Weekly Furniture Message From Margo - A Model For Connecting With Customers

Margo is NOT a model, but she has a super one for FURNITURE WORLD readers!

This week, I’d like to talk with you about an instructional design model I created that can substantially help you in your furniture business.

My masters education is in Adult Learning and Motivation. I have been formally trained as a professional instructional designer. Several years ago, I created a model I named Audience Centered Instructional Design Components. Sounds a little boring (O.K., a lot), but really, it is quite exciting. The model was meant for speakers and trainers who create (and deliver) content. The exciting part though, is that it is a beautiful model to understand how to connect with clients and customers. I have included a link to a visual of the model. You might want to open that link as you read this message. Now, let’s break it down and play with it so we can monetize what we learn from this cool little model called Margo’s Model.
 
www.DeGangiGroup.com/margos_model_of_instructional_design_components.pdf
(By the way, I will keep it simple here, but if you want a more in depth audio of this model, just send me an email.)

The model consists of nine important components that should be included in the design of good instruction. Eight of them center around the most vital component of all, the audience. For the purposes of this article, let’s let our “audience” be our customer (including the potential customer) instead.

The audience (oh, I mean the customer) is KING! Everything we do in our businesses must be to connect to and relate well to the customer (audience) so that we create a mutually beneficial relationship, one that also results in a customer taking positive action.
The eight surrounding components can be looked at in this over-simplified way as we apply this model to our businesses and customers instead of to creating content that we will deliver to our audience.

Understanding of Audience Needs and Goals

It is OUR responsibility to find out what our customers need and want, NOT what we think they need. We must know who our customers are. What are their goals and why do they need you to meet them?

Motivation and Feedback

When we communicate, we have to trigger something in our customers that will cause them to want to interact back, giving us vital information. Motivation is also a way of keeping the customer intrigued. Their feedback means they feel free to talk because we listen and also offer feedback.

Effective Delivery Methods

What does our store, our website, or our online selling system look like? Is our delivery truck a total mess or obnoxiously loud because it needs a tune-up? Do our sales people have bad breath? Are we too soft spoken, not engaged enough, or overbearing?

Something for Every Type of Learner

This is self-explanatory. Not every one of your target customers will relate to the same product lines, to the same type of sales person, to the same media outlets, or to the same use of your products and services. Mix it up and offer variety to appeal to the many different preferences of your target customers (notice I said “target customers”, not “every customer in the world”).
 
Creative Ways to Gain and Hold Attention

Be innovative, be creative, be yourself. Have fun with it, get people talking. Gain and hold their attention with new ideas, great information, and with concepts, content, products, and services that matter to them.

Good Communication

Don’t use cliché’s in your sales presentations, your media and advertising, or in your delivery of any sort. Also, take the time to be clear and communicate what you really want to say. Communication goes both ways so be sure and hear what the customer is saying to you as well.

Good Content

Your products and services are like content. If they are junk, no one will care and everyone will waste their time and resources. And speaking of content, your newsletters should be great, too—NOT filled with thoughtless ads.