I was so thankful for the opportunity to participate with LaVonne in the first Customer Love challenge. I watched as an amazing group of people assembled under its banner and earnestly sought out how to make their customers love them.
But there was one point of confusion that I noticed among some participants (not all, but some). That point of confusion was who they were targeting.
Who SHOULD you be targeting? Your customers.
And what IS a customer? (Of course, I’m going to give you the answer.)
A customer is someone who pays for goods or services
Note the key word there: pays.
Before you continue one more day, you need to evaluate if the people you are targeting are customers or friends. Certainly, you should continue to build relationships with friends. And yes, friends can also BE customers. But unless you are targeting people who are going to pay you for a good or service, you’re missing the point of the Customer Love challenge.
CUSTOMER Love. 😉
Here’s some love for you:
The very fact that you are seeking out how to make customers love you instead of how to scam them makes you awesome in my book. It means that you are willing to do the hard work and engage as well as create something of value.
Yay for you!! (No sarcasm. Really! YAY FOR YOU!!!)
I want you to be able to avoid the pitfall that I saw a lot of people fall into last time. That pitfall was not providing a way for people to actually BE customers. I saw so many people pour into those around them but when the time came for the challenge to end, there was no avenue for those people to respond.
So I’m going to give you a magical formula for how to avoid that: SELL SOMETHING!
Really, it IS magical. You’ll be amazed at how money appears in your bank account.
Start now.
This is the first week of Customer Love. Even if you don’t have something at this very moment, you still have time left.
However, if you get to the end of the challenge and don’t provide something that gives people the opportunity to pay you money, then you aren’t providing a way for them to be your customer (thus missing the whole point).
- What is it that you are selling?
- What is it that you can provide for money?
- What service can you do that someone will pay for?
- How can people pay you?
Yes, they’re all basically the same question, but that’s the point.
Make sure that by the time you get to the end of this challenge, you have done two things:
- Made every effort for your customers to fall in love with you
- Made something for your customers to pay you for
You can do it.
In the event that this post scares you, stop being afraid. You are an amazing individual that knows things other people want to know! It’s true!! There are things you personally take for granted that someone is searching for on Google.
There are things that you can do better and easier than the person next to you.
You have something to sell. At worst, you only have a mental block to overcome. 😉
Go. Make your customers love you…but make sure you give them the ability to BE your customer.
What are you planning to sell on Day 29 [or soon thereafter]? Tell us in the comments below.
-
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Monette Satterfield, Yolanda A. Facio and David Crandall, LaVonne Ellis. LaVonne Ellis said: What Is A Customer? http://bit.ly/alSGx3 by @DavidCrandall #customerlove […]
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Kirsty Hall, Mary Havlicek, Mary Havlicek, LaVonne Ellis, David Crandall and others. David Crandall said: Anyone in #CustomerLove willing to help Kirsty with "swanky text boxes"? Opportunity to SHOW Customer Love; see comments http://su.pr/6ymvp7 […]
[…] What is a Customer? […]
[…] You remembered that part, right? Don’t say you weren’t warned. […]
Leave a CommentThis site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
That was a great post, David and yes, this is something that I’ve been struggling with even though I do have things people can buy.
Kirsty, thank you! I think it is something a lot of start-ups struggle with. That’s actually one of the reasons I wanted to introduce this concept early in the challenge so that people can be thinking about what it is they want to use to convert their audience to customers when the time comes.
I just looked at your blog and think you could enhance the “things people can buy” by highlighting them more. They disappear into your sidebar and are probably overlooked most often. Perhaps setting up a graphic of some kind to draw attention could be useful. I’d also recommend that you have something on your main page that draws attention to you artwork/classes.
If you are selling something, make sure people can see it. Don’t appear to be apologizing by letting it disappear. You’ve got some cool stuff going on and there are certainly people who would love to know it is there.
You’re awesome and I love that you are making the effort to focus on your customers. Keep rocking it!!
Yes, I know, I was just thinking about this today, in fact. Confession time: it’s because I haven’t learnt how to make swanky text boxes yet. I know, I know…
In my defence, I only started the selling side 5 months ago and I’m still very much in the ‘oh-shit-oh-shit-there’s-so-much-to-learn’ phase 🙂
And I absolutely agree that I need to highlight my art more. I’ve been thinking that for a while. Indeed, that’s one of the things I’m planning to do during Customer Love: I want to tell more art stories.
I’ve considered splitting the two business into two websites but I know myself and I know that I can’t maintain two blogs. I just cannot do it. I’ve tried and one of them always gets horribly neglected.
Let’s see if someone can help you. Just put out a call on Twitter. 😉
Kirsty, by swanky text boxes, are you talking about widgets? And by swanky, do you mean CSS styling of them? Just clarifying.
Have you thought about a MU umbrella so you could run two (or more) blogs at the same time much more easily?
I feel very strongly about all the bits of our Empire, but I also know that what was holding me back from moving forward was all the separate working.
We’re in the middle of the move now, thanks to the awesome, fellow-#customerlover Eugen Oprea (@EugenOprea), but already things are looking so much better, more possible, more easy.
A thought, in case you hadn’t already thunked it. 🙂
If you do decide to go for it, talk to Eugen. I believe he’s working on putting together a package to help people with the conversion. And, as I said, he’s awesome peeps.
Btw, I’d agree with the stop apologizing in general. You’re awesome, you do great work , you have terribly kyoot chickens whose delightful antics you share freely, so you’ve absolutely nothing to apologize about, in my not-particularly-humble opinion. 🙂
Ya! What Birdy said!
Ack! I haven’t even officialy signed up for the challenge! I’m still participating on the rogue 🙂
You’re right about having something to offer. While I’ve got my regular services to offer, maybe it’s time to start thinking up something special – with sprinkles on top!
I would definitely by working on something. In fact, I believe that once we put our business foot forward, we need to always be thinking and working on our next product.
You should totally commit to yourself and sign up for the challenge. Great people here, but they need to know you are there. 😉
Oh, and certainly start making something with sprinkles!!!! 😀
OK I signed up – there!
Sprinkles are in process!
Yay! *doing a happy dance*
SCORE!
Gotta be honest, if you come out with a product named Sprinkles, I’m gonna crack up. 😉
Love your post, David! I think a lot of people have trouble with this concept. For those of us not born and bred as salespeople it can feel *weird* to sell. It helps me to think about how what I’m offering can help or enhance someone’s life. So I’m not pushing something ONTO them, but providing something of value that they want or need.
Which is, of course, what Customer Love is all about! 🙂
I have lots of stuff for sale now, though like Kirsty I have a lot to do to make it more visible and easy to buy! (Researching WordPress shopping cart solutions right now to be able to sell my artwork… Ugh, such a lot of choices.. Anyone have one they love?)
At the end of the 29 days, I’m hoping to have for sale:
– my Sandbox Sessions (still need a proper sales page, and some kind of swanky graphic link to it in my sidebar)
– a 1.0 version of my Thriving Artists Project
– my fine art prints and original paintings, with “buy now” functionality!
This is an ambitious list, especially given that I’m having knee surgery next Friday (and oh, yeah, I have to keep my existing clients happy and pay my bills!) and I’m going to be gentle with myself if I don’t get everything done. But that’s the goal!
Hopefully my Sandbox Sessions will help keep me on track, too. 🙂
I’m loving Customerlove!
Hi David,
Great post. Although I did not get my ebook finished last time, I made the decision to turn my blog into a business only blog and I think it’s better for it.
If anyone needs any writing or proofreading help, I’m here and will do what I can!
I’m not selling anything yet, but hope to be by the end of the challenge!