Many of you will look at this title and think, “What is he thinking?  Marketing and Intimacy? The two have nothing to do with each other.”  The fact is that Marketing and Intimacy are very closely intertwined; they have everything to do with each other, and ignoring this will cost you business.

You all know that marketing is the action or business of promoting & selling products or services.  Simply put, you identify your market, its size, demographics, and characteristics, develop a product, price it, promote it, and distribute it.  

Intimacy is most often thought of between couples or partners.  Most rarely think of intimacy when talking about marketing, as intimacy is defined as close familiarity or friendship, warmth, confidence, affection, togetherness.  But by uniting these two concepts of Marketing and Intimacy, and approaching your product, service, customer, client, or patient with a sense of intimacy, you will draw more people to your product or service.

Many entrepreneurs focus their thinking on How can I sell this ______________? (Fill in the blank with your product or service).  Instead, think from the vantage point of customers.  What do THEY want?  Be them.  Step out of your own shoes, and into theirs; not what you think they want, not what you want them to want, not what you want them to buy, or why they should buy, but truly be them.  If you can really put yourself in their shoes, feel their joy, pain, discomfort, or happiness, and then you will be so closely intertwined that you will have marketing intimacy.

This closeness results in you creating a better product, more specific and applicable.  It results in better identification of your target market, better distribution, and promotion.  How do you ask?

If you are your clients, customers, or patients, and you can be one with them, so as to feel their feelings and think their thoughts, you will develop a product or service that more closely fits or services their real wants.  You will have a clearer vision as to who will best benefit from your product or service.  You will be able to communicate to them a message that speaks to them directly, and you will develop a deeper relationship and connection with them so that they wouldn’t dream of going anywhere else for the product or service.

This isn’t a mushy, touchy-feely, ethereal connection between you and your customer.  This is hands-free but heart and mind fully engaged.  For many, it is foreign territory.  Some might say, Heck, I don’t even have that kind of intimacy with my spouse/partner/ girlfriend/boyfriend/significant other…  Well, that is another article in itself, but for your customers, clients, or patients, intimacy is being, knowing, understanding, and empathizing with someone so closely that you are them.

Consider this, in a room of 100 people, who do you have the most knowledge, understanding, affection for, and confidence in; who do you trust to do the right thing by you?  You would probably answer “ME!”  That is a lonely place to be.  How amazing it would be if we could answer that question confidently with even 2 or 3 additional people.

How would you feel if someone did this for you?  If they helped you with a problem, gave advice, made suggestions, with no ego involved (yours or theirs), but truly helped in the most genuine way possible.  It doesn’t happen often, does it?  When those rare occasions do happen, you feel confidence, affection, and closeness to that person.  They have gained your trust so completely, that you want to keep them near you- as an ally, a spouse, a business partner, and a friend. 

How often have you done something, said something, or acted in a way that was completely unselfish because you knew that it was the right thing for someone else?  Have you turned down business because you knew it was not the right fit for the client?  Denied a second date because you knew it wasn’t a good match?  Told someone the complete truth, not the politically correct version, knowing that they would be better off in the long run.  That is intimacy, and it is a trait that customers, clients, and patients, heck- PEOPLE, often don’t see because someone is too busy trying to make the sale, hit their monthly bonus quota, top last month, or have enough cash to buy that new sports car.

Intimacy is this, to be able to take the you out of it and to be the other person.  It is only from that vantage point that you can fully understand what someone else is feeling, experiencing, thinking, and only from that vantage point that you can truly let go of yourself, your wants and needs, and be in a position to help the client.  Marketing Intimacy is putting ourselves in a place void of ego, where the right thing is the right thing.  We have to be the other person, and thus help them honestly, accurately, factually.  Trust that when you do this and act from a place free of bias, wealth, goodness, and abundance will gravitate naturally to you.

At EntrepreneursRx, this is our template.  Entrepreneurs helping entrepreneurs! We are you and get you and your journey.

 

 

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