3 places in your business where this is critical; new business, existing customers and your employees.
New Business
Unless you have the monopoly on what you provide, your potential customers have a choice of who to use.
With so much information available, it’s a well publicised fact that customers can do for themselves a large portion of the sales process before needing to speak with a specialist.
Once they reach the limits of their own research, decisions on who to use are often made based on who demonstrates clearly that they know the industry the customer operates in, they understand their common challenges and they have the experience and know-how on how to solve them.
If you can’t show them you know them then you’re unlikely to win them as a client.
Existing customers
Winning new customers is hard so, once you have them, keeping them loyal should be an absolute priority for you!
We’re all customers of someone so we know we only remain loyal to those who clearly value our business and, because they understand us, provide the right advice and guidance to help make our lives easier.
Put yourself in your customers’ shoes – are you doing this for them? If not, don’t be surprised when they leave you for a competitor.
Your employees
As with all aspects of running a business (cos if it were easy, everyone would do it and be a raging success right?!), recruiting and retaining staff to help achieve the goals of the business is really hard.
Every new recruit is a gamble on your part and theirs.
You deciding they’re right for your business is one part of the picture but that doesn’t mean anything if they don’t also decide that working for you is right for them!
The best recruits usually make that decision because you’ve showed them you genuinely know them which gives them the confidence that you’re giving them the right opportunity to achieve what they’re looking for.
So you need to really understand what it is they’re looking for and I can give you one quick tip; don’t fall into the trap of assuming it’s money!
SMYKM – fundamentally imperative to the chances of your business being a success.
