It’s not important what your customers say but what they do

In  our life, we tend  to have  some  inconsistency – we say something and then do something else. If you are employing somebody in your company, you could have encountered a situation when your employee, on one hand, praised your company and claimed to be happy with the cooperation, and a month later he  quit his job and went to the competition. One day in dismay a  husband finds out that his wife is cheating on him, although he was sure that everything was okay. In trade it can turn out that everybody around praises your product, but no-one will eventually buy it.

Where does this inconsistency come from?

Our behaviour is motivated by different kinds of needs. The most basic ones are used to satisfy physiological needs, so they  provide rest and appease  hunger.  Safety needs allow you  to achieve peace, and the need for self-fulfillment enables us to fulfill  our potential.

Each of us also has blockades and limitations which prevent us from  fulfilling those needs. They can come from the environment  that we live in (e.g. binding  cultural rules) or from previous life experiences (e.g. fears appearing inside us).

Your employee can simply feel fear of telling you sincerely about his job dissatisfaction when working for you. The wife can feel unloved but at the same time she may not be able  to change the  situation in her marriage and looks for outside solution. The customers will all agree  that the idea you offer is lofty. On the meetings they’ll be polite and won’t block the idea but they   won’t take any initiative either, because the profits won’t be enough for them  to sacrifice  their peace at work.

Although it’s only one of many ways of looking at the sale of  services and products , it eventually comes down to one – it’s not important what they say about your ideas but what they do with them. People can laugh at other people posting photos of their dinner or from parties / holidays on facebook but at the same time they  will register there and take a look at their friends’ profiles with pleasure because their curiosity is bigger.

A good businessman is a bit like a scientist – he  studies the needs of other people, tries to understand their behaviour, he  notices nuances  and offers products which touch human hearts. The justification for their purchase  is of secondary importance and often far from truth. How many explanations for using Facebook or iPhone have you heard, and what do you think – to what extend  do they really explain their popularity?

Motivation is, of course, a separate issue,  which will push you to offer a certain thing on the market. If your only goal is to earn as much money as possible, you can start selling drugs or (out of those more legal businesses) set up a porn site – you will certainly find customers for that (however, on the other hand, the competition is already huge). The vision  of your company and your value system is a topic for a  separate entry.