The following is an article I wrote for my coaching group, AYM High Consultants, published on aymhigh.com on March 18, 2025:
You can’t have it all, friends.
We’ve created the above Venn diagram to help illustrate a
concept that we discuss with our AYM High Soarers (clients) day in and day out.
You see, one thing our amazing Soarers often struggle with, just as we have all
struggled with in our own businesses, is charging enough to allow themselves to
provide the highest quality and service possible.
We all want to do our best by our guests and clients. That’s
the mark of a good human—doing your best and giving of your best to others.
And, because we are selective with who we bring on as Soarers, the people we
choose and those who choose us generally have this mindset. They know that
givers gain.
But to provide top-notch quality and top-notch service, you
absolutely need to have top-notch prices. The Venn diagram does not overlap on
all three, so you need to pick two. You can have quality and low price, but
then you sacrifice service. Or, you can have service and low price, but then
sacrifice quality. The best option? By far, it’s having quality and service,
then having prices that reflect that.
Do you want to be known as the budget business? The cheap
place? The discount store? No! You want the image of being the best, having the
best quality, having the best service, and creating an experience for your
guests and clients that is not only unmatched, but it leaves an impression on
them that, as one of our dear friends and mentors Sarah often says, doesn’t
just leave them satisfied, but creates in them loyal advocates who want to tell
all of their friends and family about the exceptional quality and service they
received.
Will you lose some clients if you ditch your cheap prices?
You bet! And that’s good. They’re likely more transactional people who don’t
value your quality and service like they should. Your core clientele are people
whose most precious commodities are time and respect. They want to save time,
trust experts to ease their own burdens, be respected, and do business with a
respectable establishment. To your core clientele, price isn’t as important as
you might think. As one of our dear friends often says, you need to shop with
your core clientele’s wallet, not your own. And as AYM High Coach Steve often
says, if you’re not losing a couple of guests per week because your prices are
too high, then that means your prices are too low.
It's important to keep this in mind when choosing team
members too. If your team member is constantly apologizing for your rates, then
they need to go…or be seriously retrained and have their minds reframed. Your
team needs to understand the value of quality and service that you provide and
that your rates need to reflect that.
Does Louis Vuitton offer discounts? Does the Ritz compete
with the Holiday Inn? Nope! They know they’re the best and they understand that
their image depends on their rates and prices reflecting that quality.
At AYM High, we build superstar businesses. We don’t build
budget businesses. We want you to soar, not coast, and so understanding the key
concept of respecting yourself, respecting your quality, respecting your level
of service, respecting the outstanding team you’ve built, respecting the well-appointed
storefront you’ve created, respecting your overhead costs, respecting the fact
that you pay your people higher-than-average salaries because you want the best
and want them to thrive in their lives as well as in your store, and respecting
the fact that you’re building an investment and not a just-get-by business,
with your nest egg, your family’s needs and future, and your exit strategy
depending on building the highest quality business possible.
What will you choose? Quality and low price? Service and low
price? Or quality and service?
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