(Time to read this Blog is about 2 minutes)
Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking:
- My biz quote of the week:
“The 2 most valuable things you have in your business are your Team and your customers’ trust. Anything or anyone that endangers either of those must be fixed or eliminated immediately.”
…Donald Cooper - Access my updated ‘Business Key Challenge Audit Sheet’, no-charge, right now. I’ve just updated and improved this 1-page look at what needs improving or fixing in your business. It takes just 4 to 5 minutes to complete and comes with an info page showing how to use it to manage more effectively. To download it, no charge, Click Here.
- October 15th was the beginning of an extraordinary revolution. Waymo, the self-driving-project-from Google, officially launched its driverless ride-hailing service in Phoenix, Arizona.
Using an app, people can now order an autonomous (driverless) electric vehicle to pick them up and deliver them to their destination. The future is here. This is huge! - A special note for ‘partnerships and family businesses: Partnerships and family businesses often have unique challenges that cause a lot of grief for the people and families involved and hurt the business’s bottom line. Much of my Biz Coaching work is in sorting out these problems.
To do a quick check-up on your partnership or family business, take a just a few minutes to download and complete (Click Here) our insightful Biz Tool #A-11, ‘The Partnership & Family Business Audit’. If you’d like to chat about your partnership or family business challenges, simply email me at donald@donaldcooper.com.
Now, to this week’s important topic:
Finally, the simple truth about ‘Value’:
Whatever you sell, your market is over-served and under-differentiated. There are too many other businesses selling what you’re selling and most of you look alike, sound alike and charge about the same price.
Ultimately, customer ‘ownership’ and business profitability is about creating, delivering and communicating compelling value that ‘grabs’ your target customers, clearly differentiates you from your competitors, makes you ‘famous’ and grows your bottom line. Customers demand value and every business promises it…but there’s a huge lack of clarity about what ‘value’ really is.
Let’s keep it simple; there are only 3 kinds of Value…Functional, Emotional and Financial Value. That’s it!
- You deliver Functional Value when you…
- sell products, services and experiences that actually work for your target customers.
- are open or available when they need you.
- provide the information, coaching and encouragement that they need to wisely choose and effectively use what you sell. Be their ‘Caring Coach’.
- create policies, systems and processes that make you easy, efficient and consistent to do business with.
- Next is Emotional Value. Most businesses struggle with this one. They think it’s some airy-fairy thing that can’t be defined…and they’re dead wrong!
Quite simply, you deliver Emotional Value when your customers feel better about themselves and the world every time they do business with you, and every time they use what they bought from you. That’s it! If you’re not delivering Emotional Value, you’re not ‘connecting’ with your customers on an emotional level, which is where most of the buying decisions are actually made, or strongly influenced.
How could you brighten each customer’s day with simple acts of kindness, joy and gratitude? Whatever you sell, people come to you for that, plus joy! Never underestimate the power of joy. It may sound corny, but it will make a big difference in their day and people will always remember how you made them feel.
- Financial Value is #3. Most businesses put it as #1, but it has to be #3, because it’s a function of the previous two.
You deliver financial value when your customers believe that they paid a fair and competitive price for all the functional and emotional value they got from you. If you don’t deliver functional and emotional value, there’s no price low enough to be good enough.
So, the question is, are you delivering the compelling combination of functional, emotional and financial value that makes you the ‘wise choice’ for your target customers? If not, what needs fixing in your business, who will fix it…and by when?
Then, when you’ve done the work, you need to effectively communicate your compelling value story in everything you do. There’s no point being the best if you’re also the best kept secret. If you’d like a little coaching help with this important process, I’m easy to find at donald@donaldcooper.com.
That’s it for this week…
Stay safe…live brilliantly…and do at least 3 important or kind things each day!
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.
