Yesterday I visited the Institute of Chicago Art Museum to celebrate a friend’s birthday. It was my first visit and I was fascinated by the different styles of art – impressionist, french, american gothic, etc.
What was more fascinating to me though were the other visitors…and what they seemed to enjoy…or not. Some people seemed to really enjoy the Lichenstein collection. Others “oohed and aahed” over the American Gothic painting. While others seemed to spend a lot of time by the stained glass exhibit. I observed that when the visitors were disinterested in a piece of art, they just kept moving, checking out the next room or exhibit and never looking back.
This reminded me of our buyers. While our solution might offer many different types of ‘art’ (features), our buyers are going to find some more fascinating than others. They are going to want to spend more time discussing, reviewing, and enjoying some features more than others. And if we don’t pay attention and make what and how we communicate relevant, we quickly lose their interest and they move on to something or someone that does.
If you are explain what your solution is and does the same way every time I can assure you that you are not making it relevant for each buyer.
How do we make our product interesting to each buyer? By knowing what is important and interesting to them–by making all we share with them relevant TO them. To do this:
- Research your buyer and company to identify what might be interesting to them. Is it profitability, community engagement, new markets, shareholder returns, etc.?
- Ask questions of the buyer to find out what is important to them. If they don’t find the specific components of your solution interesting, don’t bore them with those details.
- Gauge their reaction to the information you share by asking for feedback. If you pay attention, they will let you know what is and isn’t relevant and interesting.
- Listen to how they communicate – do use thinking/factual words such as analyze, review, “I think”, process or do they use feeling words such as “I like that”, “I feel that”, or who? Then adjust the way you explain your information in words and phrases that mean something to them.
When your information and solution is relevant, your buyer will pay attention and ‘ooh and ahh’ with you.
How about you? What do you do make your communication relevant to your different buyers? Leave a comment to start this conversation so that I know what is interesting and relevant to you!
p.s. In case you are wondering, my personal favorite artwork in the whole museum were some of the Monet garden pieces – they take me to Giverny when I saw them first hand and marveled at how accurate Claude Monet captured the ‘feel’ of the place.
