Who Are Your Customers?

Yesterday I had a number of conversations with local business owners to try to find out more about their customers and what their most popular products or services are. I was trying to help them identify their target market or niche. The conversations went something like this:

"Who buys things in your shops the most?"

"It varies."

"How old are they?"

"All different ages."

"What products sell the best?"

"It varies."

"What are your top three or four products?"

"We sell a variety."

With a little more prodding, I found out that the customers were largely women. One shop's customers were mostly Baby Boomers until the summer when the customer base turned to children because school was out. Another shop sells fabulous Yankee Candles, Wilton Cake supplies and Watson food products.

Then in a moment of perfect synchronicity, this morning I read Seth Godin's blog and he wrote about the three things you must have to get more customers:

• A group of possible customers you can identify and reach.
• A group with a problem they want to solve using your solution.
• A group with the desire and ability to spend money to solve that problem.

Unfortunately, most of the people to whom I was talking don't know who Seth Godin is.

"Target Market" Makes Me Feel Like a Sniper

I have great resistance to the term "target market". It makes me feel like a sniper waiting in the trees with a rifle picking off helpless victims.

Admittedly, it's faster, easier and more cost effective to reach a target market (aka smaller chunk of the world) but how do you go about that?

The first place to start is to PAY ATTENTION. Pay attention to who uses your services the most. Who are these people? What do they have in common? What attracts them to your services or products? What questions do they ask you most?

It took me three years of practicing massage and hating marketing before I paid attention and heard myself singing, "Neck, Back & Shoulders, Knees & Toes, Knees & Toes." Voila! My target market became "people with neck-back-shoulder pain." It's been so much easier to offer a solution for a known problem than trying to convince people to get a massage because it's good for them.

That doesn't mean that I've stopped trying to convince people that a massage is good for them nor does it mean that I don't treat legs or arms or hips. It just means that I focus my marketing efforts toward people with neck, back & shoulder pain.

Motivational Quote

"Successful people are always looking for opportunities
to help others. Unsuccessful people are always
asking, 'What's in it for me?'"
— Brian Tracy: Personal and business training author, speaker, and consultant

from Nightingale-Conant

Marketing Plan - Creating a Vision

Nine times out of ten when I ask a helping professional if she has a marketing plan, the answer is "no". Often when I ask if she has a business plan, the answer is "no".

With all the New Age helping professionals believing in the Law of Attraction, creating a marketing or business plan may seem contrary to those principles when in reality it is in perfect alignment. The Universe answers the signals we send. What do you think John Assaraf was talking about in the hit movie, The Secret, when he talked about making a vision board? That's all a marketing plan is - a vision of how you send out a clear, strong message about your services or products.

If you need help in creating your vision, I just added the Enigma Marketing Plan template to my products & services to help you on your way.

Vision without action is a daydream. Action with without vision is a nightmare. ~Japanese Proverb