Hi

What do your clients think of you?

Do they like you?

What do you think of your clients?

Do you like them?

Is it important?

Just before I went back to University in 1993 I did two years Post Grad studies in Marketing and Communication, and over the past few weeks something from back then has come to the front of my mind and I’m looking at my business, and my life, with fresh eyes.

Here’s my thoughts . . .

The sales process is a triangle, at the corners you find:

• The buyer

• The seller

• The product

For the process to be successful the buyer must ‘like’ the seller and the product – if there’s dissonance the sale will fail.

Even though the buyer likes the product, they may not buy because they dislike the seller.

However, if they love the product enough, they’ll adapt their view of the seller and find good points about them, enough to feel comfortable about buying from them.

Equally, if the buyer likes the seller enough, they’ll find something in the product to please them and they’ll buy.

OK so far?  - In life this is all going on subconsciously, we don’t tend to analyse it – but we call it a ‘gut’ feeling.

Now as a seller, to be at my best I must like my product (Yes!!! I love what I do) and I must like the buyer too.

If I don’t like my buyer, and that dislike is intense enough, my work may be less than my best. And, yes, I confess, in retrospect, I feel it has happened, but I certainly wasn’t aware of it at the time.

So? Where am I going with this?

Well, for all my lifetime, marketing philosophy and psychology was developed around for larger companies, probably because they pay for the research.

So, in the hope of squaring the triangle, so to speak, big business tries to diminish the impact of the employee’s personality and develop a ‘corporate’ personality for the buyer to interact with, for the buyer to ‘love’ so they’ll be happy to buy product.

You buy a burger from ‘McDonalds’ not the guy who serves you, he doesn’t even speak English anymore, he speaks ‘McDonaldese’ . . . have a nice day!!! . . . go large???

As big corporations have become blander and blander in the hope of not upsetting any potential buyer they’ve also become nondescript me too, me too, same old, same olds, too!

Now, look at your friends, or work colleagues, I bet they’re a quirky bunch of individuals – I know mine are.

But, if their defining comment were a vacuous “Because you’re worth it!” would they remain friends for long?

Unfortunately, lots of small businesses and one (wo)man bands have been suckered-in by same bland, offensively-inoffensive personality free mantra, and here’s their, your, and my, dilemma:

1. Should we try and ‘out-bland’ the competition to win as many clients as possible – or

2. Should we exploit our ‘personality’ and try for clients who like our product, and like us too – or

3. Should we go for the full set and only accept clients who like us, like what we do and whom we like in return.

I’ve thought about this over the past few weeks and I’ve decided -  

I’m going for C!

I’ll be happier, my work will be better, so my clients will like me, which will make me even happier, so my work will get even better, so my clients will like me even more and my life, and my business, will get better and better and better - well, that’s the theory.

So, as a first stage I’m aiming to introduce as much of my personality as I can into my website – using video pitches.

I’ve got them on the following pages so far:

http://www.alan-howarth.com/corporate-video.html
http://www.alan-howarth.com/corporate-event-photography.html
http://www.alan-howarth.com/corporate-portrait-photography.html

And I’ve got another page, that tells you about them, and why you should let me produce them for you: http://www.alan-howarth.com/video-elevator-pitch.html

OK, that’s it - feedback on any of the above would be interesting.

If you would like to talk about corporate photography or corporate video – call me

Let’s start a conversation – and let’s see if we like each other!

Best

Alan