I wrote yesterday about identifying the right target customers.
A nice companion to that idea is the fact that targeting the right customers is a key to dramatic growth for your organization.
In my years in selling and marketing, the biggest bumps in business have always come when I either consciously or unconsciously focused my energy on the biggest targets of opportunity.
In nightclubs in the 90s, that was attracting a spring break crowd consistently over the course of the 6 week spring break period.
It was also understanding the value of incremental revenue and service to drive sales.
When I moved onto work in the Experience Music Project in Seattle, the biggest jump in my impact was when I started working across departments on projects and ideas that would touch the biggest companies or the highest potential donors.
These would be things like creating the marketing campaign that created the impression that the Turntable and Liquid Lounge were places that local businesspeople could visit before an event at the Key Arena.
This was eliminating competition from other venues for the parties thrown by Amazon, Microsoft, or any number of nonprofits.
This goes on and on: focusing American Express on the super premium market and a global network of tickets, boosted revenues by almost double.
Partnering with Yellow Tail Wines and targeting crowds at football tailgate parties opened the door to tremendous growth because this was a market that wanted sophistication and something new, but didn’t know where to start.
On and on.
For you, the same concept applies.
In your market, are you really focusing on the buyers that will give you the greatest potential to grow?
This isn’t going to always be the most risk free opportunity.
The best way for you to drive dramatic growth is to focus on the biggest and best opportunities.
This idea is where too many organizations fail.
They have a few small successes and they feel like they have to stick with those types of opportunities. They stop challenging and growing into bigger deals.
To know if you are targeting high growth opportunities, ask yourself this question:
“If I win this deal, will it change the course of my business?”
If it will, that’s likely a good place to look.
If the prospects are only going to keep you inching along, then maybe those aren’t the best ones to pursue.