"Fans view music
the way they view
their relationships.

Some music is just for fun,
a passing fling (the ones they dance to
at clubs and parties for a month
while the song is a huge radio hit,
that they will soon forget
they ever danced to).

Some songs and albums
represent seasons of our lives,
like relationships that we hold dear
in our memories
but had their time and place in the past.

However, some artists
will be like finding "the one."
We will cherish every album
they put out until they retire
and we will play their music
for our children and grandchildren."
Taylor Swift

It's Sunday night and
the weather's been beautiful.
I've been working
on things I want to share with you.

In business, many people point
to lifetime value of the customer
as a very important metric.

There are calculators that will help
your predict how much a customer
will spend with you.

But what about your
lifetime value to your customer?

Calculators can only tell you
the size of a transaction.
They can't tell you the transaction's
value to a customer.
Only what the customer paid.

That's pretty important.
You probably connected to the internet
and didn't give a single thought
to the company you used to do it.

What you provide
is going to fit somewhere
in your customer's life.

Will it be fleeting and forgotten
like some throwaway song?

Or will it be valued way more
than whatever they paid for it?

A paper coffee cup that ends up in the garbage
or an engagement ring that's given for a lifetime?

Words that help them kill time?
Or something that changes
the way they live their life forever?

Your intentions determine
the outcome more than you think.

Think of someone
you truly cared about.
Family or friend.

When you did something special for them,
it was pretty special wasn't it?

In fact, think of the best present
you've ever bought or made for someone.

You've given presents to others
but their present was special.

You started with the intention
of giving them something special.
You put a lot of thought into it.

Maybe you surfed the net
looking for that one.beautiful.thing.
Something that would make their eyes light up.
Or you spent endless amounts of time making
that one thing you hoped they would never forget.

The moment came when you either bought it or
finished making it.
You know you nailed it.

Why? Because you were clear
on the feeling you were after.
You were absolutely clear
on how much that person meant to you.

And you didn't need a lifetime value calculator.

Big data can tell you all kinds of things
about a customer:

Who they are

Where they live

What they like

What they bought

You can find volumes
about another person
without even meeting them.

If lots of data were enough,
pollsters would be president.

Have you ever had
a friend or family member
who knew everything about you
but didn't really "get" you?

Maybe you've been lucky
enough to have known someone
who "got" you and you trusted with your life?

Anything they gave you
had a higher value
because it came from them.

Connecting with people
is not an accident.
It starts with your intentions.

That's not the same as your
"reason why" by the way.

You buy a birthday present.
The "reason why" might be
to show you care.

Underneath that reason
is your intention.

Your intentions are how much you truly care.
That nuance can decide the fate
of sales, marriages and lives.

Customers love, are loved and hurt every day.
You're walking right into the middle of that.

The lifetime value of a customer
begins with your lifetime commitment.
Or you can move them through
your funnel and hope for the best.

People see right through the prettiest speeches.
If you say you care, you better mean it.

Instead of asking
how much customers are worth to you,
ask yourself first
how much you plan on being worth to them.

How long do you plan on
being around in their lives anyway?

Answer that question
and a whole other level
of clarity is waiting for you in the wings.

More to come,
Robert Gibson
www.RobertMarketingHelp.com