| Your Inner CMO
 The 101 Percent Formula for Entrepreneurial Success
by Jeff Burrows
If you are starting a new business, the day will finally come to stop planning and start interacting with your customers. That day is of critical importance. Ultimately, it will determine your success or failure.
To get the most from that moment, I recommend an approach that I call giving your customers 100 percent of your promise, plus an additional one percent. How can you deliver 101 percent of your promise? Let me explain.
You start by answering this question:
What is my promise to my customers?
Let's say, for example, that you are starting a company that will install swimming pools. If that is your business, this might be your promise:
My company will install only the most durable, beautiful, state-of-the-art pools.
That is a good promise. But it is not enough, because you also need to fulfill:
Your promise plus one percent.
Now, what do I mean by your promise plus one percent?
Let me return to the example of a company that installs swimming pools. If that is your business, you know that deciding to have a swimming pool installed is a very big moment in your customers' lives. But it is also a dangerous moment for you, because your customers are so focused on the idea of having a pool, they will forget that you are going to have to dig a big ditch first. They will forget that your trucks are going to back up and make a mess of the yard. They never stop to think that they are going to be scared silly because their kids are going to want to run around in the work area.
If you can identify and manage that extra one percent of issues, you are going to stand out as a company and make profits.
You can add that extra one percent of value by explaining the whole construction process to your customers, so they will know what to expect. You can introduce all your workers to your customers, so they will not be alarmed to see strangers on their property. You can take extra measures to ensure their kids' safety. And you can complete your work in a way so that when your pools are installed, your customers will say, --Wow, my yard and landscaping look even nicer now than when the pool company came!--
That is delivering on your promise plus one percent. And it will make all the difference in your company's ability to generate profits and outperform the competition. Your satisfied customers are going to tell people what a wonderful job you did. They will be handing out your business cards to their friends. They will be happy to give you testimonials.
Now, you might say that a pool business is unusual and that the things I say above don't translate to your company. But the principle of adding an extra one percent does translate. Have you ever had a terrific car-buying experience, for example, or a terrible one? If you have, you know that you have told other people.
So build your promise plus one percent plan, and remember to use it in lead generation. Run ads that say that you will care for your customers' landscaping as though it were your own, or that you are a caring, family-run enterprise. The more effectively you communicate how well you manage that extra one percent, the faster your enterprise will prosper.
|
