One of the secrets of our success at AHS over the years has been to focus on our core customer to the exclusion of others.   Simply put, our Core Customer is the Independent Mechanics and Machinery Shops – YOU,  and our core purpose is to help YOU succeed!

What is the benefit for you to know who your core customer is?

Understanding who your Core Customer is allows you to grow your business because you’re now focusing on the customers that WILL buy from you.

 So, how do you know who your core customer is, and what is a core customer?

Drawing on the material written by Bob Bloom, the author of The Inside Advantage, A core customer can be identified as follows:

  1. Someone who purchases your product at the optimal (best) price point that generates you profit – why?    Because they assign real economic value to what you have to offer and buying at your price is a positive action for them.
  2. Identify who your Core Customer at the expense of WHO IS NOT your core customer (be selective).   For us, it’s simple, the first question we ask when we get a phone call is, Are you a Mechanic?  If not, we refer them to their local mechanic(s) who are already our client.  We know by doing this, our conversion rate goes from 2% to over 30%, and we are THEN dealing with OUR Core Customer –  not a punter who just wants to price check!
  3. Your Core Customer is a real person, with wants, needs and fears – they are not a lifeless profile on paper – they are alive and are just like you and I, AND have specific reasons, emotions and interests in your service.
  4. Your Core Customer has an online identity that can be appealed to via digital media and they have specific behaviors that you can learn and appeal to as they are online.
  5. This Core Customer who pays on time, not only are they loyal to you, but they will refer others to your company!

So how do you identify them?  By asking yourself the following questions:

Pick out the 1 customer

  1. Who is your favourite customer?
  2. Who is your newest customer?
  3. Who is your best fit customer (i.e. values fit)?
  4. Who is your most profitable customer?
  5. Who generated your largest revenue?

Then

  1. What was the name of the decision maker?
  2. What did they buy?
  3. What’s their job, etc?
  4. How did they buy?
  5. How did they find you?
  6. Words to describe their demographic
  7. Words that describe their buying behaviour

Can you see any patterns?  Are there any connections?

From this you’ll be able to build your Core Customer in 25 words or less, or better still, have a visual representation of your Core Customer and focus on them.

Good Luck.

Graham Van Damme
Owner, All Head Services
Accelerator Trainer, Entrepreneur’s Organisation
www.linkedin.com/in/graham-van-damme

 

This is one of the key principles I teach in the Entrepreneur’s Organisation Accelerator Program [https://www.eonetwork.org/eo-accelerator ]