Listen to your customers’ needs. We’ve got to listen very carefully to the customer. … We
have to listen carefully to what
they want and sell them what
they want. Not what we think
they need.
That’s very important because
we have a lot of engineers
and scientists, and they like
to analyze, and they like to figure out what the customer
really needs. If we do that,
we’re really selling our arrogance. Listen and give them
what they want.
I try to listen. I try to visit
them as often as I can but not
too often because I can
become a nuisance.
We typically have people
embedded in the customer’s
organization that’s the type of
work we do. They listen to their
customer every day, whether
they’re talking to them specifically or to someone else.
If you expand your ears to
include not only your pair of
ears but your management
and your employees, you can
pick up stuff so that you can
gauge exactly what that customer wants.
If they don’t have to tell you
over and over, ‘No, that’s not
what I wanted; this is what I
want,’ they will appreciate it,
and they will keep asking you
to come back.
They certainly don’t want
arrogance, i.e., ‘I see the way
you work, and I understand
what you do, and this is what
you need.’
There’s a fine line between
arrogance and confidence. You
have to be confident with a
customer, but you cannot be
arrogant. Nine times out of 10,
your customer tells you if you
listen.
Build a relationship with your
banker. The third most important factor in growing your
company is having your
banker as your best friend.
You need to be right in step
with them all the way — in
good times and in bad times.
Share information with them.
Tell them who your customers
are. Tell them what they’re
doing. Tell them what you’re
doing. Tell them who you want
your customers to be — your
new customers — and why.
Share everything you can with
them because when the time
comes and you are successful in
getting this new business, now
you have to pay that upfront
money, that seed money.
Secondly, you make a higher
profit if you use some of your
own money and you use some
of someone else’s money. The
return on that amount of
money is better when you
have borrowed some.
It has to be built on trust.
You’ve got to communicate
with your bank at all times.
You’ve got to invite them to
your celebrations when you
get a new customer. You’ve got
to invite them to your
Christmas party, to your picnic. They have to know you
and your employees.
Then of course, you have to
pay what you owe. You have
to do what you say.
HOW TO REACH: MEI Technologies Inc., (281) 283-6200 or www.meitechinc.com
