The Accountability Coach

Aim For What You Want!

How to Make Your Business Truly All-About-Them

by Anne M. Bachrach

Take your business to the next level by creating an ‘It’s All-About-Them’ (IAAT) experience for clients. A company that is founded on the IAAT principle will have valuable services right “out of the box.”

Ask any successful business owner and entrepreneur – they will tell you.  In order to get new clients and keep the existing ones coming back for more, clients have to trust you, enjoy their experience, and find value in the service or product you’re providing.  In other words, it has to be all-about-them.

Maybe you did go into business for all the right reasons and you truly want to provide value to your clients, but are you actually practicing it?  Even if you tell yourself that you run your business with your clients in mind, it’s very common for business owners to get caught up in the day to day operations and simply run out of time or energy to continually make it all-about-them.

The desire to make your business all-about-them is the easy part.  It’s the creation and implementation of business models that allow you to practice it that may require some trial and error.  Making your business all-about-them will make all the difference and accelerate it to a new level of success.  Your business is a reflection of who you are as a person and if you’re faking it for your clients – eventually it will catch up with you.  To open your business up to the real possibility of success, you must conduct your personal and professional life with complete integrity and compassion for others.  That probably goes without being said.

As much as any business would like to operate on an all-about-them principle, motivation for creating a business built on the principle requires passion; a passion for your business and a passion for helping clients.  Are you passionate enough to build an all-about-them business? Connect with whatever feelings you can to get the fire burning.  Maybe the motivating factor is the income and what money means for you and your family, or maybe it feels good to help people.

Whatever the motivating factor is, write it on a piece of paper and post it in your office where you can see it throughout the day.  This will help to remind you why you’re doing what you’re doing and remain focused on creating an all-about-them business.

Do you ask your clients to give feedback on their experience?  This is incredibly effective, but few business owners send surveys to their clients.  The truth is – business owners don’t want to take the time to ask for various reasons.  It takes time to not only create surveys, it takes time to conduct them and collect the information.  Then there is the challenge of implementing business models changes, if you like any of the ideas or suggestions provided.  The difference between an everyday business and an extraordinary one is a client survey.  I would highly suggest conducting a client survey because it can be a powerful transformation tool.

Listening to your clients and truly comprehending their needs is the most important factor when building a business that’s all-about-them.  Your business is completely dependent on your clients and if you don’t make it all-about-them, it won‘t reach its true potential.

Here are a few websites that you can use to quickly and easily conduct surveys:

1. https://www.opinionpower.com – All our quick polls and surveys are free and available to your audience for 30 days.

2. https://www.surveymonkey.com — SurveyMonkey has a single purpose: to enable anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily.

How do you transform your business to put clients first?  How do you take an existing business that’s all-about-them, to the next level?
Write down the answers to these 10 questions:

1. If my business were really all-about-them, how often would each client see me each year, and how much time would they get?
2. If my business were really all-about-them, exactly what would I do for each person? (There may even be things you haven’t thought of yet because you haven’t had the time to think about it yet.)
3. If my business were really all-about-them, how would I make my clients’ lives simpler?
4. If my business were really all-about-them, how much would they pay me for the value I provide?
5. If my business were really all-about-them, do they think what you do is worth it and how do you know?
6. If my business were really all-about-them, how many clients could I do all this for?
7. If my business were really all-about-them, how much time more or less time would I talk when we meet or talk on the phone? How much more would I really listen?
8. If my business were really all-about-them, how many people would staff my office?
9. If my business were really all-about-them, would I have strategic alliances and partners? If so, who would they all be?
10. If my business were really all-about-them, what would your life look like if it were really all-about-them?  How would I take care of myself physically and emotionally?

Once you’ve brainstormed answers to the questions above, make a list of everything you now will be delivering to your clients and how it benefits them. You may be surprised to find that many of these benefits create a better, more manageable business for you, too.

Take your business to the next level by reviewing all methods of communication with your clients.  By using an all-about-them language in phone conversations, emails, marketing materials and website, clients will easily be able to relate to the services offered and how they benefit them.

Here are some examples of how a simple shift in language can make all the difference. The first part of each sample below is about you and the second part is how you might change the wording to be all-about-them. Think about how you would feel having someone say the first part versus the second part. Say each of them out loud. Have someone read both samples to you.

The language used in marketing materials, including the website, is just as important as personal conversations and emails.  Review all marketing materials to see where all-about-them language can be substituted to take your business to the next level.

The easiest way to transform the language is to review all materials and circle all the “I’s” and “We’s.”  Then look at each sentence and notice if the 2nd half of the sentence expresses benefits to clients.  Many times you can take the back end of the sentence and put it first so it is transformed into an all-about-them statement. You always want to have the benefit voiced in the beginning of the sentence.

It is easy to be unaware of how often you use “I” and “We” language and an important exercise is to record your conversations with clients either by audio or video.  Review them and note how many times “I” and “We” are used.  By scripting and rehearsing all-about-them language, all your communication will improve and so will your business.

For more on how to create an all about them business obtain the educational audio program – Creating an It’s All About Them Attitude and Business, and The Power of Telling the Truth.

“Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt

Aim High,

Anne