I’ve been having discussions lately with early stage startups, companies in sports and entertainment, nonprofits, and a bunch of other industries.
Let’s just say, I’ve talked to people across the gamut of industry of late.
They all have a pretty decided POV about what their company is, in some case well deserved. In others, not so much.
I’ve heard:
“We are in real estate.”
“We are in technology.”
“We are in science.”
On and on it goes.
The thing is that for almost all of us, we are in the marketing business.
And, our customer is a person. Not an outcome.
Sure, we might need to accumulate enough relevant outcomes to justify our existence, but on the whole…we are in the people business.
Think about some of the worst examples of bad behavior in business:
Look at how government treats people when they need a driver’s license.
Look at the way the cashier at the grocery store is indifferent to the people in line.
Think about the long lines to get into a baseball game that is less than half full.
What messages do those send to your customers?
They send the message that: “We don’t care. If you come in, fine! But don’t expect me to be excited that you are keeping me in business.”
But the reality is, for most of our businesses today, the level of competence is pretty standard or pretty decent in most cases.
The challenge becomes for all us, how do we stand out?
We don’t do it by caring less.
We do it by caring more and remembering that the kid in the 7th row isn’t just another number, but a real person that we may be able to sway into a long term customer. Not just another data point.