• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Wealth Pilgrim

No Money Worries. No Matter What.

Neal Frankle featured in
  • Home
  • Life Insurance
  • Investing
    • Build Strong Investment Building Blocks To Avoid Going Broke In Retirement
    • Systematic Mutual Fund and ETF Investing
    • Stock Market Investing Guide
    • Choosing the Right Investment Brokerage Guide
    • How Bonds Work Guide
    • How Banks Really Work Guide
    • Annuities – What You Need To Know Before You Invest
    • A Beginners Guide To Buying Individual Stocks
    • Create A Pool Of Great Mutual Funds and ETFs To Pick From To Secure Your Retirement
    • ETF and Index Fund Investment Guide
  • Earn More
  • Banking
  • Retirement Planning
    • Retirement Guide
  • Ask Neal a Question
  • Reviews
    • Upgrade Personal Loans Review
    • Lending Club Review
    • Prosper Review
    • Ally Invest TradeKing Review
    • CIT Bank Review
    • LegalZoom Review
    • Lexington Law Review
    • Airbnb Host Review
    • Should You Drive For Uber?
  • Tax
  • Courses
    • Raise Your Credit Score So You Can Buy a House – Free Video Course

Why People Do Business With Someone – 3 Secrets Revealed

by Neal Frankle, CFP ®, The article represents the author's opinion. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure for more info.

How do you decide to do business with someone ? Whatever criteria it is, do you think other people use the same parameters you use? I can guarantee that they don’t.

Your customer decides whether or not to trade her money for your product or service based on her needs. It’s obivious that your job is to figure out what those needs are if you want to have a successful small business. But here is the key – that doesn’t mean you need to cater to every person who might be your customer. Some people’s needs are not a good fit for you. Likewise, you are not a good fit for everyone.

When I first started my business I made the mistake of trying to get everyone to be my client. Big mistake. I tried to become an expert in the needs and wants of very different individuals. I found out that I just couldn’t do it. I learned the hard way that it’s far better to focus on the needs of retirees, highly paid employees and self-employed people. Those were the people I focused my business around and it was a good move.

I could really drill down and become an expert for them. It also saved me time and helped me market my company. I became more valuable to the people I wanted to do business with as a result. Win-win.

So your first task as a small business owner is to decide who you want to do business with and why. And here’s a hint – don’t pick a group of people just because you think they are the most lucrative clients. Choose your client groups based on people you like ,understand and want to serve. Help people you enjoy helping. That will give you a huge leg up on your competition.

Once you decide who you want to business with, you need to find out what they need and want. Don’t assume that you know. Prepare 10 to 15 questions and invite them out for coffee. Learn about these people by interviewing them. Go through your list and listen. These aren’t sales meetings – they are educational meetings and these people are doing you a favor so honor that.

Lets say you own a Toyota auto repair shop. You like working with families and it’s important to you to keep those wheels rolling so those families can function. Here are some questions you might ask some customers:

  1. What do you like about your current repair provider?
  2. What would you change?
  3. Why?
  4. What has been your best experience?
  5. What has been your worst experience?
  6. If you talk with friends about problems with auto repair, what concerns do they have?
  7. What would need to happen for you to be completely satisfied?
  8. How do the problems with auto repair impact you? What does this keep you from having or experiencing?
  9. Does it impact any other part of your life or relationships with other people?
  10. Why is this important to you?
  11. What would your life look like if you didn’t have this problem?
  12. Who else should I talk to learn more?

These are all open-ended questions by design. Tweak them so they work for your small business. Just remember that the best way to get anything out of these meetings is to listen. Don’t try to convince someone how wonderful you are.

At the end of the day, people decide to do business with you or not based on three major questions?

  • Does this person understand my needs?
  • Can this person solve my problems?
  • Do I like and trust this person?

If you identify the right audience and learn about them by interviewing people, it will be easy for them to say “yes” to questions #1 and #2. And I have written about trust in other posts and I suggest you read one or two now.

If you comport yourself as a person others can trust, learn about them and are able to provide what they want most, your business will thrive. You’ll have more people who want to do business with you than you can handle.

How do you get people to decide to do business with you?

Tweet
Pin
Share2

Reader Interactions

User Generated Content (UGC) Disclosure: Please note that the opinions of the commenters are not necessarily the opinions of this site.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Are You Human? * Time limit is exhausted. Please reload CAPTCHA.

Primary Sidebar

Who is Neal Frankle

Neal Frankle

I'm a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ Professional with more than 25 years of experience. I feel very blessed and hope to share my personal financial experience and professional wisdom with readers of WealthPilgrim.
Read More »

Stay Connected

Facebook Twitter YouTube RSS

More Categories

Career Development
College Funding
Credit Cards
Credit Score Fixes
Money and Marriage
Debt Relief
Estate Protection
Property Investment Loans
Small Business Strategies
Spend Less Money

Disclaimer

Wealth Pilgrim is not responsible for and does not endorse any advertising, products or resource available from advertisements on this website. Wealth Pilgrim receives compensation from Google for advertising space on this website, but does not control the advertising selection or content. Please do the appropriate research before participating in any third party offers. The information contained in WealthPilgrim.com is for general information or entertainment purposes only and does not constitute professional financial advice. Please contact an independent financial professional for advice regarding your specific situation. Wealth Pilgrim does not provide investment advisory services and is not a registered investment adviser. Neal may provide advisory services through Wealth Resources Group, a registered investment adviser. Wealth Pilgrim and Wealth Resources Group are affiliated companies. In accordance with FTC guidelines, we state that we have a financial relationship with some of the companies mentioned in this website. This may include receiving payments,access to free products and services for product and service reviews and giveaways. Any references to third party products, rates, or websites are subject to change without notice. We do our best to maintain current information, but due to the rapidly changing environment, some information may have changed since it was published. Please do the appropriate research before participating in any third party offers.


About · Contact · Disclaimer & Privacy policy

Copyright © Wealth Pilgrim 2022 All Rights Reserved