I heard this statement in one my marketing lessons, and it really struck me as an interesting analogy. When I stopped to think about it, it really is more true than I imagined. So let’s look at this, you’re looking to make a sale, what’s the first thing you need, you need a customer. The customer is key to everything, without them, you have nothing. I know what you’re thinking, duh!!! But bear with me as I get to my point 🙂
A customer is a lot like looking for husband/wife. You may go to a bar, or meet someone in a public place. Do you see someone, and just walk up to a stranger and ask them to marry you??? Of course not. But why? because you don’t know if they are a fit for you, or vice versa. Plus, what person in their right mind would say yes. So how do you figure out if you’re “right” for each other. You take small steps. How about going out for coffee to talk? Well, in the business world this is a lot like checking out your website or blog. It gives your prospect the chance to get to know you slowly. By putting out a blog, you let the prospect see that you know what you’re talking about and figure out if there’s any reason to go further. So, you’ve gone for “coffee” and kinda like what you see. So you move to the next level, how about a real date… in the business world, this would be some form of opt-in, like an auto-responder, a mailing list, or a newsletter. This says I’m interested enough to get free info from you… but nothing more. Ok… now you’re dating… but it’s still early stages. It doesn’t mean you’re exclusive or invested… just interested. Now if you have enough qualities your customer likes, they may buy something small from you… a sort of trial thing. This could be like meeting hte parents, or going on vacation together. It’s still not marriage, but it’s pretty serious. If the customer likes the small thing they bought, they may finally invest in your big offering…
Now of course marriage isn’t a perfect analogy, since you want as many customers as possible (well, unless you live in Utah). But you get the idea. You need to present enough value to get the customer interested in you. They aren’t just gonna give you their money until they know you can provide the value you claim. Plus, if you follow the idea of the “Ideal Customer”, you want to check out the customer too and see if they fit for you. This is a two way street (of course, in my case, I’m early on, so my ideal customer is anyone that will buy from me. ha ha ha). but I look forward to becoming more exclusive in the coming year.
anyway, thanks for reading,
Mike
As always, thanks for reading and don't forget to check out our SAP Service Management Products at my other company JaveLLin Solutions,Mike