EDUCATION CONNECTION
Standing Out Starts with Knowing Your Customers By Mark Harari The following is excerpted from Lobster on a Cheese Plate: How to Stand Out, Attract the Best Clients, and Win Every Sale That Comes Your Way. Did you know that marketing can connect with your client so strongly that signing them is virtually guaranteed before the salesperson even says hello? Yes, marketing can be that powerful. I’ve witnessed it, firsthand, time and time again. But it all starts with having a clear understanding of your target customer. You need to know how your customers think and feel. And I’m not just talking about what they think about the services you offer. I’m talking about everything. What scares them? What excites them? What do they do for fun? The deeper your understanding, the more successful you will be. That is why customer research needs to be an ongoing part of your marketing program. Unfortunately, many small business owners believe that market research is a costly proposition involving extensive and ongoing resources — something reserved for “big business.” Market research should be conducted by companies of any size, even solopreneurs. It’s only through research that you will be able to make well-informed business decisions. Everything from what
can use to learn more about the why behind your customers’ thinking. One-on-One Interviews The first method is one that you’ve probably already used without even realizing it: the one-on-one interview. This is, as the name implies, a conversation between you and the customer. And it doesn’t have to be face to face. A phone call is perfectly acceptable. While it may seem counterintuitive to spend so much time with only one person, in the world of qual, an n of one can be highly beneficial. To hear the inflections of someone’s voice and read their body language as they respond provides layers upon layers of information that a written survey response never could. Additionally, the benefit to a free-flowing conversation is that you never know where it will lead. This can provide insights you may never have imagined. And because of the significant amount of information that can be ascertained from a single interview, having as few as five responses per segment is usually enough to get a clear picture. A word of caution: one-on-one interviews are particularly susceptible to the desirability bias. This is a person’s impulse to
color your logo should be to how much you should charge
say what they think you want to hear. It’s our innate motivation
for your services can be gleaned from the results. A deep
to be liked that’s at fault.
understanding of your target customer also happens to be vital to effective positioning. But to really understand your customers, you need to look beyond the numbers. And for that, we turn to qualitative
This bias is easily overcome in anonymous surveys because they’re … well, anonymous. But when speaking one-on-one, this desire manifests itself and skews your results. There isn’t much you can do to avoid this from happening,
research methods. Often shortened to qual, qualitative
save addressing the elephant in the room ahead of time and
research focuses on understanding meanings and concepts. In
explicitly giving them permission to be blunt. You could also
short, qual is about words.
consider giving a specific example of how a past client’s candor
Let’s dive into some of the types of qualitative methods you 24 • Vol. 14 / Issue 4 • International Surface Fabricators Association
helped you improve.
