If you just answered ‘no’ to the question in the title of today’s post, I’m going to suggest you start being unreasonable.
Reasonably good
No small business owner wants their services to be considered reasonably good. We want to be exceptionally good, right? In that case my friends, it’s time to start being unreasonable:
- Place an unreasonably high importance on customer service. Make it so great that they can’t ignore you and have to tell their friends how amazing you are.
- Be unreasonably passionate about the success and happiness of your clients. Remember, business is all about people.
- Set the bar unreasonably high, on the quality of work you are prepared to ship. I learned this one from Steve Jobs!
- Be unreasonably committed to life long learning. As Jim Rohn used to say, “Formal education will make you a living; self-education will make you a fortune.”
- Show unreasonable persistence when it comes to fulfilling your promises.
In short: It’s unreasonable to expect that we can provide a reasonable service and succeed, in today’s economy.
What do you think?
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Interesting post.. i like the title.. and business activities should bring out some kind of uniqueness in them so that they kind of lead to a curiosity and the readers will be eager to share it to others
Indeed, Stanley!
Yes, good points. It’s all about empathy with your customers, clients, prospects.
In NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), there’s a technique called “Taking Second Position” where you literally step into (using your imagination) into a person’s body and see through their eyes, hear what they’re hearing, and especially, feel what they’re feeling.
It sounds pretty strange, but you do get some amazing insights. It’s a great technique to get a feel for what your customers are thinking.
Hi Lou. I’ve met a lot of people who find NLP very useful / interesting. I’m glad it works for you too.
Jim, great message. In today’s crowded and noisey market place, unreasonable service, leadership separates the good from the great. Who dowsn’t want to be pleasantly surprised by unreasonable service that delights unexpectedly?
Absolutely, Shawn. The only way we can hope to get above the noise out there, is to create a story worth sharing.
Thanks for the comment and welcome to the blog.
You right about Jim but one note of warning, don’t be unrealistically unreasonable. We can only be unreasonable on the positive end of service delivery, not the other way round.
Interesting reading Jim. Thought I’d leave my first comment here
Eye catching title Jim. I concur with you that this is the right approach for businesses to take during these times.
Hi Jim, your comment that business is all about people is one thing so many forget.
I’ve had lots of business over the years from people who’ve moved from one company to another and recommended me to their new employers.
Every person you deal with will know hundreds of other people, which is often overlooked.
Exceptionally good service does get remembered and talked about.
My mentor in University gave a talk one day on being unreasonable. He said it was the key to success. For reasonable people take the status quo at face value without any idea on how to change. Or improve upon it. The unreasonable person won’t sleep until they get their way. No visionary was ever reasonable. No trult successful person was ever reasonable.
Figure out what you believe in and don’t stop until the world sees what you see. Be unreasonable.
Great post Jim.
@Jephmaystruck