Who Do You Do It For?

There is a lot to be gained in business for understanding ‘who you are’ as a company, ‘what you do’, and ‘why you do it’. When those 3 things in business are clear, you can understand and make the ‘soul’ of the company tangible. There is another statement to bring in to the mix that creates powerful clarity for companies, unlocking the potential for greater business success and enjoyment -“Who do you do it for?”.

Do you know your ideal customer?

A common mistake for many organisations, is believing that anyone is a potential customer. The outcome is that companies compete in too many sectors, across multiple markets, providing a plethora of services with multiple extended product lines – trying to be all things to all people.

The result is that the business becomes riddled with complexity, over-stretched, spread too thin, and having to blanket cover their marketing and sales efforts to cater for all. This expensive approach dilutes the business, eventually rendering it too diverse, become nothing, to nobody.

With the world made up of billions of people, the business COULD serve millions to deliver the desired results, and so the company can afford to niche down. Out of those millions of customers, most companies are able to understand those that they WOULD be prepared to serve, and yet few companies know the ideal customers that they SHOULD serve. Find your focus with the answers to these questions:

·      Who is the business geared up to serve?

·      Who is it simple to work with?

·      Who are you slick, efficient, and effective with?

·      Who causes you the least friction and frustration?

·      Who understands the value that you deliver?

·      Who do you really enjoy working with?

·      Who are you most profitable working with?

·      And, importantly, who you DO NOT do it for? Who are the customers that you will be prepared to say ‘no’ to?

How do you find your niche?

The first step is to identify and document what you consider to be your IDEAL customer – who do you want much more of? If you could fill your books with them, and them alone - no-one else would get a look in. Think back to previous customers whom you have really enjoyed working with, where the process was simple, the results were great and very profitable. Document their demographic, geographic, and psychographic profile. Who are they? Where are they? What do they value, how do they think? – truly understand what makes them attractive to you. The aim is to get to know them and surround ourselves with them – to create an abundance of opportunity for the organisation. 

According to Jim Collins; “when things are really clicking for an organisation, you are more likely to die from indigestion than starvation.” Create enough of the right opportunity to help you avoid the scarcity mindset of anybody looking like a meal!

When you clearly know who you do it for, marketing and sales decisions for your people become simple. By taking a laser focus to building relationships with more of the right type of customer for your business, you won’t have to use a ‘scattergun approach’ based on a random game of probabilities.

If you are looking for new ways to improve your business in 2019, check out the Target Market’ element of the Marketing Strategy inside the Vision/ Traction Organiser? (V/TO?) one of the foundational tools of the Entrepreneurial Operating System?. EOS? is a simple set of practical tools that is used by tens of thousands of entrepreneurs and leadership teams worldwide to clarify, simplify and achieve their vision.

Next Steps:

• Unlock the EOS Toolbox? and gain free access to the Vision/ Traction Organiser? (V/TO?) www.eosworldwide.com/eos-toolbox

·      How strong is your company? Find out for free in a simple 5-minute Q&A on our Organisational Checkup? www.organisationalcheckup.co.uk from EOS Worldwide.

Dean is the MD of Grow or Die based in the South West, helping Entrepreneurs & Leadership Teams to realise their company’s full potential as a Certified EOS? Implementer in the UK www.growdie.com. [email protected]