Oh, I know, it's so comfy in our soft swivel chairs behind a big wooden desk with a view out to the cars parked around the corporate headquarters. Here's where we feel confident of our positions in our careers.
We've made it. People will now listen to us.
Not so fast, Sparky.
If we are going to create passionate customers who keep buying, upgrading and renewing instead of cutting back, switching, leaving ... then we have to get into the conversation at the level of each customer.
I said a few days ago that we're really just storytellers. I think that's true. But stepping up a few feet higher, we're really teachers who tell stories. The more conversational that talk is the more likely we are to connect. Formal, high-fallutin ads mean less today that between-the-eyes, casual talk.
We need to be more like teachers than preachers. But if we talk like PhD academics with formal, stilted text and jargon, we will leave most of our prospects in the dust.
Teaching has its apex in grade school. That's where we learn the basics of life. After that it is just adding detail and style. The techniques used by grade school teachers are what we should be practicing every day when we make pitches to prospects.
I watch my daughter who teaches art to kids in grades 1 - 6. She gets down on their level. Physically. She's down on bended knees, looking them in the eyes and showing them how to create art they didn't believe they could create. They feel her passion and look forward to her class.
Why can't we capture this style when we are teaching our prospects about how our products address their needs and interests?
Get from behind our desks and down to their level where they can feel our passion, and better yet, take on our passion. It all starts with the word "you."
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