Your ideal customer
Lesson 2 of 31 in the course “Million Dollar Sales Course”. Free, with animations and a quiz.
Selling to everyone means selling to no one
Last lesson you picked a product. Now the big question: who are you selling it to? “Everyone into video editing” isn’t an answer. Jim Edwards, author of “Copywriting Secrets”, narrows it down like darts: niche (editing), sub-niche (new creators), micro-niche (a teen who films gaming clips). The closer to the bullseye, the sharper your words. And sharp words read as “that’s literally me”.
Head first, passport later
Age, gender and city are demographics. Useful, but they don’t sell. Psychographics sell: what’s going on in someone’s head. Edwards calls the customer F.R.E.D.: Fears, Results, Expectations, Desires. Sabri Suby adds in “Sell Like Crazy” that fear of losing moves people harder than wanting to gain. So first find out what scares them and what they want, and only then how old they are.
The gap and the bridge
Another Edwards model. The customer stands on one edge of a gap: they have problems, questions and roadblocks. On the other edge is the result they want. They can’t jump it alone, and first they must believe it can be crossed. Your product is the bridge, and your words help them step onto it in their head. Write three items for your customer: problems, questions, roadblocks, plus the result they want. Headlines and emails will grow from that list later.
People buy “want”, not “need”
Edwards admits that at first he sold people what they needed, and nothing sold. Everyone needs to eat healthy, and almost nobody does it. People buy what they want: to fit into their favourite jeans by summer. It’s not a trick. The rule is: sell through the “want” and put the “need” inside the product. The guide will cover protein and carbs, but the cover promises being in shape for the season.
9 questions to know your customer
Suby calls this person your “dream buyer” and gives 9 questions. Where do they hang out, online and offline? Where do they look things up? What frustrates them? What do they dream of? What do they fear? How do they prefer to talk? What words do they use? What’s their day like? What makes them happy? Be specific: not “uses social media” but “watches reviews on YouTube Shorts before bed”. The sharper the answer, the clearer where and how to talk to them.
Eavesdrop on how customers talk
Don’t invent the answers, eavesdrop on them. Suby says to look where your people already talk: YouTube comments, Reddit, marketplace reviews, Telegram chats. Type your topic into search and read the suggestions: those are real questions from real people. Copy their words exactly. There’s an old line from copywriter Robert Collier: join the conversation already going on in the customer’s mind. In their own words your text reads like a message from a friend, not an ad.
Case: Dollar Shave Club
March 2012. Michael Dubin launches a razor subscription with a single YouTube video. The video talks to one hero: a guy who hates spending money on pricey razors and time on going out to buy them. The slogan says exactly that: “Shave Time. Shave Money.” According to Wikipedia, the server crashed in the first hour, 12,000 orders came in within 48 hours, and the video has over 27 million views. In 2016 Unilever bought the company for a reported $1 billion.
Your move: give your customer a name
Edwards gives his customer a name: “Fred the Flipper”, not “real estate investors”. With a name you write to one real person, not a crowd. Take your product from last lesson and fill in the card: name and what they do, what frustrates them, what they want, what they fear, where they hang out. The picture shows an example: Misha the Editor, 16, films gaming clips and dreams of his first 10,000 followers. For the rest of the course, every text you write is for Misha.
Check yourself
- Which customer description will help you sell more?
Correct answer: Misha, 16, films gaming clips, hates that they’re boring, dreams of 10,000 followers. It has everything that sells: a specific person, their pain, their dream and where they hang out. It’s easy to write a headline for this person that reads as “that’s me”. - Which headline will work better?
Correct answer: How to get in shape for the season and not burn out by week two. The headline sells the “want”: being in shape for the season and making it stick this time. The “need”, eating right, lives inside the guide. - How do you find out the words your customers use?
Correct answer: Read comments under videos in your niche and copy them word for word. In comments people write what frustrates them and what they want, in their own words. It’s free research, and those words go straight into your headlines later. - What helped the video most?
Correct answer: It talked to one hero and his two pains: money and time. The slogan and the video aimed at one person and his pains. When people recognise themselves, they watch to the end and buy.
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