Sales Growth: Buyer Persona vs Ideal Customer Profile
Sage Howell
Disrupting the consumer packaged goods sector with brand recognition, education, products, and strategic partnerships in Texas.
"Lets start investing in marketing our product first. Sure it is more capital intensive but we are growing a footprint by operating at a deficit until our sales numbers reflect our investment into the developing market. By doubling down on sales we have an opportunity to control our local market and create a brand that resonates with the demand that has yet to be identified.“
-CRO Ms. Jane Doe II of "Rando" A cutting edge TX CAN-BEV-PRODUCER with exclusive Lime Agave bases and secret recipes (sorry Ms. Doe for the call out).
Lets consider the first scenario presented as a start up beverage company with a brand footprint in the canned alternative beverage. In my earlier article developed after reading and acknowledging the inevitable fork in the road you face as a CPG product manufacturer identified by David Gonzalez . The two sides of the hemp derived CPG coin really are not two sides but rather an illusion of choice. You must have one before you consider the other. It is not a neutral chicken or an egg scenario but rather a clear cut path to a successful market footprint. To have larger runs is to understand sales marketing investments and better understanding the ideal customer profile (ICP) in this new market. The professional consensus is to invest in sales growth first as you begin to secure production manufacturing capacity. This article explores the importance of understanding the sales market by investing in team members, sales marketing efforts, and prospecting the market by placing direct pieces gather information and provide reconnaissance in the developing wholesale sector for this untapped window that will shut eventually. Let's explore why we are even thinking about distribution of your products in the first place and identify the ideal framework in this budding new CPG sector in Texas.
Investments for Sales Growth
Customer Profiling
Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) /ī?dē(?)l/?k?st?m?r/?prō?fīl/ noun
The ideal customer profile (ICP) defines the firmographic, environmental and behavioral attributes of accounts that are expected to become a company’s most valuable customers. It is developed through both qualitative and quantitative analyses. It is focused on the most valuable customers and prospects that are also most likely to buy. The ICP should not be confused with the total addressable market or total available market, which are calculations or estimates of the universe of potential target customers.
Sales Growth starts with understanding the "why?" for every action and investing the time and money by reinforcing that why with revenue and outcomes that match your mission. Showing up and throwing down is a no brainer but in the CPG world, first movers advantage and low cost customer acquisition can get you so far. Those two advantages give you a lot of customers to sample and sell 1 off but also gift you with lower customer retention rates unless you know how to get better customers. Just because you build it doesn't mean they will come in the fast paced and oversaturated canned beverage sector of hemp derived cannabis. You must have more than manufacturing numbers to rely on. You must rely on the champions of your brand and how they were found and where.
Why do you need an ideal customer profile?
It goes beyond just demographics and includes factors like behavior, interests, and pain points. An ideal customer profile analysis creates a target audience for your product and your competition, it can be tailored to marketing efforts to attract and engage the right customers (think events, samplings, product showcasing, and collaborations), resulting in improved customer acquisition (new demographics reached and new eyes on products) and increased customer retention rates. At its core, an Ideal Customer Profile defines the characteristics of customers who are most likely to benefit from your products or services and achieve success using them. You wouldn't hunt with a rifle that was unsighted would you? This is how you hone in your sights and execute your plan of marketing by isolating converting demographics. You could be already doing this through buyer persona research but that is only a piece of the puzzle not the full picture. How are ideal customer profiles that different from buyer personas? Now that you may be confused lets take those circles and turn them into straight lines by exploring both.
Buyer Personas vs. Ideal Customer Profile
First for both of these categories you must isolate the B2B audience and the B2C audience. They are two segmented markets you must identify and separate from each other. They are not the same and must not be treated as such. As a team you have to best understand the wholesale distribution footprint and how they view sales outcomes and what works for their system. For B2B this is the wholesale relationship that sets the stage for your B2C interactions. If you as a company have some self-distribution prowess you will have these numbers and details that allow for better communicating to distributors. What wholesale quantity volumes move at what time. How much volume is required on a weekly basis, how to forecast quarterly stocking rates, etc.
Buyer Personas B2C
Buyer personas are detailed and imaginative depictions of the perfect consumer. Marketing personas are like the foundation for building your marketing house.
By combining insights about their behavior, interests, and motivations with real data on demographics, you can create an accurate representation of your ideal target audience. They’re more like a fictional customer that you turn to to check whether your decisions are in line with what suits them.
When you’re working on your ideal customer profile and buyer persona, these are some of the questions to bear in mind that might need to be answered by your data. These are some questions that can assist you to summarize a B2C Buyer Persona...
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Creating an Ideal Customer Profile (Work Backwards)
Look beyond first to the transaction and work backwards.
Identifying the Ideal Target Customer
Analyze Your Existing Customer Base
Analyze your existing customer base to identify patterns and commonalities. Jump into your sales reports, customer reports, and email opt ins and look for demographic information such as age, gender, location, occupation, and income level. Examine their behavior, how many times they have purchased from you, their interests (who do they follow how do they interact and what is their attention earning cues?), and purchasing habits. By understanding who your current customers are from buyer persona data, you can gain valuable insights into your ideal customer profile.
Conduct Market Research For the Perfect Client
Market research is crucial in identifying your ideal customer. It involves gathering data about your target market, industry trends, and consumer preferences. This means spending time and investing in market activations. Sending staff to conferences with key questions for B2B prospecting. This means working with accounts to do activations and samplings. This may require the investment in part time marketing efforts with brand awareness or getting key stakeholders to pop up with a table and get to shaking hands and kissing babies. Invest in forms, QR code driven surveys, interviews (in person, via zoom, podcasting Joe Rogan , sales prospecting (Samples with your number and socials plastered to it), focus groups, and online tools to collect information directly from your target audience. This research will help you understand their pain points, motivations, and needs, allowing you to refine your ideal customer profile.
Create Buyer Personas
Based on the insights gained from analyzing your existing customer base and conducting market research, develop buyer personas. A buyer persona represents a fictional, generalized representation of your ideal customer. It includes demographic information, interests, goals, challenges, and buying behavior. By creating detailed buyer personas, you can visualize your ideal customer and tailor your marketing efforts to address their needs and preferences.
Track and Analyze Customer Data
Implement robust analytics tools to track customer behavior and engagement across various touchpoints. Utilize website analytics, email marketing metrics, and customer relationship management (CRM) systems (I have created a remarkable sales funnel spreadsheet I would like to share DM me if you want a copy) to gather customer interactions, preferences, and purchase history data. This data will provide valuable insights into your customers’ preferences, and perfect clients and enable you to segment your audience effectively.
Next in this Sales Growth Journey is Sell-In verses Sell-Through Metrics
The whole reason wholesale is the logical move for your brand is to better understand how you can serve the market with your product. In investing in sales marketing metrics and team growth you can strategically expand your footprint and invest in the production to match at a later time. Year one is about branding and market expanding year three is meeting demand for year ten market domination. The better you know your customer, the more effectively you can serve them, fostering long-term loyalty and business growth as well as hone in your product development journey.
Create 6 ICP points and focus on them for a quarter and make a decision based on numbers. In the words of Lil Wayne, "the numbers don't lie."
Add to this, call out my strategy and help me continue to grow. RITA is going wholesale. Yeehaw Texas.
Acknowledgements
Navigating the start-up landscape requires insight and adaptability. Like Plato said - success begins in speaking to the soul of your customer. Understanding your buyer persona is key. ??#innovation #customerfirst
Risk Manager For Startups & High-Growth Businesses
7 个月Taking those strategic steps in the beverage market sounds like a recipe for success!