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    • Tue Mar 25, 2008

    Who don’t you want as a customer?

    I often write about defining a narrow target market and communicating only with what I call your ideal customer.

    The idea behind this is that, if taken to heart, you will find that you are able to attract the perfect customers without succumbing to the pressure to compete on price alone.

    Many times, when I mention this notion to small business owner they have a tough time coming up with the description of the ideal narrowly defined customer until I suggest that we start by describing who they don’t want as a customer.

    It’s just human nature I guess, but we seem to have a much better grasp of what we don’t want in our life than what we do. So by first categorizing things like the types of customers that you can’t serve well, the kinds of people you don’t work well with, or the size of projects that don’t fit you may be on your way to better understanding your ideal customer.

    Now, while you are at this exercise you may discover that you are currently working some of these customers you now admit you don’t want. Do what you can to move them to someone who can serve them better and begin the process of narrowing your focus only to your ideal customer profile.

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    Posted by: John Jantsch on Mar 25, 08 | 5:05 am
    Category: Branding, Entrepreneur, Marketing Strategy, Start-up | Tags:

    Comments
    « Microsoft Small Business Summit live | Home | Those idiots in marketing just don’t get it »
    • Hey I enjoyed listening to you at the Microsoft Small Business Summit - great stuff!
    • Good points John, and what I like is that you can really extend this idea even further throughout your business. Instead of just who you can't serve overall I like to think you can look at who each particular product/service that you offer is targeted for. In my case, I have products at different price points because some customers just won't bite into the whole "premium" idea.

      Going beyond that, we've really moved towards not selling online as much as through retailers (because I know that I don't have the manpower to service the individual customers) and instead using the website as a type of service. I focus my time on providing content, articles, video, tips & tricks and other resources because that's what I know excel at, and not fast shipping times or customer service.

      That doesn't work for everyone, and I'm sure many people would be on the complete opposite end as me, but it all comes from the same line of questions that you propose.
    • Another way to filter your customer base is by the technology they use. Typically, higher end tech trends towards higher income brackets. So if you deliver, say, online video then your customers will trend towards the higher end of the income brackets.

      In engineering terms, you could consider it a "high pass filter". ;)
    • Interesting points that I've come to realize lately.

      Niche marketers are more serious and less of a volatile crowd. The "marketing to other marketers" crowd tends to be very-herd-like and when the herd runs to join one hyped-up launch, they leave, then come back and listen up and pay attention again.

      I want and get niche marketers to join http://marketersrelief.com because they're by FAR the best members to have, and tend to be more realistic about their businesses.

      Thanks,

      Dan
    • Interesting points that I've come to realize lately.

      Niche marketers are more serious and less of a volatile crowd. The "marketing to other marketers" crowd tends to be very-herd-like and when the herd runs to join one hyped-up launch, they leave, then come back and listen up and pay attention again.

      I want and get niche marketers to join Marketers Relief because they're by FAR the best members to have, and tend to be more realistic about their businesses.

      Thanks,

      Dan
    • This is a favorite sales topic of mine. Saying no thank you is a difficulty businesses of all sizes face. Transactions should be measured by more than their gross income. Knowing who the imperfect and perfect customers are is the place to begin and knowing why will lead to better marketing. The next step is training the salesforce to follow!
    • Stephen Allcock
      A really good point...and this isn't just limited to identifying customers, the next time I find myself looking for a new job I know just how I'll be focusing my mind!
    • The best thing about eliminating all the people that you are not trying to reach is that it enables you to better reach the people most likely to buy your product or service and people that will be most pleased with what you offer.

      Once you know who you don't want as customers, you can use market segmentation to learn characteristics of your target market. Then you can design your marketing specifically for them so that they identify with your business and products.
    • I have dealt with this before. My company has a large client who is not happy with our software. We can't go to them for any PR, and every time I talk to them, they have requests that we are unable to fulfill due to the demands of our many other customers. It wasn't their size that made them the wrong customer for us--it was their priorities in the first place.

      Salespeople who acknowledge that they can't make everyone happy can really solve a lot of these issues.
    • good point.
    • Hi John

      Its definately not only about how much money a company makes off a clients. The wrong clients invariably cost the company far more then they are worth.

      Our target audience is SME B2B's here in South Africa so we have chosen to research accordingly to ensure that we can do, what we do, relative to our target audience.

      We also stay away from any potential business that are always looking for the discount. Pricing is based on what we need to charge in order to make money.

      Enjoy
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