Write a Draft Description of Your Customers
Bring together what you have learned about your target market and write a draft description of your customers.
When it comes to determining customer wants and needs, part of your market research may come from secondary sources, but ultimately you will need to survey real live customers in order to get the answers you need. At this point you have probably completed enough research to tackle the first draft of the Description of the Customers Element.
Part of the objective with this step is to reveal what you still need to learn about your customers. Don’t worry if you feel as though you don’t have all of the answers at this point; if you have not yet done your primary market research, you may still have much to learn about your customers.
Action
If you have set up a working copy of your business plan using the Shell™, this information will be entered under section 3 “Marketing” under the heading 3.3 “Profile of the Customers.” In this step you will be revising the draft description of your customers you created in Step 19. As you work further through the Business Planner’s RoadMap, you will be working with your customer profile again in Steps 28, and 29 and 38.
- Using the statements you developed in Step 19 and all the information you’ve learned through your market research so far, write a draft description of your customers.
- Identify what’s missing from your description and clarify the questions you still need to answer and how to get those answers.