One of the purposes of running your business is to solve other people’s problems. For example, if you own a restaurant, you would like to provide meals and drinks for a wide variety of people’s preferences and tastes. If you are a training institution, you want to ensure that you do offer different courses tailored for various career paths to the students you serve. If you run a clothing shop, you will be interested in bringing different styles of clothing styles, and sizes to suit all target clients.
Competition should be on your mind as you set out to solve problems for your clientele. Knowing what your competition is offering will help you to think a little differently so that you can get more personal with clients, to solve their problems.
- Identify your client’s problem
There is a basic standard that every business must have that satisfies most if not all clients. However many clients now want to be treated uniquely. This is where customizing comes in. Many clients are ready to pay extra for that factor of customizing.
Thinking about a lady who wants a wedding dress. There are many standard designs available for a wide selection of body sizes. However, to get the precise height, length, and width, the client is willing to pay extra to customize a unique dress to grace her occasion.
You can identify a client’s problems by asking them specific questions related to their needs. Questions help the client to explain specific issues and possibly discover areas that affect their needs.
- Analyze the problem identified
After you have identified the client’s problem, you need to analyze it. By analyzing the problem, you can ask yourself if you have the expertise and capability to solve their problem. For example you may want to suggest aggressive ways of marketing you client’s brands through YouTube. You can see more insights to this in my article on,” Why you need to use YouTube to market you business“.
Some problems would require more input in terms of time, financially, resources, and skills. If you do not have all of these abilities, it would be best to let the client know you are unable to offer a solution but can refer them to a different business companion who can sort their needs.
- Coming up with Solutions
Being a problem solver to your clientele can also mean finding appropriate means, expertise, or ideas that can solve their problems. Solving problems requires creativity and innovation.
You need to have great analytical skills, be flexible, and able to adapt to new ideas. Teamwork is a great way to solve problems for clients as everyone within a team can contribute come up with valuable suggestions.
Finally, if you have great influencing skills you may be able to skip some solution finders such as creativity and innovation. The ability to convince and persuade someone to buy into an idea does not necessarily mean that you must extensively change an idea, or invent a new solution. Rather than invent or change the will, it takes the skill to help the client to see a different way of resolving their problem.
- Choose the optimal decision
Having identified the problem, analyzed it, and found possible solutions, you need to decide on the most favorable solution for the problem. Finding an effective and efficient solution for your client’s problems will help you gain trust and repeat business.
Clients are always looking out for reliable and consistent options from businesses. For more insight you can also see the importance of marketing your business.
