Be There

Laughter is the shortest distance between two people. - Victor Borge

  Be it be spouse or customer.

Questioned Intelligence

No man likes to have his intelligence or good faith questioned, especially if he has doubts about it himself. - Henry B. Adams


You'll never convince someone of your perspective or sell them your product if you make them think they are stupid.

Stealing Ideas

Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats. - Howard Aiken


Customers pay for, not steal, the embodiment of a great idea.

Attention

Attention is a bit like real estate, in that they're not making any more of it. Unlike real estate, though, it keeps going up in value. - Seth Godin


If attention is in short supply, plan on giving more for it and receiving more for it.

So You Want a Faster Horse......

If I'd have asked my customers what they wanted, they would have told me "A faster horse. - Henry Ford


Don't give your customers what they think they want, give them what you know they won't be able to live without.


(Other posts on Customers)

Business Dreams

Too often, I hear about businesses that just might be a dream come true for their owners, but hardly for the people they seek to recruit or the customers they hope to snare. - Seth Godin

Make your product or service a dream come true for your customers if you want any chance for your dream to come true.

(Other posts on Business)

Doing Things Differently

If all you're trying to do is essentially the same thing as your rivals, then it's unlikely that you'll be very successful. - Michael Porter

What do your customers need that your competitors don't provide?

Augmented Post

Sometimes I have more to say. Here's a post from the past - expanded.

Price Isn't Everything
Maybe the reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is...... that you haven't given them anything else to care about. – Seth Godin

This thought can be applied to a lot more than customers. The next time you find yourself thinking "All they care about is my.......", remember this line.

My father went into the lumber yard bussiness in 1962 with the idea of expanding. The nearest competitor was just down the street and was much bigger with a lot more customers. He wanted some of them.

One of the vendor's salesmen told my dad "You don't want his customers - they are the kind of customer that wants cheap stuff." The guy down the street specialized in cheap stuff. He sold the cheapest two by fours in town and his customers delighted in finding those that wouldn't break in half if you picked up one end.

There are those that want the cheapest - they will abandon you for a penny. You don't want them. If you have a new product you may be tempted to price it cheap in order to make sales. If you do you will get that kind of customer - you don't want them. It is better to offer the best product you can; price it reasonably; give exceptional service. That way you will get "good" customers who know that value is more important than price. There are customers you do not want.

Remarkable Value

As you sit down to consider ways to be more remarkable, the challenge is to be worth talking about... at the same time you are adding value for the person who's talking about you. - Seth Godin

When your business is both remarkable and valuable you have the winning combination.

Customer Loyalty

In business there is no loyalty except to the almighty dollar. - Bill V.



Remember that the next time you are tempted to think a customer is loyal.

Survival of the Flexible

The key word is flexibility, the ability to adapt constantly. Darwin said it clearly. People thought that he mainly talked about survival of the fittest. What he said was that the species that survive are usually not the smartest or the strongest, but the ones most responsive to change. So being attentive to customers and potential partners is my best advice--after, of course, perseverance and patience. -Philippe Kahn

But be sure that the change your customer seeks is not an evolutionary dead end.

No Women......

No women, no men; no men, no money. (On why he caters to women in his restaurants) – Jeff Ruby



I think this applies to much more than the restaurant business. Come to think about, it may very well apply to all businesses!

Wages

It is not the employer who pays the wages. Employers only handle the money. It is the customer who pays the wages. - Henry Ford



All employees who talk to the folks really paying their wages should be reminded of this regularly.

Novelty

Of all the passions that possess mankind, the love of novelty rules most the mind; in search of this from realm to realm we roam, our fleets come fraught with every folly home. – Samuel Foote

Isn't using this what Apple has been best at? Novel products can become fads but to become indispensable they must have value beyond their cost. Microsoft has been good at he latter, Apple the former. So the lessen to be learned is to imbue your product with both.

Business Competition

There is one rule for industrialists and that is: Make the best quality of goods possible at the lowest cost possible, paying the highest wages possible. - Henry Ford



I have always believed that any company would succeed by providing a quality product, at a reasonable price, with good service. Paying well may enable all three (quality, price, service). If the industry you are in has many players who provide all three of these qualities perhaps paying better wages is the competitive advantage you've been looking for.

Price Isn't Everything

Maybe the reason it seems that price is all your customers care about is...... that you haven't given them anything else to care about. – Seth Godin

This thought can be applied to a lot more than customers. The next time you find yourself thinking "All they care about is my.......", remember this line.