Revenue Journal®

When I got an advance copy of the about-to-be-released book, Tuned In, and started reading it, my head swam. The authors, whom I've known for a long time, were singing my theme song so perfectly that I felt like I was in a parallel universe.

Their basic premise? That the companies that make it - the ones that rise above all others - have one thing in common. They're "tuned in." They came to this conclusion after actually doing research - which is a good thing, all by itself. After interviewing hundreds of CEOs and people at thousands of companies, they were sure that the difference between the Starbucks and the Peets of the world was how "tuned in" they were.

So far, so good. But these guys are pragmatists. Craig Stull is the CEO/founder of Pragmatic Marketing, Phil Myers is the president, and David Meerman Scott is creator of the New Rules of Marketing seminar for Pragmatic Marketing. These practical guys have come up with six steps you can take to make sure your company is tuned in:

1. Find unresolved problems
2. Understand buyer personas
3. Quantify the impact
4. Create breakthrough experiences
5. Articulate powerful ideas
6. Establish authentic connections

This is good advice, and the book makes the case for this advice with a plethora of relevant and interesting examples. So when the authors asked me to join their blogfest and give a webinar that ties "tuned in" to the customers' buying experience, I was happy to participate. Business owners and managers need all the help they can get, to be more tuned in to their customers.

As customers, we know what we want. We know the problem we're trying to solve, how we will go about finding a solution, and how we want to buy it. Sellers, on the other hand, only think they know what their customers want. After all, it's so humiliating to have to ask people what they really want - especially after you've just invested heavily in things they might not want. This is where all that terrible "irritate them and manipulate them until they cave in and buy" advice comes from. It's sold by selling and marketing "gurus" who can teach a company owner how to lie to customers, but don't know how to help them create something that customers would like in the first place.

Sellers were able to get away with this kind of arrogance before the web. Momentum and aggravation was in their favor. It was easier to live with the vendor you'd found than to go through the difficult process of finding a good alternative. Not anymore.

Now, if you want something, you just Google it, and in a few seconds, you have dozens and dozens of options. Now, if you have a negative experience when you buy something or after you've bought something, you can tell everybody who is interested, posting a review or complaining about your experience in a discussion group. Others who are thinking of buying that same thing will find your review in their Google search results.

Momentum is now in the favor of the buyer. And companies that aren't tuned in to the buyer are simply not going to survive in this new world.

In the webinar, I'm going to talk about how companies have no idea how quickly a potential customer dismisses them, in this age of web-based comparison shopping. Now that just about everyone has high bandwidth, it takes only a second to jump from one site to the next. The minute a buyer arrives at your website, they will either immediately decide that you are tuned in to their needs - or not.

In the thirteen or so years that the Web has become the world's largest shopping mall, buyers have learned to recognize which companies are going to meet their expectations and which ones are going to disappoint. This is the first test you must pass, and most of the companies in any given market are failing.

Tuned In: Uncover the Extraordinary Opportunities that Lead to Business Breakthroughs looks at the companies that are making it with today's buyers, analyzes how they're doing it, and then provides a recipe for similar success in a way that is accessible and insightful. I think you'll enjoy it.