Be Biased And Sell More
- Pritesh Chauhan
- Jul 12, 2024
- 3 min read
There’s a mistake that almost every business owner makes. Not identifying this problem makes their marketing way less effective, and way more expensive.
But don’t worry, because most people do this and I’m here to lift the veil from your eyes.
Using A Sledgehammer For Heart Surgery
Imagine being in surgery and suddenly the doctor whacks out a sledgehammer and starts going to work. Would it get the job done or is it just going to cause a whole lot of costly damage?
Probably the latter.
Probably want to be a bit more precise, and use a scalpel instead.
How does this relate to selling you ask?
Well, when people start advertising, they tend to think that everyone is their customer. Maybe you can sell to everyone.
Maybe I can just sledgehammer the market and it will just be fine.
Narrator’s Voice: It was not fine at all.
There’s Always An Audience Bias
Back in the 60’s there was an entrepreneur/motivational speaker named Jim Rohn that used to go around doing seminars.
Back then they had far fewer tools than we have now. There was no internet, no social media, no Instagram, no mindless scrolling.
They had very little in terms of raw, unadulterated targeting power.
Jim was doing his seminars, going around city after city when he began noticing a pattern in his audience.
They were mostly men. And most of them had crew cuts.
There was an audience bias.
So Jim being the smart cookie he was, started going to barbershops in each city and asked them:
“Hey, can you give me a list of all your clients that get crew cuts?”
And then he got to work. He sent a letter to each of these “leads” with a promotional offer for his upcoming seminar.
Guess what happened?
Sales for the seminar went through the proverbial roof.
Because he targeted the people most likely to buy his product.
Whether it’s men, women, a certain age group, people with certain interests, or even people who get a particular type of haircut.
If you talk to the right people, you’ll get a response rate that is way higher than anything you direct to a mass market.
You’ve Been Brainwashed…
The problem is that most of the marketing we’ve grown up with is aimed at everyone.
“But if it works for them, it’ll work for me, right?”
Big companies will always be able to outspend you.
Coca-Cola can afford to sledgehammer the market and spend £4 Billion every year on a million Santa Clauses slurping sodas just to see if anyone will bite.
(Or in this case, slurp).
This is why we need to be way more clinical with our approach and target people who are predisposed to buying your product.
Do You Have A Clear Picture Of Your Customer?
Could you answer some of these questions:
How does your customer talk?
Where do they live?
Do they have pets?
Do they have children?
What hobbies do they have?
Who do they vote for?
Are they students?
Are they retired?
The list goes on and on.
The better you know your audience, the better your targeting will be.
Sure, if you’re selling a Botox treatment, you could blanket the market with your ad campaign and waste thousands of pounds in marketing budget.
Or you could get out your surgeon’s scalpel, be more precise and laser focus on your main demographic.
Because that 20-year-old male construction worker is going to be a pretty hard sell for Botox.
Ideally, you want your target audience to see the ad, and think:
“Ah, this is for ME. This guy gets ME. This product will fix MY problem.”
And we can do this by understanding where the customer is coming from. By doing a little background research.
But no product appeals to everyone, everywhere, of any age, at any time.
There is always a bias.
The more concise, clear and focused you can be, the better the message will cut through the clutter and the more impact it will have.
Talk Soon,
Pritesh Chauhan
P.S. If you’d like us to take a look at your marketing and see what we can do for you, get in touch here:
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