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Aim Small, Miss Small

There was a line in the movie The Patriot where the character Mel Gibson plays is about to ambush a group of British soldiers to save his son. He tells his other two sons to remember what he has taught them: “Aim small, miss small.”

The other day I was in a meeting with our production team, and while we were discussing strategies to attain “client reaches” (this is our coined term for relationships that we have developed for our clients which are reaching toward an ideal sales opportunity for our client), that exact phrase came out of my mouth: “Aim small, miss small.”

It's a great concept and relates directly to business and client growth. Focus your efforts. In other words, identify a segment you want to go after by profiling whom you sell to now. Who actually buys from you, as opposed to an idealized client to whom you have yet to sell anything? Then take aim at that small segment and go after them heavily. We are not aiming at the whole audience here; we are aiming at your audience—the people most likely to need, want, and buy your products or services.

Why waste your time, effort, money, and energy chasing the entire audience, many of whom will most likely never buy from you anyway. Focus. Aim small, miss small. Define the audience and go ...

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