Tue 26 May 2009
Go Where the Customers Are
Posted by Megan Dorn under Small Business
About a week ago my younger sister graduated from college. Being the supportive and devoted older sibling that I am, I of course made the 3 ½ -hour (one way) trek to sit through three hours of “be all that you can be” speeches in BITTER cold winds to catch that two-second glimpse of her receiving her diploma, which I ended up missing anyway because my camera wouldn’t focus.
As I sat in my chair waiting for hypothermia to set in, I noticed an overwhelming number of people carrying bouquets of flowers. Giving a new grad flowers isn’t anything out of the ordinary, but it felt like just about everyone had them. I was impressed by how “on the ball” these people were. I could hardly get myself ready and there on time, let alone be competent enough to stop and pick up flowers. Within a few minutes I saw just why everyone was “on the ball.”
Not 15 feet from one of the main entrances sat a table full of flowers that was overwhelmed by crowds of people scrambling to snag a bouquet before they ran out. The table was set up by a local florist. I probably just haven’t been to enough of these events, but I had never seen vendors at a graduation ceremony before. It’s really a no-brainer small business tip: Be where your customers need you. Not only are you catering to people like me who didn’t have enough time to go to the florist, but you’re also helping the out-of-towners who don’t know where the local florist is and are already irritated because their GPS systems told them to head the wrong way down a one-way street, as well as those people who just flat out didn’t think of flowers.
The moral of the story is this: Just because you have a product and a place where people can buy it doesn’t mean that customers will automatically come to you. Sometimes people don’t realize that they need or want what you have to sell until it hits them over the head. It’s like all of that junk you find in the check-out aisle at the store. I always forget that I can’t live without a giant box of matches or a Tide-to-Go pen until it’s right there in front of me. If you want to find a way to reach new customers, get inside their heads and go to the places where their eyes will see you and where they will need your product or service.
