Why Your Customers Don't Give A Damn About You

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Submitted by Simon Hazeldine on Mon, 11/06/2007 - 10:24am.

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"Why Your Customers Don't Give A Damn About You"

- by Simon Hazeldine (MSc FInstSMM)
Author of Bare Knuckle Selling

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I have some very bad news for you. You had better make sure
you are sitting down. Prepare yourself for a shock. Your
customers don't care about you. They are not interested in
you. To be frank - they don't actually give a damn about
you.

I appreciate that this may be something of a shock for you.
After all you will have spent countless hours and a lot of
money attempting to develop a deep and meaningful
relationship with your customers.

However, let's experience a harsh dose of reality for a
moment. You are only attempting to develop a good
relationship with your customers for one reason - so that
they keep spending money with you. You want them to spend
their money with you and not with one of your competitors,
don't you? You are primarily acting out of self interest,
aren't you?

So why should it be any different for your customer? Their
primary interest is themselves and their business. They are
most interested in the things that are important to them.

You see they aren't really interested in you, your products
or your services at all. They couldn't give a damn.

What they are interested in is what you, your products
and/or your services will do for them. They are interested
in what you can do to help them solve their problems and get
what they want. Although this may seem rather harsh it is
the truth, isn't it?

So if your customers are only really interested in what you
can do to help them get what they want, why do so many
salespeople spend most of their time talking about
themselves, their products and services?

Far too many salespeople talk far too much about things they
are interested in. The problem is - your customers don't
care. For example:

Salesperson says: "Our business was established in 1842"
Customer thinks: "So what?"

Salesperson says: "We are the market leaders"
Customer thinks: "How nice for you - so what?"

Salesperson says: "Our new model contains several advanced
features"

Customer thinks: "Why does he keep talking about his new
model? So what about the new features! Who cares?"

The salesperson is talking about what is interesting and
important to them. It bores, annoys and irritates
customers! Can I put it any more plainly than that?

Let me be blunt - you shouldn't really talk to your customer
about your company, product or service until you understand
all about them, their company, their problems, their goals,
their criteria and requirements.

When you understand the customer, then you will be able to
tell them how you, and only you, can help them. Then they
will be very interested!

Spot the difference in the following examples:

Salesperson says: "Our business was established in 1842
which means that we have a long and successful track record
in helping our customers to solve exactly the same problems
that you are facing. In addition this means that you can
trust that you have a supplier who is in this for the long
term - unlike some fly-by-night cowboys!"

Customer thinks: "Interesting! I do need to find a long term
supplier to help me to solve these problems. I don't want
to keep chopping and changing suppliers. I always like to
make sure that suppliers have a solid track record and these
guys have been around for over a hundred years!"

Salesperson says: "We are the market leaders in this
industry and this means that we have products that your
consumers want to buy. By stocking market leading products
you can be certain of excellent margins and high rates of
sale. This will impact your bottom line very positively."

Customer thinks: "If we replace some of our existing lower
margin lines with some of these fast moving market leading
lines then we can get the percentage margin improvement we
need to hit this year's budget!"

Salesperson says: "Our new model contains several advanced
features and these will help you to automate your current
manual processes and allow you to make the cost savings that
you said you needed to make."

Customer thinks: "Right! If I upgrade to the new model I
will be able to automate the process and that's going to
save time and money. That'll keep the boss happy!"

If you know what is important to a customer you can then
determine how you can help them with their specific
problems, challenges and objectives.

Then they won't just be interested in you - they will be
very interested in you! Not to put too fine a point on it -
they might even end up loving you!

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Simon Hazeldine is the author of the bestselling books
Bare Knuckle Selling (foreword by Joe Vitale) and
Bare Knuckle Negotiating (foreword by Duncan Banatyne)