Brian Basilico — August 11, 2017 — August 11, 2017
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What Business Are Your REALLY In?
Can I ask you a question? Do you really know what business you’re in? What do you do for people? If you’re a contractor, you build houses, you replace furnaces or water heaters, or whatever. I mean, that’s pretty straightforward. If you’re an Internet marketer, web developer, SCO person, you’ve got your skills. But what business are you really in? I want to offer you five things that I think that you need to think about as you start to progress forward in order to tell people what it is that you really do.
Relationships
Let’s start with number one. In my book, It’s Not About You, It’s About Bacon, the subtitle is Relationship Marketing in a Social Media World. One of the things that I know for a fact is everybody in every business is in the relationship business. I don’t care where you’re working, what your job is, who you talk to, but you are in the relationship business. Everyone, from the front desk person to the person that deals with billing and invoicing, is in the relationship building and growing business.
Now, you may have to build relationships with vendors. So if you’re paying bills you’ve got to make sure your vendors are happy, because if your vendors aren’t happy, guess what, they stop providing services. If you’re not paying them on time, which I’ve run into a lot of companies that won’t pay you fast enough, and you know what, the ones that pay the fastest are the ones that I respond to the fastest. The ones that pay me in 90, 120 days when they want a special favor, guess what, they’re put on the back burner. So everybody is in the relationship building business. You need to make sure that you and all of your staff realize that. How you deal with people really emotes what your business is about.
Information
Now, the second business that you’re in is the information business. As you do your job, as you learn things, as you start to grow your business, you start to compile information that helps you better explain what it is that you do. In the case of my business, I help companies find their ideal customers online to grow their business. Now, that sounds really straightforward and simple but it took months to come up with that simple little statement. What I need to do is figure out how to create and combine information about that so that people get what it means. What it means is that I’m really in the education business, which is the third thing that I want to talk about. But let’s go back to the information one.
What you have to do is start asking yourself, what information can I create? What can I learn from the way that I do things that’s going to help people better understand the differentiation between my competition and me? This is important because no matter what business you’re in, unless you’re in the business of making people a million dollars overnight, there’s competition. If you’re making people a million dollars overnight, you own your own island and you’re working from the Caribbean sipping margaritas. You have to come up with ways to create information that lets people know what differentiates you from the competition. What makes us special? How do I communicate that? That becomes the next piece, which is the education part.
Education
Now, you’ve got to take that and combine it into something that you can use to educate your audience. Advertising is one thing. Information marketing is a completely different thing. This is what we call “content marketing.” One of the things I specialize in teaching my clients is to learn the differences about who you are, what you provide, and how you can help other people become more successful. What you need to do is take the information that you’ve gathered and put it into some form. Now, a lot of my clients have a hard time seeing the forest from the trees, and that’s where I really help them focus on taking their message and making it client focused. What’s in it for them? Why would I want to work with you versus somebody else? That’s because we do it this way. It’s not the guarantees, it’s not all that other stuff; it’s because we do it differently in a way that’s going to be a lot more effective for you and your business.
Does it work for everybody? No. But if you can communicate it well; put it in blogs, podcasts, videos, whatever it is, if you can find a way to communicate what you do differently, then you can educate your audience. Does education turn into sales overnight? No. It takes time. Sometimes it can take days, months, weeks. Heck, I have people coming to me two and a half, three years later saying, “I heard you speak, and now is the time that I want to work with you.” Education is a process and you have to keep refining it. That’s why I say if your website is older than three years, it’s time to go back and look at it and figure out what messages you need to revamp that are more in line with what you’re doing today.
Customer Service
The fourth thing that you’re in the business of is customer service. Again, everybody in your business is a customer service representative. You’re going to meet angry people, unhappy people. Sometimes you’ll be able to solve their problems, sometimes you can’t, but the bottom line is you have to do your best to make them feel like you are empathetic with them. Everybody in your business — from the person who picks up the phone, to the service people, to your contractors if you have contractors — you have to make sure that all of those people are empathetic and understand they are in the customer service business, that they’re to serve the customer and make them happy as possible.
Now, we all know you cannot make every customer happy. It’s never going to happen, but you have to do your best. The last thing that you want is somebody who’s unhappy out there barking about how bad your businesses is, or how bad you are or the crappy service that you provide. You want to make sure that you do your best and then get them to ultimately agree to disagree and say, “You know what, this probably wasn’t a good fit. I’m sorry.” One of the things I’ve learned is it’s much easier to refund 100% of a job than it is to recoup 100% of your reputation.
Success
The last thing that you have to realize is you are in the success business. What I mean by the success business is that your job is to make your customer successful; to get their heat to work, to help them make more money. Whatever it is, you have to focus on your client’s success, and when you do that you’ll be successful as well.
Final Thoughts
Each of the above concepts are true for almost every business. I suggest that you review them and see how they work in your business. I know that through content marketing, I can use information and education to help get my audience engaged, sharing and caring! Success is part of your value proposition that gets your customers to know what makes you start out from the crowd of businesses who do what you do.
I am sure you have thoughts and comments on this subject. Comment below and share your experiences with how each of the above effect and work in your business and how they combine to serve your customers!
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