Being true to you is good for business

By Rebecca Leigh | March 10, 2009

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“One of the most important milestones we’ll hit along the way, is the moment when we finally find our own unique point of view and realise how priceless it is.” Sarah Ban Breathnach

Proposition 1: Be driven by customer needs. Be de-centred. Show them what’s in it for them at every stage.

Proposition 2: In a global market you’re never the only good [insert business here] who’s meeting customer needs. Show them the true you, let them hear your unique voice, and your right customer will feel the difference. You’ll also be happier.

5 Comments so far

1. by Evan on March 10, 2009 at 7:47 pm

   Well, yes and no. My own views and traumas won’t necessarily be worth buying. I think the real me needs to relate to the customers need in some way.

2. by Rebecca Leigh on March 10, 2009 at 9:37 pm

   Well… yes and no

   If several good professionals are offering similar services that would equally meet my needs, I think how they present as a fellow human being (with all their views and traumas), would impact on my buying decision.

   For example, if I was choosing amongst one of the many, many available and talented freelance web designers, and I was a single mum, and I had connected with a particular woman who talked about the struggles of being a single mum herself, and her service met my needs just as well as one of her competitors… well, I think I’d choose her.

   Maybe not every consumer would agree. There does seem to be a clear movement towards businesses being allowed to be ‘human’ (ie. admit mistakes, show real emotion) without fear of being dismissed as unprofessional. I suspect there is some connection here to the desire we have to buy from people we know, or people we think we know, before we buy from strangers.

   Thanks for the conversation Evan!

3. by Esther on March 11, 2009 at 8:24 am

   I think we walk a fine line here between business and art. Art is for me, about me, and finds its end in me. It may speak to others, but it doesn’t have to. Business is for others, about others, and flows through me, directed by my knowledge of what they need. It’s others speaking to others, with me as the medium.

   (my definitions, wholly fallible)

4. by admin on March 11, 2009 at 5:40 pm

   One way to think of this is to think of value. A work of art may have intrinsic value (value for me) and extrinsic value (value for someone else - a buyer, a patron, a funding agency). By way of contrast, it seems to me, a business has to demonstrate a value proposition predicated on the latter - extrinsic value, value for the customer. It doesn’t make sense to me for a business to exist only for its intrinsic value. At that point, it’d be a work of art!

5. by Rebecca Leigh on March 11, 2009 at 7:17 pm

   Can a business not demonstrate extrinsic value (which we all agree it must do to survive in the open market) *and also* have intrinsic value as an expression of the business owner / creator’s gift / passion / view / beliefs?

   If it can’t then why are we trying to have fun and change the world? Surely we’d just stick with making money and would set up any number of scammy enterprises to do so?

   To be even more provocative - I’m sure some would consider their business their art.

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