April 4, 2006
What’s Your Problem?
Small Office Media points us to a simple but powerful idea put forth at Recruiting.com:
“Successful businesses are successful because they focus on cash flow and profit. They do this by solving their customers’ problems. Most self-made, successful business people got this way by solving their customers’ problems.”
Whoever your customer is—client, colleague, supervisor—the best thing you can do for him is solve his problems. Once you have done that, and particularly after you have done it reliably for some time, you earn his trust and gain good will.
While education, certifications, and experience can only help, these are not what is important to most customers. Most people aren’t actually that concerned about what you’ve done before, or even how or how much you’ve been trained. What they really care about is what you can do for them now.
This is not to say that training isn’t important. The more tools you have to solve problems, the better off you are. But for those of you considering shifting into a new career, taking on new projects, or trying things you have only rudimentary experience doing, I encourage you to go for it. Discovery learning—learning along the way—is an excellent way to get your foot in the door, and it also happens to be an effective way to learn. Focus on quality and solving problems and you can’t lose.
Filed under: Individual Economy
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