Spent 8 months chasing the wrong customer segment for my consulting firm

I started a small B2B consulting firm in Portland two years ago helping local shops with inventory management. For the first year I was aiming at small retail stores thinking they'd be my bread and butter. But after 8 months of cold calls and lowball offers I realized they just didn't have the budget or interest. Turns out mid sized warehouses with 20+ employees were way more willing to pay for my services and I wasted all that time pitching the wrong people. I must have sent out 150 proposals to small shops before I switched gears. Now I'm wondering how many other business owners have spent way too long targeting the wrong customer group. How did you figure out who your real audience is and how long did it take you to course correct?

2 comments

2 Comments

dakota1607d ago

What book or post made you finally see the mismatch?

brian_coleman7d ago

For me it was that old blog post "Dead Kennedys and Dead Crowds." @dakota160, that thing bluntly laid out how punk bands lose all their edge when they blow up. Just made the whole gap between underground and mainstream feel totally obvious.