Backstory: I thought all fashion retailers are the same...
Mistake #10: I never asked which customer I wanted 10 more of.
3 different people were buying WeSupply:
The VP of Digital.
The customer service manager.
The operations manager.
All 3 paid.
I believed a paying customer was a good customer.
So I treated all 3 as one customer.
What it produced:
Good: Revenue from 3 departments instead of 1.
Bad: 3 demos, 3 onboardings, 3 roadmaps.
Bad: Nobody on the team could tell a good lead from a bad one.
Bad: Sales felt like roulette.
Here's what I missed:
Each had different needs, problems, looking for different solutions.
Some had budgets others don't.
Some were easy to find others were hard to reach...
A lead is a guess.
A customer is a fact.
You know what he paid, what he cost you, and whether the result showed up.
So rank what you already have before you chase what you don't.
Solution: I ranked the 3 of them with the four questions from Mistake #1.
The VP of Digital: I liked the work, I could move his numbers, he paid, and I could find him easily.
The customer service manager: Great to work with, I could move his numbers, but they often had no budget
The operations manager: Wanted it, had budget, but I couldn't reach them....
The VP of Digital won.
That was the customer I wanted 10 more of.
Why this works:
The ones you'd clone are proof you can do it again.
The ones you wouldn't share the same red flag, every time.
Your leads start to look alike, so a rep can qualify them without you.
The results:
One customer the whole company could describe: a VP of Digital at a fashion retailer with 80–150 stores.
3 of them alone: over $2.1M in 6 years.
Churn from that customer in those 6 years: 0.
So if you want to do this yourself, pull your last 10 deals.
Won, lost, and churned, no cherry-picking.
Next to each one, answer one question: would I take 10 more exactly like this?
Then read the two piles.
What the yeses share is your customer.
What the nos share is the red flag you keep ignoring.
You're done when you can name one real customer you would clone.
Secret Sauce: Clone your best customers.
Best,
Virgil
PS: Mistake #11: I thought knowing who I could help was enough.