I popped out to get a few bits and pieces, earlier (mainly chocolate, if I’m honest). I could’ve gone to places that were on the way to where I was actually heading – my gym – but I chose to turn down a side road, go over loads of speed humps, and park outside the Co-op.
Speed humps aside, it’s actually a pain in the arse to go down to that Co-op, as I always have to go back on myself slightly to get back to where I was going.
So why do I go there if I could go to any supermarket or convenience store en route (I was only buying branded chocolate, which you could get in any shop)?
It’s simple: I like the staff at that store. I get on with them. We even have a bit of banter when I get to the till. They know that I have a cat and that I had a bad cold recently, and I know that one of them has a girlfriend who’s due to give birth soon, and one of them is going to Belgium for Christmas.
It’s irrelevant that the shop is a big brand – a Co-op; I just go there because I like the people that serve me. I’ve bought into the people there more than I’ve bought into the brand.
Similarly, there’s a petrol station that I go to more often than not, simply because the staff there are warm, funny, and friendly (I hate the actual brand of petrol station), even when there’s a big queue of stroppy customers.
The long and the short of it, is that – no matter how big a cliche it is – ‘people buy people’.
This is the same, whether you’re a huge multinational company, an SME, or a one-man band.
I can think of several web designers, graphic designers, app developers, digital marketing specialists, accountants, lawyers (and so on) that I know, but – in each case – only one or two who I’d work with, or be happy to recommend, based on me liking them as a person.
I’m sure the same is true of me: some people may like my work but not like me, some people may like me but not like my work, but – hopefully – more people will like my work and like me.
Ultimately – largely in relation to SMEs and sole traders – someone has to look at you and your business and think ‘could I work with this person?’ or – as a friend of mine put it – do they pass the ‘beer test’? (could I go for a drink with them?)
No matter how good you are at what you do, people still buy people.