It’s the people man! They are our clients and friends – not company structures and machines.
I get asked a few times a month a very reasonable question which goes roughly like this “Edward, who are your target customers? Which industries do you go after?”
When I started out in business, I could answer this question to the letter.
Ironically, six years later I am actually quite more open on that question than when I started out. I have found time and time again that it’s not so much the ‘Industry’ or ‘Vertical’ I work with, but ultimately the type of person in that organisation.
Some of my top clients have a very similar viewpoint too; they have dropped the notion of “this is the target vertical industry” to a mindset of:
– “This is how we help people and may the right ones approach us first”
I have found that this type of thinking doesn’t suit all industries / companies, but it certainly suits quite a few of them. In some situations it’s very obvious, e.g. a Mortgage Broker targeting mum’s and dad’s. That’s reasonable right?
But consider for the moment that say in that journey; the Mortgage Broker meets a high value multi-millionaire property investor that likes them and clicks. Let’s say they trust the broker with millions of dollars of loans used for investment properties and even a business.
Should that Mortgage Broker walk away and say “Oh no, I only do mum’s and dad’s?”. Of course not! They should take the opportunity.
This actually happened to one of my clients some years back. She started out in a particular type of finance then picked up a massive client outside of her target market. It did require her to partner with some other businesses to fully service that massive client; however she made lots of money out of it and I bet she is rolling in it now (I should send her an email actually, I may do that now lol).
My lessons and advice on this one? Sure – you may have a particular target market or industry, but please don’t put the blinkers on. Ultimately businesses are run by people, with people being the ones who choose to hire those that suit them the most. Go about your marketing and business and keep an open mind to who you work with. You may pass the ultimate business opportunity that sets you on a new path in business and life.
Love your work, stay awesome, I did email that old fabulous client that inspired this email.
Thanks for the read and go kick some butt out there.
Edward Zia – Marketing Mentor & Blogger
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