Scene: first date dinner, nice restaurant
Hi, my name is Doug, before we start let me tell you a little bit about me and my dating philosophy. I graduated from college in 1989 and since that time I've worked in a variety of businesses, mostly as an owner, but at times as an employee. You'll find that I'm different from most guys out there in three ways...
How am I doing? Has my date left already? It's silly, isn't it? No one in his or her right mind would ever use a strategy like this when trying to build a relationship.
Yet this is exactly what industrial-age sales and marketing strategies tell us to do. Whether it's called a marketing statement, a reference story, credibility building, or anything else -- it's crap.
Developing a long-term, profitable relationship with a customer is like building any other long-term, profitable relationship. Getting customers today is too difficult for the relationship to be short-term. Many of my clients spend as much as 12-18 months worth of projected client revenue in total costs to acquire new clients. They understand that the lifetime value of a client is more important that any single transaction. They also know that getting the right clients is as important as getting clients.
Marketers and salespeople need to stop trying to get their prospects to understand their company – they need to start making their clients feel understood.
The foundation of any relationship is trust. Trust is created when the person you are dealing with feels that you understand them better than they understand themselves. Transform your go-to-market (dating) strategy from getting them to understand you to one that demonstrates you understand them.
Then again, there’s always the divorce court…
Until next time,
Doug
PS. If you'd like a copy of a workbook I use with clients to help them reorient their 'dating' strategy, just e-mail me and tell me what it is you do.