"The secret of success is learning how to use pain and pleasure,
instead of pain and pleasure using you.
If you do that, you are in control of your life. If you do not, life controls you."

Before I launch in to this month's tip, I want to take this opportunity to wish you all the best this holiday season. And to let you know that the Solstice occurs on the 22nd of December this year (1998).

Right about now you're wondering what the heck I'm talking about and what does that have to do with the secret of a successful business.

Well firstly, the Solstice is the shortest day. And signifies midwinter. It's also the point at which the Earth's tilt starts to go back the other way.

I bring this up because it will be interesting to see how people react to this change in tilt, even though it's only a subtle thing.

It will be interesting to see how sensitive people are to the Earth's changes.

Which leads me straight in to this month's tip believe it or not.

The secret to having a successful business is sensitivity!!

Not sensitivty to the changes in the Earth's axis, but sensitivity to your customers and their wants and needs. Because let me assure you, if you are not sensitive to the subtle changes your customers go through all the time you will find yourself out of business.

There are a lot of things that can have an effect on your customers, and you must be aware of them and in-tune with your customers. This will allow you to adapt and continue to flourish.

Some of you reading this will know exactly what I'm talking about. But other's won't. And if you don't understand it don't worry, you will by the end of this. It's just such an unusual concept to understand that it may take a while to explain.

Perhaps the best thing to do is to give you examples of sensitivity in action and inaction so you can see the difference and how important it is.

Onwards...

First I'll give you an example of this concept not in action.

A lot of you will already know that I have been having troubles with a particular company in Australia which resulted in them sending me death threats. I'm not going to spend this tip retelling the story. If you want to read it for yourself (note: The following web site seems to be shut down permanently or temporily. I'm sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you) .au/~miros/badbusiness.htm" target="new">click here. But I will use it as an example.

So this company is not sending me a product which was part of a deal we made. And as a result have ended up on the world wide web because of my wrath.

Anyway... the point is that this company was not sensitive to what I wanted. In fact they were numb to it. They were also numb to the damage that just one unhappy customer can do.

And after a check of my logs to see who has viewed the abusive email I received, I see that someone from Zdnet Aust has had a look. Need I say more.

Now as I said I'm not going to talk about this company, they are only a convenient example. And there are plenty of other examples out there. You only have to watch one of those current affair type shows to see all the business owners who were not sensitive to their customers. And I'm sure you could all tell your own stories of something similar.

But let me give you one more example. A certain business owner I know used to go to a particular shop everyday to buy lunch. One day he goes in and wants to buy a small amount of coleslaw. The shop owner says he has to buy the big bag. The business owner doesn't want the big bag, he just wants a small amount. The shop owner wouldn't budge.

The business owner asks how much coleslaw comes with a particular item on the menu. To his delight a small amount comes with that item (an amount that he wants). So he asks to be given that item and the coleslaw, but the shop owner can keep the item (thus he gets only the colelsaw). And he will pay the full price for the menu item even though he only wants the coleslaw.

The shop owner still won't budge, and as a result loses a customer. Not just some one-off customer, but a regular as clockwork customer. A customer who buys everyday. A customer who spent around $20 in that shop on a daily basis.

So not only did the shop owner lose a customer, he lost revenue to the tune of around $100 a week, or $5000 a year. And all because he wasn't sensitive to what his customer wanted.

These two examples only touch briefly on the sensitivity factor. But it goes deeper than these examples. Much deeper.

See, to truly become sensitive with your customers you have to know about them. And the things that may cause changes in their lives. You have to know what they think and why!

Another example...

Recently, on one of the discussion boards I frequent, an individual asked for help with a headline/title for his book. The book was full of beauty tips for women.

Now while woman do like to make themselves beautiful (bless their hearts) they do it for a reason. And it's this reason you need to focus on. Before you can come up with a headline/title for this book you need to know the reason WHY women like to look good. You have to be sensitive to their wants and needs.

So having a headline/title that says "147 beauty tips for women" will do no good. The reason is that it doesn't give the woman what she wants. It doesn't satisfy the 'WHY' she wants to look good.

Here are two headlines I came up with...

"Discover The 147 Secret Techniques That Will Give You Alluring Eyes, Sensual Lips, The Attention of Every Man, And Make YOU the Envy of EVERY Other Woman When You Walk In A Room."

And...

"Discover The 147 Secret Techniques That Will Make Every Woman Jealous of You The Instant You Walk in The Room!"

While these do give women the solution to their WHY, it can still be even more sensitive. You can still be in-tune with them even more. But to do this you need to know what they read, what they watch, etc.

Continuing on with this example lets see how we can change it to adapt it to the current thinking of women (even though these headlines satisfy fundamental reasons why).

If we knew as much as possible about our target (in this case women) we would probably change the headline/title even more. Or at least we wouldn't say something that could work against us.

I'll show you what I mean...

Recently a survey was done. The survey consisted of two groups - one group made up of 100 men, and one group made up of 100 women. Each person in the group was shown ten photos of nude women and asked to rank them in terms of fatness.

The interesting thing to note about the survey is this...

The "figure" of the woman that 80% of the men said was just right, was classed as obese and overweight by 70% of the women. And what 95% of the men said was a women suffering from severe anorexia was considered just right by 90% of the women. Believe it or not, some women even thought this was an overweight woman.

What does this tell us? It tells us that if we try to sell something to women so they will look like a man's dream we will flunk. The women do not want to be that size. They want to be thinner. They want to be how they've been taught they should be. They want to be like the magazines they read say they should be.

Can you see the importance of knowing what your customers read and how it can effect their thinking?

Another example using women...

The current fashion in shoes is for what I call "Old women's shoes." These are shoes with big huge chuncky heels, or in some cases a complete platform all the way from heel to toe.

Everywhere I look I see women wearing these shoes. WHY? Because that's what the magazines say is in. That's what the mags say to wear.

Now even though I do not like these shoes it is what women are being told is THE thing. So if I had a shoe shop I would stock these horrid shoes. If I didn't. If I stocked only stilettos, I may just go out of business (as a general shoe store). Mind you, if *I* did own a shoe store I would also stock stiletto heeled shoes to cater for the women who know what looks good.

To show you this in reverse, lets look at how a woman should go about being sensitive to what men like.

This is easy. First, stop reading women's magazines. Second, pick up a copy of playboy magazine, or some other such thing. What you will see are photos of women wearing high heeled stiletto shoes. WHY? Because that's what appeals to men.

And why are stiletto wearing women appealing to a man? Because the heel forces the calf muscles to react in a certain way which enhances the shape of women's legs. It also forces women to walk with a natural sway of the hips (the very thing a model learns in model school).

Another example...

I was watching a show all about perfume and the testing of it. They had women smelling perfumes (designed to be worn by women) and ranking them. And the top prefume would obviously be the winner.

This is not being sensitive.

WHY do women wear perfume? To smell extra good for men. So what this company should have been doing is getting men to smell the perfume designed to be worn by women.

This also should work in reverse. Women should smell fragrances designed to be worn by men.

So women, if your man buys a perfume for you that you don't like, it's because HE likes it. And men, if your woman buys you a fragrance that you don't like it's because SHE likes it.

Another example...

We all know of the dangers of asbestos. But there was a time we didn't. And if you sold a book on the dangers of asbestos it would flunk.

But lets take a company that sells materials for the do-it-yourself home handy man. If they sell only materials that are asbestos free and say so (before we all knew the truth) it wouldn't increase sales.

BUT, if they knew that we were all now educated on the dangers of asbestos (educated thanks to the media), they could now use that knowledge. And now if their ads said "All our materials are asbestos free" they would increase their sales.

Think back to when the internet first started to take off. Do you remember software being sold as "Internet Ready?"

The companies that sold 'internet ready' software increased their sales compared to people who sold the same thing but who didn't say 'internet ready.' The people who said their stuff was internet ready were being sensitive to their customers wants. They knew their customers had taken an interest in the internet because of all the 'ballyhoo' the media was making about it. They knew how their customers would think after they read and heard certain things coming from the media.

And one final example...

A few years ago the French government thought it would be a good idea to blow up some nuclear devices on some little island in the middle of nowhere. Well, this made a lot of Australian people angry at the French.

Anyway, about two days after the first bomb was blown up, a French restaurant, which was about 3 blocks away from where I lived, had a huge canvas sign hanging out the front that said they opposed the nuclear tests.

The owner of this little eating place was smart. He knew people would place personal bans on French things because of the nuclear tests. And he knew that his small French restaurant would suffer. So he did something to turn a disadvantage in to an advantage.

By hanging this huge sign out the front he not only saved his business, but also made it clear he was on the side of all the other people who were against the nuclear tests. This worked so well that while the media kept the tests in the news, he kept his sign up, and his restaurant was busier than I ever saw it previously.

Can you see how deep this goes?

It's much more than knowing what your customers want. It's knowing what your customers read and hear, and knowing how that will effect their thinking. Knowing this and reacting accordingly is being sensitive.

Try this, it works!

May the success you achieve be a direct result of the effort you put in!!

Michael Ross
Miros Designs Marketing.
 
 
 

About this author

Michael Ross is an australian based author, product developer, direct marketer and consultant.

Michael Ross is known for his detailed and helpful advice on how to succeed in marketing.

Note:
Michael Ross' original web site is closed. I don't know if it's permanently or temporily. Michael Ross recently told me that he has more or less retired from the Internet. I'm sorry for any inconvenience that this may cause you.

You can, however, still buy a copy of Micael's book, "The Art of Leverage" by going to this web site: http://artofleverage.cjb.net/