Marketing Philosophy

I’ve been told by many retailers that they prefer to hire employees who can sell, but haven’t worked selling their product category before. Their sales tend to be better right after they start for a simple reason: they are as much of an outsider as the customer. Marketers face a similar dilemma; the challenge is to understand what the customer cares about, then convince them why they should buy from your company. It sounds simple enough, but when you are surrounded by industry insider jargon it is incredibly difficult to forget what you know and think like a customer.

“Tell me why I should care” should be the mantra of every marketer, but do so in a compelling way. Is the product an incredible value? How will it make life easier / better / more stylish / happier? It’s very hard to realize that selling a product is not really about the product, but about how the product solves the customer’s problems.