The 25th Mile Rule: Which Customers to Help

A huge mistake entrepreneurs make is to start by trying to help the people who need the most help.

This probably sounds counterintuitive, so here’s an example to help explain:

Let’s say you’re trying to help people get better at golf. Maybe you were a college player and you know 5 or 10 or 15 things that most amateurs don’t that could make them way better immediately.

You speak with customers (people who like and play golf) and realize that, not surprisingly, there’s a huge range of skill levels.

I call this “the Knowledge Spectrum”:

It’s natural to look to people on the far left of that spectrum and get excited. You can probably help them make giant strides in the shortest amount of time, right? I call this “the Beginners Trap.”

The Improvement Potential, the area under the improvement curve for beginners, is enormous:

A few things you pass along might get them from here to here:

Whereas the near expert, on the far right of the graph, has limited improvement potential:

And, it’ll be harder to help them, right? Because they’re more of an expert. You’ll need to up your game to provide value and build something polished. And, since they know the space, maybe they’ll see through you?

The Expert Advantage + The 25th Mile Rule

The goal with your first customer is to help them be wildly successful. To help them break through a dam in the river that’d been holding them back from something important.

Beginners — people who need the most help — aren’t good candidates for this. Because they usually aren’t committed.

They likely haven't built a network around golf, they'll have few or no sunk costs, and they won't see golf as a part of their identity yet. They won't have a clear vision of short and long-term success and will likely just want to vaguely “get better.” This makes it nearly impossible to develop a product, and, even if you do, it's way too easy for beginners to quit. Most beginners stay beginners.

Experts, on the other hand, are committed. They've already invested time, effort, and money. Golf is tied to their identity and influences their networks and spending habits. They'll understand nuances and specific challenges, making them ideal for targeted, niche solutions. They’ll likely already have specific goals — say, improve their wedges from 50–80 yards out. This will allow you to build a wedge product with tight messaging and a clear success outcome for a customer that's motivated.

If this customer is running a marathon, they’re on the 25th mile and you’re trying to get them across the finish line.

Beginners are on mile two.

Maybe most importantly, the way beginners make decisions is by looking to the right on the knowledge spectrum graph. By seeing what people a few steps ahead of them are doing and buying, then doing and buying those things. Which means, as a business, you'll grow from right to left on the graph. Experts to beginners.

Start with customers on the 25th mile, then work backwards. Don't hope you can motivate beginners — work with the experts that are already motivated.

So — who are the experts in your space? Who are the beginners? What goals are the experts trying to reach? How can we help them? How can you make sure you avoid beginners — the ones who you aren’t sure will finish the race?