Who is your ideal customer?

If you're like most people, you believe that everyone would be the ideal customer for your product or service. I used to be the same way. I've heard people say "Everyone who has skin needs my product". or "Everyone who wants to lose weight or be healthy needs my product" or "Everyone who knows another person needs to send greeting cards" (the last one was me). But would you really want every person on the planet to be your customer? We'll start with the obvious...you probably don't want murderers, rapists or (shudder) politicians for customers. (It's the 2016 election season here in the US so I couldn't resist!).

But who do you really WANT to work with? If you're a realtor, do you prefer working with couples just starting out? Or maybe a family looking for a bigger house to keep up with a growing family? Or maybe empty nesters looking to downsize? Or maybe you prefer the luxury market. Or maybe you prefer a particular area. Would you rather work with people in similar demographics to you? Similar age? Gender? Political or religious beliefs? It will help when you ask people for referrals. It's much easier to tell someone that you'd like to meet newlyweds who may be looking to purchase their first house, or if they know anyone who just sent their last kid off to college, than to just say "Do you know someone who's looking to buy a new home?".

Casey Eberhart is really good at this. He knows exactly who his ideal customer is and he even has Facebook profiles for these people. He reads the same magazines that they do, he belongs to the same Facebook groups or Meetup groups. Casey has an event coming up in October where he will talk about this, among other topics related to networking (and yes, that's me in the group photo before the testimonials, standing 2nd from left).

I'm still working on identifying my target market...my ideal customer. Although I'm primarily aiming at small business owners and sales professionals such as realtors, auto dealers, etc. I know I have to work on narrowing it down some more. And the same for people who may be looking for additional income. Am I looking for people who have just retired or are about to? Actually, that is exactly who I'm looking for. So if you know anybody in those circumstances who may be looking for some additional income, then have them email me.

Interesting days

Today - Roald Dahl Day, Kids Take Over The Kitchen Day, Positive Thinking Day, Defy Superstition Day, Fortune Cookie Day and Peanut Day

Tomorrow - Eat a Hoagie Day

Next Tuesday - Punch Day and Get Ready Day

October 13 - World Sight Day