It’s not enough to just be – you must be relevant to thrive.
Keeping your finger on the pulse of your marketplace and maintaining an understanding of where you fit in that landscape is important to successfully steer your business. Knowing who your most important customer is, how to speak to them, and how to develop a relationship with them is the heartbeat of your business. Knowing how to meet their needs drives your offerings and product development.
rel·e·vant (rĕl′ə-vənt)adj.
Having a bearing on or connection.
Meaningful or purposeful in current society or culture
It’s not enough to be relevant, you have to stay relevant, and that means staying in touch with the changing market place. We are a changing people in a changing world, and the key to keeping your business relevant is understanding how the people are changing, including what needs they have now, where their eyes and ears are, how can you stand out and capture their attention, and once you do, how can you keep it.
• Attitudes, behaviors, and needs identify people into groups. Which groups are important to you?
• Not everybody needs or wants everything. Which products/services meets the needs of which people? What new opportunities exist for you to expand your offering?
• Looks aren’t everything, but they do play a part in initial attraction. How can you effectively attract the people?
• Trust is important in a relationship. How do you establish trust? Are you maintaining it? Who’s doing a better job of that than you are?