Today I launched Series 2 of my Sales Webinars. It was great to be webinaring again!

The first title I covered was ‘How does your business look to your customers?’ And it was great to really immerse myself in what I wanted to tell all of you!

The replay will be available shortly on my website and on YouTube. For this blog post I thought I would cover a couple of the key points we looked at and give you some food for thought, especially as we have had an interesting and challenging year this year which none of us could have predicted. So I have a couple of questions for you…

With everything that’s happened this year, is your Ideal Customer still the same?

When it comes to ideal customer, it’s as important to rule people out as much as attract the new customers you want to work with. Your message and the solutions you offer will be so much more powerful if you’ve identified who you’re here to help.

If you’re selling or offering a service that you have a genuine connection and passion for, then making sure you’re marketing to the right customer is vital, and this is also something we should revisit from time to time, especially now.

If you’ve read my book, Live It Love It Sell It, or worked with me, you’ll know I deal with the concept of ideal customers in a different way to other sales and marketing coaches. You already understand how important the WHO is when thinking about your customers, such as male automotive executives over 50 or female CEOs in the engineering sector. To then be able to step into your customers’ shoes helps you to bring that person to life.

Ideal customer exercise

Answer the following questions as honestly as you can:

  • If you could help anybody with your product, service, or idea, who would it be?
  • What are the top questions you get asked all the time by your clients?
  • What are the goals of the clients you currently have?

By thinking about your ideal customer in terms of their issues and goals, it allows you to provide them with solutions that match their needs.

Now let’s create a vision of your perfect customer. Spend five minutes picturing one person who you would love to work with. Imagine yourself stepping into their world and experiencing it for 24 hours.

  • What do they need?
  • What’s lacking in their life?
  • What challenges do they face?
  • What delights them?
  • What are they not so good at?
  • What stops them moving forward?
  • What does their world feel like in 12-months’ time? – (a tough one right now, but let’s just imagine!)

It might seem strange thinking about your customers’ lives in this way, but by connecting with your customer on a deeper, more emotional level, it will help you build trust and allow you to use your UHP – Unique Human Proposition®. You can find out more about your UHP® on my website.

What does climbing inside your customers head have to do with how they look at your business?

I’m glad you asked.

Before you walk in the customer’s shoes, take off your own shoes.” Shep Hyken.

You are too close to your business to see its flaws. By shedding your own shoes and stepping into your customers’ pair, it allows you to be more objective. As a business owner, you should be making sure your clients are having the best experience possible, but the only person who can answer that are the customers’ themselves.

How can we step into our customers’ shoes?

Now that you feel more connected to and have maybe reviewed your ideal customer, you will be able to look at your customer journey and make sure everything you do centres on the motivation and needs of your client.

Show your customer you understand

It’s at this point your business becomes visible to your potential customer. Their emotions are what drives them to seek you out. Now is the time to show your ideal customer that you understand their problem and can provide a solution, and most important is that you understand where they are right now. Things may well have changed for them.

Be curious and your customer will notice

Curiosity didn’t really kill anyone! And it most certainly didn’t kill sales people. Here are a few ways to be curious and gain from it when it comes to showing your customer that you are totally immersed in their world.

Knowing the big picture of the market – there is lots of data out there showing you what is trending and how people are behaving. I particularly like Hubspot’s research which covers 70,000 customers, from 1 – 250+ size businesses who are global in many sectors. That really is a big picture.

Know what challenges your customer faces

Don’t assume of course, but ask. Listen, have conversations. Surveys and polls are a wonderful feature of social media now. Everyone likes to tell you what they think so let’s make the most of that.

The key is to ask the right questions. Always think about whether the question helps you to understand and help your customer better. If not don’t ask it!

What is your message?

Do your brand messages reflect what you do to help and what you know? Will a customer read your website, blog post, or social media feed and make that emotional connection to you and your business? Will they feel you care and understand what they need from you? Step into their shoes and review your message externally rather than internally.

Here’s some messaging I commit to when I am looking to connect with my audience…

  • I am part of your team
  • I do not assume
  • I understand where you are NOW
  • I am flexible and can adapt
  • I have a story too
  • Here’s what my customers tell me
  • I am in touch with the market

Keep this message empathetic, real, and consistent and you will attract customers who want to do business with a human.

Think about Coca-Cola’s marketing campaign for #ShareaCoke where they changed their iconic labels to show popular names. Although they were already a massive brand, this campaign connected with people on a deeper personal level. Something we really need right now.

Decision and choice

Yay! Your potential customer has all the verification they need to commit to working with you or buying your products, but now isn’t the time to relax.

This is when you use your knowledge of your ideal customer and their emotional reactions to offer more choice, which in turn makes it easier to buy. It also encourages them to be a loyal customer who is ultimately a customer for life.

Look at your products and services and how you offer them.

  • Do your customers have choice?
  • Are they relevant for NOW?
  • Do you know HOW your customer wants to buy?

Stepping into your customers’ shoes helps you to shift your focus and think about your business from their point of view. What value do they need in their lives? What solutions can you offer them?

Right now businesses are looking desperate, generic, sporadic and anonymous. It doesn’t have to be that way.

You can look relatable, empathetic, connected and optimistic – this is a choice and having trust and freedom with your very own creativity, which in turn creates your UHP®

My new membership, the Live it Love it Sell it Experience, is an amazing community where you can connect, learn, and belong. It’s the perfect platform to discover valuable content to help you build on your customers’ experience and ensure that your customer see you in the best way right now.

Come and join your very own high street community here. If you fancy your own personal tour of the high street to see what it’s all about then book that here!

Want to learn more about connecting with your ideal customer? Take advantage of a virtual cuppa to find out how I can help.

Jules White

Jules White is a professional sales coach whose business allows her to do what she loves, helping entrepreneurs and businesses to succeed at sales and to fall in love with selling. She has over 30 years' experience of business and sales, including winning investment from Peter Jones on Dragons' Den, making her a real dragon slayer. She is a regular public speaker and hosts the podcast 'The Human Conversation' on iTunes.