This is not shock value; this scenario plays out everyday in business today! Like termites eating away at your home, you don’t even know you’re company’s going out of business until the vortex is pulling it down so deep you can’t recover quick enough. It’s not about the money, it’s about managing your business. But what business? Do you know what business you’re in? This is not a rhetorical question. I contend most people/business have no idea what business they’re truly in.

If you really understand what business you’re in, no matter what the economy does, you’ll be positioned to ride out any storm that comes along. In order to do that, you need to clearly understand these four areas of your business.

1. What Do You Do?
2. What Do You Provide?
3. What’s Your Inside Perception?
4. What’s Your Outside Perception?

To better understand this we have to look at #1 & 2 together, then #3 & 4 together. Today, let’s look at #1 & 2.  You produce a good or service, sell it for a profit, collect the money, and try to run the company as efficiently as possible. What’s always overlooked is how do you get the business in the first place?  

Because …  Before you can manage it, you’ve got to Sell it First!!

A good friend of mine always says: “You’ve got to get the work, you’ve got to do the work, then you’ve got to collect the money.” In many cases, managers, owners and CEOs don’t clearly understand the step of “getting the work!”  You can’t hand out business cards and wait for the phone to ring.  You’ve got to properly position your company in order to “Get the work!”

So, here’s the first step. Regardless whether you sell a product or service, as a company you:

Manage What You Do,

BUT

Sell What You Provide!

You don’t sell what you do—you sell what it is that makes your clients want to do business with you. What do you provide your clients? Here are some examples of consumer goods that we’re all familiar with.

Rolex and Timex both manage the business of building a watch, but …

1. Timex sells an instrument that give time; and
2. Rolex sells jewelry! 

They both build watches, but what they sell is vastly different. They sell what they provide, not what they do!

Hyundai and Mercedes both manage businesses on how they build cars, but …

1. Hyundai sell assurances!
2. Mercedes sells status and ego!

They both build cars, but what they sell is vastly different. They sell what they provide, not what they do!

Neiman Marcus and Wal-Mart manage retail stores, but …

1. Wal-Mart sells low prices everyday!
2. Neiman Marcus sells quality merchandise and customer service!

They’re both in the retail business, but what they sell is vastly different. They sell what they provide, not what they do!

What you do versus what you provide are two distinct different efforts that must be managed!  If you don’t clearly understand the difference, ask yourself these questions:

1. Why do our clients buy from us?
2. What are we selling?
3. Are they buying what we’re selling?
4. How do we differentiate ourselves from our competitors?
5. Who else can do what we do?

This exercise has nothing to do with price! Neiman Marcus is not worried about Wal-mart’s low prices! They’re not in the same business. Timex cannot put Rolex out of business, nor could Hyundai put Mercedes out of business. They provide different products and services to their clients.

One way to get these questions answered is to simply ask your customers these questions. Start with your best customers, then ask you’re worst customers, then ask the customers that no longer do business with you. Then you’ll have a good start to understanding what business you’re in.

Next time we’ll cover the difference between your company’s inside perception versus your outside perception.

Companies/people that don’t know the difference or don’t care to know the difference are naive at best, and are the companies that will quickly gravitate to the headline of this blog!!