Why did you go into business for yourself?
Was it for the freedom of not having to work for someone else? Was it the potential to make more money than you’ve dreamed, as opposed to getting a salary or hourly wage that limits your lifestyle? Was it a control thing, where you just think that you can do the job better than anyone else and being in business for yourself allows you the control to execute things ‘your’ way?
Whatever reasons you have for being in business for yourself, I’m sorry to say, they mean nothing to your prospects and clients.
There’s a saying my teacher Jay Abraham says, “It’s all about them. It’s never about you.”
So many professionals I meet talk about themselves and act in self-serving ways. They forget this simple truth: “without a client, you have nothing!”
I am amazed at how people forget this!
World renown Management Consultant, Author, and Professor Peter Drucker said: “Since its purpose is to produce a customer, a business has two and only two functions: marketing and innovation. Marketing and innovation produce results, all the rest are costs.”
What that means to me is, everything you do and think should be towards serving the needs of your prospects and current clients. It is completely about building and maintaining relationships with your clients – and finding new and better ways to serve them.
To paraphrase a winning football coach, “…it’s not a sometimes thing. It’s an all time thing!”
You can’t expect your clients to care about you or your debts, your famlily problems, or anything else. Like any healthy, loving relationship, your customers have to see, hear, and feel “your love” for them. They need to feel important. They need to be treated like “dear and valued friends”.
Forget about your problems and challenges when you’re communicating to your prospects and clients. They don’t care. They only care about themselves. And, if you want to do business with them, you’ve got to show you care about their wants, needs, and desires.
Concentrate on communicating innovation, value, benefits, advantages, and ‘reasons why’. Show why YOU are the obvious choice to do business with, instead of someone else.
Remember, “It’s always about them. It’s never about you.”
Have an outstanding day.
Craig Valine
blog@craigvaline.com
www.CraigValine.com
