Who Is Your Ideal Client?
Despite popular belief your ideal client is not everyone. You would be, or maybe not, surprised how many entrepreneur’s start a business believing that everyone is the ideal client for their product. I am willing to bet it is about the same amount that believe all they need to do is post to Facebook in order to reach and exceed any goals they set. Just to prove my point I am willing to double down on that bet and suggest that a good percentage of the approximately 33% of businesses who fail within the first 2 years are primarily made up of the same population mentioned above.
Start-Ups:
Start-ups that do not have a strong client base must leverage market research in attempt to determine who their ideal client might be. This can be done by talking to competitors, monitoring the niche of people who visit their stores or interact with their social media accounts. Another way to gather this data would be to query databases available at your local library or available through search engines. While it is much more difficult to develop an extensively detailed profile this way it is the best place to start and well worth the effort.
Not So New Businesses:
Business owners who have been around for a few years can typically tell you names of their ideal clients. “Life would be great if all my clients where like so and so or so and so“, this list was developed the hard way and while it can give us some immediate insight will need to be analyzed in order to be put to use.
One of the biggest mistakes we make as business owners is forgetting to step away ever so often and look at our organization from the 30,000-foot view. It is amazing how simply stepping away in regular intervals can bring overall objective back into focus.
Whether your business is a start-up or has been around for a little while you should never stop Inspecting What You Expect and refining what you think you know. Many times, these simple evaluations can help you to find new audiences for your product or more often than not play a vital role in revealing a product/service that you could offer to your existing customer base essentially expanding your revenues without your overhead.
Matthew Maennche
Chief Strategist
With over two decades of in-the-trenches marketing experience, Matthew Maennche’s views on developing and supporting a successful business are fundamentally different from the norm. As a developer and strategist, Maennche has helped thousands of businesses of all sizes, both domestic and international, take their organizations to the next level.
Matthew also spends time giving back to the local business community as a volunteer, mentor, and leader for the local chapter of SCORE.