Market to Customers, Not Yourself
It Almost Killed My Business.
I almost went bankrupt because I didn’t know who my customers were.
That sounds ridiculous now. But it’s true.
Back when I ran a gourmet food (pink salt!) business, I was convinced I knew who the product was for. Young professionals, foodies, people like me. So, that’s who I marketed to.
And then I hit a wall. None of these young foodies wanted what I was selling. I was two months away from shutting it all down.
As a last-ditch effort, I pulled up our customer list…and actually looked at it. Turns out, most of our customers were much older than I expected. Not even close to the demo I’d been marketing to.
So I did some digging and discovered that they weren’t buying the food because it tasted premium.
They were buying it to manage high blood pressure. The salt compound we used had less sodium but actually tasted saltier, so people needed less of it.
I wasn’t catering to foodies at all. I was helping older folks manage their health!
Everything changed after that realization. I repositioned the product and adjusted the strategy…and sales took off. That pivot saved the business (and eventually helped me sell it).
But more than that, it taught me something I’ve used ever since:
Talk to your customers. Then talk to them again. And seriously, look at your customer spreadsheet once in a while.
Your answers aren’t in a deck or dashboard. More often than not, they’re in the customer conversation you haven’t had yet.