[Define] Your Business Value Proposition - (4 min read)

In my last two blogs we talked about Why You’re Really in Business, and How to Identify Your Ideal Customer.

In this blog we’re going to take it to the third critical question:

Why should they buy from you?

Businesses everywhere, and in every industry, are constantly trying to figure out how to differentiate themselves from their competitors.

Ask yourself these two questions:

- Why would a customer want to purchase your good or service over that of a competitor?

- How do you differentiate your good or service from the competition?

The answer to this is knowing what is called your:

Unique Value Proposition

I’ve said this in my last two blogs and I’m going to say it again:

 “You’re selling your product or service because you’re solving a problem, or problems, for your customers”.

But likely, other businesses are trying to solve their problem(s) too.

Your differentiation, or unique value proposition, is your secret ingredient. It's something that's distinctive to your business that offers a definitive, tangible benefit to your customer.

Your Unique Value Proposition is something that only you can provide, or no one else can do it as well, or they can’t do it at your price.

Some differentiators are easy to figure out while others are harder to come by.

Maybe you're the only dentist with a kid’s play area on the premises. All other things being equal, that’s a differentiator.

But maybe you’re a business that doesn’t have such an easily defined advantage. So how can you create a differentiator for your business?

Let’s look at a few ways, but there are many others:

- Look at your competition. What do they do that you can’t? What can you do that they can’t do, or do as well? Maybe your location is more convenient to customers – use whatever differentiator you can establish.

- Read your competitors’ social media reviews. Skip the 5-Star reviews and focus on the 3 and 4-Star reviews. When you see a comment that goes something like, “I would have given them a higher ranking if”, everything after the word “if” is your golden nugget. Deliver on that and you will be doing something your competition isn’t.

- Offer something to address common customer concerns and frustrations. For example, guarantee that your service delivery technician will show up within 15 minutes of the scheduled time or you’ll provide the first hour of work free.

- Never make a claim you can't deliver on. Be sure you can do what you promise or your differentiator will be useless, your reputation will suffer, as will your business. Trust is important!

- Build great customer relationships. The #1 way to differentiate yourself is to build great customer relationships. Move from a transactional mindset to a relationship mindset.

Why????

The simple truth is that….

Buyers and sellers with the best relationships will do the most business together.

Here are some questions you need to answer to help you Define Your Unique Business Value Proposition:

- Product/Service Description and problem you’re solving:

- What are you not going to do?

- What will be unique about your offering?

- Where is the proof you can deliver on the promise?

- What is your pricing strategy?

Once you've established your differentiator(s), reduce it or them into a few words – this is your elevator pitch!

Communicate it at every opportunity.

Use it in your ads, letterhead, marketing collateral, your website, signage, sales calls, and everywhere.

Your differentiators should roll right off of your tongue.

If you don’t know why customers should buy from you, they won’t either!

And make sure you deliver on it!

Ultimately, you need to help your customers answer the following question:

Why my product or service?

We can help you with this!

For more information about how The Cobalt Group can help you define your unique business value proposition, or any business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2019 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

Why You’re Really In Business

If you don’t have a clear answer to the following question, you may struggle to market your business, or even get it off the ground:

What problem are you solving?

You’re selling your product or service because you’re solving a problem, or problems, for your customers.

Read that last sentence again!

This is a fundamental mindset shift that must occur. And before you hang your shingle over your door and start trying to bring customers through the door,

Know the problem you’re solving!

You may make the greatest widget in the world but if your widget doesn’t solve a problem for someone, then you’ve made a great widget with no market to sell it.

Make sure you understand exactly what their problem is, or what issue they’re trying to resolve.

Not only do you have to know what the problem is, but you must understand how it impacts your customer.

You’re going to invest a lot of time and money getting the word out about your good or service, so your marketing plan needs to be specific.

Knowing the problem you’re solving is the first step. From there you can narrow down your efforts to those people whose problem(s) you’re actually able to solve?

And it doesn’t really matter what you sell, your target isn’t ‘everyone’.

So, don’t forget Why You’re Really in Business.

For more information about how The Cobalt Group can help you with any business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2019 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

4 Things Ethics Is Not

A company’s ethics will determine its reputation.

Good business ethics are essential for the long-term success of an organization. Implementing an ethical program will foster a successful company culture and increase profitability.

A company's ethics will have an influence on all levels of business.

It will influence all who interact with the company including customers, employees, suppliers, competitors, etc.

All of these groups will have an effect on the way a company's ethics are developed.

It is a two way street, the influence goes both ways, which makes understanding ethics a very important part of doing business today.

Ethics is very important, as news can now spread faster and farther and quicker than ever before.

Simply stated - Ethics refers to standards of behavior that tell us how human beings ought to act in the many situations in which they find themselves. Whether as friends, parents, children, citizens, businesspeople, teachers, professionals, and so on.

I will cover Ethics more in future blogs but for now, I think it is helpful to identify 4 Things Ethics Is NOT:

-Ethics is not the same as feelings. Feelings provide important information for our ethical choices. Some people have highly developed habits that make them feel bad when they do something wrong. But many people feel good even though they are doing something wrong. And often, our feelings will tell us it is uncomfortable to do the right thing if it is hard.

-Ethics is not following the law. A good system of law does incorporate many ethical standards, but law can deviate from what is ethical. Law can become ethically corrupt, as some totalitarian regimes have made it. Law can also be a function of power alone and designed to serve the interests of narrow groups. It may have a difficult time enforcing standards in some important areas and may be slow to address new problems. 

-Ethics is not following culturally accepted norms. Some cultures are quite ethical, but others become corrupt or blind to certain ethical concerns. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do" is not a satisfactory ethical standard.

-Ethics is not science. Social and natural science can provide important data to help us make better ethical choices, but science alone does not tell us what we ought to do. Science may provide an explanation for what humans are like, but ethics provides reasons for how humans ought to act.

The challenge is that there are two fundamental problems in identifying the ethical standards we are to follow:

- On what do we base our ethical standards? 

- And how do those standards get applied to specific situations we face?

Ethics is NOT an easy topic. But it IS a topic that needs to be addressed by our businesses and business leaders. I will dive more into this subject in future blogs.

For more information about Business Ethics, or to see how The Cobalt Group can help you do an ethics assessment, or help you with any other business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2019 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

Why TEAMWORK Matters

You have a passion about something and decided to turn it into a career. You are building, or have already built, a business to bring your good or service to market. 

Or, you're part of a bigger company and are responsible for part of that organization.

Undoubtedly, you want your business or organization to be successful. But, with all of the moving parts to running them, what are the important things to be focusing on? 

While you are diligently creating and executing your business plans, go-to-market strategies, and all the other pieces of the pie, there is one important ingredient that is overlooked, or taken for granted too often:

TEAMWORK

Why does this matter? Because running a successful organization requires an effective team!

The simple truth is that effective TEAMWORK does, among other things,  the following:

- It enhances the sense of accomplishment and promotes camaraderie

- TEAMWORK helps build enthusiasm and creates a more supportive atmosphere

- It creates collaboration in the organization – the sum being greater than the parts

- When employees use their talents together they are better able to overcome roadblocks and accomplish the mission   

- Teamwork encourages interaction across organizational divides – and externally with partners and customers

There are many other benefits of effective TEAMWORK. The point here is, TEAMWORK must be an important ingredient for any successful organization.

So here’s the question... 

Does your organization demonstrate effective TEAMWORK and reap the benefits?

We'd be glad to discuss that with you. The Cobalt Group can facilitate over 150 different workshops for your organization, six of them listed below are entirely focused on teamwork and team building.

• ·        Building High Performance Teams Inside the Company
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• ·        Building High Performance Teams in a Remote Workforce
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• ·        Team Building for Managers
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• ·        Team Building Through Chemistry
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• ·        Teamwork and Team Building
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• ·        Virtual Team Building and Management

For more information about how to achieve better TEAMWORK, or to see how The Cobalt Group can help you with this, or any other business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

Please share this with your friends and colleagues.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s have a discussion. 

Copyright © 2019 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

5 Characteristics of Engaged Employees

Employee engagement is the next level above employee satisfaction. The difference between the two is distinct.

Satisfied employees perform under a more transactional relationship. They are willing to give X amount of work and time because the company gives them Y in return. 

Engaged employees, in contrast, will go beyond a transactional relationship and are willing to give greater levels effort and time. They put more into their jobs because they are passionate about seeing the company and its customers succeed. Employee engagement is a barometer that determines the relationship of a person with the organization.

These are certain characteristics that are traits of more engaged employees. Among them are:

1.      They have a belief in the organization. Engaged employees feel connected to the mission and values of the organization. They want to contribute to its success.

2.      They have an understanding of the ‘bigger picture’. These employees know what is expected of them and they know how what they do fits into the overall strategy of the organization.

3.      They work to make things better. Engaged employees seek out ways to improve the organization and the products or services they sell.

4.      They are respectful and caring to colleagues. These employees appreciate that each has a role and that each bring certain strengths to the solution. They genuinely care for each other.

5.      They are willing to go ‘above and beyond’. Another characteristic of an engaged employee is their willingness to go the extra mile to achieve the goals of the organization. They do so out of commitment to the organization’s goals and values,

At the center of any organization’s engagement model is its leadership. The tone for employee engagement is set from the top to the bottom of the leadership chain. To succeed, it has to be an all hands effort. The organization’s leadership must move the employee beyond the way each feels about his/her job to developing the attitudinal attachment each employee has to his/her company. This is the difference between having satisfied employees to having engaged employees. And it's not that hard.

And remember from a previous blog, the KEY to successfully engaging employees is getting to know each employee – not engaging a “them”.

For more information about engaging and mobilizing employees, and to take our free self-assessment about how well you are engaging and mobilizing, or to see how The Cobalt Group can help you with this or any other business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2018 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

3 Questions You Must Answer to Know if You’re Setting Your Employees Up for Success

If you’ve ever had employees work for you then you’ve likely been in the situation where you have to decide whether or not to let them go for poor job performance. How did you get there? What led that employee to perform poorly? If you’re in a leadership role your job is to set your people up to succeed; to give them what they need to do what you hired them to do.

There are legitimate reasons to fire someone little to no notice. For me that would involve willful or gross negligence, or criminal activity. In those cases the answer is fairly simple – termination is warranted right then. There are other factors, as well, that would rightly lead to ending their employment with you.

But, if you have an employee that is struggling to do what you hired them to do and you are considering letting them go, there are three questions that you must answer before you make that decision:

1.      Did the employee know what was expected of him/her? It seems like a simple question but I have worked with a few clients that had let people go without knowing if the person knew what was expected of them. If your employee doesn’t have a clear understanding of what is expected of them, then how could they know what they were supposed to do?

2.      Was the employee properly trained to perform their duties? There have been many times when I have seen people thrown into a job or a task without adequate, or sometimes any, training to do the job. That seems incredulous in this day and age but it happens more often than you would think. If they haven’t been shown the proper way to do the job, how can you expect them to do it properly?

3.      Does the employee have the right tools to do the job? This is the last question I ask. If they know what is expected of them, and have been properly trained to do the job, were they given the appropriate tools? If the employee’s job is to drive nails into the wall, sending them out with a spoon is of little help. Why weren’t they given a hammer?

Our job as leaders is to set our employees up to succeed. The calculation is simple – our success is dependent upon their success. If you can’t honestly answer ‘YES’ to each of these questions, you have set them up to fail. And in that case, you have failed as a leader, too.

Make sure you can answer each of those questions with a resounding ‘YES’.

For more information about employee engagement, or to see how The Cobalt Group can help you with this or any other business or leadership challenges you are facing, Contact us.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2018 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

Why Hire a Business Consultant?

Typically, most small to mid-sized business owners find themselves involved in every aspect of their business, from running the business to doing the brunt of the administrative duties. They are required to be great multi-taskers out of necessity. I have found that most business owners struggle to delegate many of the tasks needing to be done, even when they have access to the resources to do so. The upside of that, by their logic, is that they know it is getting done the way they want it done. That doesn’t always mean it is getting done correctly, just that they know it is getting done.

There is a downside to this as well. If as a business owner is spending too much time on the back office work and not on the core business activities (those that run, operate, and grow the business), it is probably time to ask the question - do you need to hire business consulting services? This is not limited to just smaller companies. It applies to businesses and organizations of all sizes.

The challenge for a business owner is to recognize when they should consider hiring a consultant, understand what the role of a business consultant in their business is, and to determine when it is cost-effective to hire one.

What does a business consultant do?

A business consultant is basically an outside expert you hire to solve an internal business problem. A consultant brings knowledge, skills, experience, and expertise to improve their client’s condition. Unlike in-house employees, consultants are hired on a contract/project basis.

Business consultants are there to help you achieve your business goals. A consultant can help you with determining a business strategy, the associated planning, and operational process development and/or improvements required to achieve those goals. They can help with setting a marketing and sales strategy. A business consultant can help with business expansion and other improvements. And while the list is consulting services is virtually limitless, a business consultant can also help implement and execute their ideas and recommendations.

Why hire business consultant?

Most business owners hire consultants as an economical way to bridge a gap in knowledge and/or skills within their company, or a as a way to bring an objective and professional perspective to the company.

Here are the main reasons for which I have seen most businesses hire consultants:

1. Help finding the problem(s): A consultant has only one focus and can come in observe your business objectively, and determine the root of the problem(s).
2. Help crafting the solution(s): Perhaps you have a goal that you can’t achieve because there is a skills gap or because it is simply not within your company’s core competency. Hiring a consultant can bring those missing skills and, in the end, help achieve the desired outcome.
3. Managing future business growth:  Every business owner wants to succeed for the long term. But where does your future growth come from? How do you get there? Hiring a business consultant can get you pointed in the right direction.
4. Improving operational processes: Let’s say your company has grown very rapidly and there are lots of things you know could be done better. Maybe you don’t know where to start, or don’t have the resources to start. A consultant can bring in some fresh perspective, evaluate any or all areas of your business, and determine the processes and procedures to increase operational efficiency.
5. Your strategies aren’t working:  When things don’t seem to work out most people will either go for quick, often wrong solutions, or they go ask for help. Businesses are no different. They can either keep going down the road they’re on and continue to lose revenue and market share, maybe go bankrupt, or they can hire a business consultant who can be a game changer that can analyze the strategies and make changes that benefit your company.
6. You need a certain expertise:  A business consultant is an expert in business strategies. They possess the expertise that your business may not have in order to identify problems, find solutions, create new strategies, and they can even implement those solutions or the necessary changes to your overall business structure.
7. You’re short on expert staff:  Companies that are short on expert employees hire business consultants who can do both jobs – be an employee and be an adviser to the company. Hiring a business consultant is usually less expensive and more cost-effective because consultants don’t require benefits or withholding.
8. You’ve lost focus:  It’s not unusual for business owners lose their focus whenever an unforeseen situation arises. This is where you need a business consultant that can adjust your focus towards your goals and objectives and help you make the right decisions.
9. Help save you time and money:  If you’re still doing too many of the non-core business activities a consultant can take over some those tasks and save you money. They are there to deliver their service and help you run your business more efficiently, effectively, and profitably. A consultant can also provide insight that can enable you to seize new opportunities while avoiding spending time and money on activities that could derail your success.

While those are the most common reasons I have seen, the list above is my no means all inclusive. There are many ways for you to work with consultants throughout your business lifecycle. Perhaps most importantly, business consultants can be cost-effective resources that can give you the valuable time needed to focus on what you do best: developing and growing your business, and being an expert at whatever it is that led you to start your own company.

The Cobalt Group can help you with this. Ask us how.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2018 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

People as a Primary Growth Area

In the course of my week I talk with a lot of businesses at various stages and sizes about where they want to grow. It’s not unusual to hear things like:

• I want to grow into a new market.
• I want to increase my offerings.
• I want to add a new location.

The list goes on, and every one of them are good goals and good growth areas. Most of these business leaders have a good strategy to reach those goals, too. But as I talk with them about those strategies there is one common denominator that I don’t hear them talk about growing – their people!

So I want you to change your approach to business growth and think of your People as a Primary Growth Area! While this is true for all of your people, it is especially true for your leadership team. After all, if you’ve read my blog on the 3 Ds of GoodLeadership, then you know that these are the people to whom you will entrust to one of the Ds – Delegate.

Your people are the most important asset you have in your business. Even if you are self-employed, taking care of yourself will benefit your business.

It’s the people that take your vision and direction and help you achieve your goals. They are the ones that make things happen. You have those people because your business grew enough that you could not do it all yourself.

Don’t overlook your Primary Growth Area. Invest in your people. Make sure they know what to do, and have the tools and training to do it. Sure, better benefits help when they are affordable but what I am saying is to make sure they understand what the mission and vision are, and what their role in it is. Seek their input into your plans and they’ll feel like they have ownership, and with that they will want to succeed even more. And when you’ve achieved results in that Growth Area, you’ll be better positioned to grow your business in other areas, and be able to do so with your people as part of that strategy.

The Cobalt Group can help you with this. Ask us how.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2018 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.

Looking Within While Looking Without

About 3 years ago I took a sabbatical from Cobalt Group to be the Executive Director for a park and recreation district that employed about 60 full and part time staff. It was a fantastic job and a great experience.

When I started I discovered that the district had been running at a loss for the previous six years. Even though the district was supported by an operations and maintenance tax levy (about 58% of total revenue), I knew that I had to treat it like a business and start making it profitable. My first approach was to start looking within and control the controllable. In my experience, the easiest thing to control is the expense side of the P&L. The harder thing to do is be looking without because revenue is harder to control than expenses because, while no business can make customers come in, they can have more control over their operating costs. So I began looking at what the expenses were and where savings could be made.

The first thing I did was to determine what the cost of operating the district was. This had not apparently been done before but I figured out what it cost to open the doors every day. From there I looked at all the items on the expense side of the P&L and began working with my senior staff to understand what those expenses were and what they really needed to be. We looked at labor costs, vendor contracts, regulatory expenses, maintenance, utilities, cost of goods sold, and every other expense category to get an idea of where we could shave those costs.

Some tough decisions were made but I made sure that my staff understood what we were doing and why we were doing it. They knew their departments better than I did and by making them part of the process they now had ownership in the outcome. We met frequently to see how costs were tracking, and made adjustments where we felt it was warranted.

The staff performed wonderfully and at the end of my first full fiscal year, with only one fee increase made to only one program, we ended up with slightly over $20K in profit. This was the first profitable year the district had achieved in six years. We kept up the cost controls and at the end of my second full fiscal year we had a profit slightly over $50K. This occurred because my entire staff understood what we were trying to do, they were invested in the outcome, and they worked diligently to make it happen.

Getting back to profitability provided many lessons learned that I will share in future blogs. But going back to the basics was key. For any business, if you want a better chance at increasing your margin, start where you can have the most control – expenses. But don’t neglect the revenue side of the equation either. Start Looking Within While Looking Without.

The Cobalt Group can help you with this. Ask us how.

We want to hear what you think. Leave a comment and let’s start a discussion.

Copyright © 2018 The Cobalt Group LLC. All rights reserved.