OK, so finding customer commonality is important. If we know what traits our customers share we can find more customers like themand market smarter to our existing customers.

Employees contact customers on a regular basis. This employee experience is a malnourished asset small business marketers fail to utilize as a vital resource for developing further insight into customer commonality. This is understandable in large companies, where marketing is often far removed from any employees with frontline customer contact. But, in a small company, chances are you have plenty of direct customer contact. If not, then at a minimum you rub elbows with the people in your company that do.

So, the problem in the small company is a bit the opposite of that in the large company. Large company marketers sometimes don't know the employees with direct customer contact; small company marketers mistakenly believe that since they have frequent customer contact they know the customers quite well.

But, most of the time you have at best a partial picture of the customer. You know your world-view of the customer, but you really need to see the view of the customer from at least three to five other employees that are engaged in face-to-face customer touch. Your view will be limited by the actual customers you come in contact with, the product lines you handle, and your own perceptions. No matter how long you've been with the company, no matter how many customers you speak with, this third limitation is impossible to overcome without help.

The challenge, then, is to create a core cadre of employees you can rely on to gain deeper insight. This is, of course, going to be more work for them. But, it needn't be arduous. You aren't asking your co-workers to work overtime on this project. Rather, you need just some insights into what common traits your customers have that you currently may not be aware of.

Of course, if you have a Bloom Team, you know who to go to. If you dont, then the rest of this article is for you.

We suggest two 45 minute meetings with a team you trust. Steer the group toward where you want them to go with some general questions. Open-ended questions that dont have a yes/no answer work best to urge on conversation.

Your job as Chief Marketer is to fan the fires of discussion so the group interacts and generates ideas which you can then implement. Just add some small topics to discuss, throw in a few additional insights now and then, and channel the group discussion toward your end goal--understanding customer commonality. If the topic gets too tangential such as straying into personalities or fixing the company's problems you'll have to steer the group gently back on task.

Why not just dole out a survey to the employees you choose and let them fill it out when they get a chance? Key insights emerge when people share their own experience with their peers.

Why two sessions? In the first session everybody brings their own experience with customers and their own conceptions regarding customer commonality to the table. They take away from that first session the kernels of some good ideas the group has created. In between meeting one and two some employees will think up new insights. They will understand customer commonality in new ways, plus they will discover new avenues to reach the customer. These perceptions can fuel new marketing programs. So its important to give these new ideas time to percolate.

Remember the Chief Marketer is responsible for implementing the ideas; but the more input about your customers you gain from your fellow employees, the more powerful your marketing will be.

Remember: Brand (who you are) + Package (your Face to the Customer) + People (customers and employees) = Marketing Success.

2006 Marketing Hawks