Summary
When launching a new business, I have seen the same mistake over and over again. New entrepreneurs spend countless hours prototyping their product and figuring out their processes, but neglect looking at their work from the perspective of their customers.
This is a classic error, as the best product in the world is of little utility if you haven’t targeted the right market base.
I firmly believe that you should always begin by walking around in the shoes of your potential customers to help see what problem they need solved.
Read on to learn more about why you need to start with your customer first each and every time.
Transcript
After you have been in business for a while, you begin to see some folks fall into the same pitfalls again and again.
One of the mistakes that I have seen many people make online when starting a business is that they are trying to be everything to everyone. It reminds me of the common adage, that “I don’t know what the key to success is, but I know the secret to failure: trying to please everyone.”
You have to keep in mind that the internet is a vast place and people’s attention is being pulled constantly in many directions. You have no doubt spent countless hours thinking about your website to the point that it feels as though like it is the center of the entire online universe, but you need to keep in mind the perspective of the potential customer. For them, your website, no matter how well designed and crafted, is just one more place on the internet competing for their eyeballs and their credit card information. The default will never be for them to click on your link. You need to persuade them to make that jump. And that process begins with truly understanding where your customer is coming from.
Connect to Your Customer
I have learned through extensive trial and error that the key to building a successful online business is knowing who your customer is and talking directly to him or her.
You may have heard the term “USP”, which stands for unique selling proposition. This is an important factor to keep in mind as well. It essentially sums up the reason why customers should use your good or service when they have so many other options at their fingertips. There are a lot of strong examples out there. The unique selling proposition that Sam Walton developed for Walmart is that the store sells just about anything you can imagine under one roof for lower prices than you will be able to find just about anywhere else. Amazon’s unique selling proposition is taking the same concept to the online marketplace, where you can locate almost anything you would imagine and have it delivered right to your door. Nailing down where you fit in will help you to identify how you can help your customer in a way that nobody else can quite match.
However, too many entrepreneurs start there with launching a new business. They have thought through all of the ins and outs of what is special about their business, but haven’t given a fraction of the same thought to knowing what is special about the customers they seek to serve. I have said it to young people starting out countless times. “Knowing your USP is not enough on its own.”
Walking in Their Shoes
It certainly does tell your customer what is unique about you, that’s true. But if you are not talking with the right person or the correct target audience, then they will simply not care. You need to really delve into the problem your ideal customer has and how you can uniquely solve it. This requires that you spend time figuring out exactly what pains your ideal customer. You should spend time truly walking in their shoes through a variety of methods. Don’t just conduct interviews and focus groups, but get out into the field. If you want to introduce technology that makes manufacturing prototyping more efficient, don’t just read reports and call a few potential suppliers. Get out there into factories, ride along with folks who work in the supply chain, and get an up close perspective on what types of problems your customers are facing each day.
And you can’t just highlight the problem, you must also be providing them with a robust solution. All of your marketing should focus on the end result your ideal customer is searching for, the result that you can help provide by entering into the market.
You’ll find that the businesses that truly dominate in the field put a high premium and pride themselves on thoroughly understanding their customers. You can find few better examples than Disney, which has built its brand upon providing its customers with experiences that are not just personalized, but truly seem magical. Not only does this produce special memories for families, but it also continues to deliver consistent returns for shareholders as well, who understand the unique power of the Disney name.
It’s a worldwide company now, but as with the growth of many great companies, that ethos all began with the founder, Walt Disney.
Walt simply served his customers beginning with the mantra that, “You don’t build it for yourself. You know what the people want and you build it for them.” He understood from spending time with potential customers and moviegoers that families were hungry for experiences they could all share together, as opposed to entertainment that was segmented off for just children or just for adults. Even today the parks are built to continually improve and refine themselves, using feedback from customers. It isn’t just feedback from scientific methods like surveys and focus groups. Disney espouses the importance of speaking directly to customers face to face, treating each and every park visitor as a guest in the Disney home. Employees and executives alike are encouraged to go out into the company’s parks, theaters, ships, and other assets to hear from customers firsthand to find out what is working and what needs to change.
That concept applies to each and every member of the team. Even custodians are encouraged to see themselves as eyes and ears on the front lines of customer engagement and to provide input on how the customer experience could be refined. Every member of the Disney “family” goes through extensive training in which they are explicitly taught to view customer engagement as one of their primary job responsibilities regardless of their level or duties within the organization.
Disney is obviously a very large enterprise with a very well developed internal training program, but this same ethos of looking at one’s business through the perspective of the customer first can have impact at any enterprise, large or small. You may even want to do away with the concept of “VIP Customer” and strive to treat each and every one of your customers as though they are the most special person in the world. By creating unique and memorable experiences for your customers, you could be much better placed to earn their loyalty over all of the other options out there. We’ve all heard those stories of companies that went above and beyond to help out their customers, going to extreme lengths to ship them packages they needed for special occasions or bending over backwards to make corrections under fast deadlines. If you give your customer an experience of uncommon service, you will likely find that you have earned yourself a customer for life that will not sway in their loyalty to you.
You can also learn more by visiting tonyneumeyer.com and registering to receive free trainings articles and more. Also subscribe to my YouTube channel and follow me on Facebook. You can get your copy of The 7 Minute Millionaire and check out my other books at https://tonyneumeyer.com/books/.
