The Phrase That Pays Part 5 – YOU
YOU
The final article in our series of breaking down the phrase “How Can I Help You?”. Earlier we found out that “you” are in fact the most important person, right? However, when you ask the question “How can I help you?”, let’s think about you from both the “I” standpoint and the client standpoint. Why? Because you should always treat others how you want to be treated. If you examine the “you” from the standpoint of how you would want to be treated if you were your own customer, it helps you better understand how to take care of your customers and create a win-win.
One of the biggest lessons I have ever learned from that aspect of business came from the book “The Closers” by Ben Gay III and it is the last two words of the book. Sum Tertius. Sum Tertius is Latin for “I am third.” If you always put your clients’ needs ahead of your own, you will more often than not come out ahead. As another mentor of mine Jeffrey Gitomer says, “Give value first.”
How can you give value first? Provide something that is a free resource for them.
If you were in their situation, what would you want help with? Survey your clients and find out what their biggest struggle is. Offer a drawing for something of high value to them but low cost to you to get them to respond. Once you obtain the results of your survey, write blog articles, or better yet go live and address these topics. By putting yourself in your client’s shoes, you learn how to serve them better and provide exactly what they are looking for.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Dr. Barbara De Angelis is quoted as saying “We need to find the courage to say no to the things and the people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity.” How this manifests itself in the “How can I help you?” phrase is realizing that we may not be the right fit for everyone.
In fact, by taking them on as a client we may be doing them a disservice.
Just recently, someone posted a review on my business Facebook page of 5 stars and said “Great. Great. Great. Great. Great. Great.” Not recognizing the name as one of our clients, I messaged him. He told me that they had a less than satisfactory experience with another like a service provider and he had heard nothing but great things about us and wished he had used us. This company also sent out someone relatively untrained to serve the client, and it wasn’t until too late that the client saw the difference in pricing. It’s unfortunate, but this happens every single day across American in business.
Train YOU and your employees (your “YOU” front lines) first to serve your clients well. Serve your clients the way you want to be served in the business. Now, go kick ass and tell a client you love them.