Your customer is the life-blood of your business. The better you know your customer the more you can grow your business. You need to constantly profile your customers so you know how to focus your promotions.

For example, I was talking to a friend of mine who is selling his house and he was lamenting how few people have looked at his house due to the bad housing market. I asked him about the house, This house is a mid priced  ranch (not a starter but not a luxury home either) house in the  Atlanta market. He also told me that the the people who have looked at the house (seriously) tended to be retired or near retirement. We bounced this  information around for a while, and realized that what these folks had in common is they probably already owned a home outright, and didn’t have a lot of pressure to sell that home (or pay two mortgages) before they could  buy a new one. And since the house was a ranch it would seem that this type of house (no stairs) would be a good fit for someone who is retired. So perhaps this house could be marketed to well off people, near retirement who already own a 2 story home, and want somewhere they can retire to. It also illustrates how profiling your ideal customer can give you insight into how to market your products or services.


Below is a partial list of questions to ask when profiling your customers. Always keep an open mind when profiling your customers, you don’t want to write off new markets because you ‘think’ you know your customer; do some real research to confirm or refute your beliefs. Also remember that not every area listed below will be part of your customers profile– look for areas in common.

1. What are your customers demographics ?
   
• Age
• Income Level
• Whey they live
• Marital status
• Etc.
  
2. How did they find out about your product/service?
• Advertising
• Referrals
• Ratings
  
• Location
  
3. If you sell multiple products or services what combinations are most common ?
   
4. How much to your best customers spend ?
   
• The ones that spend the most money
  
5. What is the average amount your customers spend ?
   
• In other words,how much money do most people spend
  
6. Where else do they shop ?
   
7. What do they like most about your product or service ?
• Try a survey to find out the information in questions 1,6-10.
  
8. What caused them to decide to buy your product or service ?
   
• It may not be what they liked most.
  
9. How many customers are repeat customers vs. new customers ?
   
10. How much do they know about your company, its products and its services ?
    

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