Working Wounded Blog: Meet Your Customers

Aug. 22, 2007 — -- This summer I've gone to a lot of festivals — folk life, Brazilian, gay pride, Christian and hemp and solstice, just to name a few. Living two blocks away from the Seattle Center (the former grounds of the Seattle World's Fair) puts me right next to festival central and I've dived in with both feet.

Sure I've had a lot of fun, but I've also learned some important lessons about the marketplace of the future from these varied experiences.

No gathering opened my eyes — and sinus passages — quite like last weekend's Hemp Fest. Billed as the largest gathering of its kind in the world, the festival left me with a serious case of the munchies and slack jawed at the amount of people and commerce on display.

First, a disclaimer: I believe I'm the only member of the baby boom generation to have never smoked pot. Really. So this was a total trip through the looking glass for me.

As I wandered amid the bongs, vaporizers, bongs, booths offering legal advice, bongs, Bob Marley T-shirts, bongs and bigger bongs, I was struck by how many people belonged to this club that I was barely cognizant of. They have their own language — baked, not high, chronic, not marijuana and the ubiquitous 4:20. Who knew that the pot speak was even more highly developed than Klingon as a functioning language?

Sure there were plenty of slackers at the festival, but there were also a lot of motivated people ready to sell them a huge range of products. Event organizers predicted attendance at more than 150,000 and there was a lot more commerce than barter going on during my time in Hemp-ville.

As we strolled through the fest, my fiance asked if I ever wrote with this particular audience in mind. Guilty as charged. No, I hadn't. But I also realized I'm probably not alone.

How often have you thought about the range of people who use, or are prospects for, your product or service? My guess is that you know at least half of your audience pretty darn well. But you'd probably be surprised at the people who comprise the other half and, if you are honest, how little time you've spent to get to know the range of their concerns and interests.

With hundreds of radio stations and TV channels available, a truly mass market is going away. We're quickly becoming a mass of niche audiences. And niche audiences often require that you meet them at least half way.

Viva la difference. But also remember that "viva" doesn't just happen. You've got to take time to get to know what matters to your audience. Because if you don't, chances are that someone else will.

If this sounds extreme, then take a look in the mirror. Are you a finicky consumer? Do you demand that organizations not take you for granted? Do you want to receive personalized service whenever you take out your wallet?

Maybe it's time that you started going to festivals full of people that don't look or act like you. It can be quite a valuable education.

Quote of the Week

"The merchant has no country." -- Thomas Jefferson

Book Excerpt of the Week

"The Mind of the Customer" Hodge and Schachter (McGraw Hill, 2006)

"As customers change, the art and science of selling evolve. It's no secret that today's customers are increasingly sophisticated and educated. They have greater access to market information and require results faster than ever before. In response, today's world class salespeople differentiate themselves by applying an intense focus on accelerating their customers' achievement of business results."

Bob Rosner is a best-selling author, an internationally syndicated columnist, popular speaker and a recent addition to the community of bloggers. He welcomes your comments at bob@workingwounded.com.

This work is the opinion of the columnist and in no way reflects the opinion of ABC News.