Learn how to use demographics and Customer Relationship Management to grow your business.
What do you know about your clients? What kind of information can you identify about your clients without having to ask them? Knowing more about your clients is a fabulous way to grow your business. Keep reading to find out how.
Why is all of this important? Here are four reasons:
1. If you know more about your clients (past and current), you will have a better idea about where and how to find more people like them.
2. You may also discover a trend that you were unaware of previously. Like the fact that most of your clients are mostly men, that they are all mothers of small children, or that many of them are from the same area. When you know more about your clients, you can create products and services that match what they really want.
3. When you know the most frequent ways that clients find your business, you can increase your marketing efforts in those areas.
4. When prospective clients ask you what kind of clients you serve, you will be able to answer clearly with confidence.
So what do you need to discover about your clients? Here are some questions to ask yourself to get you started. You may not be able to answer all of them. See if you can come up with more you do know.
Business to Consumer:
- Are they mainly men or women, or both?
- What age range are they?
- Where do they live? The same city as you? A nearby city? Another country?
- How much do they buy from you on average?
- What is their nationality?
- Are they single, married, or divorced?
- Do they have children?
- What is their profession/business?
- What clubs do they belong to?
- What types of books and magazines do they like to read?
- Is there anything else they have in common?
- How do they find out about your company?
Business to Business:
- What size is their company?
- How much do they buy from you?
- What is their geographic location?
- What type of industry are they in?
- How do they find out about your company?
- What is the function of your contact at the company?
OK, now you have the numbers, how do you use them to figure out the percentages that can help your business? You don’t have to be a math whiz to do these calculations. Depending on how many past and current clients you have, you can use paper and pen or an excel spreadsheet.
Start by writing down the number of clients for each category like: gender, age range, etc. Then take the number in each category and divide it by the total number of clients and you have the percentage of that category. The great news is that once you have set this up, you can simply add new clients to the mix as you go.
Take a good look at the information you find and sort it from the highest to lowest percentage in each category. This will tell you which groups to focus on more and which groups need less attention. It’s also a chance to re-evaluate who you would ideally like to serve with your business.
Also, look for themes and see if any patterns emerge. You may be surprised at what you find. When you have better knowledge about your clients, you can make better decisions for your business.
Curious to find out who your clients really are? Set aside a few hours to analyze your clients and find out more about them as well as what you may have been missing. Take the valuable information you find, create a plan, and put it into action. Happy hunting!
(c) Stephanie Ward 2006
