Getting Customers On Demand: Why Knowing Your Customer is the First System to Scale
Imagine if every marketing pound you spent brought back two or three more. That’s not a pipe dream, it’s what happens when you truly understand your customer.
But here’s the problem: most businesses don’t.
They guess who their ideal customer is. Or worse; they rely on outdated assumptions from when they first started. That might be okay in year one. But if you’re a £5M - £50M engineering, manufacturing or construction business still relying on gut feel instead of data… you’re leaving serious money on the table.
As the business grows and gets busier, things get more chaotic as extra people are hired and this precious customer data gets scattered across several people’s messy notebooks or computers or mobile phones - making it impossible or hard, time consuming work to stimulate new business with cross-selling or a simple keep in touch strategy.
The Hidden Cost of Not Knowing
You might have thousands of customers emails, phone numbers and other details on paper and in emails etc. But can you answer these questions with certainty?
How did your best clients find you?
What hooked them?
What channel converted them?
What do they value most?
What made them stay?
If you don’t have this information systemised, you’re making every future sale harder than it needs to be.
And if you ever need sales in a hurry or want to scale or sell, this lack of clarity becomes a serious liability.
You Can’t Target Customers That You Don’t Understand
Knowing your customer isn’t just about industry or job title. It’s about psychology, behaviour, and context:
✅ What triggers them to act?
✅ What problems are they trying to solve?
✅ What proof do they need to trust you?
This is why big brands build customer personas and track everything. But most SME owners - especially in engineering and construction - are still trying to remember what Dave from Bolton said on the phone six months ago because it was never captured automatically in a CRM system.
Start Here: Build a System That Captures Gold
If you want on-demand customers, you need a marketing engine powered by insight. That starts with three practical steps:
1. Interview Your Best Customers.
Ask what caught their eye, what convinced them, and what nearly put them off. Document the language they use - it’s copywriting gold.
2. Map Their Journey.
Plot the key stages: Awareness → Interest → Action → Retention.
Where do they come in? What nudges them forward? What blocks the sale?
3. Systemise It in a CRM.
Not spreadsheets. A proper, user-friendly CRM that gives you insights at a glance - what works, who’s hot, and what’s next. Most CRMs are underused or never set up properly. That’s not just admin - it’s a missed opportunity.
I like ZOHO One as a system for businesses up to at least £50m. It’s cheap, completely customisable and can automate a lot of other back-office functions, allowing you to build a lean, low-overhead, responsive and scalable business.
Want to Scale? Then Stop Guessing.
Your customer data is your most underused asset. Properly managed, it becomes the engine behind:
🔹 Smarter marketing campaigns.
🔹 Lower cost per lead.
🔹 Higher conversion rates.
🔹 Repeatable and predictable growth.
It also increases your business valuation. Why? Because buyers pay more for businesses that know how to attract and keep good customers - without the owner doing all the heavy lifting.
This is Step 2 of the Freedom Blueprint: Growth
If Step 1 is moving from chaos to clarity, Step 2 is building predictable, profitable revenue. And it starts by knowing who to attract, what they want, and how to reach them.
Want help doing it?
👉 Book a clarity call today and we’ll map out your growth engine—based on data, not guesswork.
