The author emphasizes the importance of knowing your customers in business. By understanding your ideal customer, you can tailor your messaging and focus on selling to the right people who align with your vision.
I recently had a conversation with a friend who is struggling to achieve sales. So I asked him, “Do you know your customer?” He replied, “Yeah, we sell to companies.” “What do you sell?” I asked. “We sell air conditioners.”
During our conversation, we realized that there are two parts to this question.
First, knowing your product and value add. What value are you adding to your customers? Are you also providing any additional services? How can you offer something different that becomes your anchor point and you can talk mainly about that value? What if you could say, “We provide peace of mind with your cooling?” That is very valuable, and a business owner should put a big price on “peace of mind.”
The second part was to identify who would buy “peace of mind” instead of an air conditioner.
Do you know who your customer is? Do you know what your customer looks like? I mean the profile, not the physical appearance. But try it out as a mental exercise.
Who is your customer? What is their gender? Age? Location? Income? Are they married? Do they have kids? Do they own cars? Are they done?
What motivates them? What are their aspirations? What are their fears? What are their ambitions? What are their dreams? What problems do they face?
This information is derived from the type of person who will derive the most value from your product or service.
Once you have a clear picture of your ideal customer, you can start to create your messaging.
If the target is not clear, the message will not be clear. So, find your ideal customer first.
Then create messaging only for that customer. Keep creating only for that type of customer profile instead of saying it is for everyone. Do you have the guts to deny a client when they come to you?
Why do that? Because, if by chance they buy your product when they are not the right target for it, they will end up disappointed. They will look for problems in your product where there are none.
Suggested Reading: Tips to overcome the Never-Ending Project Syndrome
Think of an upper-middle-class person buying a Mercedes. They will not be able to get the value out of the positioning or branding of that car because they will be worried about fuel, maintenance, etc. That can translate to bad reviews and negative publicity unnecessarily. So they are not the right customers for this brand.
So is it “Know YOUR customer” OR “Know your CUSTOMER”? OR both?
