The Most Important Question in Business |
Posted: October 30, 2011 |
…is “how are you doing?” When I started my career as an account executive, I found out very quickly that customers and prospects rolled their eyes the moment I started talking about my company and our services. I would ask them if they’d like to hear about our new product release…crickets. I would ask if I could bring my sales manager in for a meeting with my main contact’s boss…crickets. I would ask if they had any budget they needed to spend…”nice try!” But when I asked about them, when I asked about their business challenges, fears or aspirations, they lit up like a Christmas tree. And that is how (through lots of trial and error in business and in dating) I found out that I needed to stop talking about myself and ask that most important question: “how are you doing?” How I roll… When it comes right down to it, people do business with people they know, like and trust. As a sales person early in my career, I decided to make every first conversation with a contact a “get-to-know-you” conversation. I would ask them to simply tell me about themselves. I would ask how they got into their role. I would ask if they like their company, job, or boss. And I would ask them how they are doing and (the second most important question in business) if I could help them in any way. Then I would write that down and include that in my “thank you” email recap just to clarify the situation. I usually stayed away from personal stuff. I know people who like to ask others they first meet what they do when they’re not at work. But I wanted to earn the right to ask that question. I wanted to get my contact to volunteer that kind of information. And when asked about myself, I always try to be as candid as possible. I want you to get to know the real me. Ihope that you like me. You may not always like what I have to say but you will know that you can trust me. That’s just how I roll… Marketing content As a marketer, I couldn’t believe that every piece of content followed the same basic pattern:
But don’t we limit our audience to only those in the later stage of the buying journey when we speak only of ourselves? When we use thought leadership content in the broadest digital channels speaking to the biggest needs of our customers, we become a destination of business insights for a much larger audience. We help them to define their challenges. We help them to gain alignment within their companies. We create a value-chain that brings them and their colleagues back to us for more information. The most common business challenges Ask any CEO, small business owner or business decision maker and they will tell you that the most common challenges in any business all tie back to them figuring out how to:
Yet how many businesses tell their stories in light of these business challenges? Marketing content should be truly helpful to our buyers based on our unique understanding of their needs. How many businesses start talking about themselves without first asking “how are you doing?” Once you understand a person’s main challenge, it is so much easier to position your services. It is so much easier to find the right message. You have to reach people where they are. You have to make the reader a participant in the story. When I was inititated by fire into the discipline of product management, I was taught that you start with understanding yourtarget, then defining your position in the market and the message that will resonate with them. The acronym T-P-M was drilled into me as a litmus test for any marketing program. Too often, we skip the audience part, We forget to ask people how they are doing. We assume that everyone is trying to beat a path to our door. But instead we should be thinking about what questions we are answering. What question are you answering? Does our content meet our company needs or the needs of our customers? Have we started by trying to understand the market landscape we are serving or have we spent all our time trying to craft the right words to describe ourselves? I’d love to hear your thoughts…and while you’re at it, tell me: How are you doing? How can I help you?
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