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Confession: I stole my neighbor’s Girl Scout cookies.

Wait, it gets worse.

They belonged to my daughter. She was planning to deliver them to our neighbor, who ordered them a month ago. But, see, this one box — the chocolate coconut Samoas — I’m telling you, they called to me. No, they taunted me, parading their chocolaty lusciousness right in front of me. Ohh.

So I did it. I ate them. And I did this knowing I’d immediately be faced with the issue of coming up with a new box of Samoas — pronto. Long story short, I had a new box shipped in via FedEx.

Why did I pay $20 shipping in order to eat a $4 box of cookies? I don’t just like Samoa cookies. I’m passionately, irrationally devoted to those crack-laced confections. I’m not just a customer, I’m a fanatic.

What about your business? Do you have fanatical customers?

These crazy-excited advocates may be a small slice of your overall base, but they’re the single most powerful force in your marketing mix. Why? Fanatics aren’t buying from you on the basis of price.

When the competition tries to lure them away with discounts, they stay loyal. They’re more likely to tolerate price increases or inconvenience. When your product is sold-out in one store, they’ll drive to another location to find it. They’ll refer you, and re-order from you.

Fanatics also have a delightful habit of doing your marketing work for you (for free). They create content around your products, glorify your service in online reviews, and post your content online.

Yet in reality, most customers are anything but fanatics. Most customers are tolerating their sales person at best, and at worst, ignoring them.

So why aren’t more salespeople fascinating? Because it requires courage to stand for something — to develop and express a distinct point of view. And that’s good news. It means even the smallest tweaks can help you break through.

Regular customers can become passionate advocates — if you’re willing give them something to be passionate about.

Passion is a powerfully strong emotion. It’s not lukewarm. Are you doing something that’s worthy of such a strong emotion? If you don’t give customers a reason to feel strongly about you, they can’t reward you with their passion.

How to turn lukewarm customers into fanatics:

1. Disrupt expectations. Make a list of all the accepted norms, the things that are taken for granted in your category: the way an appointment usually begins, to how payments are normally scheduled. Then, one by one, tweak those norms in small but surprising ways. “If my competition would do THIS, I’ll do THAT.” Over and over, point by point, rethink possibilities of how you could surprise your customer. The more accepted a norm, the more attention you earn by disrupting it.
2. Offer one truly inimitable difference. You don’t have to reinvent your entire brand. Just focus on one tiny but specific thing that people can remember, and link with you. You’ve hit the jackpot if you can get people to start conversations with the phrase, “Wow, cool, I can’t believe what my sales rep just did for me…”
3. Spark discussion. If there’s no spirited conversation around you and your brand, your point of view isn’t distinct or vibrant enough. Rant. Rave. Have opinions. Ask questions. Invent. The more your product is similar to your competitor’s, the more unique you must be.
4. Don’t get greedy with your best ideas. In most cases, your customer isn’t just buying a product from you; what they’re really hoping to buy from you is a better bottom line. Make it easy for them to see how you’ll add value. For instance, after a sales call, immediately send a smartly-packaged list of 3 ideas that your potential customer could do to improve their bottom line. After you’ve provided value, then follow up with the call.
5. Insanely over-deliver. Find times to wildly exceed expectations. Become irreplaceable for your customer, and your partners. For instance, if I’m happy with a vendor’s service, I send them a thank you gift. It’s unexpected, and reinforces our connection. The goal is to make your relationships impossible for others to exactly replace or duplicate.

Don’t water your messages down to mush, hoping to play things safe. In a competitive environment, there’s no such thing as safe. Playing it safe is dangerous.

(Almost as dangerous as those caramel Girl Scout cookies.)

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More posts by Sally Hogshead

• How to create fascinating SlideShare presentations
• Masters of Fascination: Gary Vaynerchuk
• The orange ticket, or the green ticket?
• Do you invoice for hours… or ideas?
• How to fascinate in social media: My first free call

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