Written By Don Archer Connect with him on Facebook

Stepping out of my office to check a tire on one of the trucks, I raised my reading glasses and let them rest on top of my head. As I bent forward to get a better look, they slipped from my head and into a nearby pan we use for changing oil. Of course there was about 1/8th of an inch of oil remaining in the pan so they were immediately saturated.  I quickly retrieved them, flipped the dark heavy liquid back into the pan, and set them in place on a large wooden block. I figured if I allowed the sludgy film to slide down the lenses then a good cleaning could fix them afterwards. As I went back to inspecting the tire, one of the drivers came over and asked if I needed help. And as he moved closer to lend a hand, he stepped onto the block crushing my glasses with his size 10’s.

But there is a silver lining to this story…I had another pair.

But the reason I have another pair is a story in and of itself. I’m not proud to admit it but on rare occasions, while in the midst of an expletive-laden outburst, I’ve been known to toss my glasses across the room.  For my part though, you should know that it’s only when circumstances, outside my control, converge to cause my blood pressure to rise and my bank account to decrease. And since I can’t read without them I always keep an extra pair in my desk drawer.

Now I didn’t reveal this fault in my nature as a veiled cry for help. I’m not hoping to be kid-napped, stuffed in a van with the windows blacked-out, and spirited away where good-intentioned friends and family can intervene and convince me to take part in anger management classes. No I used this as an illustration to prove a point, to help you to understand the value that paying attention to the big problems is much preferable to lazily patronizing the small ones.

You see too many times we concentrate on the little pains because they’re easy and frequent. When marketing our services we’re convinced that the customer only thinks about too little money, or not enough time. And although it’s costly, we know how to address these concerns. The problem is…so does our competition.

And when we try and solve these small pains by advertising lowest rates and fastest service it means next to nothing. And resonates with no one.

In the process, we ignore the big problems—because they’re hard.

Losing or breaking my glasses is an inconvenience I’d rather not have. Of course easy solutions might include a strap to keep them around my neck or even eye surgery. But because I haven’t experienced enough pain in this area, and because of the negative images a granny strap produces in my mind, I haven’t taken those steps.

And rather than getting to the genesis of my frustration and solve my infrequent anger issues I settle instead on buying multiple pairs of cheap reading glasses. Why? Because no one has addressed my pain in a sufficient enough way, that includes a solution, to cause me to make a change.

“If you can give voice to what your customer privately believes or fears in their heart but have never told anyone, they’ll trust you forever”

The point is that if you don’t go further upstream in determining how folks make buying decisions then you’re going to be associated with all the other fish downstream.  Your customer will perceive that you’re exactly the same as your competition…because you don’t understand them.  But if you can address their true pain, (they’re biggest fear when deciding who to call when in need of towing services) and demonstrate your solution to that pain, they can’t help but see you as different.

Successful Marketer, Chris Haddad says; “If you can give voice to what your customer privately believes or fears in their heart but have never told anyone, they’ll trust you forever”

To give voice to what your customers privately fear you can’t stop with the small fears, price and time. To begin with, those apprehensions in choice aren’t private, if price and time are the issues they come right out and say it. Besides, in many cases they’re NOT a factor.

To get to the heart of the customer’s fear and understand what he believes about the services you’ll provide, all you need to do is think about how you make choices when purchasing services.

Do you always choose the lowest common denominator? When looking to get your kitchen remodeled for example; would you hire the guy with butt cleavage, and obvious personally-trait flaws, who shows up 2 hours after your appointment was scheduled—just because he offered to do the work for $100 less than the competition. No. You want someone respectable who’s not going to raid your kitchen or camp out in your bathroom while you’re not home.

These are the same fears your customer has. Find the biggest fear. Address it. And demonstrate your solution to it. And you’ll never want for customers again.