Steve August
Jul 24, 2017 · 2 min read

Why ‘And’ should be a four-letter word

‘And’ might seem like a pretty innocuous word. Used in ideation and brainstorming exercises it’s a fine, helpful word.

In the context of a young business finding its way, it’s a dangerous one.

When starting out, the instinct is to cast the widest possible net by broadening your audience and your offerings to attract anybody that might possibly buy from you.

So you start pitching to target customer A and target customer B (who are very similar to target customer B) and maybe even target customer C, all of whom could conceivably benefit from your service. And with some tweaks, your service may solve this one problem for one customer A and also could help customers B and C with similar problems.

But ironically, adding all those ‘ands’ ends up working against you.

With every target audience you add, it gets harder to talk to a specific pain and how you solve it. Your marketing becomes more generic, and it ’s more challenging to communicate your unique value proposition. Depending on how much tweaking they need, creating offerings for different audiences costs you more to develop, service and support.

Pitching a wide array of possible customers makes it harder for to decide which opportunities truly deserve your time. Your marketing and advertising spend gets diffused so it has less impact and ROI.

‘And’ is the enemy of focus and scatters your resources. Focusing your limited resources on the sweet spot of your best target audience and most profitable offering is how you win.

So make ‘and’ a four letter word.

Steve August

Written by

Founder of August & Wonder and Revelation, serial entrepreneur with successful exits, Founder's Coach and maker.

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