Day 9: Who Are You?

We’re in round two of Customer Love. You’re reading this on a site called MakeCustomersLoveYou.com. You’ve read seven different authors expound on how to get customers to love you. The project was inspired by a post by Naomi Dunford called Make Them Love You.

But we’ve been ignoring one very important question.

Who are you?

It’s not as simple as it sounds. If I say I’m a delight specialist, that’s just what I do – it doesn’t speak to other parts of me. If I say I’m a husband and a father, I’m defining myself in terms of my relationships with other people – not a bad definition, but not the whole picture. If I say I’m a Classicist, I’m telling you what I know – but not necessarily who I am.

One of the classic exercises in small-business marketing is to imagine your ideal customer or client in as much detail as you possibly can. The idea is to create a character that you can talk to – addressing blog posts and mailing-list emails to them, targeting products and offerings to them, and the like.

Your task today is to turn that exercise on its head. Instead of imagining your ideal customer, imagine yourself. Write down as much about your public face as you possibly can. (I’ll again refer to Naomi and say that ideally, this is who you actually are at 110% intensity.) Make a list. Draw a picture. Do whatever you need to to create as good an image as you can of yourself.

Love starts with the self

Now that you know who you are, take another look at what you’re doing for your clients. Does it reflect the you that you’ve just imagined? Can your clients tell who you are from what you do? Or are they reflective of something that doesn’t quite fit the image you just created? Are the actions that you’re taking to get your customers to love you actually making them love you – or just someone who kind of looks like you?

By defining yourself, you give your clients and customers something – someone – to embrace and latch onto. The better they know you, the more they can love you – and the better you know yourself, the more you know about how you can love them back.

Photo credit