“Hope” is an aimless strategy!
Assume you are about to go hunting on 500 acres of land that is split into parcels with a different kind of animal in each parcel (i.e. squirrels in one parcel and Moose in another). You would never walk randomly through these vast parcels and hope you find an animal that suits your fancy. It’s inefficient and frustrating. Alternatively, the smart hunter would try to understand the lay of the land and identify where the ideal prey exists and focus their efforts in these parcels – right? This is what segmentation is all about.
This mistake has a parallel in sales. One of the biggest “sins” sales and marketing organizations tend to commit is they lack a segmentation strategy. The evidence that this gap exists for the average firm is if their attitude about new accounts and opportunities sounds like this:
- “We never meet an opportunity we don’t like – and chase”
- “We want to maximize the number of opportunities we pursue this year” (I have one client that calls this “Bid more to win more!”)
- Or, they’ll say, “We’re intent on treating all of our clients equally well”
This mentality (and strategy) is evidence that we have an opportunistic mentality and therein lies the problem – you don’t have a segmentation strategy. Great organizations embrace a different approach and mentality:
- They’re clear about which industries and segments they are a good fit to serve
- They’re clear on what solutions they will bring to the market and to whom they’re most attractive
- They don’t treat all accounts equally – they treat their best clients extraordinarily well
- And, they focus on the few, best opportunities and qualify out of the deals they don’t belong pursuing
It sounds simple – but these principles are often violated! If you want to go big game hunting in your business – determine where the big game are and target your efforts strategically, not randomly!
I welcome your thoughts!