Talk About My Problems

Here’s how to sell without results.  Start selling like the mass majority of sales, marketing and business people out there.  They all want to sell you what they have.  Is that truly what you as the customer are thinking – “I want to be sold?”

Unfortunately, there are many from the school of hard knocks who think getting their way rather than helping you with yours is the mark of getting business done.  Take a look at the mass majority of websites.  Most are boring.  They copy each other and have not enticed me to engage.  Instead, they talk about how great they are hoping to impress me with their stated laurels that I would have to succumb and call them or beg them to sell me their products and services.

Here’s the blind spot the mass majority of businesses and business people have – they can only think about themselves.  It’s a rare company that can think, much less talk, in terms of you.  Those that do actually connect.  They connect with buying.

How does your customer buy?  Why do they buy?  Is it really because they want all the features you worked so hard to bulletize on your brochure, or is that mere geek talk?

I am a customer.  I care little about the tolerances of the cam shafts in my 5 series.  I want the ultimate driving machine and the ultimate driving experience.  This is what connects with me.  Engineering specs are nice to know, but I am converting it to what I want, not what you did.

Stop selling hardware, software, services, advertising, and the array of stuff we have too much of.  Start helping me buy and I may pay attention.  Helping me buy requires you to think about me and not you.  You matter little.  I matter a lot.  You look like a commodity.  I have choices.

Think carefully about your customer and profile what they truly care about.  They are not thinking about you. They are thinking about themselves.  Here are things they are thinking about:

• How do I make more money?
• How do I have more fun?
• How do I find love?
• How do I feel good about myself?
• How do we get customers?
• How do I put my kids through college?
• How do I look my best?

This is the pursuit of happiness we hear about.  We are all pursuing some end as individuals.  Connect with this.  When you sell audio equipment, don’t talk about the bass enhancements.  Talk about how it gives the ultimate fun experience.  If you sell software, don’t bore me with version 15’s new button clicks.  Tell me how this will double my revenue or save me half the time.  Show me concretely, and speak about my problems like you understand them because you are solving the same problem.

It all sounds simple, yet it is quite often missed.  It is missed in what we say, websites we read and the mass amounts of connection points competing for the customer’s attention.  Too bad.  But then again, it may be the opportunity which helps you stand out and start connecting with your customer instead of just bull-dogging them with your selling.  Talk about my problems and not your features and watch a world of opportunity open like you have never seen before.