Understanding Your Customer: a Key to Successful Selling.
Understanding your customer is indeed a critical factor in successful selling. When you deeply understand your customer, you can tailor your approach to meet their specific needs and preferences, making it more likely that they will choose to buy from you. Here are some essential aspects of understanding your customer:
Demographics: Understanding the basic demographic information about your customers, such as age, gender, location, and income level, can help you tailor your products and marketing messages to appeal to them.
This type of research can vary depending on whether you are selling to a broad audience and advertising with print material or using the power of the internet to fine-tune who you are trying to reach.
In the early days of my sales career, we did not use computers or the Internet to sell products or services. When I started my career in selling in the 1980s, I had a telephone and people I knew who had problems. That was my demographic. I would pick up the phone and talk to my friends.
Now, with all our technologies, I can see a problem by doing online research, see who has the problem (my demographic), and find a solution for their problem. Then, using the power of Google, I can reach out to them and offer them a solution to their problem.
Psychographics:
Psychographics refers to the study and classification of people according to their attitudes, aspirations, interests, and other psychological criteria. Unlike demographics, which focus on observable traits like age or income, psychographics delve into the deeper motivations and beliefs that drive consumer behavior.
Understanding psychographics can be incredibly valuable in sales and marketing. By segmenting your audience based on psychographic factors, you can create more targeted and compelling messages that resonate with their values and interests. This can lead to higher engagement, increased trust, and, ultimately, more sales.
Buying behavior:
Buying behavior in sales refers to a consumer’s purchasing process. Understanding this process is crucial for sales professionals as it can help them tailor their approach to better meet their customer’s needs and increase their chances of making a sale.
There are generally five stages in the buying behavior process:
Recognition of a need: This is the first stage where a consumer identifies a need or a problem that needs to be solved. This could be triggered by internal factors (such as hunger or thirst) or external factors (such as advertising or word of mouth).
Information search: The consumer typically seeks information about possible solutions once a need is recognized. This could involve researching different products, reading reviews, or asking for recommendations from friends or family.
Evaluation of alternatives: After gathering information, the consumer will evaluate the options available. This may involve comparing features, prices, and reviews to determine which product or service best meets their needs.
Purchase decision: Once the consumer has evaluated their options, they will decide and purchase the product or service they believe is the best choice.
Post-purchase evaluation: After making a purchase, the consumer will evaluate their decision based on their experience with the product or service. This evaluation will influence their buying behavior and perception of the brand.
Needs and pain points: Understanding your customers’ needs, desires, and pain points can help you position your products or services as solutions to their problems, making them more likely to buy from you.
These days, I have several business passions: helping people improve their sales skills and make money online. These are two areas in which most people have high pain points. In both cases most people have limited experience and knowledge to build a massive business for themselves.
By helping these folks improve their skills in selling and making money online, I achieve two great things: I make money, and I make money by solving their problems.
Communication preferences: Knowing how your customers prefer to be contacted and what types of communication they respond to can help you tailor your marketing and sales efforts to be more effective.
These days, most people want things, but they want to remain invisible. They don’t want to be sold to. And that’s okay. I am the same way. I want to make my own decisions without someone trying to oversell me.
So, I allow them to reach out to me. I make myself visible when they search for something to solve their problem. That’s how you get here! You were searching for a better understanding of your customer as a key to successful selling.
Feedback and engagement: Listening to feedback from your customers and engaging with them regularly can help you understand their evolving needs and preferences, allowing you to adapt your approach accordingly.
You want repeat business from your customers! Once you have understood them and solved their problem, your goal should be to keep them coming back to you. You do that by keeping in touch with them and getting their feedback about the offerings they purchased.
By taking the time to understand your customers on these levels, you can create a more personalized and effective sales approach that is more likely to lead to successful outcomes.
Learn more about me by clicking here!
Take a look around my website. I have many offerings here that can help you with the art of selling!
Please leave a comment below if I can be of assistance.
