I spent last week at my favorite resort, Rancho La Puerta, and was inspired to write this newsletter, “Show Me You Know Me.” If you’ve ever been to “the Ranch,” you’ll have felt the deep level of personalized service. And your customers want the same experience! Read the newsletter for my thoughts on today’s key competitive advantage: differentiating your customers.
Read the newsletter: Show Me You Know Me
What are your customers doing when your marketing or sales messages show up in their lives? Sitting there waiting, minds clear, all prepared to devote their full attention to what you have to say?
Of course not!
Any time your customers encounter your marketing or sales messages, you can be sure that they already have a deep, rich, personal narrative happening in their minds. Your challenge: Become part of that story without interrupting it. Have a look at today’s newsletter, Don’t Knock Her Story Out Of Her Hands.
Imagine this … one of your customers is speaking with a friend, and suddenly notices that the friend should also be your customer. After witnessing this opportunity, what does he do? Recommend you, or let the opportunity pass by?
Check out today’s newsletter, Will your customers be witnesses for you?
Please share your comments … are your customers witnesses for you? Do you ever serve as a witness for others, noticing business opportunities for them?
What’s my answer when somebody asks me for 3 Tips for Better Customer Conversations?
You don’t want to miss these tips… they can help you improve your conversations today.
Read the newsletter: “3 Tips for Better Customer Conversations“
Which organization is likely to go out of its way for customers, a for-profit business in a very competitive marketplace, or a government bureaucracy charged with catching bad guys?
It depends.
It depends on the individual employees who are interacting with customers. It’s about the people, not the institution.
Read a story in today’s newsletter that shows how close enough for government work can sometimes be closer than you might think … as long as an individual person takes the initiative to look out for the customer.
Do you ever have trouble transitioning a conversation into a sales conversation? Steve’s latest newsletter encourages you to practice “The Gentle Turn” when talking with prospective clients.
Not the Bat Turn.
Read the newsletter: “The Gentle Turn: From Not Selling to Selling”
Steve has a very interesting newsletter today about What businesses can learn from non-profits. His list of six takeaways include defining results as “What’s at stake,” and striving for win-win situations with customers and partners. Yastrow & Company has worked extensively with non-profits, so it’s exciting to bring some of our insights to our readers.
So what do you think? Has your business learned anything from the non-profit world? If you are with a non-profit, what else do you think the business world can learn from you?
Read the newsletter: What businesses can learn from non-profits
Steve writes in today’s newsletter, Sales Conversations: Earning the right to be heard, “The first thing we need to do, if we want customers to listen to us, is to earn the right to be heard.”
This solution is part empathy and part smart selling – if we want our customers to listen to us, we must first listen to them and learn what they care about. We know this as a general rule, but how many of us earn the right to be heard each and every time we talk with a customer or prospect?
Get some sales inspiration. Read today’s newsletter, Sales Conversations: Earning the right to be heard.
Steve’s newsletter today, Sales Pitch? Sales Conversation, is a call-to-arms for real, human selling. Replace your sales pitches with sales conversations, and you will be a more successful salesperson (even if you don’t think you can sell).
Steve writes, “Any time you are giving a sales pitch, you will be better off with a sales conversation. Anytime. No exceptions.”
Don’t you want to read more?
Read today’s newsletter: Sales Pitch? Sales Conversation.
Imagine you are in a conversation with a customer, and there is something you really want to say, but you can’t find a way to fit it in the conversation.
What should you do?
Change the subject so you can say it?
Raise your hand to get your customer’s attention?
Write it on your palm so you don’t forget it?
My answer: Leave it in your pocket. Don’t say it, because your customer won’t hear it anyway.
Have a look at today’s newsletter, Sales tip – Leave things in your pocket.
"When Steve Yastrow writes, I pay close attention"
- Tom Peters
"I had to buy two copies. The first one is so dog-eared and underlined I couldn't read it any longer."
- Seth Godin
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In addition to writing, I spend most of my work time helping companies unleash their potential by creating better connections with their customers. This happens through my speaking events and through Yastrow & Company consulting engagements, where my team and I help companies figure out who they intend to be in the future, and then engage the entire company in creating that future through strong "We" customer relationships.
Before starting Yastrow & Company in the mid-90s I was vice-president of resort marketing for Hyatt Hotels. My experiences in the hotel business showed me clearly that most marketing doesn’t happen in the marketing department. Customers are paying attention to all interactions with a company, not just the promises made in traditional "marketing communications."
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