Are you throwing darts at the right customers?

By Charlie on May 12th, 2009 | 8

Disclaimer: The next sentence contains the “f” word.
This post is fucking brilliant.

darts

There is a gigantic and almost universal mistake being made by salesmen, website owners, bloggers, ad men, affiliate marketers and probably even vegetables and fish. It’s going on right now in the world of business.

Here’s a little scenario. At the end of it is a question which you should answer as honestly as possible because it highlights this common confusion.

Scenario: You’re a coffee salesman and you sell the best coffee ever. Gandhi himself drinks urns of it, and even the Anti-Coffee Coalition gave you a testimonial that reads, “Coffee is the fruit of Satan’s loins, but damn this is good stuff!”

Now, there’s a dude named Biff. He looooves coffee. He lives on the other side of the world from you, has never heard of you, doesn’t know you have a website, doesn’t know you sell coffee, doesn’t know your phone number and doesn’t care because he gets his coffee fix from the cafe down the street.

Now here’s the question:

Is Biff your potential customer?

Most people say, “Yes. If he’s a coffee lover and I sell coffee, he’s my potential customer.”

Sorry, he’s not. That sale is never going to happen. Not in a billion years. How is Biff going to become your customer if he doesn’t even know you exist?

And don’t be pulling this, “Well, you said potential customer,” stuff.

Yeah, I guess if we kidnapped Biff, got him hooked on crack then took it away, threatened his children, blew up his house and slowly plucked out his eyelashes, he might potentially buy our coffee if we asked him nicely. K, yeah, sure. By those methods everyone in the universe is a potential customer.

But let’s be realistic. If you can’t reach people, they’re not going to be customers. It is an impossibility.

Here’s another scenario. Joe hates hates hates the color red. Somehow, while doing “important market research” online during work hours, he finds himself on your site: WeOnlySellRedStuff.com.

Is Joe a potential customer? I mean…he’s right there looking at your site, so he must be, right?

Nope. Joe’s not in the market for anything red, nor are his friends and family. So he’s not going to buy from you. Not ever.

Here’s the thing about potential customers, and pay attention because this can make you a trillion dollars and is so brilliant I wish I’d just thought of it:

A potential customer is already a partially-targeted individual. He wants your product. He just hasn’t bought it yet.

And the even more money-earning and brilliant corollary law to this is:

If you’ve truly got a potential customer, hold on to him for all you’re worth because this is where the money is.

What a potential customer REALLY looks like

Example: If Dave is in your store gazing intently at your lingerie, feeling fabrics, holding bras ad panties up to himself in the mirror and saying, “Oh yeah, that’s so me,” he’s a real potential customer.

Example: If some dude comes to your blog every week, comments on your wares/posts/whatever and seems genuinely interested, he’s a potential customer.

Example: If some dude says to you, “I’ve been looking for a replacement widget for this shit widget I’ve been using, and yours seems to be about right,” don’t let him leave without buying. He’s a real potential customer.

Example: If anyone ever says anything even slightly remotely similar to, “I’ve been searching for a good gun/wife/meal/recipe/ostrich/acne remover/arsonist or serial killer,” you’re looking at a real potential customer. Sell him shit. Immediately.

Get it? Forget about the guys around the world who need to be tapped on the shoulder 16 times at your expense before they realize you’re there. Concentrate on the real and interested people right in front of you.