This post is by Michael Pollock, the original owner of Small Business Branding. Yaro Starak now owns and produces the latest content for this blog.
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I’m putting the finishing touches on my 1000 word contribution to the 100bloggers project, and I welcome any feedback you’d care to give. I hope you’ll excuse the lack of any links in the text. Haven’t gotten to that yet.
Michael D. Pollock: The Connection is the Connection
When I’m not filling the pages of my weblog, smallbusinessbranding blog, I’m selling RVs – campers, motor homes, etc. – for a family-owned dealership here in rural Northeastern Connecticut. Including me, there are five full-time salespeople; two women and three men. The two women, Colleen and Carol, out-sell us men every year. In 2004, for example, Colleen sold about 50 more units than me. That adds up to just over one million dollars in additional revenue, and that’s a substantial number for a small-town, family-owned business.
I watch the women work, and I wonder what they do differently that makes them more successful than us men. They work hard, but so do we. They know their products well, but so do we. Granted, Colleen and Carol each have over 20 years more experience than me, but what about the other two men who’ve also been with the company for over 20 years? Why are they also out-sold by the women year after year? As you’ll see, the answer lies not in what they do differently, but how they do it.
The first rule of sales is to establish rapport – a relationship of mutual understanding or trust and agreement – with your customer. And women, it turns out, have a natural advantage when it comes to establishing rapport. Judy Rosener, in America’s Competitive Secret: Women Managers, writes: "Men communicate to obtain information, establish their status, and show independence. Women communicate to create relationships, encourage interaction, and exchange feelings." So when I’m asking a customer about their needs or showing them how much I know about campers, Colleen and Carol are asking about the kids. They’re discussing sofa fabric patterns, carpet colors, where to position throw rugs, or where to place the TV. They smile a lot. They laugh. They kvetch about stuff I’d never even think about because it’s totally unrelated to buying a camper. They relate so much better than I do, and they do so because it comes naturally to them. My natural inclination is to show the product, talk about how great it is and close the deal. So, like most men, I must make a conscious effort to be relational. I’m learning though. I have to. Or else.
I offer no statistics to prove it, but I can tell you from personal experience that most RV buying decisions are made by a woman. In fact, we have a saying in the RV business: "If mom’s not happy, nobody’s happy." Yvonne Divita, in Dickless Marketing: Smart Marketing to Women Online, does offer some statistics when she writes: "Women also have money; a Harris Interactive study shows that women control 75% of household finances and 80% of purchasing decisions." Business guru Tom Peters, in Re-imagine!: Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age, dedicates an entire chapter to women’s purchasing power, referring to it as one of two "trends worth trillions." He writes: "Women are the sole or primary decision makers for just about every kind of purchase, commercial stuff as well as consumer stuff . . . Women are not a niche. Women are the long run!" (Italics his)
In response to this "trend worth trillions," there has emerged an entirely new sect of marketing experts and practitioners who specialize in marketing to women. The aforementioned Yvonne Divita is but one of these savvy specialists who can tell you what it is that women want and need from the companies and products with whom they interact. If business profitability is on your agenda in the 21st century, you’ll listen to what folks like Yvonne have to say.
So, what do women want from you and your company? Well, like their male counterparts, they want products and services that live up to their marketing pitch. They want to spend their hard-earned money on stuff that improves their own life, as well as the lives of those they love. But, according to Divita, that’s not quite enough for women. "The truth is," she writes, "women want it all." They also want a relationship with you and your company. Faith Popcorn and Lys Marigold spell out the differences between male and female consumers explicitly in their book Clicking: 17 Trends That Drive Your Business–And Your Life: "Men and women don’t communicate the same way, don’t buy for the same reasons. . . . He simply wants the transaction to take place; she’s interested in establishing the relationship. Every place that women go they make connections."
Relationships and connections, it seems, are the next big thing in business. The trend is even sweeping over to male consumers as well. Microsoft Technical Evangelist Robert Scoble, writing in his weblog The Scobleizer, stated recently: "See, I want to have a relationship with the companies I buy stuff from (or support). I want that relationship to be deep. Lasting. Frequent. I want to know the people who work on the products I buy." Whoa. "Deep relationships." Does that mean you can no longer hide behind the professional, whitewashed corporate-speak that became the nauseating norm for 20th century business communications? Of course not. You can still hide behind that wall as long as you’re willing to let your customers go find someone else – a competitor perhaps – who’s keepin it real with them. Someone who’ll break down those walls and accept the invitation you rejected.
On the other hand, should you choose to accept the invitation offered by this new, 21st century consumer – the invitation to show up, be real and connect. If you are willing to do that, this book, in my opinion, is a necessary guide to get you up to speed. You might think I’m saying that just because I’m a blogger or because I’m contributing to a book about blogging. I’m not. See, you must realize that blogging is not really about blogging at all. It’s not about RSS technology, the Internet or even e-commerce. Blogging is really about the very human need to speak and be heard. It’s about the human need to connect. Really connect with yourself, your customers and the rest of the world. Although it won’t show up on any annual reports, that type of return on investment is so much more important than the financial one.