Editor’s Note :It helps in reading this blog to imagine selling safety proposals, projects, investments as selling any other type product/service. OSHA once was holy in safety; now safety must compete in the marketplace of choices. OSHA has long been fresh out of ideas about what new must be done, and long since lost the power to force those ideas on industry.

 

Over the years I have witnessed what seems like countless small business owners who have great products and great enthusiasm for their products and businesses.

What so many fail to acknowledge is that THE MARKET IS HOLY.  

What does that mean?

It means that you can think, feel and believe whatever you want about what people should do, how they should feel about your products/service or why your mousetrap is the best. The reality is that is archaic thinking left over from an era of when people had fewer choices, minimal access to information (remember the Sears Roebuck catalog) and typically focused on single brands. Today we have more choices than ever before. We have instant access to product details, consumer reviews and even price comparisons all at the click of a mouse and available almost instantaneously.

Well what does all that mean? It means that the MARKET IS HOLY. The market will tell you, assuming you care to listen, what they want in product details, how they expect your marketing $s to be spent, how they expect your return process to work, how they expect your customer service to work and how you should package your products.  

You have the choice Mr. Small / Medium businessman. Will you be customer centric or wonder why your business is struggling while you are continuing to do things your way.

The Market IS HOLY and it tells us what & how they choose to be serviced. 9 times out of 10 if you won't offer them products and services the way they want it they will find someone who does.

Listen to the market, listen to your customer, listen to your customer facing employees about what the MARKET SAYS IS HOLY.