The Wrong "Me"

I was watching the Sunday Today Show this week and became particularly interested in a segment that Jenna, one of the anchors, presented on coffee. She said that she didn't like coffee and spent a great deal of time on that fact. She recorded most of the segment at a coffee house where the owner showed her how the cup of coffee was made and how to swirl a design onto the surface of her cup of coffee. At the end of the segment, Jenna came back into the studio and talked to an expert about the different types of coffeemakers. The expert had barely begun to talk about the first coffeemaker when Jenna said, "Sorry, we are out of time. Thanks for coming."

Since the expert was halted in the middle of a sentence which I found quite interesting, I felt cheated. "Hey!" I thought. "I want to know more about that thermal warmer coffeemaker." Jenna was in such a rush that she did not even mention if there was more information on NBC's Web site about the story and that particular coffeemaker.

Mulling this over, I realized that Jenna had been focused on the wrong "me." Rather than focusing on theme of her viewer, or customer, she was focused on the me of herself. She spent much of the segment devoted to talking about her attitude toward coffee. She highlighted activities such as making the swirl in the coffee that, while interesting, were of interest to her and not of importance to the average viewer. She cut the guest off in mid-sentence and did not reference where to find out more information, ignoring the viewer's desire to know more because she was not interested.

Jenna fell into a trap which snares us all: We look at what we offer through our eyes rather than through our customer's eyes. We give too much attention to the wrong me, our own "me" rather than the "me" of our customer. We think too much about what's in it for us, not what's in it for our customer. We spend too little time finding out what interests our customer.

Instead, we offer our customer what we choose. We stock products or offer services which we think our customer will want. We don't talk to our customers about what they want. We offer what "experts" suggest, and then we wonder why customers don't buy.

Are you doing this with your customers? When was the last time that you talked to your customers about what you offer? Have you ever done so? If you haven't, talk to your customers soon. Make doing so a priority. Talking to your customers will keep your focus on the right "me."

Focusing on the wrong "me" misses opportunities and reduces revenues.