This is a critical error, and yet one that every small business owner has made at least once in his life. We make it, because it’s human nature. Every human being loves to talk about himself. So when I talk to a potential customer, what’s the first thing I want to say?

I want to tell him all about me, of course! Except, he doesn’t care about me. Yes, I’m sure he wants to be friendly. I’m sure he wants to be polite. Maybe he’ll let me talk for a minute or two. But he won’t listen.

And on the web, he won’t even do that much. No, he’ll see my website. He’ll immediately realize it’s about me. He’ll say to himself, “I don’t care about him. And I don’t have to read this if I don’t care about it.” And then he’ll hit the back button and go look at someone else’s website. When a visitor first comes to your website, you have less than 8 seconds to impress him. And talking about yourself ain’t gonna cut it.

Today, sales veteran Jim Logan reminded me of this truth. In a brief, direct, to-the-point blog post, he said, “Customers don’t care about you or your business.”

I’m not sure what set him off. Maybe it was a poorly written direct-mail piece. Or perhaps it was an email from someone begging him to buy something. Or maybe a telemarketer interrupted his Sunday dinner to ask him to change his phone service. Some part of me believes we all fear sales, because don’t like annoying other people.

So what should we do instead? Simple: If they don’t care about you, tell them what they do care about! “Customers care about themselves - their needs, their wants, and their desires.”

Jim continues, “Knowing this, you need to tell your story from their perspective. Tell them what they get from being your customer.”

And I’ve mentioned this before, too. It’s one of the Five Ways Most Websites Let Opportunities Slip Through Their Fingers. They try to play like superbowl ads, when they ought to play like Jordan’s Furniture ads.

It’s also a major difference between a mini-site that sells and most business websites. Most company websites tell the visitor about the company. Ugh.

Repeat after me: No one cares about you. They only care about what you can do for them.

So tell them about what they want to hear!

-TimK

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