Habit of winners in business

Continuing from last week, to succeed greatly in business, and to become a self-made millionaire, there are additional habits that, as advanced by Brian Tracy, you need to develop, as well. One of these habits is the determination to win, to succeed, to outperform your competition and to ultimately be successful. This competitive instinct and determination to win in the face of any challenge is a chief motivating power that drives entrepreneurs and eventually assures successful careers.

The determination to succeed is an absolutely essential habit for you to develop by never considering the possibility of failure. Instead, use speed and flexibility to find solutions to problems, to overcome obstacles and to achieve business goals. This attitude toward winning, motivates and enthuses other people and enables ordinary people to achieve extraordinary results.

Be open to new information

Develop the habit of questioning your assumptions on a regular basis, especially when you experience resistance or temporary failure. Many people leap to conclusions and assume things about their customers, their competitors and their markets that have no basis in fact at all. Always be prepared to ask yourself, “What do I base this assumption on?” What are my facts? What is my proof?” And most important, be prepared to ask, “What if my assumptions about this customer, product, service, market or competitor were not true at all? What changes would I have to make?”

The most dangerous assumption that an entrepreneur or businessperson can make is that there exists a large enough and profitable enough market for a particular product or service. Very often this is not the case at all. Do not fall into the false thinking phenomenon called “argument by assertion.” People often get caught up in an argument because it is asserted loudly and vigorously, even though it may have no substance at all. Assertion is not proof. Wishing that a fact is true does not have any bearing on the ultimate truth of the statement. Only facts are facts. It is essential that you develop the habit of sorting out facts from fantasy, and making your decisions based on demonstrable, provable truths with regard to customers, markets, products and services.

Think before acting

In a fast changing business world, an important habit that you can develop is the habit of thinking before acting. Often, when we are pressured from all sides with decisions that have to be made, we leap to conclusions and make decisions without carefully considering all the possible ramifications of those decisions. Instead, develop the habit of buying time between the pressure to make a decision, and the actual decision itself. There is a rule that says, “If the decision does not have to be made now, it has to not be made now.”

Your mind is incredibly powerful, and never more so than when you give it time to reflect upon a decision before you make the decision in the first place. Make it a habit of asking for time before you make a final decision. Put it off as long as possible. The very act of allowing the various pieces of information to settle in your brain will enable you to make a much better decision later on than you might have made if you decided too quickly.

Superb customer service

There are four habits that you need to develop to achieve a reputation for superb customer service. The habit of service orientation toward your customers is the key to repeat sales, lower marketing and sales costs, and higher profitability. Brian Tracy identifies four levels of customer service that determine your ranking in your industry.

The first level of service is for you to develop the habit of consistently meeting the expectations of your customers. To achieve this, it is absolutely essential that you find out what customers expect of you; and whatever it is, it is vital to your survival and success that you meet those expectations consistently.

A primary source of anger, frustration and negative emotions, both personally and commercially, is “frustrated expectations.” This is when we expect something to happen and it does not happen the way that we wanted it to. Whenever you experience negative emotions of any kind, it can almost always be traced to having been frustrated or disappointed in a particular expectation. This is doubly true with regard to customers, and their dealings with different companies.

Do more than is expected

However, meeting customer expectations is just enough to keep you in business. It is not enough for you to grow and succeed in a competitive marketplace. To do that, you must develop the habit of exceeding customer expectations. You must do more than customers expect. You must do things that are outside of the range of expectations. It is these extra things that you do that cause customers to be happy in dealing with you, and cause them to want to buy from you again.

What are the little things that you can do better, faster, cheaper and easier that will make your customers happy? Could you offer something extra to your customers that they did not expect? How can you exceed your customer’s expectations, every day?

As it happens, as soon as a company finds a way to exceed customer expectations, and it becomes known in the marketplace, your competitors will copy you and duplicate your efforts in an attempt to stay even with you, if not get ahead. Therefore, every time a way of exceeding customer expectations becomes common knowledge in the workplace, it becomes a normal expectation of customers. From then on, customers expect to get what was at one time something extra in the normal course of doing business with you.

Delight your customers

The third level of customer satisfaction is when you develop the habit of delighting your customers. You delight your customers when you do something that is so unusual that it makes your customers especially happy. It can be something as little as a follow-up call from a senior executive to a new customer or it can be something larger, like a gift to a customer who just placed a large order. It can be a thank you card signed by several people in the company. It can be a personal visit by a key executive to a new customer. In every case, these little gestures, which are not particularly expensive, leave a wonderful impression in the customer’s mind and dramatically increase the probability that he or she will buy from you again.

Amaze your customers

The highest level of customer service is when you develop the habit of amazing your customers. This is when you do something for them that is so extraordinary that they want to run around and tell everybody they know. Develop the habit of continually thinking of things you could do that would amaze your customers. This could change the whole nature of your business.

Love your customers

Perhaps the most important habit that you can develop for business success is to think in terms of “loving your customers.” Stand back and look at your customers, your products, your services, your marketing and sales efforts and your business activities. If you genuinely loved your customers, the way you love the most important people in your life, what would you do differently from the way that you deal with them today? What changes would you make in your product or service quality standards? What changes would you make in your customer service policies? If you genuinely loved your customers, and wanted to please and satisfy them more and better than anyone else, what would be the first thing you could do to demonstrate this?

Nothing happens until a sale takes place. Your ability to put yourself in the shoes of your customers, to treat each customer the way that you would like to be treated if the situation was reversed, is the most important habit that you can develop for business and financial success.

BY CAPT SAM ADDIAH
(RTD)

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