When you are creating your marketing message and sales pitches, are instinctively thinking about yourself or you customer? This is a true story, it happened to a client of mine recently. While out shopping one day he went in to a shoe shop to look for a pair of brown shoes to go with a recently purchased pair of trousers. He found the style he wanted in colour that he liked and felt would go well with the style of the trousers and his ‘style’. He asked the sales assistant if he had them in a size 14. You see my client had large feet. The sales assistant quickly retorted ‘no, sorry mate, I’ve got them in a size 12’ At that moment, was he thinking of creating a life long customer who would be happy with his purchase and spread the word, or was he thinking of shoe horning this chap in to a pair of uncomfortable shoes so he could make a quick sale and some commission? Are we truly listening to our customers or just pretending?

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