listen, but don't listen
i recently did an interview for a software/business magazine and informally was asked about how i was "first to market" in so many crm ideas. i paused, and laughed. the interviewer thought me to be some tech genius who could see the future, but honestly i only had one thing that helped me drive innovation... my customers.
every breakthrough, smart innovation, and groundbreaking technology i fostered came from the complaints and curiosity of my customers. so that's my next piece of advice to any entrepreneur.
honestly, listen to every thing your customer is telling you, and pay close attention to their complaints. more often than not, their reservations and complaints are the blueprint to where your company should be heading. it was my customers who complained about all their sensitive business data being stored on the "cloud" and not on a private server, behind their secure firewall. and in that same moment (it seems) a client was laughing about since he's paying the rent and utilities for his business, he should be bitcoin mining as well. and now, we're going to be the first ever crm that provides a secure private server that will also mine cyrptocurrency for you.
listen to your customers. write down their complaints and hesitations, and you will begin to draw a map to where you're headed to next. it sounds so simple, and yet this notion is consistently overlooked. listening to my customers helped drive innovation into our dna, and now we update our product quarterly... i never would have imagined something like that when i started.
on the same lines, i'll share with you one mistake i made... i listened to "customers" who didn't have a vested interested in my company. everyone is full of experiences and their business knowledge, and certainly most people will talk to no ends on where your business should go.
sometimes it was the size of their company or the title attached to their name, perhaps even the weight their name carried in the business circle... whatever the reasons, i listened to their advice. and usually, my company ended up in a worse spot. over time i realized the only people who's advice led me to a better spot were the ones who were paying customers, using my product, or had some investment into me personally or my company. after all, my successes somehow benefited them. those who did not invest in salesboom, yet gave me advice, always seemed to lead me into costly ventures and problematic decisions.
so remember, be very cautious with the advice of someone who is not vested in your brand or in you. i m laughing to myself over a beer, as i reflect how much time and money this advice would've saved me...
breaks over, time for me to get back to work...
-troy muise