I once read a story about three entrepreneurs that approached a hungry man with three different questions. Below is the conversation between each of the entrepreneurs and the hungry man.

• First entrepreneur to hungry man: What do you want?
• The hungry man: I want “a sandwich,” 
• The action: The first entrepreneur opens a sandwich shop. 
•  Second entrepreneur to hungry man: What is your problem?
• The hungry man replied: “I am hungry.”
• The action: The second entrepreneur opened a grocery store 
• Third entrepreneur to hungry man: “What is your goal’?
• The hungry man replied: “To feel full and nourished.
• The action: The third entrepreneur invents a nutritious, filling pill.  

The three entrepreneurs met the hungry man’s need in completely different ways, but the third entrepreneur is the one that had the most impact because of the result he was able to achieve. He asked about the goal, and this question helped him to make the most impact of the three. 

To establish a long-lasting and rewarding relationship with your customers, you must know their goals. This is similar to the concept of beginning with the end in mind. Gone are the days when you only want to sell to your customers, make money, and forget about them. You must learn how to partner with your customers to give them what they want, solve their problems, and help them achieve their business objectives.

Today’s world is outcome-driven. According to Jeb Dasteel, Oracle senior vice president, “The ability to succeed in this new economy will depend on how well you sell and deliver measurable business outcomes to your customers.” 

The question now is, do you know the outcome that your customers want? 

For Amazon – they know that their customers want a one-stop-shop where they can conveniently buy everything they want, right at the comfort of their homes. 

Tesla is capturing the automobile market share because they appeal to customers that care about protecting the environment by offering electric vehicles. 

In the US political landscape today, the Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders has been able to gain so much influence because of the outcome he promises the electorate – Free healthcare, Free College education, and so on. He appealed to the people who believe that it’s the government’s responsibility to meet all those needs. 

Donald Trump won the 2016 US presidential election because of the outcome he sold to the people – to make America great again. He promised to bring jobs back to the United States, reduce government deficits, and provide a path for every American to live the American dream. 

Without knowing the outcome that your customers want, it will be challenging to build a long-lasting relationship with them. You need the KEEP strategy to create a future where you prosper with your customers. Here are four strategic ways to KEEP healthy relationships with your customers and make your business thrive. 

1. Know your customer:Obviously, the starting point is to get into the room with your customer. You need to understand the customers, know their pain points, empathize with them, and have an in-depth knowledge of a day in the life of your customer. To be successful at this stage, you must have a means of collecting relevant customer information, such as email addresses, current and future projects, and all details that you use to develop a knowledge database about your customer.
2. Establish relationships with the customer:This is where you need to begin segregating and segmenting the customers. Who are your key customers? Who are the high paying customers? And you must regularly engage with your customers. Let them know about new products or services in the pipeline before they ask. You need to be proactive to be successful at this stage.
3. Execute for the customer:You will be successful in your relationship with your customer if you also learn how to deliver and execute for them. That includes ensuring that your products and services meet or surpass customer’s expectations, your whole supply chain ecosystem has to be functional to avoid delays or sending defective products to the customer.
4. Prosper with the customer:The partnership with your customer must be a mutually beneficial one. You are making money from the customer, and at the same time, you are also helping your customer to either reduce cost or make more money. If a customer spends $100k on your product or services, in return, that investment should be able to boost your customer’s bottom line by over $300k.

Every business must be able to provide the outcome that their clients desire to maintain a healthy and prosperous relationship with the clients. It is no longer enough to just ask what the customer wants; you must be able to predict what’s next and figure out how to implement and sell the future to your clients. Apple saw that future, and they make smartphones that we all have come to accept as one of the most crucial gadgets to possess. Amazon saw that future, and they built a behemoth eCommerce platform where millions of customers shop every day. 

Do you want to build that future for your business? Then it would help if you use the KEEP strategy to create outcomes that your customer desires so that you can make your business thrive.

I believe that everyone, one way or the other, should have a personal vision statement. This vision statement could be used as a framework to evaluate personal values in life and measure the progress that an individual makes as it relates to their goals. 

I like Helen Keller’s quote that says, “The most pathetic person in the world is someone who has sight but no vision.” Having a vision statement will significantly simplify your life because it will guide you to move towards what you want in life, and away from those things that you care less about.

You should create a vision statement for virtually everything in your life, the vision should cover your relationships, career, finances, spiritual, health, and any aspect where you want to make any positive impact in life.

This post will focus on the following points about the vision statement.

1. Why do you need a vision statement?
2. What do you need in your vision statement?
3. Who do you need to be to fulfill the vision?

The Why

The Bible says, “People perish for lack of vision.” This tells you why everyone must have a vision for the life that they want. The vision statement is a statement about the future, i.e., what you hope to become in the future.

If you don’t have a vision statement, you will be leaving your life to chances. It means you live based on the thoughts of other people around you. You do what others do; you go where they go; basically, you go with the flow.

Not having a vision is like embarking on a trip, but without any predetermined destination. On getting to the airport, you decided to go anywhere where everyone else is going – the result, you will get nowhere in the end.

Having a vision will help you create a future that you desire. It provides the energy, the creativity, and the motivation to work towards your goals.

The What

So you may be thinking, what should your vision statement be about? My answer is everything about your life.

• Career Development – What do you need to do to advance in your career or business?
• Health – What are your health goals?
• Money & investment – This is about income and how you need to plan it so that you can live the life you desire.
• Relationship – Everything regarding how you want to allocate your time with your loved ones.
• Spiritual Growth – It’s about ensuring that you put Put God first in your life affairs.
• Academics – For students, its about your grades.

You should have a vision statement for anything you want, and you must write it down.

If you don’t write it, you aren’t going to achieve it. Your vision is not one of those things that you will say its in your mind.

Even the Bible says in Habakkuk 2:2, “And the Lord answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.”

You don’t necessarily have to have all the answers as per how you will accomplish all your plans. That’s why it’s called a vision. Sit down quietly, think about where you are today, and ask yourself where you want to be in the future. For example, where do you want to see yourself at the end of this year?

Most serious organizations have vision statements, which is generally a road map that states what the company wants to become.

Check this out:

• Tesla: wants to accelerate the world’s transition to sustainable energy. Tesla’s vision statement is “to create the most compelling car company of the 21st century by driving the world’s transition to electric vehicles.” That vision recently helped Tesla, a car manufacturer that is less than 20 years in existence, recently surpassed General Motors, which has been around for over 110 years to become the most valuable carmaker in the USA.
• Disney vision statement is “to be one of the world’s leading producers and providers of entertainment and information.” 
• Amazon – Their vision is “To be the world’s most customer-centric company.”
• Google – Their vision is “To organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
• Facebook – Their vision is “To give people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.

Create a compelling vision today, and you will see the vision unleash the energy that will drive you to achieve your plans.

The Who

Outside of the Why or the what, also very important is the who. Who do you need to become to achieve your goals?

Every great achievement will require some sacrifices. It is not enough to write a vision that you want to become a manager at work without willing to make the sacrifice expected of leaders. (Time, volunteer, contribution, learning). It is not enough to say; I want to be a better husband without the willingness to learn about the qualities necessary to make you one. It is not enough to say I want to save $10,000 by the end of December 2020 without being ready to create a budget and plan your money to achieve the goals.

• Integrity: Honesty for a leader
• Hardworking: Employee looking for promotion
• Devoted: Business owner
• Caring: Husband/Wife
• Learner: Student/Employee

You need to identify who you need to be to fulfill your vision.

So I encourage you to write your vision in this new year. You don’t have to know how you will achieve everything; the first step is to have the vision. The Bible says in the book of Proverb 16:3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and he will establish your plans.

People perish for lack of vision. Write the vision, make it clear, and you will receive the motivation to work on them. That’s the way to create a compelling vision statement that will help you live a life that you desire.

Let me know what you think.