This is the first episode in a new series about selling without being fake. In this episode, we talk about clearly defining what your customer values and developing an effective customer survey.
Podcast Transcript:
Joshua MacLeod:
Number one thought; you are not your target audience. Don’t think like yourself. What if your product had a much larger customer base than you ever dreamed of?
Podcast Announcer:
Welcome to the Growability podcast, teaching business and nonprofit leaders a more excellent way to run a business. Visit growability.com for your leadership, coaching, consultation and business collaboration needs. This is the first episode in a new series about selling without being fake. In this episode, we talk about clearly defining what your customer values and developing an effective customer survey. Here are your hosts, Joshua MacLeod, and Bernie Anderson.
Bernie Anderson:
What is the first thing you need to think about when you’re going to sell a product or service?
Joshua MacLeod:
I have an answer to that and I’ll give you an illustration.
Bernie Anderson:
Excellent.
Joshua MacLeod:
The answer is, and I try to just get this drilled into the head of any entrepreneur that I ever work with. It’s said early, it’s said often, and it is this; you are not your target audience! You are not your target customer. Your target customer is your target customer, but you are not your target customer. Think about this. When Crocs, when they first came out, they had this amazing idea to create boat shoes. So Crocs didn’t come out as like a cushy shoe for kids and celebrities. Crocs actually came out when they brought their product to the market, they were trying to design a better boat shoe. You know, if they get fish guts or whatever, you just spray them off and they’re just ready to go.
Joshua MacLeod:
They were at a boat show and they had, they had ordered 200 of these proprietary boat shoes and they sold them out at the first show. So think about this. The people who made Crocs, they had no idea the market that was available to Crocs. They were thinking, hey, why don’t we actually develop a product for all the boating enthusiasts out there and then we’ll sell them. What happened was some famous people, apparently were at this boat show, bought the Crocs, and now there’s like a social media post where, you know, Jennifer Aniston or something like that is wearing Crocs. And now everybody like where did you get those shoes? Those must be cool because my celebrity is wearing these shoes. And in 2007, George Bush wears black Crocs with socks. In August, 2009, Michelle Obama was wearing Crocs with her daughter. In June 14th, 2015, prince George son of prince William and Kate Middleton was wearing Crocs and the week after that, they had a 1500% increase of sales.
Joshua MacLeod:
Enough people started buying Crocs that were a status symbol until… Somebody put them on their kid. And then it was like, this is the super shoe. My kid, I don’t have to tie laces. I don’t have to find socks. I don’t have to do anything. They can put them on themselves. And now it’s like, these things are amazing kids’ shoes. They can get totally muddy. I take them outside. I spray them off with the hose. I guess the whole point of all of that is, what if your product had a much larger customer base than you ever dreamed of, but in order to embrace that customer base, in order to get into that market, you have to stop thinking of boat shoes and you have to start thinking about kids’ shoes and celebrity shoes and things like that.
Joshua MacLeod:
So, number one thought you are not your target audience. Don’t think like yourself. Secondarily, you want to figure out what is it that your customer, your target customer, really values.