You become your customers, so beware!
Most people starting a business have an "I'll take what's available" mindset. They got this from job hunting, and the problem with it is that they're choosing their opportunities from the things they can currently see.
Now we've discussed how critical your Reticular Activating System is when it comes to filtering all that data out there down to the survival-relevant few. That better level of customer is standing right there next to you, but you can't see them because your RAS blocked them out!
The same thing happens with salespeople. They land the new job, settle into their role, and get told by the old hands, "Here's our target market."
After all, it has always been so.
Photo by Amina Filkins from Pexels
Now if you're an operational excellence guy like me, those are trigger words. Any time I hear, "But we've always done it this way," I get curious. "Oh? According to whom? For how long? Why?"
But especially if you are a business owner, and a new business owner, realize that you have far more control over your target market than you may have realized.
Most people abdicate this responsibility.
They go out into the market and take what comes.
How You Become Your Customers
Price level? We've discussed this for years, how people make up a number that fits their money tolerance.
The size of their standard customer's business? Whatever they encountered first and got accustomed to. Now it's ingrained and "obvious".
How those buyers pay? Are they always 30 days late from the invoice?
And here's the serious problem.
You accept this.
Whatever they give you, you take.
Their behavior alters your behavior.
After awhile, you've forgotten any of this is in your control. It just "is".
They pay 30 days late? Well, now you pay 30 days late. That's just how it is.
You become your customers.
So choose wisely.
Don't take surface appearance's word for it.
Dig.
Get to know your marketplace.
Look for niches, levels, types of customers that aren't readily apparent.
Look for bundling opportunities of products or services, ways to add value, how you can really impress your ideal customer.
Don't simply accept the first thing you run into out there.
You have far more control over your target market choice than you think.
What would happen if you made a list of the desired qualities of your ideal customer... and then instructed your RAS to start filtering for that?
>> Jason Kanigan is a business development and conversion expert. Want Jason's help in defining your realistic, ideal target market? Book a consultation <<