As a child I clearly remember my mother telling me (on more than one occasion) “Use your common sense!”

But what IS ‘Common Sense’?

Just because something is obvious to you, doesn’t necessarily mean the same to someone else. If it did, we would all have had the same grades in our “O-Levels” (I’m showing my age now ), all drive SMART cars and all work as Cosmetic Dentists – now, apart from everyone having perfect looking teeth and always be able to find a parking space, how boring would that be?

But assuming that everyone will react in the same way also causes a problem…

… it’s all too easy to take things for granted, especially when it comes to marketing your business. It is way too easy to assume that your prospects will know and understand the benefits of your product or service like you do.

Remember Blendtec who I mentioned a few weeks ago? Let’s use them as an example…

CEO Tom Dickson was focused on making his blenders the best blenders possible. He worked on a programme of continuously improving and testing the quality of each individual part by blending all sorts of ’strange’ things.

Tom had been doing this since they started in 1999 – indeed his strange blending habits were so commonplace that the staff didn’t bat an eyelid at whatever he was blending.

But it wasn’t until George Wright joined them and changed the focus of their marketing by showing everyone with YouTube adverts – that things really changed, and sales soared to just under $40million in 2006.

Had George simply assumed that people would know that all this testing meant their blenders were stronger, built from superior parts and less likely to break, then it would have been a completely different story.

Blendtec focused their marketing such that Tom Dickson went out of his way to SHOW everyone, in no uncertain terms, that his blenders could blend anything [except Chuck Norris!]

So what are YOU doing to make sure your clients and prospects know, without any shadow of a doubt, WHY they should be buying from you rather than from your competitors?

YOU might know what makes your offer special (and you might think it’s obvious), but what seems common sense to you may not be that obvious to your prospects. This ultimately means one thing…

Lost Sales.

You see, it is your duty to tell your prospects as much as you can about the way your product or service will improve their life – how it will make their life and/or business easier, better or cheaper – so THEY can make an informed choice as to whether they buy from you or not.

This means you must make sure you explain the benefits fully , and not just assume that they should know that it’s “just common sense”.

You see, for many it isn’t.

If you aren’t continuinally educating your clients and prospects about the benefits you offer, you need to take a close look at your marketing message.

Remember, people like to buy, they don’t like to be sold to. This is why a solid educational marketing approach is so important.

Are you explaining your offer clearly enough that your prospects have all of the information they need?

If not, then you need to go back and improve what you are saying. Never assume that others are going to think like you do – chances are they won’t.

But if you want futher proof, you only have to look around you in everyday life – on the roads, in the news even in your workplace – to realise that ‘Common Sense’ isn’t all that common at all!

Now, onwards…

… to your success!

Jez