Deep or Wide?
[by Charles Gupton]
The primary business of every business – be it banking, plumbing, restaurant or photography – is the work of acquiring and retaining customers. No buyers, no sales, no business.
To that end, most business owners use the strategy of casting their nets in more directions in an attempt to draw in practically anyone who can fog a mirror as a potential customer. The idea is that the broader the foundation on which one builds, the more likely the business will withstand destructive economic winds.
Diversity of client base can be healthy. If you’ve ever had all your business eggs in one or two industry baskets and experienced the fallout from their decline, you’re wise to broaden your customer base to some degree. But there’s a difference in having a variety of clients to serve and chasing after too many people. The difference comes in driving the significant relationships deeper rather than adding more names onto your contact list.
As you have probably heard numerous times, all things being relatively equal, people do business with those they know, like and trust. When business owners cast out in too many directions for too many people, they not only don’t get to know their potential clients, those people have no reason to get to know what is distinctive about the business approaching them. It requires time to get to know someone, much less develop a like and trust of that person.
Although it may not seem intuitive, driving fewer relationships deeper rather than having a multitude that live on the surface is a far better long term strategy for business growth.
