Being Married to Your Customers, Part 1: A Lesson by Analogy - STA Tech Marketing - Branding and Marketing for Technology Companies

Being Married to Your Customers, Part 1: A Lesson by Analogy September 02, 2011, by Peter Mirus in Marketing

There is a good deal of humor surrounding the analogy between sales work and dating, and between customer relationship management and a marriage. The joke that applies immediately after the marriage ceremony is this: “Now, a lifetime of good customer service to ensure retention!”

The marketing/sales process is like a courtship—a romance, if you will—occurring between the company and its customers.

Boy meets girl

Think of the classic story: boy meets girl, and a romance begins. Let’s take the boy’s viewpoint. Within the romance, the boy (if he’s smart) tries to find out as much as he can about the girl. He scrutinizes her closely – who is this girl? What makes her tick? How can he endear himself to the girl in the most efficacious manner?

The boy finds out, as best he can, all he can about this girl. Now he puts on his proverbial thinking cap. He takes stock of what he has to offer, based on what this girl wants. He tries to figure out what he can change about himself to improve his chances.

So, this boy comes up with his checklist and starts to transform himself. Why? So one day, one memorable day (for better or for worse), he can ask that girl to marry him.

In my business, we refer to this as the “See, Transform, Act” model. The boy sees the girl, transforms himself for the girl, and then he acts!

Hopefully, she says yes… and then, as mentioned… a lifetime of customer service to ensure retention!

Possible courtship roadblocks

Now, obviously there is rarely such a thing as a simple romance, and rarely such a thing as a perfectly executed business plan. Various factors, many unexpected, introduce themselves along the way. Here are a few (still from the guy’s point of view):

The girl plays “hard to get”. You begin to execute a plan for finding out all about your customer, and the customer indicates interest. Yet, for some reason, you aren’t able to get the information that you need from the customer to move forward!

The girl doesn’t share all of your ideals. When the customer doesn’t share your ideals, you have to ask yourself if the relationship will feature enough points of compatibility.

The girl wants too much change. The customer likes you, but doesn’t like your product. How much transformation are you willing to undergo for the sake of the customer?

The girl doesn’t know what she wants. The customer knows they need something, but isn’t sure about what they need (but somehow knows enough to know what they DON’T need when they see it…which turns out to be practically everything.) But for some reason they still are interested in you.

Comparisons between marketing/sales and a courtship abound! But now, let’s move to consider the marketing/sales that takes place inside the marriage: customer relationship management.