Nobody Cares What YOU Want!
Sounds a bit harsh doesn't it?
Stick with me for a minute or two and let me explain what I mean.
Regardless of the business or the industry you are in or your position whether you are a receptionist or the chairman of the board - your business is in the business of selling something.
If not and If you aren't - then what you are doing is some other activity other than business. Maybe a hobby, maybe something else - but if it makes money as an enterprise it is a business and that means it is selling something.
That may include products, services or both.
Regardless of what you do - you will be dealing with other people in multiple ways - and never forget - they all care most about what they want and not much at all about what you want.
The Most Common Mistake
Too many people approach their work, business and life from the wrong angle - and that is just looking for ways to get what they want.
Yet in reality the only sustainable and realistic way to build a business that will last over the long haul is to do the exact opposite of that. Instead of just going after what you want - take the time and make the effort to find out what THEY want.
Figure out what their pain is, what questions they are searching for answers to and then find possible solutions for them. As you find ways to make those solutions available - and there are many ways to do so, including affiliate marketing and many more - the better you get at creating or finding and matching solutions to problems and challenges the better you will do over time in any kind of business.
Lessons from the Trucking Industry
Years ago I worked for a trucking company that I helped build from 50 to 60 or so drivers up to a fleet of more than 125 drivers. Most of them I personally recruited and trained, coached and mentored. Some I even personally taught how to drive a tractor trailer myself - others were trained by instructors I had selected and trained.
A very few actually were administered their CDL (Commercial Drivers License) skill's test by me when I was a 3rd party skill's examiner for the state.
Long story shorter - I cared a tremendous amount for all of these people and I invested an enormous amount of my time, energy and life into trying to help them as best as I could figure out how to do so.
I had already learned that the only way I could be successful and reach my own goals was through helping other people reach theirs.
Every month we had a safety meeting. Part of the meeting was conducted by me and was training on trucking related topics, safety, risk management and other things. The rest of the meeting was supposed to be a business meeting.
Often the owner would start out OK talking about the company, customers, loads and related things - then he would almost always digress into "All the things I do for you..." and complain to the attending drivers about things that had nothing to do with most of them at all and was not in their control.
He would actually complain to the drivers about mistakes that operations or the shop made as though somehow the drivers were the problem!
You could feel the tension increase and the entire mood change instantly. You could see their eyes glaze over and see they were no longer interested in what he was saying at all. If anything they resented it.
What They Want...
What he never fully understood was that they were not there to serve him or his company - they were there to earn a living and trying to build a better life for themselves and their own families. So long as they had an acceptable opportunity to do that, and so long as the companys opportunities supported that, there would be a mutually beneficial relationship that could continue for years.
The better a trucking company (or any other company) understands and does this the better job they do at attracting and retaining highly motivated and productive people. The inverse is also true - the worse a company does at these things the fewer drivers it will have and the worse they will be (bad driving records, accidents, incidents, liability).
That increases the chances of the company struggling and ultimately failing too.
In trucking you are constantly selling driving opportunities. The ability to attract, recruit and retain top producing, safe and efficient truck drivers is critical in a very competetive industry, and you simply will not be very successful - and may not even survive - if you don't come to understand and deal with this effectively.
Fast forward a few years. I left the company to pursue other opportunities, and sadly within a few years that company lost more than half its drivers and went from growing, to declining and in crisis to barely surviving.
Why?
Because the drivers to this day do not care what IT wants - they care about what THEY want...
The Concept is Universal
I won't bore you with another long winded story (not yet anyway!) but I also have years of experience in real estate and have seen the exact same concept applied and its results in real life over and over again in both sales and rentals of residential properties of all types and even within the ability of a firm to attract and retain agents.
I have witnessed the same exact thing happen again and again in all kinds of businesses and in everyday life in general over many years. This story is always the same - it's just the charaters and the settings that change.
If you want to learn from it lest you repeat the pattern yourself, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself and then seek answers to;
Who are you dealing with?
Who are your customers and clients and what is their pain?
What do THEY want?
How can you find and deliver solutions they want?
Whether it is customers, clients, readers, students, viewers, listeners, employees, members, associates or anyone else - you must look at it all through their eyes and from their perspective - not just your own.
What are they looking for and how can you give it to them?
Some of the answers you will be seeking have already been answered again and again and are available through research. Online searches, videos, blog posts, books, and online courses can all provide you with years worth of knowledge in a few minutes, hours or a few days at the most in many cases.
There are ways to ask the people you help directly what they want too.
Ask the questions - find the answers - provide the solutions.
As the old saying goes, help enough other people get what they want and you can have anything you want.
In other words again - focus on providing value and on providing solutions that other people want and get better at doing that.
The better your solutions are the more you will benefit too, all in good time.
Now I want to know your thoughts!
Do you agree?
Disagree?
What are your own experiences telling you so far?
Recent Comments
34
I can't say otherwise.i know that you may know so much but I have realised in years by knowing your customer well is key to satisfying your own desire.they certainly don't care what you want the money comes by solving their problem.remember if you don't there is one out there who knows nothing but to listen and deliver what they are looking for.many bussiness have gone under by either ignoring their clients or what their workforce need to stay motivated and finally get what they want. Even when you find your niche and know it well it not about you but connecting with clients and appearing like a guide will make them come to you or walk away.you are lucky to get feedback from unsatisfied customer because when they are not they will tell others not you. Have a great day and night freinds.
Thanks for your comments. The better we understand people the better we can work to effectively meet their needs and provide the products and services they want and need.
That means a win-win for all sides, and that is a better way to build a business in my humble opinion.
Best regards,
L.D. Sewell
As a business, giving people what they want just makes sense. I recently took a sales class, and doing research to find out what people are looking for is what was discussed.
The class gave me a better understanding of affiliate marketing. I hadn't thought about what people want in terms of employee/employer, but I wholeheartedly agree with you.
I totally agree its all about the customer not the process.
I guess increasingly though customers want what they want along with the ethics they expect. So an organisations moral, contribution and ethos is just as important as what they want in terms of a product or service. So I will purchase from one supplier over an another because of what they give back and their mission and purpose even in some cases even if it costs more.
I guess things like equal rights, enviroment, treatment of staff etc all add up and I think it should. Of course price and customers satisfaction are also up there. Interesting and thought provoking, thanks for sharing! These debates matter. At the end of the day any operation who says its all about them isn't going to work regardless :) Anyway - Enough about me what do you think about me?!
Thanks for your comments - and you are right. While it is possible to take advantage of some of the people some of the time for short term gains based on greed - that is never going to build any kind of sustainable business worth owning, working for, or being any part of.
Sooner or later it all comes back around to reap what is sown.
Best regards,
L.D. Sewell
See more comments
It's not uncommon for some of the more successful entrepreneurs (and some less so) to ask their audience exactly what they want, then they go away and put together the package tailored to their needs.
Makes so much sense when you think about it.
Zig Ziglar had it right, all those years ago.
Richard Branson also agrees with you:
"If you look after your staff, they'll look after your customers. It's that simple."
I like most everything Zig Ziglar taught - and I like most of what Branson says too. Nobody in their right mind can honestly argue with either of their results either.
And yet even though this simple concept is common knowledge available to all - it is still rarely used effectively if it is used at all.
True words indeed.