The importance of customers

08/01/13

Recently published by our business coach partner, Rasheed Ogunlaru, 'Soul Trader - Putting the Heart Back into Your Business' helps entrepreneurs follow their passion and build a business you and your customers will love.

This is the second in a series of 8 articles sharing tips and insight from the books main principles.

Rasheed runs the Your life, your business workshop in the Centre.

Customers

“Until you really care about your customers – why should they care about you and what you do”?

So if you read and acted on article one, you will be clear on who you are, where your business is at and what you need to address next. Once you are clear, it’s all about your customers.

It’s very easy to be afflicted by what I call ‘the blindness of the visionary’: being so passionate and obsessed with your great new three-legged chair that you never ask your (potential) customers if they want it, need it or whether it suits them. No surprise you’re struggling marketing it!

The secret is to take off the hat of being you and see life through your customer’s eyes. Forget your product or service for a moment. Once you deeply understand and care about your customers, you will begin to be a brilliant entrepreneur.

Who are all the different types of people who might need your product/service?
What are the different scenarios where your customers might need your product or service?
What pain and problems do those different types of customers have?

The magic happens when you understand your customer’s world, concerns and priorities. The cliché is true; people aren’t really buying your product or service; they are buying the solution it gives them and how it makes them feel.

Now it’s time to do this for real. Look up the research and workshops available in the Centre.

But also be sure to ask real people what they think, want and need. Likewise if you’re established, keep the contact with customers; what they want, what do they need, what else would they like?

As you do this you’ll be getting all sorts of feedback. Based on this, you can create, adapt, review or rework your product and how it is packaged, promoted and presented.

In some cases you may need to go right back to the drawing board. Or it may be you realise you to make major changes. It may be you realise your product is actually more suited to one niche of customers. All of this is vital feedback.

The market place will change and your customers’ needs will change. The more deeply you develop this dialogue with customers the better placed you will be to serve them and to develop your business.

Interestingly as many businesses grow they stop listening – as a small business you cannot afford to do this.

Find out more about Rasheed and Soul Trader - Putting the Heart Back into Your Business