Identify and capture new customers

- A potentially rich source of new sales growth is with people or businesses who are not consuming any of your products or your competitors. I call them non-category users, and in many categories there is huge untapped potential here. Let's look at how to find them. The first question you have to ask yourself is why are potential clients not consuming this category? It's a simple but very powerful question and it will lead you to the insights that create growth. For example, there may be customers out there who just don't know that the category exists. Believe me, customers don't spend their days searching for new categories to consume. You've got to raise their awareness before they'll even consider it. For example in the past, you never paid much attention to the word drone except as the term for the military. Now, personal drones are all the rage. It's a new emerging category and you can buy drones in many stores. Awareness was the key to boost sales. Another reason people don't consume a category is they don't understand it. They've heard about it, but they don't see any reason why they should get into it. Let's go back to the drone example. The early adopters are more of the hobby enthusiasts, but to create new growth, you have to ask who would want to keep track of things from the air? For example, ranchers who need to know where their livestock are might find huge potential benefit in drones. That's a new growth area. Finally, some consumers are reluctant to get involved with a new category because they're fearful. They see a lot of uncertainty. Consumers face different types of risk. Financial risk is the risk of losing or wasting money on the deal. Physical risk is the risk of injury from using the wrong product or using a product incorrectly. Functional risk is the risk of buying a product that doesn't work as expected or fill the need the way you wanted it to. And finally is psychological risk. This is the risk you face from feeling badly about the purchase, perhaps feeling guilty or even foolish. So here are some things you can do to help consumers deal with uncertainty. First, provide as much information about the category as you can. Make sure it's where people can find it. In your stores, online or with your salespeople. Show comparisons between your product and what they're currently doing to address their needs. Let's go back to our drone example. You would want to show ranchers the benefit of sitting in their kitchen piloting a drone to track their livestock versus having to spend hours driving out to find them. Provide independent test data on why your category is valuable. Give consumers access to knowledgeable and trustworthy experts. Share testimonials from other customers about their experience with the product. Make it easy and convenient to shop for your products. Let them inspect and test your products before they buy it. If they're worried about the product working or the price changing, then give them a warranty or guarantee so they can return the product if it doesn't work or if they find a lower price. So take a look at your category and ask yourself can I raise awareness of it, show the value and reduce consumers' risk by getting into the category? If so, you've found a new opportunity to increase your revenue.