Why Your Target Market Isn’t Actually Targeted | FOCB Feat. Dawn Gayge

Most business owners think they know their target market.

Until someone asks them to actually define it.

In this episode of From Overlooked to Consistently Booked, Meaghan Chitwood sits down with Dawn Gayge of Tracer Strategy Marketing to talk about one of the biggest mistakes business owners make:

Trying to market to everyone.

Because the truth is, when your message is too broad…
it stops connecting with anyone.

In this conversation, Dawn walks through:

why “everyone” is not a target market
how to identify your best-fit clients
why your ideal customer is usually already hiding in your existing business
how customer experience changes based on who you’re trying to attract
and how to finally create messaging that actually feels personal

One of the biggest takeaways:

People love buying when they feel like something was made specifically for them.

That’s when marketing stops feeling like selling.

This episode is full of practical examples, including:

florists
roofing companies
Starbucks
luxury branding
and real-world ways to figure out who your “perfect person” actually is.

If you’ve ever struggled to answer:
“Who exactly are you trying to attract?”

This episode is for you.

Watch now and start building messaging people actually connect with.

Want to grow your business through referrals and relationships?
Visit a BNI chapter near you:
https://northern.bnialabama.com/en-US/index

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:09

I'm Megan Chilman and welcome to From Overlooked to Consistently Booked. I help business owners and professionals build strong, effective referral networks so they don't have to chase business because it comes to them. Each week we break down what actually makes people refer you, trust you, and talk about you. This week we are talking about why your target market is not actually targeted with Don Cage from Tracer Strategy Marketing. All right. And I have to admit, I have had the same exact issue where someone says, Who's your target market? And I'm like, but there's all these professions and here's all these. And I got, you know, I just tried to wiggle my way out of it until um actually we started working with EOS and then I couldn't wiggle my way out of it. That's right. But uh so how how how do you when you have somebody who thinks they're targeted, how do you approach the subject and say that's not targeted at all?

SPEAKER_00 1:17

I walk them through their own stuff. So we actually walk them through marketing collateral pieces, messages that they've got out there that I let them self-assess by asking some questions. So I have a great example of this. I had a florist who came to me. This is when I lived in New England because I'm originally from Boston, and she was really struggling. She went brick and mortar, so the pressure was on, right? Like she needed people coming in that door before she was, you know, cottage industry, worked out of the house. So there was real pressure. Yep. And that's usually when people come find me. It's like, okay, I know I need to get serious about marketing now. So she said, you know, I asked her about her business. I said, I do some discovery conversation questions. And so she said, I said, so who are you really trying to attract? Like who is your best client? The best customer in that case. And she said, Well, it's it's everyone. And I said, Well, okay, show me where you're putting that out there. And so we went to her website. We were on Zoom and shared the screen. And I said, Okay. So we looked through it. And I said, Is it really everyone? Because I see your lead generator, your form on your website is targeting commercial businesses. So is that everyone? And she was like, Darn it. It's not. I said, Do you want to do people who are walking in and buying bouquets, or do you want like event clients, weddings, corporate clients? And she said, No, because those little bouquets do not make the bills. They do not pay the bills. I do really want these people. I said, Okay, that's great. Now we know who you're targeting. She's like, But should I do that? I mean, I'm a florist. Aren't flowers for everybody? I said, I don't think so. I said, look at some of your competitors in the marketplace. Do you feel like they're selling to everybody? And we took an example. I'm not, I don't want to say the brand because they're significant brand. Um I bet I can guess, but go ahead. Yeah. And so we looked at their stuff, and this was uh specific to our region, actually. Like they cornered the market on luxury flowers. So we went to their website and she's like, ah, got it. Okay. And she said, Well, I look at my competitors all the time. I said, Well, do you get out of bed every day for your competitors, or you do get out of bed every day for your clients, your customers? She's like, Oh my gosh. Well, of course I get out for my customers. Like, that's why I started this business to begin with. So that's how we really kind of hone in when they struggle in that area. It's it's very much about self-discovery because it's hard to describe something, A, if you're not really seeing it, and B, if you don't, if you have to be coached on it or told, it's like describing the color blue. It's you can kind of describe it, but until you actually see it, it's a lot harder to get your head around it and your arms around it and then do and take action on it. So that's how we approach that with them.

SPEAKER_01 4:13

So have you ever encountered the client that's just it really does look like anyone? It's anyone who needs a roof. And how do you work with that person?

SPEAKER_00 4:23

I just had that conversation with a prospect two months ago. And they literally said, It's anyone who needs a roof. And I say, Wow, that's amazing. Now, this is not a big um, you know, franchise type level roofing company. It is a, I'll call it a mom and pop growing local roofing company. And I said, Um, okay, starter question. Describe the last five ideal clients that have paid their bills on time and been awesome for you. And he did. And I said, What were their zip codes? And he said, Uh. They're all in this one area. I said, Tell me about your worst clients. They were all in this other area, and their houses were a certain look, feel, style, build, right? And the best clients for him were very different type structured homes. And they were experiencing different things with the status of their roof because of like material types that he only wanted to deal with those particular vendors. So I said, there we go. And he said, I have never thought about it that way. But you're not, you don't want to provide a roof for anyone with a roof. You really, really don't. When we start to kind of ask those questions that put guardrails on or blinders on a horse, they realize, oh my gosh, okay. And then you see them relax a little bit. There's like a relief in the realization that they aren't for everybody. Yeah. Even though they could be perceived like, oh, you just do roofs. Well, that's like saying any every doctor can do everything. Yeah. Like, you know, your sister's a specialty focused. Um, I personally would not want a heart surgeon operating on my brain. Yeah. Both doctors, right? But very different areas of expertise, and very important that they're solely focused on that area of expertise. It's the same thing with any business.

SPEAKER_01 6:19

Well, and I also love when you when you nail down, I love buying when I'm like, this is for me. Yes. Right? So it's not even a sales process because it's like, oh, you got me. Yeah, here's my money. Please take it. Yeah. And so I think people forget that, you know, when you can get that message to the exact person. Because in what you just described, I'm just gonna imagine, right? Let's let's pretend it's super high-end versus not super high end, right? So those two messages are totally different. One is let's talk about money and budget, the other is let's talk about materials and looks. So you can't have those same conversations with everyone.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

Right. Yeah. And I think no matter what segment you're serving, what really resonates with a lot of people is how are they gonna feel during the process. It could be the same thing. We can apply that concept to a transactional business experience to an actual like full-on experience experience. Um, you just feel differently moving through it. Okay. Whether it's I just I don't feel sold to, I feel like this was just right for me, or uh, I just bought because they were so persistent, I finally caved and I'm never gonna touch use enjoy that again. I just ugh it's very different. So give anyone you're serving, customer, client, transaction or not, an experience. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

So tips that you would give someone who is not a marketer that is trying to figure, trying to figure this out. What piece of advice would you give them? I have a lot.

SPEAKER_00 8:01

I've been thinking about this one a lot. It's it's kind of research and development. So maybe this is more and this is appropriate for the context of your world and who you're serving with this podcast. Mostly entrepreneurs are early in their you know, early in their business journey. Um go out and watch people buy or experience a thing in your world. If you want to start coffee company, like Starbucks Jr. or the local mom and to, go sit in a Starbucks, buy their product, experience their client journey from the second you walk in the door, sit down, and then watch and observe people move through their space. What works and what doesn't work? What would you want to adopt? What would you never touch? And then take that experience, do it in the local mom and pop shop, maybe not your direct competitor, go a couple of towns over, and watch how they do it, and then integrate it into what you're doing and mimic not the service delivery, but the find the people that they've attracted. You can learn so much by observing. Write it down, document it, speak it into a voice memo, like put it in your AI engine. I highly recommend just dumping all of your words into a voice memo and speaking it out, especially when you're really trying to adopt and understand who your perfect person is because you are owner founder. Like you're the one who started this process. You're the one who wants to bring this thing to market and say, I watched this woman walk into Starbucks, and it was like it was truly her third place. So most people don't realize this about Starbucks, but it was designed on the premise of the third place, like a place where you could go sit and have coffee talk, like you and I might do, or just focus on working, or mom can like just take a break from being in the house all day and go sit with her baby and have one hot cup of coffee because it always goes cold. Like they were they designed it on that. So in that same vein, I want you to try to envision why you started this in the perfect person you designed it for, and then go live their journey and live their experience out loud, and then speak it as owner operator, speak it into some kind of voice recording. Now, I'm all about AI, so I'm gonna put in the content. If you open your chat GPT, there is a voice mode. You can speak into it like you're speaking to an expert marketer and say, I just did some research today. Here's what I observed. This is my company. I think my perfect person is this. This is what they did, this is what they saw, this is what they wore. If you can see the car they drive away in, don't, you know, don't chase them down. But those are signals that's your perfect person. And ask ChatGPT, can you help me build my ideal customer profile for my business based on the information that I just gave you? And you'll be amazed what comes out. And then your message will build from there. And then you have nailed it. You're close to nailing it more than the other person, the other guy who is not doing the same exercise or considering what we've talked about in this conversation today.

SPEAKER_01 11:25

Um, so I have also done it done that kind of thing slightly differently. This is what I love, this is what the journey looked like, this is what I prefer in that particular process. Now, who appreciates this? So good. Right. You can absolutely do it that way. So it's just like this is what I love. Now, who else might love this too?

SPEAKER_00 11:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

And and it and I love the fact that it can give you look-alikes.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

Yeah, that is a great thing. And look-alikes is a thing. So, way on down the road, when you're really deep into your world of business and you start to run ads, you can build a look-alike audience. Yeah. So that is a very real thing. So the application and what you just said is 100% true and has a lot of utility to it. So, absolutely another way to approach it for sure.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Awesome. So, in the next segment, we're going to really dig into the perfect person, um, how to actually, how to really do that, how to really bring it to life. And so, I can't wait to see what we what we create on that one as well. So, remember, referrals don't come from chasing, they come from connection. When you build the right network, business follows. So, let's identify your perfect person. If this was helpful, subscribe for more conversations like this. And if you're ready to grow through referrals, check out a BMI chapter near you by visiting BMI.