I was recently in the process of waiting on having a new car delivered, and during that time, I was researching ceramic coating as a couple of colleagues of mine mentioned that it would be pretty valuable for the car.
Now, as you know, anytime you research anything, you’re going to get bombarded with certain products and services from what you researched, of which I did. One company, in particular, was local and offered me a 20-minute call to ask any questions I may have about the ceramic coating. Because I wanted to be educated, so, I took him up on it. The gentleman’s name was Tony. I registered and immediately received an invite with a day and time, I also received a text saying, “Looking forward to our call Thursday at 3:30”. On Wednesday afternoon, I received a text from Tony, “Looking forward to our call so you can learn more about ceramic coating tomorrow at 3:30.”
Thursday morning, of course, I received a text as a reminder. Now, I made sure I was in my office at 3:30 to receive the call, 3:30 the phone never rang. 3:35, 3:40, 3:45, and 3:50, the phone never rang. I text Tony at 3:50, “Tony, you were doing great all the way up until the point when you didn’t call me at 3:30, you just might have lost a potential customer.” He replied, “Sorry, I got caught up in my business. I’ll take your name off the list.”
Wow, are you kidding me? Immediately he replied, he was sorry, he was caught up in his business and was taking my name off the list.
He worked that hard to get in front of me. He systemized the process of confirming that we’d be having to call on Thursday at 3:30, and he was good up until the point that he didn’t call me. But then when he had the opportunity, he didn’t try to save the sale, and say, “What can I do to make it better?” He said, “I’ll immediately take your name off the list.” Well, Tony, you are failing in business as you most obviously need to fix and shine some things up.
I sometimes look at marketing as a shiny apple. You see this big, bright red, shiny apple glistening in front of your eyes, but sometimes what you don’t see on the other side of that apple is a big bite taken out of it. Tony in that organization was really systemized up until the point that Tony isn’t actually systemized running his business. He systemized in marketing it, but he’s not systemized in running it so he can deliver his product and services with excellence. Tony lost a customer and he didn’t even try to save that customer.
The reason I share this story is that I encourage you to take a hard look at your business to see not only if you are marketing your brand correctly to get in front of customers, but also looking at your delivery process to make sure you are consistently delivering your product and services with excellence. Because if you can’t go the full hundred yards, and you’re only going 90%. It’s that 10%, you’re missing that just might take your business down in the long run.
COACH MICHAEL DILL is an Award-Winning Certified Business Coach, global speaker, and published author. He is a proud Action Coach Franchise partner as well as the President of Power & Ice Wealth Creation a strategic leadership company that works with business owners, leaders, teams, and entrepreneurs to both develop a systematized and structured organization while accelerating their mindset, efficiencies, and effectiveness to grow both personally and professionally to achieve extraordinary results. He brings more than 40 years of business and entrepreneurial experience in his leadership, team training, and mentoring practice. Businesscoachmichaeldill.com