Tighten your seat belts before we take off to discuss this topic that needs a lot of guts to be digested by conventional wisdom of running a business. After all, a business is meant for making money and the headline appears to be exactly opposite to that belief. Rest assured, you will have a pleasant flight because I do not discuss theory and my domain is where the rubber meets the runway and the wings shear through the clouds of ambiguity. Here we go .. to the cruising height with some simple questions and no brainer answers.
* Who decides whether you can sell? You know the answer - it is the customer.
* Who takes decision whether to buy a product or service at a certain price, even at a premium? Easy answer - it is the customer.
* Does a customer care whether you sell more or make profit? Heck - No. He/She does not give a damn about your financial goal.
* When you buy a product, say - from Sony. Why do you buy? Because that product fulfills your perceived needs more than other competitors of Sony, Right?
* Do you buy your bottle of Pepsi or a Pizza to quench your thirst or appetite, to make Indira Nooyi reach her profit target or Pizza Hut expand their business? No need to answer.
All those are glaring example that customers 'buy' to solve their problems, not to help the supplying companies make money or sales.
From a height of 35,000 ft., look at the ground.
A successful road side fast food corner stall owner focuses on getting her dishes right in terms of quality, at a correct speed to match the demand at different points of time during the day, at a right price. Her entire efforts - the purchase, storage, cooking, serving, financing, accounting, advertising, retailing skills ... all are centered around one critical goal that is, to get and retain customers. She knows that whether she would be 'in' or 'out of' business depends on the 'image' (brand) of her establishment in the eyes of her customers.
I have shown the example of a grass root level of successful business and though a roadside stall only to emphasize that it does not need complex thinking genius if the sale and profit are viewed as 'effects' of passionate and emotional focus on solving customers' problems.
source: ezinearticles.com
No comments:
Post a Comment