It’s never to early to learn how to talk to customers.
Lemonade Stand Proving Ground
My kids are learning to do this at ages 7, 5 and 2 thanks to their very first lemonade stand. We live near a park and have a relatively constant flow of potentially thirsty neighbors walking past our house. So my boys decided they could earn extra cash and my husband and I supported their entrepreneurial spirit.
One of the first things they had to master was not making lemonade (they are old hats at that) but building a relationship with their customers. Each of my children have different areas of skill here:
- One is more articulate and can enunciate clearly.
- One is more willing to engage strangers in their interests.
- One is more aggressive about making the ask.
Working together, they are a flawless team. But when one loses interest or has to run inside to use the bathroom, their sales process slows.
As I oversee their efforts from my C-Suite (a lawn chair on the porch) I realize what a delicate dance it is to engage customers online and try to channel each of the three heads of Cerberus (not a bad name for their lemonade business…) equally.
Since our lemonade stand opened, I’ve become very aware of this when I’m writing sales copy, web copy, customer letters or social media content. I check to see if I’ve allowed one approach to dominate the others. When it does, I just call for a potty break.
Who is monitoring the balance in your content?