How to Easily Stand Out
Dependability – The Need for Speed – And – Standing Out
By: Mike Dolpies
I learned from Kevin Hogan that trust is the ultimate short cut in the persuasive process. When people trust you the rest is easy.
One way to establish trust is to be dependable. Dependability breeds trust. If someone constantly let’s you down then of course- how the heck can you trust them. Once they let you down or prove themselves “un-dependable” even once, the trust begins to evaporate.
In this blog I must vent just a tad. So please enjoy and profit because I’ll be venting about dependability- the need for speed- and standing out. Oh- and you’ll see how they are all intertwined!
Dependability- A simple true story to illustrate…
If you want to go into the house cleaning business I’d suggest the Lakes Region of New Hampshire (were we live) as a place to hedge your bet if you want to “stand out” from the competition.
As I write these words Jamie and I have been trying to get our home cleaned professionally for the last three weeks. In the mornings we have been excitedly saying to one another: “today could be the day!”
We had a service that has been here every three to four weeks or so for the last three months. The last couple of times the flake factor began to show so the writing was certainly on the wall. One excuse after another about why the schedule got screwed up and they could not make it. Don’t know if it was us- I mean I did offer them drinks when they were here and threw in a gratuity on top of their normal rate. The house is 3000 square feet so it’s not a mansion or anything. Of course we are in the market for a new cleaning service because trust went out the door due to no dependability.
It’s crazy- businesses of all sizes spend money buying ads to acquire customers then they get them and run them off. I don’t care if you are booked solid you can never take your customers for granted.
The odds are that a good percentage of them will stop doing business with you for factors that you can not control. Some will die, a bunch will move away and others will no longer need or want your services. That’s just life and you can’t control those. That’s why you’d better work like hell to control what you can control! You can control being dependable and following through. It’s amazing- the same business owners who sabotage their own efforts will be the ones complaining about the economy being tough. I’d estimate a loss of almost $20,000 to the cleaning service that we will no longer be using. You figure $1500 per year for the next ten to fifteen years that we plan on living here!
I used the cleaning example for simplicities sake. Dependability is a big deal and you must look at your business and make sure that you are doing as much as possible to show your clients and customers that you are dependable. So follow through- under promise and over deliver and- as long as you won’t sacrifice quality- get things done fast.
“Time is of the essence.”
I say- the faster you can move the better as long as you don’t get sloppy! But- boy oh boy if you can deliver high quality work and deliver it fast you will eventually be the leader in your category- Why? Because so many people just move sooooo slooooowww. I don’t know why? Their excuse… “I’m busy.” Well, we are all busy. The other excuse…
Bureaucracy. I’ll admit that this one is valid to a point. After all, if someone has got higher ups to report to than- they’d better be sure they get the ok to make something happen. This factor is what enables a smaller company to out maneuvered a larger one and steal market share. There are countless true stories of this reality. The worst thing you can do as a smaller company is to move as slow as the big ones. Move fast you’ll have more market share faster!
This one is also near and dear to my heart because I’ve sometimes found myself dealing with slow people and organizations. I wonder how some of them get out of bed in the morning without help or the need to form a committee to discuss which side of the bed they should get out on.
Let’s tie it all together….
Dependability and speed lead to you standing out. I don’t care if you are a solo entrepreneur, a start up company or a mature organization. Be speedy and dependable and the world is yours.
© 2008 By Mike Dolpies
www.askmiked.com