Today I am going to collide my two worlds –
coaching and marketing. I have
talked before about the importance of empathy in business, focusing on getting to know and understanding your customers. Now
I would like to draw more deeply on my experience of coaching and how we can
bring these learnings into the customer interface.
- Relax and be human. Stop believing in and supporting the myth that everyone is happy and shiny. This puts debilitating pressure on yourself, your business and your customers as we all judge ourselves against an unrealistic ideal and we all fall short. Instead by admitting to your failings you allow yourself and others to relax and be human.
- Embrace the flaws we all have. Bring them out into the open and in doing so relieve the pressure on being perfect. Watch as customers relax and feel understood. Use humour to create a safe expression of taboos. Let people laugh at the foibles we all share.
- Listen with your heart and mind. Be genuinely curious and caring. Constantly ask how you can help your customers both practically and emotionally. Keep seeking that knowledge and when you have an answer, keep asking because it will keep changing.
- Accept that you can't possibly know. Since everything is always changing, our only successful strategy is to keep learning, keep trying and learn from our successes and our inevitable mistakes.
By taking a learning approach, the work will
still get done, but you will be more engaged, open, relaxed and more
realistic. The less you focus on
the perfect outcome, the more likely you are to get it right.
