Using Your People Skills to Sell

For any small business, the customer base is the lifeblood. It doesn't matter who you are, what kind of business you run or what your niche is, your customers are the people who are carrying your company and helping you to succeed.

With that in mind, understanding your client base and knowing who they are is vitally important to the success of your small business. What kind of market research should you be conducting to ensure that you are selling to the right people?

Have you ever noticed that when you receive gifts from people who know you the best, they tend to be very thoughtful and speak to you personally? The same is true with a well-thought-out customer experience strategy. The better you know who your target audience is, the more easily you can reach them through your future marketing campaigns.

Imagine the typical person you would like to see walking inside of your business every day. Who are they?

This person represents your target audience, so build a profile to help you get a better visual. If it helps, think about the questions that you would ask on a first date:

* How old are you?
* What do you do for a living?
* Did you go to college? If so, where? What was your major?

Now take a look at the people who are already coming through your doors every day. Ask yourself the same round of questions to develop a second profile. How well does it match up to your ideal market? If one seems to mirror the other then congratulations! You're doing fine. If they're not matching up as well as you'd like then you may need to change.

Who would have thought in the early 1990s that humanity's primary form of contact in the future would be through the internet? The power of social media is mighty, making it a fantastic marketing tool for a small business. Conduct some research of your own by scoping out your followers on all your platforms and comparing data.