Sales & Customer Growth
Selling to everyone usually means selling well to no one
Many owners say their customer is "anyone who needs it". That feels safe, and it makes every other decision harder: what to say, where to be seen, what to charge. This session looks at the customers you already have, works out which ones are best for the business, and turns that into a plain description you can act on the same week.
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More enquiries from the wrong people is not growth.
Owners often take every enquiry that arrives. Over time the business fills up with customers who haggle hardest, pay latest, ask for the most changes or buy once and never return. Meanwhile the customers who pay on time, refer others and come back are not specifically looked for, because nobody has described them.
Choosing a customer is not turning people away. It is deciding where your limited time, money and attention go first. This session does that with your own records and your own memory of who has been good for the business, not with a theory.
What the session covers
30 topics across 6 areas. Six parts, each with an exercise done on your own business.
Who Have We Actually Sold To?Start with facts, not assumptions.5
- Listing the last twenty or thirty customers or orders
- Noting what each bought, how much, and how often
- How each one first found you
- Who paid on time and who needed chasing
- Who came back, and who never did
A notebook or a billing export is enough. Nothing special is needed.
Best, Average and Difficult CustomersSorting honestly.5
Good does not only mean big. A small customer who pays promptly and refers a neighbour may be worth more than a large one who delays every payment.
- What makes a customer good for your business, in your own terms
- Profit and effort, not just invoice value
- Customers who take more time than they pay for
- Whether difficult customers share something in common
- What you would do differently with them next time
Describing the Customer You Want More OfA description someone else could use.5
- Who they are: a household, a shop, a clinic, a school, a factory
- Where they are and how they usually find suppliers
- What problem they are trying to solve
- What they are already using or doing today
- What would make them choose you
If a new employee could not use your description to spot a good prospect, it is still too vague.
The Buying SituationWhy now, and why you?5
- The event that makes someone start looking: a breakdown, a new shop, a new baby, a deadline
- Who decides, who pays and who uses
- What they compare you with, including doing nothing
- What worries them before they buy
- How long they usually take to decide
Choosing a FocusOne group, for one quarter.5
- Comparing two or three possible customer groups
- Which is easiest to reach, and which is most valuable
- What you will stop spending time on
- What to say no to, politely
- Writing the choice in one sentence
Testing the ChoiceBefore committing fully.5
- Five conversations with people in the chosen group
- Questions to ask existing customers who fit it
- Signs that the group is right, and signs that it is not
- What would make you change the choice
- When to review
A choice made on evidence can be changed calmly. A choice made on a hunch tends to be defended.
What participants leave with
- A sorted list of their own recent customers
- A one-paragraph description of the customer they want more of
- A list of customers or enquiry types they will handle differently
- One chosen customer group and a one-sentence reason
- A five-conversation test to run in the following week
What this session is not
- A market research study
- A promise that choosing a customer group will increase sales
- A lesson in advertising
- A substitute for talking to real customers
Who teaches it
- Sales and business-development practitioners
- Small-business owners who have narrowed their customer base
- Account managers who work with a defined type of customer
- Marketing practitioners experienced in positioning
How the session runs
Two to three hours, in a small group. Participants bring their last twenty or thirty orders or customers in any form: a notebook, a billing export, a WhatsApp chat list. The practitioner works through the sorting exercise with one volunteer's business as an example, then everyone does their own and gets feedback on the description they wrote. The session ends with a short plan for testing the choice over the following week.
What your students leave with
- A list of their best customers, and the reasons behind it
- A plain description of the customer they want more of
- An honest look at the customers who cost more than they bring
- The buying situation: what is happening in a customer's life or business when they decide to buy
- One customer group chosen to focus on for the next quarter
- A short test they can run to check the choice before committing to it
Scheduled sessions
Nothing scheduled yet
Sessions are arranged with a college once a date is agreed. Ask us and we will find the right person for it.
A student rather than a college? See what is coming up, or ask your placement team to host this.
Know who you are selling to before deciding how to sell.
Tell us who your students are and what stage they are at. Sessions are free for participants.