How do I find good customers?

Deciphering who your customers are so you know who to market to–and how–is perhaps the most elusive part of the marketing puzzle.

When I speak, part of my presentation is often devoted to helping people get clear on where they are in relation to the customer question.  It’s important to me that people get some clarity around this idea because it’s often the difference between success and failure as you’re marketing your business.

In a breakout session I was giving to a group in Houston, the attendees  were starting to “get it” and their new understanding of where they might be stuck was bringing up a lot of questions.  One woman decided to speak for the group.  “We are all struggling with this customer thing, and we feel stuck.  We don’t know how to determine who they are, and based on what you’ve been teaching us, this is our missing link.  Until we figure this out, we aren’t going to get anywhere in our businesses.”

She was right.

How do we figure out who our customer is so we can build a list and market to them?

This is the area most of my clients have struggled getting traction in their businesses.   The majority of the time, they haven’t defined who NEEDS what they offer. Frankly, what good is a flashy website or fabulous marketing materials if you don’t have a pool of prospects to whom you’re marketing?  If you don’t know who your customer is, you can’t proactively target them, right?  Picking a niche can be scary because you don’t want to “limit” yourself, but it’s not likely that you have the time, energy or money to target the whole world with your offerings.  You need to concentrate your efforts on a specific group to get the most bang and traction for your marketing buck.

Read the full article – How Do I Find Good Customers? Helpful research tips and tricks for creating a powerful marketing list of high-potential prospects.