Model Customers

I am seeing that service providers get some funny ideas about the people they serve. In many industries, I have observed that continuing exposure creates a callous attitude, or familiarity breeds contempt.

Yesterday I received an email from a sales trainer I have never met, saying my problem was fear and then gave me a couple of options of what I was afraid of. While I am grateful for the insight, I haven’t figured out if it matters. I can’t recall meeting people with their elevator speech celebrating “fear.”

Well, maybe one. A retired NAVY pilot was making the useful distinction that if what was coming at you couldn’t blow you out of the sky, it probably wasn’t very scary.

In the evening, I met a new consultant. I was interested, so I asked what his practice area was? “I travel across the country and tell people to get their head out of their ass.” Fair enough. However, I don’t often see the classic rectal-cranial inversion in nature. Maybe it’s a niche market.

Seth Godin made a great point a few months ago that sales “prospects” don’t identify themselves as “prospects.”

That goes along with the fact that no one has ever come up to me and identified themselves at a “high net worth individual.” I do see a lot of people who say they are looking for them, however.

Seth wrote that the term “prospect” was made up by the marketers, and that perhaps a term the prospects would better identify with would be “citizens.”

How would a more positive model of the people you serve improve your business?

Monday, September 20th, 6:30 pm to 8:30, we are presenting Four Steps To Sure-Fire Sales Success at a meeting of Incite International, which will be held at Intelligent Office, Alexandria. Details and reservations at http://bit.ly/Sure-Fire