Ideal Contacts You should also apply this exercise to the kinds of buyers and influencers you work with, who buy from you. “Our ideal contact is a VP Sales who is new to their role (less than 90 days in), who is looking to make things happen. They are process-oriented, report to the CEO or division president, and love data and reports. Their challenges include not being able to give accurate reports to their CEO because of problems with their sales system or the data in it…” Their Core Challenges As a final exercise in getting clear on your ideal customer profile, what are the core challenges of the company and of the individuals involved in the buying process? You can learn these easily, just by asking! Whether by phone or by an online survey like SurveyMonkey, ask prospects and clients questions such as: What are your greatest challenges? What keeps you up at night? What are your main frustrations? What are you afraid of? What’s most important to you? What do you spend money on? What do you really, really, REALLY want? Refresh Regularly Finally, you can have more than one kind of "ideal customer" and you also might have "ideal partners." Limit yourself to 1-5 types of profiles. If you think you need more than that, your marketing strategy needs focusing.