This is something else I got from LinkedIn. A man asked, “what brings acceptance from others?” My answer was brief, and I would like to expand on it a bit:
Honesty. As far as people go, if you are honest with yourself about who you are you will be more able to accept that. If you can accept yourself and share that honesty with others, they will also accept you. Businesses are the same way: if a company is honest about what it does, what its brand stands for, and who its customer is, then its managers can more readily accept it. Internal honesty breeds external transparency and eventual acceptance.
I want to expand on this a little. I interpreted the question as, “what builds credibility for a product or business in the market?” This is not a dissimilar question because credibility must precede acceptance. It also forced me to ponder the driver of market credibility, which seems to be a far deeper issue than mere acceptance. Many times we accept things because they have been around for a certain period of time or because a particular thought-leader encourages us to. But what led the early-adopters to accept things in the first place?
Honesty was the most fundamental concept I could reach for. I was thinking back to market fundamentals (identify your customer, determine his needs, fill his needs, tell him you’ve filled his needs). In order to identify a customer who will accept your product, you need to first identify your business. Why does your company exist? What does it value? How does it perceive itself internally? Answering these questions honestly makes it easier to target the right customer. Your honesty will encourage a spirit of partnership with this customer and build business.
It is extremely rare for a company to start with the capability of targeting a global market. Saying everyone in a potential customer is a lie. No one will yield your company an ounce of credibility if this is your intended initial position. Be honest with yourself about who you are and what you are doing and your real customer will be more likely to trust and accept you.
