Misc. Ramblings

Some lessons I've learned on the Internet (or how to read Scoble and learn to love Microsoft).

On the Internet, everything and everyone is interconnected. What this means, contrary to popular belief, is everyone knows you're a dog (if, that is, you are a dog). Hence, you can't do just a few things right, you have to do everything right. Unfortunately, this is impossible. But people will give you some slack if you've built a good relationship with them.

So, companies that call their best customers thieves, and treat them that way, won't have many best customers.

Or in other words, make sure your business is in alignment with your customers. If your customer's needs would be best met by buying "widget A", but you only sell "whizbang B", perhaps the answer is to advise them to buy "widget A", rather than give them five false reasons to switch to "whizbang B". Then, start making a better, cheaper, faster "widget A", which you can then sell to your customers.

Which leads me to this. Building a bridge of trust takes a long, long time. Bringing it down can be done in less than an Internet second. Earn your customer's trust and they will stick with you, even when you make an occasional honest mistake. Burn them by lying to them, even "just" once, and they are gone forever.

Which logically leads to: take the long view. If you focus only on the immediate sale, as if it was life or death and nothing else mattered (as was the Business 101 mantra during the "Greed is Good" 1980s), you probably won't make the sale nor survive into the future. Sales are about relationships. Sometimes the introductions are made by you and sometimes the customer introduces themselves. But the introduction is just the beginning of what should be a long relationship. Like the Zen masters say, searching for happiness is a search left unfound. But, helping others to find their own happiness will lead to you finding yours.

So remember, everything and everyone is interconnected. Align yourself with your customers. Build that bridge of trust. Take the long view. Now, snatch the pebble from my hand.