Who cares since you need boots?!
The sales associate’s pitch is completely irrelevant to your needs and what you really want. He or she is not listening to you. Isn’t it frustrating when you’re not listened to? If it were me in the situation, I would leave the store and go elsewhere because I would think that the sales associate, or heck, even the company ONLY cares about a sale—not trying to help solve the problem that I have. It would definitely be one thing if the sales associate tried to add on to the sale a pair of high heels while selling me the boots. It’s another thing to be ignored or not even having you needs or wants acknowledged.
So is the same with your brand. You have a particular customer in mind—your target customer—for your product or service. (If you don’t have a target customer you need to figure this out because your wallet will experience dire consequences in your marketing efforts. You can’t be everything to everyone. It’s just not possible.) Here are the steps. You need to first find out what the customer’s problem is, empathize with and acknowledge the customer and his or her needs, and then analyze and address the problem speaking in both the language of the customer and your brand showing him or her your solution. That’s a handful of stuff to do, but once you’ve done this, you’ll be on your way to successfully connecting with your customer. It’s as simple as that.
To summarize, without relevancy, you will not make a successful connection to your customers, and, of course, you’ll just be adding to the noise in the marketplace. Relevancy, consistency, and connection are key to the survival of your business. Stay tuned next week, as I will discuss consistency.
