The Under-Valued Business is Caused By its Owners, No One Else
The service industry is made up of many different professions, from a wide variety of technical backgrounds. Within any given niche within the service industry, you will find many companies which act the same way, provide the same services, and are fighting for the same clients. These same companies, often times, are also the most under-valued. How companies are viewed by clients, especially in the service industry is absolutely critical. The perception of the image projected from the company helps or hinders to justify the price for the service provided. Having a low price may get you more clients, but what type of clients are you attracting at that price point? The perception given off may be that the company is only as good as they charge. Even in a down economy, clients still expect high-quality services- in fact, they expect it more than during a thriving economy.
Companies in a highly competitive field such as design often get stuck trying to win bids for contracts based solely on price. Some companies may try to not base their winning the contract on price. However, if they do not have a strong, distinguishing factor that separates them from their competition, their bid will be reduced to price.
When asked, “what separates your company from your competitors,” often times the response is that they provide top-quality service. Stop and think about that for a minute. Top-quality service? Don’t all businesses in the service industry provide top-quality service? That should be a given, not a distinguishing factor. At best, it is subjective and based on a client-by-client basis. How can you objectively study “top-quality” in order to see how it happened, what was done, so that it can be done again and again? It is too subjective a term to try and quantify.
So what really separates each company apart from each other? If they offer similar services and in the bid they offer similar time tables, then the only thing separating company A from company B is price. And that is the worse strategy to use!
Everyone has a purpose in life…a unique gift or special talent to give to others. And when we blend this unique talent with service to others, we experience ecstasy and exultation of our own spirit, which is the ultimate goal of all goals.
Your Perception Determines their Perception
It all starts with the entrepreneurs vision of their organization. As that vision becomes a reality, if the entrepreneur’s perception of their company does not match the vision they are trying to project onto the company, it will become obvious. You must believe in your company and perceive an image of success. More than perceive, you should be successful. In any case, the perception that you have of your company, when talking to clients, potential investors and joint partners, will come out if you truly do not believe in what you are building.
If you project a negative view on the world, people with that same view point will feel a connectedness to you, and you may develop a friendship or more based on the negative-world connection. However, if you are optimistic and proactive you will find yourself among like-minded people. This will only further your optimistic perspective and continue to justify it.
Providing A Service With Meaning
The mission statement is most critical as it is the core of what the company stands for, and through that mission statement, everything flows. In order to distinguish your company from others, you must be working towards a goal larger than you. Your mission, your cause, should outweigh being profitable. It is fine to be profitable, but it should not be the mission of your company.
Clients and prospective clients should be able to quickly identify your mission statement, understand it, and either jump on board or not. The mission statement should be thought of as a campaign. It is what sticks in the minds of everyone. A great example of this was the recent presidential campaign of Barack Obama. Obama’s mission statement, in one word, was change. It was simple, identifiable, and because of that millions of people jumped on board. It was clearly bigger than Barack himself, or the millions of people who voted for him. But working collectively, the American people feel they can create change.
Think about your company or the company you envision. What is the mission statement that you want to carry throughout all of your products and services? What is it that you want people to be able to quickly identify, and jump on board to help fight your cause as one of your clients? Great examples are companies with huge fan followings such as Apple and Starbucks. What are your thoughts?
