Focusing on the wrong things

When I first started my business, I was focused on all of the wrong things.

I focused on what I thought I was good at… coding websites.

I didn’t see myself as a business owner solving problems for my clients – I saw myself as a vendor.

I took on any project that came to me (web related or not), finished it, and started looking for my next project.

Over many years I started to realize that if I view myself as a vendor my clients will view me as a vendor too. Vendors are expendable and replaceable. There are countless options for web developers and there was nothing about me that set me apart from my competition.

I suspect that a lot of other business owners view themselves as vendors.

You may focus exclusively on whatever it is you’re superficially hired for – it may be photography, roofing, private investigation or something else.

It’s good to spend time improving your business service, but if you fall into the “vendor” role it’ll be difficult for your business to stand out.

If you want to break through the glass ceiling of your industry you’ll need to ditch the idea that people pay you because you’re good at what you do.

Your customers pay you because you solve a problem for them.

You may have heard the saying: “People Don’t Want a Drill, They Want a Hole”.

Once I started looking and listening for my clients’ problems I was able to close more leads and work with better clients.

What can you do with this information?

The next time you talk to a potential new customer, don’t ask them about what they want – find out what their problems are and tell them how you can solve them.