(Time to read this Blog article is about 60 seconds)
Many businesses, large and small, make the mistake of believing that their customers have only one ‘currency’ in their lives, money, so they can think of only one way to compete, which is to cut their price. ‘Price’ is very important but when you realize that most people actually have four ‘currencies’ in their lives, there are hundreds of ways to compete that are not cutting your price.
So, what exactly is a ‘currency’? A currency is anything of value to your customers that they don’t have enough of. On this planet, in our society, at this time, there are four things that we don’t have enough of…four ‘currencies’. They are…
- Money,
- Time,
- Feeling Safe (physically & emotionally safe)…and,
- Feeling Special.
People are prepared to spend more money to save time, to feel more safe, or more special. People are even prepared to take time and to spend a lot of money to not feel safe, in order to feel special…which is the only explanation I have for bungee jumping!
Think about your own life. Think of all the money you spend to save time, feel more safe or more special. For example, a $20,000 car will pretty much get you everywhere you want to go, on time. But perhaps it doesn’t make you special enough.
If you have an alarm system in your home, you’ve spent a lot of money to feel more safe. If you have beautiful crown moldings in your living room, you’ve spent a lot of money for what? Crown moldings don’t save us time and they offer no increased safety (they don’t actually hold the ceiling up)…but they do look beautiful and, somehow, make us feel special!
When we’re choosing an investment advisor or travel agent we’re looking for someone who will deliver some combination of all four currencies. Someone who will make us money, or save us money, who will save us time and make us feel both safe and special.
Consider the relative importance of each of the ‘4 Currencies’ when you choose a life mate.
Think about where you live, all of your possessions, the experiences you choose and the relationships you’ve entered into in both your business and your personal life and identify exactly what mix of money, time, feeling safe and feeling special influenced your decisions.
Then, sit down for just one hour with some of the best minds and hearts in your business. Think and feel what it’s really like to be one of your target customers and come up with ideas on how you’ll use these ‘4 Currencies’ to build compelling value-added relationships that will ‘grab’ your customers, clearly differentiate you from your competitors, make you famous and grow your bottom line.
