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THIS WEEK
It's Not What You Do - It's How You Do It
ALSO IN THIS EDITION
| It's Not What You Do - It's How You Do It |
There are very few totally unique business types in this world (and if they start out unique they don't stay that way for very long). That means there are thousands of businesses in the same industry as yours. So what makes you different from them? Why should people buy from you and not them?
In the past, businesses focussed on tangible things such as price, product range and decor to try and make themselves stand out. That is fine as far as it goes, but all of these can be replicated.
If you compete on price there will always be someone who will undercut you. If you compete on range then someone will extend their range or mirror your product range. These are all temporary solutions.
If you want to create a business with longevity you need to be aware that what people really buy is something intangible. Every business creates a feeling or emotion that goes beyond what you do. It is this feeling or emotion that is the true essence of your USP.
To start with you need to look at what human needs you are fulfilling. Abraham Maslow back in 1943 proposed that people have different human needs.
At the base level are the physiological needs for survival – food, water and sleep. Without these needs being met, then the body shuts down.
Next come the safety and security needs – personal safety, financial security, health and well-being. These needs take over when the base needs are generally met.
Next come the social needs – a need for belonging, for close friendships and supportive communities.
Next comes self esteem, respect by others, respect for others, confidence and achievement.
Finally comes self-actualisation – the need to maximise your potential.
While Maslow has his detractors, it is still a very useful model to consider. When you are in business you are really in the business of satisfying one or more of these human needs. But it is how you satisfy these needs that makes your business stand apart from others.
Take motels which provide a bed to sleep in. If it were as simple as just providing a bed then all motels would be the same, but motels provide much more. Some provide a safe haven, others provide a family atmosphere. Some are status symbols that show a person has "arrived" and others provide opportunities for personal reflection and growth.
But within these options the motels you are happiest in are the ones that make you feel a certain way. Think about ... you can be staying at the highest quality hotel, but if you are treated like garbage then you won't want to return. If you are treated with value and respect, then you will feel important and want to replicate this feeling.
 There have been some studies that have shown that the greatest predictor of whether or not a doctor will be sued is not whether he or she made a mistake, it is how they made the patient and their family feel when they treated them. If they made a mistake but still were caring and made the patient feel valued, then the likelihood of being sued was dramatically less.
What makes a business totally unique is the feeling they give to their consumers. This feeling is intangible and can be broken in an instant if you do not act consistently with the feeling. It can also be the strongest bond on earth that attracts customers to you as if by magic if your business is truly in alignment with this feeling.
It is this feeling that needs to be reflected in all of your marketing, in all of your copywriting, all of your business images and all of your thoughts and actions. When you do this, then customers naturally are attracted to you and your marketing is much more effective.
So how do you put into words the unique feeling you give to people?
First you need to discover what that feeling is. You can do this through a range of means – talking with your favourite clients, listening to your employees when they talk about your business, taking time to reflect or meditate on the peak interactions you have had around your business (Mark Silver from Heart of Business does this process really well). You can even have someone interview you to quietly tease out the threads of this feeling and help you put it into words.
Generally you will get snippets of words, fragments of ideas and wisps of concepts. By weaving these wisps together and then testing them with people to gauge their response, you will begin to be able to craft together the right words. It may take quite a few variations to get the combination of words right, but when you do will you will have a solid "yes" in your heart.
Creating your USP this way is more challenging than having a marketing company go away and "write one for you", but it is a more fulfilling and more successful process. A good marketing company or copywriter will help you through this process – so your end marketing material resonates with the true essence of your business.
Once you know how you want to make people feel, then you need to review all of your business processes and actions to ensure you give that experience in everything that you do.
After all – it is how you do what you do that really makes the most difference in business.
| HR Tip of the Week - Communicating with Employees |
 People have different preferred styles of communication. Some like to hear things, some like to read things and some like to be shown things. Some people only want the facts and some people want the story behind the facts.
In a workplace you will have all of these preferred styles of communication swirling around. This is a recipe for major discord as we tend to communicate in our preferred style regardless of the preferred style of the person receiving the information.
Some of the problems that can arise is when a boss who is a "just the facts", dot point sort of person comes into the building. They are focused on getting to their office to get the job done. Those who want the story and need connection get upset when the boss forgets to say "Good Morning" to them and promptly go into melt down imagining they have done something wrong.
The boss is a story person talking with a just the facts employee. The employee feels they are being smothered by a soft pillow and can't work out exactly what they are supposed to be doing. The boss gets upset because "they explained it in great detail" to the employee.
In a meeting you will have two camps - those that love meetings to work things through and those that would prefer to have their teeth pulled out without painkillers if the meeting goes longer than 5 minutes.
The bottom line is be conscious of your own communication preferences. Ask your employees how they like to be communicated with and ask for feedback about how clear your communication style is.
Work on providing the same information in different formats to cater for communication differences and you will increase the overall team satisfaction and productivity.
New Scientist Magazine is one of my favourite magazines and I work on reading most issues. It covers in easy to read style the latest advances in science, technology, psychology, the environment, space, physics etc.
The 3 January issue for example looked at everything from issue of Cannabis, through to autistic savants and how they do what they do, the increase in starving polar bears, how marinating a steak in beer before you fry it is a healthier option, the effect of bad weather on fish catches and latest advances in prosthetic limbs.
Their website is easy to navigate and has decades of past stories to explore as well as lots of current information and research.
They make my business of the week purely because they are making something which could be so esoteric - highly accessible, and they are the perfect marriage between traditional print media and online presence. Check them out (but only when you have a few hours to spare as the information is so rich!)
This post looks at the latest research reported in the New Scientist about how things such as happiness, obesity, smoking and depression are transmitted like a virus through your friends and the friends of friends. You may want to audition some new friends after reading this post!
What Makes a Great Business Letter?
exuberantly yours
Ingrid
Heart Harmony
PS: This week's Small Business Tips blog also included There's Money in Adrenalin and To Deter Shoplifters - Keep it Neat.
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