Skip to main content

Doug Downing - 7 Triggers of Business Crisis—Part 5: Your Customer’s Life Is Your Business’s Life




TRIGGER #5: A CHANGE IN YOUR CUSTOMERS’ LIVES


Some of you reading this have a specific customer base. A very particular niche demographic for a product or service that’s perhaps not quite as ubiquitous as a cup of coffee.


(I don’t drink coffee but I do take business tips from Howard Schultz! See Trigger #4: Surviving and Thriving the Starbucks Way).


If you’re part of a company that acutely targets the ideal customer, can a change in your customers’ lives trigger crisis in your business? To answer that question, consider the example of Harley Davidson. Not just motorcycles, Harleys.


For years baby boomers bought Harleys because they grew up watching Hollywood bad boys riding these beautiful bikes.


For that customer base, most sales happened between the ages of 35 and 55, that’s the prime purchaser. (You don’t see too many 65 or 70-year-olds buying Harleys.) The biggest sales sweet spot is about 40 to 45 years old. Somebody has midlife crisis and they run out and buy a Harley, right? So there’s only one problem if you’re Harley Davidson. The generation behind me and my fellow Baby Boomers is much smaller. So much smaller that even if every Gen Xer turned 40 and bought a Harley, sales would hardly put wind in your hair.



So Harley Davidson continues their massive production and then what happens is those baby boomers who once bought bikes age out of the market. They’re not buying Harleys anymore. Now they’re taking pictures of them in their garage, and posting them on Craigslist, and selling them real cheap because it was cool and fun for a few thousand miles, and now they’re 65 and they want to get some cash in their khakis for this thing that’s in near mint condition.


And that’s how a change in your customers’ lives can cripple your business if you don’t anticipate it.


Ask yourself right now: Who is the next generation and how will we market to them?


As people change — as they have children, as they age through different stages of life — they’ll make decisions differently. And the same goes not just for your customers but for you and your employees, too.



The post 7 Triggers of Business Crisis—Part 5: Your Customer’s Life Is Your Business’s Life appeared first on Tony Robbins' Business and Finance Blog.






via Tony Robbins' Business and Finance Blog http://ift.tt/1oybJ5Q
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How to Set Priorities Using the ABCDE Method - Brian Tracy

The more thought you invest into setting priorities before you begin a task, the faster you will get the important things done. The more important and valuable the task is to you, the more motivated you are to overcome procrastination and launch yourself into the job. William Matthews said,  “The first law of success is concentration – to bend all the energies to one point, and to go directly to that point, looking neither to the right or to the left.” Today, I want to share a method of time-management for setting priorities that I’ve been using for years, called the ABCDE method. FREE TIME MANAGEMENT TOOL: Download the ABCDE Checklist PDF The ABCDE Method The ABCDE Method is a powerful priority setting technique that you can use every single day. This technique is so simple and effective that it can make you one of the most efficient and effective people in your field. The ABCDE list is a to-do list on steroids when it comes to learning how to prioritize . The power of t...
Post a Comment
Read more

lynda - Jane Wurwand, Founder of Dermalogica, this week on Glambition Radio

Jane Wurwand is not only the founder of the #1 brand of skin care in the world, but she’s also changing women’s lives on a global level . I’m thrilled to have her as my guest on today’s episode of Glambition Radio . Jane (originally from the UK) and her husband launched their business back in 1983 in Marina del Rey, CA with $14,000, no bank loans and no investors. Today, Dermalogica boasts sales of more than $250,000 million a year and is sold in 86 countries around the world! It’s a true rags-to-riches story, and she tells all in our interview . What many people may not know about Jane is that she is also fighting to empower women all over the world. She founded FITE , Financial Independence Through Entrepreneurship, which invests in local grassroots initiatives to help women and girls become leaders . To date, her FITE program has helped fund more than 40,000 loans for women to start or grow businesses in over 65 countries! (Visit JoinFITE.org to see how you can get involved.) O...
Post a Comment
Read more

SMART Goals 101: Goal Setting Examples, Templates, and Tips - Brian Tracy

I think you’ll agree with me when I say: We’ve all heard that SMART goals are important . But a lot of people are left with questions about them, for example: What exactly are they? How do we use them correctly? Are they really contributing to your success? Here’s the deal: When it comes to achieving success, one of the most important steps that you can take is setting good goals. It is also important to recognize, though, that not all goals are created equal. In this article, we’ll take a look at a special class of goals called SMART goals and how you can use them to heighten your chances of success. FREE SUCCESS TOOL: Brian Tracy’s 14-Step-Goal-Setting Guide What is a Goal? A goal can be any objective that you set for yourself and push yourself to achieve. Sometimes that goal may be small (like waking up an hour earlier than you normally do) and sometimes it may be larger (like earning a promotion). But here’s the kicker: While having goals of all kinds is almost ...
Post a Comment
Read more