The success of your business solely depends on the kind of revenue you generate and the profit you make by offering your product to your target customers. To know your right customer, first, you have to know your customer segment. It would help if you studied their needs, wants, and desires. Once you have that data, it will be easy for you to sell it to your target audience and garner positive customer experiences.
How to recognize your customer segment
While identifying an ideal customer segment, you must avoid a generic customer segment definition like say, “My customers are everyone from six to sixty-year-olds.” Use the below template to identify the right customers for you, their demographics, and the pain points you think you will be able to address for them. If you have more than one customer segment, you can specify them as well.
List 5 of them down below:
Based on the above segmentation, name five customers who you can contact directly. Meet and interview the customers you have named above. The research is needed so that you can validate and understand if they are your actual customers or not.
Your aim at this early stage of customer validation is to discover your real customers and validate your assumptions on customer segments and their problems. Equip yourself with insights to define a Unique Value Proposition for your product, one that has an actual market need.
How to conduct customer interviews?
- Provide insight into the problems you are going to solve.
- Explain real-life situations with facts and stories that your customers can relate to.
- Learn how they currently solve the stated problem.
- Ask them what they think about your approach (to solve it).
- Encourage them to be open and honest with you.
- Ask them how much they currently pay for it.
- How much more or less are they willing to pay if your ‘solution’ is offered to them.
- Find out what happens (to them) if you fail to solve the problem (in the way you have described).
A carefully conducted customer interview will give you a clear indication of whether your customer segments and their pain points described by your customers are in sync with your presumptions. If they aren’t, you need to rethink and alter your understanding of the customer segments and adjust your understanding of how your idea can solve the problem. The more customers you interact with, the more experience you will garner which will help you convert your idea into a customer-ready product.
Based on the above findings, define the features and benefits of your product. The attributes should be strong and unique so that your customers choose your product over your competition. Use the template given below to describe the features of your product that you think will make your offering not only address what the customers want but also prepare your business to deliver a delightful experience. Without limiting your imagination to time, material, resources, money, or any other constraint, list out all the features and benefits using the template below. Allow your imagination to soar high.
You can add as many features as you like. Some add 10, some 25, some even 50!
Make a sketch of your product for clarity
Next, based on your deductions, draw a picture of your idea. Are you able to visualize a scenario wherein your customers lead a better life after using your product or service? Do you see the world in which people become happier using your product? Do you see people getting served better? Sketch your idea to get a clear picture of where and how your product will enhance people’s lives.
Now that you have a much clearer picture of what your product will be, let’s dive deeper into understanding what will be the exact features and benefits of your product.
