OOBE

Most of us in business today overuse the age-old adage of” giving 100%”. In fact, if the truth be known, many of us encourage and prod our colleagues, contemporaries, and subordinates within our businesses to “give 110%”, whatever that means and if there is such a thing, which I don’t think there is. And then we create spreadsheets, charts, and graphs that identify the various components of our market deliverables and illustrate the amount of revenue, margin, and profit each component contributes, and to what degree internal resources—personnel and cash—are consumed by each channel or component. Generally, our charts attempt to depict the relative contribution—or consumption—of every major product and service group/family that comprises our solution set. In the end, though, all the charts, spreadsheets, and graphs end up at the same destination—the 100% line.

Have we ever thought about looking at this from the customer’s point of view? This may seem trite and somewhat unrelated, but we may be shortchanging ourselves when we promise our customers that we are going to construct and deliver for them a solution that is 100% of what they need. Sometimes we find that markets have historically been constructed and executed with a primary emphasis on product or service, but not on both. And when we realize that we need to place increased emphasis on the other side of the equation because of changing market conditions, advancements in technology and materials, or competitive pressures, we usually try and determine how we can reassign/redeploy existing resources to address the new and emerging market requirements. Obviously this is a reasonable approach, especially when we are doing everything possible to control costs, but is it the right strategy? As Paul Lemberg, author of the book, Be Unreasonable, states, “Sometimes, you have to be unreasonable to be unbeatable.

Reasonableness tells us that we can’t end up with anything better than 100%. When we try and re-swizzle an existing resource pool to address a new and growing set of challenges, and commensurate opportunities, we achieve the traditional 100% solution, with focus on product and service split 50/50—or 60/40—or maybe even 90/10. And that is what we tell our prospects and customers—that we are redeploying our resources in a manner that will allow us to serve them better and/or improve our company’s operational and financial performance.

As the old saying goes, what we are actually doing is “robbing from Peter to pay Paul”. But we don’t have to. In the apparel industry, we realized early on that the market itself was actually a collection of a number of smaller sub-markets. Our heritage was in the retail sub-market, where service mattered, but product was clearly the focal point. Our future was in the Uniform sub-market, where it was all about service. But we didn’t craft a solution that placed 50% of the emphasis upon product and 50% on service. Instead, we conceived the concept of “The 200% Model”. What would happen if we created product with 100% of the style, quality, durability, and performance of the retail world and married that product to the world-class service of the Uniform world? Would it take more resources? Yes? Did it require additional investment? Yes. Has it cost more? No. Here’s why. By making sure that we have specialists, not generalists, on our account teams that are adept and skilled at crafting and delivering both game-breaking product and service offerings in an integrated fashion to our customer base, we have been able to increase our customer retention rate and identify and capitalize upon additional cross-selling and up-selling opportunities within our existing accounts. The customers are happier as they have access to a more comprehensive solution set (but still within our sweet spot) without expanding their vendor base, and we are thrilled because we are fostering long-term relationships and customer loyalty, the primary common factor among companies that experience sustained growth in revenue and profitability.

Don’t be lazy. 100% won’t cut it. Figure out what your “200% Solution” model looks like and start building it. If you don’t have to squint to identify the opportunity at which the solution is aimed, payback is just around the corner!