Appreciating the Seven Types of Foxes
The most important strategy in doing business with a small business owner is knowing what particular breed of fix you’re dealing with—and how to manage him. This chapter introduces you to the seven types of small business owners that operate in this world.
I devised this list by looking at my current customer list and reflecting on all of the other small business owners that I’ve met and interviewed over the past fifteen years. There are a Jot of commonalities between them. In fact, I was amazed at some of the opportunities that I lost simply because I failed to recognize them as one of the seven types of small business owners early in the game. It should have been obvious.
Don’t let this to happen to you. You should be able to walk into a prospective small business and immediately understand what type of wily fox you’re dealing with. You should then have no problem coming up with a way to either make him your customer or disqualify him and move on to the next opportunity.