You aren’t growing at the rate you should
You are not hitting your EBITDA/profit targets
Your people want more money, but your budget doesn’t support it
You want to hire the best people in the industry, however, you can’t afford them right now
“There is no silver bullet”. How many times have you heard that, or even said that, when discussing such organizational problems and challenges?
Right now, I want you think of your perfect customer. Bring to mind the great relationship you have with that client along with the revenue and profit that your company enjoys as a result. What problem are you solving for them? Now, do your best to imagine that you have hundreds or maybe thousands more of this perfect client, and your organization is delivering your products or services to all of them and experiencing the same strong and profitable relationship.
If your business is capable of scaling, then there are absolutely plenty of potential customers out there that have the exact problem(s) that your company solves. And because of that, there really is a silver bullet. Ready?
Solve your customers’ problems and they’ll solve yours.
Here are the 3 common mistakes even the smartest executive can make that prevents them from solving their customer’s problems...and how to avoid them:
1. Not talking about your customers
After several successful years in sales and strategic sales management, I was so excited to have earned a promotion to the Senior Leadership Team. I was looking forward to making an even larger contribution to the growth of the organization as a result. We had several team meetings/calls every week; us C-Level people had a lot to talk about. We had a many organizational problems to solve. We discussed the p/l, people issues, productivity, legal risk, cost cutting, and economic changes. On and on, hour upon hour. After about five weeks of this, I couldn’t take it any more, and I simply interrupted the meeting and said, “are we EVER going to talk about a customer?”. The team was stunned. It was true. We were so inwardly focused on solving our problems that we forgot about solving our customers’ problems and guess what, we weren’t.
Align your entire organization around the customer. Make sure there are only 2 kinds of employees in your company: Those who serve the customer and those who serve those who serve the customer. If you do, your customers will reward you with loyalty, revenue and referrals.
2. Not talking with your customers
I mean really talk WITH your customers. So many times, we leave it up to sales and/or customer service to talk to our customers. (See number 1.) The senior team is busy with all the internal problems. Consider this, if you have any manager in your organization who does not talk with your customers on a regular basis, then you are not aligned to solve their problems.
We experienced great innovation and growth by implementing a requirement that every department leader throughout the organization had a call with a customer every week. We asked accounting managers and IT managers and human resource managers, etc. to get on a call with at least one of our customers every week and talk WITH them. Just connect and find out what their problems might be whether or not our company was positioned to solve them. Wow! The things we uncovered and things we developed, as a result, kept us leading the industry.
3. Not talking about the problems your company solves
I'm fairly certain that your perfect client is one where you have solved their problem(s) through delivering your product or service. Your sales and marketing approach must focus on talking about the problems you solve, not the product or service you deliver. Customers buy solutions, not things.
Let’s take a simple example: Butler Street doesn’t sell training or consulting. We sell growth. We help companies and their people grow – solving the problem of lack of desired growth. Symptoms of this problem are evident in several areas including low client retention, lack of talent benchstrength and depressed margins. Get very clear on the problems your organization solves (see number 2) and take the time to educate your clients and potential clients on how your company solves them. Solve your customers’ problems and they’ll solve yours!
Learn how to communicate your value and begin to experience growth in less than 30 days. Butler Street’s approach grows businesses! Click here to get the conversation started.