There’s a lot of buzz out there these days about raving fans.  Ken Blanchard wrote a book about it (which I admit I have not read yet), and Jeremy Epstein blogs about this topic frequently as well.  My question is - can someone be a raving fan without actually being a customer of the company?  This question came to mind this past Friday when a colleague and I met with a potential vendor, Shoutlet.   I’ve had a few meetings with Jason, their CEO, in the past but didn’t really have a good understanding of what their product could do for my company until a couple of days ago.  For whatever reason, it really makes sense now and I feel can REALLY help us both push our information (news, videos, podcasts, etc.) out there but it can track it as well.  I was so excited about this possibility that I felt like a raving fan without even buying yet. A colleague and I were discussing it, which is where this question started.  So what do you think?  Can someone be a raving fan without being a customer?