Having been raised OldSchool to the nth degree, including my business upbringing, I can testify there’s very little debate about what generates success, especially when the business in question is based largely or wholly on providing a service. As a second generation service provider, I’ve been blessed with the privilege of learning both from the dinosaurs and what I’ve come to call the SmartKids.
Getting from the starting blocks to the finish line — first — over the long haul — is about two things.
- Getting the desired RESULT of the client/customer
- Producing said result with INTEGRITYÂ
It’s so easy to say, isn’t it? But we must acknowledge the reality that we can produce results without integrity, and have integrity without the ability to produce results.
Most of us love talking about different ways to skin the cat. Our way, their way, some other way, or simply that there are many ways to skin a cat. But the #1 question asked by any business’s ultimate consumer? Did the cat get skinned? With few exceptions, they usually don’t care how, assuming the given of integrity. They just want results. They’re not impressed with our awards or our claims of world domination.
The common denominator for any successful service business is the consistent production of superior results, delivered in a timely fashion.
If as a business we can’t point to those narrowly defined results, the public will go elsewhere. Those in need of our service are hungering to find a business they can trust implicitly who’ll get them what they want, and in a timely manner.
Take auto maintenance and repair. What’s your experience with that service? Yeah, me to. Furthermore, once we find one who consistently maintains/repairs our vehicles at a fair price, with integrity, we tend to stick with ’em like glue, don’t we? You bet we do.
Over the years I’ve had dozens of service business owners tell me that their best marketing is free. My experience lines up with theirs. It’s ongoing or former customers braggin’ about how the business has been skinnin’ their cats for years.
- I needed the transmission rebuilt and it’s been runnin’ perfectly ever since.
- She’s sold two homes for me, and sold me three, all of ’em flawlessly.
- Yep, due to their marketing, my business doubled in five years.
Nobody cares about how results are obtained until they find out IF results were produced. The public wants results, as THEY define them, produced quickly and with integrity. With rare exceptions they generally don’t care how it’s done.
People just want results, honestly produced. All service providers need to do is skin the right cats. Why is that so hard to understand? Why are there so few in each industry who concentrate on producing real life results? The public is pretty dang smart when it comes to finding those who get the job done.
To them it’s simple as pie — it’s about skinnin’ cats.
