We make assumptions, miss key points and often don’t see the mistakes we’re making because we are far too close to our own company.
Again, it’s important to ask yourself the SO WHAT test, repeatedly.
Try to see your business through your customers eyes – but don’t kid yourself that they’ll tell you what you’re doing wrong. Why should they? They don’t owe you anything and there are plenty of people out there who’ll do what you do.
Yes, you may be able to evaluate other businesses – after all, that’s where you can get ideas, good or bad, but are you able to evaluate your own objectively and honestly? Studies suggest that a man takes around 13 seconds to decide if he’s going to engage with your business, and a woman around 9. And they won’t tell you what they don’t like – you’ll never know because they’ll just walk away.
So, imagine that you are judging your business as if it were someone else’s, and go through what you would consider its successes and its failures.
If you do this honestly, you should be able to:
- Identify your customers’ needs very clearly
- Identify problems that you need to solve
- Identify your strengths and USPs
- Identify areas where you can be better than your competitors
If you aren’t happy with something, neither will you customers be.