<p>I just attended a Biznik gathering here in NYC. It was truly wonderful to meet people face to face whom I have been creating a relationship with online. It was even more fulfilling to meet some members of the NYC Biznik community whom I hadn't met online.</p> <p>Yet I noticed some of the same mindset in them, which I was fixed in myself, when I was a tyro as an entrepreneur. That was the mindset of the "no frills" start up. Like so many others starting out in a new venture, I spent (wasted) a great deal of time looking, evaluating, and comparing/contrasting before I would allow myself to spend a dime. I was more than just parsimonious; I was miserly. I had taken the 'leap of faith' and severed my employment in order to devote myself to the pursuit of my dream. I had limited resources and for a time, no income. So I recognized and understood the concern amongst my fellow Biznik community members about making a bad purchase decision.</p> <p>Let me state in no uncertain terms, this mindset is connected to logic and the reality of a currently uncertain market. Yet if all of our potential clients view us and our offerings to them in the same manner, we are <strong>DOOMED</strong> to see no business. Each and every one of us fully <strong>KNOWS</strong> the benefits of our product or service to our clients/customers. It is to share these benefits that we entered our businesses in the first place. Yet we look at our resistent prospects and their inability to see these benefits as the reason why they aren't buying.</p> <p>That's just not true. <strong>We are the reason they aren't buying!</strong> They are catching our vibe and resonating with it. If we approach our business lives with a 'no frills' attitude, what else should we expect from our prospects? One of the first things I learned about Sales and Marketing, over 30 years ago, is that people tend to buy from <em><strong>PEOPLE LIKE THEMSELVES IN THEIR PERCEPTION</strong></em>. Anyone would find it difficult to buy even the most crucial necessities from a blue skinned alien with 2 heads and tentacles instead of arms. If we were dying of thirst, we might pass up his bottled water stand, even in the middle of the desert.</p> <p>Now none of us (or so I think) are aliens. We are all in the common weal and share the same needs and desires. Many of us have read books and been counseled by experts telling us to '<em>determine who our ideal customer or client is</em>.' Many of us have created our business models around servicing this ideal customer. <em><strong>Yet, few if any of us have focused on whether or not we have anything in common with him</strong></em>. And the most important characteristic, we must have in common is <em><strong>the willingness to buy</strong></em>!</p> <p>Just like 'thoughts become things;' beliefs create our reality. What we think about will manifest itself and what we believe in creates our thoughts. The collection of beliefs we hold is the matrix within which our worldview and personal philosophy are shaped. There is nothing more powerful in our lives. And in the business area of our lives nothing is more powerful than our view about money and philosophy about spending.</p> <p>A great deal of, if not the totality of these beliefs come from our upbringing. The vast majority of us were raised by our families and indoctrinated by the public educational system to be employees. It is the smallest minority who were raised to be in business. "Get a good job," "something to depend on," "there's always work at the post office," "you have to do what is practical," et al are all phrases most of us have heard from our parents about our career choices. They had our best interests at heart and were dilligently trying to ensure our security.</p> <p>Still, none of this advice, nor the mindset underlying it prepared us to be self-employeed or entrepreneurial. Another 'old saw' we all heard from our parents as a reason to not purchase something was, "<em><strong>you don't need that!</strong></em>" We were taught that money was so <strong>holy</strong> and so <strong>scarce</strong> that only the most vital necessities were worthy of an exchange of it. This philosophy is the thoughtform that we cannot overcome, if we live by it. If we are keeping our purses shut tight, why should we expect our prospects to do otherwise?</p> <p>In our business's start-up phase, we often attempt to be the '<em><strong>single source</strong></em>' for everything in our operations. We become our own research, procurement, design, operations, marketing, distribution, and strategic &amp; tactical analysis units. And the worst part of doing this is that almost none of us are prepared by training or experience to perform all of these functions. We enter into a constantly diminishing pattern because we are so tight fisted with our money, we fail to purchase services we truly need. We ruin ourselves and our business by; starting out underfunded, failing to hire experts in the conceptualizing and design phase, refusing to acquire resource people in the early operational stage, and never establishing business relationships, by being a customer to the vendors who could become our resources during challenged phases. <em><strong>We never were ideal customers and therefore we never find any</strong></em>.</p> <p>I asked a few of the attendees at the Biznik gathering some pointed questions. I asked, "who are your potential co-venture partners?" I also asked, "is the level of commitment equal between you and your customers, to each other's profitability and success?" Finally I asked one of them, "whose ideal customer are you?" None of them had an answer.</p> <p>These were of course 'trick' questions. I didn't expect any greenhorns to know the answers that only hardened veterans generally find out by surviving the commercial battlefield. So I collected cards from as many as I could. During the next week or two I will strive dilligently to find someone(s) whom I can buy from. I will make a commitment to being his (or her) ideal customer. I will approach our relationship with the intention that their success will become as important to me as my own. I know from years of experience that by doing these things, I will be creating my own ideal customers.</p> 2009-04-19T05:50:49Z 2009-04-20T06:17:52Z -8.89738 499 4231 true 15 346 you-must-be-your-ideal-customer-in-order-to-see-your-ideal-customer 15 2009-04-20T06:15:03Z 2009-04-20T06:17:52Z

We must be customers in order to have customers. If we refuse everything that is offered to us; everyone we offer our goods or services to will turn us down in turn. Commerce is a two way street!

1 2009-04-20T06:26:59Z