My cousin Jimmy was telling me a story of how one Saturday morning he woke up to somebody knocking on his door. He puts on his robe and was greeted by a salesperson with a box of frozen goods.
The salesperson was dress sharply, had a big smile, and spoke faster than a hurricane (how typical right?) Apparently, on this beautiful Saturday morning, he was trying to sell what he claimed to be "top-of-the-line" steaks to my cousin.
My cousin was a big groggy, a little hungover and not very coherent yet... so he just couldn't manage to get rid of the annoying salesperson. No matter what excuses Jimmy came up with to NOT want to buy the steaks, the salesperson would quickly brush that aside.
Jimmy's wife, Margarita, not sure what the commotion was all about, finally got herself out of bed, put on a robe and came downstairs.
She quickly analyzed the situation, saw that Jimmy was having a hard time getting rid of the salesperson, and did the one thing that finally worked.
She asked, "Are the steaks kosher?"
Lo-and-behold they weren't! So she said, "I don't want them."
With that, the salesperson left. He just wasted 30 minutes of his time which cut into his profitability. (Heck, I didn't even know my Mexican cousins were Jewish! lol)
Not only did the salesperson tick off my cousin and his wife (for waking them up Saturday morning) but he committed the one mistake that 90% of businesses make in their marketing...
Know Your Target Market
See, the salesperson did the one thing many businesses do -- especially within the realm of network marketing. He did NOT study his market (obviously his timing was bad too... nobody likes to be woken up from bed Saturday morning).
He had no idea whom he was talking to. He had no idea if the residence of the house he rang the doorbell at would have the slightest interest in what he had to offer - steaks. (Or that he'd be talking to Jewish Mexicans!)
He was blindly marketing to random folks with the hope that they would buy. He had no idea if my cousins were even meat-eaters (try selling steaks to a vegetarian)!
Had he done his research, he would've completely skipped Jimmy's residence in favor of the carnivore two doors down who wakes up early Saturday morning to hunt and kill, small animals to eat!
And guess what? He probably would've made a sale.