Find and Keep Your Ideal Target Customer and Why It Matters
We define ideal target customers as those who will profitably, happily, and consistently buy from you the majority of the time. High growth firms are almost three times as likely to be highly specific and detailed about the type of customer where they shine. These ideal target customers also lead to higher margins, greater retention, and shorter sales cycles.
Clarifying Your Buyer Personas
Investing the time to define your ideal target clients, also known as buyer personas, will help to focus, align, and accelerate marketing, sales, product development, and resource allocation. The key to identifying the specific audience that you think is most likely to value and buy your unique offering is smart market segmentation. To grow profitably, you should NOT try to market and sell to everyone.
The right target market increases your chances of success because you can focus on what matters most to them and why you offer the best alternative.
How to Find Your Ideal Customers
Once you have identified your ideal customers, you can save selling and marketing time and effort by ruthlessly focusing on where they are and what matters most to them. It is much easier to find (and be found by) well-defined targets with specific priorities than by trying to be all things to all customers.
How Ready Are Your Ideal Customers for What You Have to Offer?
Even if you have identified a target customer, they may not yet be ready or willing to hear what you can do for them. In general, before customers trust what you have to say, they need to be “warmed up.”
The “Warming Up” Process
At each contact point, provide value. Send a relevant link to your web site, forward a timely article, share testimonials from similar customers to show you know what you are doing. Each step will give them more information about you and hopefully confidence that you can help them to succeed in a way that makes sense.
The Bottom Line
Selling is all about helping clients to succeed and building relationships based on trust and added value. To grow profitably, you need to find and keep your ideal target customer. Be proactive about identifying the ideal target clients where you should win the majority of the time and then follow a methodical process to take prospects from stranger to trusted partner. This is a proven go-to-market strategy for profitable growth and shortened sales cycles.
To learn more about how to find and nurture your ideal target customer, download 4 Research-Backed Steps to Define Your Ideal Target Clients
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