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To combat the surplus of bad marketing information that’s all around us, I’ve started the “Marketing Myths” series. If you missed the first installment of the series, you can check it out here:

Marketing Myths: Part 1—Every Customer Should Love Your Brand

Today, I’m tackling perhaps the most pervasive myth in all of business: The customer is always right.

How many times have you heard that? You may believe it, and you may even preach it to your employees. You might think that you have to bend over backwards to please a customer, no matter how unreasonable they’re being. You might be afraid that if you don’t kiss your customer’s behind, he will leave you forever and convince the world that your company is the worst ever.

But the truth is the customer isn’t always right. And in many cases, rather than bending over backwards to appease them, you’re better off simply letting them go.

Now, that doesn’t mean that you should automatically get defensive and cut ties any time a customer makes a complaint. I fully believe that you should always try to smooth things over if at all possible. You need to figure out what the customer is upset about and what, if anything, can be done to fix the problem.

However, there are often situations where a customer is being unreasonable.

Let me give you an example.

Several years back, I had a client who was starting up a commercial construction business. I was hired to write their website copy and a number of blog posts. We had a contract that outlined my fees, and the client agreed to them.

When the project was finished, I invoiced the client. He mailed me a check, but it was short of the invoice amount. I assumed it was just a mistake, but when I emailed the client to see what had happened, he responded that while it was a mistake, he didn’t feel compelled to pay the rest because he didn’t think it was really all that much work to do what I did.

WTF?!?

Obviously, I didn’t take “the customer is always right” approach to handling this situation. No, I stood my ground, and fought for the rest of my payment. When the client came back apologizing and wanting me to work on another project, I refused. In short, I fired the customer.

Now, not all disputes will be so ridiculous in nature, but you will probably encounter situations where customers are clearly wrong and you need to stand your ground. Not all customers are right for your business. Often times, your business (and your mental health) will be better off by letting the customer go away angry.

Do you think the customer is always right?

When you live and breathe marketing all day, every day like I do, you hear a ridiculous amount of mind-numbingly awful information. And it comes from all directions—self-proclaimed marketing gurus, clueless business owners, idiots with blogs (not me…I hope!), marketing newbies who just don’t know any better…the list goes on and on.

My point? There are lots of marketing myths floating around out there. That’s why I decided to start a new series titled “Marketing Myths.” Clever title, right? In each post, I’ll focus on busting a particular marketing myth.

Have a marketing myth you want me to debunk? Share it with me by leaving a comment.

So, let’s get this thing rolling.

Should every customer love your brand?

Whenever I start a new project for a client, I spend time interviewing them about their company. I go over the basics, including: Who is your target audience?

The answer I get more often than not?

Everyone. We want everyone to be our customer. Our products and services should appeal to everybody.

It sounds great, doesn’t it? Who wouldn’t want to run a company that is beloved by everybody?

But the reality is that’s not going to happen. And you know what? That’s a good thing.

Your company shouldn’t appeal to everybody. If it does, you’re probably playing it safe, and you probably don’t have a loyal, passionate customer base.

See, too many companies try to be all things to all people. They take a shotgun approach to their marketing, hoping they’ll hit a wide audience. More often than not, the marketing that’s supposed to connect with everyone connects with nobody.

Why is that?

The answer is actually pretty obvious. Everyone is different. A 16 year old teenage boy from New York isn’t going to like the same things as a 70 year old, retired lady in Florida. When you try to appeal to such a wide audience, you’re going to have a hard time winning anyone over. Your marketing message will be weak, generic, and uninspired.

That’s why I recommend taking a sniper approach to building your brand. Pinpoint the exact type of customer you most want, and focus all of your marketing on attracting that person. You’ll be able to create a message that resonates effectively with this ideal customer, and as a result, your marketing will actually start to attract loyal, passionate customers who love your brand.

As I’m typing this post, I’m looking around my home at the various products I have. The first things I see are an XBOX 360 and Playstation 3. You’ll notice I didn’t say Nintendo Wii, even though it’s far and away the highest selling console. Why don’t I have a Wii? Because the Wii isn’t made for gamers like me. The Wii was designed to be a gaming system that could be enjoyed by casual gamers. Wii’s are enjoyed by families, at parties, and even at nursing homes.

The Wii isn’t geared toward me. Nintendo doesn’t want me as a customer. They don’t need me. And you know what? That’s fine. They’re more successful because of it.

You can’t be all things to all people, and not everyone should love your company. The sooner you accept that fact, the sooner you’ll be on your way to building a truly great brand.

One of my hobbies is playing guitar. For the past 12 years or so, I’ve played in various bands, ranging from really awful rap-rock (it was the late 90s, cut me some slack!) to instrumental metal. I love playing guitar, and I’m always looking to add new equipment to my rig to make it sound better.

This brings me to President’s Day weekend. Guitar Center was holding a huge sale, and I had a 15% off coupon. There was a sweet guitar amp that I wanted. It cost about $600 used, but with the 15% off coupon, I would have saved about another $100 off of that.

So, that weekend, I hopped online, added the amp I wanted to my shopping cart, and tried to input the coupon code at checkout. It didn’t work. See, I’d done a poor job of reading the fine print. The coupon was only good for new equipment. Oops!

With the disappointment of that new fact fresh in my mind, I decided to hold off on my purchase. So, I just closed out my browser and abandoned my shopping cart. With the average shopping cart abandonment rate hovering between 50-60%, I was just another lost customer for Guitar Center. It happens all the time to them, but as I just found out, they weren’t willing to let me go so easily.

Today, I received an email from Guitar Center that noted how I’d backed out of my purchase. The email (pictured below) tried to win me back by offering me a limited time 5% discount if I came back and completed my purchase. Now, 5% doesn’t sound like a whole lot, and in the grand scheme of things, it’s not. However, that is about $32 I could save. Not too bad.

Am I going to take them up on their offer? Honestly, I’m not sure yet, but that’s not the point. The point is that Guitar Center is actively trying to do something to combat the problem every online retailer faces—shopping cart abandonment. Rather than simply accepting that 50-60% of buyers will back out of their purchase at the last minute, Guitar Center is trying to win those shoppers back with incentives for completing their purchase.

It’s a great idea, and I’m sure they’ve experienced some success with it. Other online retailers could learn a lesson from this.

Most companies make the mistake of selling their products based on price alone. As a result, they get in price wars with competitors and attract price shoppers who lack loyalty and just want the cheapest price.

Rather than selling on price, you should be selling on value. There’s a difference. Why do customers pay more for name brand products when they could get the same basic product at a cheaper price from a generic brand? It’s because they see the name brand product as higher quality and a better value.

Here are some ways you can start selling on value instead of price.

• Focus on the benefits—Too many times, companies get in skirmishes with other companies about whose product offers the most features. I’m sure you’ve seen the comparison charts some companies use to show how their product has more features than the competition’s. Stop talking about features, and start talking about how customers will benefit by using your product. How will your product improve their life? When you focus on answering this question, you’ll start increasing the value of your product.
• Study testimonials from satisfied customers—What do your customers love about your product or services? What problem did it solve for them? How did they benefit from using it? By reading your testimonials, you can get a better idea of what customers really like about your product, and you can focus your messaging around those things.
• Build confidence in your company—Why are consumers willing to pay more for a 2 liter of Coca Cola rather than buying the generic brand? It’s because they have confidence in the Coca Cola brand. They know Coca Cola. They trust Coca Cola. You have to build that same confidence in your company.
• Don’t water down your product’s value with discounts—What’s the first thing most companies do when they’re trying to attract more customers? They hold a sale. With the popularity of daily deal websites (like Groupon and LivingSocial) more and more companies are using discounts to attract new customers. But consider this. If you offer a discount on your products, you’re going to have a hard time convincing customers later on that your product is worth its regular full price. Discounts can water down your product’s value.
• Provide exceptional customer service—Increase the value of your products by offering a great overall buying experience. Intangibles, like excellent customer service, set your company apart and increase the value of your products. Focus on building relationships with your customers, exceeding expectations every time, and offering great service after the sale.

What tips would you add to this list?

Not all customers are created equal. If your business is like most others, you have a few great customers, a few bad customers, and a lot of customers that fall somewhere in between. The key, of course, is to get as many great customers as you can. Great customers are the ones who are loyal, refer you to their friends, don’t try to beat you up on your prices, don’t complain every time they get a chance, etc.

The reason most companies don’t attract more great customers is because they don’t really know who their best customers are in the first place. See, once you identify your best customers, you can focus on appealing to more customers like them.

To identify your best customers, you need to:

• Identify what makes a customer valuable to your business—You might think that your best customers are the ones who spend the most money, and that may be the case. However, the customers you find most valuable may be ones who offer value in a different way. Maybe they’re just easy to have a relationship with. Maybe they’re low maintenance. Or maybe they like to tell others about your company. Make a list of the traits you value in customers.
• Create a list of all customers and prospects—Now that you know what makes a customer valuable to your business, you need to make a complete list of all your customers and prospects. Don’t leave anyone off this list.
• Rate each customer based on the value they bring to your business—On a scale of 1 to 5, rate each customer or prospect on the value they bring to your business, based on the criteria you set forth earlier. This will help you quick way to clearly see who your best customers are (and who your worst ones are too, by the way). You can then focus your time and energy on your top clients and prospects, so you can build better relationships with them.

Do you know who your best customers are?