Who influences your customers to buy from you? This is one of the key questions that often stumps my clients. They say they believe their sales reps, their marketing materials, their website, or their SEO are the biggest influencers, and I often burst their bubble by telling them they are wrong. I tell them they are overlooking the one person who sways the minds of customers to buy from you or someone else. These influencers are often not customers, nor will they ever buy a thing from you, but they hold the keys to your success. Then I ask them another question: if they are so important to your business success, are you marketing to them?

Two decades ago, Malcolm Gladwell published his classic book, The Tipping Point. One of the key points that he stresses is the importance of identifying the key influencers who impact the buying habits of everyone around them. He breaks these influencers into three groups: Mavens, who pass knowledge about products and services to others freely; Connectors, who are social networkers who know lots of people and love to connect one person with a need to a person who has a solution; and Salesmen, who lend their influence to tell the rest of us what we should and should not buy. The point Gladwell makes is that a very small group of people influence everyone else. It makes sense to identify them and get them on board with your brand.

I was working with a client who had run into a huge problem. His product was highly regulated. Every job he produced had to be tested and approved by an independent engineering firm. The problem was, the testers hired by the engineering firm were either college interns or high school students who needed a summer job. The testers were the lowest rung of employees at the engineering firm. If they performed the test incorrectly, the engineer would not sign off. That caused delays and a pile of money every time it happened. They needed a way to get an accurate test and a quick sign off. They resolved the issue by offering the engineering firms a training lunch and learn each time they brought on new interns. They sent their top-quality control experts into the engineering firm with a hands on learning experience and food. It worked. Their incidence of bad tests went down dramatically.

Who are the influencers of your customers? What do they need to believe about your brand to get them to cast positive influence your way? What are you doing to market to them? It only takes a small group of influencers to make a huge impact. Make sure your marketing plans are taking this group into account.