Finola Howard 0:01
I'm Finola Howard, intuitive marketer, your host and founder of how great marketing works, I believe that every business has a story to tell, because that's how the market decides whether to buy or not, and your story has to resonate with who you are and with the people you want to serve, and this podcast is about helping you reach the market in a way that feels right to you. So if you're an entrepreneur with a dream you want to make real, then this is the podcast for you, because great marketing is your truth shared in this episode, I'm exploring another area I'm really passionate about, and that is customers. I'm sad to say that in over 25 plus years of marketing, I've yet to meet a business who knows their customers well enough, and in this episode of your truth shared, I'm going to show you why you should get up close and personal with your customers. I hope you enjoy you've heard my other passion pieces around purpose, mission, vision. Now we're going to talk about a passion piece that is still around the marketing and an entrepreneurial perspective today is about customers and the importance of getting up close and personal with those customers, because I found over the years that there is this tendency to keep customers at arm's length, to point to them over there, as if they were other than us, to not get too close, even though getting that close can actually transform your business. This is a tendency, unfortunately, that is true for both small and large businesses, for solopreneurs and corporates, both types of businesses seem to keep their customers at arm's length. This is not very unique out there. This is very, very common, and it doesn't seem to change based on what kind of customer we are talking about. There's an equal tendency to other consumers as well as to other corporate clients. But when you do that, you never truly connect with your customers. You have an effect dehumanized them. And I often find myself wondering, what makes us so uncomfortable with getting up close and personal with our own customers, that we keep them at a distance, and it's not enough. It's just not enough to do the demographics. You know that tick box exercise of male, female, job title, income, bracket, profession, the easy stuff. It's just not enough to do that. The real insights come when you tap into how they feel, what causes them pain, what brings them relief or even joy. You've got to put a coaching hat on. If your product or service is designed to solve a problem, then you've got to dig under the problem to understand the frustrations, the anxiety, the pain that this problem is causing, you've got to be a mirror for who they are so they can see that you see them and understand their perspective, because when your customers know you see them, you'll build a relationship that can transform both of you. If you stay on the surface, your results will stay on the surface. And let's face it, we can no longer make assumptions about customers. That's 1950 style customer profiling. When people are put in neat little boxes, never to peek outside of them. I often tell the story of a program I was delivering years ago where I'm sharing with the room that they can't make assumptions about their customers, and that our customers are not one dimensional. And so I think of the most bizarre juxtaposition of interests that they can talk about their customers. And I still remember saying, you know, your customer could be like a female librarian with tattoos who bungee jumps on the weekends. And then I see a hand being raised in the room, tentatively raised in the room. And this lady, Sheila, was her name, and I say, Yes, Sheila, do you have a question? And she replied, No, Finola, I just wanted to corroborate what you were saying about making assumptions they're often made about me, you know, because, you see, I am a female librarian with tattoos who bungee jumps on the weekends, and the room exploded with laughter, and I was suitably chastened, and I've never forgot it. So you see, when we stop making assumptions, we end up discovering new, something new about our customers, something that will deepen our relationship with them and open the door to finding out. More, and that's what we want to see, a way to open the door to find out more, and when we find out more, we can serve them better. So where do we start? I hear you say, and I'm just like, start with the obvious, and then just dig. You can actually start with those demographics. But you can't stop there. You keep digging until you get to how they feel, how they speak about their pain point, not how you translate that into your language, because the minute you start translating what they feel into language that makes you feel comfortable you've lost. You need their frustrations and anxieties expressed in their words, and they need to know you hear them. They don't want to be put into your nice, neat little box of assumptions about them. Give him or her a name. Now I'm being deliberate by saying him or her, it's never them. Well, in fact, sometimes it is them these days, isn't it, and I think back to the episode that we did with Thor a rain so give him or her or them a name, just not the them that is a large group of people, the them that is their identity. So yes, we want to target more than one person, but the minute you say the collective them, you've othered your customer, and you'll never get deep enough and start to explore what a typical day is like for him or her or them. What does he or she or them face during the day, face during the course of their day? What are the highs and the lows, and pay attention to the stuck points. Describe what happens. How do they feel? What do they want their world to look like instead of what it looks like now? What does transformation look like? And can you take them there? Let me give you an example from my own business and from my own programs, I want you to meet the real Marie. She's one of my favorite customers, and I'd like you to meet her. So Marie is an expert in her space. She's an entrepreneur who is really good at what she does. She knows she's making a difference to her clients, and she makes a good living doing it, but she knows she has the potential for more, perhaps something great, but she's never unlocked it. She doesn't feel like she's gotten the success that she's capable of, but she's ready for it now. She does feel like she's running out of time, and she's tired of being in that stuck place for so long. She's tired of people overtaking her, and she wants to make her mark, yet she feels anonymous. She knows she needs to get out there to market herself more, but she cringes at the thought everyone out there sounds the same, and she doesn't quite know how she's different. She knows she is but she doesn't know how to articulate it in a way that it lands with her customers. If she has to market herself, she wants it to feel like her. She also wants to deliver, to deliver results. The stuff she's tried before hasn't worked, even though she's doing everything right, as far as she can see, she's overwhelmed by it all, and it never and it always feels like it's never ending
Her transformation. She wants to move from knowing she was meant for more to seeing the dream for her business being realized. She wants to move from anonymity to owning her space. She wants to move from financially okay to financial abundance. She wants to move from being stuck doing everyday tasks to being free to live in her zone of genius doing the stuff she loves to do. That's the real Marie, and that's the transformational work I do with her on my programs. There is more to her story, but you get the idea you have to go deeper, and the deeper you dig, the better you can serve them and deliver on the transformation they seek, and in my opinion, that they deserve. And yes, you can have more than one customer, that's something I'm asked about all the time. Just make sure you profile each one independently. The interesting thing is that as you dig in each of these profiles, you'll actually start to see parallels between your different types of customers. There will be differences, but there'll be subtle similarities that are quite fundamental. All. So for example, in my case, the companies that I work with do have things in common with the real Marie. They too, know they have potential for more. They haven't quite unlocked their uniqueness, and they want their marketing to deliver results. But don't fall into the trap of grouping all your customers together. If you do, you'll miss the subtle differences that make all the difference. So yes, we know that there are commonalities, that there are patterns, but the thing we've got to remember is those subtle differences that make all the difference. Let me leave you with this thought. Get close, get personal, have a conversation with your customer. Don't speak, just listen, and that listening will make all the difference. If you'd like to find out more about how to do that, click on the link in the show notes for my signature program. SOAR to Significance. The doors are open now. Have a great day and reach out if you'd like to find out more. I hope you enjoyed that episode. Reach out and let me know your thoughts, what resonated and what you'd like to hear more on and if you'd like to support the show, please leave a five star rating and review on Apple podcast. It truly does help people find it, and we'll be back as usual next week, and until then, take care. You.
