I’ve resisted talking about this topic for now, but having seen a very well written article by Sam Ovens this morning containing a similar vein of thought Sam’s article has inspired me to get on and put these messages out in the business community.

Sam is 100 % correct in saying that people don’t care about other people’s problems – they only care about solving their own problems. This is a truism that too many business people still deny and still don’t understand…and is a major causation factor leading to the failure of many many businesses right around the world. 

Way back in the 1980’s during my introduction to marketing at university by a worldly lecturer by the name of Richard Buchanan, I was presented with the notion that the underlying motivation of ALL human behaviour is in fact “selfishness”. Think about this principle for a minute even and you’ll see how true it is. And once you accept this basic universal trait of human behaviour you’ll then be able to move forward and truly understand the power of marketing – which of course is centered on identifying and resolving the needs (problems) of people.

You see, a human need is no more and no less than a “problem that needs resolving”, and if you are able to resolve another person’s problem you become recognised as having added value to their life – and you start to become seen as their “problem-solver”. And if you do the job of solving another person’s problem well enough that person is likely to return to you to have not only similar problems of theirs solved in the future (e.g. buy similar products/ services from you)…but quite possibly engage you to have “new” problems of theirs addressed also.

When I teach commerce – whether that be at a student level or to experienced business people – the fundamental “truth seed” that I plant in their minds is “your income in life will mostly be commensurate with the extent to which you succeed at satisfying the needs (solving the problems) of other people“.

What continues to both bemuse and annoy me is business people who have an inwards focus on their business. Have no doubt about it, such a focus is all about “ego”, and in my experience ego is continuing to cause many businesses to fail.

I liken this tendency to drive a business with an inwards-focused mindset to a person taking “selfies” on their digital device, versus a person using the same digital device to instead take pictures of the world around them. If a person is constantly concerned about themselves more than taking in a greater snapshot of the world around them, you can count on such a person:

  • being ego-centric
  • having a mind-set of “I know what’s best” 
  • having an attitude of “I’m right and you’re wrong”
  • being relatively difficult to influence 
  • being quite opinionated 
  • not readily being able to work with other people

…and unfortunately – in a business context – these people are more concerned about propelling their own careers than developing the interests of the stakeholders who they should be looking after. I have worked in a CEO role alongside directors who had this “we know what’s best for our business…and we know what our customers want” mindset. They refused to validate their assumptions/ speculations using market research and refused to evolve to become a marketing-led organisation. 

So here’s the take-home point, if you are serious about having a viable and sustainable business then you must relax your ego and tendency to looks inwards to resolve customer-related issues, and instead look outwards, engage with customers and be prepared to shape your value proposition based on what customers are telling you their problem is that requires resolving. 

And if you want to take practicing this “outward-looking” discipline one step further, engage with your team of employees and at least your primary external stakeholders (such as preferred suppliers) to establish first-hand what their needs/ problems in relation to your business are also. 

Your business will flourish when the needs/ problems of your various stakeholders (customers, employees, contractors, suppliers) are being resolved by the products/ services that your business provides. You can’t hope to achieve this synergy until you actually “know” what these needs/ problems are and then become disciplined about focusing the resources of your business on addressing these identified problems/ needs.

Click here to read Sam’s article.