Photo Credit: Rik Symonds – Old Souls Custom Creations
How To Get The Right Customers For Your Wood Company
Today I want to discuss how to get the right demographic for your wood products, which involves looking closely at the last few customers you’ve served, and whether they’re the people who can afford your products and services.
Think about what kind of products you sell. For example, there is a pretty big market difference between selling slabs and selling tables. If you’re selling slabs, it’s likely to other woodworkers, but if you’re selling tables it will likely be to end-users. The way you find and communicate with those customers is through demographics and psychographics.
Demographics & Psychographics
Demographics are the categories that they fit into including:
- Their age
- Where they live
- Their income status
- Their marital status
Psychographics are understanding your customer’s tastes and preferences. This can include things like:
- What car do they drive?
- What’s their mindset?
- What are their goals?
- What do they do for their hobbies?
These are the things that help you understand and get into the head of your ideal target market. Once you categorize your customers’ market and demographic, then you need to learn what their problem is and how you are uniquely positioned to solve it.
Photo Credit: Rik Symonds – Old Souls Custom Creations
Identifying and Solving Customers’ Problems
I’m going to use selling slabs as an example. If you sell slabs to woodworkers, their problem is that they can’t find a source for high-quality kiln-dried slabs, and your solution is to provide local high-quality kiln-dried and flattened slabs that are table ready.
If you’re selling finished products, you will likely be targeting a higher demographic. These customers live in wealthy neighborhoods, they’re between 35-55, they drive quality cars, they vacation, they have a second home, etc.
For these people, it might be harder to see their problem initially, but you need to figure out what their problem is, and how to solve it. If this demographic can spend $7,000-$10,000 on a table they probably make around 300k per year, they have a second home or a boat, and they want something custom that you can’t buy in a store.
Translating This Information to Your Business
It’s all about figuring out who you want to sell to. If you don’t already know your customers demographics and psychographics, look at the people who you have already made sales to, and review where they live, where they spend their time, and any other information you can find. Start compiling information about them, and learn about what their problems are and how you and your business can solve those problems.
I hope that’s helpful! Join the Facebook group to keep up to date on all things Woodpreneur!