The Science of Customer Connections

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GETTING RELEVANT: What Customers and Prospects Actually Want (and Need) to Hear

THE GREAT FOOTBALL COACH Lou Holtz once said, “Never tell your problems to anyone. Twenty percent don't care and the other 80 percent are glad you have them.”

That's funny yet also uncomfortably true, at least in our everyday lives. But when it comes to business messaging, things are a bit different. It is more likely that 80 percent (or more) of consumers don't care about your challenges. That has little to do with you—and a lot to do with consumers' general mindset.

Approximately half of Americans say they don't have enough time to do the things they want. According to Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll, there isn't much new here; that proportion ...