After reading your customer profile, investors should be able to tell someone else who your customers are, how many you have, their acceptance of your product, and how many they’ll buy. Think of your customers as your friends. Describe them in a positive light–maybe even use a first name if you think it’s appropriate. Here are some questions you can ask yourself about your customers, as well as a few related to market studies.
- Who are your customers? Consider their age, gender, ethnicity, neighborhood they live in, occupation, income, and education.
- If your customers are other companies describe whether they are merchandisers, service organizations, manufacturers, industrial users incorporating your product into their own operations, regulated users having special constraints or rules influencing their buying decisions, government users, original equipment manufacturers making your product part of their own for resale, or contractors buying your product to make a part of their own services.
- What customer groups have you pinpointed for future penetration?
- Do you have any big purchase commitments from your customers? Who has the potential to become BIG?
- How much does each customer buy weekly, monthly, and annually?
- How much are they willing to pay for your product?
- What do your customers base their buying decisions on: price, quality, service, personal contacts, political pressures?
- What benefits do your customers get from buying your product?
- How will you make your potential customers aware of your product–media, advertising, public relations, promotional strategies?
Market Study Questions
- How many prospective customers have you talked to?
- What was their reaction to your product?
- Did you let them see or try a prototype?
- How will you handle negative customer reactions to your product?
- What do customers find the most compelling about your product?
- What benefits do you feel your customers underestimate about your product? How will you overcome this?
- What customer needs are you not meeting?
- How much demand is there for features you plan on incorporating in your product at a later date?