(Time to read this Blog is about 4 minutes)

Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:

1. My Biz Quote of the week:
   “If you’re measuring and evaluating your employees based on ‘attendance’ rather than performance and outcomes delivered, you’re in big trouble, especially in a remote, or partially remote work environment.”     
   …Donald Cooper.
    
2. Quick Biz Tip:
   What are you doing to create Pride?
    
   There’s no employee engagement without ‘pride’.  What is your business doing that your team is proud of?  Is it your values, ethics and standards; your commitment to excellence; commitment to safety; market leadership; career opportunities for those with the ability and desire; praise from customers; environmental responsibility; awards you’ve won; ways you’ve helped others or your general commitment to decency?
     
   What are you doing to create and deserve the pride that leads to better employee engagement?  
    
3. Fun DNA facts. All humans are 99.9% identical in our genetic makeup.  But, even more ‘fun’ to think about is that humans have…
   1. 8% of the same genetic makeup as chimpanzees,
   2. 87% of the same genes as donkeys…and,
   3. 60% of the same genes as bananas.
      This may help explain some of your relatives.  😊
       
4. How switching Jobs frequently affects lifetime earning. Here’s some fascinating insight about how switching jobs affects lifetime earning.
   1. For the bottom 40% of earners, switching jobs frequently tends to harm their wage growth over their lifetime.  These people are seen as a ‘commodity’ and have no leverage, unless they’re a member of a Union.
   2. For Professionals and those with desirable skills, strategically changing jobs every 3 to 5 years to learn new skills or take on more responsibility creates momentum in their career. This can increase lifetime earnings by 100% or more than those who stay with one company, or change jobs infrequently.
       
      Each time you change jobs, you have the opportunity to negotiate for more money, creating a cumulative effect that helps grow your income again and again.  But, if you change jobs too frequently, you’ll be seen as unreliable and a poor investment.

  Now, to this week’s important topic:

A fundamental decision that every business needs to make…but most never do: 

Every business, large or small, must address one fundamental question…but most never do!   The question is, “In our target market, for our chosen customers, are we going to be the cheapest…or not be the cheapest?”  

You cannot create your business model, your clear market positioning, or make any important decision in your business until you address this critical question.  Why?  Because every business decision you make and every action you take will depend on your answer to that one basic question. 

• You decisions about…
• what you’ll sell,
• to whom you’ll sell it,
• how and where you’ll sell it,
• the price you’ll charge,
• who you hire and how you train and reward them,
• the policies, systems and processes you’ll put in place,
• your management focus,
• the culture you create,
• the behavior you reward & celebrate…
• your organizational structure,
• your branding, marketing, packaging, promotion  and advertising,
• the very look and feel of everything you do…

…will be completely different depending on how you answer this basic question…to be the cheapest, or NOT to be the cheapest.

If you don’t address this key issue, you run the risk of being in the undifferentiated, boring and very crowded ‘muddy middle’ in your market…and that’s a lousy place to be.

1. If your decision is to be the cheapest, just about everything you do will be focused on low overhead, cost control, high sales volume, world-class operational efficiency and effectively communicating your powerful ‘lowest price’ message in an over-crowded and cynical marketplace. Wal-Mart, Costco and Ryanair in Europe are great examples of companies that have succeeded wonderfully at ‘being the cheapest’. They have a clear Vision, they’re cheap, they’re very efficient…and they make money!
     
   If your decision is to succeed by being the cheapest, first be absolutely sure that you can sustain that market positioning, honestly and profitably.  You cannot be the lowest cost seller if you’re not also the lowest cost operator.  The focus of your marketing message will be, “Let us save you some valuable time.  We are the cheapest…and here’s how we do it!”
     
   Why do you need to tell people how you do it?  Because so many businesses claim to be the cheapest, if you can’t tell your target customers, in a clear and believable way, ‘exactly how you do it’, they’ll never believe that you actually are the cheapest, and your compelling difference will be lost.
     
   Some businesses cleverly state how they sell a low prices right in their name…like ‘End of the Roll’ carpet stores, ‘No Frills” grocery stores, or ‘Rent-A-Wreck’ car rental. 
     
   So, if your market positioning is to be the cheapest, how do you do that honestly, consistently and profitably…and how do you communicate it in a clear and believable way?
    
2. What if your positioning is NOT to be the cheapest? If your decision is not to be the cheapest, you still need to be highly efficient, but you must also be passionately focused on creating and delivering enough functional and emotional value to easily explain your higher price. And then, you must effectively communicate that value story in a way that clearly differentiates you from everyone who’s cheaper than you.
    
   In this case, the focus of your marketing message will be, “We may as well tell you right now, we’re NOT the cheapest…and here’s why.” (although you likely won’t say it in exactly those words). Your ‘here’s whys’ will be the compelling functional and emotional value and the extraordinary experiences that you always deliver, that make you worth the higher price. If you don’t have any compelling and explainable ‘here’s whys’…you had just better be the cheapest.
    
   There’s a landscape maintenance business in Tulsa, Oklahoma named, ‘Tulsa Lawns of Perfection’.  That’s brilliant!  Would you have the nerve to call them and ask for a cheap price on grass cutting?  Of course not.  They don’t do ‘cheap’…they do ‘perfect’.   
    
   Metal Fabricating and Welding in Edmonton, Alberta has decided not to be the cheapest.  Here’s their market positioning;
    
   “We’re known as the ‘go to’ fabricator for complex, difficult, or quickly needed, one-of-a-kind fabricated products.”
    
   There’s nothing about the words “complex, difficult, quickly needed or one-of-a-kind” that suggest that these folks are cheap.  They’re clear about who they are, so their customers and prospects are clear about who they are. They’re not stuck in that awful undifferentiated ‘muddy middle’.
    
   Georgio’s Pizza in Pensacola, Florida, proudly states, “Voted ‘Best Pizza on The Bay’, only the finest ingredients go into our pizzas…and that costs a little more. So, our pizza is not for everyone.  If you’re looking for ‘cheap’, you won’t find it here!”   This is brilliant positioning…and they have proof.  They were voted ‘Best Pizza in the Pensacola Bay area’.
    
   If your market positioning is to proudly be ‘not the cheapest’, exactly what is your specific, clear and compelling value story or customer experience that makes it OK for you to be that?
    
   So, what choice have you made, or will you make…to be the cheapest, or not to be the cheapest?  And how will you set up your business to make that happen profitably and then communicate your clear positioning in everything you do?   

That’s it for this week…

Stay safe…live brilliantly!   

Donald Cooper 

Donald Cooper speaks and coaches internationally on management, marketing, and profitability.  He can be reached by email at donald@donaldcooper.com in Toronto, Canada.