Discover Your Ideal Customers

Testimonials are great. Not only are they key when prospective customers or clients are checking us out, but they are an important reminder that we’re not, actually, complete losers. (This is my primary use case for LinkedIn.)

And they can serve another critical purpose — reminding us what the hell we’re here for.

Take a moment and try this:

Write yourself the perfect testimonial. Right now. Grab a pen and paper, or pull up your laptop, and write the testimonial that would totally make your day.

Include everything that would make you happiest to hear, from an imaginary someone who really REALLY loves you for you are and what you do.

This is the testimonial you’d send to your parents to show them how awesome you are. So go ahead — GUSH about yourself, your work and your impact on a single human being.

Write it now.

Done? Ok.

Now — read it. And as you do, ask yourself these questions:

Who wrote it?

Who IS this person? What do they do, what kind of things do they struggle with and how do they face these challenges? What would they be like if you came across them in a coffee shop or at a business function?

How did they find you?

Did they stumble across you, or did someone/something point them in your direction? What were they trying to find when they found you? What problem were they trying to solve?

Where did they find you?

Did they hear you speak, or see your website, or hear about you from a friend? Did they read one of your posts or see you on the news?

When did they realize that you were going to provide the solution they needed?

What about you or your stuff gave them that lightbulb moment when they figured out that YOU were going to be the one who could really help them? What did they read on your site, or hear you say, or hear about you?

What did you do that made them so happy they’d not only PAY YOU, but also go out of their way to write a testimonial?

What really sent them over the top into true devotion, where they want to share your brilliance with everyone? What did you provide that no one else did? What do they absolutely love about you?

Now, stick that sucker up on the wall next to your desk and remember that THIS IS WHY YOU’RE HERE.

THIS is the work that fulfills you.

THIS is the person you’re trying to help.

THIS is how you need to reach them.

THIS is what you need to say to them.

THIS is why they’ll say, “Where have you been all my life?”

THIS is why you’re working so hard.

Now go do whatever you need to do to turn this fake testimonial into a real one. And stop messing around with anything that isn’t making it a reality.

Many small businesses have multi-layered customer relationships, serving one audience who purchases or recommends their work, and an end-user audience who is the ultimate consumer of their product or service.

• If you are a professional speaker, you need to satisfy both the organizers managing the event as well as the attendees who will rate your talk. Both groups are important, and their satisfaction will impact your reputation and the likelihood that you’ll be invited to speak in the future.

• My research company conducts custom research for marketing agencies, for the benefit of their clients. I need to meet the needs of my agency clients, but also those of THEIR clients, who ultimately pay for my research and whose opinion of my work directly impacts their level of satisfaction with the agency that brought me in.

• If your company serves consumers, you may have a buyer who isn’t the person actually using your product or service — perhaps someone is purchasing it as a gift for someone else, or making a purchase decision for a child, elderly parent or another person.

When your business has multi-layered customer relationships like these, you need to take specific steps to ensure your marketing and messaging strategy responds to the needs of both the direct as well as the end-use customers for your products or services, and that you are supporting your direct customer’s selling activities on your behalf. I recommend these five steps to get you started:

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Steve Jobs famously told an interviewer, “A lot of times, people don’t know what they want until you show it to them.”

I would add that many don’t know it even when you DO show it to them — at least not at first.

Marketing to people who know they want your product or service fails to reach all the people who could benefit from it — but who don’t know that your solution solves the problem they’re having.

When marketing a solution, start by marketing the problem.

I’ve spent years developing custom attitudinal audience segmentation research for marketing agencies and their clients.

Do you think my ideal prospects are out there looking for custom attitudinal audience segmentation research?

Not a chance.

In fact, most of them aren’t actually out there looking for research at all. They’re looking for books, conferences, podcasts, videos — anything that can help them market more effectively for their clients, develop new revenue opportunities, be invited to pitch by more prospects, and be selected over their competition.

So while I might garner a few clients here and there who are typing “attitudinal audience segmentation research” into Google (which is unlikely, I can tell you), my biggest opportunity lies with people who don’t understand what I do and would never imagine that it’s the solution they need. [Read more…]