Ever known a person so bloody dysfunctional that you wonder how they managed to twist the front-door knob and get out of the gaff in the morning?
Like a woman who comes to work constantly with lipstick smeared on her teeth?
Or a dude who perpetually stinks of BO, despite it being obvious to all unsundry he’s got a bit of a problem?
Well… sometimes I wonder the same about a lot of business owners in this country. I’m shocked how some of them even manage to make a cup of tea in the morning.
I got a call this morning from a bloke looking to get a website done.
It went something like this..
“Just something cheap simple and straightforward, a couple of pages. I don’t want to spend a fortune on it. Can you give me a quote?”
Bugger.
Them words walloped my ears like “we’ve just found out your son is a One-Direction loving paedophile” hit the eardrums of a proud, loving parent.
I try my best to keep price buyers and bottom feeders as far away from me as possible, but every so often one slips through the net.
Just the way it is…I guess…
How and ever I asked him a few questions…
..like about his overall marketing strategy…
..or how he planned to get visitors to his website…
But more importantly I needed to know why I would chose to do business with him ahead of anyone else. What made his business in any way unique.
Just why his was in any way special.
For if I’m going to help anyone this is something they’ll need to know eight ways to Sunday.
And it was at that point he began to become a touch vexed.
He had no idea. I was told being different “was not important”.
But if he really had to answer the question, well of course he had his vast array of experience didn’t he?
*Sigh*
Except the only problem is with that, everybody else says the same damn thing.
It makes you about as unique as a can of coke.
So listen up: if you’re in business and DO NOT have something, anything you can accurately define as making you genuinely different to your competitors then you will forever be slumming it in the swamps of the slovenly.
You’ll be perpetually sucking up to price buying hacks who will drain your patience dry and ride your sanity hard.
And if your hamster is spinning furiously with the usual suspects businesses trot out when asked what their USP is, let me save you the bother.
Things like “we’ve been in business 25 years?”
Or “we’ve shitloads of experience?”
Try again.
Nobody cares.
Offer them something which will genuinely make you stand out from the crowd.
You don’t want to the dude or dudette showing up the office stinking of BO with Raspberry coloured Revlon hanging off your tongue?
Stay Hungry,
Keith “Right Direction” Commins
P.S. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, it doesn’t take a whole lot for an Irish business to stand out with its marketing. Now, it does require liathroidí – something I can’t help you with. And it also requires something to make you unique.
But if you’re a business owner who’s got both of these things and needs a vehicle to take your business up a notch, then it’s possible I may be able to help.