▷ How do I identify my potential customers?

Potential customers are undoubtedly real potential customers because they are characterized by three basic characteristics: interest, commercial opportunities and trust in a product and/or in a company. So having him as a customer is ideal. To do this, identify your prospects… with market segmentation.

You will ask yourself… How do you recognize it? Well, it could be 50/50, half intuition and half market segmentation. I’ll explain. Everyday life allows you to meet different types of customers who visit your business. And based on their frequency and purchase volume, you can get an idea of ​​what type of customer they are.

And if you analyze each case, you will see from their purchasing behavior that they are not all the same, they do not all have the same needs, nor the same tastes, let alone the same purchasing power. And at that moment you’re probably thinking about how important it is to really know your customers. Any type, any requirement, any wish. That means customers are different, they have different needs.

Design new strategies

This desire to know your current customers intimately will enable you to attract other customers. Remember that as long as you know the characteristics of each type of customer, you will be able to develop strategies that will attract potential customers. Exactly the ones we mentioned at the beginning.

To get the concept clear, I recommend reading the What is a Prospect? article. What you are looking for for your company. I’ll explain everything you need to know there.

So, let’s continue, the potential customers… Those who are interested in a product, who have sufficient economic resources, but who do not trust you because they do not know you yet. But if you develop this particular strategy, you can win them over and count on their trust and loyalty.

To identify your potential customers!

In order to achieve this, we need to start a process that allows us to know what the target market is in your company and what the differences and similarities are. This research can be done if your business offers a variety of products and/or services that meet the needs of different audiences.

This is when the percentage of intuition decreases and gradually increases, which corresponds to market research, market segmentation. The results allow you to identify the predominant characteristics that your customers share and what they prefer to consume or purchase.

With this information, your marketing strategies will achieve better results because you can target each of your audience types. The result will bring you better benefit because you already know their wants, needs, purchase opportunities, frequency, quantity and many other characteristics.

What is market segmentation?

Before explaining the process, you can define Market segmentation as a method that allows a large market to be divided into smaller markets. It’s about dividing it into groups.

It should be noted that each group is homogeneous but different from the other groups that have different characteristics, desires, needs and behaviors in the market. For this reason, it is paramount to differentiate marketing strategies for each group.

That’s exactly the idea, because if you make a sales strategy the same for everyone, the results wouldn’t be as expected. This is why market segmentation is used to have smaller markets or groups as they have differences in purchasing.

How do you segment your company’s market?

First we need to determine what we are going to segment. On this occasion, the market is generally looking for the company’s target audience. However, there are instances where customer databases, mailing lists, buyers from a large department store, or some other similar alternative are segmented.

The next step is to determine the segmentation criteria in order to know a range of customer data. These are different variables identified by ranges. It is intended to know the customers’ data, which allows to form smaller segments. The more characteristics are known, the smaller the groups become.

1. Demographics: This is a very general criterion. Information is required on: age, gender, level of purchase, level of education, ethnicity, marital status, occupation.
2. Geographic: This is about defining the geographic location of the clients. Where you live, whether urban or rural; whether they live in houses or apartments and their characteristics; including where they live.
3. Psychographic: It has to do with aspects related to your lifestyle, hobbies, values, interests, tastes and preferred activities. These are aspects that best characterize each segment.
4. Behavior or Behavior: It is related to their consumption habits. In particular, knowing their purchase frequency and volume, price sensitivity, loyalty to brands, online purchases, use of products and/or services, use of discounts and promotions, etc.

data analysis

With all the data obtained, you can segment homogeneous sub-markets whose members are customers with similar characteristics.

For example, demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral criteria make it possible to know many aspects of the various small groups to which personalized marketing strategies are directed.

The fact is that these criteria can be used to determine, for example, the proportion of men and the proportion of women. Their socioeconomic level if they are A, B or C level. Also their purchasing power based on their monthly income range.

Another aspect that can be used to identify potential customers is their level of education, if they only have an undergraduate, college or postgraduate degree. Your place of residence, whether and where you live in the city or in a city. Also information about their lifestyle, what they like to do in their free time, their sports, their hobbies, their interests, their travels and other preferences.

Benefits of knowing the types of potential customers

Knowing the different types of customers in your target market is absolutely and utterly beneficial for your business, for your company.

Why?

Because it allows you to develop the appropriate and effective strategies that will allow you to crystallize your business goals. All your customer information is useful throughout the organization… From HR, sales, customer service, marketing, manufacturing to public relations. Of course it wouldn’t be from the same perspective.

Knowing their tastes, their interest in products, their purchasing power encourages your creativity when it comes to offering them a new product, promotion, discount or offer. All this, as long as your company has the prerequisites to offer this type of marketing (almost personalized for each subgroup).

And when it comes to prospects, market segmentation data can help you determine which customers are happiest when they get what they want and what satisfies their needs. And they will be happier thanks to the strategies you implement.

Examples of market segmentation

According to the results obtained, the company’s general market can be segmented. For example, if it is a shoe store that sells women’s, men’s, and children’s shoes, a decision is made to segment the market into women’s and men’s. Especially those who are over 15 to 60 years old and whose purchasing power is high.

Then, by segmenting the market, the company’s target market could be selected that would be the most attractive and profitable. Production capacity and economic resources must be taken into account.

In the case of the shoe store, the target group would be men between the ages of 25 and 55 with a high income.

target group

Likewise, the consumer profile is defined, which highlights the characteristics of the customer. What is related to their age, educational level, economic level, tastes, interests, etc.? And taking the shoe store as an example, it is noted that this profile consists of men who want elegant shoes, leather, conservative, dark colors, at a price that lowers the quality and with which to go to the office, meetings, formal and social celebrations .

Remember that with this information and the wants and needs of the target customer, marketing strategies are developed to spread the word about the product. These are classic leather shoes in black, brown and gray colors. And with a special promotion if you buy them through the website.

Finally, new markets can be selected by achieving the expected results with that target market. And with the example of the shoe store, products could be offered to a different subgroup, say women, with shoes that meet their expectations and needs.

Conclusions:

• Potential customers are characterized by three basic characteristics: they are interested in, have economic opportunities and trust in a product and/or in a company.
• Remember, you can identify your prospects using market segmentation, a technique that allows you to break down a large market into smaller markets. It’s about dividing it into groups.
• By determining the segmentation criteria, you can know a range of customer data, data related to the criteria must be collected: demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral data.
• With all the data obtained, you can segment homogeneous sub-markets whose members are customers with similar characteristics.
• The demographic, geographic, psychographic and behavioral criteria make it possible to know many aspects of the different small groups to which personalized marketing strategies are directed.
• Knowing the different types of customers in your target market is absolutely and utterly beneficial for your business, for your company. It enables you to develop the appropriate and effective strategies that will allow you to crystallize your business goals.

You can now identify your potential customers with market segmentation. It is important for your business idea. But if you’re wondering… Now what do I do? I encourage you to read this article, which is part of this series: Prospects. What to do after market segmentation?

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