Trying to be an all-in-one solution for everyone is suicide for your startup
August 4, 2021
In this episode, we talk about why sometimes is better to say no to solve everyone's problems.
Here is how a lot of business owners start up founders marketers fail. They try to be something for everyone. And sometimes when business is slow and we need new revenue coming in, we can get a little desperate and we can start taking on customers or clients that might not be the best fit for our solution.
So this is something that I recently actually had to do in my business where I had to tell a prospect of client that I didn't think they were a good fit because where I help customers, it seemed like they already had that part figured out, right? They didn't need my help with that. There were a lot of other areas where it was clear that I could help them because they need help with so many other things. And if I wanted to take on that business then I could, right? it would be like, here's your problem. Um, let me create a brand new solution so I can keep funding whatever I'm funding and take your money, right? But doing that, being desperate and taking that money would have hurt me in the long run because this person's customer journey, I haven't detailed this out yet. I wouldn't know how to deliver a good experience and it would be probably hurting me and it would be hurting this person and it's not a scalable process for me.
So me taking all the time in ensuring that I'm delivering value to this one person will probably take a lot of time away from me, expanding into other marketing channels and trying to get customers where I know that I can deliver a great phenomenal experience. So I had to say no to this prospective client and it made me feel really bad because it's money. Not only is the money, it's like I feel like I could help this person and I, you know, I immediately want to take on this client because I'm like, yeah, like you have this problem, this problem, this problem I'm a problem solver. Let me solve these problems for you.
But saying no, eventually probably is going to be the best thing in the long run because me trying to say save everyone, trying to solve everyone's problems is going to put too much on my plate where I won't be able to move forward towards the direction that I want to go towards here is the mistake, however, that I made by saying no to this person. When I said no to this person and I said, I don't think we can do business together because it seems like you already have this part figured out and this is how I help people. My mistake was not listening to all the other challenges that this person had. So this person obviously got on the phone with me because they had some kind of issue, some kind of pressing issue. And even if the problem wasn't something that aligned with the system that I built to solve whatever problems this person is facing, I missed an opportunity because I could have offered value by sending this person to someone else. So if I actually had a network of other service providers that help with these similar, similar products.
So for example, let you know, I'm helping people launch go to market, build up their customer list. And after that, let's say that they need help with Facebook ads. Well, if I say no, I can't help you because I don't do facebook ads that's done like it stops the conversation right there, right? But if I had someone in my roller dex that does Facebook ads that I trust, I can say, "oh I definitely know this guy that can help you with your facebook as you should contact this person" and it just creates a value for a lot of people and when you're doing it like this, the person that you're the service provider that you're sending this prospect of client to, they're going to be appreciated and they're probably gonna send people right back to you.
And this is how you grow a business, right? You get in front of as many people as possible and you basically share information that could raise the floor for everyone. So that was my mistake with this prospect. I didn't send them to other areas where I felt like they could actually get the solution that they're looking for. Instead I was just upset that I wasn't able to do the business and you know that feeling of being upset took me away from trying to actually give value to to this person.
So lessons learned, I think moving forward, what I'm going to do is I'm going to start developing stronger relationships with people in my industry that doesn't necessarily offer the products or services that I offer, but is offering things that my customers would need somewhere along their journey and just developing these good relationships. I can always point people there and try to raise the pie for every single person. So what are you doing to increase your network? How are you sending business to other people in your network? How are you creating value? Hope this helps Robin Copernicus. Boom bam, I'm out.
Continue your journey with me on my other channels:
So this is something that I recently actually had to do in my business where I had to tell a prospect of client that I didn't think they were a good fit because where I help customers, it seemed like they already had that part figured out, right? They didn't need my help with that. There were a lot of other areas where it was clear that I could help them because they need help with so many other things. And if I wanted to take on that business then I could, right? it would be like, here's your problem. Um, let me create a brand new solution so I can keep funding whatever I'm funding and take your money, right? But doing that, being desperate and taking that money would have hurt me in the long run because this person's customer journey, I haven't detailed this out yet. I wouldn't know how to deliver a good experience and it would be probably hurting me and it would be hurting this person and it's not a scalable process for me.
So me taking all the time in ensuring that I'm delivering value to this one person will probably take a lot of time away from me, expanding into other marketing channels and trying to get customers where I know that I can deliver a great phenomenal experience. So I had to say no to this prospective client and it made me feel really bad because it's money. Not only is the money, it's like I feel like I could help this person and I, you know, I immediately want to take on this client because I'm like, yeah, like you have this problem, this problem, this problem I'm a problem solver. Let me solve these problems for you.
But saying no, eventually probably is going to be the best thing in the long run because me trying to say save everyone, trying to solve everyone's problems is going to put too much on my plate where I won't be able to move forward towards the direction that I want to go towards here is the mistake, however, that I made by saying no to this person. When I said no to this person and I said, I don't think we can do business together because it seems like you already have this part figured out and this is how I help people. My mistake was not listening to all the other challenges that this person had. So this person obviously got on the phone with me because they had some kind of issue, some kind of pressing issue. And even if the problem wasn't something that aligned with the system that I built to solve whatever problems this person is facing, I missed an opportunity because I could have offered value by sending this person to someone else. So if I actually had a network of other service providers that help with these similar, similar products.
So for example, let you know, I'm helping people launch go to market, build up their customer list. And after that, let's say that they need help with Facebook ads. Well, if I say no, I can't help you because I don't do facebook ads that's done like it stops the conversation right there, right? But if I had someone in my roller dex that does Facebook ads that I trust, I can say, "oh I definitely know this guy that can help you with your facebook as you should contact this person" and it just creates a value for a lot of people and when you're doing it like this, the person that you're the service provider that you're sending this prospect of client to, they're going to be appreciated and they're probably gonna send people right back to you.
And this is how you grow a business, right? You get in front of as many people as possible and you basically share information that could raise the floor for everyone. So that was my mistake with this prospect. I didn't send them to other areas where I felt like they could actually get the solution that they're looking for. Instead I was just upset that I wasn't able to do the business and you know that feeling of being upset took me away from trying to actually give value to to this person.
So lessons learned, I think moving forward, what I'm going to do is I'm going to start developing stronger relationships with people in my industry that doesn't necessarily offer the products or services that I offer, but is offering things that my customers would need somewhere along their journey and just developing these good relationships. I can always point people there and try to raise the pie for every single person. So what are you doing to increase your network? How are you sending business to other people in your network? How are you creating value? Hope this helps Robin Copernicus. Boom bam, I'm out.
Continue your journey with me on my other channels:
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