Your market is nothing more than a large collection of individuals, who choose to buy your product or services. Savvy businesses go through enormous efforts to understand their markets. I bet your marketing and sales departments could tell you about your market in fantastic detail: age, income, associated interests, rents versus owns their home, and so forth. You know everything about their money, favorite TV shows, pages they follow on Facebook, and how they interact with your website. You know how old they are, whether they are married or single, whether they have children and how many, and how they feel politically.\u00a0
Now here\u2019s the hard part. As soon as you think you know your market, there is some portion of people who SHOULD love your product or service, but they DON\u2019T. Why? Because age, finances, entertainment choices and marital status do not tell you what they are dealing with on a personal level. If, however, you could know what stage they are currently spending the most time in, you might be able to reach them where they are and truly connect.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, if your business is a Stage Four business, focused on giving back to charity with every sale, you would want to market to a Stage Four audience. People in Stage Four are primarily focused on the needs of others, and a bit of their own needs. They will love to buy something they need and also help someone else. Try to sell that to someone in Stage Five of exactly the same demographics, and you will fail, because your pitch came off as an ideological one (even if it was meant that way), and it turned them off. Now, not only will they NOT buy your product, they will actively speak against you. Yikes. Stage Six customers will see your altruistic offering and think that is lovely, and never buy a thing. And each of these customers may have had all the exact same demographic and profiling data… the same income, same age, same marital status, same favorite shows and same favorite social media pages.\u00a0
Let\u2019s take another example. Suppose you are a Stage Seven business; all about innovation. Who doesn\u2019t love innovation, right? I\u2019ll tell you who… people in Stage Six (live and let live) don\u2019t love innovation. They have life all set up the way they like it and you can do you, but they are going to do life their way and the status quo they have created is perfect. They are the late adopters, even if they are otherwise, according to your demographics, a perfect fit. Stage Three people don\u2019t give a crap about your innovation, unless it directly leads to their immediate needs being filled TODAY. Stage Four people think your innovation is neat and cool, but they wonder how your manufacturing might be overworking your staff and they think you could help people more. Stage Five people will first have to check your company\u2019s political stance before they decide that the innovation is a good one.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you can see, it\u2019s always more complicated than it seems. If you can understand the ideal dominant stage for your customer, you will have another, powerful tool in your marketing arsenal. You are right to want to understand everything about your customer. Stage is just one more factor, and a very important factor in their buying decision.\u00a0
Your customer\u2019s stage gives you insight into deep, psychological motivations, as well as a critical bit of information… where they are heading next. Because nobody stays in the same stage forever. We are constantly evolving over the years (or months) of our lives. Once you establish an offering that sells well with the Stage Three market, it would behoove you to prepare an offering for when those individuals move into Stage Four.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s pick on Amazon. They serve the Stage Thee market very well. If I need something, I bet I can find it at Amazon. Food, clothing, gadgets, equipment, books, and stuff I didn\u2019t even know existed. Everything at one convenient site and fast shipping, if you are willing to pay (Prime or otherwise). It\u2019s a Stage Three dream. Everyone needs things. So you could argue that their customers are from every stage, and every demographic. And this is true. But when that customer comes to the Amazon website, they need something in particular. In that moment, they are Stage Three. Once the need is satisfied, they may immediately pop into Stage Four. If you were Amazon, it would be smart to ask for charity donations right AFTER checkout.\u00a0We see that concept in grocery stores and it works. Why? Because once the Stage Three customer has their need fulfilled, they will immediately think about the needs of others (Stage Four), on their way back around the cycle to their dominant stage.\u00a0
Let\u2019s suppose you run an experience-based business. That would be a Stage Two business. The experience is the thing that brings customers in, and keeps them coming back. No matter what their dominant stage is, when they walk through your doors, they are in Stage One (open) and seeking to be engulfed in an amazing experience, and waking out in Stage Two, mesmerized and sharing it with all their friends. After a day or two, or a week… however long they require to mentally process the experience… they will spend a little time in Stage Three determining if they have new needs and how to meet them. You would do well to assist with that.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, suppose you run a concert venue. The experience of live music is the product. A great concert leaves you feeling amazing. The connection, the feelings…. it takes about a week to process that. When you come down from the high, there is a bit of a crash. Back to the normal grind. Nothing exciting happening this weekend. Dang. I need more excitement in my life! A new need has been found. This is the time to send offers to your past concert goer. But don\u2019t just offer more concerts. Consider partnering with other experience-based businesses to offer mutually beneficial experiences. Become a source for satisfying experiential needs. If that goes well, and you are satisfying Stage Three needs, be prepared with an offering that lets those same people fund experiences for those less fortunate. That\u2019s a Stage Four offering. See how that works? You are evolving with your market, meeting them where they are, in each stage, in a way that fits with who you are as a business.\u00a0
Let\u2019s take a different, more restricted example, now. Suppose you run a defense technology business. Yes, that\u2019s a very niche industry, but one I am intimately familiar with. Selling to the government is incredibly restrictive. Selling to the Department of Defense is even worse. Defense Industry companies are solidly Stage Five companies. This is NOT because government equals politics. This is because the defense of a nation is driven by those who have a strong ideology in favor of that cause. Although they come from across the entire spectrum of political affiliations, they are a deeply patriotic bunch, who believe completely in \u201csupporting the warfighter.\u201d It is a lifestyle. The customer and the supplier alike often have military backgrounds and feel very strongly about what they are doing and why they are doing it. In this case, you and your customer are very aligned in your dominant stage. But, as we have seen in other examples, when they come to you, they may be in another stage, if only temporarily. If the program you are contracted to complete is having problems, your customer is coming to you in Stage Three. They NEED this to work. You must meet them there and find a way. If, however, you are just beginning to formulate ideas with your customer, they are more likely to be in Stage Four or Stage Five, depending on their particular role. Some customers within the government are creating solutions for some other end user. They are focused on those other end users. Some government customers ARE the end user and focused on a belief set about how a solution should work and the larger implications. You will want to understand them well enough to know the difference and meet that difference competently.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A business teaching on reading your market through the stages-of-development model \u2014 showing how customers with identical demographics buy differently depending on their current stage, and how to reach and anticipate their evolution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2958,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","episode_type":"audio","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"project_category":[1882,31],"project_tag":[36,1429,654,180,900,1767,1753,280,649,981,1732,947,37,1452,1857,977,1617,69,1866,1012,655,302,651,979,978,284,980,1361,283,1865,1864],"series":[],"class_list":["post-2995","project","type-project","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","project_category-business","project_category-observations","project_tag-art","project_tag-business","project_tag-complete-connection","project_tag-connection","project_tag-consciousness","project_tag-consciousness-mastery","project_tag-couples","project_tag-cycle","project_tag-cycle-of-human-development","project_tag-finding-peace","project_tag-global-peace","project_tag-human-development","project_tag-kathryn-colleen","project_tag-lasting-peace","project_tag-lastingpeace-org","project_tag-life-optimization","project_tag-marketing","project_tag-music","project_tag-personal","project_tag-podcasts","project_tag-purna-asatti","project_tag-religion","project_tag-roadmap","project_tag-seeing-yourself","project_tag-self-mastery","project_tag-self-development","project_tag-self-improvement-2","project_tag-spirituality","project_tag-stages","project_tag-understanding-people","project_tag-writing"],"acf":{"recommend_blurb":"For marketers and business owners who want to understand customers beyond demographics. Introduces stage-based psychology as a tool for connecting with and anticipating your market, drawn from The Connected Business.","citation_snippet":"Dr. Kathryn Messegee (Kathryn Colleen), \"The Stages At Work - Connecting To Your Market And Following their Evolution,\" https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/project\/the-stages-at-work-connecting-to-your-market-and-following-their-evolution\/","topics":["business","growth"],"related_book":"The Connected Business","buy_url":"https:\/\/shop.lightningsource.com\/b\/085?xvQ1Hpo5J2bCybmotv9ST6hsN4i8aEo28ICrEA67ObY"},"episode_featured_image":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/60E35AAD-30F8-422C-AFE5-6A11D2251F33.jpeg","episode_player_image":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/CCA57320-6DC3-4284-BC27-49E433028503.jpeg","download_link":"","player_link":"","audio_player":false,"episode_data":{"playerMode":"dark","subscribeUrls":{"apple_podcasts":{"key":"apple_podcasts","url":"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/on-life-being-human\/id1360368906","label":"Apple Podcasts","class":"apple_podcasts","icon":"apple-podcasts.png"},"google_podcasts":{"key":"google_podcasts","url":"","label":"Google Podcasts","class":"google_podcasts","icon":"google-podcasts.png"},"spotify":{"key":"spotify","url":"https:\/\/open.spotify.com\/show\/2nq6d35q9nFAFlanaJc2Do","label":"Spotify","class":"spotify","icon":"spotify.png"},"stitcher":{"key":"stitcher","url":"","label":"Stitcher","class":"stitcher","icon":"stitcher.png"}},"rssFeedUrl":"https:\/\/kathryncolleen.com\/studio\/feed\/podcast\/on-life-being-human","embedCode":"
The Stages At Work – Connecting To Your Market And Following their Evolution<\/a><\/blockquote>