We hear all the time about how important it is to understand the “demographics and psychographics” of our customer base and our target market.

But all too often, when I ask our customers what THEY know, I find out that they really know very little–and that’s why they come to us.

To find out how you’re doing, ask yourself whether you know these 10 key things about your customers:

1.Who is your target market?  If you’re trying to sell your products to “all women,” then that’s too broad.  You need to think clearly about who it is you’re trying to reach, to whom you’re trying to sell.

2.  What does your ideal customer look like–who is he or she?  Think about whether she’s a man or woman, age, what kind of job, what kind of house, what kind of car she or he drives.  Although you won’t have actual data on all those things, you should have a good profile like that in mind as you define your market.

3.  “Where’s the pain” in your customer base and your target market?

• What problem is it that your products or services can solve for them?
• You not only need to know what that pain is, you need to measure the width of the problem, the depth of the pain, so you can target your messages, offers, and products at that problem and pain.  Social media gives you clues and impressions, surveys let you measure it.

4.  Do you know what % of your customer base is men?

• That’s REALLY important for targeting products, offers, and messaging.
• Knowing who’s male and who’s female isn’t just a useless demographic statistic–you can use that information to target your messages differently to men and to women, by segmenting your list.

5.  Do you know what % of your customer base makes more than $75,000 a year?

• After all, you can’t market to the affluent if you don’t HAVE affluent customers or prospects.
• You should know other key demographics as well, such as the average level of education, what % are married, etc.

6.  Do you know whether your target market is growing or shrinking?

• There are lots of FREE survey data out there that can provide in-depth information about what’s happening to YOUR demographic, if you know where to look for those data and how to use them.

7.  Do you know how your frequent buyers differ from the people who don’t buy as often–or who don’t buy at all?

• Knowing that could take you a long way toward understanding what motivates people to buy your products and services.

8.  Do you know if the characteristics of your customers have changed in the last year–and if so, how?  That information can tell you a lot about who you’re reaching and who you’re converting.

9.   Do you know what makes your customers and prospects “tick?”  Are they risk takers?  Do they focus on “keeping up” with their neighbors or are they fiscally conservative?  These are important things to understand if you want to sell to those folks.

10.  Here’s one of my favorites:  What keeps your customers up at night?

If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you’re not alone–most of our customers can’t answer these questions.

But THAT’S why they come to us:  Because if you don’t know the answers to these questions, you’re leaving money on the table.

Knowing your market, your prospects and your customers, can double, triple, or even quadruple your profits.

We can help you put a survey system in place in your business today that will let you get all this information and more, at a price you can afford.  Find out how.