Yesterday, I talked to the concerned wife of a new business owner. Her husband recently started his own insurance practice- a great idea as he has almost fifteen years in the industry. So what was the problem?

He developed the first marketing flyer for his practice and printed 3000 copies- without showing the ad to ANYONE before printing it. The result was a confusing ad that could be so misinterpreted that his target customers may not feel he could service their particular needs. He also had some custom pens made- great idea- but had absolutely no contact information on the pens. When she asked her husband about it, he said “They can always look me up on the web.”

Well, the flyer has finally been trashed and the pens are going to be re-done, but what a waste!

When we design marketing materials, campaign development or just have pens made, we should always ask others how they respond to it. We don’t always have to agree, but remember that sales isn’t about what we think, it’s about what our customers think.

For a great post on other questions a salesperson needs to ask see Corey’s post on “Always ask why.”

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Jared Hawk is a professional trainer in office technology. He also maintains a blog on Microsoft Excel tips, tricks and more.

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