Wednesday Words
To Go Where Your VisionPoints, a few inspiration points for you and your business.
Your customers are marketing geniuses— They know exactly what they want and it is your job to find that out…. When you know what type of a company they want to deal with—you have your ticket to fortunes. People deal with you because they want you to change their life—do you deliver on their wants?
—Troy White, at The Total Package
Nope, I’m not going to add a word this week, but I would like to hear it again: “Your customers are marketing geniuses— They know exactly what they want and it is your job to find that out.”
Brilliant.
Have you found out yet?
Grow and be well,
Kelly Erickson
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1 October 2008, 8:03 am
I had a client in business who wasn’t doing that well and it was clear to me that that the demographics in the area didn’t support what she wanted to sell. With a little tweaking she could have made more money. She wasn’t interested in tweaking- she was only interested in selling what she liked.
She went out of business instead. Now she is in major debt and complaining about the economy.
Wendi Kelly’s last blog post…Cleaning Closets
1 October 2008, 9:56 am
In a nutshell, my clients want to get published. And they want value for their money with regard to my services. I can guarantee at least one of those things!
1 October 2008, 9:57 am
Wendi,
Oof. I’ve worked with folks like that. I think it hurts me more than it hurts them, when they don’t want to listen to the (free) marketing geniuses.
It usually means they aren’t fully listening to the paid ones, either.
I hesitate to do a post on it, but I’ll tell you, on an individual level, it isn’t the economy. Here’s Seth Godin’s take on it. Worth checking out, especially the last sentence.
Regards,
Kelly
1 October 2008, 10:00 am
Steph,
Mm, yes. I agree! Writing your copy with an eye toward that big want is tricky since of course you can’t guarantee it, but if you can play on it properly, you’ll really have a compelling call to action.
Regards,
Kelly
1 October 2008, 3:00 pm
I like this – and then again, it makes me think about some products out there. The sorts of things no one would seek out independently, preferentially to other products – yet, through insane advertising campaigns, beating it over and over into our heads, we buy them anyway.
(McD’s, I’m lookin’ at you… never in my wildest dreams would I choose Rotten Ronnie’s over a homemade momma’s burger – yet I’d be lying if I said I’d never eaten there!)
-Brett
1 October 2008, 3:03 pm
Hey,
Great point. Never overlook anybody. This is similar to not being able to see the forest because of all the trees. Good luck.
bartolomo’s last blog post…Monday Morning Blues
1 October 2008, 5:42 pm
So, did customers really WANT polyester leisure suits, pet rocks, Milli Vanilli, Rob Schneider movies, and Jar-Jar Binks…?
Or were they just too lazy to say what they wanted, and let the marketing people decide for them?
Friar’s last blog post…Dear Solar System
1 October 2008, 5:43 pm
…might I add “New Coke” to the list?
Friar’s last blog post…Dear Solar System
1 October 2008, 6:25 pm
Excellent links with this.
My clients want me to be the real deal. They want something special that not just anyone can have. This is after all something that usually gets pride of place in their home or business for many years. It’s like a trophy in some respects. They also want a story to go with it. The story somehow perpetuates and reinforces their enjoyment of the piece of original art that I have made for them or that they have bought from me. So they want something tangible and yet they want something intangible too. Sometimes that intangible is really what they’re after.
Janice Cartier’s last blog post…Watercolor Truffles and Some Grass
1 October 2008, 10:06 pm
Brett,
Poor McD’s, they get looked at way too often on this blog. Eeek.
Did they find out what we want, though? Quick, hassle-free (relatively), pleases bland-palate children as we rush-rush-rush, and did I mention cheap?
I hate when they’ve got modern-pace-of-life down to a T. We know exactly what we want and they figured it out.
Bartolomo,
Yes, this is a very clear way to look at the big picture. Welcome, and thanks for your comment!
Friar,
I think that’s when the fad dies quickly, right? If the customer didn’t want it at all?
Of course if you take listening to the customer too seriously, you come up against what Henry Ford said: “If I’d asked the customer what they wanted, they would have said faster horses.”
You can’t listen to the customer’s specifications, just to their wants. “They want you to change their life.” So Henry Ford gives them the ability to get out and travel the world, and Steve Jobs gives them the ability to bring productivity home, and the Internet gives them (us) global interconnectivity. All things we didn’t know we wanted, yet we did want them, if you knew how to listen.
Like McD’s.
Janice,
I don’t care for their graphic style over at The Total Package, but I can’t get enough of their writing. So I’m a semi-devotee. A great bunch of writers and thinkers over there.
“They want something special that not just anyone can have.” That, and the story, for sure. Folks who will buy original works of art want something no one else can have, and the story helps them show it off without being… show-offs. Instead they can tell your story, or the story of the piece.
I completely agree, the intangible is why a Janice Cartier, and not something from Prints-R-Us down the street. Though I do have Van Gogh’s Sunflowers hanging in my kitchen, and I don’t mind that it’s a print. With some things you settle for the reminder of what it was like to stand in front of the real thing.
Until later,
Kelly
1 October 2008, 10:51 pm
Good point! This is about the needs of our customers FIRST, then our own need so we have win-win. And finally the TRIPLE WIN…where not only do we both benefit from knowing our what our customer wants and providing it effectively, but we create benefit for others, the planet or daringly I say, the future.
Harmony’s last blog post…Who Is A Global Citizen?
1 October 2008, 11:05 pm
Harmony,
Daringly, indeed! I think deep in many of our hearts is that daring desire. Creating benefits for the future—that’s some fine Wednesday Words there.
Until later,
Kelly
2 October 2008, 2:35 am
My clients want to stop procrastinating. They buy books and programs about procrastination that they don’t read. They want the quick fix.
Unfortunately the quick fix doesn’t exist.
I *could* take advantage of the quick fix desire and promise a quick fix even though none exists (it’s done all the time), but my integrity won’t allow it.
So the challenge for me therefore is to bridge that gap between a desire for change and the non-existence of a quick fix.
2 October 2008, 6:48 am
Alex,
That is a very interesting, honest assessment. Sound like you are (sometimes) using a shoehorn to get them into a size they don’t want (pardon the metaphor).
How about a quick start? You can’t promise a quick fix, but maybe that’s a way to get at that urge.
Honestly, I think you’ve tapped something critical there. Hmm, hmm. How to give a quick fix when it doesn’t exist?
If you could really answer that, without the shoehorn, like the man says, “you have your ticket to fortunes.”
Later,
Kelly
2 October 2008, 9:39 am
Shoehorn bad. Quick start good.
Since I’m in this for a long time (as well as a good time), I’ve decided that the best way to go about this is to take a page from the social networking sites and build up my tipping point level of Raving Fans.
You’ll see what I mean with my post tomorrow…
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome’s last blog post…Pushing Yourself Forward – Full Text Answers
2 October 2008, 8:42 pm
He he, Alex, you make it sound so easy. How can I resist tomorrow’s post with a lead-in like that?
2 October 2008, 10:32 pm
Then I’m obviously beginning to get the hang of this marketing thing
Alex Fayle | Someday Syndrome’s last blog post…Pushing Yourself Forward – Full Text Answers
2 October 2008, 10:44 pm
Kelly, this is profound and it speaks to not simply doing what the customer thinks is right but GAINING the customer by understanding what they think they want and presenting yourself as the solution. Love it!