Success

“Success”, said a bowling proprietor friend of mine, “only means one thing to us and that’s how often our cash register rings and what we have left at the end of the year. If it’s more than last year, we’re successful. If not, we’re not.”

I pondered this a while and then I asked him if success could also be measured in other ways like; how many people had a truly memorable experience at his center?

Or how frequently a kid’s self esteem was built because, while he wasn’t big and fast and strong and couldn’t play football or basketball in his high school, he was a very talented bowler and could easily “out bowl” the HS starting linebacker?

Or if families came in and laughed and hugged and had lots of fun because of the experience he gave them would he be successful?

Or if he raised lots of money for BVL and our brave veterans, would he be successful?

Or if he could live his life anyway he wanted to, would he be successful?
He thought about this a while and then said, “Yeah, I guess those kind of things would make me feel successful too.”

I said, “Herb, we can only have the economic success we strive for if we give people what they want.

We cannot be successful just by knowing how to blog better or send out emails better or post face books better.

As Zig Ziglar once said, and IMHO was the world’s greatest salesman “we will get what we want when and only when we give people what they want.”

Pretty simple concept, but difficult to consistently execute.

When was the last time we discovered, observed or asked what our different customer segments really want…so WE can get what we really want?

Just sayin’