Visionary's Pursuit

86. How Well Do You Know Your Customers?

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Episode Summary

In this episode, we talk about what it means to be obsessed with your customer, why so many skip building a real customer profile, and how the businesses I admire most use that profile as a filter for every decision they make. I share what I learned at the University of Chicago about the unsexy practice of picking up the phone and talking to your customers, why "I sell to women between 30 and 50" is not specific enough to build a business on, and how Anthropologie speaks to one very particular woman without losing anyone else. If you have been feeling like your marketing is not hitting the mark, your clients aren't quite the right fit, or your business has gone stagnant without an obvious reason, this episode will give you a clearer place to start looking.

Key Takeaways

  • Successful businesses are obsessed with their customers. They know how their customers think, what keeps them up at night, what they dream about, and what they are actually trying to solve
  • Trying to sell to everyone is one of the most expensive mistakes a founder can make. If you talk to everyone, no one listens. If you talk to one person clearly enough, the right people raise their hand and the wrong people self-select out
  • A real customer profile goes well past demographics. It includes psychographics, buying behavior, media habits, values, fears, and what people want their lives to look like. The deeper you understand the psychology, the better you can speak to it
  • Anthropologie is a useful study. They design and market for one specific woman with a clear identity, lifestyle, and values, and people outside that profile still buy from them. Specificity does not shrink your audience, it sharpens it
  • Once you have an ideal customer profile, it becomes a filter for every decision. Hiring, pricing, marketing, partnerships, product, and which clients you say yes to all run through it. Taking on a paying client who is not your ideal client almost always costs more than it earns
  • Your ideal customer changes over time, and your profile needs to change with them. Revisiting it at least once a year is a strong habit. Markets shift, behavior shifts, and the person who bought from you two years ago may not be the one buying now
  • Quest Bars assumed their customers were outdoor athletes and launched apparel that did not sell. The actual customer was a busy mom skipping breakfast. Even companies doing hundreds of millions in revenue lose money when they stop checking who is really buying
  • The second half of the customer relationship matters as much as the first. Eric Yuan saw where customers were headed, left Webex, and built Zoom around simplicity and user happiness. Tony Robbins had to challenge his belief that transformation only happens in a physical room in order to grow his reach online
  • For small companies, the most reliable growth strategy is to choose one type of customer, solve one meaningful problem better than anyone else, and let those clients tell other people about you

    • Memorable Quotes

    • "Successful businesses are obsessed with their clients."
    • "If you talk to everyone, no one will listen. If you talk to one person, your customers will hear you."\ 

      • Resources Mentioned

      • Anthropologie as a case study in ideal customer profile design
      • Tom Bilyeu and the Quest Bars apparel story
      • Eric Yuan, Webex, and the founding of Zoom
      • Tony Robbins and the move to online events during the pandemic
      • "Cash is king" and "talk to your customers," two lessons from the University of Chicago Booth MBA

        • Connect with Carolina

        • Website: carozuleta.com
        • Book a consultation: carozuleta.com/consult
        • LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/carolinazuletacoaching

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          Visionary's PursuitBy Carolina Zuleta