Again this week I
encountered what has become a common event. I was called in to consult with a client. Sales were flat for too long, and the client knew that something had to be done. One of my first questions was this: “What do you know about your customers?” Once again the answer was a glazed look and some mumbling about information in the credit department.
Trying to refine a sales system without adequately knowing your customers is like playing pin the tail on the donkey — you’ll
stumble around blindly unless you’re lucky enough to stick something by chance.
On the other hand, if you become good at this critical portion of your sales and marketing efforts, you’ll be able to focus your sales and marketing efforts in the sharpest, most effective areas.
I know you’ve heard it before. The expression “know your customers ” has been proclaimed from the pages of marketing books and the lips of marketing gurus so often that it has become a cliché. However, it’s been my experience that, while
everyone gives lip service to the concept, very few businesses really practice it.
As a result, too many businesses scatter their sales and marketing efforts in a helter-skelter attempt to build the business. They squander their marketing resources and struggle to focus their resources where they will bring the best
results. Sales remain flat, and confusion and frustration grow.
What Does Knowing Your Customers Mean?
Let’s begin by defining the terms. “Knowing your customer” means developing several complementary processes for acquiring and using important information about your customers,
and then regularly and routinely implementing those processes.
Knowing your customers is one of those principles that have value at almost every level of your system. Salespeople can use the knowledge of their customers to manage their time more effectively and to refine and deliver attractive proposals and
presentations. Sales managers can use it to direct salespeople to the highest-potential customers. Sales executives can use it to make effective decisions about products, pricing, and sales processes. Knowledge of your customers is the most powerful of all a company’s accumulated information.