What would make the right customer choose us?

“We need to get more customers.” Whenever I have heard this, the problem can usually be traced back to falling sales or tracking below budget.

With the ‘get more customers’ approach, the inclination is to shout your story louder. So you buy more ad space, run a promotion, get along to more field days, incentivise the sales team, etc. But before increasing the force, you need to understand the resistance.

A better approach is: “We need to understand why the customers we want aren't choosing us.”

And this informs the next question: “What would make the right customer choose us?”

See what has happened here? We have flipped from a company-centric approach to a customer-centric one. And given they pay your bills, this seems an eminently more sensible approach.

Pro tip: Those that do this well challenge any assumptions they make when answering these questions. The biggest mistake marketers can make is to treat assumptions as truths. Farming is very dynamic in nature; what once was true may not be anymore. Needs change, priorities change, technology changes, regulations change, peer norms change.

The answers to your questions come from talking to your customers. Not the 5-year-old qual your predecessor did. Not popular opinion within your sales team. Not from your five most engaged farmers (who are unlikely to be representative). And certainly not an AI prompt that can make weak assumptions sound remarkably authoritative.

The beautiful thing about doing this well is that the answers give you a much clearer path to growth. You know who to target, what matters to them, what might stop them from choosing you, what to say, and where to say it.

All from a simple reframe and asking the right questions.