may have a completely different idea or purpose for your products or services. 

They may even use them to solve problems you hadn’t thought of, or didn’t know they solved. By understanding how your customers use and want to use your products and services you can start to identify limitations and opportunities to make them even more relevant going forward.

3. Know why your customers do business with you

Do you know why your customers chose to do business with you over your competitors? What was special or different about you? What did you provide that no one else did or did as well? What got them over the line? 

Once you know the bigger reason of why they chose and valued your business you can ensure this is prioritised, communicated and maintained even when you need to change, adapt and expand to suit needs and wants. 

4. Sell the experience, not the product or service

The moment you start selling a product or service by its features and benefits you compete with everyone in your industry. But when you sell the experience, tell the story, share the vision or back the cause your customers are buying something else entirely. Your customers no longer compare you in the same way – you are in a different league. 

This shift creates loyalty not just at a product or service level; it creates loyalty at a company-wide level so when your customers do change, or when you introduce new products and services and try to upsell, cross-sell or resell customers, holding onto them and converting them is far easier.

How do you stay relevant in the mind of your customers?

Amanda


Four marketing lessons your customers can teach you

Your customers are one of your most valuable assets in business. They not only provide the necessary income through sales to help your business survive, but they also provide valuable insight into your products and services, and the best way to market them. 

If you want to find out how to be more strategic in your marketing, spend your budget more wisely and attract more of the customers you want to work with, the answer lies in your existing customers. Here are four marketing lessons your customers can teach you.

1. They can tell you what customers to target

One of the best lessons your customers can teach you is who you do and don’t want to work with. Make a list of your most challenging customers. What made them challenging? Why did you not like working with them? Do they have any characteristics in common that may help you qualify potential customers better?

Now make a list of your top customers. What did you love most about working with them? What made them a great customer? Do you see any commonalities or patterns that will help you find and identify your top customers easily?

2. They can tell you where to find more customers

Once you have identified your top customers, look at where you found them or how they found you. Are there any commonalities or patterns here?

Did a particular advertisement, message, referral source, marketing activity, incentive, product or service, attract your top customers to you? Is there a particular social media platform, publication, website or influencer they were influenced by? 

If you can, also compare how your most challenging customers found you. This will allow you to qualify your sales and marketing efforts and ensure you attract more of your top customers into your business.

3. They can tell you what customers will love most about you

Often in our marketing we will pick out the features, benefits and solutions that we think will appeal most to our customers. 

While we can often be right, a customer can give you a more practical example or application that you or a potential customer may not have thought of. They can also find additional benefits or prioritise benefits differently to how you would have imagined. 

4. They can get new customers to trust you

Your current customers play a major part in your marketing and sales process; they minimise the risk of your new customers purchase decision. While you can address the frustrations of potential customers, offer solutions and provide an incentive, your existing customers provide the ‘proof’ that what you say or do works.

Without their stories, testimonials, case studies or referrals your sales are hinged on how much trust and rapport you or your sales people can build, or how competitive your pricing is.

What marketing lessons have your customers taught you?

Amanda


How to find customers you want to work with

Our customers are the lifeblood of our businesses, the very reason we can open our doors each day and do what we love. While many are brilliant to work with, some have the ability to drain the time, energy, ideas and life out of us.

While every customer gives us the opportunity to learn and improve, I’m sure we’d all rather work with customers that challenge us for all the right reasons. So how do you find the customers you want to work with and not just have to work with? Here are four tips to help.

1. Know who you want to work with

The first step in finding the customers you want to work with is to know who they are. If you can’t clearly identify who you are looking for, how are you meant to find them?  Take a look at their defining characteristics. Do they come from a particular industry or location? Do they have a specific income, turnover or budget? Do they share a particular problem, want or need? Do they have a certain mindset?

The clearer you can be on your ideal customers characteristics, the easier it will be to find where they are, what they read, watch and listen to and who influences them.

2. Build a business they want to do business with

Now that you have a clear idea of the customer you are targeting, determine what kind of brand they want to do business with. What personality and image would attract them? What benefits or solutions do they want from your products and services? What sales and marketing messages have worked to attract these customers in the past? What information must they know to buy from you? What testimonials from past ideal customers can you use to attract them?

Once you have the answers, proactively build a business that they will want to do business with. 

3. Communicate your vision and ‘why’

As Simon Sinek so wisely said, “People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it”. Communicate your vision and why to your customers. Make your business bigger than the products and services you provide. 

Step away from the thousands of businesses who do what you do and give your business a bigger purpose, passion, cause or meaning. Then communicate it authentically to your customers.

4. Remember like attracts like

Like attracts like, so in order for you to attract your ideal customers look at who you need to become as a person and as a business owner. How do you need to talk, act and present? Who do you need to be associating with? What referral partners and strategic alliances do you need to form that will also attract your ideal customers? What circles do you need to be mixing in?

The people you want to work with are within your reach; you may just need to stretch yourself to get to them.

Amanda


How to give people a “good feeling” about you

Like it or loathe it intuition and having a “good feeling” about someone or something can greatly impact our business decisions and the purchase decisions of our customers and potential customers.

So how do you ensure you are giving out the right vibe when you are talking to people? Here are five tips to help you give people a “good feeling” about you.

1. Be confident, friendly and approachable

People are naturally drawn to warm people and are more likely to listen to confident people, that is why being confident, friendly and approachable is the rapport building trifecta. 

Not only will you be more likeable, people will feel more relaxed around you, respect your opinions and be more inclined to follow you, leaving you smiling all the way to the bank.

2. Be an expert in your industry

When you are an expert in your field, and know your products and services intimately you give better explanations, presentations, infomercials and pitches and answer those tricky questions and objections quickly and powerfully.

Nothing gives a customer or potential customer more confidence than having all of their questions answered or hearing someone knowledgeable share insight that will help them in their life or business.

3. Add value

Instead of seeing what you can get out of each person you meet, focus on how you can add value. By adding value you prove your value and your potential customers guards naturally come down. 

With this approach potential customers will not only be more receptive to what you have to say, they will open up to you, making it easier to convert sales and build profitable relationships.

4. Ask questions and listen carefully

Asking the right questions and listening closely to the answers can be incredibly powerful. You can establish rapport, showcase your knowledge, increase credibility, uncover needs, and build relationships.

The more targeted and intelligent your questions are, the better the answers you receive and the easier it is to find even more ways to add value.

5. Never underestimate the power of your body language

Often the “feeling” someone will have about you will come more from what you are not saying. While you may be a smooth talker, if your body language doesn’t support what you are saying, people will question your authenticity.

If a person can’t maintain eye contact with you, covers their mouth a lot when they speak, is fidgety or seems uncomfortable, leans back and crosses their arms, or frowns a lot, chances are you are going to walk away from the meeting and not have a great feeling about the person you were talking to or how the meeting went.

However, if you are meeting with someone who maintains eye contact, faces towards you and leans in, smiles, nods and is open and animated, you will naturally warm to them.

Next time you are talking to someone ask yourself “what is my body language saying about me and is it matching my message?”

Do you use your intuition in making business decisions? What gives you a “good feeling” about someone?

Amanda 


How to identify what your customers love about you

While you know exactly what you love about your business and what you think are your biggest selling points – do you really know what your customer’s value and love about you?

More often than not business owners are selling what they want to sell rather than selling what their customers want to buy. To make sure you’re not one of them, here are four quick checks to ensure you’re not assuming what your customers want, but rather listening to what they value.

1. It’s in their frustrations

If you want to know what your customers and potential customers value, look at the common frustrations and stereotypes of your industry. What do people groan and complain about? What are the common bad experiences?

Now that you know what people don’t appreciate, list the opposite and you will start to see what your customers and potential customers will really want.

2. It’s in their objections

Don’t be put off by objections, objections are your potential customers way of voicing their concern and when handled right they give you the opportunity to make a more personalised sales pitch to get them over the line.

Though in saying this it is important to pay attention to them and make a note of the objections that keep coming up. Is there something that your customers and potential customers need that you aren’t providing? Are there benefits or features that you aren’t promoting that you should be? 

Through objections your potential customers will tell you what is important to them, what they need to know and give you insight into how they make their buying decisions.

3. It’s in their testimonials

Look over the testimonials you’ve received from your past and current customers. What have they praised you for? What have they valued? What are the common themes through all of them?

Chances are that the key features, benefits and results that your past and current customers loved are also the same features, benefits and results that will appeal to your future customers.

4. It’s in their introductions

Referrals and introductions are also a great way to gain insight into what your customers and business associates value about you. More often than not when someone introduces you in business they will lead with what they see to be your biggest point of difference, key area of expertise or your top benefits. 

So the next time someone introduces or refers you, don’t just focus on the new contact, focus on what they have said to get the new contact interested and wanting to talk to you.

When all else fails remember you can ask!

Amanda


Six tips to create a more customer-focused business

If you want to create a real competitive edge in your business start focusing on your customers. It sounds obviously simple, but the fact is most businesses continue to focus on what value they can get as opposed to what value they can give.

But when you start to focus on your customers and what they want and need, you create better products and services, generate more business opportunities and sales, develop more loyal customers and increase your referrals. 

So to ensure you are reaping the benefits and profits of giving value, here are six tips to help you create a more customer-focused business.

1. Stay connected to the needs of your customers

Your business success is directly determined by how connected you are with your customer and their needs. As a business owner it can be easy to fall into the trap of offering, stocking or doing what you want instead of considering what your customers want, but it’s one of the fastest way to limit your growth.

To refocus yourself and remain connected to your customer you need to be constantly asking questions, both of your customers and of yourself. Questions like what do my customers want from my product, service, business or industry? What are their current frustrations or complaints and how can they be improved or solved? 

2. Anticipate future needs and trends

While meeting your customers current needs is important, in order to future proof your business and really establish your point of difference you also need to anticipate their future needs. 

Ask yourself, what will my customers want from my products or services in three, five or ten years? What new trends or technologies are going to impact on how they use my products or services? What is not yet being offered that would benefit my customers? 

3. Write your marketing from your customer’s perspective

“You” is one of the most powerful marketing words you can use. Not only does it help your reader connect with you when the read or hear your content, when you continually write from the angle of “you” instead of “we” you stay in the mind of your customer and can more easily identify and anticipate their needs and wants. 

You start to uncover what is important to them, what they value most and what part of your products and services will most appeal to them. 

4. See your customer as a friend not a sale

One of the smartest things you can do in your business is to stop selling and start serving. When you change your approach from “how much can I get out of you” to “how can I help you” your customer’s guard comes down, they relax and start to open up to you. 

When you add value to them and appear to be looking out for their best interests, they become more receptive to what you are saying, value your opinion and are more likely to see you as a trusted expert who can help them, increasing the likelihood of you making the sale. 

5. Stay in regular contact

To build a relationship with your customers you need to stay in regular contact with them, but not just through newsletters and email marketing, genuine, personal contact. Talk to them to see how they are going. Keep in touch in a way that makes them feel valued. 

Be proactive, your existing customers are the easiest sales you will ever make so make sure you look after them and take an interest.

6. Always add value

One of your goals in business should be to give your customers what they can’t get anywhere else, or in a way they can’t get anywhere else.

It could be as simple as taking the time to answer all of their questions, giving them an added bonus, sending them a book, resource or opportunity that you know they would benefit from, or having their favourite coffee and snack when they come to meet you.  

Always be looking at how you could be adding value to each of your customers in order to make their experience with you even more memorable.

How do you stay customer focused in your business?

Amanda


Four ways to enhance your customer experiences and improve profits

I’m guest posting over at Flying Solo on ways to enhance your customer experience and boost your profitability. You can read the full article here, though here is a sneak peek…

Of the many ways to increase profitability in your business, giving your customers an experience they’ll never forget is a highly effective one.

No one sells your business like a happy customer. When your customers sing your praises and prove your value and claims through their own experiences, a whole new level of trust and credibility is awarded to you and your business.

With repeat customer sales and referrals also being the cheapest and easiest business you will ever generate, it‘s smart to spend more time nurturing and leveraging your existing customer relationships to create even more happy customers.

With this in mind, here are four tips to help you enhance your customer experience and increase profitability in the process.

1. Stop selling and start serving

Instead of focusing on generating sales, focus on your potential customer’s needs, wants, goals, challenges and how you can help them.

You will find that when you stop selling and start serving, your customer’s guard comes down. Not only will they be more receptive to what you are saying, they will open up to you, rewarding you with more information that will help you make the sale and turn them into a satisfied customer.

2. Ask questions and listen to the answers

Questions are incredibly powerful. You can qualify a potential customer, establish rapport, identify needs, build relationships, increase credibility and close a sale simply by asking the right questions and listening closely to the answers.

The more targeted your questions, the easier it is to give your customers exactly what they need, reward and “wow” them in ways they would personally appreciate, and find even more ways to help to them.

3. Stay in contact regularly

To build a relationship with your customers you need to stay in regular contact with them, but not just with newsletters and email marketing. Instead, make genuine, personal contact. Talk to them to see how they are going. Keep in touch in a way that makes them say “wow”

For example, once your customer has bought your product or service you could send out a small gift voucher they can use for their next purchase as a thank you for doing business with you. A week after they have used your product or service you could call them to see how they are going, if they have any questions and if you can help them with anything further. This can be a great way to show you care, create opportunities to up-sell or cross-sell and get feedback, which can generate testimonials or help you address any concerns.

Also keep track of when customers are due for your product or service, whether it is a refill, check-up, follow-up or replacement, and send them a reminder with a special offer or bonus. By being proactive, your customers will feel more special and your thoughtfulness will be rewarded with loyalty, repeat sales and referrals.

Read more…

Amanda


What to do when you have an unhappy customer

An unhappy customer can be incredibly damaging to your business and reputation. People are 2-3 times more likely to tell others about a bad customer experience than a good customer experience.

Combine this with easy access to social media on mobiles and suddenly an unhappy customer can be voicing their dissatisfaction to the world within seconds – before they’ve had time to think things through or you’ve had a chance to rectify the situation.

So what do you do when you have an unhappy customer on your hands? Here are five tips to help you diffuse the situation and keep your reputation intact.

1. Deal with the situation swiftly

If you are faced with an unhappy customer, deal with the situation quickly, calmly and with a genuine desire to achieve a win/win outcome. If possible don’t let them leave your store or get off the phone until it has been resolved.

2. Listen without interruption

What an unhappy customer wants most is to be able to vent their frustrations without interruption and to feel heard. Giving them this opportunity and encouraging the conversation with a statement like “let’s go over what happened” is often the first step in diffusing the situation.  

As hard as it can be, particularly if you have been taken off guard, you need to resist the urge to interrupt, get defensive or try to solve the issue immediately.  Your only role at this time is to listen for the key issues and facts that are hiding beneath their emotional reaction.

3. Repeat back the problem

Once they have finished, if you need to, ask any additional questions that will help you identify the problem or ensure you’ve identified the right one. Then let them know you have heard them by repeating the problem back to them.

4. Be understanding and accountable

Once you’ve clarified the problem put yourself in your customer’s shoes. How would you feel in the same situation? Show them understanding and empathy.

If you have made a mistake, take responsibility for your actions and apologise. When you are honest, humble and accountable for your mistakes you will often turn a negative situation into a positive opportunity to wow your unhappy customer.

If you aren’t in the wrong, and have found through your questioning that the complaint is unfounded or that your customer has misinterpreted or done something wrong, still show your professionalism by being understanding and sensitive. Take the time to explain what has happened, outline any terms or conditions and if applicable why your processes or terms are this way.

5. Come to a solution

It is important to deal with each situation individually, taking into consideration the potential damage the customer in question may do to your business if it is left unresolved.

Come up with a solution to satisfy them personally, remembering it is always far better to have a short-term loss, then a long-term loss. Once the solution has been agreed on, take action immediately. Let them see that you are ready and willing to fix the problem on the spot.

When there isn’t a happily ever after…

Occasionally there are customers who can’t be pacified or contained, particularly in instances when the customer feels wronged but the business is not in the wrong. In these instances the most important thing to do is to keep all communication in writing, handle the situation with professionalism and seek legal council in the case of defamation or harassment.

Instead of being reactive, be proactive by looking after your existing customers so well that they can’t help but rave about you. Showcase your testimonials on your website and social media channels and let the positive word of mouth from your happy customers squash any possible negativity surrounding your business.

How do you handle unhappy customers?

Amanda


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