Entrepreneurship 101: Part 2
" Identifying Your REAL Customers"
Who is your customer?
"Well, duh, James... everyone knows that the customer is the person buying my product or service (idiot!)”
Okay, I’ll give you that. But the question you need to ask yourself is, “Who is the decision maker behind that person?” To illustrate, let me tell you a couple of stories…
“Healthy Tigers”
Once, my wife and I were grocery shopping. Now, being the good parents that we think we are, as we proceeded down the cereal aisle, we naturally grabbed a box of nasty, cardboard flavored bran flakes and put them in the cart.
My daughter, who was six at the time, asked, “What’s that, daddy?”
“That’s for breakfast,” I replied.
“But I want the tiger,” she said. Of course, she was referring to the infamous frosted “Tony” brand.
Then, after a few back and forth remarks, she flashed those little I-love-you-daddy eyes at me. Make a guess which box of cereal we walked out with.
Who was the REAL customer?
“Zero to Sixty in 15 Minutes”
Some years later, when our other two children had joined their sister, I was in the market for a new car. I was making good money and I had worked hard. And as a reward to myself, I had my eye on this beautiful red Ford Mustang. Yes, sir. Leather seats. Convertible. Zero to sixty in mere seconds.
“Where are the kids going to sit?” my wife inquired.
“Um… I thought they would ride with you. This is going to be my car.”
“Uh, huh. And what if I have to work and you have to take them to school. Then what?”
“Ummm… they could take the bus?” Notice this was not an answer as much as it was a question.
“Alright, Mr. Smarty Pants. What happens if I am unavailable and they have to go to the doctor? There’s no bus.”
You can see where this was going, right? Make a guess what color mini-van we drove off in.
Who was the REAL customer?
“Understanding Your Market”
We will discuss understanding your market in detail in the next lesson. For now, your homework exercise is to begin thinking about what it is that you are marketing and who your customers are.
Start first with the obvious: the man or woman actually buying what you are presenting. Next, start to go a little deeper. Much like we were taught to “dig down” when doing keyword research, you need to dig down through the mindset of your customers.
Who are they? Why are they buying? Most importantly, what’s behind that buying decision? Who is the REAL customer?
You see, no matter how mature I thought I was, I could not resist those beautiful baby brown eyes. And no matter how much I loved that Mustang, there was no way I was walking out as anything other than a not-so-proud owner of a mini-van (and it wasn't even red!) And in either case, it didn’t matter how good that sales pitch was; it was all about the REAL customer. And that is the person you should be marketing to... then they will sell your product or service to the one with the money.
As always, please post your thoughts, comments, and experiences below.
Recent Comments
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BEING PRACTICAL WINS? BOOOOOOOO! Whats up with that? Good things to think adout thought. Thanks for the lessom and the spot of humor.
You make an excellent point. The head of the house is rarely the decision-maker. He just does what he's told. Right?
B....
You really should have gotten a red one. Enough is enough. These daughters--and grandaughters-- can make fools of us all. Don't ya love it?
You told a story. That's why this one really works. I was going to save it for later but a quick scan at the first few lines and you got me. Nice....Dick