Before you can EFFECTIVELY market to your prospects, you first must understand exactly who they are. It sounds like a peculiar thing… We all know our clients, or at least we all feel like we do, but you’d be surprised how few companies actually determine the criteria of their target audience before marketing or selling.
Going through this worksheet will help you identify exactly who is interested in buying your products/services, what their pain points are, how they behave, and what you can do to sell to them. By the end of this process, you should have a clearly defined understanding of who it is you should be marketing and selling to.
Before We Begin…
Some quick tips before moving forward. Try to disregard what you think you want your target audience to be. Think of this through the eyes of your client, what their wants are, what their needs are. If you’re unsure about certain aspects of this, contact some of your existing clients with whom you have good relationships and find out why they hired you, what their pain points were, what they were going through.
The ultimate purpose of this process is so that you can fine tune your marketing, your messaging, your selling, your packages and pricing. We want a more strategic approach, which will help you understand your buyer journey (see our articles, Buyer Journey Part 1, Buyer Journey Part 2), generate more leads and close more deals/make more sales. You will also waste less time and money on doing things that you should not be doing.
Remember, you may not have all of the answers to all of the questions. That’s okay. Just move on, do your best, and then do some research later on the unanswered questions.
Ideal Client – Demographics
Here we learn exactly what details we know about the people that we are trying to sell to. These are the decision makers at the company or the purchasers of your product. Here are some of the criteria that are relevant.
Are they single or are they married?
Are they male or female?
What is their profession?
How much money do they earn?
What kind of car do they drive?
Where do they live?
What do they do for hobbies or for fun?
Do they have political affiliations? What are they?
What books or publications do they read?
Ideal Client – Their Pain Points & Needs
What is the prospect’s biggest challenge right now?
What is their biggest pain point?
What goal do they want to accomplish and what do they want to avoid in the process?
Why have they come to the conclusion that your solution is what they want?
How long have they had this pain point or challenge?
What will happen to the prospect or the prospect’s company if the problem continues?
What will be the effect on their business in the short, intermediate and long term should they not resolve the problem?
What suffers because of this pain point? Is it money, time, resources, growth, staffing, etc.
Ideal Client – What They Feel
What are their thoughts and feelings about this problem? Remember, think emotionally, not rationally.
How do they feel about the type of product or service that you offer?
What do they feel about your industry as a whole?
Are there other options for solutions to their problems?
Do they need education about their problem that they’re trying to solve?
Do they require education about your products or services?
What are their top three obstacles with accomplishing the goal that your product or service takes care of?
What are their goals for the company as a whole?
Where have they had successes and failures in the past with the products or services that you offer?
Bottom Line
If you are able to answer most, if not all of these questions, you should be able to craft a very deep understanding of your ideal client. This will allow you to have a better understanding of them and better market and sell to them. So hop to it!
