As a small business owner, you may get caught in this trap. You are far better at understanding your business than you are at understanding your customers.
People Buy Out of Their Need
If you live and breath your product specs, your industry jargon, your service benefits, its easy to feel secure in your knowledge. You may think being able to spout off the facts is all you need to win business. But here is a universal truth of business to consider; people buy out of their need.
Not only do they buy out of their need, but they also act out of their need. That is why they are not likely to attend an all day seminar on how great your company is, but they may come to a seminar on how to budget their way to wealth.
You Must Understand
Understanding your customers, who they are and where they are coming from, is a business must. Here’s an example. As a HVAC company, you may know the importance of cleaning furnace filters on a regular basis. You do it as a matter of course, and are surprised that customers don’t do it themselves. But your customer doesn’t spend every day working on furnaces. He doesn’t know the first thing about them, in fact. So, if you think like a furnace repairman, you will not understand your customer.
Instead, get to know the busy family that just wants to keep their house warm and the heat on throughout the winter. What are their needs, their concerns? Offer to come in and clean filters and do regular maintenance, not just because it should be done, but because it will ensure that the furnace works all season. Build more business by connecting what you do with what your customer needs.
Getting to Know Your Customers
If you are going to understand your customers, you need to know them. This starts by asking questions. You want to find out important things such as why they bought from you, what they liked and didn’t like, what need was filled and what need was left unfilled.
Now here’s the thing. I am all for doing surveys. But this is not the time for a passive survey. You need these answers from a good section of your customer base. This means getting on the phone or meeting these customers in person. Work real answers out of your customers through engaged conversation.
Beyond a push to get answers, you need to start paying more attention. Ask more questions in your sales presentations. Listen to your customers as they tell you about their needs. Make every attempt to learn what drives your customers to buy.
Live and Breath Your Customer’s Needs
While its natural for you to live and breath your business, it might be a learning process to put the same kind of focus on your customers. If you want to be a dynamic company that is loved by your customers, getting close to them and “getting” them is an important step.
Here is my trick for living and breathing customer needs. Start writing (or recording) a blog. Blogging for the customer is a sure fire way to dig in to what is important to them. Your goal is to get the customer to read the blog regularly. They won’t if all you talk about is stuff that is not important to them. If, however, you start to discover what is important and talk about that regularly, your customers will visit your blog. When your blog becomes essential to your customers, you know that you understand your customers.
Every Customer is Different?
People come from all sorts of places and have different needs. How can you possibly understand and then communicate to all of your customers? The only way is to discover your ideal customer. The ideal customer fits a certain pattern, one that works best for your business. They may be a tech geek, and love the insider talk. Or they may be a stay at home mom who is super busy and only wants the solutions, please.
The point is, all of your ideal customers fit the same pattern and have the same needs. By getting to know this ideal customer set, you will win more and more of these customers. The other customers? You don’t have to worry as much about them. They can get on board or not. You are busy understanding and speaking to a certain set, and that is enough to build your business upon.
So, as you go about your business today, think about a few things. First of all, do you speak from your business perspective or from a customer’s perspective? Second, do you know why your customers buy from you? And third, could you write or talk regularly and keep your audience of customers interested and coming back for more?
Recommended Reading
I am constantly on the prowl for good business books. Right now, I am reading Crush It, by Gary Vaynerchuk. I love Gary’s take on passion and business. This book will give you a kick in the butt to get up and get moving as you pursue your passions and your business.
If you are interested in Crush It, you can get it through Amazon by clicking here or by visiting your local bookstore.
Have a Small Business Question? Ask me and I will answer it here – email me with your question now.
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Bradford Shimp is the publisher of All Biz Answers. He is also the co-creator of Idea Anglers, a place to see your ideas come to life through collaboration. Follow on Twitter @bradfordshimp. Let Bradford help you with your business – visit BroadRiverCreative.com
