Choose Your Own Customers, Part II

For most things, quality is better than quantity.

Brett Sutton lives this mantra. He is a personal coach for triathletes. His athletes have won 15 world championships and 2 Olympic medals. Most recently, Sutton coached Chrissie Wellington to a Hawaii Ironman championship.

He is known for old-school techniques. He pushes his athletes beyond their limits and was once a trainer for horses and greyhounds. As if this is not controversial enough, he was also convicted of sexually assaulting a minor in 1997.

He was quoted in the October 2008 Outside Magazine as saying “If you want to be a civilian, be a civilian. My athletes are soldiers. This is the jungle. The lion gets up every day. If he doesn’t catch the gazelle, he doesn’t eat. If the gazelle doesn’t outrun the gazelle, he’s dead.”

Pretty intense stuff! You might expect that from a sport as demanding as the triathlon. In my athletic career (water polo, swimming) I certainly had some intense coaches, but nothing resembling Brett Sutton. Then again, I never intended on becoming a World Champion. (Beating Harvard was always a stretch goal for our team!)

But let’s not lose the business lesson that Sutton is teaching. Sutton’s program is not for everyone. At the time of the Outside Magazine article, Sutton was coaching 18 triathletes. Sutton admits that he prefers to work with a smaller group. “I know I could have 100 people here and make more money, but that’s not what I’m about. Coaching is sacred to me.”

The point here is that Sutton selectively chooses who to bring into his program. His platform is unique, different and perhaps unorthodox. That said, he attracts a unique, different and perhaps unorthodox clientele. The results speak for themselves, but Sutton’s means to an end are not intended for all triathletes.

Same goes for a successful small business. A successful small business will selectively choose its clients. A successful small business presents an exceptional platform (otherwise it is a commodity) that attracts only a unique client base. Success, for small businesses, is not about quantity. It’s about quality.

Sutton might say the same thing regarding his coaching. He looks for quality, not quantity. He has set up parameters to attract only those willing to work under his conditions. And he probably turns away a lot of potential customers. Imagine that! Turning away customers!

For your business, try an approach in which you truly choose your own customer. I suggest you write down the characteristics of your ideal customer. In other words, describe your target market in terms of their demographics and psychographics. This will really help you understand what marketing messages and channels to use.

Think about choosing quality customers, and not necessarily quantity. You’ll save money and energy and you’ll attract truly qualified leads.