How do you develop your ideal customer profile?

For your customers, it’s important to know that there may be a wide array of individuals that you can potentially appeal to. Pre-screening possible customers based on the distinctive qualities of your leading customers, you could settle on the set of criteria which would act as the foundation of your conversations.

Here are the best ways to build up and strengthen your ideal customer profile:

• Know when to connect and when to pass. We all have some customers that just didn’t work out. Whatever reasons may be, use what you’ve learned to avoid getting those types of customers again. Make a profile of your deal-breakers. Discuss with sales and anyone involved in those “undesirable” relationships to collect information about what was and not positive. Make use of that information and make guidelines to ensure that your firm judges all prospects against it so that you know when to leave.
• Really get to know your customers. Identify good customers from the bad ones. Have a “top ten” list—the ones on your favorite spot. Take notes about the features they have in common.

Use the telephone to discover what these top customers saw as the trigger points for picking you. Once you understood your clients and the reason for choosing you, you can then modify your message around that.

• Recognize the needs you can solve. In order to be relevant, you got to know your prospects’ buying process and existing stage in that process. Look for case studies, or white papers which suit your prospects read.