As an entrepreneur with a vision, a very clear trap is to develop an idea of the business without asking the ultimate stakeholder: the client.
It is so easy to fall into this well-known trap of not listening enough to clients – because setting up a company involves already so much energy and focus on getting it to run, on developing products, on setting up the necessary organization and infrastructure, that it is easy to forget to check what the clients really want.
Yet every time I go and visit prospects and clients I come back with new insights about what they really want, on the fact that some of our own projects are not really what they expect, and many different inputs that can feed into the future development of the company and its products.
- It is sometimes difficult – because what you thought were bright ideas do not meet any resonance.
- It is sometimes exhilarating as the discussion allowed you to see a practical solution to a need, creating a way to fulfill your vision
- It is sometimes disturbing because what you heard is very different from what you thought.
Yes, it can be difficult, exhilarating and disturbing – but visiting and listening to clients is always worthwhile.
Make sure that you spend enough time confronting reality by looking through the eyes of your prospects and clients! When do you start?
