Understand your customers' needs

Consider the following questions to build your understanding of your customers' needs:

1. Who they are

If you sell directly to individuals, find out your customer's gender, age and occupation. If you sell to other businesses, find out what industry they are in, their size and the kind of business they are. For example, are they a small private company or a big multinational? Knowing this can help you identify similar businesses that you could target.

2. What they do

If you sell directly to individuals, it's worth knowing their occupations and interests. If you sell to other businesses, it helps to understand what their business is trying to achieve.

3. Why they buy

If you know why customers buy a product or service, it's easier to match their needs to the benefits your business can offer.

4. When they buy

Your customers may have buying patterns. If you approach a customer just at the time they want to buy, you will massively increase your chances of success. CRM and surveys can you help identify the best time to reach your customer base.

5. How they buy

Some people prefer to buy from a website, while others prefer a face-to-face meeting. For example, if they buy online you can try to find out how they prefer to receive their order. 

6. How much money they have

You'll be more successful if you can match what you're offering to what you know your customer can afford. Premium, higher priced products are unlikely to be successful if most of your customers are on a limited budget. This is the case unless you can identify new customers with the spending power to match.

7. What makes them feel good about buying

Ask your customers what makes them feel confident and happy when purchasing from you. If you know what makes them tick, you can serve them how they prefer. 

8. What they expect of you

Customers usually appreciate if you take their suggestions into account and like when you improve your products and services accordingly. If your customers expect reliable delivery and you don't disappoint them, you stand to gain repeat business.

9. What they think about you

If your customers enjoy dealing with you, they're likely to buy more. And you can only tackle problems that customers have if you know what they are.

10. What they think about your competitors

If you know how your customers view your competition, you stand a much better chance of staying ahead of your rivals.