Liz Strauss at Successful Blog

Thinking, writing, business ideas … You're only a stranger once.

4.5: 25 Things that People — Our Key Customers — Really Want

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Everyone Has Customers

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I’ve been thinking a lot about customers lately. We all have them. Some are traditional sorts. They come to our businesses and pay us for products or services. Some are a little less conventional — they come in a customer role for things that don’t cost. Blog readers, first graders, park users are customers like those. Other customers don’t seem like customers at all, but really they are . . . mothers, fathers, sons, daughters all rely on our services like customers.

So it seems that knowing what customers want is more than a good idea. With that many customers everywhere we look, knowing what keeps them on a happy note would seem more like survival. Don’t you think?

25 Things that People — Our Key Customers — Really Want

Whether we have a business or we are just in the business of living, it’s good to know what will help us deliver a smile on the faces of the folks we care most about.

This list works for every kind of customer I’ve been able to think up. (Don’t go getting kinky on me.)

  1. People want help solving a problem.
  2. People want folks to notice them.
  3. People want to be heard when they offer their thoughts.
  4. People want to feel smart.
  5. People want to be a part of things.
  6. People want to be generous and for you to be generous too.
  7. People want give and be good things and want you to give and be good things too.
  8. People want to not worry . . . about time, money, health, injury, or other danger.
  9. People want to know that you’ll be the same person or better than the last time they saw you.
  10. People want to be entertained.
  11. People want to be informed.
  12. People want to learn.
  13. People want to know you don’t say bad things about them.
  14. People want to know they aren’t a number or a metric.
  15. People want good cake not just icing on a bad one.
  16. People do want the truth. They just don’t want it delivered with a sledgehammer.
  17. People want to believe in something without someone picking on them for it.
  18. People don’t want innovation. They want things that make life more livable.
  19. People want things and experiences that make their fill their time more meaningfully.
  20. People want to be understood.
  21. People want their questions answered even when the answer is “I don’t know.”
  22. People want the right to make mistakes without losing every time they do.
  23. People want to make their own choices.
  24. People want to know that you value their differences.
  25. People want to know that you know they are people.

People aren’t hard to understand. We all were born one of them. The trick is to keep in mind that folks around us — even folks we don’t know –are people too. They have their own thoughts and desires in the same way we have ours. We can meet with them where we agree — 25 points up there give us plenty to start with.

In our lives and in our businesses, people are our only customers for our actions and behaviors. If we make it about THEM, everyone will be just a little bit nicer. Lose track of that and they’ll remind us.

What things do the people in your life want? Are you a product of your environment? Could you be a better one?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

4.4: The 7 Secrets to a Fiercely, Loyal Community of Readers

Filed Under Inside-Out Thinking, Perfect Virtual Manager, Successful Blog, The Big Idea | 42 Comments

Reading Is My Life

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We all learned to read and kept on reading. If we didn’t, we wouldn’t be here. I went on to learn about readers and literacy — how folks interact with text and ideas became my field.

Knowing about reading is a tricky thing. People think that because they can read they must know how it all works. Just underneath the surface are secrets they don’t realize . . . Why would they, unless readers have been their customers for years?

I’m going to share those secrets with you.

The 7 Secrets to a Fiercely, Loyal Community of Readers

Ever been to a great restaurant or club where the mood is right; the service is grand; and every offering is spectacular? When the whole experience comes together in just the right measure, we leave a place already thinking about when we’re going to go back.

Written information, when it’s presented well, has the same effect. It’s a great fit that’s so satisfying, we’re thinking about the experience as a whole and the feeling that we came away with.

These secrets have been researched with every age group from pre-school to graduate school and every reading level from pre-literate to way over my head. But I know you’ll know they work, not because I said so, but because when you read them they will totally make sense.

  1. Be interesting. Be entertaining. Be silly. Be informative. Be controversial. Be anything but preachy or boring. Contrary to popular belief, you CAN tell. You DO know. Take the time to look. If you don’t, you’re lost before you start.

  2. Be simple. Put away the big vocabulary words and the long sentences. Only use that incredible word once in an entire piece. Elegance is understated. Impact is quiet. Take away all of the words you can without losing meaning. Extra words get between your message and me.

  3. Be positive. Know what you’re saying and show me how to get to a positive end. No one wants a problems without a solution. No one wants to live every day reading about doom. Think about how you invest your time with friends . . . do the downers really get more than the ones who help make your world better?

  4. Be trustworthy and respectful. Be who you say you are. Deliver on your tagline. Make sure your headlines tell the story of what you write. Answer comments. Most of all, know what you don’t know and invite your readers to share what they do.

  5. Be consistent. Let folks know what to expect of and from you . . . and in like manner, what you expect of and from them. Every relationship is based on an exchange. Readers and writers exchange the same way. It’s okay if folks don’t like one of your features, if you are consistent about how you label things or when you offer them, you make it easy for folks to get to the content they appreciate.

  6. Be readable. Make sure that every word you write is readable without distraction in every browser that your readers use. Configure your content to serve readers. Some folks get confused and try to do it the other way around.

  7. Be generous and satisfying. Care passionately about what you write. Care even more about the folks who come to read it. Know that readers want to like you and what you write, just as diners want to like the chef and the food in a great restaurant. Let us look smart. Let us help. Let us feel important, connected, and a part of what you’re doing. In other words, make readers the stars.

Readers and a writer work have a relationship like diners and a chef. Only part of that relationship is what is served up from the menu, the rest is the experience. Every successful chef . . . writer . . . first grade teacher knows that.

That’s how we’ve been getting folks to come back for years.

Got more to add to the list? I’m thinking you do.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Is your business stuck? Check out the Start-up Strategy Package. Work with Liz!!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

4.3: 50 Reasons To Love You! — A Survey

Filed Under Inside-Out Thinking, Perfect Virtual Manager, Successful Blog, The Big Idea | 4 Comments

Tell Me Why, Why, Why

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Ever wonder why someone is your friend? Ever think about what you have to offer? Do you just sail along wondering, or do you ask? Asking isn’t easy.

Maybe with friends it’s okay to take it on faith that we have that special “something,” that indescrible “who knows what” that gets our friends to keep coming around. But it sure doesn’t work in business.

When it comes to business, we need to understand what our customers think about us. It’s not an option in business. It’s not a “good thing to know.” It’s survival.

Knowing why our customers love us is the only way to attract more customers and grow. One great way to find out might be to send out a survey. Use the following traits to set up your own survey of traits you think are important to them and your business.

50 Reasons To Love You! — A Survey

Be sure to handwrite the opening sentences to make each request personal if you possibly can.

Hi, ______
I’d really like to know how think about (my/our) work. Could you take a minute to help us out? For each trait below would you write a letter rating? Feel free to cross out those you think don’t apply at all. Thanks!

The ratings are:

  • L= Love how you’re doing. Keep it up!
  • N = Not so in love. Could you try harder?
  • W = Would you work on this one? It would do us both a favor.

The Traits
Here’s how I rate working with you for the way you:

  1. move toward action
  2. adapt
  3. analyze
  4. define boundaries
  5. collaborate
  6. communicate important information verbally
  7. communicate important information in writing
  8. conceptualize
  9. connect
  10. see context
  11. are deliberate
  12. demonstrate
  13. describe
  14. design
  15. handle details
  16. develop an idea
  17. discipline
  18. empathize
  19. enjoy working
  20. explain
  21. are fair
  22. focus
  23. interact with ideas
  24. inform
  25. innovate
  26. use interpersonal skills
  27. learn
  28. manage meetings
  29. manage time
  30. manage teams
  31. manage projects
  32. market to my customers
  33. organize information
  34. organize processes
  35. have positivity
  36. are present
  37. prioritize across levels and processes
  38. problem solve
  39. productive
  40. question
  41. are responsible
  42. are rational
  43. respond
  44. research
  45. sell/persuade
  46. teach
  47. translate/interpret
  48. strategize
  49. use story
  50. have vision

Thank you for taking the time to tell me what you think. I’m listening.

Do personally sign each one.

Fifty reasons customers might love you and 50 ways to love your customers — how many have you already mastered? Could it be more than you expect?

Got more to add to the list?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Is your business stuck? Check out the Start-up Strategy Package. Work with Liz!!

Related
To follow the entire series: Liz Strauss’ Inside-Out Thinking to Building a Solid Business, see the Successful Series Page.

Interruption 3: Two Questions About Blogs and Your Business

Filed Under Inside-Out Thinking, Perfect Virtual Manager, Successful Blog, The Big Idea | 21 Comments

Blogs and Business

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Two days ago, Steve Broback and Teresa Valdez Klein announced that Blog Business Summit Chicago would not be happening after all. In its place they have launched a new blog called Web Community Forum. Steve explains their reasoning this way.

Our conferences have always relied heavily on local participation, and our feeling is that Chicago has been very well served this year by at least two excellent, and very reasonably priced blogger conferences: SOBcon and BlogHer. A third event close on the heels of these other shows is obviously a tough sell. In addition, it’s clear from discussions with local marketers that blogging has normalized and is not the disruptive force it was back in 2004 when we launched the BBS.

I applaud Steve and Teresa for their insight and courage.

I think they’re right. Blogs shouldn’t be the center of what we see anymore.

Blogs Are Tools Not Our Core Business

In February 2006, I posted that blogs are technology. At the time, I didn’t take the idea as far as I might. But I’ve been thinking about this since SOBCon07. My thought is that we don’t talk about computers, spreadsheets, or pencils the way we talk about blogs. Yet to me, all are tools we use to get our work done.

Unless we charge a subscription, blogs are not our businesses. They help us advertise, communicate, teach, interact, meet with our customers, but they are not our product or service. They are not what we do or sell. A blog is a business support not the business itself.

My point is this:

Just as knowing how to lay bricks, work with wood, paint walls and decorate can make beautiful store, but does not ensure a thriving business. Having a beautiful blog with wonderful content is not having a thriving business either.

The design, the usability, and the words on our blog are merely a vehicle to sell the products, ads, or services that are our real income streams. Knowing how business works is still key.

A great business uses a blog, but is not merely a blog.

So I leave you with these questions.

  1. How would you describe your blog’s place in your business?
  2. If you could get one all-important question answered about your online business what would it be?

I’ll use your responses to better serve you as I move forward with the Inside-Out Thinking Series.

Thanks for your answers.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!

4.2: 10 Expert Strategies for Finding Customer Needs

Filed Under Inside-Out Thinking, Perfect Virtual Manager, Successful Blog, The Big Idea | 4 Comments

Customers Are the Only Ones Who Count

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Yesterday I wrote a recipe for a product offering that sells. Of course, it really was about paying attention to customers — customers are the only ones who count.


4.1: The Recipe for a Product Offering that Will Sell

Before we leave the topic, I did some research to offer you the points of view from some experts on the subject.

10 Expert Strategies for Finding Customer Needs

Read to find out how to listen to your customers and how to know when they are right.

  1. pdf 6 Customer Expectations.
    a most readable pdf with solid explanations of how customers think.

  2. video Asking Customers What They Think Has Long-Term Benefits
    The benefits of asking

  3. A Customer Feedback Tip – Are You Asking The Right Questions?
    Well-written article on making sure we know what we’re asking

  4. To Charge Up Customers, Put Customers in Charge
    Uses the great example of Threadless.com an online business.

  5. Create Successful Products by ‘Getting in the Van’
    The benefits of going to where the customers are

  6. Customer Satisfaction Tips Links to 18 articles on the subject of finding out what customers think

  7. Finding Hot Selling Products to Sell
    The basics of supply and demand

  8. Successful products through observation
    Why simply watching ourselves and our customers is valid too.

  9. Tips for e-mail marketing in a spam-filled world
    Once you have a list of customers hw you might use it to ask them what they think.

  10. How to Find High-Demand Products That Sell Like Hotcakes
    Some nontraditional places to research online

Now take a look at the products you own. What thinking made you buy them?

How will that help you decide what you offer?

–ME :Liz” Strauss
Check out the Work with Liz!! page in the sidebar.

Related
3.6 10 More Outstanding Links that Answer “What DO You Do for a Living?”
20 Outstanding Links to Answer “What Do You Do?”
3.2: Three Steps to a Killer Tagline that Customers Pass On
Strategy: 40 Outstanding Blog Links, Bookmark Carefully!
20 Blog Promotion Guides to Inform Your Strategy

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