Is Your Business Suffering From 'The Curse of Assumption'?

by Glenn Fisher

Seriously, what the hell is going on?

Giving up on the diet after realising my beer belly’s going nowhere I open a box of chocolates left over from Christmas.

Miniature Heroes they’re called - miniature versions of Cadbury’s chocolate bars. Quite why they’re heroes, I don’t know?

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I have a couple of fudges. A twirl. A caramel. And then, though I’m not terribly keen, a...

Dairy Milk Whole Nut.

Have you got that? It’s important.

Dairy Milk Whole Nut.

‘Dairy milk’ as in milk from a dairy. And - you with me here? – ‘whole nut’ as in A WHOLE NUT.

It figures, right? Whole nut as in a whole nut.

But below the familiar logo on the wrapping paper reads...

“Contains: Nuts.”

No kidding. I’d go as far as to say it contains A WHOLE NUT. You know, as in Dairy Milk WHOLE NUT.

Jeez.

OK, I realise nut allergies are a serious problem, a deadly one at that. But who in their right mind would eat something called whole NUT if they had a NUT allergy.

Would you drink MILK if you were allergic to MILK? Does milk have a warning on it saying “contains: milk.”

I calm down (and eat the chocolate anyway) I start thinking about it...

Granted - it’s an extreme example. But I was stupefied because I assumed everyone would know that a chocolate with ‘whole nut’ in the title would naturally contain nuts.

That’s the trouble you see – I assumed.

Just assuming everyone has the same knowledge can be very dangerous.

Especially in business...

Overcoming 'The Curse of Assumption’

Say you’ve got a newsletter like mine.

I want to make sure that in each issue I’m providing my readers with value in excess of the subscription cost.

How do I do that?

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Yes I search out ideas, information and opportunities that meet the original idea of Shortcut Confidential – to help readers save money, make money and improve their lifestyle.

But is that all? Of course not.

Though it goes someway, I am still to a certain degree ‘assuming’ what the reader wants.

Whilst I am making assumptions I am sure to be missing the mark, maybe not by a long shot, but by enough to make a difference.

I call it 'The Curse of Assumption’ and businesses suffer from it everyday.

I’ve watched incredibly intelligent people shoot themselves in the foot over and over under the curse – they assume they know what people want, what the market asks for, but really they have no idea.

Maybe they’ve looked a little at what the competition are doing.

Maybe they’ve done a few forecasts based on past performance.

Maybe they’ve done some really top-dollar, look- at-the-formulas-on-that spreadsheets.

All of it useless: a waste of time; overlooking the one simple thing they need to do...

Ask the market. It really is that simple. Just ask people what they want.

Back to my newsletter. All the time I’m asking readers what they want. I get a ton of feedback and ba-boom – I can provide what the reader wants. What do you got? Happy readers!

Whatever business you might be in, don’t assume you know what your customers want – ask them. Believe me: they’ll be happy to tell you.

When they do, you’ll be able to act on that information to make your product or service stronger.