Business Insight Zone

Among many gems in Warren Buffett’s annual letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders, this one stood out:

“The way to achieve this goal is to deserve it.”

There’s lots of pain in the business world these days, and far be it from me to add to yours. But it’s worth asking yourself . . .

• Are you actively working to deserve your customer’s business?
• If you’re going to avoid the layoff ax, will it be because you’ve earned it?

You might lose the customer anyway. You might lose your job anyway. The current economy is like that. I know plenty of good vendors who’ve seen contracts terminated, and plenty of good workers who’ve been handed the pink slip, even though the company doing the terminating hated to see them go.

But you don’t have to make it easy for the customer to walk away, or easy for the employer to cut off your paycheck.

Against gimmicks.

One of the reasons I like Buffett is that he represents, in many ways, the triumph of substance over style. He’s not a perfect man, but he’s earned the prestige he enjoys. Let me urge the same pursuit for you, just like I try to pursue it for myself.

What not to do:

• Anything that relies on the slickness of the marketing / packaging / line of talk to cover up the fundamental reality of the thing inself.
• Hide costs.
• Bait-and-switch.
• Pressure the user into something they don’t need or can’t use.

What to do:

• Deliver value.
• Pick up the customer hotline on the first ring. Then listen.
• Make problems go away for your users, even if doing so doesn’t earn you an extra dime right this minute.
• Hustle!

That’s how you earn your piece of the pie.

What would you add to this?

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Related posts:

• The Basic Basics — an Omnibus.
• Happiness is a clear set of acquisition criteria.

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Photo by Stu Spivack, used under a CC-Share Alike license.

Category: Customer service, Management