October 6, 2008
Shouldn’t You Answer The Question?
If a customer asks you a question – could you get away with refusing to answer it? Then, giving a totally unrelated commercial? By golly, I’m tellin’ ya.
Me neither.
Tags: marketing, customer service, marketing troubleshooting, entrepreneur sanity check, marketing communications
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If I know my customer needs to know something of greater importance, I think it’s totally fine and even of greater value to redirect the line of questioning. If the customer says, “is this the least expensive item you have?” are you seriously going to say, “yes it is”?
Not at all, but rather, you will say, “well let’s talk about the value you are wanting to get” and then hopefully you end up on the higher end of the sales rack for the big sale!!
Assuming this is a political reference, I would pause before assuming Palin is not resonating. She is and very much an energizing force to the target market. And before any specific analysis is done on her, I think just about every politician (DEM or REPUB) is trained to redirect the line of questioning. If you’re on the hot seat, you are gonna respond in the way that gets your audience talking about you in the most positive way.
Wink.
She is, apparently, “resonating” with a core group of Republicans, the “target market” if you will. Unfortunately for her the target is a relatively small (albeit loud) portion of the voter base.
Further, it’d be fine – in some cases – to “redirect” if you actually provide an answer that makes sense and provides value. (I’ve had media training, and it was obvious Ms. Palin had crammed and jammed, but she hasn’t had the years of practice necessary to say nothing and make it sound like you answered the question.)
Finally, goshdarnit, call me a maverick but – yeah – I probably would answer the direct question, “Is this the least expensive item you have” with a direct answer. “Yes, it is. And here’s what you get with it.” A little somethin’ called honesty.
If a customer is going to base their decision solely on price and you’re not the lowest, then he or she isn’t a good customer for you anyway.
I call ya the wink – and raise ya a couple of dimples.
Don’t confuse the customer universe with the political universe. Totally different laws of physics there.
Glenn,
Thanks for highlighting my point. It shouldn’t be a “totally different law of physics.” (”Hey, our target market is the bone stupid! And while we’re at it, let’s insult the intelligence of millions!”)
Honesty, accountability, intelligence and integrity should be the common “laws” in dealing with customers or voters. The fact that “leaders” can somehow “win” something laughably called a debate if they are photogenic and manage to get out some mangled sound bites is a sad commentary on the level to which political discourse has sunk. We’ve simply got to change the system – and the only way to do that is to stop letting politicians do the same ol’ things. Call them on it when they lie, for example. It’s not “false information” or misremembering. It’s a lie. When they refuse to answer a question or answer it with a sound bite, we should refuse to accept it. And so on. It’s time for the political system to change.
Ditto marketing – Time for the old Mad Men to shuffle off the stage.