28 | MENTORS MAGAZINE | EDITION 3who exactly is our customer? Who?
And then the second question is, what
does the customer think about with all the
demographic and the psychographic? Is
what is going on inside the customers'
mind that would motivate them to buy
your product or service? What is it that
they want and need? What is it they fear
and hope for? What is it they are dreaming
for? What are their goals?
So, you have those two
graphics if you like, de-
mographics and psycho-
graphics. And you have to
be really accurate, because
if you are not, you will be
trying to sell two people
who are not the type of
people who will buy your
product or service. So, you
have to be extremely accurate.
And you will find that the very best compa-
nies, spend millions... and I think the num-
ber this year is about $20 billion dollars,
just on customer research. Just analysing
who exactly are our customers and why
would they buy? Why would they buy? And
if they are buying now, why are they buying
now? And if they are not buying, why
aren't they buying? And how can I change
my offerings so that they are far-more
attractive so that more people will buy
them faster and easier? So that's my
starting point.
So, the first of the golden triangle is who?
who? sometimes I will ask, I will say what
does the owl say in the deep woods? And
everybody in the audience smiles and say
'who? Who, who, who?' And I say... the
worst thing you can do is to spend too
much of your time speaking to people who
are not good prospects for you. They have
not bought your products in the past and
they won’t buy it in the future. So, it’s very
important, you shouldn't spend...I read one study recently,
you shouldn't spend more
than 17 minutes with a pro-
spect to know whether or
not this person can and will
buy and pay in a reasonable
period of time. If you are
taking longer than that... if
you are going back over and
over, if you are sending
them messages and going
out for lunch and tea and so
on, and so forth. No, you should know al-
most immediately.It’s sort of like, going to the doctor, if you
have a pain, you go to a doctor. You don't
want to go back and visit the doctor, over
and over, and come back next week and go
for tea and have a chat and so on and so
forth. You want immediate attention to
your problem.So, you are looking for people who have a
need, that is an immediate need, they
want it now, they want the product or ser-
vice now. As a matter of fact, they want it
so much that they don't even ask you the
price, because they want that benefit that
you are offering.“you shouldn't spend
more than 17 minutes
with a prospect to know
whether or not this
person can and will buy
and pay in a reasonable
period of time.”