Who Are Your Customers?

Yesterday in a meeting I was asked what the greatest marketing lesson was that I've ever learned. I said it's that customers are individuals not just masses of people. For example, they have different needs, different lives, different approaches, different levels of comfort level talking to the press etc. Hands down, this has been the biggest marketing lesson that I've ever learned, especially since doing customer references.

For example, customer A might be an IT Manager with 20 years experience who is looking to share his experiences and willing to do press interviews, case study, speaking engagements etc because he wants to advance his career and is comfortable talking about his experiences. Customer B might be a new IT admin who is really too tactical to be able to talk to the press and too shy to want to.

Both customers are valuable but we need to respect what they want and need. My examples apply well to my current job but no matter your business, I challenge you to take some time and get to know your customers. Not just the stats and the numbers, but who each individual customer. I know it's not realistic to get to know every customer but I think the greatest thing anyone at a company can do is to to know your customers. The only way to eat an elephant is one bite as a time. The same principle applies to getting to know your customers, except you don't bite them, you just need to get to know them.