Summer ‘15
15
hiring decision is not whether this candidate is
immediately available or will work for your price.
They MUST be able to provide the care or service
that is your competitive advantage. Don’t just
take their word for this. Talk to their references,
field test them; have your team interview them…
but be absolutely sure that they understand your
unique value and that they are dedicated to it.
Third, you have to market in a way that reflects
your competitive advantage. Your marketing and
advertising materials have to tell the stories of
your patient and patient families and how much
they value you. You must not get lost in the clutter.
Measure every social media message and every ad
against one question – will the reader or viewer
easily see what we do better than anyone else?
And here is the most critical part of your
marketing – every representative, from your
sales consultants to your staff have to be the
living presence of your value. This means setting
standards for how they represent the agency and
how they share the story of your competitive
value with physicians, hospital caseworkers,
patients, and their families.
The history of American business is full
of examples of small competitors who
understood their niche, exploited it, and built
a strong and financially profitable business.
One of the most legendary is the late Truett
Cathy who founded and built Chick-Fil-A into
a billion dollar business.
It’s been reported that when a larger competitor
was building stores faster than Cathy was some of
his leadership team wanted to match them. Mr.
Cathy is said to have been stern in his response
of no. In fact, he admonished his team: “If we
get better our customers will make us bigger.”
Chick-Fil-A stayed on a path to get bigger and he
was right, their customers made them very big!
What can you do right now to lead your agency
to getting better at what you do? What can
you do to stay focused on what you do better
than anyone else? What can you do to build a
team that will be driven by that value with every
patient every day?
Is this the best of times or the worst of times, as
Charles Dickens declared? The answer is simple
– it’s your time! The decisions you make about
your business will have more impact than your
competitors or the market – choose wisely.
Barry Banther has been a trusted advisor to business
owners and leaders for over three decades. This body
of work has earned him the highest accreditation as a
Certified Management Consultant from the Institute of
Management Consultants. Barry is a best selling author
whose new book, A Leader’s Gift – How to Earn the
Right to Be Followed reached number one on Amazon
the day of its release. See
for details.
FEATURE
