A Marketing Lesson: I Like My Steak Rare

Let me share a story....

A few years ago, my dad called me on the phone. He invited me to come to his house and eat steak, because he was cooking on the grill.

He asked me, "How do you want your steak cooked?"

I told him rare.

He said, "No, you don't want that. How do you want your steak cooked?"

I said rare.

He said, "Quit kidding around. How do you want me to cook your steak?"

I told him once again, "Rare."

He said okay.

So, I went to his house for dinner, and when he handed me my steak, I cut it open and realized it was cooked well done...

I frowned and looked at him, then I said, "If you are going to cook my dinner the way you think I should eat it, why do you even bother asking me how I want it?"



Yes, there is a marketing lesson in here, one that tells a lot about human nature...

See, here is the deal...

People tend to believe that everyone else is just like them, and what they like is what everyone else will want.

Unfortunately, that rule doesn't always work.

In fact, the chances are that you are part of a minority of people who feel as you do.

If you want to sell more stuff, you need to figure out how you can have a conversation with those people who are most likely to buy what you are selling...

Yet, before you can start that conversation, you need to discover who is most likely to buy what you are selling and how you can reach them with your message.

See, the thing is that people like you are most likely not your intended target market.

People like me don't need to buy most of my products, because they already know what I know.

My target market is actually people who want to be where I am today, but they are right now where I was one, two or ten years ago.

My products educate people, and my products lift people up from where they are now to closer to where they want to be.

Those people who are already at my level won't be impressed because there will be nothing cutting edge about what I am teaching them, but those who have yet to reach my level will want to get on board, so that they can learn what I already know.

If I wrote my sales copy for people like me, then people would be disappointed with my products. So, I write sales copy for the folks who want to get to where I am today, and as a result, people love my products.

Every day here in the forum, we see bitch threads from people who think that the people who are in our marketplace look just like them. And it is fine if they want to bitch about it, but the truth is that they are most likely not in our target market.

Some people bitch about how they cannot afford to purchase the products we tell them about. The people who cannot afford to buy my products are not in my target market.

Some people complain that they don't want to hear from people like me more than once a month. Those people are not in my target market either. My readers love to hear from me several times a week, and if you don't, you are not in my target market.

The reality is that our marketing will fall flat if we try talking to the wrong people. And, in order to talk to the right people, we must understand our audience explicitly.

We must understand who is most likely to buy our products, why they buy, and how we can reach them with our marketing message.

If we don't understand these things, we will not make as much money as we could make, simply because we don't understand what we are doing wrong and what we are doing right.

My dad would only cook my steaks well done, because that is how he ate his steaks. He assumed that I would want my steak exactly as he would eat his steak, and he was wrong.

If my steak isn't bleeding, I don't want it.

And, if you are like my dad and you think the only way to eat a steak is well done, then you will absolutely leave me a dissatisfied customer if you try to make me eat my steak the way that you eat your steak.

I used to work in a steak house long, long ago... And when I was there, I learned that people who liked their steaks well done always overcooked the steaks they served. People who liked their steaks rare always undercooked the steaks they served. And people who did not like steak at all would cook the steak to order every single time.

If you want to sell more stuff, you must start realizing that your customer doesn't look anything like you... And if you like selling lots of stuff, it would help for you to learn how your customers want their steaks cooked, and how to give them exactly what they want.