ALWAYS think “What is best for the customer?”
And no not in a “the customer is always right” bs.
Customers are people too, they are wrong quite often. I’m talking about running your business as a whole that benefits your customers and market the most.
Let me explain.
Let’s say you know for a fact the best way to clean a roof is to soft wash it with bleach water and soap.
This is the industry standard that many big-name companies use and do quite well with.
But it is also the most expensive option. Customers enjoy it but many don’t want to pay for the extra cost of the bleach and equipment.
Another way you can clean a roof is to apply a powder chemical such as laundry detergent. This doesn’t work as well but it still works and is quite a bit cheaper than the full soft wash.
Many customers prefer this option because they don’t really care about having a perfectly clean roof, they care more about the cost and still having a good job done.
Hence many people gravitate towards the powder treatment because it is what the customer wants.
It may not be the ‘best’ treatment but it is best for the customer because it’s what they want.
In the same way, you could have a burger restaurant that makes great burgers, but it’s located right next to a McDonalds.
In this particular town people want only the drive through Mickey D’s and even though you have objectively better burgers, you will be crushed by the other option because that’s what the market wants.
This often goes against our own prejudices of what we think is best when what we think doesn’t always matter.
You can have your premium burger restaurant after you’ve made alot of money selling the burgers people want, or you could have a cheap burger on the menu and a premium one.
No one gives a damn what you or I want. It’s what they want and the second you get a whiff of where the market is heading you should be ruthlessly trying to move in that direction, even if it means disrupting your own business.
This quote found on Chat GPT sums it up well;
“Disrupting your own market is not about sacrificing your current success, but about boldly securing your relevance in the future. It’s the art of mastering change, not just adapting to it, where innovation becomes the norm, not the exception. Remember, if you don’t disrupt your market, someone else will.”
If you don’t, someone else will.
Stuff to think about my friend.
Until next time,
Your man
-Spencer Claeys