Lose customers to win customers

I came across an interesting ebook put together by Seth Godin today - What Matters Now.

The (free) PDF is basically 82 pages of comments from a multitude of authors - each of which is based around a single word or phrase that is designed to make you sit up and think.

As is common with this type of book, I found much of the content relatively uninteresting, but there are always a couple of gems that strike a chord and this is no exception.

Page 62, from John Moore (Brand Autopsy) focuses on 'Sacrifice':

"A winning business understands that to gain a customer it must first be willing to lose a customer."

The theme being that businesses cannot afford to be all things to all people. Successful businesses target a niche and create a suitable USP.

This reminded me of one of the most popular threads of recent times on Property Owl (was Juicy Red Apple) - a discussion on estate agency USPs and brand positioning.

Maybe there's a New Year's resolution in there for some of us!