No, of course not.

You know it takes time, requires plenty of communication, a gradual deepening of trust, before you ask the big question.

So too in business.

But far too often, companies loose patience and cut straight to the big question. They forget the fact that building relationship is the most important thing they need to be concentrating on. And are surprised when the prospect says no.

But the irony is, if a friend said he had just proposed to a pretty girl, he had met that day, would reply, “You’re bonkers mate!”

Taking the time to build relationship brings great rewards; in business as well as in our private lives.

It’s worth the effort it takes.

To understand your customers takes time and empathy.  Empathy stems from putting yourself to one side and figuring out, how a customer really feels about a particular problem you plan to solve, and feel those same feelings alongside them.

But it’s impossible to talk to every single customer, so what you do is put all your customers into one basket and think about what common pains and frustrations, dreams and desires they all have in common.

And ask yourself lots of questions and keep digging until you hit the ’sweet spot’; the spot that ties all your customers together. Then you’ll have a customer profile.

Here are seven questions to get you started…

• What problem does your target market need to overcome each day?
• How are they feeling about their problem? Angry, frustrated, hopeless?
• What keeps your target customers up at night? What do they worry about?
• How important is your product or service in the overall scheme of the problems they face?
• How is your target market currently solving these problems without your product or service?
• What is the most common reason clients buy your products? What common problem does it solve?
• What are some of the goals or motivations of your target audience?

Once you’ve done answering these questions and many more, you can build a customer profile or model.

Forward-thinking companies build a customer profile in order to create realistic dialogue in their marketing materials, which better serves their customer’s needs. Why not you?