It's not what you sell it's who you sell to

During my college years I took paralegal studies and thought I would love it. Turns out that I was more interested and excited about How to build my business then I was about the legal field. After school, I would rush to my part time job which was at a car dealership in North York. I was the evening and weekend receptionist which meant I answered all the calls and connected customers with the appropriate sales person or department based on their need.

There was one sales guy in particular that always had customers coming in to see him. He sold double the amount of cars than the rest of the staff and eventually he hired his own assistant. If he was busy, customers would wait for him, they refused to speak with anyone else but him.

I didn't see anything in particular that was so special about him. The product he sold, was the same as everyone else, the location of the dealership was the same as everyone else, the price was the same and pretty much everything he had access to at the dealership was the same. What was the x factor, was he more likeable? I wouldn't say so, he was actually not personable at all.

After some time, I came to the conclusion that the one thing he knew well was who his customer was. They were middle aged couples of asian decent who lived within a 10 km radius of the dealership and where upper middle class. Most of them immigrants to Canada. I don't think I ever saw him with anyone else that didn't fit this description.

He didn't try to sell to everyone, he found his niche and he went all in. Knowing who your customer is means knowing where to find them and how to sell to them and how to attract them to you.

Think about how strong of a weapon this can be if you can identify your buyer first and then create content, services, experiences that fit their interest specifically.

Ask yourself, what part of the market can you grab? start by analysing yourself. People are automatically attracted to other people that resemble them. This can mean not just how you look but your interests and behaviour.

Build a profile for your target person. Not your target audience, notice I said person. I even want you to give him or her a name.

For example: think of a luxury brand, located mid-town, target; young professional.

Let's name him Sam. His parents are immigrants from the middle east. They came here with a little bit of money but worked hard over the years and worked their way up the ladder. Sam's parents made sure that he went to university so that he could become a professional. Sam, is now working in a corporation and living in a condo down-town. He visits his parents who live mid-town on the weekend. He has many friends from high school that he still see's and goes out with. He enjoys travelling abroad, going to clubs, working out and cooking. He also enjoys watching documentaries on Netflix, going on Facebook/Instagram and watching funny videos on Youtube. It's important to Sam that his parents feel proud of his accomplishments.

Sam is a fictional person but represents the profile of a specific type of buyer. To attract someone like him, you would need to attract him through social media, create content that fits his interests. If you can do that, you can attract people like Sam. Before you post something, ask yourself, would Sam be interested in this.

It's not about what your product is, it's about who your buyer is. Focus on figuring out who exactly you want to attract and work around that. Sam, is not married with kids so don't create content that focuses on safety features and spaciousness of the vehicle, focus on the luxury, style, technology etc...Someone like Sam would be interested in posts that talk about the journey not the destination. Sure you want him to buy what your selling but if you can convince him that he's buying the experience or the journey vs. the actual product you will have much more of an impact.

Reach for the moon,

Jessi Kessel

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