WHY SELLING TO EVERYONE OFTEN MEANS SELLING TO NO ONE.

When building a new business it’s easy to fall into the trap of trying to please everyone, especially when it comes to generating much needed revenue. But as this post outlines, trying to serve every potential customer can lead to confusion that results in you not serving any customer particularly well.

Photo by Ashley Batz on Unsplash

In my discussions with startups looking to scale beyond their first few founder customer sales, the question of ‘who is your target customer’ naturally comes up pretty early on. Typically, founders list just about every type of customer they could interact with, leaving me thinking that here is another business that is trying to please everyone.

True enough, you can sometimes uncover some interesting trends by qualifying that customer target list with the question, ‘Who do we make most of our money from today?’ But more often than not, the spread of customers is too broad -- and this crucial lack of focus can be what is holding your businesses revenue growth back in the early days.

A needle in a haystack

According to research on the venture capital funnel from CBInsights, some 65% of start-ups fail to secure series-B funding. One of the top reasons? No clear business model.

The problem with trying to please everyone in the hopes of stumbling across the richest possible vein of customers is that you end up wasting a lot of energy, time and money looking for a needle in a haystack. And as the pressures mount around the need for cashflow -- the second most common reason that startups fail -- this lack of focus only exacerbates the issue. Soon enough, things start to look pretty desperate.

A non-focused approach to customer types or segments is a bit like having a business compass that is too close to a metal object. The needle spins round and round, and you have no hope of figuring out which way to go. To find your true north, you need to first create a clearing, take stock of what problem your product/service helps solve, identify those customers who need a solution like yours, and focus on building a test environment for rapid experiments that qualify each identified customer segment.

How focus delivers

This is customer mapping in its simplest sense. There is lot more to identifying the buyers, influencers and detractors in building a structured go-to-market plan, of course. But essentially, a focused mindset that recognises you can’t build a business to please everyone is more likely to deliver better results.

Take my business as an example. Revcelerate’s mission is to provide access to commercial knowledge, structure and process to build an efficient sales engine for companies to scale their revenues.

I have two focus groups. The first is a business that has some revenue traction and wants to ramp up income to the next level. Perhaps their sales engine is working but not scaling quickly enough, perhaps it’s never really worked at all, or perhaps the company needs a brand new engine to fit into their new improved product chassis. Mine is a hands-on approach to shaping the customer target strategy, building a sales team and putting in place the most appropriate structure, process and procedures to take revenue traction to the next level.

The second group is equally important to me but less likely to result in paying work at first. These are much earlier-stage businesses that are just starting out and are shifting focus from product development to revenue generation. For these customers I provide access to the sort of information and process that they should consider when building sales for their business. Many are involved in acceleration academies, and I’m currently working with several academy programme leaders to develop appropriate modules that help founders understand the art of the sale.

I expect very little from these customers -- in many cases it’s an exchange of knowledge and occasionally a small investment for my time. The goal here is not to make a tonne of money from these customers but to cultivate future relationships as some of these will want to employ my approach when the time is right.

Setting the right course

Having a clear idea of my target customer and the problem I solve, I can determine the decision-makers and influencers. In my case it’s founder decision-makers and investor influencers. Knowing this I’ve been able to focus on those interactions likely to deliver the best return and so far, so good.

When we set a course we don’t have to know the exact destination or landing point. When explorers sailed to the Americas, they didn’t know if they would land at New York or Florida and that's OK because all they had to do was set a westerly course. You may not know what your final landing place will be but by setting a clear direction and not trying to be something to everyone, you’re more likely to reach a destination rather than be left, drifting and becalmed, mid-ocean.

Thoughts? Comments?

Have you ever been in a situation where lack of focus has held you back or where a new emphasis on customer focus has got you out of a tight spot? Do share your thoughts on customer focus and building an effective sales strategy with me here.

Thanks for reading and happy hunting #agilesales

Phil