It's business and it is personal
July 26, 2010Social Media – The More You Do The Better You Get
July 28, 2010
To grow your business you need to be focused on solving existing problems and finding better solutions to newly discovered problems.
Are you over-solving your customers’ existing problems?
When done well and sustainably, a good business should find and serve its customers well by solving their problems and in doing so deliver healthy growth and plentiful profits for the owners.
However, many businesses lose clients and waste resources because they get carried away with their view of the problem or what they think the problem is rather than their customers view of the problem. There is a danger that by adding stuff or developing packages or new products/services/versions that it is confusing your customer, possibly driving them away and giving them stuff that they just don’t need.
Does that sound familiar?
Therefore, from time to time, a useful question to ask when working with your clients is:
Are we solving the problem the way that you see it or the way that we see it?
Asking yourself this question from time to time will help you get to know your different types of customers, their (changing) needs and what you need to do to solve their problems and not over-solve them.
Perhaps, less could be more. More on that later.
Looking for new problems to solve?
New business growth will be fueled by your ability to identify new problems to solve. Opportunity is everywhere if you just look for it. But the trick is that in order to solve a problem you don’t need to come up something completely new, you just need to look for problems or frustrations that people have. Remember, the rise of the budget airlines like Easyjet and Ryanair in the 1990s? EasyJet, like Ryanair, borrowed its business model from United States carrier Southwest Airlines and they all built their businesses on the back of frustrations that passengers had with expensive air travel.
So, when you spot a problem or a frustration that your customers or potential customers have, ask yourself: Is this problem currently being solved? In the best way possible for everyone? Can you find a group of people that are not being served? Can you do it better than it is already being done – cheaper, faster, better?
Have you seen a problem or frustration that is waiting for a better solution?
I hope that you found this information useful. If you did, just think what results you could achieve if we were working together on growing your business! To discuss how we can help you grow your business then have a look how we work here and get in touch here for a no-obligation chat.
Finally, why not connect with me on Twitter @adrianswinscoe, LinkedIn and subscribe to my RSS Feed?
Thanks to widowwquinn for the image.
7 Comments
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RT @adrianswinscoe: Grow your business by solving problems @ http://bit.ly/94nyfe – Good read.
There is another level of problem solving I’d like to consider. It is not only the customer that businesses need to address, whether directly or through third party credibility. The increasing transparency of business practices opened a new aspect of serving various publics such as government, journalists or activists groups. Therefore the economic, social and political trends and tendencies should be embedded in organisational practices. Let’s take an example of recent case of M&S releasing an oversized line of school uniforms. It is nothing else but a solution to the problem that parents of obese children have. However, it has also brought a controversy addressed by those who consider such move as a promotion of societal acceptance for overweight children. At this stage a business such as M&S needs to ask itself a question: Do we care for short-term profit or consumers’ long-lasting confidence in our brand? On the top of all challenges that businesses face in their tactical or strategic moves, this one seems definitely one of the biggest ones.
Hi Agata,
Thanks for stopping by and for leaving a comment. I think that you raise an important point about how socially aware businesses and brands need to be or should be. On a simple level, one could say that M&S is solving a problem. But, I guess the bigger question is whether it is a problem that they should be solving and is it aligned with their brands values. That’s a great question. I’m not sure that it runs against their brand values but am also not sure that they would want to associated with such a hot issue.
What do you think?
Adrian
Hi Adrian,
Now you mentioned the alignment with M&S brand, I started wondering whether it is really aligned. Think of M&S food department for example. They pride themselves in healthy and good quality foods. I can see a little bit of conflict of interests here, can you? Have they abandoned certain values for the sake of others? I don’t know. I also don’t know how easy it would be to predict the outcome they are facing now, before it all happened. From the marketing point of view and, you know, all that niche finding business, it seems like an excellent idea. However, it only proves the point of total scrutiny that the businesses are under and the importance of reputation, reputation, reputation!
Hi Agata,
Yes, there does seem to be a potential conflict….they have found a niche but does it sit well with their healthy food line?
Given the press they have received it will be interesting to see if they continue to stock the oversized clothes for kids. That will tell us a lot about where they stand.
Adrian
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