Targeting Your Customers
Identifying your customers
Success in selling depends on targeting your marketing to the appropriate market/s to reach potential customers who want or need your product or service.
To increase your sales, and to convert more of the prospects into sales, you must target prospective customers.
So where do you find these prospects? How can you be sure you are not wasting time and money on the wrong targets?
Firstly, you must identify what types of people or businesses have a need for your product or service. Your database should contain specific details of existing customers and is an ideal starting point. Customers who have bought from you in the past are the most likely to purchase from you again.
If you are servicing your customer list to the full and are looking to obtain new customers, identify any common traits that your existing customers have. For example:
Are they in the same or similar geographical areas?
Do they belong to a certain demographic, i.e. age, social class, etc.?
Do they belong to certain interest groups, such as clubs or associations?
Are they in certain industries?
Do they have similar characteristics?
If your customers are businesses ask yourself:
Do they have industry associations?
What publications do they receive?
What other businesses do they buy from?
What problems do your products solve for them?
Once you have a profile of your ‘ideal’ customer then you need to establish what influences them:
Do they have industry or trade shows that they might attend to get information about products or services?
Do they subscribe to regular e-newsletters or publications that contain information about products or services?
Do they mix with their competitors at functions or in other groups?
Do they attend industry or business seminars and conferences?
Are they magazine readers? If so, which ones?
Are they newspaper readers? If so, which ones?
Do they mix in social groups who have an influence on them?
The answers to these questions establish a potential list of the best ways for you to promote your service or business. Rather than an ad-hoc approach, you have a greater chance of success by developing a targeted approach to reach your target market.
Influencing buying decisions
Before investing money in any kind of advertising or promotion, find out where your customers are getting their information from, and what or who is influencing their buying decisions.
If you do not know where to get this information, the simple way is to ask. Start by asking your existing customers where they heard of you, what information passes over their desks or into their homes, and where they look to get information about products or services similar to yours. A great way to do this is to hold a customer focus group for your business. This forum provides an opportunity to ask customers what they do and don’t like about the way you do business and what you could do to improve.
Another avenue is to use a market research firm which will research your industry and who is buying what, from whom. This should give you further insight into your prospective customers and you can use the information to fine-tune your target list.
Lists of prospects can be purchased from specialised mail list companies which can supply the names of companies and individuals that satisfy certain criteria. For example, if you sell real estate, you can get the names of people who have shown interest in real estate. Names of businesses in certain industries are also available (usually with expected turnover levels).
Also available are the names of people who have purchased by mail order before or who subscribe to certain sports or forms of entertainment.
Buying names like this can give you a good list of prospective customers. However, they can be expensive. To get accurate usable lists, you need to be able to closely specify your target market. These lists usually come with no guarantees as to whether or not the names you get will be the right ones for your business. Some list companies will not even guarantee their accuracy.
If you decide to target using lists like these, try to ensure the following: Firstly, the company should guarantee you a certain level of accuracy and reimburse you for any incorrect contact name or addresses. Secondly, you should ask the list to be qualified. That is, the names are of businesses or people who have already bought or shown interest in your (generic) product or service or in a product or service similar to yours.
Researching prospective customers
In the past if you sold to other businesses, the main source of information was the Yellow Pages. Now you have 24/7 access to almost anything by conducting a quick search from your smart phone, tablet or PC.
Prior to contacting a person or business from an online search, firstly research the prospective company to find out the name of the appropriate person and check that the contact details are still current. A good place to start is usually the company’s website or LinkedIn to view their current occupation.
When you target cold prospects like this, you will only have a chance of selling to them if you get the decision maker. Ensure that you have the name of this person before you try to introduce yourself or your company to them.
Develop a contact plan
The next step is to develop a contact plan, which will depend on the prospect profile that you have constructed. If prospects attend seminars, either act as a guest presenter or sponsor the event. Assisting with the registration process is an extremely powerful way of gaining introductions.
If your customers are parents, advertise in their school communications, or sponsor and participate in local events.
If they read certain magazines or subscribe to online blogs - advertise in them. Better still, write articles or blogs and submit them. Ensure the article is well written and offers useful information. The content should be informative more than advertorial.
If you have identified that your potential customers are also customers of other businesses (not your competitors) talk to those businesses about a possible two-way endorsement campaign with them.
The key to making more sales is ensuring that you make contact with the customer most likely to buy from you. Take the time to discover these individuals and businesses. Ensure that your product details, approach and service levels are in place to service your new customers. Only then do you have the formula to increase your sales.
In summary, here is an action list to establish your ideal targets:
Establish your prospects’ common traits;
List your prospects’ habits with regard to what they read, watch, listen to and attend;
Understand what influences their buying decision;
Identify the needs your products or service satisfy; and
List the major barriers to their decision to buy your product or service.