Posted by If you’ve yet to read 2020’s, The Connector Effect by Dr. Ivan Misner, Graham Weihmiller and Robert Skrob (or the current podcast it spawned), below is a crash course on all that these networking gurus preach when it comes to corralling the ideal customer.
For starters — and within two minutes, tops — write a response to each of the below questions or requests. Don’t overthink your answers and know that the more you treat this as a lightning-round style exercise, the more you’ll get out of it.
Describe your ideal customer
Many would-be marketers fail because they never define a target client. Instead, they use words like “everybody” or “anybody.” Defining a target market gives referral partners a mental picture of the best customer to refer to you.
Answer the following if your clients are consumers:
- Think of a person who is already a great customer for you: what area do they live in?
- What is their family status and profession?
- How does their household income compare with the average?
- What are they planning, bragging or complaining about?
If your clients are other businesses, answer these questions:
- Think of a company that is already a great customer for you: What line of business is that customer in?
- What’s the approximate size?
- Who makes the buying decisions for your product or service?
- What’s the problem they are trying to solve when buying your product?
By being specific you are serving your chapter members by giving them a clear idea of your ideal patron. The more detailed you are, the more effective they will be in finding those referrals for you.
Related: I Started a Business, Now What? 4 Tips to Maintain Success.
What problems are you solving for these assets?
Too many business people talk about their products and services. This sounds self-serving but, in actuality, talking about the problems you solve makes you into a giver who attracts customers.
- List at least three problems your good customer has that makes them ideal for your business.
- What is the worst thing that could possibly happen to your clients if their problems aren’t solved?
- What is the best thing that can happen once their problems are solved?
- Do you have success stories to illustrate how you help your customers? (Client testimonials are a great way to give your network a clearer idea of what exactly you deliver and they demonstrate that your group members can trust you to deliver what you promise.)
Related: 4 Steps to Become a Data-Driven Business
Perfect your presentation
Now let’s pull the above information into a brief presentation.
Here are the three elements of the perfect business introduction:
- State your professional classification.
- Tell a brief story about a problem you solved for a customer.
- Request a referral – who do you know who is [insert target customer] who suffers from the issue you corrected. Be specific!
Once you learn how to create these presentations for your business, you can use this skill for any club, charity or campaign you lead.