Shut up about yourself and put yourself in your customer’s shoes.
That’s it.
For those who haven’t figured it out, it can be hard to ‘get’. For those that have, it can become tedious reminding the other half – or even worse getting approached by all sorts of people who want to tell you all about themselves.
Think of all of the brochures, e-mails, and ads we see every day. They’re so keen to tell you about what THEY do, and what’s so good about THEM, that telling you how YOU are going to benefit is an afterthought, if it happens at all!
What’s put a bee in my proverbial headwear about this particular topic?
Well, as you may have guessed, I just got another such approach. It was from a (possibly young and inexperienced) individual, rather than a company who should have known better – so that mitigates things a *little* bit.
Here’s the letter (e-mail):
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23 February 2006
Hi Steven, my name is <name removed>,
I am a qualified photographer and make-up artist; I have assisted top New Zealand professional photographers and also worked in a Portrait studio and in photographic labs.
I also have good photoshop skills.
I am currently in Sydney but moving to Melbourne on the 6th of March to further my career in the photographic industry.
If you are interested and are in need of an employee or assistant who is friendly, enthusiastic, hardworking and experienced in the field.
Please email me and we can set up a time to meet.
Attached is my CV.
Kind Regards
<name removed>.
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What’s more, I got two copies, from different e-mail addresses, within two hours of each other. Which just adds to the whole vibe that this person is more concerned with what we (the multitude of recipients), can do for them; than what they can do for us.
Note also how I have to call them if I’m interested.
To this person’s credit, they have addressed me by name (rather than something hideous like ‘Dear sir/madam’). They do get one point for that.
Really, it’s not my plan for this blog to become a massive whinge forum for me. I’m just trying to help – although I suppose the irony is, if someone cared enough to read this, they probably already know marketing 101 🙂
In fact, next post, I’ll tell you about an approach that is still on my desk (not in the wastebasket) because it stood out for the right reasons.
Have a nice day!