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target-customer
Maurice Davis
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That Might Not Be Your Customer

Have you ever wondered why certain people don’t “get it”, or why the perfect sales pitch ended in “Thanks for stopping by” and why from time to time you will be riding the struggle bus and someone will still buy your products?

When I first started out in business I was a personal trainer. My mentor would ask me, “Who is your customer?” I remember it like it was yesterday. I told him, “Anyone that wants to get in shape and is ready to put in the work.” 

I thought I was so clever, I had a huge smile on my face… until he looked at me and said, “WRONG! If you try to talk to everyone, no one will understand what you are saying.” 

I am not going to lie, I had no clue what he was talking about and I’m sure about 50%+ of the people reading this article are in the same boat. Seven years later I get it. 

When you are new to business, you want to have a large group of people to show your product or service to because that means more possible customers, right? 

Nope, matter of fact you could not be more wrong in your thinking. Don’t get me wrong, I used to think the same thing but after a few bumps on the head I have figured out what my mentor was trying to tell me so long ago.

Everyone is not your customer!!!

I know you are thinking DUH Maurice, but this goes really deep. I surveyed several new business owners and about 85% did not know who their idea customer is. When talking to these leaders the answer I got looked like this:

Stylist 

“I work with people that care about their personal appearance.” 

HVAC

“If they have something broken that I can fix.”

Marketer

“People that are ready to take their business to the next level.”

What is wrong with these statements?

They lack direction, focus and details. While they may sound great when you look at each of the above statements, do you get a clear picture of what your customer looks like, thinks about, where they live and many other aspects you need to know when thinking about your ideal customer? 

What is an ideal customer?

 A customer that would get maximum value from your product and/or service. The individual would in turn would provide major value to the business in question. 

 Now let’s break that down into English.

Think about a list of all the things you would want a customer to do in order to reduce the cost of having them as a customer or to improve the value to your company…

Did you get it?… that’s your idea customer. 

My mentor defines them as your 10 out of 10’s. These are the people that you LOVE to work with, and they are excited about your offering. Aka, the perfect(ideal) customer. 

“not every shopper is your customer.”
-Maurice Davis
surfboards
Maurice Davis
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5 Little Changes That’ll Make a Difference in Your Business

Working with clients day in and out on business development you find some areas where small business owners could use a little more attention. This list will review 7 little changes you can make that will improve your business development. 

1.Do a Business Canvas

A business canvas is a great tool for business development. The business canvas helps to review all aspects of your business using a visual outline. The BMC allow you to brainstorm the area of your business using Post It notes, which can be reorder as the process continues. What my clients love most about the BMC is how easy it is to use, and the layout helps to identify strengths and weaknesses in their business. Traditional business plans can be complex and confusing to use for any first timer, but the BMC is user friendly. 

2.Make a Marketing Plan

When thinking about “how can make the most impact with every dollar?”, many business owners place a great deal of value on a business plan. Business development is about producing value with your investment. A marketing plan will allow you to outline your marketing efforts and look at your expected return for each type of marketing. 

I love a good marketing plan. It helps you think about each individual marketing effort and figure out what your ROI(Return on Investment) will be. If you can identify where you think you will have the best ROI it can be a great way to figure out which efforts to select first. 

Tip –  use a marketing funnel to help you determine what your conversion rate will be from a marketing source. 

3.Keep an Eye Out

Your competitors can teach you a great deal about your industry. Make sure you are keeping an eye out on the close competitors. When looking at your competitors business development efforts your goal is to not lose things in the shuffle. As a small business owner, most of the time you are doing a lot of the work, it’s easy to become overly focused on one aspect of the business. Keeping an eye on your competitors will help keep you in the know. 

Bench-marking is a great way to see if you are on track. Business is challenging and it’s even harder to know if what you are doing is working because every industry is different.  Keeping an eye on what others in your industry helps you know if the choices you are making make sense. Remember, outcomes without context in business is just information.  

Tip –  find few different companies that are in your same industry

-Facebook to get updates.

-set a google alert.

Doing the above will allow you to stay connected to your industry.   

4. Make it a process

Don’t fall into the trap of new business owners, just winging it. Remember when working to develop your business the growth process must be repeatable. Make sure whatever you are creating you need to design a process, it must lay out the steps which lead to your success. 

Tip –  Take a look at the things you do everyday in the business. Ask yourself can someone else do this process if I got hurt? Do I have instructions written down that are easy to follow? If the answer is no, then it’s important to take a moment to develop a written process.  

5.Make their Experience a Focus Point

In a world where just about everything can be done through the internet, business development has only gotten harder. Your clients have more options so you can’t afford to leave anything to chance. In today’s climate, great service is not a value add, it’s just the expectation. Customer experience is about taking the chance out of customer service, review every step your customers take and maximizing the interaction.  

Business development is about increasing the value you offer to the world while driving business and customer growth.  With just a few small changes to these areas, you will see  major improvements in your business.

 Check out Empower’s facebook to get future updates.

traps-entrepreneurs
Maurice Davis
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5 traps most entrepreneurs included in a startup priorities?

Most start-ups spend too much time on the flashy parts of the business. We believe that what the customer sees is the most important part and so many entrepreneurs spend a lot of time on the below and they can be the reason why businesses fail.

a.      Website

b.     Business cards

c.      Logo

d.     Marketing Materials

e.      Swag

I know most people reading this have started wondering “What about these things aren’t important? Shouldn’t I want to put my best foot forward for the customer?”

The easy answer is, absolutely! Let’s break each one down and talk about why I have listed this as a business start-up trap.

Website

Your website IS important so let’s get that out of the way. Most customers will look for this and decide to do business with you based partly on your website. So why is this on the list? Because many new businesses spend a lot of time trying to make it just right without ever defining what it will be used for.

Did you catch that?

Not all websites have the same goal. Without defining the goal of your website than how do you know what the website should look like?

Are you confused? Let me give you a few examples of a few website goals.

Website Goals:

·        Content tool – The business uses the website to produce content about the business. This is often an attempt to develop them as an authority in the industry.

·        Sales Aid – The type of website is designed to sale products. Think online retail, the site needs to educate and motivate the customer to buy in the most effective way possible.

·        Contact Tool – The page is basically a glorified business card. There are a few types of business where this could be the best use of the space.

·        Legitimacy tool – This website exists to show your customers that you are a real business. People are visual, seeing is believing. also most of your customers understand that a website cost something so that fact that you have one means that you are invested.

Your website is not any different then any other part of your business. If you don’t know what the objective of your website is, than pick what you think is the most effective and just go with it. The key is to get started, your plan and website will change.

Business Cards

While it’s important to have business cards, it matters less how cool they look. At this point in time, there are so many tools that will design a business card for you that looks great. I have worked with business owners that have paid a great deal of money to have someone design a business card.

Here is the truth… Most people will throw your business card in a box or a desk draw, and if you are lucky at some point they will remember they talked to you and try and find it.

Here are the most important things to consider on a business card.

·        Is it easy to read?

·        Does the design fit my brand?

·        Does it give my information?

When you are getting started, your business card is a tool for connecting and leaving your information.

DON’T OVER COMPLICATE IT.

Logo

The logo is one that I have had many people tell me I am wrong about so just so I am transparent this is my point of view. So over the last eight months, I have worked with over 40 entrepreneurs and just about all of them stress out about what their logo will look like.

Here is the deal… Your logo can change if you hate it. Many of my coaching peers are poo pooing me right now (yes I said poo haha) because that means you will have to “rebrand”. The truth is that when you get started the most important thing is trying to find customers. Your logo should remind your customers of you and your business. If you do a good job of building a relationship with your customers it won’t matter if your logo is a swish or an apple with a bite taken out of it.

My current logo that I leave on everything is my name with my tag line on it. I promise you I will change it at some point in the future.

Marketing Materials

Once again, this one is important but the real problem is two fold. The first issue is the same as the website, as a new business most people don’t know where in the process this information will be seen by the customer and how it’s supposed to support the customer acquisition process.

The second issue is no one wants to read your crap!

Lets be real with ourselves, your customer doesn’t care about your history, how great your product is or how many awards you have won. What they want is for their problem to be solved and to know they will get the most value for the money they are about to spend.

If your product can do that, great! If it can’t, great! Your customers just want to find the right solution for what they need. The faster you accept that your customer doesn’t care about what you care about, the better you will be able to reach your customer.

Swag

Now last and least… Swag!

As a new business this almost always should not be a major consideration. Yes giving someone a ball or a pen is a nice gesture but is that going to be the reason why they pick your business. I have never been in a meeting where someone said “Well, their estimate was 5K over the others and their service was not so hot but they gave us a sweat pen, so let’s do the deal with them.”

If it’s apart of your marketing strategy that’s great, I recommend picking something that people will use.

I have a college that gives away full size umbrella during the rainy seasons.

When he goes to a meeting and it so happens to be raining and the customer does not have an umbrella, he will give them his branded umbrella.Now that is a great use of swag!

Everything you do when building your business is important. A new business is like a child. You are feeding it, giving it attention and putting in the resources to see it be successful.

A great website might be enough that they choose to do business with you the first time but it wont keep them coming back.

Focusing on the wrong things will kill your business before its even has a chance to start. The list above are simply examples of common areas of focus but depending on your business one of the 5 above might be key to the success of your business.

I get asked all the time, what should I focus on when I am just starting my business?

The best answer I can give is focus on the most important thing to your customers, and the rest will come into focus. looking at this list and making sure you dont fall into these traps can be the best tips for a successful business