Video Transcript: "Targeting"

In this video, we're going to dive into the topic of targeting. What are the biblical  standards for targeting and having a target market? As a book publisher, I work  with a lot of authors, and I'll often ask them, What is Who is this book for? And  they'll often give me the response, my book is for everybody. As Zig Ziglar said,  If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time. So if a book is for everybody,  then, and you're trying to market to everybody, you're you just don't have  enough resources to be able to effectively market to everybody. So inevitably, if  you're human, you have to pick a target group of people and be faithful with that  group before God will then, going back to previous principles we've talked about, of being faithful with the with what you have today, and then allowing God to  expand your capacity, targeting and marketing is really a matter of faithful  stewardship. It's being faithful with a few people in your audience and then  allowing God to then broaden that to a broader audience, or a broader base of  customers. So was Jesus? Did Jesus do targeting? Did Jesus have a target  group, and someone might say, Well, no, Jesus was trying to reach the whole  world, and certainly he was, which is why we have the great commission that  we're now running with. And certainly that is what this course is all about, is  setting the standard or making disciples of all nations, and particularly in the  business world, in our case. So he had a large, massive, eternal, global vision,  as we ought to have, but in the human Jesus, because he was fully God, but he  was also fully man. So he had the limitations of a finite scope of time on this  earth and a finite geo geographical location where he could be at any given  time. So he had to define a target group. And so there was a an instance in the  God recorded in the gospels, when there was a woman who came to him to get  deliverance for her demon possessed child. And Jesus said, But he answered  and said, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. So this woman  was not of the house of Israel. Clearly, is the implication here. She was a  Samaritan woman, a half breed in the in the Hebrew mind. And so he was  clarifying that I have not, in my finite time here on this earth, there is a very  specific group of people that I have come for you are not part of that group of  people. Nonetheless, he gave that woman her miracle, because that's just who  Jesus is. But he still made it clear to the audience, and this is why we we read  later in in Paul's writings that the gospel came first to the Jew and then to the  Gentile. And so certainly we are the body of Christ. And so you can make the  theological argument that Jesus was reaching everybody, but in the human, fully man, fully God, Jesus, on his time on earth, he had a very clear target group,  another principle of targeting, and this is what Jesus demonstrated, is to start  with those who are hungry. So as if you're launching a new product, or if you're  selling a product that you've been selling for 20 years, you know that you have  to start. You have to focus on those who are hungry. Otherwise you're just kind  of wasting your time. You're spending a lot of time going to Coffee with people  you're you're spending a lot of time making cold calls to people that just aren't 

interested really in what you have to offer. And so you have to start with those  who are hungry. Jesus gave us this principle when he said, It's not those who  are well, who are in need of a physician, it's those who are sick. It's those who  have that pain point that you are uniquely gifted, that your company, your that  

you uniquely are able to solve and and I would also follow that up with Aim  small, but while you're aiming small, and you're trying to hit that target, like Zig  Ziglar said that if you, if you aim it, nothing, you will hit it every time, while you're  aiming small, defining that that it's been called an avatar, that kind of, that  person that really is your ideal Customer. Think Big while you're doing that, think of a much greater think of the impact in an entire because ultimately, we are not  only called to disciple individuals, but the great commission is to disciple  nations, and that's how that is a biblical standard for targeting, and then connect  with that target customer. What does that mean? Become an expert on your  target group. Really study and chances are, you are part of that target group,  because you're going to attract who you are, and so you're certainly an expert  on yourself. In some cases, you might be marketing to people that you don't  have as much common ground with, which makes it a little bit more difficult.  You're certainly going to have to do a lot more studying of that target group than  somebody that, I mean, like in my case, as I've talked about in this course, I'm  someone who has endured chronic back pain from sitting at a desk for long  periods of time doing work on the computer. And so I understand you, if you're  going through that problem, if that's your pain point, I got you. I understand you.  I have your solution. And so it's a little bit easier, more intuitive for me to  understand that target group, but you either way, whether you're part of that  target group or you're not, you have to understand, become an expert on that  target group, and then find common ground with that target group. And this is  one of the amazing things about Jesus, because he actually was part of what  you might consider, the outcast, I mean, the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  This was, as he said, this is his target group. This is a very specific ethnic group. But then he went further to say, these are the lost sheep of that ethnic group. So these are the people that are sort of on the fringes of that of that ethnic group  and and so Jesus had common ground. He was Jewish ethnically, but he also  became a blue collar worker. He didn't go to the finest rabbinical schools to  become a Pharisee. No, his calling was to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.  And so that was the reason why he became a blue collar carpenter. That's why  he spent almost all of his time in the countrysides, not so much in the cities. He  just spent time with the people that were the down and outers, the people that  were sort of on the fringes of society, the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And  then the last point here is to pick your core team from your target group. So if  you're really serious about reaching that target group, and you're dispatching  people to go forth with your message and to help promote what it is that you're  offering, you have to have a core team of people like you that understand that 

group, that are that are experts, that they can identify when that target group  comes in contact with a member of your team, that they can just identify with  that person, that there's that that solidarity, that there's there's that common  ground, and so that's why you see Jesus picking his core team from among a  bunch of blue collar workers. I mean people that were not really the the high and mighty people of his day and in society. I mean, these were really the people  that didn't make the team. I mean, like they didn't make it into the fight the finest  rabbinical schools, like fishermen. I mean, they just kind of carried on with their  their father's trade. They didn't sort of go to the level of becoming Pharisees or  or something a more reputable position in society. And so those are the people  that are that consist of Jesus's core team. And we would do we would be wise to do likewise. See in the next video