All business advice is not created equally.

Whilst some business advice can help you achieve breakthrough results, other business advice can cause you to lose your money and sometimes, lose your business!

The challenge for small business owners today, especially those looking online for free business advice, is that it has never been easier for someone to create fake proof that they are an expert.  As business owners tend to look for advice in areas of business where, by default, they typically don’t know a great deal, it’s extremely simple for the fake experts to fool them.

Some fake experts are easy to spot

The fake marketing expert, who attends networking events because their marketing isn’t generating enough leads, is easy to spot.  The success guru, who can’t afford a high quality website is equally transparent.  However, some fake experts are less easy to spot.  You have to dig a little deeper.

Here are 5 things to consider, when you check someone out:

1. ANYONE can claim to be a published author, thanks to services like lulu.
2. ANYONE can claim to be a social media expert, thanks to software that allows them to gain tens of thousands of followers.
3. ANYONE can claim to be the host of their own radio show, thanks to services like blogtalkradio.
4. ANYONE can call themselves a guru, but very few genuine business experts ever do.

The bottom line:  Free advice can be extremely costly, if you are making business decisions based on bad information.  Never act on advice until you are satisfied that the person advising you is an expert.

Yesterday, someone asked me what was the most common mistake I saw small business owners making.

I was able to answer immediately, as I see examples of this literally every working day of my life!

The single biggest mistake I see people make, is that they believe they can carry on, with the same mindset, taking the same kind of actions and avoiding the same core disciplines, and that things will “just get better” somehow.

Jim Rohn used to say that our future holds one of two possible outcomes; namely the inevitable rewards or unavoidable regrets of our past actions.  He was absolutely right.

The need for action

It’s great to want things to improve, but without the determination to do what’s required, we are deluding ourselves.  Bob may sincerely want to get fitter and have more energy, but if he continues to eat junk and refuses to exercise, nothing will improve.  Similarly, if he wants his business to significantly increase it’s revenues and profits, he needs to significantly improve how he develops his business.

If you would like some help with this, I have a great, downloadable audio program, which gives you almost 2 hours worth of my most powerful ideas on motivation and getting the results you need.

Learn the lessons, take the actions and look to the future with excitement, rather than apprehension.

How often do you take time out, to develop original plans and ideas for your business?

I wrote a post recently, about someone who copied a chunk of this blog, to make a blog of their own; with each post attributed to them, rather than me.  In the comments section of my post, someone made a good point.  He said that these knock-off sites never get any PageRank or traffic.

That got me thinking.

Although originality is very highly valued, people typically find it easier and thus more attractive, to simply copy what others are doing.  For example, this is why every law firm in your town seems so similar.  They do what they think they are supposed to do, based on what everyone else in their profession is doing.  Of course, they then simply camouflage each other and often have to compete based on fees, as they seem too alike for prospective clients to differentiate them in any other way.

With is in mind, here are a few questions to think about:

• How original are the individual services or products you offer?
• How original are the guarantees you offer to your clients?
• How original is your marketing message?
• How original is your client attrition process?  (You DO HAVE a client attrition process, right?)
• How original is your blog content?

The closer you are in those areas (and others), to what your competitors are doing, the harder you will find it to grow your business and attract high quality clients!

Getting creative

In my experience, most people are massively more creative than they think they are.  Although they are capable of generating some wonderfully original ideas, their lack of faith in their own creativity stops them from even getting started.

So, here’s a quick suggestion.  Look at those questions I asked you a moment ago, and see if you can apply some creative thinking to any of the areas, where you are currently too similar to your competitors.

Here’s a quick tip to get the process started: Listed to your clients and monitor the threats and opportunities facing them.  What kind of service could you introduce, to help them avoid the threats or benefit from the opportunities?

How will you know when you have made enough money?

That may seem like an odd question, but I have found that our attitudes to money are often closely linked to how much money we make and how well we use it.  One of our key attitudes to money, surrounds our financial end game:  How much we think is enough money (for us).

How much is enough?

I am fortunate to have worked with some very intelligent people and never, ever missed an opportunity to learn from them.  One of the best pieces of advice I ever received, was with regard to money.  I asked a very wealthy businesswoman;

How do you know when you have enough money?

Her answer was not what I was expecting.  I was 22 years old and assumed she would quote some magical financial figure to me.  She didn’t.  Here’s what she said:

You know you have enough money, when you no longer have to worry about money.

Money gives you choices

She went on to teach me the value of a lifestyle, where you could work where you wanted to, doing something you are passionate about, without having to worry if you can afford to financially.  This was exciting to me, coming from a family, where my hard working parents often worried how they would find money to feed my brother and me.

I have never been motivated by money, mainly because although I grew up in a dirt poor home, I had loving parents and didn’t automatically equate money, with happiness.  My motivation has never been to be rich, but to be financially secure.  I wrote a post about financial security a while ago, which you may find useful.

I believe we owe it to ourselves, to get financially secure, so we can forget about money worries and focus on what actually matters.  Yes, it’s great to have the things that money can buy, but it’s those things that money CAN’T buy, which provide the real magic in our lives.

What’s the best advice about money or wealth that you were ever given?

How often do you take time out to thank people, who have either helped or supported you in some way?

You may think that’s a silly question, but I find that many small business owners are not too hot when it comes to saying “thanks!”  The reason I wanted to share this with you, is that business is essentially all about people.  Ungrateful people find life an uphill struggle, with fewer and fewer people willing to help them.

Conversely, those who readily show their appreciation to people who help or support them, find the world a much more helpful place.

2 very different approaches

I was prompted to write this, after I gave a teenage entrepreneur some free advice yesterday, and returned to my office to find a thank you note.  As you can imagine, this created a very positive impact.  On the opposite side of the ledger, I recently helped promote someone’s blog and their response was to send me Facebook spam!  (Yes, seriously!)  They were clearly totally oblivious to the negative impact their response would have.

Let’s see if we can find a pattern here:

• Very few people who asked for, and received, email advice from me regarding their business problems, ever bothered to say thanks.  In each case, their business was in deep trouble.
• Best selling author and all round marketing good guy, Seth Godin, took the time to say thanks, when we exchanged a few emails regarding a post I was writing.
• Gary Vaynerchuk also took the time, to offer to take me out for a drink when he was in London, after he and I chatted about his (then) upcoming book “Crush It!”
• The Internationally respected and insanely talented Nile Rodgers, co-founder of Chic, also took the time to say thanks when I blogged about the influence he and Bernard Edwards’ music had on me.  Today, I am proud to call Nile a friend.

I find that interesting.

An attitude of gratitude

With just 1 or 2 exceptions, when I think of the most successful people I have known, they were extremely proactive when it came to show their gratitude.  They have figured out how the world works.  They practice, knowingly or unknowingly, what the old school success gurus called “an attitude of gratitude.”  Their attitude is attractive.  It attracts positive responses.  It attracts opportunities.  It attracts people and good faith too, because they show their gratitude, with no hidden motives.  Ironically, this topic was what Seth and I were discussing in our email exchange.

The attitude of ingratitude is the exact opposite.  It repels.  It’s ugly.  It leaves the person who helped you, feeling unrecognised, which is a really stupid move! Why?  Because  recognition is one of the basic human needs.  People need to feel recognised.  Napoleon famously said that his men would fight for money, but they would die for a ribbon (or medal).  That’s the power of recognition.

The attitude of fake gratitude is just as bad.  It says “thanks” – But with strings attached.  It’s usually transparent.  It’s about taking, not contributing.

In many cases, it is NOT that someone isn’t grateful for what another person has done for them that stops them saying “thank you.” It’s often that they either feel a little embarrassed about saying thanks or don’t realise just how much it matters.

Amazing things happen when we look for opportunities to make other people feel recognised.  Taking time to thank those who help, inspire or support us is a great place to start.  Interestingly, as with many things in life, by making other people feel better, we make ourselves feel better too.  I’m sure that one of the reasons I have never had any stress related issues, is that this contribution approach to dealing with people makes the business of business a lot more friendly and enjoyable.

Why not find a few people right now, who have helped, inspired or supported you and send them a quick “thank you” note, email or message.

….Oh, and THANK YOU for reading!

As Valentine’s day approaches, I enjoy watching how it changes people’s behaviour.  For example, I know guys, who will buy their wives or partners flowers and chocolates  tomorrow, though they wouldn’t dream of doing it on a “normal” Monday.  They wait until the greeting card industry and advertisers give them a reason.

Valentine’s day gifts and “surprises” are preplanned and probably expected too.  In fact, we are more likely to be remembered for NOT doing something romantic that day!

Of course, when we give someone a romantic gift and they are NOT expecting it, the positive impact is massively higher.  It’s unexpected and inspired by love, rather than social pressure or conformity.

In business, if we provide the level of service our clients or customers expect, we stand a good chance of retaining their custom.  However, if we provide the level of service they expect and THEN provide something extra, we stand a good chance of retaining their business, we are also likely to see them become advocates of our services too.

Being remarkable

If you are getting fewer word of mouth referrals from your clients than you would like, do something remarkable for them.  This means occasionally doing something more than they expect from you or pay you for.  Last week, a client of mine commented how I had completely over-delivered in the service I offer her.  She did this in her newsletter, which goes out to 8,000 people and the only reason I knew, was because of the enquiries I received following her passionate advocacy of my services.

Have a remarkable week.  It’s more fun, more satisfying and a lot more profitable than an unremarkable week.

This is one of the most valuable ideas I have shared with you here on the blog.  It’s something, which is behind all great marketing and every successfully marketed business.

It’s all about clarity

Many small business owners are fuzzy or vague when it comes to explaining exactly what they do and why you should work with them or buy from them.  Yes, they know what their profession is and what range of products or services they offer, but that’s not enough if you want to market your services effectively.

Before you can successfully market anything, you need to be able to answer the following 3 questions uncommonly well:

1. What is your service?  This needs to be expressed in clear, buzz-word free terms and in as few words as possible.  Around 1 in every 100 small businesses I see online gets this right; including those in my own profession!
2. What is the true value of your service to a client?  This also needs to be expressed clearly, with the focus on how the prospective client will benefit as a direct result of your offering.
3. Why should they purchase that product or service from you in particular?  There are probably thousands, maybe millions of people working in your industry; all claiming to know what they are doing.  So, why should a prospective client hire you?  What is uniquely valuable about what you provide?  This is the most common mistake I see and yet it is the most important element of your whole marketing! In fact, unless you can give someone a genuinely good reason to trade with you, rather than one of your competitors, you are NOT READY to market your services.  If you try, your results will be disappointing no matter how hard you work.

A confused mind always says no

Clarity is extremely important.  When I started out in sales, my boss taught me that, “a confused mind always says no!” In other words, if you ask someone to make a buying decision before they are clear regarding the offer, they will almost always opt for the status quo; to keep things as they are.

If your prospective clients or customers are unclear in any way about specifically what you do and the value (to them) of what you do, you are wasting your time and theirs, trying to market to them.  They will find your marketing fuzzy and you will miss out on all that business you deserve to win.

So:

• Get specific.
• Give prospective clients a uniquely valuable reason to hire you or buy from you.
• Cut the fluff from your marketing messages.

Then watch the results!

If one of your competitors were to take a look at your marketing plans right now, how worried would they be?

I often speak with small business owners, who have no real plan or strategy for the development of their marketing.  They only really think of marketing when something has gone wrong, (like losing a client) or they are suddenly concerned by a drop in business.  If they treated their cars like that, they would never service them and only visit a garage when there was already an expensive problem.

That’s a great way to blow a ton of money, on a car that will pretty soon end up on the scrap heap.  It’s also a pretty stupid approach to business development and marketing!

In my experience, and I have worked with thousands of business owners since starting my own business 16 years ago, many small business owners spend more time planning their annual week in the sun, than they spend planning the year ahead for their business.  They carefully shop around for a great flight deal.  They invest in weather appropriate clothing, so they look and feel great.  They scout out the best restaurants.  They research the area where they will be staying.  They do this willingly and actually enjoy it too.

Net result: They have a GREAT time during their holiday, enjoying lots of truly memorable experiences.  This is followed by 51 weeks of frustration, working hard in a business that’s making little progress, because of their lack of planning!

I love people who have a good work ethic.  But working hard without a plan is a waste of your time.  It’s pointless.

Start with the end in mind

Think about what you want to achieve with your marketing.  For example:

• What do you want your business to look like in 12 months, 3 years or 5 years?
• What type of clients or customers do you want to work with?
• What kind of income do you want from the business?
• How many hours do you want to be working each week?

Is your current marketing taking you toward what you want to achieve?  If it isn’t, stop!  Stop immediately and review everything you do in order to generate business.  Then ruthlessly question the effectiveness (actual results) of each element of your marketing.  Replace what isn’t working, with more effective alternatives. Whatever you do, don’t be like the guy who is pissed off with the performance of his business, yet continues to keep on the same ineffective loop.  Rowing really hard in the wrong direction, still won’t get you closer to where you want to be.  It takes you further away.

There are thousands of free marketing ideas for you here on the blog. So, if you don’t like the direction your business is heading in right now, change it.  Don’t complain and stay the same. YOU are the driver!

How comfortable are you right now, in relation to your business?  In my experience, the majority of small business owners are either VERY comfortable or comfortable.

Sure, most of them will say, that they would like more money, better sales figures, higher profits and revenues, but deep down, they have become comfortable with things as they are.  They have adapted their aspirations down, so that it fits their income ceiling.  It’s not what they wanted originally, but over time it has become comfortable enough for them to lack the motivation required to achieve the quality of life they DID want.

This comfort is usually only broken, when something big suddenly happens.  Maybe they lose a major client, suffer an illness or see a sudden slump in business.  This then gets them focused on GROWING their business again, rather than being comfortable.

Then I get a call

People tend to call me for help in 1 of the following 2 scenarios:

1. Business is fine, but they want to achieve more.  They want to take their business to the next level.  They want the freedom to live where they want to live, drive what they want to drive.  These people are never comfortable and they use their high standards to ensure that they keep on growing.  Ironically, they are what other people call “comfortably off” because they tend to be extremely successful and wealthy.
2. They neglected to invest the time or money required to grow their business and after years of being “comfortable” achieving very little, they suddenly realise they are 6 months away from going broke, if they carry on as they are.  The sudden realisation of how serious their situation is, motivated them to actually do something proactive to grow their business, so they called me.

There is a 3rd scenario, but these guys don’t call me.  These small business owners are watching their business under-perform and doing nothing intelligent to improve things.  They just do more of what didn’t work, copying the same mistakes and making the same errors.  The marketplace has a habit of punishing complacency.  As a result, we see the majority of small businesses fail.

The message behind this post, is to do something NOW, to make things better.  Don’t wait for some commercial disaster to motivate you to stop settling for less than you want from life!

Increase your results, don’t lower your expectations

If your lifestyle is still not what you wanted it to be when you started your business, stop lowering your expectations to fit your results.  Improve your results to match your initial goals and dreams.  If your business has reached a plateau, where no matter what you do you can’t seem to break beyond a certain income or turnover, fix it!

Don’t just keep on doing more of the same. 

If you are cutting down the wrong tree, no matter how hard you work at chopping that tree down, it’s still the wrong tree.

Find out what’s blocking you from achieving what you want and learn what you need to do to fix it.  I have spoken to people and received heartbreaking emails from people, who decided to carry on going around in circles until the inevitable happened.  It’s horrible.

I want better for you!

My wish for you

I want you to see the realisation of your dreams.  I want you to be able to have the rewards that your hard work deserves.  I want you to have the freedom of choice, that a successful business offers you.

Most of all, I want you to build a wall of financial security around you and your family, that NOTHING can break!

My promise to you, is that I will continue to do everything I can, to help those of you with the spirit to follow your dreams.

Here’s a quick marketing tip for you:  Did you know that when confronted with a number of purchasing choices, if the potential purchaser is only familiar with one of the options, they are massively more likely to buy it?

Well, it’s true!

That feeling of familiarity is enough to make that purchase feel less of a risk, than buying a completely unknown alternative.  So, it makes very good business sense, to give visibility to your brand’s image.

Brand advertising and Direct Response advertising

The above example is often achieved using brand advertising. Brand advertising is what you see, every time you watch a TV commercial.  A product or service is presented in a great light, but with no obvious call to action.  They simply want to build familiarity of the brand and make you feel good about it.  It’s a model that generates billions in sales every year.

Then there’s direct response advertising. You see examples of this, every time you watch an infomercial.  Unlike a typical commercial, they not only show the product, but keep asking you to buy it.  They offer you toll free numbers and show you all the payment options they have.  The whole deal is done via the infomercial and it’s a very powerful way to make sales.

Direct response marketing is also the only kind of marketing you will hear most Internet based marketers mention.  Despite all the facts that suggest the opposite, it’s fashionable to say that brand marketing is dead and a waste of your time.

Brand marketing is not dead

This is why companies like Nike pay professional sports people to wear their products.  Does anyone actually think companies like Apple or Chanel are marketed by morons?  These guys are masters of brand marketing / advertising and they use it to generate millions of sales.

Yes, every business should use direct response marketing, but this is not a binary decision! It’s not one kind of marketing or the other.  You can use them both, so long as you use them correctly.  You can invest in some smart brand awareness AND get all that direct response marketing goodness too.  A retail outlet can use their valuable window space, to reinforce their brand and garner familiarity, as people walk past and drive by their shopfront every day, without dropping every other form of marketing.

Brand advertising in small businesses

There are 3 people who work in my local coffee shop, who each have the new Samsung Galaxy S.  They work different shifts and hardly see each other.  They are not friends and their ages range from around 17 to about 50.  None of them went for an iPhone or a different Andriod phone or a Windows phone.  They ALSO bought their identical phones from the exact same shop; even though it was considerably more expensive than buying their phone online.  The shop?  It’s the small, independent phone shop directly opposite where they work 8 hours a day.  The one that had a huge Galaxy S banner in it’s window for months.

Yes, it could be a total coincidence, that 3 people of differing generations would all go for the same, relatively expensive smart phone.  BUT it’s also very possible that it was not coincidence at all, but just another example of what marketing professionals see all the time; people picking the option that’s most familiar.  They saw that banner hundreds of times a day, consciously and unconsciously.

Through that simple, inexpensive piece of brand advertising, the small, independent phone store created a situation for the coffee shop staff, where:

• They became familiar with the name of one particular phone model.
• They became familiar with the look of one particular phone model.
• They associated both of those to that particular store, which is where all 3 bought their phone.

Marketing fashions

I’ve been in marketing for almost 25 years and in that time, I’ve seen a number of fashions come and go.  The thing is, the fundamentals of marketing and the principles of influence are not part of fashion.  They are part of human behaviour.  The key motivators are the same today, as they were when I was working in London in the 1980’s, as a hungry marketing exec, learning directly from people who worked alongside the best of the best, like the great David Ogilvy.

Success leaves clues!

Whilst we associate brand advertising with BIG companies, as we saw in the phone store example, elements can be successfully ported across to small business.  By keeping YOUR brand, logo / name in front of your prospective clients, you help to make them feel familiar with you.  Of course, if you also help the marketplace to feel good or positive toward your business, you can increase the impact of your marketing enormously.  This is yet another reason for you to develop a content marketing strategy for your business.

The bottom line: Marketing your business is not a binary decision.  You should include whatever is most likely to deliver the best results for you, regardless of the fashions of the day.

I was joking on Twitter earlier, about how I was featured in one of the world’s best known newspapers today, but with the wrong surname attributed to me!  I bet Seth Godin doesn’t have that trouble :)

Anyhow, the columnist very kindly linked to a post here on the blog in his article, and the link is even more valuable to me these days, than the name check.  However, being mentioned by an influential person or quoted in a well-known publication, can be a great marketing asset IF you use it.  That’s what today’s brief post is all about.

When someone discovers your website for the first time, they will often use social proof as a short-cut in their decision making process.  This can be as simple as visiting your blog and seeing lots of comments and shares, or reading testimonials on your website from clients who love your work.

Awards you have won and coverage you have attracted from well respected media providers are also potentially very powerful influencers.  Yet, many people seem a little shy about showcasing these kind of marketing assets; even though they can create a powerful initial impression for those new to you and your work.  You are showing them that others have deemed you worthy of those awards, testimonials or media mentions.

Get YOUR stars out!

Modesty is a valuable character trait, but so is self-confidence; especially in business.  So make it easy for people who have not yet interacted with you, to see just how awesome you are.

Remember the dreams and goals you had, when you first started your business?  I want you to fall back in love with those dreams.  I want you to spend the next few minutes with me, using that power as a way to massively improve your business and your entire quality of life.

I once heard a business expert on stage, telling her audience that they needed to be prepared to pay the price for success.  In my experience, it’s failure that we pay the price for.  We enjoy the price of success.

Many small business owners are paying the price right now.  They don’t really run their business.  Their business run them.  Many work extremely long hours, often because they underestimate the value of their time, sell it too cheaply, to the wrong people, and get stuck in the trap of not being able to afford the help they need.  They are constantly under-resourced.  They are paying the price and it’s a hefty one.  But it’s not the price of success.

We enjoy the price of success

No one pays the price for success, at least not in the traditional way.  Before starting my business, back in 1995, I was paying the price for having a highly paid job.  By most people’s opinion, I was successful.  I was in my late 20’s and was earning over 10 times the average UK salary.  However, I regularly worked 14 hours a day and spent a lot of time away from home.  I worked a minimum 6 days every week, often engaged in activities that were necessary, but extremely dull.

The days were too long and emotionally unrewarding.  I used to feel drained and slept poorly.  I hated it.  I had I earned a ton of money, but I was not successful.  I lost contact with many good friends.  My quality of life was shit.  I was paying the price of failure.

Turning it around!

Then, when I started my business, I decided to live by deliberate design.  I chose to build a business where I was able to make the money I needed, by doing the things I loved and working with great people.  I wanted to be there for my family and friends.  In short: I wanted to be one of those people I read about, who LOVED what they did for a living.  So, in 1995 I started my own business and began enjoying the price of success. Work ceased to be “work” from that day on.  Yes, I worked some very long days (and still do occasionally), but it didn’t feel like work.  I doesn’t honestly feel as if I have worked a single day since 1995.

Today, I’m enjoying the price – And you should be enjoying it too!

Falling in love again

Remember when you set your business up?  You had dreams or at least goals, that you would enjoy a better quality of life and more freedom, right?  If you are like most small business owners, you may love what you do, but you have lowered your dreams / aspirations, to fit the reality of how your business is performing.  That’s the start of a cycle that you must break free from.

My suggestion is that you do the exact opposite!

My suggestion is that you fall back in love with the dreams that inspired you to start your business and rather than lowering your expectations to fit the limited resources of your current business, INCREASE the performance of your business, so that it provides you with the lifestyle you wanted to begin with.  More free time, better working conditions, working with people who truly value your time.

It’s hard to be inspired, going to work each day worrying about money and feeling frustrated about the things you can’t have.  Once you get into that trap, it can be like Ground Hog Day:

• You feel uninspired, so perform poorly – You then perform poorly, because you feel uninspired.

You need to break that cycle.  You need to take a fresh look at your business, from the ground up and make some decisions.  For example:

• Look at your workload.  Are you working smart enough?  Do you manage your time correctly?
• Look at your client list.  Do you want to work with these people?  Do they pay you enough for your time?  If not, stop playing with your marketing and professionally market your services to people who WILL pay you what you deserve.
• Look at your systems.  Can they be improved, so that you spend less time on unimportant things and more time developing your business?
• Look at your contacts.  Are these really the people you need around you?  Are they capable of giving you the top flight support and advice your business needs in order to succeed, or are they just people you met?
• Are you really committed to doing what is required for success, or happy to just keep your head down and hope things “just get better” some how?

The day you decide to INCREASE your expectations and make your business perform to your increased expectations, is the day you start enjoying the price of success.

It’s not always easy, but it is always possible.

No, it doesn’t happen in an instant.  It can take a while.  You can’t turn a ship around in an instant either, but you CAN change it’s course in a second.

Break the cycle.  Fall back in love with those dreams or goals you had.  Make today the day you start enjoying the price!

Are you looking to attract more clients or customers right now?  If you are, here is a very powerful piece of advice, contained in just 2 words.

Excellence sells

The massive majority of your competitors do not offer excellence.  They may be average, good or even very good, but few businesses offer genuine excellence. Take a look at your competitors websites and you will see them offering an almost identical range of services and the same tired promises or guarantees.  If one of them (say you) were to break out of that limited way of thinking, so you stood out for all the right reasons, you can own the marketplace; or at least the part where the most valuable clients are!

Doing the right things, uncommonly well: That for me is the essence of every company I know, who provides true service excellence.

This is the opposite of the generic approach I mentioned a moment ago.  Don’t offer a range of services, because it’s what the other guys offer.  If you do, you will simply blend into the background and attract fee-sensitive prospective clients.  These people use fees or prices as a way to differentiate the average providers, as they seem so similar.  When a prospect meets or speaks with 3 potential providers, making the same promises, offering the same kind of services and the same kind of testimonials and the same guarantees etc, there’s little left other than fees, to base their decision on.  All things being equal, the least expensive seems the best value.

I strongly recommend you avoid that approach!

Developing service excellence

Develop services or products based around the needs and wants of your marketplace.  For example, if they want a provider who answers the phone at 8am and none of your competitors do that, DO IT!  It gives you an immediate competitive advantage and costs peanuts to provide.  Listen to what your marketplace wants and then figure out how to deliver it.  Oh, and don’t worry about delivering it cheap.  When you are offering service excellence, people are happy to pay an excellence premium.

If you look at most industries, there are usually just a tiny minority of providers, who are at the very top.  They tend to get the best clients, charge the highest fees and operate the most valuable businesses.  The bottom of the industry is a little larger, but not much.  In fairness, as a percentage there are very few really poor providers in most industries.  However, there is a HUGE middle, occupied my average providers.

Of course, these average providers will tell you that they offer a very good service, but when you compare them to their counterparts, they are usually very similar.  They don’t set out to be average and most don’t even realise they are average, which is why there are so many people in that “average” space.

Success leaves clues

I wrote recently about life-long learning and why we need to constantly invest in ourselves, if we want to reach our full potential.  This is equally important, for those of us who seek to offer service excellence.  Thankfully, success leaves clues.  This means we can study the most successful people and brands and discover what they did in order to achieve so much.  Yes, it takes time and no, it’s not easy – But the rewards can be amazing!

How familiar are you with the businesses at the very top of your industry?

How did they become so respected and successful?

When we become students of excellence and invest what we discover into our businesses, we start moving away from the camouflage of average providers in our industry.  Marketing your services, when you are offering something that is genuinely, clearly of more value than your competitors, is the foundation of great success.