Think you know what your customers care about?

Author and consultant Jaynie Smith kicked off the new monthly seminar series Kaufman, Rossin Presents today by showing 45 business executives exactly how much we don’t know.   We may know a lot about our products and services, she explained, but customers and prospects often hear “blah, blah, blah” when we’re sharing what we think are key selling points.  They don’t care about claims that we’re responsive or leading edge unless we can back them up with proof.

And they still might not care! What we think is important may have no relevance for customers.

The good news, according to the author of Creating Competitive Advantage and her new book Relevant Selling,  is that our prospects also don’t really care about price either.  When customers are surveyed in double-blind studies, she tells us, we learn that price is not the most important buying factor more than 90 percent of the time!

Relevant and sustainable advantages aren’t the ones we guess at.  They aren’t the ones that every other company’s website promotes.  They must be measurable, objective, and truly relevant to the customer.  Smith promotes the concept of double blind research to really learn what prospects and customers care about.

Kaufman Rossin hosted the breakfast seminar in the firm’s Coconut Grove headquarters.  The clients and friends who attended got the opportunity to network, share breakfast, and gain some valuable tips to improve business results.  Many lingered after to discuss the content, and strategize about their own selling efforts.  The series continues next month with Craig Hirsch’s discussion:  “Ten Signs Your Company May be Harboring Fraudsters.”