- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
What do product marketing, advertising and sales techniques have to do with your dating success? A lot more than you might guess.Learn and apply these techniques to gain dating success:
1. Work from a plan, rather than just tactics. Be clear what you want and how you intend to get it before you begin.
2. Know your customer, your audience, your market. You are just shooting in the dark if you haven't determined who you are targeting. Be very clear exactly what sort of person you want to attract before you start advertising yourself.
3. Understand that people buy for selfish reasons. No one in their right mind is going to date you out of compassion. They will date you (buy your product) because they want something that you (your product) offer.
4. Determine your prospective customer's needs, and meet those needs. Pain avoidance is a much stronger motivation than pleasure seeking. People are more strongly driven by fear and need than by a quest for greater happiness. Identify and target your prospective partner's needs rather than his or her wants. Loneliness and insecurity are examples of needs that you can focus on meeting.
5. Create a powerful brand image that conveys a clear concise message. Think about Nike as an example. Nike's image is not sneakers, shoes, or even running shoes - Nike's image is healthy active engaging people in action. Apply this principle to your own "brand." What images and ideas do you want people to associate with you? Craft your own image, and live into it.
6. Be unique - don't copy your competitors - don't compare yourself to your competitors. While it is extremely common for low quality advertisers to declare their product cheaper, faster, sexier than their competition, the most successful companies (and daters) just pretend they don't even have competition - and in a sense, they don't. Again, think Nike. To the extent that they are selling an image rather than shoes, they truly aren't in competition with shoe companies. How are you uniquely special? Be proud of your unique qualities.
7. Believe in your product, don't fake enthusiasm. If you don't believe in yourself, how can you expect anyone else to believe in you?
8. Love your customer, not your product - make their life better. If they feel loved and well served, they will buy your product.
9. Offer a free sample or trial but don't give away the store.
10. Build on "yes." Start with a small "yes," and move to bigger ones. "Yes, I'll be your friend," comes before and leads into a bigger "yes," and a yet bigger "yes."
11. Save price for last, but never forget that this is a sale, not a give-away. Remember to focus on the "close."
12. Use multiple channels to deliver your message. Don't rely solely on just face-to-face contact, or even on just word-of-mouth. Teaming with supportive friends can make the project easier and more pleasant. Also consider on-line dating and other resources. You don't have to do this alone.
13. Patience - persistence - perseverance. Stay in action, never give up. Sales of any kind is hard work. Selling yourself is no easier. They will come, they will stay. Believe in yourself and in your mission.
Never become so absorbed in chasing someone that you forget to maintain your standards. Don't catch someone you don't really want. Someone who is lonely and insecure is an easy catch, but are you sure you really want them?
