Astonish Your Customer(s)

The next 5 minutes

Just read Tweet from idea and business guru Tom Peters - "EXCELLENCE is not an aspiration. EXCELLENCE is the next 5 minutes. Aiming for EXCELLENCE is bullshit. EXCELLENCE is NOW."

What a great way to approach and achieve self-improvement ... 

• Being polite
• Speaking in a kind and warm voice 
• Speaking your mind
• Listening (and not saying anything)
• Asking others for their opinion 
• Dieting 
• Exercising 

I think Tom may have just found the thesis for his next book or blog series. I certainly think I may have found a way to act. 

O.D.O.o.O.D.B. 

Remarkable defined

I use the word remarkable a lot when describing winning products.

I abide by the definition of remarkable as coined by Seth Godin.

"Remarkable, literally means, worth making a remark about. A product with the marketing built in. A product that customers enthusiastically talk about to others. A product that literally sells itself."

Remarkable, however is not enough. A winning product must also be relevant. After all, a motorized rocking chair may indeed by remarkable but it is not very relevant, is it?

As defined by Tim Manners, relevant means "solving problems and making people's lives better ... giving happiness ... it's about their everyday life, not just your product."  

When your product is both relevant and remarkable, your customers not only become loyal, they become a spokesperson. 

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Astonish

• Verb
• To strike with sudden and usually great wonder or surprise - Merriam Webster.
• To fill with sudden wonder or amazement - The Free Dictionary

Do your customers or prospects feel that way when they see, use, experience your product? Should they? Would your product win if it were to astonish? What products astonish you? What product astonished you when you first encountered it? What product astonishes you every time you use it? What is the most boring product that astonished you?

I think that the internet is the ultimate astonish machine. Why? It's personal, it's always renewing itself, it gets progressively easier and better, it helps me solve problems, I feel in control, it helps me interact, stay connected, it entertains me. And, the internet is not even a coordinated effort, there's no strategy or unified game plan.  

O.D.O.o.O.D.B.

Astonish your customer(s) ... Isn't that the responsibility of every company and marketer? Isn't that what every customer wants? 

Every marketer needs to constantly ask ... What audacious promise could the brand make (and keep) that will astonish our customer(s)? 

 

Asking the question is easy. The "how" is hard. This blog will provide the "how" by profiling the example of the do-ers, the original and unconventional thinkers and, especially the brand builders that astonish their customer(s) without the resources of the big companies.  

(TY: Paul Arden, Seth Godin)