Sunday, June 9, 2013

I don't care what your job is, if you believe that you can get away with JUST doing your job, somebody will come along and replace you. The world is chalk full of people that are so hungry, so passionate, about the job that you are doing, that they will do your job plus some for the same price as you. This applies to you if you are in sales. This applies to you if you are an employee. It applies to just about anyone. Getting away with minimum productivity in your job is so 1980s and under-promising while over-delivering is the new black. Mediocrity in business is obsolete, but there is a silver lining.

If you get really good at doing more than just your job, consumers will pay you significantly higher than what others in your field are getting paid. Here is a case in point. My hair dresser, Danelle, is an exceptional business person. She totally gets that her job is way more complicated than just making people look good. Her job entails entertaining her clients while they are sitting in her chair. She offers great stories about her career and her life. Her job is to listen. Her clients share their ambitions, secrets, and passions, and Danelle simply lends an empathetic ear. Danelle is a salesperson, and a very good one. She has explained to me and other clients the difference between hair color treatments and why some are more expensive than others. "There are less expensive color treatments," explains Danelle, "But what most don't realize is that the less expensive colors cost more in the long run because they don't last as long, so clients have to get there hair done more often. Quality equals value." Last, but certainly not least, Danelle is an artist. Most traditional artists get the opportunity to come up with their own vision of what they are about to create. but Danelle, like most hair dressers, must interpret what the client has created in their mind and reproduce it. Danelle is unique. She's more than just a hairdresser, and any client that realizes this value is willing to pay more, significantly more, including me. If Danelle were simply a hairdresser, she would have competition at practically every street corner, but because she is an entertainer, listener, salesperson, and artist, she has weeded out most of her competition in the marketplace. A consumer that is paying more for Danelle's services is getting a bargain because she's far from just a hairdresser. It's the people that are paying less for a hair dresser that are getting the short end of the stick.

Recently my hair iron stopped working. I sent Danelle a message through Facebook telling her my hair iron was broken and asked if she sells them at her salon. She simply said, "Come in on Tuesday and pick it up." As it turns out, Danelle does not sell hair irons at her salon, but she went and got me one. The ramifications of this are staggering. It would not be unusual to find an article on Huffington Post about companies like Zappos that blow people away with their over the top customer service. When I saw Tony Hsieh, President of Zappos, speaking at an event, he said the level of service that the shoe distributor expects from their employees is that if a call comes into their customer service center in Las Vegas and the caller is looking for a great pizza place to eat at in Chicago, it is their job to go out of their way to answer the question and help the caller. Zappos is not the least expensive shoe seller, but customers like their service, and so they are willing to pay more for their shoes because the experience is worth paying for. This has a lot to do with why Amazon paid $1 billion for the shoe company. Even Amazon wanted to know what it takes to get people to pay more and so Zappos is a lesson for them in how going the extra mile can create great payoffs for any business. Well, it is just this type of over the top service that I found from my little hair salon in Dracut, Massachusetts. That means that there is hope for any business owner large or small. As well, there's hope for any employee that wants to have permanent job security and escalating wages over time. There are Danelle's in every type of business out there. If you are not a Danelle, you should be scared because many companies like Zappos have perfected their hiring processes to only hire and keep Danelle's and that seems to be the direction in which many companies are heading.

If you want to earn more, then be more valuable. Make a list of all the things similarly paid people in your field or in your job are doing and then make sure you do far far more. If you want amazing, out of the world, success in your business or career it's no longer just about doing your job, it's about doing what's not. Some say that all the jobs are moving to China. I tend to disagree. All of the jobs are simply moving to the extra mile. If you are willing to go there, there will always be a job opening for you.