The secret behind all and any advertising being successful is getting to know your Customer!

Simple? Yes

Easy? Sure!

Often missed? ABSOLUTELY!

Most advertisers spend a lot of time talking about :” The Wonder Of Being Me!”. They discuss how long they have been in business, where they came from, how much they know, how wonderful they are, the awards they have achieved etc etc etc.

But ya know what. Your Customer doesn’t give a hoot about that stuff. They care about what THEY care about.

So… What do they care about?

I don’t know. It’s different for every product and service.

That’s your job to find out. You need to identify who your customer is and really get to know them. Really identify who they are, what their pain is and whet their REAL desires are.

If you just said “Well John, that seems great, but all of my Customers are different.” Then you have a bigger problem.

You need to identify and segment your Customers into related groups. If you are selling a great hand cleaning soap, your customers should be anyone with hands.

But go deeper than that… look at the niches. Perhaps one would be Moms. One might be Automobile Machine shops. One might be Hospital employees.

You need to identify those niches and then create marketing that will speak to them, in their words, solving their problems, eliminating their pains.

Get to know your customers, deeply know them. The future of your business depends on it!

Trust is something that’s earned. It’s not bought, negotiated, forced, or connived. Once you forfeit that trust in your relationship, it’s over. You have to start at the very beginning to win back that trust – and even at that it may be a losing cause.

I was just reading an article and I’ll copy it here… I think it explains the trust issue as well as I could, probably even better!

This really is a hinge pin to the sale!

Please comment below and talk to me about trust.

How have you won it?

What caused you to lose trust in other companies?

Let’s learn from our and their mistakes!

John
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The One Thing That Changes Everything
By Alexander Green

One indispensable quality affects every relationship in your life.

It holds together all your associations. It determines whether you realize your dreams, both personal and professional.

And it virtually defines you to others. Without it, true success is impossible.

Stephen M.R. Covey is even more emphatic. He writes:

“There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy, and civilization throughout the world — one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love.

“On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. Yet, it is the least understood, most neglected, and most underestimated possibility of our time.

“That one thing is trust.”

Simply put, trust is confidence. It is other people feeling good about relying on you.

And its value can hardly be overstated. Trustworthiness is the universally accepted test of good character.

When you trust someone, you have confidence in his honesty and abilities. You can delegate things easily and effectively. You can relax. You have peace of mind.

But when you doubt someone’s integrity, question his accomplishments, or worry about his agenda, confidence is replaced by suspicion and anxiety.

Take a moment and picture someone you trust implicitly. It could be a spouse, a parent, a sibling, a friend, or a business associate. How does this relationship make you feel? How easily do you communicate? How quickly do things get done?

Now imagine someone you distrust. How does this relationship feel? How easily do you communicate? Do you enjoy this relationship? Or is it complicated, cumbersome, and draining?

The difference between a high-trust and low-trust relationship is night and day. In a high-trust relationship, you can say the wrong thing and your listener still understands you. In a low-trust relationship, you can choose your words carefully, be very precise, and you may still be misunderstood.

Sadly, trust is at an ebb in our society. A Harris poll reveals that only 27 percent of Americans trust the government. Only 22 percent trust the media. Only 12 percent trust big companies. And only 8 percent trust political parties.

Personal trust is waning, too. Many people look back on contracts or commitments as something to negotiate. Half of all marriages end in divorce. Many (perhaps most) founder on a lack of trust.

We naturally gravitate away from individuals we can’t believe or rely on and towards those we can. Low trust is the very definition of a bad relationship. And once you forfeit someone’s confidence, it’s awfully hard to win it back.

This is particularly true in business.

We all survive by selling a product, service, or skill. Yet every sale has five basic obstacles: no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust.

If trust is lacking, forget the other four. You’re done. The moment someone suspects your motives, everything you do becomes tainted.

That’s why successful companies make a priority of building and maintaining confidence. John Whitney, Professor Emeritus of Management at Columbia Business School, estimates that mistrust doubles the cost of doing business.

You may have the best product, great service, competitive pricing, mountains of supporting facts and figures, and testimonials galore. But if you don’t command and deserve trust, you will not enjoy long-term success.

It is never enough to simply invite trust. It must be earned.

In personal relationships, that means handling responsibility, proving your credibility, allowing yourself to be relied upon again and again. It’s not just about integrity. It’s about looking out for the other person’s interests as well as your own.

Employers build trust with employees by assigning them important responsibilities, giving them the freedom to make mistakes, and setting an example. Real leadership is about getting results in ways that inspire confidence.

In a world that changes as quickly as ours, trust is a critical factor. It is the vital currency.

Business consultant Tom Peters calls trust “the issue of the decade.” Trust makes work easier and more productive. It makes relationships stable and predictable. It creates a sense of community.

That’s why it’s crucial that we not violate it. Trust can take years to build but only a moment to destroy. And you may not even get an opportunity to try to restore it.

For each of us — and for every organization — trust is something to be built up, protected, valued, cherished, and carefully preserved.

It is the one thing that changes everything.

[Ed. Note: Alex Green is the author of The Secret of Shelter Island: Money and What Matters, as well as the editor of "Spiritual Wealth," a free e-letter about the pursuit of the good life.]

This article appears courtesy of Early To Rise, a free newsletter dedicated to making money, improving health and secrets to success. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.earlytorise.com.