Jack Mitchell was my first chief publicity officer. He was a fun adventurous sportsman. His idea of ​​a vacation was getting lost in the high mountains of Peru. He could spend the rest of the year keeping the interest of all of us in the palm of his hand while he told the latest adventure stories of his. we will fix it

Jack was the Director of Advertising and Sales Promotion at Remington Arms Company and his four questions helped me focus my thinking on every advertising challenge I faced.

After all, some say that 85% of all advertising doesn’t work. But when he does, it’s pure magic. Let’s see if his four questions are your magic wand.

Mitchell’s four questions.

Question 1: Who is your top or top prospect?

The safest way to get your new business into bankruptcy court is to think that everyone is going to make their way to your door. They do not. You will have a small group of customers that will represent the majority of your bread and butter business.

That is what the 80/20 principle means not focus. Chances are that eight percent of your business comes from twenty percent of your customers. Start thinking and planning with that key fact in mind. If you don’t, you’ll have no idea who’s buying from you and the media people will be all over you like vultures on a dead water buffalo. Get to know that top prospect like you know your best friend.

Develop a mental picture of that main perspective. When you do, you’ll focus your efforts on those people who are likely to keep you in business instead of making big donations to the ad-of-the-week club.

To paraphrase President Abraham Lincoln, you can reach everyone at some point; some of the people all the time; But you can’t reach everyone, all the time you  focus on your gools.

Even the behemoth Wal-Mart doesn’t appeal to everyone, but you can bet they know who their top prospects are and aim most of their focus, squarely, at them.

So where do you start? How do you find out who is going to be the best or top prospect?

Start in the same place where you started your business idea. Why on earth did you want to start your business in the first place? Who encouraged you to take that giant step? What did you plan to do differently that would attract customers in the first place?

If you have competition, go buy them.

Get copies of your advertising.

See who they are trying to persuade to use your products and services.

Go to your local community college and university and offer to let your marketing students do a research project on your business.

Take online surveys.

Here is another way to collect information.

Create a drawing with a meaningful award.

Money. A trip. an iPod something cool If you have a store you focus on your store,

do the contest in the store

. Encourage everyone who walks through the door to complete an entry.

Take the survey twice a year.

We are looking for demographic data in the survey.

Demographics are numbers we can measure.

How old is your top prospect?

Is the lead prospect male or female?

Married or single?

Does your top prospect have a family?

How much education? White collar or blue collar?

White or minority?

How rich?

Is fitness important?

Do you like pets?

Member of a church?

What is your favorite means of transportation?

(Yes, truck drivers and other than Lexus drivers). Do they drink?

Smoke? Do sport?

Choose questions that apply to your business and what you offer.

If it hasn’t opened its doors,

go to the chamber of commerce office and,

in some cities, your local newspaper.

Both can and often do have a lot of demographic information about your main group of prospects.

Census Tracking Information is also a good place to stick your nose in for an afternoon.

And, be sure to use your nose. Learjet’s have to be licensed. Learjet pilots have to make control trips.

Learjet owners have to register their planes.

They all have the FAA in common.

Don’t forget about government agencies.

You helped pay for them, and in some cases, they are actually willing and ready to help we will fix it.

When you apply the answers to how many times the person needs your services (every day, once a week, once a month, once in a lifetime),

we begin to get a sense of the size of the market.

Clearly, a small convenience store has a very different market than someone planning to sell Learjet’s. Convenience stores can have 90% of their business from within a five-mile radius

Clearly, a small convenience store has a very different market than someone planning to sell Learjet’s. Convenience stores can have 90% of their business from within a five-mile radius.