About Your Customer, AKA John Smith
 

Your Customer, AKA John Smith

Here is what you must understand about John Smith and this applies to every single buying situation you can ever imagine. Even in the future when all our money is electronic and we pay for thoughts and dreams to be automatically fed into our heads, this will apply. These are the underlying foundations of the Adult B2B marketing system:

? Human nature dictates that John Smith always wants to make the best decision; he wants the best deal ALWAYS.

? In the face of little or confusing information, John Smith will ALWAYS decide using what he DOES know.


Because of this, John Smith has competing emotions in every buying situation. He desires a good deal, but tends to be frustrated because he has very little information. In the face of that lack of information, John Smith will always be grasping for more, will inevitably be confused, and casting hopelessly about for something upon which to base his decision. Again, in the face of contradicting opinions, John Smith will have a skeptical or cynical view of salesmen and will be hypersensitive to what the sales staff says and immediately catch any disparities.

John Smith will fall back upon what he knows, forcing every situation to be judged upon previous buying experiences. In addition, there will be a strong reliance upon whatever information John Smith does have.

Now I could go on and on. But if you can understand those two principles, you can see how if you got that alone, it would allow you to build an accurate picture as to why John Smith buys what John Smith buys. Because everything can be derived from those principles, everything else is just details. So you can go to any business in any country, in any industry, and get a clear picture of John Smith in a short period of time.

Just to finish the thought, here are two tactical executions of those principles; two ways you can DO this:

? Discover the best deal. Check around to know what the best deal is. See what other companies offer, see what choices there are. Shop the competition; know what decisions have to be made by John Smith.

? Know what information is getting to John Smith. Look at the advertising, see the various messages. Listen to different sales pitches, get an all around picture as to what John Smith has to work with.


Doing those two things will allow you to take advantage of the two foundational principles and will make you a better marketer. And it is easy and simple. As General Patton would say, ?Success in war depends on speed, simplicity and boldness.? These tactics are just that ? fast, easy, and bold. Do it!


This article and the ones to follow in the GFY Educational Series were previously published as part of a marketing system that Adult B2B Marketing has full copyright approval to republish. For more information contact Adult B2B Marketing.

More information = good.

Everything in the world can be labeled buying and selling. Some people ask, "Well if no exchange of money takes place, is it still buying/selling?"

Well, you can barter something. Let's say you trade shoes for a hat. That's bartering.

Let's say you have a good conversation, but no money was exchanged. A good conversation has some value. I mean some people pay $100+ to take a class in college to have some smart conversations. Here's a tip: you can get your smart conversations for free.

Reminded me of the old adage:

"To sell John Smith what John Smith buys, you've got to see John Smith through John Smith's eyes"

or

"If you want to know why John Smith buys what John Smith buys, you’ve got to see the world through John Smith’s eyes."

Thanks for the post sire.

Nice read.

My pleasure!

Nice stuff! Thx for sharing man!

thanks) Nice article...More Information is always good...

Very good post will.

nice read . very educational. learnt a lot . thank you very much. looking forward to listening a lot from you.

Thanks Bruce. It is good to re-organize the knowledgment in our head and see the point.

That is true.

Very good article. I like the fact that you emphasized evidence gathering vs. opinion gathering. The worst marketing advice I ever got was to ask the customer what he wants -- you must instead observe what he does. Most of the time, he is incapable of the honest self analysis to answer the question accurately.

For example, if you employ a sales staff and ask directly what they want, they will often tell you More Money (or a bigger house, nicer car, or something else More Money will bring them). But, if you observe most salesmen, what they're really after is Easier Money. You know this by observing the fact that they reach their goal, celebrate, then coast. If you provide a way to make Easier Money, a few may take the opportunity and run with it, but most will reach their goal or comfort zone and be happy. Then, when times get tough and they have to work harder to make the same money, they will inevitably resent you and sometimes abandon ship.

so so true!

got it earlier but effective reminder....

nice read, tnx

Thank you. For the first posts and the some of the follow on ones. They make a lot of sense. I had not thought of this and was always asking what people wanted. I can see I have some work ahead of me!

nice
 

Thank you for your post

I feel like this is so vague. You'd be better off looking into the specific reasons why people make irrational decisions, and the sales / marketing tactics that can manipulate them.

Some of my favorite guides:

"Predictably Irrational" by Dan Ariely
"Influence" by Robert Cialdini
"The Psychology of Human Misjudgment" by Charlie Munger
"Triggers" by Joe Sugarman

Interesting read, thank you:)

Wow, this is fucking fantastic:D

Very interesting reading and thank you.

Thanks a lot man for all this killer post

Sick thread, you're the best

Thank you for posting this, it's awesome!

awesome!
 

:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup:thumbsup:thum bsupso so so fucking true! thanks dude. is a very good post

Nice writings!

Nice article

Great article but it not must be necessary true for each case.

Generally, if you will ask a good marketer what is most important a price or added value, then almost in every case you will hear the same thing, the added value. But from the other side, still many customers choose products which are cheaper than products of their market competitors.

So does this mean that most marketers are not good marketers? I think that we should learn the general customer model on the market to which we are targeting our product. Moreover, you can not reach every John Smith because, in each case, the product / service which you are selling have also some limitations and it will be not to possible to fit it to every John Smith even if you perfectly know his needs :)

Good article..

reminds me of the old saying:

" If you don't listen, you don't sell"

Absolutely fantastic!

thanks for sharing your valuable knowledge!

Great stuff! Thank you!

Another great post

nice one yo :thumbsup

Nice read, thanks!

Thanks for this

fun read thanks

You don't know how to read, thanks.