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Who Shouldn’t You Serve?

Who shouldn’t you serve? I have often said that the power of a good brand is not only does it attract your sweet spot customers but it repels the wrong customers.

Too many businesses adopt the “every dollar is a good dollar” philosophy which inevitably brings them misery, unhappy customers and financial losses.

When you try to serve people who are a bad fit, they almost always leave, disgruntled. And that’s after you have chased your tail, trying to make them happy, even if it means you lose your shirt.

You’re far better off to dramatically narrow your focus. Only serve the people/companies who can be your very best customers or as Steve Farber says in Radical Leap, “Doing What You Love in the Service of People Who Love What You Do.”

This picture is a window at a Tattoo Parlor in Asheville, NC. Clearly they know exactly who they do and don’t want to serve. And while they have taken a rather aggressive way of communicating that, it’s highly unlikely that they get a lot of walk ins who turn out to be bad customers.

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I’m not suggesting you post a sign. But I am suggesting that there’s value in knowing exactly who you should and who you shouldn’t serve and going out of your way to be equally clear on both sides of the equation.

By the way, this isn’t rocket science. Make a list of your best customers. The people you’d clone if you could. What do they have in common?

Next, make a list of the people who you’d pay to stop serving. What do they have in common?

Now look at your marketing messages. How can you tweak them so they attract your best customers and communicate to your worst clients that they’d be better off going somewhere else?

You cannot have a love affair with your worst customers. You simply can’t woo them and win their hearts. So it’s better to let someone else have them so you can concentrate on the people who truly will love you and what you do for them.

This article was originally published by Drew’s Marketing Minute

Published: June 16, 2015
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Drew McLellan

Drew McLellan has owned an advertising agency for almost 20 years, serving local, regional and national businesses. He also coaches hundreds of agencies on business best practices through peer to peer networks, workshops and consulting. Drew is often interviewed/quoted in Entrepreneur Magazine, New York Times, CNN, BusinessWeek, and many others. The Wall Street Journal calls him “one of 10 bloggers every entrepreneur should read.” He blogs at both www.DrewsMarketingMinute.com and www.BuildABetterAgency.com.