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Even the post about passive income wasn't passive.
On October 25, BizScout president Bobby Graham wrote to anyone with a W2 job who doesn't have "a boring business that pays you $5k-$10k a month on top of your salary." He had 9 of them for sale. The post pulled 538 likes and 86 replies.
Then he spent two days in the replies sending DMs. Of the 40 replies I pulled, 22 were his.
People tore into the post's facts. As marketing, it's the sharpest thing I saw all week.
In this issue:
He knows his customer in one sentence. Do you?
The One-Sentence Customer, from your own exports
What paying $85 for a $35 unit taught me
Why Most AI Tools Fail at B2B Customer Service
B2B customer issues rarely resolve in a single interaction. They move across teams, systems, and account history that most AI tools were never designed to track.
A new briefing paper from Harvard Business Review Analytic Services, sponsored by Front, looks at why AI built for high-volume consumer support creates new coordination gaps when it meets the multi-team reality of B2B service, and what leaders should ask before investing in their next AI tool.
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IN THE KNOW
The short version: A post can be wrong on the facts and still win, as long as it's aimed at one person. Bobby knew exactly who he was talking to, and your field software already knows who you should be talking to.
Bobby wrote to one person and ignored everyone else
His bio says he was a VP at SeatGeek and StubHub, two companies that sell people a night out they already want. BizScout's site says it has more than 180,000 buyers.
The post wasn't written for business owners. It was written for the guy at a desk on a Tuesday afternoon who wants out.
Look at the first line. "On top of your salary" only means something to someone who has a salary and hates it. Then he gave that one person a reason to raise their hand and followed up with each one, one DM at a time.
The pushback was loud. X attached a Community Note about the cash flow numbers, and one small manufacturer's quote-post calling it "terrible" got 209 likes.
Bobby didn't need any of those people to agree with him. They were never the customer, and every angry reply put the post in front of more W2 workers.
Your ads are written to everybody
Pull up your last ad, postcard, or Google Business post. If it talks to "homeowners in the area," it's written to everybody, and it lands on nobody in particular.
Your best customers are a specific group. They might be the ones on a maintenance plan, the ones from two zip codes, or the ones whose first call was a repair that turned into a replacement. You don't know which group it is until you look, and a guess from the truck doesn't count.
You can't write to one person until you know who that person is.
The answer is already in your field software. Every job, every invoice, and every lead source is sitting in there.
It's just never been asked the question, because the reports it ships with answer "how many jobs," not "who are my best customers." So the ad gets written to the average, and the average customer isn't the one paying your bills.
I know one storage customer in one sentence because I was him
I rented a 10x10 for $35 a month. Extra Space bought the place and my rent went to $60, then $75, then $85. I stayed, because I didn't want to move my stuff.
That one sentence is a whole marketing plan. Someone who hates moving doesn't need a discount. They need you to be easy to rent from on day one.
At my own sites in Aiken, my best tenants are contractors. They rent a 10x30 for tools and supplies, stop by in the morning a couple of times a week, and that's that.
They aren't storing family heirlooms that a humid summer could ruin, so our marketing doesn't sell them on that. It talks to contractors, which means some of you reading this are my one customer.
Bobby's facts got corrected in public, and his aim still worked. Copy the aim.
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MAKE IT MODERN
The One-Sentence Customer. One export, one prompt.
Export your customer list from your field software (ServiceTitan, Jobber, Housecall Pro) with lifetime revenue, first job type, lead source, zip code, and whether they're on a maintenance plan. If the export won't include lead source, that's your first finding.
Sort by lifetime revenue and keep the top 20%.
Delete names, phone numbers, and emails.
Paste what's left into ChatGPT or Claude with this prompt:
These are my top 20% of customers by lifetime revenue.
Columns: first job type, lead source, zip code, maintenance plan (yes/no).
Describe the typical customer in one plain sentence.
Then list what they have in common, with counts.
Only use what's in the data. Don't guess.Now rewrite the first line of your next ad to that one person.
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FROM THE STOICS
When a man does not know what harbour he is making for, no wind is the right wind.
An ad aimed at everybody is a boat with no harbor. Pick the person you're sailing toward first, then spend the money.
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BEFORE YOU GO
If you want help finding your one customer across your field software, your ad reports, and your books, reply "diagnostic" and I'll send the details.
P.S. Reply with your one sentence and the first line of your current ad. I want to see how many of them match.