5 steps to finding your ideal customer

You can have the greatest product in the world but if you can’t reach the ‘right’ people at the right time, you might as well not have bothered.

So how do we go about edging closer to that all-important product-market fit?

Here is a quick, 5 step method we use at The Escape School to help people narrow down their target market - and find their perfect customer personas - as quickly and cheaply as possible:

1. Have you done the right kind of customer development?

Tip: Ask historical questions about factual behaviour rather than future, opinion-based Qs which lead to false positives/negatives.

Good Q: How much time/money have you spent trying to solve this problem?

Bad Q: How much would you pay for X? What would be your dream feature?

2. Have you mapped out your potential personas in detail?

Tip: The more you know about your target customer the better! Complete at least 3, but ideally about 5 personas.

A target market is not: ‘People who like ice-cream & have hands’

3. Have you cross-checked your ideal customer criteria with your persona type?

Tip: Write a list of your criteria and score out of 10 how closely they match each of your personas.

Example criteria might be:

• Easiest to access
• Cheapest to access
• Most fun to serve
• Most impactful to serve
• Easiest to serve

Which one’s score the highest? Test those first.

4. Have you re-focused your sales funnel for this new persona?

5. Are you targeting one new niche persona at a time?

If not, the feedback you’ll get will be confusing.