You have worked diligently in identifying who your ideal customer is. You can picture exactly in your mind how they look, dress, eat, drive, and most importantly spend their money. Yet do you know who influences their decisions?
Now I am sure you have noticed that I have not written what, but who?
It is the “Who” that has a tremendous amount of power over how your ideal customer purchases your product and/or services. If you have not identified the “Who” for your ideal customer then here are three things you can do to start today:
1. Ask Your Customer
How weird is that? Talking to your customer? Yet that is something that many businesses still do not do. I have not quite figured out why that is. Maybe it is because they fear the answer will be no or something else that is negative. The reality is your customer will tell you “Who” influences them. A great example is when you ask for (close for) the business and they say,”I have to talk to my spouse.” or “I need to take this to the committee.” Your ideal customer is telling you who has an influence over the decision. Asking them ahead of time will let you in on that information.
Engage in an open conversation with your customers and tell them why you want to know who else is involved in the decision. Remember that people love to talk about themselves. Ask and listen. You will be amazed what you will learn.
2. Ask Your Competition
Look at your competition. How are they marketing their products/services to your customers? Who do they target their ads towards? Are their ads directed towards children, spouses, or how they will win with their bosses?
Your competition maybe wrong, and they maybe right, either way your competition is a wealth of information. You should never ignore them.
3. Look At Their Community
They are many factors that go into this last part and you really need to do your homework. One trap that can easily be sprung is the trap of assumptions. One thing customers hate is when you make the assumption that they are not in control of their decisions. Yet, the community where they live, work, network and shop has an influence on them.
If your ideal customer is a heavy user of social media sites like, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. You can see who their influencers are by participating in their conversation. (Keep this mind, sometimes the influencers do not have the largest network. This means their voice is not diluted.) Twitter has many great third party tools that are free that can help your identify a users influencer like Klout.
What is key to all three of these secrets is listening and observing. By doing this you will be able to learn much more than you could ever know. With that information you can engage in meaningful value driving conversations with your customers that will result in higher sales.
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