I’m very sorry, but the truth is that I don’t care if one of your staff is pregnant and I care even less that you’ve moved to fancy new offices – but how many companies can resist telling us?

Every day, you probably receive the latest e-newsletter from some of your suppliers and, for some reason, they seem intent on telling you all about themselves…

• They send you a photo of their fancy building
• They boast about pregnant staff
• They tell you how their staff are doing bike rides or bungee jumps for charity
• Do you care?

Of course you don’t – you want to know about you – our main area of interest is ourselves.  So, if you’re marketing to people, please focus on what’s in it for them – not what’s in it for you.  Ditch your ego and focus on how you can help them.

The majority of people buy because they have a problem that needs solving, particularly in a business-to-business scenario.  They may be uncomfortable, or dissatisfied in some way, and they’re looking for a solution.  Their main area of interest, therefore, is how well and how fast you can solve their problem, not whether your staff are taking a prolonged vacation to cycle to Timbuktu and back.

If your products are services are the best out there, that’s all people need to know – let them speak for themselves.