The scrunched up nose danger of the upsell or cross-sell
November 17, 2010Build authority and trust with your customers by talking about your industry 'Warts and all'
November 19, 2010Build authority and trust with your customers by talking about your industry ‘Warts and all’
Have you ever heard the phrase ‘Warts and all’?
What it means is: ‘Tell me everything and don’t leave out the less appealing bits’.
The origin is attributed to Oliver Cromwell when he was sitting having his portrait painted back in 1660. You can read an account of how the phrase came into origin here. I thought it was interesting but maybe that’s just me 🙂
Now, you may be asking yourself: What has this got to do with business and growth and customers and all of that other good stuff.
Well, here’s what I believe.
There are many industries that are seen, by their customers, as being:
- Wolves in sheep’s clothing (hence the image above)
- Expensive
- Unreliable
- Bad at service
- Confusing
- etc etc
Note: Please forgive the mixing of two metaphors here it’s just that I thought they worked well together to illustrate my point.
However, I think that, for someone in that industry or local market, it offers an opportunity to build trust and authority. How? Well, I think that just because a customer has some concerns about your industry does not mean that they do not want to buy your product or service. They just want someone (you?) to step up and assuage their concerns (I wrote a comment recently on this issue across at Guy Stephens blog on his post Social customer care: Random thoughts on complaining and ‘real-time’). Whether, this is through your website, your blog, your marketing material, your white papers, the words that your customer service and sales people speak or other areas it doesn’t matter but it’s up to you to take their concerns away and when you do this you will build trust and authority in the minds of your customers.
For example:
- If you sell used cars then maybe your customers fears are about reliability, warranties, car history, the hard sell and service. If so, then write about that and address those fears directly.
- If you sell software systems and your customers worry about integration, training and that they will be buying a Rolls Royce when all they need is a Mini. If that’s the case then talk about that.
- If you sell….whatever. Address your customers fears and concerns. Talk about your industry ‘warts and all’ and you will build trust, authority and increase their likelihood that they will buy again and again from you.
Do you have ‘warts’ in your industry? Could you build trust and authority by talking about your industry ‘warts and all’?
17 Comments
Build authority and trust with your customers by talking about your industry ‘Warts and all’ http://bit.ly/cOa9xA
RT @adrianswinscoe: Build authority and trust with your customers by talking about your industry ‘Warts and all’ http://bit.ly/cOa9xA
RT @adrianswinscoe: Build authority and trust with your customers by talking about your industry ‘Warts and all’ http://bit.ly/cOa9xA
Thanks! Your info was the most helpful and thorough out of the dozen or more sites I went to.
Hi Chet,
Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment.
Hope to see you here again soon,
Adrian
Making customer service as transparent as possible in my view is the most effective way to deal with business hiccups. We all understand that there can be problems, concerns and complaints the key lies in how we deal with them. Do we become defensive or take a proactive role and address them openly. As you said Adrian there are so many ways of doing this “weather through your website, your blog, your marketing material and white papers.
Staff are more likely to feel empowered and deal with sensitive issues if you hit them head on rather than putting your head in the sand. By showing room for improvement you’re showing that your company is growing and taking any hiccups seriously.
Hi Wendy,
I think this is a great point and one that many companies would benefit from doing more of, particularly, if that is where their customers have the most concerns.
One of the things that I was trying to suggest is that no industry or company is perfect and whilst some may be good at customer service their customers may have concerns in other areas. This then should be the area that they should be focusing on rather than relying on their strengths to get them through. This is one way that they can make themselves look and feel more human and like you say take their heads out of the sand and at the same time build trust and authority.
Thanks for your comment,
Adrian
Adrian,
People observe the world through their vantage point: they select data (could be anything) that appeals to them, they add meaning to that data, they make assumptions about the data, they draw conclusions, and filter all that through their belief system. If you make it through the filter you are trusted.
I think by exposing the ‘warts” you have a better chance to get to the filtering stage, which is one rung away from the top of latter where the customer is viewing you. The closer you are to seeing the world at the same vantage point as the customer, the more authority you have.
I think YES!
My .02
RT @adrianswinscoe: Build authority and trust with your customers by talking about your industry http://bit.ly/902z1l
Hi Bill,
Thanks for your comment. As always you add value to the post with your insight. I like the idea that we filter the world through our belief system reminds of the concept of the identity iceberg. Do you know it?
Adrian
Adrian,
I am not familiar with the concept of identity iceberg. Please point me in the right direction…
Bill
Hi Bill,
Thanks for giving me a post idea……..How about I post something about this in the next few days?
How’s that sound?
Adrian
Perfect, look forward to it.
Bill
Thanks for the bonus history lesson on the origins of ‘warts and all’. We have become used to dressing the ‘warts’ in marketer’s clothing. Even ‘assuaging’, on one level, is in a sense still dressing something up, but perhaps in a more subtle way.
Perhaps it’s less about being transparent about the good, bad and ugly (what salesperson is truly impartial about their product, and their monthly commission?), and more about really understanding what it is your customers are wanting, and then ‘selling’ that in a more empathetic way?
Hi Guy,
I think you are right that by ‘assuaging fears’ we are still dressing up our flaws and foibles in some way. But, I think that we need to be realistic here and realise that is where we are at and that we need to build trust first and foremost. Once we build an initial level of trust I think then we will be in a better position to have that open and transparent conversation with our customers about what they really want and how we can deliver that.
Agree?
Adrian
Build authority and trust with your customers by talking about your industry ‘Warts and all’
http://ow.ly/3gEQU
Thanks a lot for that extremely cool post.