It’s easy to spot customer or prospect concerns, particularly with sales and marketing interactions. These moments jump out at you if you’re paying attention – when the other person crosses their arms, starts responding with one-word answers or directly tells you “I’m not happy.”
It’s harder to identify the glimmers in a conversation – those moments when there is joy, happiness or satisfaction in the product or service you provide. We like to think of those as “moments of awe” – the time when things click, the lightbulb goes on, or the customer experiences a positive emotional response to what you say or do. It’s similar to pausing to soak in a sunrise or sunset, listening to the song of a bird, or appreciating a performer who excels at their craft.
When you find them, the moments of awe are gold.
Any good marketer knows that stories help sell your product or service, and the best stories identify and share moments of awe. At their most literal, it can be a positive statement that gets turned into a review or referral. More subtly, it might be sharing how new windows on a home stopped the cold air coming in, making it more comfortable for a family member to sit and watch the birds feeding outside on a winter day.
Sharing that story has more emotional impact than a case study. Our job as marketers is to actively seek those moments of awe, find out what made the customer smile or react so positively, and turn that into a story that helps convey how you and your company provide solutions.
How do you find the moments of awe? You must actively seek them. You’ll find more of what you focus on (the Red Car Theory). Then, ask questions – “I see you smiled when I said that, what prompted your smile?” or “Thank you so much for saying that. We appreciate your feedback/kind words – what prompted you to share that?”
You can also ask questions, “How do you feel about the new roof?”, or the install process, or working with our team.
Moments of awe are all around us. It takes just a little extra effort to look for them, and then turn them into customer reviews and stories.
