I want you to see your customers in a (lucrative) new light. The old paradigm works like this: Your company produces goods and services that help customers get a job done. In return, the customers pay you money. You take that money and invest a good portion of it in traditional sales and marketing efforts in a quest to get even more customers, which includes paying product developers, creative people, and salespeople to figure out what buyers want and to say good things about your company.

Wouldn’t it be far more effective to let the customers themselves drive your sales and marketing efforts and fuel your growth? This approach makes so much more sense.

No matter how much money you spend on third-party marketing people, they’re still a layer removed from those who buy. They can never really understand customers because they aren’t customers themselves. The organizations that achieve rapid growth are those that don’t just think of customers as “buyers of stuff” but as advocates, influencers, and contributors.

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