Your customers don’t have to do business with you. They have many suppliers from which to choose, but they have chosen you. Why? What is it about the product or service you offer that brings you customers and keeps them? You think you know why your customers have chosen to do business with you, but do you really know?
Sadly, too many business people aren’t in touch with what their customers are buying. We think we’re selling price but our customers are buying on-time delivery. We think we’re selling world class service but our customers are buying long-term durability.
The answer is to stop telling your customers what you want to sell them and start listening to what they want to buy. Ask them point blank. “You have lots of other companies you could be doing business with, but you’ve chosen us. Why?”
Take a customer to lunch, leave your pre-conceived notions at home, and he or she really will explain your business to you. You might just learn that you’re not in the business you thought you were in.
