Why people aren’t buying your sh!t!

At the end of every transaction is a human being, I know this seems obvious, but evidence would suggest that this is something a great number of businesses struggle with.

Show an attempt at deception, a disrespect for intelligence, a lack of care or regard for loyalty and people will when given the choice, consistently reward you with their absence. 

Universally, what we have experienced in the past 8 weeks has been so foreign, confronting, alarming and disturbing, whilst there is variable impact, emotionally this has been one hell of a ride for so many of us. The fragility of our commerce, the lost value of our connection, the dysfunction of our workplaces, the absence of business dexterity and our strategic impotence in the face of uncertainty, all on display for our viewing displeasure.

What has stood out to me most, is the resounding challenge that brands and businesses are having in connecting with customers who are experiencing ambiguity and emotional frailty.  

In the first two weeks of this lockdown, in the infancy of our crisis, en-masse we were met with deafening silence, as brands, just like people were struggling to know what to do or how to act, even if imperfectly, to the millions of customers doused in a shower of fear. Then suddenly, it was BAU, with businesses not adapting their approaches to customers with the exception of a sprinkling: “We’ve been with you for years”, “We do everything we do for you”, and “We will be here with you, as we always have been”, “Together”. Brilliantly formulaic, frightfully insincere. See this video montage on advertising that featured in the US Market.

So right now, we are looking at the sales numbers, as the economy is parted like a sea of haves and have nots and many businesses are left with a common non-negotiable, we better find out who even can buy our sh!t right now, and what it is they need from us, and hurry!

So to this end, and inspired by a chat with the wonderful Nina Christian yesterday, this morning I have compiled a shortlist of the reasons people are not buying your sh!t and what you can do about it. Maybe these don’t apply to you, maybe a few do, but it’s not a list I want to see any of you ticking off completely.

1.Know your place!

There is an obvious challenge to figure out where brands and businesses fit in people's lives, particularly in a time filled with such relentless uncertainty. 

This was well pronounced by the barrage of bullish!t messaging for all types of brands telling us they were there for us, usually by way of imagined promotional discounts or things they wanted us to do for them, like spend money with them, for them.

It’s time for some solid self-awareness. This is not a time for your protesting screams for attention, it’s time brands got realistic about who they really are in the world of their customers.

Get grounded on your place in the minds of your customers and let that be the basis from which you connect. What role can you realistically play in helping your customers do the things they need to do?

2. Find a mutual interest.

Without awareness, finding a place of mutual interest becomes challenging. As I mentioned in a webinar I gave five weeks ago (below), we need to understand what matters most to our customers right now and figure out a way we can #beofservice.

This is in stark contrast to making half-arsed adaptations to what you were doing and saying before this pandemic in the hope it is enough to keep the revenue rolling.

It starts and ends with your customer and their interest, and to think Dale Carnegie gets mocked.

If you don’t know what matters most to your customers right now, you’d better find out real quick. Think about what your customers need to get done and why this matters to them. How do your interests intersect with theirs?

3. Don’t make assumptions

All great connections are fuelled by curiosity, questioning and a growing understanding of how people see the world.

The poor utility of customer data and serious lack of meaningful customer insight is literally kicking your P & L to the curb.

Imagine you are in the trenches in battle, enemy fire is relentless, and you don’t know how you can move forward, would you bet your own life on a guess? Are you prepared to bet your economic future on a spin of the chocolate wheel? I didn’t think so!

The economic impact of this pandemic does not treat all equally, so do you know which of your customers can and will be able to still buy from you? Where they are and how you might reach them before your competitor?

Knowing our customers, how they think, why they think it and anticipating needs is not new science, it's available, consumable and it is right now by no means and never was a “nice to have”.

We need to explore alternative ways of engaging with our customers, given their experiences, and continue to look for ways to continuously adapt to changing needs.

4. Mean what you say

I hear the cries of corporate CEOs declaring their concern for the mental health of the nation, but the question is has this concern propelled your organisation, even if for its own self-interest and reputational equity, to take your countless resources and deploy them at a solution? Or should we just ask you to stand up or shut up?

A concerned and somewhat powerless public wants to trust you, they want to rely on you, they want to believe in what you have to say, but say something without conviction and commitment to action and you will find yourself in a hole of disappointment you actually dug yourself.

When people are challenged, anxious, worried or frightened we turn to people we trust, and trust is earned through actions, not words.

Mean what you say, do what you say and make sure it matters to people.

5. Offer a future

People are creatures of progress, we all want to move forward, out of this pandemic, onto something more and better, into a life where the lessons of right now, shape more of what’s more right tomorrow.

People need hope, a pathway to possibility, a leg up and out of this trying situation.

I know we have our fingers in our ears about the actual realities of the months and years ahead, but if you want to be followed, you need to create a compelling vision of what the future could be like. Joining your customers in denial, to never speak of the unspeakable does not only not help your customers, but it’s also not helping your brand.

Right now, people fear that this pandemic is likely to result in the amplification of our already failing society. That depression could be our new norm, that in our highly developed society, people will be confronted by real poverty and that our instinct for survival will turn us against each other.

You want to be followed, lead! People need pragmatic optimism and that optimism comes from the evidence of your actions as businesses and brands.

There is no going back, so be a part of helping people move forward, they need it.

6. Believe in Your Customers

Think about what you are really doing for your teams and your customers to place faith in your organisation and brands.

This country has already suffered a horrendous record in employee engagement (Gallup) as a result of a lack of trust (Edelman).

Now is your chance to stand up, and mean something to people, not to look for accolades for empty proclamations, but instead to show people what you can achieve together.

To move well beyond self-interest into mattering when it matters.

Throughout human history, people have followed the brave, the selfless servants of the people, the people who create a vision of the future that others can see themselves in.

Much of the reason companies and brands are not doing more, is because they don’t believe, they don’t have faith in the loyalty of people and what underpins their trust. Move beyond this transactional Mexican stand-off and you can be sure that the what you achieve together will provide rewards for everyone involved, including your brand and business.

Oh, and one last thing. If you do any of this, faster and better than your competitors, then winning will not be a concern. Waste any more time in the stand-off, in the absence of real insight, understanding and meaningful action, and the results are obvious.

Change is an inside job, for everyone and every business, it requires self-awareness, curiosity and conviction in your actions.

People will indeed buy your sh!t, when you give them reasons to see it as something other than sh!t.

I hope this helps.

Scott