How do you decide what model of car to buy, which cellphone, which book to take to the beach?
You ask your friends.
You might also ask a stranger who is carrying the product you’re thinking of buying, but you’re more likely to value the advice of a friend.
Why?
Because they know you. They know what you like, and what you need, almost better than you know it yourself.
If you have a great product or service you believe in, you should already know your customer as well as their best friend does. You know why they need your product. You know they’ll love it. Now you have to get them to trust you.
Do – Get excited. If you can’t get excited about what you have to offer, your customers never will.
Do – Show how cool your product or service is, how it will help make your customer’s life better. Tell stories. Use real stories from customers if you can. Show a need and how your product fills it.
Don’t – Be afraid to look uncool. This isn’t high school. Yes, people may still mock you for being excited about your product but they no longer have the power to ruin your life. Being thought uncool by people who are obviously not your customer, will not hurt you. Inspiring apathy in your customer base, however, will kill your business.
Don’t – Describe what’s going on under the hood. (OK, maybe describe how your product or service works. But put it in a Frequently Asked Question section, near the back of your brochure, off the front page of your site. Have it available for people who are almost ready to buy and need an extra reassurance. But don’t put it up front. Few people care how their car works. They care that it is reliable and will get them from A to B, preferably in style).
My house needed a new furnace and air-conditioning system. I care about the environment and wanted the most efficient system I could afford. I assumed that would be the most expensive and started talking to the heating guy about the top-of-the-line models. He frowned thoughtfully, looked around my house and said that honestly, in this size of house, the middle-of-the-range model would work better. He billed me less, but earned my trust and you can bet that all my neighbors (who have the same old furnace I had) now know the name of ‘my’ heating guy.