(Time to read this Blog is about 4 minutes)
Before we get to the main topic, here are a few things to get you thinking or smiling:
- My Biz Quote of the week:
“It’s amazing how some managers and supervisors are not smart enough to do the job…but are insecure enough to get rid of anyone who can.”
…Donald Cooper.
- Quick Biz Tip:
Don’t fall into the ‘research trap’:
Many businesses spend huge sums of money on ‘customer research’ to find out exactly what their customers want. Then, when they deliver that, they wonder why customers don’t go “WOW”.
What they don’t realize is, they’ve fallen into ‘The Research Trap.’ It works like this. When we ask people what they want, they only tell us what they expect. But, getting what we expect is not “WOW”…it’s just, “That’s nice.” “WOW” is getting more than we expect. It’s the delight and joy of having our expectations exceeded. That’s “WOW”. So, here’s the breakthrough insight…
‘We do research, not to find out what we should do…we do research to find out that which we must exceed!’
- The world’s most powerful Passport. The world’s #1 most powerful Passport is for citizens of Singapore. Their Passport allows them to enter 192 other countries Visa-free.
Our Canadian Passport is the 7th most powerful in the world. It allows us to travel, without a Visa, to 183 other nations. The USA Passport is #10 with Visa-free entry into 180 countries.
The least powerful Passports are for Iraq (29), Syria (26) and Afghanistan (22).
- My insightful Biz Tool to help create clear and compelling customer value. As you start to plan for an extraordinary 2027, it’s important to include how you’ll create and consistently deliver compelling customer-owning value and experiences. For help with this important project, download my Biz Tool #B-10, no charge. Click Here.
- AI Update. Some larger companies are setting up AI systems to monitor competitor announcements, industry trends, and customer sentiment shifts and then feeding this information to the management team. One company who implemented this AI system discovered a competitor’s pivot strategy 3 months before it became public knowledge, allowing them to adjust their product roadmap and capture market share the competitor had targeted.
Now, to this week’s important topic…
It’s not all about price…using the ‘4 Currencies’ in your customers’ lives to create customer ‘ownership’:
Many businesses, large and small, make the mistake of believing that their customers have only one ‘currency’ in their lives, which is money. So they can think of only one way to compete, which is to cut their price. ‘Price’ is important, but when you realize that most people actually have 4 ‘currencies’ in their lives, there are dozens of ways to compete that aren’t cutting your price.
What exactly is a ‘currency’? A ‘currency’ is anything of value to your target customers that they don’t have enough of. And on this planet, in our society, at this time, there are 4 things that we don’t have enough of…4 ‘currencies’. They are…
- Money,
- Time,
- Feeling Safe (physically & emotionally safe)…and,
- Feeling Special.
Your customers are prepared to spend more money to save time, or to feel more safe, or more special. For example, a $28,000 car will pretty much get us everywhere we want to go, on time and reasonably comfortably. But, perhaps it doesn’t make us feel safe enough, or special enough.
If we have an alarm system in our home, we’ve spent a lot of money to feel more safe. If we have beautiful crown moldings in our living room, we’ve spent a lot of money for what? Crown moldings don’t save us time and they offer no increased safety (they don’t actually hold the ceiling up)…but they do look beautiful and make us feel more special!
When we’re choosing an investment advisor, travel agent or mechanic for our car we’re looking for someone who will deliver all four ‘currencies’. Someone who will make or save us money, who will save us time and make us feel both safe and special.
Think about the relative importance of each of the ‘4 Currencies’ when choosing the car
you drive, the food you eat, where you live, all of your possessions, and the relationships you’ve entered into in both your business and your personal life.
Identify exactly what mix of Money, Time, Feeling Safe and Feeling Special influenced your decisions. Then, think about how you can use these same ‘4 Currencies’ to build compelling value-added relationships with your target customers. How can you save or make them money, save them time, make them feel physically and emotionally more safe…and how can you make them feel more special at every touch-point?
It’s such a fun and productive exercise to sit with your Team and generate ideas about all the ways that you can help customers save or make money, save time, feel more safe and more special. This exercise can generate dozens of powerful customer experience and marketing ideas and help you become the ‘Caring Coach’ and clear and the clear and compelling ‘wise choice’ for your customers and prospects.
If you’d like help with this transformational exercise, I’m easy to find at donald@donaldcooper.com.
That’s it for this week…
Live brilliantly and be kind to each other!
Donald Cooper
