Strategies for Determining and Increasing
Your Value to Your Customers
 

You are in business for yourself. That is, you may own your own business, or you may be associated with another company or firm, either as an employee, a partner or an independent contractor. Your working agreement or arrangement doesn’t really matter.

The important thing to realize is that no matter what the arrangement or situation you presently find yourself in, you are really working for yourself. If you work by commission, for example, the sales you make are not only putting dollars in your employer’s pocket, they are putting dollars into your own pocket, as well. The more you sell, the more you make.

Just consider yourself as a business that prospers or falters financially by the amount of commission dollars you generate. The point is, even though you may be working for, or associated with another company or concern, you are really working for yourself to increase the amount of money you earn for you.

Three Keys for Success

It’s important to realize that your success in whatever you do in business, or in life, for that matter, will always be determined by three things:

1. The need or demand for what you do,
2. Your ability to do it, and
3. The difficulty in replacing you.

In other words, how valuable are you and the service you perform, to other people?

To illustrate this point, let’s apply our 3-step formula to the job of an elevator operator. In today’s world of pushbutton, self-operated elevators, how much need is there for the job he or she performs?

Most people are quite capable of operating an elevator themselves. It doesn’t take much knowledge or training, so an operator can be replaced without much difficulty. As a result, elevator operators, if you can even find one, are not paid much.

Now, contrast the elevator operator and the money he or she commands with that of a professional major league baseball player. Specifically a player that is good at batting.

What is the need for what they do? A look at attendance figures for baseball games will show that more than just a few fans are interested in watching what they do. So the need obviously is great.

How about the batter’s ability to do what he does? Sports analysts say that the action of hitting a ball moving towards you at over 90 miles per hour is the single most difficult movement in sports.

In the game of basketball, the target (the hoop) doesn’t move. Same in golf. While the ball moves, the hole, or goal, remains stationary. In football, there are 11 teammates all with a common goal of advancing the ball. But in baseball, it’s the batter alone, trying to hit a small, 90 m.p.h. target with his bat. So it stands to reason then, that the better or more often a batter can hit the ball, the more he or she will be compensated.

Now, what about the difficulty in replacing a good batter? When only the best in the world can hit the target less than a third of the time, and most of the other players are successful far less than that, it doesn’t take long to realize why the best batters are among the highest moneymakers in the world.

Obtaining
Superior Rewards
 

Now how about you? It’s been said, that you can tell how professional a person is by the size of their income at the end of the year.

And you can tell exactly how valuable the service you perform is, by how much people are willing to pay you for it. If you do the same job that everybody else does, and do it no better than the way they do it, you can’t expect to earn more money, or be considered any more valuable than those other people.

You see, the market, by nature, will pay superior rewards only for superior goods and services. It will pay average rewards for average goods and services, and it will see that inferior rewards are paid for inferior goods and services.

In other words, you will be rewarded in direct proportion to the value you provide your customers. It’s inescapable. That’s the law of nature.

Now, if the products and services you sell or provide are similar in coverage and price to everyone else’s (and most of them are, today), then the difference between you and other people in your position has to be in the type and amount of personal service you provide your customers and clients.

This, then, has to be the area you excel in – it becomes your competitive edge.

Guaranteeing
Business Success
 

So one of the main keys to success in business, then, is, number one, to make sure that there is a great need or demand for what you do.

One of the best ways to guarantee that is to make sure you only spend your time selling to qualified prospects. That is, people who need, want and can pay for what you’re selling. There may be people who need or want what you have, but if they can’t afford to pay for it, or if you can’t arrange suitable payment options for them, you’ll spend a seemingly endless amount of time and get nowhere.

On the other hand, there may be people who have the ability to pay, but not the need or want. In these cases, you can also waste considerable time, because surely, no sale will result from your efforts.

The second point, is that you are paid in direct proportion to your ability to do what it is that you do. That is, to identify, qualify and sell the products and services you offer to your prospects and customers, and then service their needs as they arise.

In some businesses, the sole function of salespeople is to seek out qualified prospects and sell them the products or services offered by the business. The necessary service work for the customer is provided by an office or support staff.

In other businesses, each salesperson is responsible in every way for each of their customer’s needs, from the initial sale, to providing all the necessary service the customer might require, including updating the product or service, customer complaints, changes of address, or any other service work that may be needed.

The determining factor then, is not what your responsibilities are, but rather, how good you are at performing those responsibilities.

Third, remember, that you are paid in direct proportion to the difficulty in replacing you.

When I think of this area, I think of Disneyland and Disneyworld. As attractions go, they have very little competition. And as far as theme parks? They are unsurpassed. Their average daily attendance figures bear this out.

Disneyland, in California........................................35,342
Disneyworld and Epcot Center, in Florida..........78,082
Disneyland in Tokyo...............................................32,877
 

With 146,193 guests visiting each day, and paying an average of $57 per person, the Disney properties are light years ahead of their nearest competition. And, why? Because they have met the criteria outlined in the 3-step formula.

Let’s consider each of the steps of the formula as they apply to Disney.

First, is there a need for what they do? Certainly there must be. Entertainment is the largest and fastest growing business in the world today, both in terms of participants, and in total dollar revenue.

Next, how about Disney’s ability to do what they do? With over 53million people visiting their 3 parks each year, evidence would indicate that they are doing at least a few things, if not a whole lot of things right.

And finally, the difficulty in replacing them? Nothing has come close yet, and with those 53 million people spending over $3 billion, odds are that the people who visit the Disney properties are pretty satisfied.

The Law Of
Unlimited Abundance
 

Walt Disney was a man of extraordinary vision and foresight. He knew what it would take to be successful in his chosen area of business, and he developed a formula that expressed his philosophy, and could be used in any type of business to ensure its success. He called it, his “Law of Unlimited Abundance.”

Walt said that it didn’t matter what type of business or endeavor a person was engaged in, they could be successful and enjoy unlimited abundance, if they would simply follow his formula or plan.

Walt Disney’s “Law of Unlimited Abundance,” stated, that to be successful, you must,

Disney’s Law
Can Work For You!
 

It can be similar in your business world, too. You see, the key is to, “do what you do,” not what someone else does, but what you do. You don’t have to copy. You simply do your job the way only you can. That’s what makes you special, sets you apart from others, and attracts people to you.

Then you do what you do, “so well,” that is, provide the type of service your customers require, want, or need in an exceptional manner. It leaves no room for mediocrity, it’s “so well.” That implies exceptional performance.

And if you will do that so, “the people who see you do it,” (your customers), “will want to see you do it again,” (that’s repeat business), “and will bring others to see you do it,” (that’s referral business), you too, can meet with an unparalleled success.

Because so few people perform in business that way, it sets you completely apart from all the competition. Customers can’t get the kind of service you offer from anyone or anywhere else. It’s simply not available anywhere, at any price.

So, by default, you become unique, different, and difficult to replace. And it will be reflected in your business and your income. It has to. There’s no choice. It is a basic, eternal law of nature. You simply reap the results of what you’ve sown.

You Reap
What You Sow
 

The question you must answer in your mind is, “What are you going to sow, so you will reap the kinds of rewards you wish to have?”

In the world of business, this is a most critical question, and one you would do well to take the time to answer. Fact is, most business people simply don’t understand how important the answer to this one question really is.

You see, many people go into business because it is something they have always wanted to do, or because they want a certain amount of freedom, or perhaps they want to be their own boss. Now, those are not necessarily bad reasons, but they are selfish reasons for the most part, and while they may sound good on the surface, in actuality, some of them may not be very practical.

If you go into business for selfish reasons, and fail to give the customer his or her rightful due, your chances of success are likely to meet with hard times. Business, like farming, requires that you do certain things in a particular order, if you are to realize an abundant harvest.

Now the answer to the question, “What are you going to sow, so you will reap the kinds of rewards you want?” is simple. You only have to look at the question backwards.

First, what kinds of rewards do you want? Second, what do you have to do to get those rewards? And third, who is it that can give you those rewards?

If you will always remember, that although you may own or work for, or represent a certain company or organization, they are not who pays you.

The Customer Signs
Your Paycheck
 

It really is the customer that signs your paycheck. And although you must see that your company’s interests are always considered, you must not lose sight that the customer is the boss.

They are the whole reason your job exists in the first place. They hire you to help them make good personal and business decisions. They trust you to help them see that their problems or needs are solved or satisfied in an efficient and cost-effective manner, and they pay you well to do your job.

It is the wants, needs and desires of your customers that should determine all of your business activity.

So the next logical step then, is to learn and understand just what your customer’s wants, needs and desires are. And you find that out simply by interviewing and asking them. It is very important to listen carefully to what they say, because sometimes there may be other, hidden or unstated wants or needs that may not be readily evident. And only by fully understanding their needs, can you be of meaningful service to them.