One of the most important business decisions you’ll every make

There’s a very simple business technique, which guarantees you the success you want.  It’s used by all smart and successful business owners.  Yet it’s not widely talked about.  But this method ensures you reach the right audience, increases sales and grow your business you way you’d like it to grow.  This is the simple concept of choosing your customers.

For some people the concept of choosing who their customers seems alien.  Many unsuccessful business think it better for customers to choose them.  They believe need to put their product out there and take whoever comes along.  But success customer relations is a two-way street.  And you do have a choice.  The sooner you start making a conscious effort to target specific people the sooner you’ll see a change in your business.

Think about your ideal clients

Ideal clients are people that makes you want to rush into work and interact with each and every day.  They are customers that love and appreciate what you have to offer just as much as you do.  These are your perfect customers.  The ones, for example, who return time and time again, make selling easy and recommend your business to all the right people.

Far too many entrepreneurs will tell you everyone needs their products.  But that’s seldom true.  Only a certain section of society really need your products.  So the sooner you start identifying them the better for you and your business.   Especially if you work very person to person.  In which case having a client base made up of people you don’t get on with will:

·         Lead to burn out

·         Increase your stress levels

·          

It Doesn't mean Limiting Yourself

This isn’t about being exclusive or snobbish.  Think of more as setting boundaries.  You do this anyway, whether you know it or not.  You set many of them when you decided on your product line.  You’ll made more when you decided how and where to market yourself.  The same can be said about your prices, working hours and location.  Now it’s time to start narrowing your focus to on target clients that you value and who value you in the same measure.

If you’re worried that by setting boundaries you will limit your sales, you needn’t worry.  Many of the leading brands started out aiming for one audience only to find their client base lay elsewhere.  Some were happy with the switch others not so happy.  

Here a few great examples of how it works

Nike’s original client base was elite athletes.  They set out to make high-performance training and running shoes for world class athletes.   They had no idea their brand profile would end up being urban street wear for people who would, at most, run for the bus.  When Nike exploded onto urban market they were happy to jump on board and run with it.  Riches and street cred followed.

But let’s look at the Burberry brand.  Burberry was set up as a very high-end, exclusive luxury fashion range.  It too, for a while, became an urban street must-have.  Now either they were happy with the rise in sales or someone wasn’t monitoring their sales demographic, but the customer base shift cost them dearly.  When their core elitist customer base discovered that Burberry’s distinctive tartan motif was being paraded around the streets of Essex they began to desert the brand in droves.   Burberry could have run with its new-found fan base.  But it wanted to retain its elitist status, so it did everything in its power to lose what it saw as ‘chav’ appeal.

Of course snobbery cuts both ways, and street style can lose its appeal by going too mainstream.  The Clarkson effect is a great example of this.   Jeans have served two main functions:

1.       Work wear

2.       Trendy street wear

However when the likes of middle-aged, middle class men started wearing them the bottom nearly fell out of the market.  It just couldn’t handle that level of unhipness.

 What this means to you

It’s you that decides who you sell to.  It’s up to you to build your brand’s reputation.  Leave it all up to the market and you could end up with no control over your business.  Or with no business at all.

You can decide to follow the trends or set them.

It doesn’t matter which decision you make as long as you are happy with your decision.  Your choices are:

·         Do business dealing with people you like

·         Do business dealing with people you don’t like

You decide.