#89 green apples

An international recruitment counselor was talking with me about the challenge of recruiting students from Asia to study at small, private colleges in the U.S. Midwest.  "Selling your school overseas is like selling Granny Smith apples," he said.  "At first, people had one picture in their mind about what an apple looked/tasted like, and had to be convinced to give a green apple a try.  It is like that with U.S. higher education; people think of big, well-known schools on the coasts and they need to be convinced to try something else."

Seth Godin writes about tribes and niches and embracing the "weirdness" in people.  It works both ways.  In addition to enticing clients to try a Granny Smith, organizations must be willing to seek out and welcome the clients that are outside of the norm as well.  Is your client base and market message too focused on the Red Delicious type of customer when you may be well served to expand into smaller markets beyond that?  Maybe there is a tighter fit with a smaller group of people and you should work instead to pair them with your organization.  

Instead of aiming to bring home the whole bushel at once, an apple a day may build a loyal following for you.

-- beth triplett
leadershipdots.blogspot.com
@leadershipdots
leadershipdots@gmail.com

(analogy by Carl Herrin)