*** Note: This is a guest post from Eric Pratum, a super guy with awesome things to say. I hope you enjoy his article and then take a little visit to his excellent marketing blog….
I got married this year. It was awesome, but in the run up to the wedding, people kept telling me to relax and enjoy the day because, “It’s not about you.”
Who is this about?
In business, we like to assume that our customers value our products or services because of one or two main points or because of a whole host of things, and that’s it. Someone asks, “Why do people buy from you and not the next guy,” and we answer, “My product is the best at X,” or, “It’s the fastest at Y,” or, “the shiniest Z.” We rarely think any deeper.
Stay with me now. I came to realize that weddings work in the same way. Someone asks, “Why is Bob coming to your wedding?” You answer, “Because I invited him.” Sure, I know that Bob really wants to come to your wedding. Your wedding, like my consulting, might be the best product around, but I can’t sell my services simply because “it’s the best,” and Bob’s not coming just because you invited him…well, hopefully.
When you focus on Bob, you come to realize that he has his own reasons for coming:
- Cousin XYZ will be there, and they haven’t talked in forever.
- You have a hot friend he really wants an excuse to talk to.
- He doesn’t even want to be there, but he feels obligated.
Much like your customers, Bob’s reason for coming to your wedding is important to how much he values the experience.
If Cousin XYZ doesn’t show, Bob’s personal reason for being there evaporates. If you don’t care enough to seat him next to Hot Friend ABC, again, we have evaporation. If he’s only there because he’s obligated, his personal reason for being there is worthless.
When you sell or market your products, you have to know that your customers have deeper reasons for buying than just “It’s the best.” Your pools might be the best, but if you’re just a little too far away, Best is not a selling point for me. Your consulting services might be the best, but if you don’t address my concerns, they are not the best for me. And, if I only buy from you because I’m obligated to, I might not be a customer you even really want because I’m probably not happy that I don’t get a choice…think of utilities here, AT&T and the iPhone, etc.
There are two main ways to make your sales and marketing about the customer.
Research and content. For your business, survey your current clients, check your web analytics, use the Google Keyword Tool, etc. to find what your clients value, what they spend the most time on, where they have trouble with your products, and what they search for related to your product. Now, change all of your content to address what you find.
Here’s what you do to make your marketing and sales about what your customers value:
- If it’s online, make a content rich landing page about every individual thing your clients value. If it’s offline, address it in your sales pitch, your commercials, and frankly everywhere!
- If current or potential clients have trouble finding information about your products, make new landing pages. Answer those questions in your sales pitch before they are asked.
- If customers have had trouble with your product or service, fix it! Then, address those problems upfront online, in your marketing materials, and in your sales pitch. There’s no point in wasting your time over-selling the benefits of something that will never live up to what you promised. You’ll just get pissed off customers, increase your customer service costs, and get bad word of mouth.
- No matter what the channel is and what the issue is, customize your content. Put a section on your marketing services site that addresses your thoughts and work you’ve done for the automotive vertical. Put another section on their for the consumer products vertical. And so on. Do the same with every sales pitch and piece of marketing material. Customize it.
Now, next time I google graphic designers in Atlanta, I’ll find your site, see the section that’s relevant to nonprofits or agencies, and be able to read about why you might or might not be the right one for me. The same thing goes if I see your TV commercials. I want to feel you’re addressing my concerns. You’ll save us both time this way.
When you treat your sales and marketing like it’s not about you, your clients will see the value in your products as it relates to them and allow you to spend more time doing the work you like and less time trying to shoehorn them into products that might not fit.
Have you found any better way to improve your sales and marketing efforts? Is there higher ROI in something other than showing the benefits, improving content, selling a product or service for what it really is, and customizing your messages?
Bio: “Eric Pratum is the chief social media and digital strategy consultant for clients like The Salvation Army, National Parkinson Foundation, and Operation Blessing International at his nonprofit marketing agency , Grizzard Communications Group. You can find him blogging about marketing daily at Grizzard.com, check out his personal marketing blog , or say hi to Eric on Twitter
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the invitation and for posting this, Marcus. I hope that it is of value to your readers. As soon as my blog re-design is finished, I definitely hope to get a guest post from you. Thanks again.
.-= Eric Pratum´s last blog ..I’m worried about starting too quickly =-.
You’re very welcome Pratum, in fact, I’m thrilled for you to come by and contribute to our community here.
The idea of ‘It’s not about ME’ in sales in marketing is huge, and can’t be stressed, analyzed, and talked about nearly enough.
Well done my friend.
I love the overall message of this post. You should always think about your customers first and yourself second. Customers don’t necessarily buy from you because it might be the “best.” In fact, it’s hard to be the best at everything. There will always be another product or service that is better than your product or service in a certain way.
However, your product or service CAN be better in a few aspects another product or service isn’t, which is why you’ll attract different customers who’s needs will be fulfilled better with your product or service.
When making your sales pitch, you need to address the more important problem – the concerns of your customers. What do they need? How will the product help them? What does your product address that another competing product or service may not address?
It’s all about the benefits your customers will be receiving, not the features.
In regards to the marriage anecdote, I would go to a marriage simply because the people or person getting married is a close friend of mine, not necessarily because I’m interested in someone attending (though I suppose the person getting married is attending the wedding). I would go to the marriage because I value my friendship with the person getting married and would want the best for him/her. So really, in that marriage example, my reason for going to the wedding would be all about the married couple.. and I’m sure that’s why many other people go to a wedding. A friend, acquaintance or family member is getting married and they want to support them. It’s not just obligation. I would be seriously happy to witness the event of a friend getting married. So, I think marriage was a poor example for this message. But, of course, others can disagree.
.-= Christina Crowe ( @CashCampfire )´s last blog ..Creating Web Content that Turns Heads and Increases Revenue =-.
Thanks for your support and explanations of your criticism. I definitely see where you’re coming from with the wedding critique. I had a much larger list of potential reasons that someone would buy your product or service that mirror different reasons for attending a wedding, but the post was becoming a bit unwieldy and long, so I had to cut them unfortunately.
You make a good point about the product or service sometimes just being the best for a client because it addresses their needs. That being said, I think we’re ultimately saying the same thing. In both cases, the focus is on the client: what do they need that we can do, how can our widget save them time, what have they been looking for that they’ll find more easily here than somewhere else, etc.
.-= Eric Pratum´s last blog ..I’m worried about starting too quickly =-.
Hi Eric,
Yep, I was just agreeing with your message and giving my own points as to why I agree. I think this is an important message that everyone should think about before promoting a product or service, because it is, indeed, not all about them or the product’s features. Really, it’s what the customer gets out of it.
Thanks for your response about the marriage matter. I see what you mean, and I understand what you were trying to get at with that example you used. Of course, not everyone goes to a wedding for the same reasons. Those were just my reasons as to why I would go to a wedding, so what I mainly meant was that the example used doesn’t necessarily apply to everyone.
Congratulations on your wedding though! You must be ecstatic.
Christina
.-= Christina Crowe ( @CashCampfire )´s last blog ..Creating Web Content that Turns Heads and Increases Revenue =-.
Thanks, Christina. I’m glad to see that Marcus draws in a community here that values the needs of the customer.
And, yep, I am very happy to have found my wife. She and I are finally getting a chance to settle down after having moved cross-country in February, getting married, traveling, etc, so I’m looking forward to getting back to business with my online work.
.-= Eric Pratum´s last blog ..I’m worried about starting too quickly =-.
G’Day Marcus,
What an interesting post. That wedding analogy is spot on. Please thank Eric for me.
I know that all the experts say that you have to discover your clients’ and prospects’ problems. I agree. But they don’t tell you how best to do this. For what it’s worth, here’s what’s worked for me.
Never, ever ask “What’s your problem?” Even if you get an answer, you wont know whether it’s a problem, a symptom or just something they think you want to hear.
Try these…
“What do you believe you do very well in you business?”
“What would you like to do better in your business?”
“What causes you most frustration and aggravation in your business?”
“Is there one thing that you feel, if you could improve it, would have a dramatic positive effect on you business?”
“What wouldn’t you change about the way you do business/”
I think that you’ll get the idea. Relate everything to the business. Imply— or is it infer?— no personal shortcomings. Include the good with the not so good. Get specific information.
Incidentally, asking about the “good” may not only reveal common ground. It may also provide business opportunities where you can show how to tweak “goods” for a major business advantage.
Of course, you have to adapt the questions to your product or service. But I have to say , that even after 30 years in business, I’m still frequently surprised by what customers like about what I do compared with what I expect them to like.
And naturally, make sure you have fun.
Regards
Leon
Hey, Leon. Thank you very much. I think you put it in a much more concrete way than I did. “Relate everything to the business.” That is 1 thing my post was missing. If we can’t make it about the needs of the customer and be open about where our product/service might fall short, we’re likely to either spend too much time shoehorning a customer into something that is wrong for them and/or end up with a dissatisfied customer in the end because we didn’t give them something that really solved their problems.
Interestingly, as much as we say online now that we have to be open and transparent, I think many marketers are successful at being open and transparent within their field, but much less so when it comes to dealing with customers. If we follow your lead, we will be much further along the road to true openness.
Thanks again for your comment, Leon.
.-= Eric Pratum´s last blog ..I’m worried about starting too quickly =-.
G’Day Eric,
Thank you for yourmost generous remarks. One of my favourite quotes is by David Ogilvy: “The customer is not a moron. She is you wife.”
It may sound a trifle sexist in 2010, but the message for all of us is just so telling.
Thanks again
Leon
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