Customers don’t give a damn about you, here’s why

Your customers just don’t give a damn…

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.

Harsh reality

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!