Show Notes
Stephanie asks: "I've got my website up. I'm posting on social media. I even run some ads, but my phone barely rings. I average about eight calls a month, and only one or two are actual buyers. It feels like I'm shouting into the void. Help."
In this episode, Scott diagnoses Stephanie's real problem (she hasn't found her people yet), breaks down the three stages of awareness (marketing to everyone, tapping a market, finding YOUR market), and shares the restaurant story that proves same location + different approach = completely different results. You'll learn how to use AI to compare your winning ads vs. your losers, why children are the best negotiators on the planet (hint: they study their subject obsessively), and why becoming a student of your audience is the only way out of the visibility trap.
The bottom line: You're not shouting into the void—you're shouting at the wrong people. Find your people, learn their language, and watch your phone start ringing.
Got a business question? Ask Scott here: https://scotttodd.net/ask
📜 Full Transcript (Click to expand)
Scott Todd (00:00)
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you get unstuck so that you can keep growing your business. I'm Scott Todd and we do that by answering your questions. Today's question comes from Stephanie and Stephanie writes, I've got my website up. I'm posting on social media. I even run some ads, but my phone barely rings. I average about eight calls a month and only one or two at best are actual buyers. I know there are people out there who want
to buy, however, I just can't seem to get in front of them. It feels like I'm shouting into the void, help. ⁓ Stephanie, you are suffering from ⁓ product market fit or lack thereof, you don't have it, okay? ⁓ Because if you had it, that'd be a different conversation. So you're suffering because you don't have the product market fit.
And what this comes down to is really not yet connecting with your buyers. That's the biggest part of it. In the book, Fix This Next for Real Estate Investors, I talk about prospect attraction. And in there, I talk about the three ways in which you should think about awareness and the stages of awareness, the three stages of awareness. And the first stage is essentially saying that you're trying to market to everyone.
And when you're marketing to everyone, the old adages that you're marketing to nobody, okay, like that's nothing new. The second stage of awareness is when you begin to find a market and you tap into that one. So let me give an example. ⁓ I mean, you can really look at almost any, I don't know, barber shop, for example. Look, there's a market for people who want their haircut, right? There's a market for that. And you can kind of put up a door, open your door, and
your customers will show up and get their hair cut. But you're tapping into an existing market. That's what you're trying to do. You're trying to tap into an existing market. mean, ultimately, you're probably writing for somebody general, but secondary, you're looking for that general market that you can tap into. The best place to be is when you find your market. And when I say your market, I mean your people. The people who...
want to hear from you, the people that want what you have, okay, because you have to tap into them, you have to find them. And the way that you do that is by asking questions, questions of the people that you're already connecting with, the people who are calling you and the people who are responding to your leads. What do they all have in common? What words do they use? And that's an important piece of it. You have to find your people.
There's a restaurant not too far from where I live that, you know, it's in one of these retail centers that kind of popped up. You've got a couple of restaurants and like a nail salon in there. And there was a restaurant that went in there and I would walk by there frequently. I never went into it. I did look at the menu one day and I was like, yeah, okay. And the signage was a little weird and, know, it just nothing. There was never any activity there.
They had a nice location, they had a nice presence, there was a nice bar on the outside. It looked great, but it never ⁓ appealed to me or really I think a lot of other people because the place was always empty. So they closed up, typical restaurant thing. Next thing you know, the facility sits empty for I don't know, months. Finally somebody new comes in and I see this thing going in, all this.
infrastructure going into this thing. And the first thing that I thought of is, ⁓ boy, another sucker with a restaurant. Good luck, buddy. And I'll tell you what, they opened up the doors and all of a sudden the parking lot was empty. It was as if they had, I don't know, that they had this massive following already. And it's like, you're new, you're new. But you see what happened was
The first restaurant really didn't have that product market fit. didn't have the food that people wanted. It didn't really have the ambiance. Same location. But the second one has the ambiance around it. They have found their people. Not just a market, they have found their people. The signage is clear as to who it's for. The place is packed. The food, it looks pretty good. Have I eaten there? No, I have not. Will I? I don't know if I will or not. Okay, time will tell.
However, the place is packed. Why? Because they have found their people and that's what you're looking for. You're looking for your people, okay? So what are you going to do? What are you going to do about this? Well, first of all, you have to find what's working for your people. And here's what I want you to do. I want you to do something that's a little cool with AI. What I want you to do is when someone responds to your ad, you need to find out what ad they responded to. What did it say?
where was it posted? Get as much details as you can. I then want you to take that ad and I want you to dump it into AI. And I want you to say, AI, choose the model that you want. Hey, AI, I just had a response to this. Why did it work? But you can't just give it a why did it work. You have to compare it to something else. So take a lead or an ad that has got no leads, dump it into AI and say,
This one worked, but this one hasn't worked. Compare and contrast them. And you need to become a student. This is step number two, is you need to become a student of the people that you're trying to attract. You have to become a student of your customers. You have to know them inside and out. You have to know the words that they use, the words that repel them. You have to be a student of them. If you ever want to find the best negotiators on the planet,
Let me tell you who they are. They're children. The best negotiators are children. Why is that? Because they have studied their subject. They know what your weakness is. They know when you're likely to say yes and when you're likely to say no. They learn very quickly because that's all they do is they study you. You have to be obsessed with your client. You have to be obsessed. You just can't put
listing out there and think that somebody's going to come and get it. That's not the way that it works. It's never been that way. It's not that easy. So become a student of your audience. Again, the words that they use, etc. And the best way to do that is to talk to them. When they're calling you on the phone, instead of just trying to sell them, talk to them, learn about them, learn what problems they have.
Learn what challenges they have. Listen to the words that they use. Write those words down. What are the key words that they use? What do they do for a living? Think of every data point that you can capture on people. Capture as many data points as it. Leverage AI to help you extract what you're not seeing. There's nothing wrong with that either. But at the end of the day, what you're having here is a visibility problem because you don't have visibility into your audience. And that is a
dangerous place to be. You've got to get that because without it you're never going to get that product market fit and you're just going to stay in the loop of a few calls a month. So that's your homework. Go do it and then you'll be giving me another problem to solve for you because there's always problems in every single business. And if you have a problem in your business, head over to scotttodd.net forward slash ask. Ask away and I'll be happy to help you get unstuck. And I will see you in our next episode.
Welcome to Fix My Business, the show that helps you get unstuck so that you can keep growing your business. I'm Scott Todd and we do that by answering your questions. Today's question comes from Stephanie and Stephanie writes, I've got my website up. I'm posting on social media. I even run some ads, but my phone barely rings. I average about eight calls a month and only one or two at best are actual buyers. I know there are people out there who want
to buy, however, I just can't seem to get in front of them. It feels like I'm shouting into the void, help. ⁓ Stephanie, you are suffering from ⁓ product market fit or lack thereof, you don't have it, okay? ⁓ Because if you had it, that'd be a different conversation. So you're suffering because you don't have the product market fit.
And what this comes down to is really not yet connecting with your buyers. That's the biggest part of it. In the book, Fix This Next for Real Estate Investors, I talk about prospect attraction. And in there, I talk about the three ways in which you should think about awareness and the stages of awareness, the three stages of awareness. And the first stage is essentially saying that you're trying to market to everyone.
And when you're marketing to everyone, the old adages that you're marketing to nobody, okay, like that's nothing new. The second stage of awareness is when you begin to find a market and you tap into that one. So let me give an example. ⁓ I mean, you can really look at almost any, I don't know, barber shop, for example. Look, there's a market for people who want their haircut, right? There's a market for that. And you can kind of put up a door, open your door, and
your customers will show up and get their hair cut. But you're tapping into an existing market. That's what you're trying to do. You're trying to tap into an existing market. mean, ultimately, you're probably writing for somebody general, but secondary, you're looking for that general market that you can tap into. The best place to be is when you find your market. And when I say your market, I mean your people. The people who...
want to hear from you, the people that want what you have, okay, because you have to tap into them, you have to find them. And the way that you do that is by asking questions, questions of the people that you're already connecting with, the people who are calling you and the people who are responding to your leads. What do they all have in common? What words do they use? And that's an important piece of it. You have to find your people.
There's a restaurant not too far from where I live that, you know, it's in one of these retail centers that kind of popped up. You've got a couple of restaurants and like a nail salon in there. And there was a restaurant that went in there and I would walk by there frequently. I never went into it. I did look at the menu one day and I was like, yeah, okay. And the signage was a little weird and, know, it just nothing. There was never any activity there.
They had a nice location, they had a nice presence, there was a nice bar on the outside. It looked great, but it never ⁓ appealed to me or really I think a lot of other people because the place was always empty. So they closed up, typical restaurant thing. Next thing you know, the facility sits empty for I don't know, months. Finally somebody new comes in and I see this thing going in, all this.
infrastructure going into this thing. And the first thing that I thought of is, ⁓ boy, another sucker with a restaurant. Good luck, buddy. And I'll tell you what, they opened up the doors and all of a sudden the parking lot was empty. It was as if they had, I don't know, that they had this massive following already. And it's like, you're new, you're new. But you see what happened was
The first restaurant really didn't have that product market fit. didn't have the food that people wanted. It didn't really have the ambiance. Same location. But the second one has the ambiance around it. They have found their people. Not just a market, they have found their people. The signage is clear as to who it's for. The place is packed. The food, it looks pretty good. Have I eaten there? No, I have not. Will I? I don't know if I will or not. Okay, time will tell.
However, the place is packed. Why? Because they have found their people and that's what you're looking for. You're looking for your people, okay? So what are you going to do? What are you going to do about this? Well, first of all, you have to find what's working for your people. And here's what I want you to do. I want you to do something that's a little cool with AI. What I want you to do is when someone responds to your ad, you need to find out what ad they responded to. What did it say?
where was it posted? Get as much details as you can. I then want you to take that ad and I want you to dump it into AI. And I want you to say, AI, choose the model that you want. Hey, AI, I just had a response to this. Why did it work? But you can't just give it a why did it work. You have to compare it to something else. So take a lead or an ad that has got no leads, dump it into AI and say,
This one worked, but this one hasn't worked. Compare and contrast them. And you need to become a student. This is step number two, is you need to become a student of the people that you're trying to attract. You have to become a student of your customers. You have to know them inside and out. You have to know the words that they use, the words that repel them. You have to be a student of them. If you ever want to find the best negotiators on the planet,
Let me tell you who they are. They're children. The best negotiators are children. Why is that? Because they have studied their subject. They know what your weakness is. They know when you're likely to say yes and when you're likely to say no. They learn very quickly because that's all they do is they study you. You have to be obsessed with your client. You have to be obsessed. You just can't put
listing out there and think that somebody's going to come and get it. That's not the way that it works. It's never been that way. It's not that easy. So become a student of your audience. Again, the words that they use, etc. And the best way to do that is to talk to them. When they're calling you on the phone, instead of just trying to sell them, talk to them, learn about them, learn what problems they have.
Learn what challenges they have. Listen to the words that they use. Write those words down. What are the key words that they use? What do they do for a living? Think of every data point that you can capture on people. Capture as many data points as it. Leverage AI to help you extract what you're not seeing. There's nothing wrong with that either. But at the end of the day, what you're having here is a visibility problem because you don't have visibility into your audience. And that is a
dangerous place to be. You've got to get that because without it you're never going to get that product market fit and you're just going to stay in the loop of a few calls a month. So that's your homework. Go do it and then you'll be giving me another problem to solve for you because there's always problems in every single business. And if you have a problem in your business, head over to scotttodd.net forward slash ask. Ask away and I'll be happy to help you get unstuck. And I will see you in our next episode.