Before a room full of ambitious small business entrepreneurs, the world’s most successful investor Warren Buffett shared an important piece of advice — and it’s a tip that could score you a free sales force.
Buffet was speaking to the newest graduates of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Small Businesses program, which has seen more than 6000 entrepreneurs walk through its doors, according to Business Insider.
“Tomorrow morning when you look in the mirror after you’ve gotten up, just write — in lipstick or whatever you want, on the mirror — just put: ‘Delight my customer’”, Buffett said.
“Not satisfy my customer, delight my customer.”
Reflecting on his own experience of building multinational conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway, Buffet explained how creating memorable experiences with customers surpasses the value of the product purchased.
“Whenever I bought my last car — a few years ago — I don’t remember how much I paid, but I remember the experience I had,” he said.
Today, Berkshire Hathaway generates over US$200 billion ($268 billion) in revenue and employs more than 330,000 employees.
It also owns the likes of fast food giant Dairy Queen and Helzberg Diamonds, which has a corporate responsibility policy to support environmentally friendly mining, human rights and prevents conflict diamonds.
Buffet’s journey from the owner of a small business to corporate empire has been five decades in the making.
Through it all, he says making every point of contact with customers so memorable that they go out and tell anyone they know is one of the biggest keys to success. This is because without any further investment of your own in expensive marketing or big ad campaigns, the word is getting out there about what you do and the value you bring.
“Any business that has delighted customers has a sales force out there that you don’t have to pay, you don’t see them, but they’re talking to people all the time,” Buffett said.
Dinushi is a journalist at SmartCompany.
