Can You Really Describe Your Ultimate Target Market?
February 7, 2010
One of the real “rookie” mistakes made by new entrepreneurs is to completely fail to know her target market. This is something that is very easy to spot. A few of the signs are:
- Her business is not thriving, meaning she needs more customers and she is not financially successful.
- When asked who she works with, she replies “Oh, I work with just about anyone.”
- If asked to thoroughly and completely describe her target market, she is flustered and can’t give more than a sentence.
The “Oh, I work with just about anyone” response is one I’ve heard from both new and not-so-new entrepreneurs many times. So many times, in fact, that it now drives me a little nuts. When someone says that, they are setting no boundaries for who they work with, which is a deadly thing. Let me ask the “just about anyone” entrepreneurs these questions:
1. Does it matter to you if a customer stiffs you?
2. Are you open 24/7?
3. If you were, for instance, a seller of curtains and blinds, would you drive 400 miles to sell a set of blinds to someone?
Of course, the answer to each of these is almost always NO! And that’s a good, thing, because that entrepreneur has just started on a path of better describing her target market. Her target market are people who have the money to pay for her products or services, she works with those who contact her during specific days and hours of business, and she has a limited geographical area in which to sell her blinds. This isn’t a complete description of her target market, but it is a start.
You can picture the creation of your target market as setting fences and gates around a specific group of people with whom you really want to work. You might not be as blatantly obvious about it as the gatekeepers are at hot night clubs, where one must stand outside on the sidewalk and get personally picked to go inside, but that is one very good example of a business who is very picky about who they want to serve.
I’ve learned about finding your niche and describing your target market from 3 or 4 of my coaches and mentors, but the one who made me work the hardest to describe my market, hands down, was Suzanne Falter-Barnes. She has a very long list of questions that one must answer to get through one of her platform building classes. The first time I saw that fat list of questions I just about fainted. In fact, the document she proposed I fill out to describe my market was 17 pages long! Still, Suzanne knows her stuff and I was there to learn, so I plowed into the questions. At the end, I felt like I’d invented something akin to a kid’s secret playmate. I started getting actual pictures of how my target market person looked, how she dressed, what she spent her money on, and more. I got so familiar with her in that 17 pages of ruthless questioning that I decided I knew her well enough to name her, for Pete’s sake! And that is what I strongly suggest you do, too.
My suggestion is to sit down with your computer or a piece of paper and describe a “sample” person from your target market as if she (or he) is a character in a book you are writing, and it’s up to you to fill your reader’s head with a detailed, specific, colorful image of the character you are writing about. Describe age, education, the kind of work she does, where she lives, her likes and dislikes – anything you can think of that will add to the picture in your head. This may lead you to dig around on the web for demographic or other information.
Spend quality time here, for it pays off in the end. Ask yourself (with pen and paper or keyboard nearby) “who is the most perfect customer for me?” If you have a hard time doing that, prime the pump by listing the characteristics of your most favorite or best customer so far. From there, dream on. Who would be delightful to work with? Who would you dread working with? What characteristics drive you crazy? Who have you worked with who bugs you so much you hope she never calls you again? You get the picture – and that’s whole point. For here is a secret about financially successful entrepreneurs:
Those who describe and visualize their target market well have started the process of manifesting exactly that type of customer for themselves. You now have a vision of who you want to attract, in detail. Put that right on your business vision board and keep it in your mind’s eye, for who you focus on tends to come your way.
Having this vision and description on hand also makes it easier to walk away from business that isn’t right for you, doesn’t truly interest you, and has a downside to it. (The downside being that while you are spending time with uninteresting client A, you cannot very well be also working with or running into very interesting and exciting client B. This is called “opportunity cost.”) Realize that it actually COSTS YOU to work with the wrong customer, for you are giving up the opportunity to work with who is just right for you.
Taking the time to dream up your ideal target market person makes finding that type of person much easier. You now know where to focus your efforts. If you are spending a lot of time and money networking in a group of direct marketers, and these are not your target market, it’s time to make a change. Pull your time and money from the wrong group, and go find the right group. You’ll find more and better business in the new group and waste less of your precious time.
When you are creating marketing plans, writing sales copy, or pulling together a presentation you’ll be able to keep your secret target market person right with you, writing to them. There will be less agony over creating these things.
And finally, when you have the opportunity to build a relationship with a potential customer, you will be much more at ease because, after all, you will pretty much feel as if you know that person in a way. You’ll be confident that you’ve spent time with someone who has a much higher chance of needing what you offer. This will shorten your sales cycle and make you more money faster. I don’t know of any entrepreneur who doesn’t want that!
So, get that blank paper or computer screen and get going. Breath some life into your target market, and you’ll breath new life into your business, as well. It’s a win-win for every entrepreneur.
(c) Sue Painter
Three Ways To Boost Your Income This Month
January 12, 2010
The new year is off and running already! Is your business off and running, too? I don’t know many business owners who would say no to making more income right now – before the end of this month. Here are three ways to boost your income, and if you implement even one of them, you’ll have extra money to show for it.
1. Increase the number of clients or customers you have. This means letting folks who are new to you and your business know about you and the problems you solve. How can you do this quickly and efficiently?
- Ask existing customers for referrals
- Find a business networking group you’ve not been to before and attend
- Send out an e-newsletter and ask recipients to forward it to one person who might benefit from your services
- Ask friends and family to specifically mention your business to one person this week
- Post helpful resources and advice to your social media accounts
- Revamp any existing paid advertising and look for a higher return on investment
- Partner with an aligned business to advertise or do a quick special promotion
2. Increase the average transaction value for existing customers or clients. This means that you offer more value and get a greater price than you are currently getting from your customers. Here are a few ways to do this:
- Raise your rates
- Bundle several of your products or services together and offer them at a special price
- Create a VIP customer category and charge for access to VIP status
- Offer an add-on to your existing product or service. For instance, if you sell jewelry offer a color consultation (for an additional price) with each jewelry consultation or purchase.
3. Increase the frequency of repurchase by existing customers. This means that you devise options designed to encourage customers to come in more often (or order more often).
- Let customers know the benefit of increased services (massage therapy more often than once a month actually boosts the immune system, for instance).
- Package services for frequent buyers. Personal trainers, for instance, might offer a special rate for those who purchase a quarter’s worth of training three times a week.
- Let customers know about new inventory as it arrives to encourage more frequent visits to a retail shop.
- Point out that more frequent services can lead to faster results
The point is that boosting your income quickly doesn’t take months of agonizing over how to do it. Pick one of the three options that you feel will work best for you and get started right now to implement one or more strategies for it. Income doesn’t increase when we THINK about what we might do, income increases when we actually IMPLEMENT something new.
When clients come to me wanting to increase their income quickly they usually are holding that wish as something that is hard to do, scary, or impossible. One of the secrets to boosting your income is to change your own attitude about how easy it is to make more money. If you take action, it happens. If you worry about how you are going to take action then nothing happens and you continue on the gerbil wheel of “how can I do this?”
Do you want to make more money this month? Go look at yourself in a mirror, smile, and declare out loud “I”m off right now to make a bunch more money this month.” It’s pretty tough to do something you don’t believe you can do, so quit thinking you can’t and start telling yourself you can. The how-to’s are right here for you. Pick one, work on it, and let me know how much more money you have in your pocket at the end of this month. 
(c) Sue Painter
Why You Don’t Have What You Want
January 3, 2009
I just ran across a quote that talks about self-sabotage. Self-sabotage is another term for approach/avoidance, a great term I learned in grad school. Approach/avoidance happens when we want two opposite things equally. It’s like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object – what happens is a big fat nothing. We think the conscious thought, but the unconscious believe cancels out any action. Or, two conscious thoughts are equally strong. “I want to make six figures this year.” “I don’t want to have money, I’ll have no excuse not to support my sorry son.” What happens is, you stew. And stewing isn’t forward movement.
So, here’s the quote: “If you don’t have what you want — here’s the reason – your subconscious holds some contradictory intentions for you. To put it simply, you want something and it doesn’t.” A man named Robert Anthony wrote that.
The quote is both succinct and helpful. We can get at what our subconscious holds in various ways – through visualization, journaling, and dreaming to name just a few.
Thinking about what we say we want and yet do not have means digging underneath the “top excuses” we offer when things are not as we say we’d like. What we have at this moment in time is truly what we want – or at least what some very strong part of us wants. A great exercise in between watching all the bowl games and taking down Christmas decorations is to sit and imagine your best, most perfect life. What you don’t have? Well, there’s a part of you that doesn’t want it. Chew on that for a bit, and see what happens. There will be realizations, and maybe changes – and more than likely those will help you and your business thrive.
Resolution: Increase Your Income in the New Year
December 28, 2008
Do yourself, your community, your family, and your business a big, fat favor. Resolve that in the New Year you will not once use the excuse of a bad economy for why your business is not making more money. Resolve that you will not waste time discussing with others what effect today’s economy might have on your business throughout the New Year. Resolve to turn the conversation away from “the economy sucks” when you are talking with other business owners. Resolve to analyze your business’s products and services, just as you should always be doing, and resolve to change what you need to change to meet the market. Resolve to ask your existing clients and customers what they most need from you now, and make it your business to provide exactly that, at the very highest quality and with a keen eye toward customer service. Resolve to discover at least three businesses with whom you can work collaboratively, in such a way that it builds both of you. Resolve to make 2009 a very, very good year.
Resolve to keep uppermost in your mind that energy follows thought. When you really get this concept you will understand that working in each moment to create your life as you want it is the highest and best use of your time. Resolve to keep on this track, and watch your business thrive!
Masters of Self-Sabotage
December 20, 2008
When we don’t move forward in our personal or business life it is more than likely because of self-sabotage. There are a zillion articles and books available about this worrisome behavior, but the main point to know is that we can sabotage ourselves in ways that are so subtle we’d never think to call it that. What I see in entrepreneurs who are not achieving the level of success they wish to have is the self-sabotage of fuzzy focus. Here are a few examples of fuzzy focus:
· Today I sat down first thing, determined to finish up my Christmas cards, list at the ready, and feeling the press of time. Next thing I know, I’m checking e-mail, thinking that I need to blog, and wondering what I should send to my best friend from college for Christmas. Did all these need attention? Yep – but not at that moment – I’d let my focus go fuzzy and sabotaged myself.
· A client worries that she is not busy enough with clients, and we spend an hour talking about ways to remedy the situation. A few days later I happen to spot her in a restaurant and go by to say hi. She tells me that she spent all Sunday morning reading the want ads and wondering if she should “just go get a job.” The self-sabotage? Lack of commitment to her own vision, but the underlying issue is her fear. A week later, she is again bemoaning that she’s “had no time” to work on our strategies to help her find new clients. Hmmm….how about that long Sunday morning?
· How about the entrepreneur who is consistently late to networking meetings – or consistently is “so busy” that she has to leave early? Not being fully present at an event is self-sabotage – the person doesn’t REALLY want to go, and fails to take full advantage of the event by shorting herself in time and attention.
Fuzzy focus is a sure self-sabotage – and one that is hard to spot sometimes. As entrepreneurs, we are always looking for the next niche, the next opportunity, the next new thing. Chances are, we haven’t made full use of the one we’ve got in our hands right now. It’s easier to be excited about the potential of a new thing “out there” (an idea) than it is so sit down and follow-through with what we need to do to move our current business forward. If you suffer from “fuzzy focus” remind yourself that sabotaging yourself doesn’t serve you – and certainly it doesn’t help your business thrive!
Which Skill Do You Need the Most?
December 10, 2008
I have a few marketing clients who constantly seek to improve the depth of their expertise in whatever their specialty is. These folks will quickly register for professional development that teaches them more about their subject matter. But, I notice, when the same amount of time and money could be spend on a marketing workshop they cry poor, are suddenly busy, and will not commit to attend.
Here’s the deal – if you are in business for yourself then, by default, your MAIN work is marketing. You have to master marketing more than you have to master your subject matter expertise. What I often see is someone who wants to go out on their own after having worked for a company for many years. This person is well-versed in their subject, often a highly trained expert. They may have excellent contacts in their field. But, this person has never had to go out and bring in business. Marketing expertise is what this entrepreneur needs now, not more subject matter expertise.
For entrepreneurs and other small biz owners, marketing is where the rubber meets the road. Life will go much easier once we all fully understand we are now and forever more will be a marketer first, before we are a subject matter expert. If we don’t get this, it won’t matter HOW talented we are – the business will not thrive.
Am I saying one should never go learn more about their subject? No, but chances are good that you are quicker to go where you are comfortable and already have some mastery. It takes more courage to go where you feel vulnerable – and that’s usually on the marketing end of things.
Think about it — you most need to learn what you do NOT know. You usually need to learn what you most resist. Here’s a plan for you to make more income from business.
- Does your field require continuing education for licensure, accreditation, or certification? If so, resolve to take the minimum required for the next year or so, and get them locally, as cheaply as you can.
- Take the money saved and commit to attending one really solid marketing workshop in the next three months.
- Join a Mastermind group, selecting people who are currently more successful in their business than you are. Don’t slack, attend every single meeting!
- Get a marketing coach who can help you see your weak spots and work on them. If you can’t afford one-on-one coaching, consider group coaching.
- Mark off at least one SOLID day each week that is “marketing day” and stick to it.
These steps will take you a in a positive direction, helping you feel and act far more positive about your marketing skills and building good marketing habits. And, guess what – consistent applicable will give you consistent results – and that makes your business thrive.
Trusting the Road Ahead
December 4, 2008
I had the weirdest experience a week or so ago on the way down to Alabama from our home outside of Knoxville. We left very early in the morning, before dawn, to meet up with life-long friends. My husband started out the driving, and since it was still dark I promptly fell asleep. Rather than stopping at our usual half-way point to switch drivers, he kept going, deciding not to wake me up. It’s very rare for me to sleep in the car for hours without waking up, and when we finally did stop, only about 30 miles from our destination, I just could not get my bearings. I know the trip’s landmarks well, having made it hundreds of times. But as I accelerated on to the highway from our quick rest stop, I could not spot any familiar landmarks no matter how I tried. The highway simply didn’t look familiar, and I felt disoriented, not even trusting that I was going the right direction. I had to ask Bill where we were as I stared ahead and tried hard to place myself. After several minutes of doubting what I was doing, I realized that the only thing to do was keep going. Drive on in faith that I was doing the right thing at the right time and in the right direction. Drive on until I became comfortable, and the surroundings became familiar. Drive on and I would arrive where I wanted to be.
The experience struck me as a real-life example of what we so often need to do as we build business. We get into a situation that we think will be familiar, but something happens and we suddenly lose our bearings, not really sure how to proceed. Most often, if we’ll just step onto the path ahead of us, and keep going, we’ll get right where we need to be. We have to quit questioning. We have to accept the uncomfortable and unfamiliar. And most of all, we have to step out in faith that the path is there, it’s navigable, and the end result will be positive. Our belief in our abilities and our direction are key to our success. And our willingness to move ahead despite our doubt is often the difference between success and failure. It is, in fact, the thing that makes our business thrive.
How Many Times Should We Say Thanks?
November 29, 2008
Marketing research often points out that customers like and remember being thanked for their purchase. Now that we all know (I hope we all know!) that finding and keeping customers is all about building relationship, we might wonder how often we need to thank someone if they purchase from us over and over again.
Well, the answer is “you can’t say thank you enough,” and here are a few stories to underscore that fact. I spent Thanksgiving Day with a life-long friend (www.bobgifford.com) who is an A-list realtor. Were we talking business? Of course! He and I have been entrepreneurial since we rescued old, cast-off copy machines from schools, reworked them, and sold them to churches around Huntsville. But back to the point – his customer relationship program prompts him to thank or “touch” each and every client 33 times a year. That, along with his creativity and focus, makes Bob the successful businessman he is. Thirty-three times – even I was impressed with that number!
In my decade-old massage therapy business I’ve long made it a point to say thanks as every single client walks out the door – no matter that I see many of the same people week after week, month after month, year after year. (Some of my massage clients have had the same standing appointment time for nine years or longer now.) Last year just before Christmas a client called – someone I had not seen in several years. She wanted to come by and purchase ten hours of massage therapy as gift certificates for friends. At the end of our call she told me that she came to my business for the 10 gift certificates because she knew I would thank her for the purchase – something she didn’t think a nearby local spa would do. This woman remembered my simple “thank you” for several years and that alone drove a substantial purchase.
Along with simply being good manners, reaching out to touch someone with a word of thanks keeps us in the energy of gratefulness. And from a business perspective, those times we touch someone with a kind word helps drive our business to top-of-mind awareness (TOPA). TOPA most definitely helps your business thrive.
Oh, and thank you for reading this!
Giving Customers the Right Thing
November 2, 2008
I had an early Christmas gift given to me this week. A long-time client brought it, the stylish pink and beige wrapping reflecting the stylish person she is. It was, hands down, one of the most perfect gifts I’ve received for Christmas, ever. I felt this little rush of pure delight when I opened it, and I anticipate enjoying and using it for many years to come. It made me happy and it let me share a moment of pleasure and fun with the giver. The gift and the giving were satisfying to us both.
This early-Christmas event got me thinking about satisfying customers and clients. The more I thought about it, the more I realized that this holds the formula for perfectly serving our customers well, creating one of a series of satisfying moments that meet and even exceed our customer’s expectations. Here are the elements that lead to pleasing me (the ersatz customer):
- The giver knew my interests well, having paid close attention over time to what I talked about
- She was vested in giving me something she knew would be on target
- The gift was useful and allied with one of my interests and activities
- It was something new, just out, and not likely to be something I already had or knew of
- It met a need in me for more information on an activity I often do
- It was timely – she gave it to me before I went out and stumbled across it myself
- The gift gave me the feeling that she cared about me and wanted to please me
- I am left with a feeling of anticipation, looking forward to using it
- The giving built an increased sense of connection and pleasure between the two of us
Do you see how the gift giver did what savvy entrepreneurs do? Following her formula, we’d hit the nail on the head with our customers every single time, and do it in a way that proves to the customer that we are useful to him (or her). We would have a full stable of loyal customers who looked to us to know them and be able to meet their needs. What else could we ask for? We’d be happy, they’d be happy – just like my gift giver and I were.
Over the next month, try serving every customer as if you were seeking and giving them the perfect gift. The step back and evaluate. I’d bet you’ll find that this is another way to make your business thrive.
And to Anna, many thanks.
The Marriage of Vision and Success
October 5, 2008
Right now I’m in California at the International Living’s Live and Invest Overseas conference. Meeting the
250+ people here has reminded me of the relationship of vision to success. The people here fall into three categories:
- Those who dream about living offshore, read about it, but never make a plan.
- Those who are here and have a zillion questions, wanting to make an international move with absolutely no surprises and insure their success ahead of time.
- Those who have, in writing, their criteria for selecting a new country in which to live, have made several trips to check out potential locations, and have created a written budget of what they can afford and how they will live.
As you might imagine, the latter group will be the ones who actually act, who will achieve the goal of trying another country as their home. Why? They have done the work of honing their vision, and that solid vision gives them confidence to act and succeed.
It’s the very same with us as entrepreneurs and business owners. We know what we want to walk away from, but we have not taken on the thoughtful and sometimes tough work of thinking and feeling through to what we want to walk toward. We dream, and share our dreams with others over coffee, but we do not dig in. The more I work with entrepreneurs and home-based business owners the more I find that the unsuccessful ones are half-in, half-out. They have a vague idea of “something different” but their vision isn’t clear. They have not dug in and done the work of taking their current discomfort and vague dreams of something difference into a lively vision. And consequently, they take no actions, or their actions lack focus and energy.
Without taking our dreams into vision we do not bring about success. Working with our dreams and creating a heart-felt, written vision will spin our energy toward action, and action drives success. I sure have seen many examples of this as I meet the conference attendees here. Specific actions work best when married to one’s vision. And vision is more than a vague dream – it is the flesh we put on the bones of a dream.
Here’s to taking dreams into vision, and vision into success!
Sue P.