Is the Target Customer dead? Welcome to The Marketing Accelerator Podcast, featuring three insights in about three minutes. I'm Drew Dinkelacker, and today, I'm speaking with Zac Stucki. He's the founder of Ignition Point Strategies, where he guides early-stage SaaS companies through just the myriad of marketing decisions they need to make. Zac, no doubt that marketing has gotten more complicated, but I have to ask, is the target customer really dead?

Zac Stucki: You know, I would say yes and no. Yes, because business models are getting more complex. Like, you no longer have this traditional sort of customer who sees a problem, sees your solution, decides they want to pay for it, pays for it, and then uses it. You just don't have that anymore. And so, what happens is, if your business or your sales team, is out there looking for that type of a customer, you're looking for the wrong person. And it's tying your sales team's arm behind their back, it really is. I mean, it's kind of like looking for a drinking buddy in an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, like, good luck. But instead, I think what you should be looking for is more of a customer ecosystem.

Drew: Now, with the customer ecosystem, what are the components of that? Help me understand that better.

Zac: You know, if we think about the definition, the traditional definition of a customer, it really is someone who has a problem, they're looking for solutions, they find yours, decide yours is the best option, pay for it, and then use it. So, we've got three distinct roles here. We've got deciders, payers, and users. So, deciders choose to hire you, payers pay for your stuff, and users use your stuff. So, to me, it's like your sales and marketing team needs to be very, very clear on who the deciders are, because that's who they should be trying to communicate with at all times.

Drew: Can you give me a real-life example of how the customer ecosystem plays out?

Zac: Yeah, absolutely. So, there's a company, it used to be called Divvy, now it's called Bill.com. And Bill.com has a really unique service in that they're sort of this credit card, SaaS company hybrid. So, as a small business owner, I can take my credit card, give it to one of my employees, and ask them to go to Staples and make a purchase. And if they decide to go on a spending spree and blow it at the casino or whatever, I can track that, and then I can approve, yes or no, those expenditures on the app. So, I can say, this wasn't approved and you're fired. So, what it does is, Bill.com, is very clear about the decider is the business owner, the user of that software and of the card is really the employee. And then the payer is the finance department of that company. And so, by breaking things out, you're able to build a scalable business model. And that's exactly what Bill.com has done.

Drew: The target customer is not dead, but definitely needs to be looked at, both specifically and in the broader customer ecosystem.

Drew: The Marketing Accelerator Podcast is a production of MarketingAccelerator.com, where business leaders gain confidence in their marketing efforts, and marketers turn into high performing leaders. I'm Drew Dinkelacker.