Now that I have your attention, let’s talk the “who” of your business.
One of the biggest struggles I see with small businesses is the reluctance to clearly define an ideal client or customer. I get it. Narrowing your business focus can feel really risky. “What if I overlook someone? What if my target audience is too narrow to support my business? I really CAN be helpful to EVERYONE so why should I limit myself?”
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We are so afraid to leave money on the table that we try to be everything to everyone. But that’s the problem. In the process of trying to market to everyone, you will end up serving no one. It also comes from a scarcity mindset, but that’s another discussion for another time.
The best position to be in when you own your own business, is to have people raise their hand to self-select without you having to “sell them.” Can you imagine being in a position where people just come to you and beg for your product or service?
That’s the awesomeness of having focus!
I’m not talking about having a niche for the sake of a niche. I know that’s a very popular trend. People are always trying to get you to identify your niche. The problem with narrowing for narrowing’s sake is that you can get too narrow. You do have to make sure that your target audience is large enough to support your business.
The true value in narrowing your focus is so that you can speak to your target audience in a way that they recognize themselves in what you are saying. You want people to raise their hand and say, “OMG, you just described me perfectly, and because you know me even better than I know myself, I have to work with you! Right now!”
A second benefit is that it helps you determine where to invest your time, money, and brain power from a marketing perspective. I’ll give you a very simple example. Real Estate. Where do you think you have to be and where do you think you have to spend your money and what kind of language do you think you have to use to help anyone buy or sell a house anywhere? No clue, right? It’s too broad.
There is no way you can capture everyone in your marketing activities. It also means you are competing against everyone. Do you think it would be a lot easier to know where to spend your time and money and what type of langue to use if maybe you were focused on helping military families to buy or sell? Of course!
This is what I want you to keep in mind as you review your own ideal client audience.
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Who is your client? Who do you serve?
Is your ideal client focused enough that you can actually describe them? What are their demographics and their characteristics?
In my opinion, characteristic can be even more powerful than traditional demographics. This will include descriptors and what makes them tick. Are they looking for a bargain or do they prefer high end items? Are they super career focused or family focused? Do they have a great sense of humor or does that matter? Do they shop at Dollar General, Target, or Nordstrom’s? If you are in a service-based industry a sense of humor or ability to see things through to completion may be important to you. If you are in a product-based business, non-traditional attributes may not be as important because your business is more transactional in nature.
The follow up to knowing who your customer or client is, is asking who your customer or client needs to be? Just because you are serving a population right now does not mean that’s who you should be serving. Meaning, do you need a better customer? Do you constantly find you are attracting customers or clients with no money? Do you constantly find you are attracting customers that suck the life out of you? Maybe you need a different customer. What if that answer is yes? Then what?
You can start by making a list of everyone you can think of who could benefit from your products or services. Do a separate list for each product or service.
Then think about who you really want to serve.
I know you CAN serve a lot of people but out of the list that you can serve, who do you really want to serve or who will you do the best job of serving. Again, please, please, please resist the urge to say “everyone.” We just talked about this. As a reminder, because repetition is the mother of skill, the problem with trying to be everything to everyone is that your message ends up being so diluted in your attempts to reach everyone that it ends up not resonating with anyone. So, even if you can help everyone on your first list, this is where you need to decide who you want to help.
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What do they need?
Which — by the way — could be two different things. You have to understand their perceived problems, the real problems, and the pain they experience from those problems. Here are some questions to help figure this out.
- What do my customers want and how do I know that this is the right answer?
- What is the experience my customers want?
- What exactly is the gap between where customers are frustrated and what the competition is doing?
- Where can we find pockets of target customers who are frustrated with our competition?
- What are the three primary problems my target market has? How would they describe them in their own words?
- How could I check in with my customers to find out what new problems they are experiencing or gains they want to achieve?
- Is there a difference between what my customer believes is their problem and what I know to be their problem? What is the gap between what they want and what they need?
There are tons of other questions you could ask and I will encourage you to come up with some on your own.
Have fun. Get curious. And be courageous enough to know who you really want to serve so that you can speak directly to them. That focus will create opportunity for more money. And who doesn’t like that??
STACY OLDFIELD
After nearly 25 years in Corporate America, Stacy launched Minerva Management Partners as a way to combine those years of business experience with her life coaching certification and love for coaching women. Minerva Management Partners is a business coaching practice designed to support women entrepreneurs committed to launching and growing their business. Also, as a Results Coach with Robbins Research International, Stacy helps business women to focus their ideas and efforts and holds them accountable for achieving their goals. Whether it’s helping women discover creative solutions to their business challenges, coaching them to be clear and decisive, or helping them see and take action on new opportunities, Stacy guides them to achieve the business and career results they are seeking. Stacy is also the creator of the Minerva 3-Day Networking Challenge and the Network Like a Boss Lady On-Demand training program. Stacy has been invited to speak to many audiences within South Carolina including the Center for Women, Women Entrepreneurs of Charleston, the Women of the Workforce program of the Naval Information Warfare Center (SPAWAR), Charleston Women in Business, Association of Fundraising Professionals, SCANPO, graduate classes at both The Citadel and the College of Charleston (CofC), and Leadership CofC. She currently serves as a mentor through the Women of Excellence Program at Xavier University and previously served on the Board of Directors for the Beautiful Gate Center and on the advisory board of the SC Women’s Business Center.
