May 14, 2010 32 Comments

Who is Your Buyer

Me Again I know this sounds a bit crazy, but do you spend a lot of time thinking of your buyer, of your ideal customer? Do you spend your time thinking about how to satisfy her business needs? Do you think about solving her problems in new and helpful ways? Are you so totally into your clients and your new prospects that you spend sleepless nights thinking about them?

Every time I walk through an airport, I think of GoToMeeting, one of our clients at New Marketing Labs. I think of new ways to help them with Workshifting and the like. I think of SAS and their social media analytics tool, and wonder what else we can do to promote it. I think about how to help promote Edison Research and their Twitter Usage in America report.

Those people (and several more) are my clients at New Marketing Labs.

I also think about you, the professional in smaller and midsized businesses. I think about the people that John Jantsch and Becky McCray serve.

I think about my buyers and clients all the time. I think about my would-be customers all the time.

Do I Think About My Competitors?

Not very often, no. Know why? Because what will that get me? Yes, I can see if any of their offerings are better than my offerings, but then, I create my offerings for my buyers, so why would I try to copy their offerings, which are for their buyers?

I think of ways to get people to say yes. I think of ways to get the people who’ve said yes to be happier. I sometimes actually even ask the people who say yes to me what they think (crazy, I know).

Which Do You Think Gets You More Business?

That’s the question.

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  • http://www.kherize5.com Suzanne Vara

    Chris

    I like you do not really think so much about my competitors. Sure, I take a peek over at what they are doing or hear from others locally what is going on but when I do even start to think about them not only do I lose focus on what I am doing for my agency, I am giving up time thinking about my buyer and clients and they are not paying the agency to think about competitors.

    This may or may not be the ideal business model. I look to folks like John Jantsch for how to improve the agency and what direction I want to take it in. I mean what benefit is there to go and spend time on the competitor? So I could try and copy what they are doing and try to do it better? Sure there could be some value in that but then that is going after their buyer and not me servicing my clients and buyers. Is it that cut and dry? I am not sure. What happens if they are watching and copying what the agency is doing and they talk to my buyer? Would they ever have been my buyer?

    Interesting thoughts here.

    @SuzanneVara

  • http://panlilio.blogspot.com/ Victor Panlilio

    Jeff Bezos said: Obsess over your customers. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hxX_Q5CnaA

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    I mean, we all learn from the people around us, but I hope that we're spending more time on our would-be buyers. Hey, nice new avatar, by the way. : )

  • http://www.kherize5.com Suzanne Vara

    that is the beauty of the work that you and all the rest of the leaders do each day – we learn from you and then others learn from us. Avatar is courtesy of my son playing with the camera – at least this time it is my face =-). Thanks for noticing.

  • http://impulsemagazine.net Impulse Magazine

    You have to become both the buyer and seller at all times. This will always put yourself in a position to negotiate on your terms

  • fichtnerbass

    The lesson about spending time thinking about your competitors and what they are doing is one that my first market research mentor taught me 20 years ago. If I was spending my time thinking about them or what they were doing, I didn't have that time to think about my clients, their needs and how I could meet them. It's stuck with me a long time.

  • David Siteman Garland

    Chris – I'd be interested to hear your strategy for Go To Meeting or have someone on the show from Go To Meeting…let me know if there is someone to reach out to.

  • http://www.martinkoss.com/ Martin Koss

    “Do I Think About My Competitors?”
    I believe there is always things worth knowing about what the competition is up to (in social media there are occasional opportunities presented by listening to what people are saying and how the 'competitor' is responding – or not) but some businesses get a bit obsessed with it.

    Example: a few years ago I spent a lot of time with a double glazing firm and the MD was somewhat obsessed with 'crushing the local competitor' and my advice was constantly “stop obsessing with beating them – just be better than them – the marketplace will know you're better”.

    There's room in all markets for the best, the worst, and every level in between and there's a slice of every market that will go for the cheaper option (short-term minded) and a (hopefully bigger) slice that will lean toward the best (quality and value for money).

    The best in any industry become the best by following many logical paths and procedures but up there is focusing primarily on producing and delivering “the best” they can. By doing so the business becomes known by reputation and promoted by natural “word of mouth” online and offline. Especially in our 'new world' where more people have a louder voice.

    One of my fav bits of advice is “be aware of your competition's strengths and weaknesses while focusing on being the Amazon of your industry – people will come back time and time again and they will recommend you”.

  • annholman

    I often think Chris that if you are looking over your shoulder at your competitors too often, you are tripping over your future. I believe that those businesses that leave 'destructive' competition where it belongs, on the sports field, are far more likely to succeed by participating in co operative competition!

  • http://www.squidoo.com/WhatCanIDoToSaveMyrelationshipYouAsk girlfriendback

    after all your years of experience you still have that obssesion of beginners,
    really, i can't understand it.

  • http://twitter.com/VelChain Dave Lutz

    Chris, in most cases I agree that it doesn't make too much sense to focus on your competition. Every now and then though, consultants like us, work with a company that is getting their butt kicked. When you can capture a deep understanding of why, it gives you the baseline to take a giant leap forward and become the butt kicker that's offering more value to the buyer. But even after making the leap, if you aren't having sleepless nights thinking about clients and would be clients, you'll lose your edge.

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    I can see that, Dave. That makes sense. So getting back in the game might take a little lateral viewing?

  • http://chrisbrogan.com Chris Brogan

    I'm not sure I'd want to be the best in my industry. I just want to be the one people choose. I guess that's a silly way to look at it, but that's how I've done it for years.

    Liked your “be the amazon of your industry” point. : )

  • http://www.martinkoss.com/ Martin Koss

    Thanks Chris. Doesn't “being the best” (or as near as you can get) lend itself to “being the one people choose”? Especially through referrals, word of mouth, mentions, etc., Isn't that how your popularity grew? By being the guy many of us started listening to – largely via referrals – at various stages of your career?

  • http://www.mindadventure.com/ rob white

    The world as we see it really is a product of our imagination. It is a fiction in our minds that manifests as part of our physical reality. If I think about how to serve my customers and how to work with my colleagues and how to benefit in ways that works for all concerned – that is what I will get. The rest is quite natural. If I think about my competitors and worry about my progress – Bingo!

  • http://conversational-uk.co.uk/ Rich Baker – Conversational UK

    Thanks for sharing. Your post reminds me of the desire for businesses to always benchmark, benchmark, benchmark with competitors. The danger is you only ever become as good as your competitors.
    In any case, who said they were doing it right anyway?

  • http://dannybrown.me Danny Brown

    Asking the people that say “Yes” more often is the one that gets me more business. We can come out with strategy, execution, ad-hoc changes if and when needed and more; but at the end of the day, our client's still make the final decision.

    If we're taking them down a completely different path than the one they've been used to, we always need to ask them if they're comfortable. Unless our clients have full buy-in and are 100% behind our ideas, they won't out the commitment in that's needed to make the change the success it needs to be.

    It's like taking the horse to water – how do we know it likes water? Maybe it just wants some hay instead.

    Cheers!

  • dancingbaglady

    An existing customer is so valuable. Once you have them concentrate on keeping them. Your competition doesn't have your customer and if you were paying attention they wouldn't be thinking about going to the competition. Sometimes you do part ways with customers and you know, when parting ways, is good for the both of you. If you don't know you will fight a battle not worth fighting.

  • julieannejones

    I love this post, Chris. About a year ago, I made the conscious decision to cease focusing on what my competitors were doing and offering because I found every time I did, I felt a sense of panic, like what I was doing wasn't good enough. It was stealing my creativity and my focus from my own amazing clients and what I could offer that best suited their needs. I opted out of all of my competitor's mailing lists and informed my staff that we were now solely focused on our own plan and what were the perfect products and programs for our clients. I was not longer interested in who got which speaking gig or what amazing new program someone else was offering that “everyone” was signing up for.

    I also hold the belief that the Universe is infinitely abundant, so it's possible for all of us (me and my competitors) to succeed at our own level and based on our own goals. Their success doesn't have to mean I'm getting “less of the market” and vice-versa. This simple shift literally transformed my business in the midst of what everyone kept telling me was a recession. As I focused on what was best for me and my clients, the ideas flowed and my online reputation as a “giver” who truly cares about my client grew.

    Thanks for reminding me again this morning about where my focus needs to be in order to work my business with integrity and for optimal success.

  • gauravjha

    To be extremely honest, and without sounding pompous, I do have sleepless nights thinking about my clients. Since I'm not in Sales, I don't really think about “prospects”.

    My clients are my prime focus. “How can I get them to leverage Social Media better”, “how can I educate them more on Social CRM”, “how do I enable them to get the best ROI”. These are questions that continuously plague me. I dream of helping them increase adoption of my tool, and leverage the power of Social Media that I bring to them. I dream of the sleepless nights I spend in educating them how to use the tool for better prospecting.

    Enough about what i dream of. Social Media is the new technological wave that we're all counting on. Hoping it emerges as the new life saver for sales guys. We're getting to a point where I'm able to prove that it's true. You CAN prospect better, and understand the pains of your customers through Social Media. The likes of Twitter and Facebook are making the “Customer 2.0″ more vocal about their thoughts and ideas, “Chatter” cloud (courtesy Salesforce.com) is banking on “hearing” the voice of the customer, and bringing it to the CRM to enable Customer Service organizations answer questions faster.

    I put forth some more of my wacky ideas in my blog post: http://blog.insideview.com/2010/04/27/connectin…

  • http://twitter.com/shelhorowitz Shel Horowitz

    There's another way to look at your competitors: Just as we go through life looking for things that are useful to our clients, so we can also keep our eyes out for ways we and our competitors can help each other. I define “competitor” as “someone I haven't yet figured out how to partner with.” And in fact, I get a whole lot of business from”competitors,” and partner with them in other ways.

    Here's a real-life example: Jay Conrad Levinson (the Guerrilla Marketing man) and I are both marketing consultants/speakers/authors. By bringing him in as a co-author on my latest book, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet,I not only had the benefit of a rockstar marketing brand, but also access to the 84,000 people in his membership program. And of course, being part of that brand opens many doors. And in the three-way conversation with Jay, the publisher and me about titles and subtitles, Jay actually contributed the subtitle.

  • http://mytech2u.blogspot.com Jimmy Tech Daily

    Thanks for sharing a good post. I'm agree your point of you post and I very enjoyed it.

  • http://www.trainwithshane.com Deborah Shane

    Great post and discussion. The way we make a sale and grow the retention of that relationship is why we HAVE to think about our customers, colleagues and the competition. Finding prospects, qualifying them, needs analysis, presenting solutions, negotiating, closing, retaining is the fundamental process we all make in business. Knowing what you do better than your competition and knowing what they do better than you is a powerful tool for filling niches and needs. From being a consumer point of view, if my vendors are NOT thinking about and presenting ways to serve me, I will move on to who is.

  • http://social.usatoday.com/ Brian Dresher

    Like some other commenters, I do spend time thinking — thinking, not obsessing — about the competition. Why? Competitors can serve to be a source of innovation (we need to catch up!), inspiration (we can do or are doing this better!) or validation (we feel this is right and so does company X).

    Additionally, no one business can meet all needs of its customers, so you can provide a value-add to existing customers by pointing them to places where they may find value that you can't provide. No different than the link economy where many of us have become news curators helping lead our audience to other areas of interest. This in turn helps to solidify our value and knowledge of the overall landscape in which our business participates.

  • http://www.joemanna.com/blog/ Joseph Manna

    Knowing your buyer (or shall I say, “audience”) is crucial if you expect to be able to connect with them and earn their trust. Your advice is impeccable and you cite some great examples.

  • http://www.bma-mgmt.com Rick Banas

    I spend less time thinking “about” my customers and would-be customers than I do thinking about the questions I need to be asking my customers and would-be customers about what I can do to solve their problems, what I can do to distinguish myself from the competition, what I need to be doing in the way of promotion to reach my customers and would-be customers. I then spend a lot of time thinking about what I need to do and how I need to do it based on what they are telling me.

  • http://www.citrixonline.come Lisa Horner

    Thanks for thinking of us Chris. We also think about our customers and future customers most of the time. And not how to market to them better – but how we build the right solutions for our customers, how to apply our solutions for their best benefit and use, and how to bring the brightest thinkers in their industries to them in hopes of builder long term relationships for the greater benefit of both of us – if our customers win, we win. Thanks for the post!

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  • http://twitter.com/PeterAhrens Peter Ahrens

    This is a classic example of what happens when Apple releases a product (e.g. the iPad).

    Then the rest of the companies have to come out with an iPad killer.

    Happens every time. And Apple trumps them every time.

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  • http://www.yuregininsesi.com yuregininsesi

    Great post and discussion. The way we make a sale and grow the retention of that relationship is why we HAVE to think about our customers, colleagues and the competition. Finding prospects, qualifying them, needs analysis, presenting solutions, negotiating, closing, retaining is the fundamental process we all make in business.

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