Why Your Business Isn’t Meant for Everyone with Glenn Gardone

Customer connection doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a lot of work to build a genuine connection with your customers and ignite a passion for your product. Our guest today has a lot of wisdom to share about connecting with your customers.

Meet Glenn Gardone. Glenn is the President of Chocolette Distribution LLC, a premium chocolate brand created by Masters Chocolatiers from France and Switzerland. Glenn is a multiple award-winning Chief Revenue Officer with more than 15 years of revenue generation experience in building unified performance-based sales cultures and high-performing teams. He worked for 4 of the top CPG companies in the world, winning multiple awards, including the prestigious Golden K (Kellogg’s top honor award).

Glenn has led some amazing teams throughout his career and has learned the importance of punching through the mud along the way. He’s now passionate about sharing his knowledge with the world and helping other entrepreneurs find success.

In this episode of the Think Business with Tyler podcast, we talk about how to earn your customers’ passion, tips for discovering your customers’ buying motives, the importance of always going forward, and why your target audience isn’t everyone.

If you want to learn more about customer engagement, make sure you tune into this episode to hear what Glenn has to say.

Guest-At-A-Glance

💡 Name: Glenn Gardone

💡 What he does: He’s the President of Chocolette Distribution LLC.

💡 Noteworthy: Glenn worked for 4 of the top CPG companies in the world, winning multiple awards, including the prestigious Golden K (Kellogg’s top honor award).

💡 Key Quote: “Take a knee, catch your breath, stand up, and move forward. Know that you’re doing it and what you’re doing has not been a road traveled by many, so enjoy the journey.”

💡 Where to find Glenn: LinkedIn

Key Insights

Earn your customer’s passion. Passion is one of the strongest feelings in the world. That’s why some of the most globally successful brands (like Apple and Starbucks) are so-called passion brands. These brands have a unique connection with their customer, and it’s all based on passion. So, if you want to create a long-lasting connection with your target audience, work on earring their passion.

Glenn explains, “The one thing about RED is we’re not a transactional company. We don’t want you just to buy it and leave. You’ve had some amazing guests on other podcasts, which I would tell people listening to this. Make sure you go back and listen to other podcasts. There was a gentleman that was a professor, and he was talking about the passion that comes between a brand and a consumer. And it’s that connection. And really, when we get that connection, ‘cause if you think about it when you are invited into somebody’s life, when a consumer takes RED and says, Yeah, you’re going to become part of my life now.’ There’s nothing more personal, nothing more exciting about it.”

People buy the same product for different reasons. Every customer is different. And not everyone will buy your product for the same reason. It’s up to you to recognize your customers’ values and understand their buying motives. Glenn explains, “It’s that whole quote-unquote value perception, and what the way I explain it to folks simply, when you think of value, I could line up five people, and chances are I’m going to get three different answers for what their value is for RED. One could be, ‘Oh, I love the price ‘cause I don’t want to spend $5 on a chocolate bar.’ Another person can say, ‘I don’t care how much it costs. I like the fact it’s no sugar added.’ And so that value, and when a consumer looks at RED, there’ll be different reasons that the value is set in their mind. All of them are correct because it’s what it means to them.”

Always keep going forward. Running a business comes with a lot of setbacks and unexpected situations. As a business owner or a manager, you will inevitably face difficult decisions along the way. But you have to punch through the mud and keep going.

Glenn says, “I’ve got an amazing marketing person, amazing supply chain person. Just the people that run the different pieces, they do a great job. When they come to you, and they say, ‘Hey, I got a problem. I need your input.’ That’s that quote-unquote mud that surrounds you. And so what you have to do, and I tell people all the time, look, if you’ve got to take a knee, take a knee. That’s okay. Catch your breath. But you’ve got to stand up, and you’ve got to punch through the mud because you’ve got to make those decisions.”

Your target customer isn’t everyone. If your business targets everyone, that means your product appeals to no one in particular. The harsh reality is that not everyone is your audience. That’s why you need to learn more about your customers by talking to them directly or conducting market research.

Glenn explains, “If you want to learn how to sell, tell a person who you are, and before you say what you can do, ask them what their need is because you may find out that their need isn’t what you can offer and stop trying to do square peg, round hole. Like I said earlier, 80% of the people love us. 20% we’re not right for, I’m not going to chase that 20% down, but I’m going to make sure that 80% that I’m doing right by what they need.”

Top Quotes

“We’re passionate about what we do. We want people to be passionate about us.”

“There’s no reason to be totally serious about things all the time. Sometimes you’ve got to have a little fun, and sometimes, that fun represents food. And so, with chocolate, do it a little smarter. That’s our reason for being.”

“The BS meter these days is very high on all individuals, so if you’re not honest and true to yourself and honest and true to your brand, it’s that old saying, if you try to be something to everyone, you’re nothing to anyone.”

“What I tell also individuals, especially entrepreneurs, when we get a chance to sit and chat, if you focus too much on the future, you’re not going to have one cuz you have to make sure today is successful. But if you only worry about today, you’re going to fail ‘cause you’re never going to plan for the future.”

“The best thing I could offer up is as an entrepreneur, whether you’re starting out or whether you’ve been doing it for a while, it’s okay to take a knee and know that when you take that knee, in spirit, there’s folks like myself with our hands on your shoulder saying, ‘It’s okay, we’ve been there and we know what you’re going through.’ Catch your breath, but ultimately stand up. And keep moving forward and punching through that mud.”

Links

RED Chocolate Website