When you are looking for new customers, are you trying to reach "everyone"?

A while ago, I ran into an old friend who just finished a long (3 years) project as sub-contracted interior designer and she was out "struggling to reach new potential customers".
When I asked her what she defined as "potential customers", she simply stated: "everyone".

Here's the thing: it's NOT difficult to reach "everyone" as a potential customer.

If your service or business really adds value to "everyone", you could drop the kids of at school in the morning and start talking to literally anyone passing by. Or better, you can go shopping all day long and while you're there start talking to literally anyone passing by.
Chances are high that by the end of the day, you have not only reached a lot of potential customers but you were even able to close a deal or two.

Now, if your service or business is not adding value to just "everyone", trying to reach everyone would not be "difficult", it would simply be ... "impossible" (besides other things).

There is no rocket science here. If you don't have a need for (let's say as example) a new car, what is the chance you're going to agree on an appointment at a car-dealer or buying a new car?

So, unless your business really adds value to everyone, stop trying to reach everyone.

Get to know your customer.

Take twenty minutes to fill in the (first version of the) LEAN canvas model and get a clear view on what segment or group will benefit from your service/business.

Know your customer first. Then reach out.

Once you filled in the model, you'll have focus on who will benefit from your service or business. And with this focus, you can easily identify how to reach those new potential customers.

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For seasoned entrepreneurs, you'll probably find it stating the obvious. On the other hand, it is still baffling to see the high rate of business failures each year. And diving into the numbers, even in 2016, one of the main reasons (small) businesses fail was researched to be mismanagement and/or a misfit between market and demand. You can find back multiple reports (like the forbes one for example) and scientific researches (you might want to check the material from Crutzen Nathalie for example) on the net.