Whenever I’m asked speak to other business owners about the day-to-day experiences of running a business, the more I think that those of us who are doing it should be proud of ourselves. There’s so much to do and to know! As I stand with of business owners who give up their precious free time to gather more information about running their businesses, it hits me again and again how much the focus, the core of business is people.
It’s not business, it’s people
Suppliers, customers, staff, journalists, sales people… each time you relate to any of them, it will go so much better if you begin by asking yourself:
How can I make this work for both of us? What can I do for this person that will solve their problem? How can I help? What do they need?
Take a journalist, for instance: instead of droning on about your product or service being the best, you should think of his or her readers’ profile, and create a story especially written for those readers. You get the PR; the journalist gets column inches filled. You both gain. You’re both happy.
It’s not just people, it’s your customers
By far the most important group to think in this way for — in terms of your marketing — is your customers. So many business owners make the mistake of thinking of the business from their own viewpoint, from their own perspective. Yet imagine how much better your business could be if you always focused on the needs, wants and welfare of your customers.
And the way to do this? The way to find out what they want? What’s missing for them? What problem they have that needs solving?
Ask them.
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