Whats your reason for being….and how does it relate to your customers?

Michael Gerber, the author of one of the first business books I ever read – The E-Myth (Why Most Small Businesses Dont Work and What to Do About It) – said that most businesses are started not by entrepreneurs but by technicians having an entrepreneurial seizure.

This was absolutely true for me when I started my business as a small partner selling accounting software to other small businesses- but over the past 21 years since I started out in this business (July 1989) I have realised that my experiences have shaped who I now am and what I have focused on for the last 10 years. As a result I can now for the very first time articulate what I do for a living and why.

So to the first point – what do I do for a living.

I help SAP partners become more successful by helping them learn how to implement systematic approaches to marketing, sales and pre-sales that help them win more business from their ideal target customers.

I got to this point by going through many of the experiences that partners go through – of course – I ran my own partner business for 12+ years- one day I’ll tell you my story in a blog post and share some of the things I have learned along the way.

But it is that story and my experiences that it relates that gives me the ability to do what I do…and based on the feedback I receive daily from many of you, it is adding value to your businesses and helping you be more successful. So its working.

And that leads me to my blog subject…what is your story and how does it help you explain to your customers and potential customers why you are uniquely positioned to help them solve their business issues.

Many folks tell me, no-one is interested in my story or theres nothing unique about my story…but when I have a discussion with them about their story, I always find that theres one or more really interesting and relevant parts to the story of their business and why they started it that help me understand more about why customers would want to do business with them.

So how do you tell your story and what are the key points you need to cover…I will talk about that in my next blog post.