Monday, 20 December 2010

The Right Gap - 1985 Style

Successful businesses often find a niche in an over crowded market. They ask what the customer wants, develop the idea and then offer something better.

Years ago, I joined a network club but the referrals didn’t cover my membership fees. One day the Regional Director visited. He asked me what was the average value of the business I received? “£90” I replied. “Hmm, what if it was £10,000” he asked? “Much better” I said.

We conversed a little more and concluded that one corporate customer was better than a hundred holiday makers. I researched the local corporate chauffeur market and found most competitors were just taxi firms still using fax machines!

They had poor administration and virtually no understanding of quality systems - let alone lean principles! It opened my eyes. Why on earth would a customer pay a supplier to maintain inefficiency and operate as if it were still 1985?

The next time I attended the network club I totally altered my sixty second pitch. I now represented a modern chauffeur company offering a reliable, quality service to the corporate market. With competitors thirty years behind the times, what else could I say?

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