Over Deliver

Saving ≠ Not-Giving

Garth Beyer

It’s rare for me to hear an employee say, “how much more can we give?”

It’s a lot more common to hear, “how much can we get away with saving (not giving)?”

Zig, Godin, Marx all talked of the race to the bottom in one way or the other. The bottom is sharp. It’s beyond efficient if you’re defining efficiency as giving as little as possible with an acceptable return. Is that the race we want to win?

I’ve always thought saving to be a funny concept. For some reason people view saving $5 on a pint of Ben & Jerry’s Iscream the same as saving $5 on a muffin for the Boys & Girls Club.

Likewise, in the work place, they see saving $50 on unnecessary banner ads the same as saving $50 on better packaging.

While the Iscream will make you instantly gratified and the banner ads may seem like you’re doing advertising that matters, it’s the donation to something positive that stays with you; it’s the over-delivery of your product that your customer will always remember.

Let’s not confuse saving with not-giving.

 

Stay Positive & If Anything, Give More

Systems For Remarkable Expire

Systems For Remarkable Expire

Garth Beyer

One source of remarkability comes from over delivering on a promise you’ve made. It’s a process that can often be systemized, but certainly not long-term.

Over the long run, a system for remarkable becomes the system for expected, for average, for normal… none of which are in the game plan for success.

It’s on you and me to consistently check systems, to monitor and redirect and add and update. It’s on us to retain a system of remarkable.

If you’ve done something the same way for a while now, it might be worth asking how you can do it a bit differently.

 

Stay Positive & Remarkable Is A Process, Not Just A Product

Downgrading What Is Free

Garth Beyer

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As unfortunate as it is, some businesses need to downgrade what they give for free.

Let’s stick with the same example from yesterday. Suppose that this bar and grill that gives large and cool designed mugs to those who go there on their birthday had to downgrade. Suppose they have to make cuts in their budget to stay open. They decide to give away the rest of the large and cool mug supply and replace them with small, round cheap mugs that just have their logo on it.

Unlike upgrading what is free, downgrading what is free hurts the customers you haven’t yet gotten.

On the positive side, it makes those who were there to get the free large, cool designed mugs feel even better. However, this has two repercussions.

1. Feeling better about something doesn’t mean they will want to come back again.

2. Giving something awesome for free is as much about optimizing word of mouth marketing as it is about making someone feel good for coming to your bar and grill, and not someone else’s.

The gamut here is that downgrading what is free risks negative word of mouth. Imagine someone who got the large, cool designed mug on their birthday then invites someone else to the same bar and grill in two weeks to celebrate their birthday, only, neither knows that the bar and grill downgraded their birthday mugs.

You can imagine where this leads.

This leaves us with the question of how we can make downgrading what is free, work. After all, while upgrading is always an option, sometimes downgrading is not.

The answer is, when you can’t change the product to make it better (or when you’re forced to downgrade), change the delivery.

People talk more about what they experienced than what they received anyway.

 

Stay Positive & Over, Over, Over Deliver

Garth E. Beyer

Photo credit

How You Deliver

Garth Beyer

It’s not so much what you deliver. Getting caught up in that is a losing battle.

But, how you deliver matters a ton.

Do you make a phone call, respond to email, or knock on their door?

Does the Chef making your sushi work behind a wall or can you watch her create your meal?

Does the painter let you watch what he can do while he works or does he push you away and tell you he will be done in 4 hours, to come back then?

Does the student use a Powerpoint or her own voice, limbs, and energy?

Post industrialization, it’s not a matter of seeing to believe, it’s downright a desire to see all we can see. This makes how you deliver an extreme importance.

 

Stay Positive & Over Deliver

Garth E. Beyer