If you’re like me, you’ve been taught that success is something that you have to hunt down, chase, tackle and hold on to so that it won’t get away. And because we think that way, we spend our time and energy pursuing success. We go after it. We fake it till we make it, right?
I want to challenge that paradigm today. It’s not consistent with the successful people who I’m around. Sure they are enthusiastic. They happen to things instead of waiting to see what happens. That’s all true. But here’s the subtle but powerful difference that could really impact you: Success is a natural product of showing up and doing a good job over a long period of time, like water flowing downhill. So why are so few small business people successful? Because we get in the way of the natural flow of success…we interupt success. If a person calls your decorating business, it’s because they want to pay you for your help. The sale is yours to lose. If you will show up on time, have reasonable communication skills and knowledge of what you are doing, and serve their needs, you have a client for life that will tell all of their friends about you.
But how many times do we take our eye off the ball and forget to do those basic things with excellence? Have you ever taken off work to meet a person at your house to give you a price to paint or install irrigation or decorate or install new flooring and they were 20 minutes late? Or when you met, they said they’d email you an estimate later that day that didn’t show up for a week? Or you tried to call them after your meeting for a quick question and couldn’t get in touch with them for days? In each of these cases, the natural process of buying was interupted by less than fantastic basic customer service. But your customer won’t tell you that. Instead they’ll tell you they are putting the project off for a few months…and you will never hear from them again. They lost confidence in you and hired someone else and they may not even know why.
I am convinced that if you will focus 90% of all of your time and energy on the most basic business activities, that customers will chase you down to do business with you because this is so rare. Your customers will pay your higher price, overlook your average looking website and wait on your waiting list if you will show up early, follow-up with every promise you make (big or small) and call them back super fast every time.
“The person who knows “how” will always have a job. The person who knows “why” will always be his boss. ~ Diane Ravitch
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