"My target market is... Anyone." Yeah, Right.

Read just about any writing on marketing and promotion and they will tell you that finding your specific target market is paramount to crafting a successful marketing plan. You have to know specifically WHO it is you want to reach. Not "Anyone" or "Everyone." I have heard this repeated at networking education seminars, marketing blitzes, and even at my local Chamber of Commerce.

For some reason, this does not seem to prevent people I meet, who I know from these very same events, from repeatedly saying things like, "A good referral for me is...anyone." We are so afraid that we might lose a random client who is not even our ideal, that we don't give people any real information to actually help them think of a potential client.

We used to offer "training & consulting services for any program", we wanted to reach "anyone who did training in their office, or organization." That is a LOT of people, and thus we received very few referrals or direct leads. Once we focused our vision, things changed. We now offer "customized diversity & inclusion programs for non-profit organizations." Do we still offer other programs, of course, but we do not try to sell them. If people are interested in what our primary passion is, and they like it enough to ask if we do more, then we tell them. This shift has exponentially increased our leads and clients.

In our last program, "Planning to Fail: 100% of everything you will ever possibly need to know to see your business fail." We received a mixture of results. About half the people LOVED the funny, experiential, alternative approach to finding the barriers in their businesses. About 1/4 thought it was OK, and the other quarter were just confused, or said it wasn't their style.

Not everyone wants what we offer. For some people we are just too weird, risky, different, or odd. That's fine, we probably would be good business partners. But for those people interested in programs that push the envelope, make people uncomfortable and help them break through to a new level of understanding regarding their teammates and clients, we're the people to see.

So, quit trying to get your service and product into "everyone's" hands, and get it into the hands of the people who really want it. Those people will find you more business.

Hope for the future of business, community and humanity...

Prior to watching the film WALL-E with my family the other day we laughed as the pre-movie commercials repeated themselves. "Someone isn't doing their job." my son said as we waited for the film to start. One of the commercials was the piece that Aicila mentioned in her post from The Foundation for a Better Life. It took a minute to realize that they weren't really advertising anything. It wasn't a commercial.

Further inquiry revealed an organization that is faceless, without product. They are the epitome of vision since that is their only product. They have a goal, it is to show models of life lived by a positive set of values. No religious overtone. No product placement to show a company being a responsible corporate citizen. No push to join something or to give anything. They just want people to listen.

You cannot donate to them. You cannot buy their posters or video spots. You can just hear what they say and add the concepts into your daily life. I want that. I want the work I do to be so widely beneficial. I hope that someday it can be. That is my dream.

Change is the only constant...

He speaks yet I do not hear.
What I hear he does not speak.
The message is wrong.
He's insincere.
He sounds just like her.

She rambles on my voice mail.
She sends empty essays to my inbox.
The message is wrong.
She's insincere.
Her words, to me, are stale.

Everyday I hear these cheers.
Everyday I am disappointed.
The message is wrong.
They're insincere.
They've been saying the same for years.

Someday I will believe again.
Someday I will have faith.
A message that's true.
A message, sincere.
Someone with visions of change.

-Timuri

I wrote this piece back in February of 2003 while I was sitting in a "very important" meeting at Xerox. The words being spoken just were not penetrating my head, mainly because they were the same words I had heard at every other "important" meeting for years.

What happened to the people who wanted to make a difference? When I was hired with the company we watched videos about the visionaries that started it all off. The desire to create new and useful technology that would alter the business world. I spent the next few years being told not to rock the boat. Quit trying to change the business. Why? Isn't that what made us a great company in the beginning?

I worked at it for close to a decade and realized that I was fighting a war from the wrong side. The change I wanted to see happen was possible, but I needed to be in a different position to accomplish it. There is a great line from Utah Phillips, in his piece "Korea" he says, "I realized right then, that it was all wrong. That it all had to change. And that change had to start with me." So here I am, now armed with ideas and concepts that can and will change the businesses and people they touch.

Revolution destroys what is. I am not interested in this. But I am a fan of evolution, of embracing the changes that are happening around us. The challenge before me now, is finding those visionaries that want to see their businesses and people change in this way.