The Five Most Important Words In Any Business Marketing Vocabulary (Part 8 In A Series)

This is part of my series on Smart Marketing For Small Business. Other posts in this series can be accessed via my BeBee wall, at the bottom of this post.

There are literally hundreds of thousands if not millions of different types of business in the world today. Some compete in the same areas and some are alone in their marketplaces.

But one of the single most important things all businesses share is simply this” They all need customers to survive.Businesses are one half of the supply and demand ecosystem that makes our world work…customers are the other half.

There is an adage I heard somewhere back in the day that stuck in my head. “There are only two jobs in the world. You are either selling or working for someone who is or you are buying or working for someone who is.

If you look at business in this way, you really get a pretty good impression of just how important customers are.

They are the reason businesses exist. Their expectations are the reasons businesses focus strongly on quality and innovation. They are simply the most precious commodity in the world.

But you would be surprised to discover that only a relatively small percentage of businesses really understand all they need to know about their customers and prospects, (future customers), in order to effectively attract them and ensure their loyalty.

What’s In It For Me?

These are the five magic words I alluded to in the title of this piece. They represent both the ultimate challenge and the prime mandate that all businesses need to fulfill in order to establish themselves and grow.

Many of the smaller businesses I have worked with over the years always knew a lot about their products or services, and too often, were convinced that their prospects would easily be able to fill in the blanks and see that their products or services were just what they were looking for.

So you can imagine their surprise when I had to break it to them that that sort of thinking was pretty much akin to wandering into a lake of quicksand.

Benefits Are Not Features. And Vice Versa.

All the amazing features that businesses build into their products or services mean very little to people unless the promise that the business talks to a perceived benefit on the part of the customer.

Here’s a rather pedestrian example. You make mattresses. You make the best mattress known to man.They have got pocketed coil springs and a deluxe memory foam top and breathable side vents etc and they unconditionally guaranteed to last a lifetime.

So you create this position and point out all the features and somebody comes up with the headline…The Greatest Bed Of All Time.

And you have completely and utterly missed the point. Because you don’t really understand that you have not answered the “What’s In It For Me?” question.

Now I don’t know what the answer to that is. It could be a number of things from a better night’s sleep or something that’s great for making love on.

But whatever it is, it’s absolutely imperative that it be something that answers WIIFM? question in a way that intrigues and entices the customer. Otherwise you’re just another voice yapping at them on TV or wherever, and your sales will reflect that lack of communication.

How Do You Get WIIFM? Answers?

There are many different ways to do this, but they will be contingent on your budget, a general impression of the kinds of people you think will be interested in the products or services you are offering, the price point, and service backup and the media you plan to use to sell your products or services.

A lot of larger advertisers spend some of their marketing budget on research, to ask prospects what their expectation is, and then fashion their marketing messages out of those insights.

A lot of entrepreneurial businesses tend to base their approach on the kind of personal experience that caused them to come up with the product or service in the first place. And that’s cool, depending of course on how unique or universal their particular experience was.

But one thing that cuts across all businesses when it comes to answering the WIIFM? question is simply this:

Most Businesses Cannot Do This Alone

Really getting to understand who your customers might be, how to attract them, and how to keep them is a big deal for all businesses. And only a relatively small percentage of them should ever try to do this on their own.

With the high level of importance attached to customer attraction and satisfaction, one of the smartest investments most businesses can making is in finding a trusted ally to help them build a customer profile and a customer retention program.

What You Should Look for In A Trusted Ally

Look for people who ask strategic questions before deciding on solutions. This means that they understand that there are no cookie cutter solutions and that every business comes with a unique set of challenges.

Look for experience and insights that have been developed through decades of management and marketing experience.

Look for a sense of commitment, and the feeling that your allies will do whatever it takes to make whatever needs doing a success.

Look for the objectivity because being’ outside of your corporate environment  is the only way this objectivity can exist.

Look for a sense of respect for your own insights and ideas. Because nobody knows more about their business than the people who own and manage it.

The Last Word

Relationships such as the one we are describing are, for the most part, powered by chemistry and by you feeling that you would be working with people who are genuinely committed to your cause.

Because building a business, conquering challenges and moving forward with real confidence in the people who are helping you get there is every bit as ‘personal’ as it is ‘business’.