People Don’t Want to Hear From You. Here’s Why.

Have you ever talked to someone and walked away thinking “man that was a great conversation,” or “wow, that was a really nice person”? Chances are the reason was that the person showed a ton of interest in you and talked very little about themselves. Ever been to a social gathering where you talked to someone who was a pro at telling stories or anecdotes about themselves? That type of person often seems to be the center of attention, but after a while, the narcissism gets old.

The same applies to our marketing. The more we make it about ourselves, the more we lose our audience. That’s because people care about themselves more than anything else, even if it is only subconscious.

Your message should be mostly about your audience and what will benefit them.

Everything hinges on the message you wish to communicate with others. No matter what that message is, if you want to get through, you should make it a priority to discuss what you can do for others. It should be your central theme in every bit of your marketing. Try to look at every sentence you write and consider from the reader’s point of view, “what’s in it for me.” Describe your product or service in a way that shows how it will help the reader and make their life better. Most people will not waste their time looking at something that is not going to help them.

One way to do this is to talk about other’s pain and then how you can reduce it. And I am not talking about medical pain – although if you sold a drug or were a doctor, that would be appropriate. I am mainly talking about problems they have that they may not even realize. For instance, when we first meet a client, we spend most of the time asking a lot of questions and looking for problems. If the prospect does not openly seem to have any issues, we will suggest some. In other words, does your current supplier always deliver on time? Do they call you right back when you leave a message? Do they get back to you with the information they promised in a timely fashion? Often when we put things that way, we get them to realize that they do have some issues, and things could be better. Then we go about describing how we will solve those problems.

One way to do that is to give examples or stories about how you solved similar problems for others in the past and helped them to achieve their goals.

Remember, always be thinking about “what’s in it for me” from the other person’s point of view, and you will have people thinking you are a great conversationalist and your marketing will be much more effective.