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Who is the most important person
in your business?

 

No, not him or her for that matter, yes that’s right – the customer. Everything that everyone does in business is to help the customer – that includes sweeping the floor to discussions in the boardroom. All things in business revolve around customers – without them, you don’t have a business.

 

"When people talk about successful retailers and those that are not so successful, the customer determines at the end of the day who is successful and for what reason."
Gerry Harvey- founder of Harvey Norman

So we’re clear on that: your customers are the most important people in your business – do you know who your customers are? No, not their names (although they’re important to remember as well), but their profiles (age, gender, income, location, profession, etc); their buying habits and motivations (needs, associations, influences, characteristics, behaviours, etc). Once you can clarify and identify your customer (and it’s the same in business to business as it is with business to consumer) then you can stop wasting your valuable profits on trying to reach the wrong type of customer.

"Spend a lot of time talking to customers face to face. You'd be amazed how many companies don't listen to their customers."
Ross Perot – billionaire, US political candidate

Think of a good friend; you know them well – their personality, their age, what they do, what they like and what they don’t like and all their other personal traits. And from all that you would probably have a fairly good idea what to buy them as a gift. How? Because you know them. It may not be perfect, but it would more than likely be extremely well received, re-affirm the strength of the relationship and establish a pattern of returning the favour later. (Reciprocity is a powerful motivator). So the same principle applies in business – get to know your customers, give your customers what they would like to have (and small, appropriate gifts now and then as well) and they will came back time and time again; in other words get more personalised with your customers and they will become lifelong, valuable clients.

"Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business."
Zig Ziglar – Sales guru

So the first point is to create a profile of your best customer – what are the answers to all the points above? Primary research is the best way to establish a customer profile – conduct a survey, be it face to face, phone or written. It is literally quite amazing the information you will find out about your customers and importantly what they think about your business and what they would like to have as other services or products. (It will also highlight any issues!)

"Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning."
Bill Gates- founder of Microsoft

Once the profile and segments (of your customer types) are established, you then need to ascertain the drivers of their purchasing. This is key – why did your existing customers buy from you in the first place? Answer that and often you can use that motivator to attract more of those types of customers. (For example, was it location, convenience, parking, price, product quality, referral = customer service focus, uniqueness?) Who are the most recent purchasers (as statistically they are the ones more likely to purchase again or receive upsell or cross selling offers more readily), who are the most frequent purchasers and who are the ones that spend the most? If you can gather all that info, then you have the proverbial license to print money. Why? Because you will know who your best customers are (by numbers – as the numbers don’t lie) and then you can attract more of those types, and that’s where you invest all your marketing resources. Every communication, marketing effort, compelling offer, message and pitch should be directed towards that type (even better - target the best segments of your best customers, as often times the top 1% of your customers will generate 20 – 30% of your most profitable sales revenues!).

"If you do build a great experience, customers tell each other about that. Word of mouth is very powerful."
Jeff Bezos – founder of Amazon.com

Why should I go to all this trouble and effort you ask?

Because attracting and investing resources (not just money, but time, energy and materials) into getting to know your clients will ensure you grow to be an extremely profitable business; by acquiring, retaining and developing the best customers. There are plenty of consumers, that’s a fact – just start doing business with the right ones to ensure greater profits.