How other people see us is not the same as the way we see ourselves, which is why writing adverts can be so difficult

Last night a woman asked me to dance.

After the dance she told me that, in her opinion, I was not nearly as good a dancer as I liked to think I was.

Now this comment rankled considerably and has been on my mind ever since, for I am not a chap who lightly forgets.

At least I am a fellow who forgets - dental appointments, birthdays, business meetings, emails to answer, bills to pay, phone calls to make and all that. But not a comment about my dancing. That is going too far.

And that is the problem - how I see myself, rather like the issue of how I see the products and services I sell, is quite different from how other people see me and the services this company offers.

Which is why it is so vital to understand both the people who buy one’s products and those who don’t, so that one can learn what it is that has tipped a person from not buying into buying.

On the dance floor I can wait and see if the lady wants to make a comment to me at the end, but it is a lot harder with selling via emails and websites. Indeed I find the only thing I can do is to send out a questionnaire every now and then. At least that gives me a clue as to what people are thinking.