|
When Did This Become About You?
How to Tap Into Your Customer’s Inner Desires for
Fun and Big Profits
When Did This Become About You?
The evolutionary biologists and psychologists are
right about one thing – humans have a tendency to put themselves
first. That makes sense – for example, you can’t save someone
else from drowning until you’ve saved yourself first. Those
scientists would argue that this is simply a survival mechanism,
a way to help propagate the species.
However, what started out as a survival mechanism
has spilled over into every part of our lives. Americans in
particular are known to put their individual needs ahead of the
group’s needs. Perhaps you’ve seen this selfish behavior taken
to sickening levels – face it, we all have the friend who only
talks about herself and never asks anyone what’s going on in
their life.
In business that same selfish drive applies, but
beware: it can work both for and against you. Indeed, one of
the most common beginner errors is focusing on one’s own needs
and not the customers’ needs. If you want to succeed, you must
reverse that. Specifically, you must focus on your customers’
needs and understand them.
Sure, you might be rolling your eyes right now
and saying to yourself, “no kidding, Sherlock…I KNOW that.” Yet
the reason this is such an easy error to make is because you
went into business for selfish reasons, right? Perhaps you work
for yourself because you want more money, or you want to take
care of your family, or you hate your job, or you want more free
time…and so on.
That’s normal. I did the same thing. I went
into business for myself because I didn’t want to work for
someone else.
So when you start your business essentially for
egocentric reasons, it’s easy to forget to make the “switch” and
start focusing on the customer. For example, it’s pretty easy
to get carried away thinking about what you’re going to do with
your newfound money and freedom, as opposed to keeping the focus
on how to better serve your customers.
But here’s the cool thing – when you fully commit
your attention to your customer’s wants and needs in lieu of
your own, your needs automatically get met.
I believe it was Zig Ziglar who said
(paraphrased) that if you help enough people get what they want,
you’ll get what you want. Think about that line and take it to
heart – it truly is one of the keys to running a successful
business.
Now let’s take a look at some specific examples
of where you need to focus on your customers and not yourself…
Table of Contents |
