Recently, I was speaking to someone who was beginning to lose the will to do business. They felt they had invested time, energy and effort in building a business and yet, it was not working the way they wanted it to.
And I understand that… It can be hard to keep going in your business when it does not seem to be giving you the results you thought you would get by this time. Frustration starts to set in and you wonder why you bother. You begin to hate your customers and wonder why they do not just release the money so much sooner.
Ultimately, it is pretty frustrating when you feel like this.
Anyway, there was this person, all frustrated and wondering whether to quit now before investing more of their time in it and also, they were looking to me for some magic cure – After all, I do have the answers to all life and business questions everywhere, right?!
Anyway, I got to thinking that there was more to this than meets the eye and so I asked more questions.
“Tell me more about your customers”
And then I got told more of the full story…
This entrepreneur, like most, had started the business with a big dream about working with a certain type of person who appreciated the product they provided but as the months went by, they started to widen their net.
They started to advertise to anyone who would turn up.
They started to think anyone would do but then found out that they did not much like anyone.
When they attracted anyone, they got ‘ANYONE’
And ‘ANYONE’ did not appreciate the exclusivity of their offering.
And now the entrepreneur leader was beginning to hate the business, hate the customers, hate everything about making money in this way.
This entrepreneur had forgotten the basic principle of defining your customer profile, your ideal customer and only choosing to attract that person, come what may.
And it happens to the best of people. They start business with a great idea and a great dream.
They have an ideal customer profile because they know that what they offer is probably not for everyone but then as they start to actually do business, they get worried that they cannot find enough of the right people so they start to ask anyone to come, hoping and hoping that anyone will buy from them.
The problem is that anyone does not want to buy what they have and definitely does not want it at the price that the entrepreneur wants to sell it. And so they haggle and talk back and forth and no money changes hands.
Frustration mixed with despair starts to settle in the heart of the budding entrepreneur and then add on all the well-meaning relatives and friends who wonder why they bother in the first place, and you get an entrepreneur who is ready to quit in no time at all.
I see this happen time and time again and I have even fallen foul of it myself. It is never worth it.
Instead, take a moment, right now to get clear again on the kind of people you do want in your world.
Right now, whip out your journal and get clear again on who you feel called to serve.
Give them a name…
Write out their age, sex, location…
What is their education level, if relevant…
What kinds of things do they read?
What kind of movies do they watch?
What keeps them up thinking at night or first thing in the morning?
How do they want to be perceived by the people around them?
Are they parents? Are they single people?
Get clear, very clear about the psyche of your ideal customer – Write out that customer profile, engrave it on your brain and only ever speak to that person in all your marketing. Keep calling that person out and refuse to settle for anyone but that customer profile.
You may not know all the inner workings of your ideal customer profile yet but as you start to attract the right people in, you will get clearer and clearer. You can even identify people in your world right now that seem to fit your customer profile and go speak to them about their needs, wants, desires. Take copious notes of the exact language they use and determine to use that in your marketing.
It is also okay to realise that these people are very much like you. Then speak to yourself in your marketing.
Stop settling for the attraction of everyone.
Call in your people and your people only.
Do not be afraid to polarize the rest.
When desperate, you may think you want everyone but it rarely ever works out well, so stop being too general.
