'Eat your own Dog Food'

This phrase implies that a company uses its own product or service in it's operations. If I claim that our product is good and adds value to the customer and if my company or any part of it falls into my target market, I should be my own customer.

Using your own product helps in identifying the benefits and shortcomings of the product. As a customer, we can know exactly where the product pleases me and where it needs improvement.

Also if I do not accept my own product, why will the rest accept it? This is one situation I had faced when I was working in the Business Development of Meenakshi Public School, a CBSE School based in Gurgaon. We had identified a particular target market based on income, location and background and nearly all our own teachers fell in it. We felt that we are providing a very relevant offering to our target market. However, on analyzing, we realized that hardly any of our teachers were admitting their children into our own School. On analyzing further, we realized that the teachers felt that there is a lot lacking in the offering and we needed to improve in a lot of areas. This kind of feedback was great for us since it was internal and hence comprehensive, and also since it was very relevant coming directly from our target customers.

To sum it up, if your company or any of it's team members can be your own potential customer, it becomes very important to become one or analyse why you are not becoming one.