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Wednesday, November 20, 2013
How You Will Go Broke Only Chasing Your Customers Money
Money Money Money. Ahhh captialism, the most common source of entrepreneurial inspiration. You tirelessly work our knuckles to the bone for it. It takes the focus and limelight in just about every conversation related to business development. But is it the currency that you should primarily focusing on when building a business or approaching customer acquisition?
I would argue; the answer is no.
In my opinion, there are 3 primary things a customer can give to you that matter: Revenue, Trust and References.
Revenue
Think about it. The first thing we are trying to get from a customer, is their money. This is not easy to get, but if you really think about it, you will understand it is the easiest of the three. You have to convince a prospective customer to gamble their money on an unknown outcome, by getting them to believe in your story. Then they make a bet with their money, that you can do the job and provide the outcome you say you can. Some would argue that is trust, and in some ways it is… but it’s not real trust. It’s a bet that the trust will earned.
Trust
Have you ever spent your money on something and been disappointed? We all have. Even if you get a refund, you are still feeling negative because you don’t trust the vendor as much as you did before the disappointment. Before you can get a customer to say good things about you, and refer their friends to you, you must to do something to make them believe you are good on your promises. Until that happens, customers are evaluating whether they can trust you or not. Trust is so important because you can refund someone’s money but you cannot earn back their trust.
References
Without trust there are no references and, in the era of social media, a reference isn’t just a call to a friend, it is a tweet, a post, a blog article or any mention of you. We live in an age of reference, and without positive references, you cannot succeed or grow. It is so easy for prospects to find out if others trust you by simply by searching the online landscape. The same holds true for negative references. If people lose trust their trust in you, chances are they will say something negative. A well ranked negative comment can cost you untold customers, and effectively, untold revenue.
When you are thinking about the product you are developing or the service you are creating, don’t just factor in the money outcome. Consider what you are promising and how you are promising it, and re-calibrate. If you lose trust from your customer, you will never get a reference or a referral, and most importantly, you could damage your brand for a long time to come.
Tuesday, November 12, 2013
Sunday, November 10, 2013
Sunday, November 3, 2013
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