Does your company’s mission reflect your ideal customer?
Whether we think of your company’s mission as a statement of the problem in the marketplace that your company exists to solve, or a statement of why your company exists, without customers to exchange money for your solution, your company will not succeed. Many a business has failed by focusing on producing a product or service to solve a problem that customers either did not know they had, or did not care to solve at that moment. Or on the flip side, offering the solution to a broad market when a very specific niche would have been more ideal.
Identify your ideal customer
Customers can be fickle and they can change their minds rapidly; what they think they want on Monday is discarded on Tuesday when the cost of the solution exceeds the value they think they will receive.
It is imperative that you have an on-going dialogue or conversation with your customers to keep up with their changing needs and expectations. Notice the reference to “keeping up with … expectations” rather than “exceeding expectations”. What customers expect is that you will be there with the right product or service to solve their “problem” or fulfill their “want”, at the moment it emerges – there is no need for you to exceed their expectations or provide them with something they did not expect. Remember, the minute we have an experience, it becomes entrenched in our expectations and thus, you will exceed any given customer’s expectations only once.
Every business would agree that the cost of securing a new customer far exceeds the cost to keep a customer with whom you already have a relationship. The estimates range from 5 times the cost to well over ten times as much to acquire a new customer.
So, one would think that the customers with whom you already have a relationship would be treated like golden assets. And that these golden assets would be seen as the fundamental reason the company exists.
Your mission statement – the statement of why your company exists – needs to reflect:
- Who you serve – who is your ideal customer
- The problem you solve or want you fulfill
- How your solution is better than other solutions available
- Above all, your mission needs to emphasize the value you place on the customers who place their trust in you!
The Dunvegan Group works with B2B companies to improve customer retention using The Platinum Rule®, “Treat other people the way they want to be treated.” Learn more about our solution.
Anne Miner founded The Dunvegan Group in 1987 as a full-service marketing research consulting firm. Under her leadership, the company has adapted to changes in the markets, advances in technology, and economic ups and downs. The firm developed its own processes, metrics, and software to support the services it delivers to Business-to-Business corporations, as well as smaller companies, including start-ups. The company serves clients across North America and around the world as they thrive and grow through serving their own customers according to the insights customers provide.
