A few weeks ago, I attended a business luncheon where Severin Fayerman was the featured speaker. Severin Fayerman is a Holocaust survivor and a founder of Baldwin Hardware. His is an amazing story.
Mr. Fayerman shared information (not gory details) about his life in the Nazi death camps (he was a teenager and in both Auschwitz and Buchenwald), his family’s emigration to the US after the war in Europe ended, and how they built their business.
One of Mr. Fayerman’s roles for their young company was sales. As Mr. Fayerman discussed the early years of their company, one thing stood out BIG in my ears. During each sales visit, whether to a new prospect or to an existing customer, he continually included the question, “So what do you need?”
Over and over, visit by visit. Relentlessly asking his audience what they needed. Asking what they wanted that they did not have. Or if there was something special that they might build for the customer. And he listened. More importantly, he acted.
When someone asked, “can you do this?” his answer was “sure!” And then he’d worry about how to make it happen when he got back to the factory! But they were inventive, accomplished craftsmen and they would indeed figure out how to do it.
By asking the audience what their needs were, by understanding what their work lives required, and listening, the Fayermans were able to expand their business and build an ever-growing product line.
Over time, the company evolved and earned a worldwide reputation for superior quality and craftsmanship. Mr. Fayerman sold the company in 1982. I believe he said that, at that time, they employed 1700 people (in Pennsylvania) and introduced about 100 new products per year.
Remember to ask.
Early in his career, Mr. Fayerman learned the power of asking the customer what he needed. Even if he did not call it such, Mr. Fayerman was a pioneer in customer-centric thinking. If today’s businesses can remember that true power and prosperity lie in understanding the lives and needs of their prospects, they, too, might experience the extraordinary success of the Fayermans.
Remember to ask.
P.S. Thank you, Mr. Fayerman, for sharing with us a glimpse of your life at our meeting. If I’ve mis-stated anything in my article, I sincerely apologize.
Also, dear readers, Mr. Fayerman has published a book about his life, “A Survivor’s Story,” in case you’d like to learn more.