Where Are You Fishing?

As I pause to reflect on this 2009, there was one main learning point that popped out for me. It was in regards to the where and how and am finding and attracting the people that come my customers.

When I got in this business last March, I saw that our services and product could benefit any business out there, regardless of the size, structure or industry of that business. So I started casting my fishing line in just about ever pond I could find. I talked to a a lot of people at the start and expected them to see the value or at least want to explore how we might be able to help them further. As it turned out, most of the ponds I was fishing, did not have the type of people that were interested in services and products we offer, even though it would benefit them.

What I am becoming even more aware how to qualify my potential customers. So many business owners and sales people continue to go through the day, believing that every person or business is a penitential customer because the product or service can benefit these people or businesses. Most of these business owners and sales people never take the time to look at the where there actual customers are coming from. What are their demographics, geographic or other organizations the majority of your customers coming from.

As as I tracked the the results of my efforts to attract clients this last year, the theme that continues to pop out is that for my business is there a only two out of about five or six different ponds that I have been fishing in that are actually generating customers. The numbers really don't lie if you take the time to look at them. What these to ponds or groups have in common is that the sales people and business owners that are in them, have to make a descent investment every year to be part of these groups. Networking groups, trade organizations and other groups with a low investment point, tend to have people in them that are not willing to invest much in them selves or their businesses to grow and improve which is what our services and product help them do.

Going into 2010, armed with this info about what ponds my actual customers are coming from is going to drastically ramp up the success of my business because I will be moving most of my focus and efforts to fishing for customers in only these two groups, instead of spreading my focus out over all of these other groups out there. This will mean that I will be talking to the right people a lot more of the time and not wasting my valuable time talking with people that won't invest in them selves or their business.

If you want to do more business with less effort, stop throwing a fishing line in every pond that you can find. Take a moment and look at what your existing customers have in common. Is it the business there in, is it the groups they belong to, is it where they a geographically located, or what ever else you can find that they have in common. This will allow you to throw all your fishing lines into the few ponds that generate the most percentage of customers and save a lot of time and energy fishing in a ponds that does not have the kind of fish that want.