We’ve all been there: driving to work, coffee in hand, listening to our favorite jam, and then it happens – your nose begins to itch. You discretely put down the joe and take a gander to make sure no one will see you pick your nose (as if no one could see you through clear car glass). Then you get down to some serious booger business. And then you realize, no matter how hard you try, you can’t get the darn thing off your finger. The sticky booger now has your full attention and the attention of all the drivers around you.

Please don’t think that I am encouraging booger picking or to be annoying like a booger. I simply want to have a conversation about how you can win more and keep more business with professional persistence by developing a sticky design.

In Gary Vaynerchuk’s blog How to Sell in 2018, he says, “Real relationships take real time. You’re going to have to spend hours trying to interact, engage, and provide value in order to win. Luckily, through social media and the internet, you can do just that. You can create and distribute content, you can search employees by title or name, you can identify customers by geo-location, or individuals who like products that fit your niche. All the information is there, you just have to go online and figure it out. I’m as bullish as anybody on AI and CRM’s and message bots but those things are only going to put you on third base. It’s your emotional intelligence and tact and unscalable human effort is what takes you home.” Marketing strategy and tactics will drive results; however, they’ll only get you so far. Human interaction with an unwavering dedication to providing value will help win more business.

Thomas A. Stewart and Patricia O’Connell discuss in their book Woo, Wow, and Win: Service Design, Strategy, and the Art of Customer Delight, “Service needs to be laid into the company’s keel, the way performance is built into a BMW or intuitiveness designed into an iPad.” Steve Jobs and now Tim Cook have created an infectious culture focused on the sticky details of experience, spending just as much time on packaging, website communication, and retail design as they do on product lines. They do this for one reason – providing customers with a valuable and consistent experience across all platforms. How annoying is it when you get super excited about a new restaurant and everything is absolutely perfect with the exception of the waiter? Details matter.

Value. Anyone can offer the lowest price, but not everyone can bring real value. Being proactively instinctual to be present while also one step of ahead of a customer’s needs is an essential characteristic of stickiness. Keeping your thumb on the pulse of industry, economic volatility, trends, etc. are just a few examples of how you can bring value without “selling” them on more widgets. Showing the customer you actually give a damn about their success creates long-term professional friendships that make it almost impossible for them to make a change.

Human interaction focused on every detail ultimately provides real value. Be relentless because this journey is never over, it never stops. Be the sticky booger.

#pickflickandfollow #bethestickybooger #teleosmarketing

About Teleos
Based on Teleos’ proprietary T5 Analysis, the Agency guides businesses in how to communicate the benefits of their products and services to the needs of potential customers. Teleos crafts end-to-end marketing solutions that define the brand, resonate with audiences, and creates marketplace momentum. We know that design is more than pretty: it’s how a business works.