Knowing your customer is critically important for a business to grow and prosper. Having a product you love doesn’t do anything for the bottom line. You need to have a product your customers love. This is the first key to success, you must accept that no one cares about you or what you like, they only want what they want for them.
A while back a customer, we’ll call Mr. R, called and went over everything happening in his business. Within minutes I could tell nothing had changed in three months since I first talked with him. Something didn’t add up, so I revisited my notes from past conversations with Mr. R and didn’t see anything that would prevent him from moving his business forward. Finally I asked to look at Mr. R’s notes on his perfect customer and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. My wife came running in to ask what was so funny, and even my dogs where worried. Reading the guys definition of his perfect customer made the problem crystal clear.
Mr. R. had perfectly described himself as his perfect customer. The problem was, to put it in his words, “I wouldn’t buy my work, I just think it is cool.” So his perfect customer won’t buy his product! Do you see a problem here? Funny isn’t it.
From that epiphany of sorts, I figured out that he didn’t understand a coupld of simple truths in business. 1. Make sure your customers are people who want and will buy what you sell (desire), and 2. Make sure they have the money to buy what you sell (means). Establishing means and desire is critical to selling anything.
Looking back, I made both of these mistakes when I still owned a Home Technology and Entertainment business, so it makes sense that I didn’t see it in Mr. R’s business. During those years, I marketed to people who wanted six figure theaters. In truth, these were rooms that I neither wanted, or could have afforded at the time. I liked the rooms, and they were cool but I was very happy with my “media room”. A media room is a very different price level.
Mr. R had a big problem. He knew what it cost him to create his work, and just didn’t feel like it was worth much more than a couple times the materials costs and minimum wage labor. Since he really was doing artist/craftsman quality finish work I told him he needs to raise the price significantly. If customers aren’t buying then he isn’t providing the right answers to their problems. He wasn’t making enough money to buy his own product, so he really didn’t respect the value of his own work.
This lead to another thought I will save for later….Making sure you value your own work.
Another big issue between Mr. R and his customers was the difference in financial situations. The fact that the customers “had money” and Mr. R. didn’t was causing him stress and angst. This is never a good way to carry on a customer relationship.
At the end of the day, if you haven’t already had at least one perfect customer, that customer that was just fun to work with, paid on time and was profitable for you, then go find one. Even if you have to go to a competitor to learn what one looks like. Don’t consider the next guy that walks in the door the perfect customer because you need the work. You won’t know if they are the perfect customer for weeks or maybe years.
Looking back, I had one “perfect customer”. I would do anything for him and his wife. Like me, they built a nice media room and automated a lot of their home. But I never marketed to my “perfect customer”. It was a BIG mistake and I hope you aren’t making it right now.
Why is really knowing the perfect customer so important? Simply put, you can’t make a living serving yourself. You cannot be your perfect customer. You will make yourself stressed out if you have bad customers just to pay the bills and finally referrals are required, and you can’t get them from bad customers. My perfect customer was like me with one really big difference. My perfect customer also had the money to pay for it, on time, every time. Sadly I must admit that I could not afford to pay my company for the media room I had. I did all the work myself at night and on weekends. Crawling the attic in a Houston Summer isn’t fun even if you are your own best customer.
Not knowing who my perfect customers really were was probably a factor in making me the ogre in the business I was back then. But don’t worry I am cured now, having fun every day. I want you to have fun too and that is why I am sharing this rather embarrassing tale with you.
Back then I was marketing to and attracting the wrong customers! How can you have fun if you are doing work you don’t like and working for people who aren’t having fun working with you? My perfect customer had so much fun that one day he and I spent an hour playing Wii baseball. That is a guy who truly enjoyed my work and for who I truly enjoyed working.
In all truth, I don’t think my home technology business would have survived the downturn anyway, but it sure would have been a lot more fun if I had marketed to and served another five or ten perfect customers each year. Yes they are out there. I know because I have figured out who my perfect customers are now, and help others find them every day.
When you know your perfect customer it is easy to turn away difficult customers because you don’t need the money or stress from customers who don’t really want your work. If they tell you they just “need” it why should I work for them? There is plenty of money out there and plenty of perfect customers for you. You need to start by knowing who they are first. A few perfect customers are worth more than dozens of painful customers.
Who is the perfect customer for you to serve?
