One of my favorite shows on TV is The Dog Whisperer with Cesar Milan.  He takes dogs that are out of control and makes them into model citizens.  What a concept.  Take something that has no value (or in most cases less than no value — a liability) and make it into something useful and enjoyable.  Sounds like what happens in business to me.  At any rate, Cesar is always telling the owners, “These are dogs — not people.  You can’t treat them like people.  They don’t understand that.  They are instinctually driven and that’s what they understand.”  Today’s quote of the day comes from Cesar Milan, the dog whisperer:  ”Dogs are not people.  People and dogs are different.  For example, people pay for real estate.  Dogs just pee on it.”  (I suspect there are some people, caught up in the real estate frenzy of years past, who feel like treating their investment the way the dogs do.  But that’s another post.)

To show how dis-jointed my mind is, the quote of the day got me thinking about customers.  We all have those customers who are fanatical about what they do.  For example, cyclists, snowmobilers, techno-nerds, etc., etc., etc.,   It goes for just about any industry anywhere.  There are casual customers and there are fanatics.  Fanatics are not people, and you make a critical error in thinking when you treat them like a normal person.  They’re not — they’re fanatical.

Here’s an example:  when a normal person thinks of buying a pair of boots for snowmobiling, they go to wal-mart and get a pair of those Sorel knock-offs (rubber and leather outside with a felt liner) for $25 and they feel like they paid way more than they should have.  When a “snowmobiler” (the fanatic) buys boots for snowmobiling he buys the boots from Klim that cost $200 and thinks he got off cheap (he probably would have paid much more and felt good about it, truth be known.)

In marketing, the first question is always, “Who is my customer?”  As part of that discussion, you ought to be asking what percentage of your customers are fanatics, and what percentage are normal people.  In the example above, Klim snowmobile clothing is designed and manufactured exclusively for the fanatic.  Boots (as noted above,) will cost you $200.  A coat will run you $500 (when you could get a perfectly good coat for $150 anywhere.)  Gloves $75.  Helmet $300.  And so on throughout the line.  This stuff is expensive.  They know the average person isn’t going to spend that kind of money for their products.  They’re fine with that.  They don’t deal with “people.”  They deal with fanatics.  They’re not trying to be all things to all people.  They’re trying (and succeeding) in being the very best there is for the very discriminating buyer.  They have built a highly successful business doing that and have established themselves as the industry leader.  

Having a clear vision of who your customer is and who you are is critical to your success.  Those who understand clearly who they are don’t suffer from the usual identity crises that many other companies do.  They don’t waste time and energy wondering about where to go or what to do.  Their time and energy is all productive because they know exactly where they want to go and what they want to do when they get there.  There’s a great deal of peace that comes with that.

So if you got all that out of one small quote of the day, you have an active mind.  I applaud you.  If not, always ask yourself, “How can this thought help me be more successful in my business?”  When you start to look at everything you see and hear in that way, you’ll find your environment will teach you more about business than any class in college could ever hope to.