Saturday 11 April 2009

If you want to catch fish then fish where the fish are!

I was recently told a story by a businessman about fishing (from when he was a lad).

The advice he was given, when failing to catch any fish, was:
“If you aren’t catching fish in this lake then find another lake. If you want to catch fish then fish where the fish are!”

And surely this applies to business:
“If you want to make lots of money then go where the money is.”

Working with the poorest, most needy clients is like creating your own toxic, sub-prime customer base. And you know what happens to people who do that!

The lesson is that you should not keep trying to fish in lousy ponds... in effect, stop trying to seduce naff clients (who don't need/like/want to pay for your product/service) - you are trying to talk to the wrong people... and that is often a waste of time. Go and find the right lake for you...

Find the right lake then charge more and deliver better value to your top-end customers.

Everyone is obsessed with price… but really they are obsessed with value and your job is to prove to them that you can add more value than your competitors (and you shouldn’t be doing this at a low price!).


RELEVANT LINKS
Beating the Credit Crunch - book


2 comments:

Jeff said...

Just came across this. Ages old (the posting) but so true.

We spend too much time checking we have the right tackle and that we are on the right bank of the lake but somethimes we are fishing where the fish are not. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Thanks for this.

Jeff

Jan said...

Your language suggests that you are not really up to speed with fishing.