Good morning and welcome to another episode of always up to date. I’m Denise and this is Yahweh and we are co-owners of always bookkeeping. Uh, today we, um, well we’re close to the end of summer and, uh, during our, during the summer we went to a business bootcamp and at this business boot camp, actually both y’all and I spoke at it. Um, but one of the things that they talked about was entrepreneurial myths, um, and things that people think that they can do when they’re a small business owner and how small businesses work and stuff like that. And, and a lot of what people believe are actually myths and some, we’re gonna talk a little bit about that. Um, today, uh, the topic is who is my customer? So we’re going to kind of discuss, uh, the customers and, and how you get customers and things like that. Uh, so our code for today is from Peter Drucker of Edmonton Bookkeeping.

Uh, he’s a man who wrote 39 business books. And so his quote today is nothing happens until someone sells something. The statistic that we have is from CBS, sorry, CV insights. Um, they reviewed essays from failed entrepreneurs and most of the entrepreneurs listed multiple reasons for failure. 42% of entrepreneurs who failed, reported no market for their services or product as one of the reasons for failure. 29% of entrepreneurs who failed report running out of cash as one of the reasons for failure in 23% of the entrepreneurs who failed, reported not having the right team as one of the reasons for failure. So these were the three most common reasons reported. All of the other reasons were reported less frequently. Things like pricing and cost and timing and location, things like that. Um, so y’all way, lots of times we see business owners who are trying to sell their product and they feel that they have to sell to every customer and, um, you know, they feel like it’s a failure if they lose a customer without Edmonton Bookkeeping.

Um, and one of the entrepreneurial myths that we learned about was that, uh, every customer is a good customer. So that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Yeah, absolutely. So I have some, uh, questions here that you might want to ask. Um, for example, will any website generate a lead? Yeah. So not any website. People think that they need their website up and running before they can start selling. And that’s actually not true. Um, it’s more important to have Google places so you can get Google reviews, people are going to look at reviews more than they’re going to look at your, your website and also with a website. There’s certain parts of it that you need to have in place that people are gonna look at. They’re going to like let people put so much money into a website, but they miss the key parts of it that need to be need to be in there.

Yeah. I think the common problem is that you create a gorgeous website and you put a lot of effort into ed, but at the same time, um, the people who you intend to present the website do doesn’t really reach your website because first of all, you’re not. Um, it’s not reading well in Google where usually people will find you. And most of the time, even referrals would Google first before, um, going into, um, or calling, you’re trying to contact, uh, your business with Edmonton Bookkeeping. So it is a, I mean, website is a good tool. It’s just that you want to make sure that people can actually get to it before, um, before it can just before your website generate any leads. Yeah, yeah, that’s right. Um, is meeting the customer expectations good enough? Hmm. Yeah. So meeting customer expectations, not good enough. We, when you’re a small business owner, you want to go beyond what the, the customer is expecting.

If you meet their expectations, you’re going to just be kind of level and businesses is probably gonna go along. Okay. But in order to grow and to build your customer base, you want to go a little bit beyond what they’re expecting so that, um, you know, it’s going to allow them almost and they’re going to want to come back because they expected one thing and got so much more. Yeah, absolutely. And the thing when meeting a customer expectation is that if you don’t go above and beyond it, you almost, um, lose that differentiation factor from your competitors. And especially if it’s a common product or service, there is always a chance that your customer might get them from, um, from you just because they’re doing something that you, you’re not doing or you’re just doing, you know, what’s expected of you or the, the minimum level of service that you can give.

So that’s why people always, um, value good customer service is because that’s usually where you get them to, um, receive their value added from you, from your businesses. So, yeah. Yep. That’s something that you might wanna think about. Um, so as a small business owner, can I avoid sales? And you avoid sales? Absolutely not. Yeah. Yup. Um, nobody knows how to sell your product. Like you knew you’re the one that, um, either created that product or have a passion for that product. You’re going to sell it the best. And when a customer comes in, you’re gonna want to sell that to them. Um, you know, I think people think of sales as, you know, commissions and going door to door and things like, but really very aggressive coming up to people and stuff like that. Yeah, exactly. But really as a small business owner, you’re selling your product to your customers that use Edmonton Bookkeeping.

Um, and the, the business owner is always the one, it doesn’t have to be like you’re always in the selling mode, you know, you gotta pitch. But, um, it’s, it’s, it’s mostly about like your style of how you convey, um, how important your product is to your customer. That’s a sale, right? That’s your sales pitch and it’s something that you have to develop and see, kinda test what works and what doesn’t based on your strategy or your technique or even your personality. Yeah. Yeah. You know, just another point about that too. Lots of times we see, um, business owners who have their spouse, um, working in the office, but a spouse as a good person to sell your product as well. Like, we think that it’s better for your spouse to be out trying to sell your product and hire somebody that’s a professional to do, uh, for example, your bookkeeping or your accounting or, um, things that you could hire somebody for, you know, minimum wage to answer phones or whatever.

Yeah. So I think the business owner and, and maybe a spouse or whatever, good for sales. Yeah. Um, well, people buy from a faceless business. Yeah. I don’t think many people buy from a faceless business. And especially in today’s age when there’s so much access online, um, I think that your website needs to have your face on it so they can see who you are. But the branding is really important and unless it’s, you know, it’s, it’s a big online company to everyone, right. Um, that everyone buys from. But mostly these companies are, um, you know, they have, they have massive resources that they can do so they can sell less, uh, or they can sell for less. And that’s the reason why they drive people towards their business. But if you’re a local, small business owner, I think it’s very important that you market your story and become very relatable.

Cause especially in social media, every, everybody is now I’m looking into buying based on emotion or what you represent or your relate-ability and stuff like that need top Edmonton Bookkeeping. So it’s very important to, um, show them who you are, be proud of what you serve as a, what you’re offering as a service or a product. Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. Um, can you sell customers if you’re not sold on the product or certainly as yourself? I guess you can, it depending on what the service and or product is, if it’s something that people just want. Yeah. But for the most part, I think the answer to that would be no. If you’re not sold on your product and you’re not really excited about your product, you’re going to have a really hard time selling it to, to anybody else. Yeah. And again, you’re, you’re the, you’re the own. Well, you’re the person with the most knowledge about your product.

So if you’re not completely sold on it, then it’s, that’s gonna. Um, that’s gonna be hard to translate into someone else. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, should everyone say yes to buying your product or service? Yeah. You wish it was that way, right. When there are some people that really don’t need your product or service. And if you’re a good business owner, you’ll know that you’ll, you’ll see a customer who really doesn’t need your product. Um, and so that goes kind of back to, um, um, you know, is customers expectations good enough? You know, and, and saying like, I think it’s totally fine for you to say, you know what, this product really isn’t for you. I can’t sell you this product cause you just don’t need it. Yeah. So think, Oh, sorry, go ahead. So yeah, like, uh, stuff like that. And also, um, you want to make sure that the customer you’re trying to sell to will actually be profitable for your business, not just, um, anyone. Be sure to call us now about Edmonton Bookkeeping

Cause, um, as a business owner, you, you kind of want to try and sell to everybody and get as much sales as possible. Well, that’s great. Um, you can’t, um, you can be focusing on all the strengths that your competitors have. We usually tell our clients do focus on three things that they’re really good at and be really, it’d be the best at it because if you’re trying, like for example, you can’t beat the best product and also the lowest price that kinda doesn’t, um, it’s not a good business model. Right? So you got to think about that when it comes to your customer. So if your customers is very price sensitive and you’re trying to go for the best product in the market, that it might not be the best customer for you. That’s right. Yep. Um, as the small business owner, can I capture a large percentage of the market? [inaudible]

um, it depends on your product. I think if your product is something that nobody else is selling, then yeah, you might be able to capture a large percentage of the market. But if you’re selling something that everybody else is selling or that, uh, you know, especially those big box stores are selling, you’re probably not going to capture a large majority of the market. Um, but what you’re gonna do is you’re gonna like you always said, do the best that you can give the best service that you can make your product the best so that, um, you can capture a good percentage for you. Absolutely. And, and as business owners, we go into business, you know, uh, because we were trying to solve a problem, we saw, um, a problem that we’re trying to, uh, uh, well solved [inaudible] inserted myself. But, um, yeah, so with that in mind, like, Oh, business owners usually start and they say, Oh, my, my, my product or my service is so it’s, um, it’s different from my competitors. Don’t mistake your differentiation strategy, um, to a completely niche, um, product in the market. If you are, if you have a niche product, then yeah, you might be able to get, um, large percentage of the market because you’re the only one that’s offering it. But if it’s their differentiation strategy with Edmonton Bookkeeping, um,

uh,

most of the time you need to work on that. Um, your differentiation. Uh, uh, what is it called? Differentiation.

Uh,

well pro, uh, I, I is there a differentiation strategy and competitive advantage as what I’m trying to get at, um, to be able to get a larger, um, percentage of the market? Yeah, yeah. Um, well, I sell 100% of my supply capacity. Probably not. Most people don’t sell 100%. Uh, even the box stores, they don’t sell hundred percent. Um, but again, if you’re selling, um, you know, if, if you are sold on your product and you’re out there, um, making sales and getting people to buy, then you’re gonna, you’re gonna sell a good amount of your supply. And if you’re selling up capacity, then there’s a problem. Yeah. You need to expand with Edmonton Bookkeeping. Yeah. Yeah. [inaudible] and you have two more people. They might, if the demand is there, you have to be making profits out of it. That’s right. Yeah. Um, is every customer a good customer?

Customer [inaudible] this one is a, is a hard one, right? Because you get a customer, you worked hard and you’ve sold your product to this customer. And sometimes the customer is just not good. And it sounds harsh, but sometimes that customer doesn’t have the same, um, uh, beliefs as you are the same, not beliefs, but um, uh, the same values. Yeah, the same values as you. And so, um, you struggle with that customer and, and sometimes it’s better just to let them go. You, you spend more time and more money, um, trying to make them happy and trying to get them to maybe buy something that they don’t need or they don’t really want. Um, and you’re, you’re just wasting your time. And so sometimes you just have to break relations with that customer and just, um, except that I don’t think that’s a bad thing all the time.

Sometimes it is better for your, your business to not have that customer. Yeah, true. Well, more of a new soul, a broken business model. Yeah. Not really. I mean, if you have more revenue, you, you might have more money to, to put towards fixing your business, but it’s not necessarily about the revenue. It’s about these things that we talked about top Edmonton Bookkeeping. Making the sales, getting the customers and be, um, going beyond the customer’s expectations. Those are the things that are going to build your business model and help you have a successful business. Yeah, I think that’s all the questions I have for now. I hope you guys find it informative. If you, um, if you like watching these videos, please like and subscribe to our channel and we’ll see you guys next time.