Spring 2013, public sales course in the Boardroom with a handful of attendees.
And a broken down car in the car park.
One attendee was really concerned about getting it fixed and it was preventing his concentration. So we spoke at lunchtime and he agreed to phone the AA to come and fix his car in the afternoon whilst he attended my seminar.
The AA man diagnosed a faulty alternator for my friend’s Ford and he drove it later to the AA man’s recommended garage – a friend of a friend I think, cheap.
The next morning I enquired as to progress and was greeted with a “yep all fixed, the mechanic fella, couldn’t fit the Ford’s alternator even though he had 7 years’ experience and training from the AA, but the news is good because he Googled it and found a video on YouTube showing how and within an hour he had the car fixed at a fraction of the price of a main dealer.”
Your service – have you been Googled. In other words, can someone find out how to do it just by watching a video on YouTube? OK, it might not be able to be done by you in your professional manner but it can be done cheaper than you.
- Arranging a mortgage
- Conveyancing on your new home
- How to start a pension
- How to arrange life assurance
- How to fix a washing machine
- How to set up automated payment systems on websites
Time to upgrade your service or work on providing more value that cannot be achieved by watching a YouTube video. Do you add something to the mix or have you been commoditised?
Paul, so very true, we all under sell our real value and push our customers to choose the cheaper products. We must re-engage with our fundimental values and let our customers know why they the brand me is going to add value today, tomorrow and for the lifetime of the product/service
Very true Tim