Do you like stories?
I do!
I love stories, especially when there is a lesson in it.
So today I want to tell you a story that hit me between the eyes when I first read it as a bedtime story to my daughter many years ago.
It changed the way I looked at marketing and getting clients and it was a turning point in my business. I hope it can do the same for you….
So, here’s the story…(the shortened version :))
A story about a boy, a flock of geese and an elusive deer
A poor little farm boy became the only provider for his sick, bedridden mother after his father tragically died.
To put food on the table he daily spent hours at the nearby lake – waiting with his shotgun for birds to arrive.
At different times of day, different flocks of birds visited the lake, but because the boy and his sick mother were very poor, he had to use his ammunition sparsely and could only afford one shot per day.
So he waited for the best opportunity and biggest flock of birds. When the birds flew over his head, he fired into the air – hoping that one pellet of the shotgun would kill a bird.
It often happened that this one shot didn’t even kill one of the many birds and he had to go home disappointed and sad because they don’t have anything to eat for the day.
One day while waiting at the lake a hunter passed by, spotted the boy and asked him what he was doing. The hunter felt very sorry for the boy and gave him a rifle, 3 bullets and instructions how to shoot deer. He also instructed the boy to take the first deer he kill to the butcher in town.
The boy was however too afraid to use the rifle, and carefully buried it under a huge tree.
Eventually one day, his shotgun ammunition run out, and after struggling to provide for his family, his sick mother sadly died.
Left completely alone, he remembered about the rifle, the 3 bullets and the instructions from the hunter.
He dug up the rifle, spotted a big deer and started to follow it through the forest. Eventually he gathered enough courage to take his first shot. He aimed, waited for the right moment, pulled the trigger…and missed.
However after many days of tracking the deer, and finding the paths they frequently walk, he tried again and killed his first deer.
That one shot changed the boy’s life.
It not only provided food to keep him alive, but he remembered the hunter’s instructions and sold the access meat to the butcher in town.
…and through a strategy of repeated kills and selling the meat, the poor boy eventually became a well-known hunter and a very wealthy man.
*****
This is just a children’s story, but it actually made me sit up and realize the truth behind it with regards to how we sometimes do marketing.
We use the wrong approach!
As in the story, many of us use a shotgun approach for marketing and getting clients and then starve without enough clients and income…..
We spend too much time either waiting for clients to come by (hiding at the lake or behind a computer screen)…
…or trying to market to anyone and everyone (e.g. shooting some marketing into the air in the hope that one of the pellets hits a client – any client).
Unfortunately, this “shotgun” type of marketing leads to unsatisfactory, disappointing and frustrating results where we either don’t have enough clients to work with or we end up working with non-ideal clients who do not pay us what we are worth.
As in the story, a much better approach to getting clients and filling your practice is to start using the rifle approach because it leads to better results in the end.
Here’s why…
With the rifle approach you are working with an ideal target audience – a specific group of people who is interested in what you do.
Working with a target market gives you a much better return on your marketing effort, time and investment because you create more focus and work with people you can serve best.
In return, these clients want to work with you, value your services and handsomely reward you for it.
When working with a target audience you can…
- Get to know your market really well;
- Understand what they need;
- Give them what they want and
- Recognize where they spend their time so that you can be present as well.
This allows you to spend your time more productively marketing and talking to this specific target audience and it exponentially increases you chance to land an ideal, high quality client.
Working with a target audience also helps you to improve on your marketing skills since you can easily adapt and make changes on how you do things based on the reactions and needs of your target.
Now, it’s true that the rifle approach of choosing a target audience can be scary.
As in the story, you’ll have to get out of your hiding place and start following the deer (your target audience).
You might need to learn new ways of hunting.
You might feel you will lose out because there are not as many deer in the forest than birds in the sky.
You might even have to walk with your target for some time before you can take aim – and you might miss your target with the first shot or two.
But, even with all these fears, when you do hit your target, it has totally different results for your business and your life.
So, what I hope you take from this article is this: A rifle approach to marketing (i.e. choosing and working with a target audience) is much better than the shotgun approach (i.e. trying to working with anyone and everyone). The rifle approach positively impacts your business and leads to better quality clients, more income and a business you truly enjoys.
It’s also a better way to spend your valuable time and limited resources to get more ideal clients for your business.
So, try it out!
And if you want to determine the best target audience for your business, check out the Marketing Momentum Training by clicking here.
Love & Success
