Who are you working for?

Who are you working for? Yourself? A corporation? "The Man?"

Why are you in business? To manufacture a product? Provide a service? Make a profit?

All common answers, and all truthful.

And, all the wrong way to answer these questions. Here are my answers:

Who are you working for? THE CUSTOMER.

Why are you in business? TO SERVE THE CUSTOMER.

Of course, you make a product or provide a service. And of course, without making a profit, you won't last in business. No argument. But here's the real bottom line: without customers, you have no business. Period.

I know, so obvious. Why am I writing a blog post about it?

Because, quite honestly, so many marketers just don't seem to grasp this obvious point.

Don't take it from me. Pull out a few magazines, particularly business-to-business (Business Week and Fortune will do too), and start reading the ads.

Count the number of ads that use their headlines to tell how great the company is.

Now count the number of ads that use their headlines to tell you how they're going to take care of you and your needs and wants.

I feel comfortable betting you you'll find a ton of the first kind of ad, and very few of the latter.

There are a lot of reasons for this which we can discuss in another blog post. The bottom line is this: the customer only cares about one thing: "What's in it for me?" Not, "What's cool about that company?"

Of course, this should not only change how we write our marketing messages. It should be on the top of our minds every business minute of the day. Our jobs are to deliver the absolute most wonderful experience a customer could possibly have. That's what will keep them coming back for more.

Again, so obvious. Again, so not integrated into marketing. So missing the boat.

That's my opinion. I'd love to hear yours.

Here's to building a presonal connection,

Ron Marcus
Founder, Epiphany Marketing