Why Your Job Is to Solve Other People’s Problems

All businesses exist to solve problems.

If you’re a dry cleaner, it’s removing dirt from fragile clothes without damaging them.  If you’re a taxi driver, it’s helping people get from point A to point B quickly.  If you’re a marketer, it’s creating additional revenue for your customers and clients by helping them attract more business.

But there’s more to being a problem solver than simply providing a product or service that resolves a challenge.

It’s about developing a proactive, service-oriented mindset that places your customers’ needs at the forefront of everything you do in sales and service.

After all, the singlemost important element of ANY business venture or marketing campaign ISN’T a product.

It’s a hungry market.

So listen to your customers and find out what they’ve got a hankerin’ for.

In fact, I’d go so far as saying that EVERY marketing problem you ever face can be solved by knowing exactly what your customer is thinking, feeling, and experiencing when interacting with you.

And the better you understand what your prospects and customers want, the more effective you’ll be at communicating to them how your solution will best solve their problem.

So how do you find out?

Ask them!

Perry Marshall, Google AdWords expert and direct response marketing guru, offers the following advice for getting to know what your customers want and need.

1. Set up an automatic survey in your place of business or on your website where randomly-selected customers are asked questions like these:

• What’s your biggest frustration or challenge with (fill in whatever your product or service is designed to solve)?
• How difficult has it been to find the answers you’re looking for?
• What else can we do to “knock your socks off”?

2. After someone decides NOT to do business with you—assuming they’re really your target prospect—ask them what you could have done to help them make the decision to go with your company. (And here’s a neat side-effect of asking this question: sometimes it re-opens the dialogue and you’re actually able to make the sale!)

3. Right after someone’s made a decision to purchase from you is when they’re at their “hottest” in terms of desire for the product or service you offer. So ask them, “What is your biggest problem dealing with (fill in the blank) right now?”

4. When someone’s demanding a refund, pick up the phone and personally call to ask if there’s something you can improve on.

Try saying something like this: “Hi, this is Katie from XYZ Company.  We got your request for a refund and we’re going to process that quickly and with no hassle.  But I’m just curious if there’s something we could’ve done differently?”

Often times, they’ll be shocked you even took time out of your busy schedule to call.  Then they’ll start talking.  In some cases, you can save the sale; in all cases, you’ll receive valuable feedback that you can put back into your sales and service experience to prevent it from recurring.

The Bottom Line: Become a problem solver.  When solving your customers’ problems becomes an absolute obsession, your success in business will skyrocket.