P>"My research clearly shows that everyone who is twenty-one must be fifteen first. Further, after intense analysis, I've discovered that they are fifteen precisely six years before they are twenty-one.%
When I use that line on audiences in my speeches, they usually laugh and then look at me like I'm some kind of a moron. I know what's going on in their heads. They're wondering why I'm using such high-fallutin' language to state something that so obvious. Here's why.
An awful lot of successful marketing is tied to the basic life path that folks go through. Consider what happens when a couple has a child. First they're buying baby supplies like formula and diapers and little tiny clothes. Then the child grows up. The clothes the child needs are bigger.
The toys they buy change, too. You simply don't buy a bike for a three-day-old infant. But a bike for a six-year-old is one heck of a good present. When the child goes to school it's time for lunch boxes and school clothes.
You can project this out in yourself. There's a time to buy lunch boxes for that child, and there's a time to pay college tuition. Following people through their Life Path and the logical progression of needs turns out to be a very effective way to figure out what to market to them.
Let's take home buying as an example.
Folks tend to buy their first home in their late twenties to early thirties. It's usually fairly small. Once they're in their first home, their buying and remodeling patterns are usually driven by two things. One is their family situation. As they add kids, they need bedrooms. The other is their career. As they have more money to spend, they think about trading up or remodeling.
Now all of this happens in a relatively predictable pattern. If you sell folks a home that's a starter home, you have an idea of their family situation. If you stay in touch with them and you know that they are about to have a child, you can help them start thinking about their increased housing needs. If you stay in touch with them, you know when career changes happen and money becomes available.
You can also follow what appears to be some fairly logical and consistent patterns. When people buy a house, it seems that 7-10 years later they start thinking about either trading up or remodeling. If you sell homes or mortgages or remodeling services or supplies, you want to be talking to them then.
Just like with other businesses, businesses that are based on Life Path work best if you get repeat business from the same people. This reduces your marketing costs and increases your profitability. It's a simple matter of staying in touch, and learning what the buying patterns are. Look for the average cycles -- like the time from purchase to remodeling or the Life Path events like having a child or getting a new job.
That same kind of marketing works in other places. Look at the times in people's lives when they are customers for certain types of products and services.
If this is time driven, start your prospecting by buying lists of people in a particular age group.
If this is event driven, like starting a new business, start marketing with lists of those folks, or by having presence in publications that they read, web sites that they visit, or television and radio shows that they watch or listen to.
The principle is simple. Use the common and ordinary progression of people's lives and life events to determine when you should market to them and what you should market to them. This helps you concentrate your marketing and selling efforts and improve your overall profits.
Created/Revised/Reviewed: 9/9/00
Reviewed: 2/15/03
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