MISTAKE #19: You get easily led astray
We all change over time. Just like companies change over time. Sometimes this is for the better, but more often it is for the worse.
As an owner of several businesses myself, I understand how easily this happens because it has happened to me.
Years ago, I went down the wrong path with my real estate business as I realized how many components of construction go unseen and unappreciated by homebuyers. I realized how easily I could reduce the cost of a home by at least 5% (and put that money right in my pocket) through the use of cheaper materials, less energy efficiency, and negotiating harder with subs to cut corners as well.
I rationalized that few, if any buyers, would notice the differences…initially.
And most buyers wouldn’t appreciate or pay for the better quality components. So it must be a victimless crime, right?
The underlying problem with my argument, and the associated guilt that eventually surfaced, was based on the fact that I was building homes I would never want my family to live in. Or, more specifically, I built homes that my wife would never be willing to live in.
“A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything”
I’ve since learned from that digression. Now, I define the standard for the homes I build based on what would be acceptable to my family. I’m certain every home I work on leaves some easy money on the table because of this. And I’m sure I’ve lost sales to buyers who would have bought a cheaper version of one of these homes built to a lower standard.
I’M OKAY WITH MYSELF NOW
I’m flat-out embarrassed about some of the homes I’ve built in the past. There are neighborhoods I would never want to drive into or admit I helped build out. But learning that lesson with homes has paid huge dividends for my current business.
You see, in a service industry like mine, 90% of the work I do for clients is either intangible or invisible. And a lot of that work never actually makes it into the reports and deliverables clients ultimately receive. Projects typically produce hundreds, if not thousands, of pages of content that eventually get condensed down to the 10-page document clients actually read and share. Or a 20-slide deck presented to the retailer.
I’m sure you can see a huge temptation this creates to cut corners and skip steps along the way. It is the classic ethical test of what you do when no one is watching.
DON'T POLISH TURDS
When I promise a client that I will help them find “the very best” (the very best value proposition, selling story, content plan, package design, etc.), I can’t wrap up the first thing that is “good enough” and deliver it. The term I've heard that best describes this is polishing a turd. The principle is simple: Don’t try to position something as better than it really is.
This is a skill I see a lot of people getting a lot of practice with, yet I haven't seen it called out as an area of expertise by anyone on LinkedIn. I know people that have built a career path around getting promoted or jumping to a new job shortly after polishing a turd, but before others realize it still stinks.
The work I do requires a lot of exploration and investigation and experimentation. It requires developing hypotheses, testing them, and developing better ones. It often involves getting more than my hands dirty while diving into stuff that can be a mess. It involves hanging out in my mind palace long enough to make the connections that aren’t immediately obvious. It is through this lengthy process of divergence and convergence that ‘the best’ is discovered and confirmed.
I realize that starting today, I could cut out over half of the man-hours that go into a typical project and clients would never know. I could instruct my staff to ‘find me something that is good enough.’ Or I could have staff do more of the work that my gray matter seems to be particularly well designed to do.
This would dramatically increase the profit margin on projects and I’m confident I would continue to get new clients…for a while. But, over time, my clients would see less impressive results. They would start to view my work as satisfactory, not exceptional. And they would eventually start looking for other options and potentially stop calling me.
You see, I understand that my business, and my personal reputation, have been built on having set a standard that is probably higher than the majority of my clients even care about. The lesson I learned in construction about setting and living up to a standard has been core to my consulting business being viable. I know that how I do what I do is as important as what I deliver.
I would never have the business I have today if I had chosen the path of being yet another mediocre consultant that perpetuates disdain for that term by jumping from one client to another with little or no results to show for their work. I would not enjoy the reputation I have if I consistently over-promised and under-delivered.
MAY YOU BE BLESSED WITH SIMILAR LESSONS
I hope you have lessons in your life that help solidify what equities you will not compromise. And I hope those lessons are learned early enough and fast enough that they don’t threaten your company or product’s survival.
For me, that lesson happened to be about never compromising on quality. Others may discover their focus is on driving out the cost to be a low-price leader. And others could possibly determine that scale and size are what really matters most: Grow bigger at any cost.
Regardless of what it is, having this clarity is critical to guiding the decisions you make. It is hard for a low-cost leader to make investments that support a claim of superior quality. And it is hard for a company focused on growth to not be forced to make a lot of sacrifices in others areas as that is pursued.
My personal experience and opinion are that few choose the path of superior quality/performance/excellence. And even fewer actually commit to it. That is part of why I’ve chosen that market position.
UPDATE: I should clarify that my real estate strategy to "build homes my family would want to live in" should not be interpreted to mean I think companies should produce products or marketing materials that personally appeal to them. In reality, many companies will have a different audience or profile their products need to be designed to please. The natural bias to assess business decisions through our personal filter can compromise the message. Know your audience and design your value proposition to be laser-focused on them, not you.