It’s relatively easy to setup a business: as a matter of fact, just about anyone can setup a business. Just how well that business venture would do is however a completely different matter altogether. This usually depends on, and is affected by a whole lot of things which I can’t even possibly begin to cover in just one article.

You most often hear people complain about how “business isn’t doing too well”, and how they “just aren’t making enough profit”, and how “things seem to be taking a turn for the worse”…… I’m sure we’ve all been there at one point or the other.

Anyway, I was fortunate enough to be given an invitation to attend a Licensing Training and Business Productivity seminar organized by Protech Distribution Ghana, together with Microsoft, which was held today at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Kumasi.

During the seminar, I had the opportunity of meeting Victor Diali- Distribution Account Manager for Microsoft Anglophone West Africa, managing Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Sierra Leone and The Gambia.

Apart from being Distribution account manager for Microsoft, Mr. Diali is also a Business consultant and “Motivational Trainer”. My 3 hour interaction with arguably the most inspirational person I have met this year got me thinking about a whole lot of things relating to business and business productivity.

The major (or principal if you will) reason why anyone even ventures into business in the first place is to “make more money”, and acheive financial indepence.

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What is Money Anyway?

If you were asked, you would (like me) no doubt answer by stating one of the commonly known, “orthodox” definitions of money which go like;

• a medium of exchange issued by a government or other public authority in the form of coins of gold, silver, or other metal, or paper bills, used as the measure of the value of goods and service
• Assets and property considered in terms of monetary value; wealth
• An amount of cash or credit

BLA BLA BLA ………….

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Yeah, almost everyone would, but after those 3 hours with Victor, my entire perception of money changed. According to him;

“Money is the reward you receive for solving a problem”

In other words, people pay you to solve a problem.

I mean, let’s face it: no one actually pays you just because they like your face, your well pressed suit and matching tie, or anything else for that matter. People pay you simply because they feel you can help (or have helped) them do something they ordinarily couldn’t (or wouldn’t) have been able to do themselves- literally “solve a problem”.

That said, I assume it is therefore correct to say;,

“if you can solve complex problems, you have the opportunity of making more money”

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Let’s consider a Passenger Jet Pilot for example shall we.

With mordern crafts, the job of a pilot has has been simplified to; Take-Off and Landing. All the pilot has to do is;

1. Take Off
2. Put the Plane on Auto-Pilot once it reaches the right altitude
3. Land the plane

So you see. They don’t really do “much”, yet they are amongst the highest paid professionals in the world.

Why?

Simple. Their training enables them solve the complex problem of traversing long distances in a relatively short period.

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What Problem Does Your Business Help Solve?

In order to fully acheive your original business motive, you would need to “connect your products and services to the customer’s problem(s). This usually begins by first getting to know what your customer’s problem (need) is, and there is no better way to do this than to

Listen!!

Another interesting thing I learnt from my interaction with Victor Diali today is that contrary to popular believe, a good sales person is not one who knows how to talk, but one who “knows how to listen”

How would you feel, if you went to see a Doctor for instance, and as soon as you walked into his office, he immediately gives you a diagnosis without any form of examination? The next logical step would no doubt be to turn around, flee, and never return.You may even report the Doctor to the relevant authorities.

Same goes for your business.  Just as you would go to the Doctor, looking to solve a health problem, your customers come to you looking to solve a problem. Your customers need to know that your business can actually solve that problem, and the only way to know what your customers need is to actually listen to them.

After pondering over this all day I came to the understanding that listening in itself is more of a process than an action. That is to say that listening is continuous, and goes on for the entire length of your relationship with the customer.

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The Listening Process

In order to get the most out of your business, you have to effectively manage your listening process. To do this, you would however need to effectively manage your business contacts.

• Keep A Record- you would no doubt need to know who your customers are in order to “listen” to them

• Develop  A Relationship- Get to know your customer-base. Create and maintain good rapport with them. Simple tasks such as sending out a gift/greeting on a known anniversary could do a lot to help

• Management- you would need to manage every aspect of your customer’s relationship with you. You need to know as much as possible, how your products/services are helping the client in terms of business growth. If you do not have a “Client Account Manager”, you may need to consider recruiting one

• Support- arguably the most important. The customer is the customer, and should “be the customer”. You must as a matter of necessity provide as much support as required by the customer.Additionally, Most businesses and business owners take offense when a client complains about poor service. This definitely shouldn’t be the case. Allowing the customer to have a voice is one of  the most powerful marketing techniques, and is vital to the listening process.You should know how to effectively handle customer complaints

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A lot more actually goes into this process, but that would have to be in a future article (actually I’ve run out of things to say). Anyway, if you want your business to really succeed (and I assume you do), then it would make a lot of sense for you to “clearly” define what problem(s) your business really solves

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