.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} Most bad customers are not really bad customers. They’re just bad customers for you. They’re a bad fit. And it’s your fault.

Many businesses don’t want to miss out on any sales opportunity, so they say they can do everything. They don’t want to define themselves and risk losing a customer.

So the poor customers are out there trying to comparison shop and everyone looks the same. They take a stab at it and sometimes they guess wrong. Which means you have a bad customer on your hands.

Think of your local mall. Now think of all the jewelry stores in that mall. Do any of them stand out from the crowd? If your answer was yes, I’m willing to bet you said Josephs. Notice I didn’t say better or worse. But I did say different.

The rest of the jewelry stores blend together. The merchandise is about the same; the clerks are about the same. They don’t make a point of standing out. Josephs has been willing to step up and say, “We are different and here’s what you can expect.”

Do you think some people opt not to shop in Josephs because of its brand? You bet. Is that Josephs’ loss? I don’t think so. It saves a lot of staff time and effort that would have resulted in either unhappy customers or people who walk away thinking they had a bad experience.

Do some people gravitate right to Josephs because of its brand? Of course.

Josephs saved those customers all that comparison-shopping time. They just shortcut right to Josephs and had a buying experience that met their needs.

Want to save yourself and your staff aggravation? Stop being everything for everybody and instead stand up and declare how you are different.

Drew McLellan is Top Dog at McLellan Marketing Group and blogs at www.drewsmarketingminute.com. He can be reached at Drew@MclellanMarketing.com. © 2007 Drew McLellan