Don’t Be Afraid of Your Own Opinion

My friend Joel D Canfield, author of The Commonsense Entrepreneur (seriously one of the best business books I’ve ever read, and he doesn’t even pay me to say that), made an interesting comment to me today.  He said that he never wants to go to his book’s page on Amazon and see 3s in the ratings; he only wants to see 1s and 5s.  That might at first seem a little strange: after all, why would he prefer 1s to 3s in his book’s ratings?  Wouldn’t it be better if people thought his book was just okay instead of hating it?

Not in Joel’s mind.  Why?  Because Joel is a polarizer.  Love him or hate him; just don’t say he’s “okay”.  In fact, Joel says that if someone disagrees with an opinion he states, he’s likely to lean even further into that opinion.  He never aims for the middle ground.

We could all learn a lesson from that.  Far too often, businesspeople try to pander to the middle of the road.  We think that if we can make everybody happy, we’ve done our job, but that’s just not reasonable.  It’s also not possible, because what makes some people happy is sure to piss others off (if you have any trouble believing that, just ask the man in the White House).  Your goal should not be to make everyone happy; it should be to make your ideal customers happy.

“Hold on a minute, though,” I hear you say.  ”Isn’t everyone a potential customer and therefore deserving of my efforts to make them happy?”

And therein lies a huge problem in the thinking of many businesspeople.  Let me be completely clear: not everyone is a potential client for you! No matter how well you think your product or service could be used by each and every person on the planet, it’s just not true.  Yet, it’s what almost everyone believes.  Just ask any small (or large, for that matter) business owner who their ideal client is, and the most common answer you’ll hear is “Everyone!”

Have no doubt: this is a big problem.  If you don’t have a clear idea of who your target market is, how in the world are you going to find them, let alone sell anything to them?   The answer: you’re not!

So, back to the lesson we can learn from Joel, then.  Since we’ve established that not everyone in the world is your client, why are you trying so hard to please everyone?  That approach will get you, at best, a lukewarm response.  But if you’re not afraid to lose a few potential clients by being really clear about who you are and what you offer, you’re reaction from the potential customers who are in alignment with you’re offering is going to be enthusiastic, to say the least.  You’ll probably even create some raving fans!

So take Joel’s advice: stop thinking that a 3 on a customer satisfaction survey is better than a 1.  It’s not.  Start aiming for 1s and 5s only.  I guarantee you’ll make a lot more money and have a lot more fun with a few 5s than with a legion of 3s.

It’s like my childhood hero Dr. Suess said: “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.”