💡 Business Tip - Identify Your Ideal Customer (Issue #21)
Who do you most want to help?
It is essential to identify your ideal customer if you want your business to survive and thrive. No brand-new business can be all things to all people. You need to focus and serve a niche exceedingly well.
There are a few questions you can answer that will help you get a clear picture of who this customer is. Your product or service should create a bridge between this person’s needs and the vision you have for the company you want to build.
It starts with defining the vision, mission, and purpose of your company and then diving deeper into the type of people you want to help. Here are some questions that can help you explore all of that.
Purpose: What is your company’s reason for being?
Vision: This is the “why” behind your business. What does the world look like if your business succeeds? How is it better?
Mission: This is the “how” of how you plan to achieve that vision. What does your business do to make this vision come true?
What do you most want to create and bring into this world?
What problem do you most want to solve?
How are people handling this problem now?
What “pain” does your solution eliminate?
Who are the people who are facing this problem?
Who is suffering the most from this pain?
When you think about these people, who do you care about the most?
Who do you not want to help?
Who do you not want to work with?
Who do you think would benefit the most from your product or service?
Who do you most want to work with and help?
Why do you care so much about helping them?
Why are these people not being helped by your competitors?
What can you offer these people that your competitors do not?
Why would your approach be different, better, and appreciated by these people?
Of the people you most want to work with and help, who can most afford your product or service?
Where can you best reach the people who need your solution the most and are willing to pay for it to solve their problems?
These questions should get the wheels turning as you think about who the ideal customer is for your business. There are certainly more exercises that can help you create a richer customer profile, marketing plans, and sales strategies. But, I’ll save those for later articles, courses, and workshops.
Hi, I’m Larry Cornett, a coach who can work with you 1-on-1 to design, launch, and optimize your business. You might also be interested in my “Employee to Solopreneur” workshop (coming soon). I currently live in Northern California near Lake Tahoe with my wife and our Great Dane while running my businesses 100% remotely.
