Have you ever wished you could get inside your customer’s head? What are they thinking? What do they want? How can I serve them better?
I have spent the past 35 years inside my customer’s heads… (Whew! It’s good to get out of there for a while and take a breath!)
Let me share with you what I have learned.
Your customer is an expert at what they do. If they are in Real Estate, they know how to do a deal, they know the local market, and they know how to schmooze with clients. If your customer is a dentist, he knows the names of every tooth in our mouths (wait—do teeth even have names?), they are schooled in all the latest techniques, and they know how to make all of us squirm: “So tell me…how often are you flossing?”
Your customers are comfortable in their own world and may not like to venture out much to explore new things. We are all taught to go out and find what we are good at and what we love to do, and then do as much of that as possible—the customer is the perfect student of this philosophy. If you try to introduce something new and you haven’t first convinced them of its value, the walls instantly come up, and it’s tough to break through them.
Your customer wants to work with experts who know their field. You can no longer just be an “expert in marketing”. Your customer is looking for an expert in Real Estate marketing or an expert in marketing for Dentists. After all, why should they settle for a generalist when they can work with a specialist? If they don’t have to constantly educate you in what they do, a lot more can be accomplished in the same amount of time.
Your customer is willing to pay you more money. It’s all about convenience for them. In their perfect world, they would just as soon get everything from you: You are doing a fantastic job solving one of their problems, but your customers have other problems too. They LOVE the concept of a one-stop shop and are more than willing to pay you more if you can help them with more. And here’s a big one: They secretly think you are not charging enough.
And finally, your customers wish you had more levels of service.
Good: Tell them exactly how to implement your marketing systems and strategies. Give them all the templates they need, have webinars on how to best use the tools, and provide content on an ongoing basis.
Better: Offer a complete done-for-you solution. Write the emails for them, send out monthly newsletters for them, do their SEO, manage their Google AdWords account, post Craigslist ads, and manage all of their social media accounts for them.
Make it your new goal to get and stay in your customers’ heads. Meet with them, talk to them on the phone, and watch them work. Ask them about their problems and challenges. Then, provide first-class solutions that your customers will not only pay you for but also thank you for.
