Separating yourself from the pack.
By Steven Quarles
According to the Small Business Administration, approximately 50% of all businesses fail in the first five years. Just to name a few, here are some of the following reasons:
- Lack of experience
- Insufficient capital
- Poor location
- Poor inventory management
- Poor credit arrangements
- Unexpected growth
- Competition
- Lack of sales
The real reason most businesses succeed is very simple. It is broken down into three categories:
- An exceptional product or service
- Likeability
- Trust
Every business must start out with a superior product or service. If you own a doughnut shop you better make great doughnuts. If you have a law firm you better win cases for your clients. If you own a used car dealership you better have a superior inventory of used vehicles. If you want to separate yourself from the pack then figure out how to get better. Period. Ask yourself the question, is my product or service really better than the competition or are we just average or poor. If you are average or poor you are fighting over 20% of the scraps that the top 20% of the business people in your industry are not closing. The top 20% of business’s in every industry capture 80% of the revenue and the bottom 80% capture the remaining 20% of the revenue. Make it your goal to be the best.
After you have figured out how to deliver a superior product or service likeability is your next step. This will come through in your marketing efforts including social media. Likeability is simply coming off as a likeable person/company. You have a great product so now get the word out there and make it likeable.
The final ingredient is trust. You can go to any country in the world and order a Big Mac from McDonald’s and you trust that it will taste exactly the same way as it does at home-because it does. Trust is created by having a product or service that provides the consumer a consistent product or service that delivers EVERY time.
Bottom line is that there is a lot of average and bad out there and with a little effort and energy you and your business can rise above the pack and become good or excellent. Be one of the companies bringing in 80% of the revenue and let your high quality product or service speak for itself with a natural increase in business a result of word of mouth referrals.
