Thanks Howard for that funny story.
Howard was a furniture man for decades – watching the rise and fall of Industry Giants throughout his career. One day he told us a story about a Dog Food Manufacturer and how they did what many were doing in the Furniture Industry. The Dog Food Manufacturer would go to their focus groups and gather wonderful and exciting information about what the Dog Owners wanted, and then they’d go back to their labs and create the most perfect, nutritious, “new & improved” dog food imaginable. Then they advertised, sent out thousands of dollars of samples and then they waited for the sales to ROLL in … but after a while, they noticed they weren’t rolling in at all. Oops, they realized they forgot to answer the most fundamental question: “Would the dogs eat it?”
I remembered his story after reading “10 Points to Better Posts”, “6 Tips to Get More Readers” and “How to Optimize your Keywords to Get more Bloggers”.
The advice “should” make me and my fellow bloggers a lot of “¢cents¢”, and these articles definitely make a lot of “sense”. But, I’m cautious – will it fit into my Alternative Marketing Theory about Reality Shows – (superior skill level, authenticity, resonance and likeability)?
No, I don’t think these articles will help as much as they’re meant to because I believe if I did all those things, it would be an exercise in OVERTHINKING!
Our website exists because we have developed a USP (our niche, or unique selling position). We want to introduce ourselves to women who are like us – who want to be the best they can be, and live life to its fullest. And if that’s what Alie James stands for, then we always need to be who we say we are – authentic, approachable, and without gimmicks.
Over the last ten years, I found that the best way to sell furniture is to “not try and sell furniture”, but to “try and sell myself”. I was given a great insight about successful salespeople by a colleague of mine. He said that successful sales people “sell best” to “their” customer – meaning – they find the people they can best relate to – in a natural, friendly conversationally way. That insight reveals why some people are more successful than others in sales – it’s because they are meeting more people during the day that they relate to and who trust them.
That’s exactly what we hope will happen during your visit with us – we hope you’ll like what we have and be able to trust us. That is relationship building … building a nation, so to speak.
So please, introduce us to the folks in your life that are most like you. If you like us, then I’m sure they will, too. That’s how we’ll build “Wings” (our Community). Our Community is going to be filled with like-minded Women, who want to make life simple, beautiful and complete.
Please …
