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I found this post on a marketing blog site and thought it was so perfect, I had to share it by reposting it here.

Until very recently, successful businesses treated their customers the way farmers treat their crops: They were impersonal, transactional relationships. They made sure there was enough water, they kept the weeds out, and when Thanksgiving came around, there were lots of yams to harvest.

Successful companies no longer get away with this kind of behavior.

Customers aren’t yams. They need to be listened to, conversed with and treated as individuals.

Today, and especially this week, a much better way of thinking of your customers is like family. Here are five reasons why:

(1) You Can’t BullSh*&t Your Family. Siblings don’t let you get away with anything. If your conversation veers into fact-free hot air, they call you on it. If you don’t fix your act and take it with a sense of humor, you’ll be in the doghouse. Your customers are no different. You can’t hide anything from them, and you certainly can’t fool them. Try to, and they’ll revolt.

(2) Talk About Yourself Too Much, Your Family Ignores You. What happens if you go home, sit down in the kitchen and talk about your work for fifteen minutes? Chances are everybody else will move to the living room. They don’t want a lecture, they want a conversation. Ditto for your customers. They don’t want to hear about all your new products. They want to have a conversation about how you can help solve their problems.

(3) You Can’t Buy a Family. Where did your family come from? It wasn’t bought, it was built, probably over a long time. Advertising agencies may tell you they can sell you customers, but they actually give you vegetables. To get a customer, you have build a relationship. You have follow them on Twitter, comment on their blog and listen to them.

(4) Your Family Will Embarrass You. Is there anybody who can poke your buttons like your family? Anybody who can find the one story from high school that you’re particularly sensitive about? You might be mortified when your family raises these things, but it’s good for you. It gives you character and helps you avoid taking yourself too seriously. Your customers do the same thing. They’ll point out bugs in your software, challenge you on their blog and strain your customer service team. But those are all good things. If your business isn’t being challenged and knocked out of its comfort zone it’s not growing.

(5) You Should Eat Turkey With Your Family. Your family may be a lot of work, it may drive you nuts sometimes, but your life is better with them in it. You need to invest in your relationship with them. You need to go eat Turkey — or whatever it is you eat — with them. If you treat them like vegetables, a commodity you tolerate every once in a while, you’ll lose them. The same goes for your customers. Spend time with them, communicate with them, invest in relationships with them and they’ll be around for a while.

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Facing a day’s work or one big project can be daunting. With so much to accomplish in a limited time, the early plan is a vital starting point.

Making a list is a well-known strategy. It sounds simple, but deciding what to include can be tricky.

The all-day list shows tasks, large and small, that you want to accomplish that day. Numbering them in the order of importance or when you will do them can help. It’s OK to include small tasks. You won’t forget to do one, and crossing them off makes you realize that you’re moving forward.

The project list is different. It helps you think on paper. Adviser Brian Tracy says working from a detailed list keeps you on track. The visual record of accomplishment and constantly referring to it can increase your productivity by 25 percent or more. Be disciplined in your approach, he cautions.

For a project, Tracy says you should regularly ask yourself these questions:

What am I trying to do? Clearly define the goal and outcome. If you are working with others, make sure everyone knows the desired results.

What are my assumptions? Alec McKinzie, author or The Time Trap says, “Errant assumptions lie at the root of most failures.” What are your assumptions about the market, the actions of others, and the underlying motives of key players?

What if what you believe turns out to be not true? Always be willing to question your most cherished assumptions. Decide what you will have to do differently if your current approach fails.

A written plan of action, says Tracy, is the key to high productivity. Every minute you spend planning will save you as many as 10 minutes in execution.

What affect has the economy had on your marketing?
( polls)

The basic idea of teamwork is to have a group of people work together to create a program.

But what if you determine that there is a serious flaw in the process? Would you avoid confrontation by peacefully going along with conclusions of your fellow team members?

The answer should be assertiveness. Writing in Business Week, Kerry Sulkowicz says assertiveness is confrontation’s adaptive cousin. It can be deployed usefully between people working toward the same goal.

Assertiveness is used to negotiate contracts, reject bad work, or criticize a strategy, but some people will do almost anything to avoid any confrontation.

Sulkowicz says they may fear that expressing displeasure will cause anger among team members. They don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings, and they fear the consequences if the criticism turns out to be wrong.

The key to successful assertiveness is to empathize with the person you are confronting. Before you do it, gather all the useful facts and be ready to offer alternatives along with your objections.

Direct your comments toward the issue rather than at a person or persons. Your opponents won’t hear what you say if you attack them personally.

When proven right, don’t gloat. Sulkowicz says nobody likes a poor winner.