Are You Being “sold to” or “told to”?

My friend and colleague, Corey Smith, just asked a question, “Who is your audience?”

He just launched a new service for printer and copier dealers over at Copier Catalog, which promises to be a very sound set of services offered to the independent dealer channel. He is evidently offering a blog there as well, which I don’t know how he finds time to write for all of his interests (good on you, sir).

Corey goes on to ask if businesses, in general, know who their audience is when designing their content and websites, offering this sound advice:

1. Use no jargon.
2. You need the sale more than your customer does.
3. Your clients aren’t interested in what you are interested in.
4. Your content alone won’t drive traffic.
5. Your clients don’t know all about what you sell.

This extends beyond the content on a website and into the field… sales reps in many industries, and specifically in hardware and software businesses, don’t get my needs as their potential customer, as a general rule.

It’s rather frustrating having to either spell out my needs “Barney-style” (that’s the purple, kid-friendly, dinosaur folks), or be told what they think I need…

I used to be a client of my company before I came to work in my present position at Kearns Business Solutions, and do you know why they won my business and I became their champion in my organization?

1. My account manager listened to my needs and asked questions to understand them.
2. My account manager had a plan – a strategy with stops along the way to rest.
3. My account manager talked about things me and my company wanted to hear.

Folks, I knew my account manager had products and services to sell, that’s why I asked them to come in and talk with me. The difference though is that even though I was there to be sold to, I wasn’t there to be “told to”.

I came to work at Kearns almost five years ago for one solid reason – I wanted to be part of an organization that cared that much about its customers.

Don’t come in and try to sell me on something when you don’t care about my needs or don’t understand my needs. I’m the one that is doing the story telling… I’m the customer… Help me buy something by showing you care about where I’m going.

Ken Stewart’s blog, ChangeForge.com, focuses on the collision between the constantly changing worlds of business and technology. Ken is also the Director of Technology at Kearns Business Solutions.