you have finished, you should have a picture of your ideal customer. Then you need to consider how they might find out about you, where they would buy your products and the size of the market.
The time you spend on clearly defining your ideal customer is never wasted.
2.3 Understand how and why they buy
This is where you need to be a bit of a psychologist. There are two aspects to this. You have to understand why people would want to buy your type of product. And, you must know why they would choose yours rather than one of your competitor’s.
Think for a moment about what people actually do before they part with their money. Whether you realize it or not, they think through four steps, usually without knowing it. We call these the buying stages.
Need or want stage. This is when a person decides that they want or need something. It might be that they want to save money or time, or they might want to gain something, such as money or status. Equally, they might want to avoid something, such as hunger, thirst or having to clean the house on their hands and knees.
Knowledge stage. They search for information to help them decide which one to buy. For some products, they will look at advertising, brochures or reviews in specialist magazines. For other, more basic products, such as bread, they’ll probably just look at them on the shelf.
“Look at markets through the other end of the telescope – not the lens of what you want to sell, but the lens of what people want to buy”
Gary Bencivenga, American celebrity copywriter
Preference stage. Then they actually make a decision and choose the one they will have. Even though they might have thoroughly researched the product, they will often subconsciously decide on things like colour, quality, price, style or what’s in fashion.
Buy and justify stage. After they have made their decision and bought the product, they will then justify to themselves that they’ve made the right choice. They will say things like “it was the best,” or “it was reduced in price”.
Some people make almost instant decisions because they’re known as decisive. Some need lots of information and facts before they can make a decision. They are methodical and they just need time. Then there is another group, who take almost forever to make a decision. These are cautious and you will need to encourage them to make the decision by telling them who else has bought your product.
In Secret 5.3 you will see which sort of advertising and promotion you must do for each stage of the buying process.
You need to be a bit of a psychologist to see how people make a decision and why they would buy your product.
2.4 Look at who really makes the decisions
If you’re alone and want a sandwich or coffee, the decision is fairly easy. But, unfortunately, most purchases involve many people, especially if it’s a product or service for a business.
Even something that at first sight appears to be simple can involve more than one person. Imagine a mother in the shopping mall with her two children. One of them says, “I want a sweet.” That child is known as the initiator and is also the consumer. The mother is the buyer. The other child has a vested interest in the decision because they know that they’ll get a sweet too. That child is a stakeholder. If the purchase is not a sweet but something more expensive, the other parent may be involved in the decision process also. We give the people these names to help explain their role in the decision process of making a purchase.
Initiator. The person who first suggests the idea. In the example above, this is one of the children. If the mother had made the suggestion by asking, “Would you like a sweet?”, she’d be in initiator instead.
Consumer. The person who actually uses the product or service. This is the child in the example above. But, if you wanted to buy a computer network for a business, it might be a whole team of people.
“Most sales are lost because the salesman presented his product before he knew what motivated everyone else involved”
Gary Bencivenga, American celebrity copywriter
Influencer. A person or group of people whose views and advice have a bearing on the buying decision. In the example of buying sweets, this could be a dentist who might suggest that sweets are bad for the teeth.
Money man/woman. The person who has the money or signs the cheque. They have the ultimate authority to say, “No, we can’t afford it”.
Buyer. The person who actually buys or pays for the product or service. In business these are the people who check the contract and look at the viability of the supplier in the long term.
Stakeholder. A person or group of people who have no influence over the decision, but are interested in the purchase.
The more expensive the product, the more people you’ll tend to find involved in the decision. You must identify the individuals by name and work with your salespeople to make sure that you influence them correctly. It’s the little things that matter, so you must give the right kind of information to the right person. For example, the buyer is not interested in the technical merit of your product, they are interested in the status of your company. The money man is really only interested in making sure that they get value for money.
Purchases are never as simple as they seem, and there can be many people involved in even an easy decision.
2.5 Know your strengths and weaknesses
The best marketing people know exactly what they’re good at, and what they’re not so good at – their strengths and weaknesses. You also need to have an understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, and know what your customers think of you and your products.
Your customers’ views are much more important than your own. I’m sure you think that you have the best products in the world, but actually it’s their perception that matters most. And you must match your product and customer service to their expectations, based on your marketing material.
one minute wonder Phone your customers immediately after they have bought something from you. You will then get their instant reaction to how the purchase went.
Product. Ask customers how the features, quality and reliability of your product stacked up to what they had expected.
Price. Did they feel that they got value for money? Find out if they got more or less than they had expected.
Availability. How easy was it for them to find out the information they needed when choosing which product to buy? How easy was it for them to buy it? Was it in stock?
Service.
