Popular opinion says that a great product and understanding how to run a business generally leads to a profitable startup. On the contrary, they have very little to do with the ultimate success of your business. Regardless of your inexperience or your product’s unsoundness, the following 4 steps will lead to a profitable business.
Understanding who is your favorite customer.
Your favorite customer is the one who buys the most and keeps coming back because he/she is very satisfied. This customer should represent the largest life time value to your business. If the majority of your customers look like this one you are on the right road to a profitable startup.
Defining your favorite customer’s business problem.
The reason he/she invests in your product/service If you truly understand the customer’s point of pain and provide a solid solution to the customer’s problem that represents good value to the customer then he/she will keep returning for more.
Recognizing the words the customer uses to describe your solution to his/her problem.
Business people tend to describe their products or services in the technical language that they are familiar and comfortable with. Recognize that the customer may use different words or phrases when referring to your product/service or their problem. Only when you use language that is familiar to them are you truly communicating with them.
Building a marketing message that truly describes your value to your favorite customer.
Your marketing message is the way you describe to the client how your product or service will solve the client’s problem and ease the pain the client is feeling. The marketing message is not a Universal Selling Proposition (USP) or Unique Selling Point which relates only to the product and not the customer.
If you use the customer’s words and phrases in your marketing message then you’ll truly be communicating with the customer. These are also the words and phrases that will be part of the content in your brochures and most importantly in your website content. This way the search engines will catalog your company using these same key words and phrases that the customers use to search for you, making you that much easier to find on the web.
If you are just starting out in business, then you want to make sure that your first task is to truly understand your target customers and build your company thrust around them.