I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again…No matter what business you are in, there are things your customers want to buy, that you aren’t selling them yet.

As a business owner in pursuit of meaning and money…are you listening well enough to hear what those things are?

Do you understand the difference between selling them something you want to sell, versus something they want to buy?

My husband reminded me of this - again - when he told me about a scene from 5 Easy Pieces…a movie made the year I was born and I’ve never seen, but has, apparently, Jack Nicholson in it.

It seems that Jack’s character, Robert Eroica Dupea, a trashy oil rigger who returns home to comfort his dying father, tries to order toast in a food establishment. But alas, he finds he cannot.

So instead, after some witty repartee (again apparently, since I haven’t seen it myself) he orders, pays for and gets - a sandwich, toasted, with no filling.

Mind you - I’m not saying that any one of us is doing anything as drastic as this with our own customers. (If you think you may be, just maybe…wonderful, you have a really delightful breakthrough here, don’t you just love that? )

Breathrough or not, however…the scene as it was retold to me was a reminder that trying to sell something to a customer who wants something else, is one of the most egotistical, not to mention unrewarding, things to do, period.

And brought home again the point that if we will only listen, let our businesses coach us, everything will become easy and clear.

Coaches, if you are still trying to market 1-1 coaching and meeting with frustration, this is of particular poignancy, yes?

I’d like to think the restaurant in 5 Easy Pieces quickly put plain toast on its menu after ‘listening’ to Jack’s character.

Well alright, if they didn’t, how can we do the equivalent today, in our businesses?

And what kinds of systems can you put in place to make your business, in your niche market, the most lightning quick, responsive business vis a vis what your customers are telling you?

Tell me what you really think in the comments below, and I’ll personally go make sure you get your toast just the way you like it.