Prospects, or addressing potential customers as prospects.

Calling potential customers as prospects is always a challenge for me. They are living, breathing people, and they have the potential to become consumers.

Calling them prospects seems to dehumanise them, if that makes any sense.

There are several business books that encourage you to think about how you may get your “prospects” to pay attention to you. I’ve seen quite a few, and I’ve also read a couple of them, and there’s just something about the usage of that term that bothers me.

By definition, a ‘prospect’ is either a possible source of revenue or a potential consumer. That’s OK, you may argue. Profit is the only reason we’re in business; without a profit, we’re out of business.

But if you think of your prospective consumers as walking wallets, you’re missing the point.

If you only regard the people who you hope will buy from you in the capacity of prospects, customers, clients, consumers, patrons, companies, or other entities, then you are not only missing the point of conducting business, but you are also preventing yourself from taking advantage of a significant opportunity.

If you do not appeal to the emotional desires of’real people,’ your goods and services will not be successful in the market.

It is not sufficient to simply meet the material demands of prospects.

People are more than the labels they are given by businesses; they have ambitions, desires, concerns & aspirations that must be taken into account.

Customers may get delicious coffee at almost every shop on the street. Real people tend to frequent places that show them kindness and concern.