Who is Your Customer?

Posted: 20^th March 2017

By: Corinne McLavy

This week I’ve been working with several clients on getting to understand who their customer is.  It’s not enough to have a great product or service, you need to understand who your customer is before you even think about that you are going to offer them.

Pretty much all purchases of anything fall into one of two categories:

1. Fixing a pain
2. Creating enjoyment

Fixing a pain can be anything from getting your car fixed (also me this week), going to the dentist (literally pain), buying a new computer and anything in between

Creating enjoyment are the things we buy ourselves to enjoy life, holidays, music, out for dinner that sort of thing.

As a business to be able to offer the right solution you need to understand exactly who the customer is and what they need.  A good way to do this is by creating Avatars, or pen-portraits, from this you get a clear picture of what you need to offer to them and who they are to be able to market to them.

Some key points to consider, these vary depending on the market and whether your client is B2B or B2C but could include:

• Their demographic : age, sex, location, income
• Company profile : size, location, what they do, turnover
• Their goals and values : what drives them, their ethics
• Where do they get their information : what do they read, watch, conferences, websites
• What are their challenges? Either as a business or personally?
• What are their likely objections to buying your product / service?

Any other information specific to your market that would help you get a clear picture of who they are and what they need. Write this all up into a profile and give them a name, you may find that you have more than one type of ideal customer.  From this you can look at how best to serve them.

We will be including a module in our new course on this topic – so look out for more information coming soon!