How well do you know your clients? If you are in sales, knowing something about the people you are working with always helps you find common ground with them. Remember their kids’ names and you have their attention. Remember their kids’ birthdays and you have won their heart. That sort of connection is really important. However, I want to talk to you about knowing your clients on an entirely different level. I am talking about understanding what makes them tick – what they value, what trending attitudes to which they are prescribing and what choices they consider before making a purchase.

Several years ago, I developed what we call a VAC assessment. VAC is an acronym for Values, Attitudes and Choices. The culmination of these three help you understand and manage customer expectations. If you can figure out the VAC of your clients, you will know them well enough to effectively market to them. Here is a breakdown of each component of the VAC quotient.

Values

Simply put, values are beliefs that are typically set for life somewhere at the age of 18-25. This is what we call the coming of age period of life where a person is making choices for themselves – probably for the first time. They will decide what to accept or reject from their childhood and what they will carry forward into adulthood. It is a time of paramount importance in marketing because it is a time that many people reflect back on as some of the best days of their lives. They think highly of anything that is associated with those years (political leaders, pop culture music, films, TV shows, hair styles, clothing, etc.) However, values go much deeper than a list of popular nuances during that time frame. Values are what we hold sacred from those years. For instance, if you had a customer who was enlisted in the Marines right out of high school, they will more than likely have a great affinity for the Armed Services, but particularly for the Marines. It would not be surprising to find the Latin inscription, semper fi (the motto of the U.S. Marines meaning "always faithful”) on display in his office. For him, the Marines are not just a fun group of guys from his past, it is the definition of who he is as a person. Values go deep.

If you know what your customer values, you are able to more effectively market their products and services. How so? Let’s go back to that Marine. If you are helping him market his business and you promote his products as made in the USA, it will more than likely resonate with him. However, if you post this on a social media site that is known for it’s anti-American sentiment, you have violated his values.

Attitudes

Unlike values, attitudes are opinions for the moment – they don’t stick around forever. They may be part of the latest trending news. Attitudes typically are driven by pop culture and groupthink. They tend to be impacted by the demographic group to which you are a part of. With the onset of social media, attitudes are taken up and dropped routinely. One day something is extremely important, the next day, it’s discarded. Do you remember the Pokemon Go craze? It came out of nowhere and was gone just about as quickly as it came. While it was here, it seems that every Millennial with a smart phone (that would be 99.9% of them!) was wandering around, staring at their phones trying to capture the imaginary cartoon characters.

Understand what your clients are thinking in the moment. What are their attitudes? Technology has made it very easy to change your mind about what is important now and later abandon it for something new. Stay up on the trending thought among your client’s demographic group.

Choice

Nothing impacts the way we do business like choice does. Choice has impacted our thinking as a society more than any other factor. We have come to expect a multitude of options in everything we buy. Why are there big box stores? Choice. Why is Amazon so successful in selling products in a way that it is challenging the existence of brick and mortar retail stores? More choices!

What choices does your client have when they are considering making a purchase from you? You have to market your products and services in a way that limits the choices and makes you stand out from your competitors.

Putting it all together

The VAC analysis helps you know your clients better so you can effectively market to them. It gives you three distinct areas to understand them. If you disregard any of the three, you run the risk of pushing them away. Build your marketing campaigns on the three areas and it will help you make a strong connection with your clients.