Your marketing team put a lot of effort into researching your target market. They conducted client interviews and worked on segments. They invest a great deal of money, time, and effort into creating personal identities. I like roles, but perhaps they even gave them names.
From product to engineering, from sales to support, they presented the personas to everybody. Additionally, they conducted training so that you could delve deeper and truly comprehend these characters. The objective was to assist you in developing and promoting your products more effectively to your target markets, regardless of your current position.
It seemed like a really good idea. It was meant to function. After then, something occurs.
“I recognise that persona,” a voice in the room adds. That persona is who I am. Since they are the same as the persona, that is all they need to do to take over the conversation (and the vibe in the room) and make their viewpoint the one that should be heard.
However, this is untrue. It isn’t useful or accurate.
They’re not your ideal client. They haven’t been. They aren’t and never will be.
You are not your target client if you have previously done this. You might have experienced itching. It’s possible that you had a problem in mind that you intended to fix.
However, since then, you have followed a very different course than your client. After all, you’ve taken the effort to get more familiar with and knowledgeable about the area. You’ve put a lot more effort and time into it than they have.
Even if you may have been the customer once, you are no more.
I’ve heard this justification countless times over the past five years.
“The target customer is me.”
At work, I’ve heard it. Friends have told me about it. I’ve heard that from clients I coach. Founders have told me about it.
It isn’t accurate. The customer is not you.
The best course of action is to keep it in mind. Study it. Have faith. And put your faith in them rather than your own judgement. It’s acceptable to have an opinion, even a strong one. However, don’t allow that overshadow the fact that many others have experienced many different things than you have.
Your experience is unique to you. It is not representative of or similar to what everyone has experienced.
The sample size is frequently displayed beneath the survey findings in the realm of data and surveys. The statement “n=24,000” indicates that they spoke with 24,000 persons. They’re probably telling you that 47% of people believe something, therefore that’s significant. Of the population, 47% were not contacted.
They used a sample size that was both substantial and random.
You’ve probably heard me say something different if this is the first time I’ve discussed it. It’s how I handle this issue in brief.
n = 1.
I describe what I’m hearing like that. One piece of information. not noteworthy in terms of statistics. Though not representative, it is valuable. Why?
Because you are not the client.
