Entrepreneurs are most times focused on making money from sales. A lot of time is spent on how to increase cash flow. As a new startup, you are focused on increasing your customer base and may very seldom be concerned about how you and your brand are perceived by the people who buy your products or your potential customers. It is often said that people buy from people they trust and therefore how you show up in this world will determine how successful you are, and how many people will be drawn to your brand. In this regard here are a few tips to help you show up as a trusted brand and product:
- Have a confident conversation with yourself – review your internal security, how you think about yourself determines who and what you attract. If your internal security thinks of abundance then that’s what you will attract, that’s how you will show up; be ready and willing to take up the challenges that may come with a positive disposition;
- Show up with an empathetic attitude to customer – One method of providing value for your customers is the put yourself in the place of the customer. Understanding their needs, their problems and their interpretation of them should be well understood;
- Always ask what problem are you solving for your customer – Are you different, is your brand different. This is what Coco Chanel had to say about becoming irreplaceable: “In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.” Sometimes the difference is precisely the solution to your customer’s problems and this can make your brand the go-to brand.
- As a business owner exude executive presence – are you inspiring confidence among your team, peers and senior leaders? Are you seen as a leader that people want to follow? Do your teams, industry colleagues and customers believe that you are capable, reliable and honest? If you are able to inspire people, they will trust your brand and buy from you.
- Develop standards in doing business and continuous improvement Do you continuously develop the standards of your product or service to provide value for your customers? This means working on the back end of your product or service continuously to create greater value creation for your customers. Are you able to acknowledge the areas that you and your team may be weak or novices at?
- Always follow instructions given by recognized experts
As part of building trust in the business environment, customers must see us as giving correct and reliable guidance on all matters. The COVID19 is one such area to consider. Never before have we had to deal with a pandemic in doing business and therefore, we should acknowledge and rely on the authorized international and national organizations – World Health Organization, FAO, ILO, CDC and the Government Health Advisory for advice on the best methodologies and protocols in dealing with this pandemic. We also should take copious notes on processes and procedures adopted in our responses to COVID19, so that we would record lessons learned for any such pandemic in the future. The next step would be to update our General Procedures Manual (GPM) for future reference.