I walk in and out of our backdoor every day. I see this door a lot, but I learned recently that I don’t really look at it.
For some reason, I noticed how dirty the glass was in this door. But it was like I saw it for the first time, or the first time in a long time.
I sprayed and wiped the window, then wondered, “Why hadn’t I noticed that before?”
Walking through that door is a habit. Once something becomes a habit, it’s familiar. That means we assume we know how it looks or acts without really looking.
Take your business, for instance.
You have certain business habits. They’re familiar. Based on your assumptions.
Most of them are about you.
And they’re strangling your profitability.
Here’s some familiar business dirt that could use a good cleaning.
Features and Benefits
When you talk about your company, what words do you use?
Do you focus on the company itself, the key features it offers? As you listen to yourself, do you hear, “I” or “Us”?
Or, “You” and “Your”?
It’s a familiar habit to extol the virtues of your company. You work hard and you’re proud of your business. It’s a familiar door.
However, your business features have value only as they benefit the customer.
What problems do you solve for them? How is their work accomplished more quickly or pleasantly by your services?
It’s not about you. It’s about your customers and what you do for them.
Clean the “me” from your feature-driven conversation and let “thee”-benefits shine.
Selling and Buying
Which do you do—sell to your clients or remove the obstacles to their buying?
Your habit may be to sell, which focuses more on why your widget is the best one in the world. But what if that customer isn’t interested in a widget? No amount of selling will close the deal.
I heard a story about a furniture store sales rep who attempted to sell a customer who wanted a round coffee table. The rep showed her every square and rectangle table in the store. Exasperated, the customer asked if he could order her one. “Of course,” he said. “I’ll email you a picture and the website.”
You guessed it. The picture was of a rectangle coffee table.
Accurate listening is the difference between selling and buying. Ask the right questions with a smile, listen carefully, and you’ll discover everything you need to know to help convert the visitor into a customer for life who sends all of her friends to you to buy.
Spray and clean the “selling,” listening until it sparkles with “buying” and you form a mutually beneficially relationship.
Transactions and Transformations
Such mutually beneficial relationships are transformative, not just transactional.
Who do you take your vehicle to for repairs—someone who just keeps replacing parts and charging you for it?
Or, someone who accurately diagnoses and fixes your vehicle’s problem, and you drive away confidently?
Your customers give you far more than their money. They give you their trust.
They return when they trust you because you transformed the relationship.
They never come back if you don’t because you simply transacted business.
Spray and clean your business practices until they sparkle with more than money. Trust is the currency of doing business today.
Clean up your dirty business habits and you’ll see clearly more profits than ever before.
About the Author:
Best-selling author, speaker, and coach Dr. Joey Faucette shares how all of us working together create a more positive world this week. Adapted from his #1 Amazon best-seller, Work Positive in a Negative World.
