Breakthrough: You can’t win them all
Don’t waste your money on the haters.
Understanding and importantly, accepting, that you won’t be liked by everyone is one of life’s toughest pills to swallow. Never more true than for a fledgling business who just wants to be loved by everyone.
Learning about the haters, our disloyal customers and our brand lovers made us realise that whilst we think we’ve created a great solution to a problem, our product may not appeal to everyone.
explains Francesca Cash, co-creator of Tetherleads – a handy adjustable dog lead which can be safely secured to almost anything (rather than looping said lead precariously under a chair leg).
Your business will be a bit like marmite.
Breakthrough’s online workshops challenge businesses to address those tricky uncomfortable realisations; that no matter what you do, for some, your business is a bit like marmite – it’s love or hate.
It’s not personal, it just is what it is. Even the biggest brands on the planet can’t boast having EVERYONE as a customer.
explains Breakthrough’s workshop lead, Lucy Cox.
Trying to convert people who don’t want to be your customer is an expensive, time-consuming and thankless task. It’s important that your efforts are spent targeting the customers who resonate with your values and are passionate about what you offer – it’s far more rewarding and fruitful.
Identify your audience and build a brand your customers will love.
Throughout Breakthrough, the workshop facilitators place emphasis on the customer, positioning them at the core of the business, identifying key value propositions and sharing the importance of modelling future activity by customer need.
Breakthrough helped us create a business model where we were able to pinpoint each of our target customer segments. It was invaluable when planning our future marketing campaigns. We were able to create relevant messaging to resonate with the people who’d love our brand and would stay loyal to us.
Paired up with Sarah O’Dwyer, a Breakthrough Business Development Manager (BDM), Francesca and Sarah spent 1:1 time honing Tetherleads’ target audience; an activity which exposed the need for extra market research before undertaking any further marketing.
Sarah said,
Francesca is a joy to work with, she’s so focused and driven which is what it takes to build a brand and grow that revenue. Understanding Tetherleads customer segments is allowing focus and energy in the right channels and with the right messaging. I predict exciting times ahead for this brand.
What 2021 looks like for Tetherleads
Completing the Breakthrough workshop, Francesca explained that she is now working on product development for Tetherleads – introducing new lines and accessories into its current product portfolio. They’ve also got plans afoot to find more Tetherleads lovers!
2021 is going to be all about developing and growing the business! We are hoping to work with an online digital agency to help us with our SEO and online targeted ads.
Whilst no one wants to be told their product doesn’t appeal to everyone, for Francesca, attending Breakthrough and learning that lesson quickly has saved valuable time and cash, instead directing efforts towards the people who will buy their products, fall in love with them, tell their friends and then come back and buy some more.
The Breakthrough workshop was invaluable to us as an early-stage startup. We not only received great advice from the people delivering the workshop and our BDM but also from other business owners who attended the workshop and who offered some great ideas.
Find more customers to love your product: get in touch by telling us about your business or read more about our four-part Breakthrough workshop.