Who are you selling to?
'Who' is arguably more important than the; what, why or when of your community and its platform.
Picture your 'who', your ideal member for your community.
I expect you've got someone pictured, but wait.
Let's pick that apart.
Over the last few newsletters, we've talked about knowing your core metrics and how you report on them.
Knowing your 'who', or using their official title, Ideal Member Profile (IMP), should change everything you do and impact how you implement new ideas.
Knowing your IMP allows you to adjust your tone of voice and email frequency, understand their buying patterns, budget, end goals, and so on.
So, if you agree with me that the member's profile is essential, then why is it revisited so infrequently?
There are already enough guides written on creating your Ideal Member Profile, but I will share a few thoughts on creating processes for reviewing and adjusting.
1) 1st of the month
Review IMP and check upcoming plans, events and platform changes align best with the IMP
2) 1st of each quarter
Your role as a leader is to be repeating the vision over and over. Take the time to come up with a creative way to remind your whole team of your IMP.
3) Yearly
Review and adjust your IMP, ensure that your business goals and IMP align. Your sales team may be switching from focusing on sub $1m turnover companies, to +$1M clients, for example.
4) Red flag system
At Steadfast Collective we use the idea of a red flag warning system. This could be; 🚩 Invoice for Elon Musk overdue / 🚩 Design budget over by 16% / 🚩 Our next event is undersubscribed. Allow your team to raise a flag without fear when the activity doesn't align with your IMP.
Processes like this allow you to set and forget and gain just a little more headspace.
Thanks for reading,
Pete
PS: I chatted with the excellent Rachael Silvano who is the Community Operations Manager over at Zapier in our most recent podcast.
You'll know Zapier as the company that connects tools without the need for understanding APIs.
We chat about all things;
- Using Circle as a platform
- What metrics is Zapier tracking for their community
- Community Cohorts
- How Rachael works with her exec team to portray community value
You're not going to want to miss this one!