Marketing for Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners

The other day I was listening to a guy complaining that he wasn’t getting paid everything he felt he was worth. I finally got sick of hearing him whine and so I called him out on it. It doesn’t matter what you think you are worth. The primary factor in your pay is what the person paying you thinks you are worth. If you have a boss, what are you doing to prove your worth to him or her? If you are a salesman, what are you doing to demonstrate the VALUE of what you sell? If you are a business owner, what are you doing on a consistant basis to PROVE that what you provide is worth MORE than what you are asking for it?

What have you done TODAY to prove your worth to the world? For more than seven years I’ve written a monthly column called The Business of Magic in a trade journal for magicians called The Linking Ring. That is a volunteer position that I have faithfully delivered on for almost 100 consecutive articles all for the simple opportunity to demonstrate my value as a writer, as a marketing consultant, and as someone who delivers on a promise consistantly over time. For almost that long I’ve been contributing to this blog and producing a periodic e-newsletter, again simply as a method of demonstrating my value as a professional speaker and expert on human behavior change.

When I first founded the company that is now called “Library Rat” there were times early on in the business when I would go do shows myself that I couldn’t pay anyone else in my company to do because the mileage covered would be more than we made in total fees for that one simple show. But I knew that when we got into that new marketplace and demonstrated value that we would have the toe hold we needed to grow into the most successful provider of school assembly programs in the state of Texas. Any very successful person can tell you stories about various times in their life when they had to work particularly hard for little or no compensation other than the chance to demonstrate the value of what they were working on.

We are in a sluggish economy right now. Almost everyone is feeling it at some level. Money is still there. Money is still being spent. But buyers feel a stronger need to ensure they are getting the value they are paying for. If you don’t feel that you are getting as much money as you deserve it might be because you are failing to demonstrate sufficient value. Think about ways to demonstrate and prove your value to the people paying. Think about ways to increase the value of what you do.

HINT: The things you do that you THINK create value are almost never the things that your customers and clients think are valuable. It’s the old “Features vs. Benefits” argument. Know that your customers don’t care if the table is made of 5/8″ solid mahogany planks treated with an impermiable solution of blah-blah-blah. All they care about is that the table is strong and it will clean up easily even if their kid colors on it with a green crayon. People are rarely concerned with the clever details you find so facinating unless you take the time to explain how these details actually add value for them. Buyers never care about how DIFFICULT something is for you to do, they only care about the finished solution and how quickly and effectively it solves their problems or makes their life easier.

So I’ve seen two responses to the sputtering economy. There are businesses (and employees) who have dealt with the lower sales by cutting corners, reducing quality, and delivering with an attitude of pessimism. There are also businesses and employees that have heard the wake up call and are paying even more attention to the customers they have, doing everything they can to ensure the satisfaction and happiness of the people who deliver money to them and their business. Today is filled with opportunities to begin demonstrating value. What are you going to do today?

Julian Customer Service, Down Economy, Success