Sales tip: get the most out of your ignorant customer

Seth Godin writes daily on his blog and never fails to inspire. I often refer to his blog posts. In fact I want to do it daily but I am sure it does not look good. So if you have anything, even remotely connected, to do with sales and  marketing, read his blog at sethgodin.typepad.com. An easier way to never miss his daily sermon is to subscribe with your email.

Sometimes he is so spot-on that I feel compelled to share his thoughts. Yesterday's post was one such.

I am not sure title of this post is going to make you happy or angry. But this is what happens when you buy something once in a while; you can be screwed by the seller, the marketer.

It is easier to buy an expensive laptop, a photocopier with features you are never going to use, a chemical with an obscure name, an aluminum kitchen, that expensive database software etc. just to name a few things. Ordinary buyers are no match to the power wielded by marketers and sales people who have spent their entire lives to master their art.

Here is what Seth Godin writes about the marketers who love dumb and/or ignorant customers:

Ask them to show you a recipe for how to make what they make on your own, and "it's a trade secret."

And this one is really a gem:

Their perfect customer is someone in a hurry, with plenty of money and not a lot of knowledge about their options.

And here is what happens when the competition does just the opposite and tries to make you, the customer, smarter and more informed:

if just one player enters the field and works to make people smarter, the competition has a hard time responding with a dumbness offensive. They can obfuscate and run confusing ads, but sooner or later, the inevitability of information spreading works in favor of those that bet on it.

That's the beauty of today's world powered by social media. Every one has a voice.

Thanks Seth Godin.

Posted via email from Saqib Awan