Who Do You Want As a Customer?

This is part 1 of a 3 part series on - Determining your customer perspective - Who Do You Want As a Customer?

I understand that starting with this statement may not be the best lead in this day and age, but you do have to start your process thinking here. Start-up or an existing business has to define their ideal customer. When you do, you understand your marketing challenges so much more clearly. So, who do you want as a customer? I would assume that you would like to have one that is economical to obtain, profitable once you have them and easy to retain. We need to start with a few specific characteristics but the overwhelming issue that you must address is how that interaction with the customer happens within your company, and if you can support it in a way that is acceptable to them.

How Many Customers Do You Need? Think of the throughput of your organization and the mix of customers that you can effectively support. Can you only a support a few large customers, or many small customers? If you would like a mix of both, consider your percentage, 80/20, 70/30? Think how this would change not only your marketing but your operational structure?

What are the characteristics of your marketplace? Do you understand the market size, the growth rate(shrinking or growing), the different segments and your competition? You also need to understand the economic value of customers in each category that you may segment them in. After you determine the characteristic, ask yourself: Can you economically compete in this arena? Cost to service certain markets can be considerable; it may be a good time for a SWOT analysis?

Decision Matrix template provided by Systems2win

What specific characteristics vary among customers that affect their profitability? We try to have an ideal customer but the bottom line is that all customers are different. Some of the specific characteristics that might be different are:

• Volume
• Sales support
• Inventory required
• Distribution support
• Credit and collection costs
• Speed of collection
• Engineering support
• Order entry support
• Field service

Maybe the most important consideration is when you consider the items that your organization values the most, do your customers value them also? It is a hard road to go if you sell your organization on the values that identify your organization and then turn around and find a customer base that disregards them. So, who do you want as a customer?

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