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For most business owners and leaders, one of the biggest challenges is accepting that your product or service isn’t for everyone.

From the perspective of the person who is trying to make the sale, anyone with money in their pocket is a prospect. And so the effort to get their attention begins. Dollar after dollar is spent, trying to get noticed. From the would-be prospect’s perspective, it sounds a little like the adults sounds in the Charlie Brown cartoons – the drone of a slide trombone being muted and unmuted over and over again.

No matter how loud you shout or how often you speak or what you wave in their face, they aren’t going to care. I don’t care what you sell; there is nothing that everyone wants to buy. Even if you sell something that almost everyone uses, like soap, your soap isn’t going to be for everyone. Some people will want something scented, others will only buy soap that is free from animal testing and another person might insist on pink soap.

There is no one size fits all, no matter what you sell.

One of the best ways to spend your marketing resources wisely is to focus on your best prospects and absolutely ignore all the others. The truth is, most businesses haven’t taken the time to identify who their best prospects are. Until you go through that exercise, you are speaking in generalities to everyone. Which rarely inspires anyone to take action.

I know it’s tough to ignore that dollar bill that is sticking out of someone’s pocket. But the truth of it is, that dollar was never meant for you. So ignore it. Sure – if someone you weren’t actively marketing to comes in and wants to buy, you sell to them. You’re not shooing people away. You are just being more selective about who you expend energy trying to attract.

There are many benefits to being more selective when targeting your marketing:

Your marketing will work better: When you understand your audience and know exactly who they are and what matters most to them, you can be very specific. You can tell customer stories that they will be able to relate to. You can focus on the features and benefits that will resonate with them and you can eliminate some of their concerns by addressing them directly.

Your cost per customer acquisition will drop: Rather than scattering your efforts over a large canvas, hoping some of them will fall on receptive ears and eyes, you can laser focus your marketing to precisely where you know your best prospects will see it. Every effort will hit the bull’s-eye so that you can build up frequency and familiarity faster. There will be very little wasted effort.

You are talking to the people who will be easiest to delight: Everyone wants repeat business because it’s the least expensive way to make a sale. If you can delight someone with your product or service, odds are they’re going to buy more. If you have to cajole or chase after someone to give your product or service a try, they’re far less likely to be elated by it and rush to buy more.

Birds of a feather flock and talk together: One of the most effective marketing techniques out there is word of mouth marketing. If you target your best prospects and get them to try your offerings – if they like it, they’re likely to talk about it to their peers. Which means – more of your target audience will get the message and they’ll get it from a reliable source – someone they know and trust.

Don’t get caught up in chasing everyone. Pick out your best prospects and literally ignore the rest!

• Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group
• Blog: www.drewsmarketingminute.com
• Email: Drew@MclellanMarketing.com
© 2013 Drew McLellan