Advertising

In too many cases, advertising ignores the most basic rule of Customer Focused Selling. It treats offerings as nouns, instead of verbs. It ignores or undervalues business issues as a way of generating interest.

While the subject of advertising is large enough to justify volumes all on its own, let us suggest two Customer-Focused approaches for advertising:

• Attempt to create "results envy" by having buyers realize that people in their own industry, and with the same job function, are achieving improved results through the use of your offerings.

• Use a "hurt and rescue" approach, getting people to realize that there is a business problem that they are now experiencing, and that they have a means to control it.

In all cases, try to focus on the action you want buyers to take as a result of seeing your ad. Options would include, for example, visiting your web site, calling a toll-free number, contacting a local office, sending in a response card, and so on.