Over the years, I have found that working on my communication and understanding has been a critical element to improving myself and my career prospects. In fact, communication holds far more power than the education system would have you believe. Books such as “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, along with Sell Like Crazy had a big influence in my personal development along my journey, and I’ll share why soon.
Listening To The Customer
I had always found marketing interesting but challenging. The more I learnt, the more I realised how important the customer is, regardless of how good you think your product might be. Ultimately, the customer decides it’s value and their decision often relies on how you present it to them.
Putting something amazing in front of someone, doesn’t mean they will even notice it exists. If they notice it, they may not even want it. In “How to Win Friends and Influence People”, the iconic book discusses the importance of listening to others, taking in what they are saying and being a part of their experience. Taking note of people’s reactions to your product or service is one of the biggest things you can do to improve what you have, it’s like free consulting from the masses!
Listening to what they say is one thing, but there’s a hidden element that those who are too busy may overlook. Using data and flows to understand the customer experience, where they drop off or lose interest and what gets them engaged and re-engaged tells a deeper tale of what the customer actually wants, and what they will pay for.
Get Excited
When building websites and creating content, there was a tipping point where I went from never getting leads or clicks, then overnight getting tens of leads using less than $20 in marketing spend. That tipping point, was built by reading a book called “Sell Like Crazy”. It triggered a variety of concepts that had previously alluded me, and overnight I went from getting zero leads, to getting them on demand at a low price. The art of communication was starting to show big value. Basically, creating an offer is about creating something that your customer will get excited about. Something has to trigger them to consider whatever it is you are presenting. In marketing, it’s your job to figure that out.
Deep Dive
Part of the process in defining why someone will click, buy or sign up, is to understand what drives those people that are likely to do it. What do they want? What questions do they have and what are they feeling when they are hunting for your product or service. Tapping into this understanding is absolute gold, and combining concepts from the two books mentioned above will create massive opportunity to speak to your future customers on a deeper level.
By deep diving into their experience, understanding where they are in their journey and listing each element to then answer to their needs is how I can create campaigns that work. Using this method, I can bring value to marketing teams and also sales team who will also benefit from using this intel to drive results.
The Next Step
While marketing’s job is to get the interest, it’s up to the sales team to drive it home. Often sales needs to go a little deeper and more specific, being able to answer the nitty gritty, build more trust and confirm the customer’s interest in the product. Not only this, it’s up to the sales team to set expectations of what they won’t get. This step is valuable long term, so that the product overdelivers and no one is left disappointed. Happy customers bring great organic marketing but negative reviews can quash a business fast. A well-trained sales team means that product delivery and customer service flows better, customers are happier and sales are genuine.
I once worked at a firm where the job was to ‘talk to the customer’ but I knew there had to be more depth to it. Pushing to know, what are their levers, what drives them and what influence can we have, I was able to increase conversions to a far higher level. Going deeper, having the relevant knowledge and engaging in a metacognitive approach makes a difference.
When working with a company, I like to foster this approach to train sales teams, by going deeper and building a professional standard that makes a difference, to the customer and the bottom line.
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