The Key to Boosting Sales: Identifying and Converting Non-Customers

Not everyone is a customer. And you need to examine the types of non-customers you have to understand why.

By Andrea Olson

Your sales are down. You need an influx of new customers. Often the first step is segmenting your prospects into groups, whether by industry, product type, service type, or some other categorization. Then the marketing blitz begins. Maybe you create a special offer on a product. Or a discount for new customers. Or just put up some billboards to build general brand awareness. But the needle doesn’t move that significantly. Why? You haven’t examined the types of non-customers you have.

They aren’t all the same. They have different reasons, barriers, and hangups as to why they aren’t using your products or services. It’s essential to understand that landscape to apply the right approaches and messaging to get them engaged.

There are five types of non-customers you need to consider. I’ll use our company services as an example, which is focused on helping companies create agile, execution-friendly strategies to differentiate more effectively. Here’s how we would define the types of non-customers we face:

1. Totally Unaware Non-Customers

These are the ones who don’t even know that a product or a product category we offer exists. For instance, a CEO might need a new strategy, but they either don’t realize it or don’t know they can get professional help with it.

2. Unconvinced Non-Customers

These are ones that know the product or category exists, but doubt using it. For instance, CEOs are aware that consulting firms exist but may doubt they can really help them with their strategy.

3. Brand Unaware Non-Customers

These non-customers realize they need a strategy and are willing to ask for professional help, but don’t know that our company exists. They turn to someone else for strategy consulting.

4. Habitual Non-Customers

These people use a solution they have used for years. They are loyal to one familiar provider and don’t want to experiment or try something new.

5. Anti-Customers

These are people who know that your product or service exists but don’t see a need in any shape or form. They may be even passionately against your product or service. For instance, some CEOs don’t believe in strategy and don’t want one.

Each of these types of non-customers is very different. Obviously, it’s a steep hill to try and convince anti-customers or habitual non-customers to try your product or service. However, enlightening totally unaware non-customers and convincing them to spend money on your product or service will take a lot of time and effort, but it is more achievable than converting habitual or anti-customers. Still, this is a very long arc.

Instead, focusing on unconvinced customers and brand-unaware customers is lower-hanging fruit. Brand-unaware customers require a concerted awareness effort using a combination of differentiation and brand promotion tools. Unconvinced customers are different—they require their fears and concerns to be addressed, meaning education, thought leadership and value-added content marketing should be the focus.

By looking at your non-customers not as a single group or as one industry or category, examine them by their motivational barriers. The key is to examine who is in your non-customer group and determine what’s holding them back. Address those barriers in a way that isn’t a blanket marketing effort but tailored to their unique situation. This requires getting to know your non-customers intimately. Ideally, this begins with some qualitative conversations to identify their barriers and concerns. Identify those patterns and tailor your efforts to address them. You’ll connect better with your prospects and convert them to clients much more quickly and effectively.