Suppose you run a shop that sells utility kits containing various tools like screwdriver, flash light etc. A customer walks into your store looking for a small hammer using which he wants to fix a nail in the wall. You have a new variety of multifunctional tool kit that can do hundreds of things and you are so impressed by it that you start trying to sell it to every customer that walks into your store.
But that customer is only looking for a small hammer that can fix a nail in the wall. He wouldn’t be interested in the hundreds of things that your mighty tool kit can do. If you go on and on, he might as well scream ‘For heaven’s sake, all I need is a hole in the wall!”.
Well, that’s called standing in other’s shoes. We have to see things from the other’s point of view. This is so difficult most of the times because we are so occupied with our side of the story and may be very excited about our version but at the end of the day we fail to impress others because all we talked was just not the things that they were interested in.
If you do business for a living, understand that knowing what the customer needs and addressing the need should be on top of your list. The customer doesn’t care about your mighty product that can do everything in the universe but not the thing that matters to him.
