I want to tell you the story of a veterinarian who doesn’t treat dogs.  Actually, he doesn’t work with a lot of animals.  He also has no patients who are horses, cows, ferrets or birds.

He only works with cats.

Based on conventional wisdom, Dr. Andy is being naive.  Wouldn’t it be better to serve as many animals as possible?  Why leave all that money on the table from dog owners who need a vet?

Turns out, unless you are a huge organization with tons of money, conventional wisdom is wrong.

By only working with cats, Dr. Andy trades clients who are looking for the vet closest to their house for clients like me.

A good trade

My partner and I chose Dr. Andy to be our vet before we moved to Dayton.  In fact, we decided he would be our vet before we even had cats.

see all those red dots? Those are the vet offices we drive by to get to Dr. Andy's.

We drive 40 minutes across town, with 3 howling cats, past countless  other veterinarian offices, to see him.  We’ve never compared his rates with those of another vet, and we recommend his services to every cat person we know.

If Dr. Andy treated all kinds of small animals, we would probably find a new vet.*  But taking our girls to an office where there are no dogs to add to their stress, filled with staff members who not only love cats in general but also make us believe they secretly love our cats the best, makes the trek to his office worth the extra trouble.

Are you worth the extra trouble?

• Would you like to find customers who drive across town to do business with you?
• Do you want donors who will give up personal luxuries before they stop supporting your cause?
• Are you looking for volunteers who are so committed, you’d swear they were on payroll?

You can’t get there by being everything to everyone.

Before Dr. Andy could be the perfect vet for cat people, he had to decide not to serve dog people.  The same is true for you.  Until you are able and willing to turn away your “wrong” customers, you won’t have the energy and resources to really wow your right people.

How to find your Perfect Supporter

I have a free worksheet designed to help identify your perfect supporter.  You can download it here.  This exercise is powerful, but it also requires a bit of a paradigm shift.  This video tutorial will help you get started.

This is just the first step toward a new kind of marketing plan.  When you are ready for step two, give me a call.

*actually, since we found his office by searching for “cat veterinarian Dayton” it’s unlikely we’d have ever met him in the first place.