Today as I was staring at the blank computer screen…wondering what should I say about know thy market. I decided to do some research. Yep, thats right I started goofing off on the Internet. You know on second thought calling it research sounds so much better.

Anyhow I read the post at Greg Stielstra’s PyroMarketing blog titled Fishing or Catching? Greg gives an incredible metaphor for knowing your market. The parallels between his post fishing or catching and knowing your market are powerful. For example Greg wrote:

The answer was not a greater number of flies or more frequent casts. It was not merely a numbers game. In fact, increased fishing actually contributed to the problem. The solution was not bigger flies or brighter flies. Awareness wasn’t the problem either. Trout saw the artificial flies, they just weren’t interested. Nor were trout more likely to bite if you held them captive and forced them to look at the artificial flies.

When you try to force your version of a fly on the trout they are not interested. Why? Because you are looking at it from your perspective. You are not thinking about what the fish wants. The same goes for marketing. Most companies create their marketing around them themselves or what interests them. They refuse to figure out exactly what the customer wants. They do not walk a mile in their customers shoes they do not try to find out what they want.

When a company only talks about their interests that is called ego marketing. Resist the urge to allow your ego to control your marketing. You will see this all the time where a window cleaning company will talk about what interests them; the latest tools, techniques, processes, their credentials, professionalism things the customer really does not care about. The real focus is: why someone going to call you? What is primary motivation that triggers, or cause the customer to call you over any other window cleaner?

Claude Hopkins said you need to enter into the conversation already going on the mind of your customers. Your market has an internal dialog about getting their windows cleaned. You want to find out that dialog, and what what really motivates their decision. How does your market view window cleaning? Why do they get their windows cleaned? What benefit do they feel when they have clean windows? What are they looking for when a window cleaner comes into their home? What happens if they do not get their windows cleaned?

Another mistake I see is a company will cast too wide a net looking for customers. They try to pull in customers who have no interest in getting their windows cleaned. Now this cast either produces nothing, or inquires who are not serious. The widow cleaning company gets to waste time, and money sorting through all the tire kickers.

Once you figure out what your customer really wants from a window cleaner you will have no problem attracting customers. Do you really know thy market?