|
 What
is the purpose of a business? Every time I ask this
question during a business seminar, the immediate answer
that I get back is, “To make a profit.”
The Real Purpose of A Business
But this answer is wrong. The purpose of a business is to
create and
keep a customer. If a business successfully creates and
keeps customers in a cost-effective way, it will make a profit
while continuing to survive and thrive. If, for any reason, a
business fails to attract or sustain a sufficient number of
customers, it will experience losses. Too many losses will lead
to the demise of the enterprise.
Why Businesses Fail
According to Dun and Bradstreet, the single, most important
reason for the failure of businesses in America is lack of
sales. And, of course, this refers to resales as well as
initial sales.
So your company’s job is to create and keep a customer, and your
job is exactly the same. Remember, no matter what your official
title is, you are a salesperson for yourself and your company.
And the best way to increase your value as a salesperson is to
build your customer base.
Why Businesses Succeed
The two most important words to keep in mind in developing a
successful customer base are
Positioning and
Differentiation.
Positioning refers to the way your customers think and talk
about you and your company when you are not there. The position
that you hold in the customer’s mind determines all of his
reactions and interactions with you. Your position determines
whether or not your customer buys, whether he buys again and
whether he refers others to you. Everything that you do with
regard to your customer affects the way your customer thinks
about you.
The Key to Competitive Advantage
Differentiation refers to your ability to separate yourself and
your product or service from that of your competitors. And it is
the key to building and maintaining a
competitive advantage. This is the advantage that you and
your company have over your competitors in the same marketplace
–
the unique and special benefits that no one else can give your
customer.
Select Your Customers Carefully
When you begin to think about acquiring and
keeping customers for life, you need to think about the
particular types of customers for whom your competitive
advantage is so important that they would be poorly served by
using anyone else’s product. You need to then emphasize again
and again that the special features and benefits you offer are
so important that they should not even think of going somewhere
else. If, for any reason, you fail to do this, you may lose the
customer and all the work you’ve done in building that
relationship in the first place.
Action Exercises
Here are two things you can do immediately to put these ideas
into action.
 First, determine exactly what your current
positioning is today with your customers. How do they think
about you and what do they say? How could you improve your
positioning?
Second, determine your exact
competitive advantage, your area of superiority in what you
do. How can you increase in your area of excellence and then
convey it better to your customers? |
