There is a very good chance
that YOU are a commodity.
It’s reasonable to expect that you won’t like that descriptor, but more often than not – it’s TRUE. Most business owners believe themselves to be unique, and believe their businesses to be equally unique.
Would you like to know what makes a business TRULY unique? I mean – unique to the point that it has no equal (and will not be perceived as a commodity)? For starters, it must be incomparable in 85% of all categories. In other words, if you were to list general components of comparison, your product or service must be CLEARLY stand out in nearly all areas of probable comparison.
Now I know what you’re thinking: You’re thinking, “My product or service is unlike this, that, and the other thing. Therefore, my product or service is beyond compare!” That’s where you are WRONG. It’s not up to YOU to decide how your product or service is compared. It’s up to the marketplace…to the public…to your prospective customers, clients, and patients. They, and only THEY, get to decide if or how you are compared.
Most business folks don’t know how to make their business commodity-proof. Oh sure, they have a few techniques, but they don’t have a clue as to the process or sequence. You can’t just throw out a few highlights and then say, “See – here’s how we are different!” If that works, then you’re lucky. In most cases, that kind of strategy DOESN’T work.
Unfortunately, when a business isn’t commodity-proofed, the end result is the blame game. The business blames the public (for not understanding), blames the economy, blames the establishment, etc. What the business neglects to do is look inward.
There is one profession who we’ll refer to as Profession X, in which the public’s utilization is around 8%. Translated, that means that only 8% (or at the high end, 11%) of the population utilizes Profession X’s particular service. This fact is a sore spot for the profession, and yet – is the doing of external factors (so sayeth many members of Profession X). Profession X has done a lousy job of commodity-proofing itself. A real lousy job. As a result, many factions within the profession have a desire to go in different directions. The in-fighting within Profession X is one of three of their weakest links, and eventually will be their undoing.
If you can be compared – apples to apples, then you are in trouble. You are losing customers, clients, and patients, you are losing credibility, and you are losing income. It’s not opinion – it’s FACT!
Ask yourself and others whose opinions you value, “What can I do so that my business is unapproachable in terms of being perceived as beyond compare?” Once you find out what MUST be done, DO IT!
Have A GREAT Day!
…Dr. Marc & The Mind Virus Team