This Clarity Hack Scales Small Businesses Instantly
3 min readOct 11, 2021
Clarity really matters in your journey to scale your small business.
The ultimate goal is to stop wasting time marketing and selling to people who will never buy.
Every day, 98% of the small business owners and CEOs responsible for the marketing of their organization end up implementing tactics that FAIL for one simple reason: these tactics do not appeal to their ideal customer.
Attracting clients 🍯 that value the problem you solve 🤕, view working with you as a partnership 🤝, and want you to succeed 🍾, only happens when you have a clear picture 📸 of what that ideal client looks like.
One of the easiest ways to get this clear picture of who or what makes an ideal client is to take a close look at the customers your business has attracted to date.
How to Get a Clear Picture of Your Ideal Customer
- Segment your customer base. Begin by segmenting your customer base between normal accounts and your most successful accounts. Think about whom your 10 best customers are and what you need to do to attract 10 more just like them! Your best customers or most successful accounts have the following two key characteristics: they are profitable and also refer business to you.
- Interview 10 of your best customers. Now take your 10 best customers, email or phone them asking for feedback on their experience with your organization, service, or product. During this phase, you need to be “Oprah-like” and ask open-ended questions. Some of the things you’re after are the PLACES your customers give their attention (eyes and ears) too, the LANGUAGE your customers use when describing why they buy from you, the WORDS and PHRASES your customers use when explaining what they value about what you do, and the DESCRIPTION of the perfect buying experience. You can’t get that by asking them to rate things from 1 to 10.
- Start building your ideal customer profile. With the information on what your best customers look like and their characteristics, develop a detailed profile of your ideal customer. Then, show up in the right places (social media channels, networking events, publications, search engine, mobile) at the right time (when ideal customers are looking to solve a problem or research a solution). You may be featured in fewer publications and meet with fewer people, but you’ll close more sales.
Key Information
- Demographics — Business2Business (B2B) demographics could be the type of industry, the job title of that individual, the years that a company has been in business, and/or revenue levels. Business2Consumer (B2C) the demographics could be age, sex, illness, income, and a particular area of town.
- Psychographics — Understand where do they hang out, what do they read, what do they listen to, what do they search online, what makes them tick, what triggers them to go looking for a solution? It’s also useful to identify any triggers caused by some type of life cycle change, calendar event, budget refresh, office relocation, etc. (Hint: focusing on identifying what these triggers are with your current customers is the best way to immediately grow brand awareness.)
- Challenges or Problem — Marketing is about solving customer problems, whether those are problems customers are currently facing, or problems they will face as their marketplace evolves and their needs change.
- Real Quotes — Include a few real quotes taken during your interviews that represent your ideal customer well. This will make it easier for employees, vendors, referral sources, suppliers, and strategic partners to relate and understand your best customers.
