How to Be Dramatically and Demonstrably Different!

Excellent, expected. The inspirational business advice podcast. Hey, hey guys, welcome to another episode of XUns Expected with Moi. Mr.

Mark Asquith from the fine borough of Yorkshire, and the reason I mention that is I have another fine Yorkshire on the show today. It's not often that I get to do that and talk to someone who I can also drink with, so this is going to be a fun one. It's always good. And what we're actually going to talk about is the fickle world of business.

The fickle, fickle world of business. We live, you know what it's like, we live in this world of trust and loyalty, and where everyone is looking for better value. Everyone is looking for a better experience. You know, that's not only true of customers.

It's not only true of whether you're a B2C or a B2B business. It's not true of the people you sell to. It's actually also true of the employees that we bring in to our businesses, the people that we entrust our livelihood and our entrepreneurship with these people that help us achieve what we want to achieve. And it's up to us to demonstrate that we are different.

It's up to us to demonstrate why people should do business with us. It's up to us to create what my guest today calls a 3D business. And as I said, my guest is from Sheffield. So fantastically close to me.

We are going to head out for a pint at the Sheffield Tap, and I will urge any of you listeners, if you're ever in Sheffield, mark out excellence-expected.com. Let me know. I will buy you a pint. Any excuse to get into that fine, real hell place.

So take me up on that, guys. So welcome to the show. Mr. Andy, handsome, and how are you doing, sir?

I'm very good indeed. Thanks, Mark. How are you? I am all right.

Thank you. We tried to get the pint in before Christmas. We couldn't like a diaries up. Busy, hectic world, but we'll sort it out this time around, don't worry.

We will indeed. Any excuse to get down there. A little bit of craft there. We were in there, as I said, in the pre-ins, you chate, we were in there on Saturday, and it amazes me.

We're only you guys listening. I know that we've got fans over in San Diego, which is a big town, we've got people on the East Coast, people in England, people in Europe. Craft beer just seems to be everywhere, doesn't it? I used to have in San Diego myself many, many years ago, and there are some subtle differences between San Diego and Sheffield, but some similarities as well.

Yeah, I don't know what the difference could possibly be. We'll have to talk to you about that. It's a great way to just chin-wagon, have a good time with people. A lot of businesses don't over a craft airline, am I?

Absolutely. People buy from people they like and trust. They do, indeed. Speaking of people they like and trust, tell us a little bit about you, sir, and I know a little bit about your background.

I'm very fascinated by the background we spoke about in the print to you. Tell us two things. Where did you come from? What's your background?

What do you do? First of all, I will get the bad news out of the way straight away. I'm a management consultant. I'm normally fortunate with that.

I make sure that all the doors are locked. People can't run away. That's been a fantastic interview, I appreciate it. But, yeah, I've been doing it for 25 years now, but I started off having phone-made levels miserably, working down a coal mine, where they needed to call you into San Sheffield and stood at night to go to do my A-levels again, had to do them four times.

I think the original papers came around again, and they did a degree in mining engineering, but this was in the early 80s, and they actually shut all the pits while I was studying. I ended up working in quarries and aggregates, things like that for a number of years before joining a small consulting business, and then started my own 20 years ago now. Oh, wow. That's quite a tenure in running your own business then.

How did you make that transition? I'm curious about that. What was the catalyst for that? Well, the company I worked for was a guy who had a very small consulting business, and he did the training development there, literally tucking on the shoulder one day and said, we're looking for an apprentice.

He was sort of three directors and a second twin. I said, yeah. We went from five to 120. I'm helping real business, but they particularly focused on how to start up business.

I took time with growing business as what we call entrepreneurial owner managed to team manage business where somebody has grown his own business and wanted to develop it with other people around them. So I took my own business from that to focusing on those, and then ten years ago I sold out to management team, and now I just work with myself, Jill, my wife, and Lucy, and Danielle in the office. So it's a small but compact team. Wow.

That's right. Interesting. How do you manage the work of life with that scenario? Just a bit of a tangent.

I'm curious about that. No, it's interesting because we set up the business together 20 years ago and worked a couple. And so it worked well because Jill tends to do a lot of the networking side of it. We got the delivery.

So bizarrely, we can go days without seeing each other. And briefly it works very well in terms of the plan to each of the strengths. But if we've got holiday, at least if we do a bit of work, we don't have each of the nerves about doing it because we know what we're doing together. Yeah, that's kind of cool.

And you've gone the other way as well there. Most people say, yeah, we started business together. Now we're not together. So you guys have gone the other way, which is very admirable.

I love that. So tell us a little bit about 3D businesses. What's the definition of a 3D business in your mind? We talk about businesses that dramatically and demonstrably different.

They do things like competitors aren't, so even better, can't do. I also know that can be very simple things, but equally in the bigger world, I guess it's the amazons of this world, something coming along and completely changing the model. Very disruptive. It's Airbnb.

It's, I guess, it's some of these big businesses. It's Uber. Come along and actually create a completely different world. But what we actually find in a lot of small growing businesses, it is doing a mix of things that actually differentiate them from the competitors.

And it really scares me things, sometimes it's doing quite a simple thing. We've identified seven characteristics, if you like, and again, I'm always concerned when people say, oh, here we go again. It's not do these seven things. It will be brilliant.

And there's a fair chance that it could argue seven to a common thing that everybody knows about the key bit is they actually can make them work. And the key one really is, for me, is Characterity 2, which is about thinking in 3D, which is actually about really their whole approach to marketing and business development and actually being dramatically and demonstrably different, particularly in the areas that customers say are important. And what we sort of see when we see these 3D businesses that they're dramatically different, but their dramatic difference is only a use if customers want to recognize it and prepare to pay for it. There's no good being brilliant at something.

They're actually customers that don't value. So a very simple example I see often see, maybe IT businesses where they've got these guys incredibly right and incredibly brilliant. They can't have to communicate and get the customers. They don't speak in the language that they can actually understand.

Our IT business is a classic example of that. I own in the agency with working alongside developers and seeing the journey that they've come on as people. And we very actively push those guys into meetings and to work on client briefs because it's a skill that you can't fake it. And I don't think really it can succeed for potential unless you've got those social skills as well as having whatever specialism you've got as well.

And IT got me such a good example of that. Absolutely. I have a client of mine based on Sheffield called Resolve IT and Andrew, seeking the guy that built that business, one of their sort of core values, one called no geek speak. And there are group people that actually can engage and communicate with people as part of the whole process, again, it adds to their dramatic difference right from the beginning.

Well, it's such a refreshing change as well. I mean, when you think about that, the classic example is maybe someone like the Genius Bar at Apple. Now, not advocating the Genius Bar because I'm tired of their queues, I really am. But what they do really, really well is they, I want to say they do everything down, but they make it plain sailing.

They make everything just very, very, very, very simple. And that's all it needs to be. So, I'm not sure if you're a hardcore co- developer or an IT hardware guy or whether you're just me or my dad or my mum, the communication needs to be the same because he's all actually about the experience. That makes people remember you.

It's like my angel of quote, it's not what you say to people, it's how you make and feel that they remember. So, that's a huge thing, isn't it, really, to get right? Absolutely. And one of the characteristics in 3D businesses, Cara Tic 3, is that they create delight and develop their customers.

And I know it's something when they hit the word, customer delight, I think, I know it's been to Disneyland for his holiday season, one of those sessions. And it's not having a nice day. We define customer delight as exceeding customer expectations. And the really scary thing is actually thinking lots of sectors.

It's simply doing stuff on time, on budget, with a smile. It's just walking into a shop and actually finding a member of staff knows what they're talking about. Or it's bringing the call centre. You don't have to give your mum's inside of leg measurement and your dog's favourite birthday treat.

Now, do you know who you are? Or it's going on the website and it's easy to deal with. And it's sometimes very, very simple stuff. I work with quite a lot of professional service businesses and I actually think it's the law firm that brings you back when they're going to.

And even really for anything, sometimes it's the law firm that brings you back. But to try and give an example of maybe a dramatic difference, we work with a firm where they actually identify one of their barriers was that people couldn't get out of the partners. So a very simple step that they actually took was that they actually made sure on their big partners business cards they were. The direct line, you could get through to the real people.

And then what they did a little added thing, we came to this idea that they actually then made sure that they built in a caller ID into their own phone systems. So when you rang, he or she knew it was you. And for law firm, that is dramatically different. That's the whole point.

Sometimes it's very, very simple stuff. But actually gets customers thinking, wow, was expecting that. Well, that's the thing. The best thing that you can do with your customers is surprise them.

Pleasn't surprise them. I always say a very similar thing. And so far as what can we do to pleasantly surprise our customers? It's a very interesting proposition because when you talk to people about X, Y and Z, I want to do this, this and this.

People assume that these are these big, kind of big monstrous insurmountable tasks that you're never going to get done and that's where other people, because these are too complex. But actually, a lot of them are very, very simple tweaks. I remember seeing an example a while ago now about how Amazon conversion optimized their checkout pages. And it feels a little tenuous as I'm saying this, but I'll get to the point.

And what they used to do was they used to just try different things, making different things mandatory to make sure that they got the checkout. And what they found was that a tiny thing like making the phone number not mandatory, so making it optional versus it being mandatory, sorry, greatly and very quickly and rapidly increased the conversion rate because it was just less friction. And you know, that's a tiny, tiny thing. But when you say you need to be different as a business, people often assume that this is this big insurmountable thing.

It's not, it's just a little bits of detail like putting a mobile number on a business card, isn't it? I find that really, really interesting. Yeah, I think particularly for example, in professional services, you could argue what is the normal one sector isn't the normal another. But we actively encourage people to say, what are the things that irritate or know your customers?

Because that in itself can be a great opportunity to create a massive difference. So when you say people, standing your own cubes and actually be a customer or find out what your customers actually think. And I don't know if you've experienced this, well, you're going to a computer, I wanted to buy a DVD recorder, I went all about them, so I went into a well-known electrical retail store with my money in my pocket to buy one. And I walked in and there was sort of this great rack of DVD recorders and I'm looking at them with this real confusion.

Could work out what was what this fresh face young guy comes up to me and says, how can I help you sir, just as it's sitting there, customer care for a manual. I was looking at these DVD recorders, but that's on Bumble, 750 pounds, 100 pounds, so this is between the two. And he said about 650 pounds. And then just started reading a little red card.

And I'm not going to go at him, but he's what we call the sales prevention officer. Lots of businesses have them. And I'm stressed again, I'm not going to come out and think he was trying his best. And I argue it was an issue within the business that he had to do with these things.

And it's this thing about how easy I would be back from one of the things that stopped our customers buying from us. And it could be anything from the way the phones answered to the way we actually deal with our customers when they come into our store or when we go and see them or what time we get back to respond when they're for a quote and things like that. And very often we see these very simple little things or blocking through those things out make a dramatic difference because being blunt competitors aren't doing it. So that's one of the things I think that we're seeing is that, as you say, however, people are getting great expectations because they are going on Amazon and Amazon recognize you and make it easy and get things too straight away.

So those are the things that people are now comparing customer experiences with. They're going, if they can do that, why can't you? So that's what we're also up against in the business is this ever-increasing customer expectations. The starting point for me is just trying to eliminate those things that you're going to irritate or annoy your customers, whether that's online or offline.

That's a big thing as well. Now, how do you find out what annoys them? Well, you ask them. I think the starting point for me is to ask and actually find out what your customers are actually thinking.

And it's not necessarily saying, please tell us what we're good at or what's bad at our scores out of 10. But I actually think asking some very simple questions like, what irritates or annoys you about us? What irritates or annoys you about our type of business, even if they don't want to give you that direct feedback to your individual. Just so you can find out what some of the irritants and annoys us are of your sector.

And I'd say even if it's just get somebody who is a friend of yours to bring up your own business to go on your own website, just work out what are those blockages and how they're often for me it's a fresh pair of eyes. So doing it yourself can be okay, but I think even better is fancy. They don't have to be a professional consultant and mystery shop and all those other things. And this can be somebody who is a typical customer who was prepared to say the truth.

And I'd also suggest it's making sure you go through the whole process. One of the things that we see in 3D Businesses is that everybody recognises the part they play in creating these remarkable experiences. Our definition of marketing is, and it's just our definition is not the definition that's there to be this custom debate. It's finding a track to keep the customers that you want while maximizing your profits.

So finding a track to keep them. By definition, there's got to be everybody in your business as a part of playing, walking at least one of those areas, finding them, attracting them, and keeping them. So this is quite dramatic stuff, but it could even mean the accounts you partner. They're often the last people that customers talk to and engage with.

And if they don't leave a great impression, that's what they talk to the people about. So this is not just the people at the front end doing on the sales big, 3D Businesses, and making sure everybody understands the part they play in actually being directed into Monster View from. I'm still baffled that you can set him on struggle. I struggle so much with it.

You are so much more articulate than I am. He is a practice. He is a practice. I feel better now about that.

He has a healthy monster. You know my wife blesses. She's got a real aversion to the word technologically. So if you ever get to meet a guy, if you're at podcast movement or any other conference that we meet, ask her to say technologically she will kill me.

She'll know where it's going from as well. And so she's just going to string me up when that comes out. She's funny. She's funny with that.

So let's talk about kind of brass tacks. So the nitty gritty of how people perhaps struggle with this and how we can help them overcome that. When you start to work with people, what are some of the challenges? But what are some of their standard – I don't like the word excuses but some of the standard roadblocks that they put up in front of you.

So you say okay, here's the vision, here's where we're going. What do people come back with and say you know this is not for us? Well, the first one for us is the real estate to me. And the art business is unique.

We did talk with you. And I'm sure you've seen, I see, you get entrepreneurs. You get business leaders talking to each other. Regardless of what sex they are doing.

And they're very often gots, similar challenges. and got similar challenges. So that's a starting point. So I have these some of the issues and challenges that you've got.

Have you got customers who are getting more choosing, who are more difficult to get hold of, who are actually in a very crowded marketplace, who actually got customers who want what they want, how they want it, and who actually got customers who spend lots of time now actually looking at things like TripAdvisor Reviews or Reviews about what your business is about, not just listening to you, so the world becomes much more transparent. So when I talk to other people, I say, these are the challenges that you face, not necessarily talk about specific about their business. Do you actually see some of these trends that we see, some of them are more nuanced, more and more choice. Customers have got more noise, there's more barriers coming up, there's this transparency, their expectations are actually getting higher.

What we also see is becoming more promiscuous, it's easy for people to switch and to change. But I think one of the things that's still very, very true is that word of mouth, and it's a bit cheesy, but word of mouth is still incredibly powerful. People still get a lot of work from recommendations, therefore, if you can actually start working out what those things you are being recommended for are, you can start building on it. So what I sometimes do is go into businesses and just sort of ask some of those questions that I can amplify the pain to a little bit.

As well as customers, as you've already said, employees, employee expectations are getting higher. People no longer have a job for life, going back to the days when I was first working, you know, where people were, where I did, where they were all alive and they were all alive. So what we're actually seeing is that customers' expectations are getting higher, employee expectations are getting higher. Therefore, the role of the leader is to make sure that we see, and what we talk about creating sufficient delight in the customer, so that's a triangle that we have, sufficient delight in the customer's, at the top of the triangle, bottom right is committed, motivated, effective people, and then the bottom left is their maximized financial returns to make profit.

There's about customers' people on profit, in the middle is an L, the leadership, and that's the person growing his or her or starting his or her business. And sometimes they are by definition, all three people. This is saying, I've got that balance. And even getting people to take a bit of time out, so how do I make you look against those three things?

Sometimes it starts to help us get a feel for maybe where we need to start putting the effort. But ultimately, certainly if people want to work with me, they want to do it, I don't know where I can force myself on people, because very often it's whether they want to choose to do or not. I think the other thing for me is that what we don't do, I couldn't do, is tell somebody how to win the business, or I wouldn't tell them which markets to go in. What we can do is offer them some processes to help identify what's right for them.

So a very simple one for me is part of this marketing definition about finding, attracting, keeping the customers that you want to un-maximise your profits is the customers that you want. Do you have a real clear picture of the sort of customers you want to work with, or are working with in which you are your best customers? So we talk about choosing or losing. And it's actually about saying, do you have a real folks who have customers you want to work with?

And I think again, a very interesting question, and this is a question for everybody out there, who are your best customers? What does best look like for your business? I think it's different from a business. I was one client where we actually got the teams together and we were talking about this, and the sales guys came up with this, but it's the customers, so these are our best customers.

I said, why are they spending loads of this? They spend loads of this? And they have to decide, yeah, but they never pay us. And it's this idea of best means different things for different businesses.

So that would be one of the sort of things for me to say, you know, who are your best customers? What does that look like for you and for your business? That's interesting. How would you then go about working with the business to, what's the best of the best, you would assume that they are identified with?

How would you go about that transition, getting them to focus on the genuine best versus what their perception previously of the best watch? Well, I think part of it is trying to paint that picture of what best looks like. I also have best is in speech marks. And I think the danger is people sometimes a bit later go, always the parator when I was just on the 2080.

And it might be, but actually, I think you can analyze it. And actually look at what does best look like for us. It's in type of business, size of business, it's in certain sectors. And it will mean different things for different businesses.

And it's trying to paint this picture. And then if possible, actually trying to look at this whole idea of saying, well, where are the more of them? Do we need to work with more of these sort of customers? And I work with some clients, some of my clients, where we actually almost come with a set of criteria which we will measure customers again.

So I say sometimes, I work with engineering businesses and a big one. It's like credit rating. How many people pay? Are they in the right sort of sector?

I went through the design business and one of their core criteria was, we only worked with people we like. That was a choice. They actually felt they got the best work out of doing people with businesses that they actually like. You could like it's very subjective.

But I think, certainly in a small business, that's often what it's about. Actually sort of saying, you know, who are our best? The one that I like to use when I work with clients is a thing called think value for time. It's not just value for money, how much they're spending with you.

But value for time is how much time and effort does it cost you in winning these customers? Or looking after them to actually make sure you're delivering the results that you actually want? You know, some customers are actually draining it. Not necessarily just in terms of the payment terms, but it's actually the time and effort required to sort and deal with their particular issues.

And so it's all sounds a bit woolly, but I think for me it's trying to paint that picture. And so I worked with a client some years ago who worked for a large supermarket chain and 60% of his business with that one customer. And we took a bit of time out to say, look, we can't clearly just get rid of that because we wouldn't want to. But how can we create a plan in the next three years?

We reduce the share to our customer, 60% to about 40%, 40%. And they moved it to about 35%. I built other customers up. So what I'm going to say here is that every business is different.

It depends on what their aspirations are. But just working out and just asking that question to your best customers is something to consider. Very interesting. I think it's something that a lot of people would struggle with as well as actually identify that because by virtue of doing so, you do say that some people we aren't going to work with.

For whatever the crisis is, I mean, with all that people that just don't pay us for the pay on their own turn. And they're an nightmare. Why would you choose to do business with those kind of people? And I think that is this whole idea then of who you were customers and looking at maybe getting rid of them or at least reducing their lives.

Or trying to get to do things on your terms. Yeah, exactly. And you do have to, sometimes, maybe that's the point of differentiation for a lot of people. I remember certainly when we were looking at reformatting hacks or to a degree, we went through this process and we know that there are so many other design agencies out there.

Our point of differentiation is our own house style and people work with this because of that. But actually, when you think about it, the other big point of differentiation that we made was that actually we want to be respectful of everyone's time and everyone's in business. And we understand that everyone's in business. So actually, these are our payment terms.

When you get your invoice, it is due at the moment that you get it. And as crazy as that sounds, it weeds out a lot of the disingenuous people and it allows you to, you know, the point of differentiation is not in the delivery. It's actually in the process because people who are serious and want to work with you, they get it. They're actually impressed by your efficiency and the confidence that you bring.

So that becomes a differentiator. So I do think there's something in thinking a little bit laterally about it as well. I think a lot of people would say, okay, what makes you different? And then the stock answers, well, we're more professional, more reliable, you know, our widget's cheaper.

And sometimes you have to think a little bit differently, I think you want to say. Completely. In fact, I speak a lot of composite events and I actually get the room of 250 people. I get to stand up, talk to me, don't know.

And just say, why should today buy from you? Just a couple of minutes. I'm a chat lead to a little bit of reverse. And I say, okay, what I want you to do now, please stand up.

I want you to sit down if you heard any of these sort of phrases. I don't know if I've got to go to expertise next year. It's our people. It's our reputation.

It's the quality. It's our customer service. Our value. I get more sat down.

And I'm not saying anything that's said is wrong. But I actually talk about USPs and people are, yes, it's unique selling properties. I go, no, it's the usual stuff people say. USPs is the usual stuff people say.

I'm not saying anything that's wrong. It's how do you therefore demonstrate that? Because your sales guys, your website, your literature is always going to say great stuff about you. It's the live day in day out.

And that's this whole thing about demonstrating your dramatic difference. So again, I'm not saying people that isn't your dramatic difference. I'm what I'm saying is, can you demonstrate? Because I'm fairly sure I've got your competitors in the same room.

They'd say the same sort of things. Yeah. That's a huge point that you just made there, definitely. And it's just going to work it out.

So it's not, and I'm saying to me, it's not what you said is wrong. What I'm saying is, first of all, customers want that. Do they recognize it in the idea where they pay more for it? Because at minimum, they pay for it.

And if you can cope with that bundle of stuff, that starts to become your dramatic difference. And again, it is very unscientific. For me, your dramatic difference is a bundle of unmatchable skills, methods, practices, and processes that differentiate your business. And in the best, it's the stuff that your competitors aren't doing, or even better.

It's the stuff that customers can't do. Your competitors can't do. So it's actually finding things that actually make you stand out. And as you say, that could be the things you just sort of said, you know, we're going to stand up for it and we're going to say, you'll pay us this before we even get going.

Confidence that comes across and says, this is what this is about. This is how we're going to be something like that. Or fine, don't deal with our customers. Yeah.

And you need to be confident with that. I do really get the point of what you made about that design engine, not working with the people that they don't like. And you're right, it's completely subjective. But if the point of differentiation is that you want to deliver a certain type of work, then maybe that is a great thing.

Actually, if you're selling widgets, maybe that's a terrible thing. And I think there's something around not looking over the fence and saying what these guys do to be quote unquote different is what we're going to do, because we're kind of following them. Even if you do, even if you have the exact same thing, if you sell the same thing in the same manner, you actually, as people, are different. So you can actually make that your USP.

We will always talk to you like this. You will always, like you said earlier, you always talk to a partner at the law firm. I think it's nice to have your own set of confidence to be able to go out there and say, it doesn't matter what anyone else that all these cliches that are out there actually. There's just this one tiny thing that I do that is different.

Absolutely. And it's building into the business. So again, very simple example. I went to a client of mine and hadn't been there for six months.

I did some customer care training at their place, turned up at their offices in Leicester. Walked in. I was met at the front door by the reception by Andrea, who was the office student. She said, I had a good trip from Sheffield.

So I thought it was quite impressive. She remember when I was from Sheffield, I went, yeah, have thanks. She was done with a couple of minutes. She said, hang on, she said, you want to go for coffee while you're waiting?

And I said, that'd be brilliant. She goes, you're black, no sugar, isn't it? I said, how do you know that? She was just my job to know.

And she actually built that into the little card index system about her visitors. But it was demonstrating this thing about the personal relationships. A lot of the client of mine, it's an idea that we nicked and we put it in our business now. They've failed to make me how many businesses have.

I stand up at the court to my records, your 30 days overdue, 60 days overdue, 9 days overdue. How about I left at the court to my record, your pay is on time. I would just say thank you very much. We really appreciate it.

And it's little things that you can build in to the, we call it plan spontaneity. Is it you're building the way you do business? I want to stay in a hotel in North West. And it was all this small little hotel and there's a little card by the side of the room, but by the bed that said, your room's being cleaned by Mary.

Please look under the bed, there's a little card under there thing I've cleaned under here too. And it's these simple little things that just reinforce that somebody has cared about this stuff. So you can build these things into your processes, which is why if you can work out what are the things that irritate to annoy customers that you in the past or your competitors have done, do the opposite of that sort of breaking rules, that becomes integral part of your dramatic difference. Yeah, I think it's really important.

Really important to just find something to hook onto. And like you said, so many people see it as this big insurmountable challenge to find something that's so massively different that no one else can possibly replicate it. And all it needs to be is attention to detail. I think that's really important to know, guys, that doesn't have to be this big giant task.

It can be just something really, really simple. One of the best examples, and I forget the company never because it didn't happen to me. I mean, I think it's a good thing to add to him. We've got to remember from cavalry and it happened to him and I do forget the app.

Well, he used an app for first time. About three days later, we got a handwritten letter from the CEO saying thanks for checking out the app. Really glad you had a good experience with it. See you next time.

It was Andre and Nut. He didn't need to do that. He certainly wouldn't have felt any worse had he not got that, but it made sure that he himself, even though I can't remember it. He will remember that.

We have a client here in Sheffield called Chimo Holdings who still handcraft a very, very high-end silver cutler. You know what Sheffield is famous for. It's all over the world. Best wishes I became at Sheffield in 147 different languages.

There's a little compliment that goes with the goods that goes all over the world. The downside is that they get the phone call from somebody in another part of the world talking down the phone in their language thinking to understand them. One of the things about this stuff is it raises expectations. You've got to start being able to deliver it consistently if you do start doing these things.

So yes, do it, but you've got to make sure you can deal build on it on an ongoing basis. Yes, definitely. Just keep it, even in the early days, you can't do things that don't scale. But if you start something at a level where you already have a decent size business, then you do have to make sure you can keep up with that one.

So yeah, really kind of get that by resonating as well. You see, you're going to be very careful to transition out of that. Make sure you do something that's equally as thoughtful whilst being more scalable. Absolutely.

The key thing for me particularly is around the idea of customer delight for me is the idea of personal touch. It's what works for one customer. That's going to work for another. And also I think it's about to come across the spontaneous.

I mean, that's how you can plan spontaneity. There's going to be an element of genuineness about it. It's not buy one, get 10 free. And it's this whole idea of making customers feel valued.

It's tough to guess people talking. And that's to me is where it works. It will work anywhere in the process. But it's also about do we actually engage and empower our people to actually make that happen.

And I think that will be sort of the ill-akiting thing to me that we've seen in 3D businesses. Everybody has brought into this. And again, you know, Buzzword used the way in Parliament and people are staff are empowering to delight our customers. And the reality is that they went on a customer service training course 15 years ago for five minutes.

It's do we have to give people permission? So the examples, you know, again, maybe people have heard that, but, you know, Timpsons who are the cobblers, any member of staff at Timpsons can spend up to 500 pounds to solve a customer's problem without talking to a manager. Wow. Ritz Carlton Hotels, it's $2,000.

You can spend $2,000 to solve a customer's problem without referring to a manager. That's empowerment. Wow, wow, wow. And that's, I don't even know.

That's amazing. And that's the whole thing for me about this thing about the dramatic difference is that everybody lives it. But you actually have your ethos is around to do your systems, actually support the culture that you want. So if we're going to talk about that everybody can go out of the way to do like customers.

Do we actually give people permission to do it? Do we engage them to do it? Do we actually allow them to do it? Because what I actually see in lots of companies and people are like, do we want our staff to go the extra mile for our customers?

So what are they getting to do it? What do you mean? So they get extra work. Do we often do great jobs?

You get to do more. What we've seen through the businesses is that we talk about having an Uber culture, which is characteristic five. But it's actually that everybody understands what's expected in terms of the behaviors. That the systems are built to reinforce that.

So do we recruit people in line with our behaviors? Are people engaged and empowered to actually make these things work? And they're rewarding, recognizing doing it. So American Airlines, for example, one of the things that they do, they give their customers vouchers that they can give to the staff on the planes at the trading for prizes.

So it's their customers recognizing those that deliver this stuff. And I was once saying in a very small little hotel in Oxford and we arrived at the hotel and they gave us this gold coin and they said, we'd love you to give this to the member of staff who makes your stay-in-out standing one over the next weekend. And if it doesn't happen, they put in this box on your way out so that was a key indicator for them. I'm wondering if I'm in on Saturday night and you'll know why I said, I think we should give this to the chef.

So I put my hand up and said to the waiter, I came out and said, could you give this to the chef? And he said, no. He walked off. And he came back with the chef and said, you give it him.

And I think again, that's me. It just shows that this sort of this link between the people and the customers thing is what it's about. Do we reinforce the culture that we want and actually make it work? You could go be careful with that.

I was once in a well-known town shopping centre in Sheffield. They had some posters up saying please nominate our customer champions and the men's retailers. And this young lad who was called Brett, he was out standing. And I'm nominating you.

He said, oh, please, well, I said, why not? He says, I've already been nominated seven times this month. So that's great. You'll win.

He goes, I don't want to win. I says, why not? He says, the prize he gets to dinner with the managing director. So if you're in a reward pick, I'll make sure the rewards are actually what work for the actual employees.

And it's this whole idea of how do we champion our champions and curries those that are actually doing it well. I hope the MD of any specific shopping centre that may or may not be in the North Wing because Brett is not going to have a nice day tomorrow. He was many years ago. He's older now.

Yeah, Brett's a full-life man now. I love it. I love it. Well, Andy, let's switch things up again.

Let's dig into the three actionable tips. So if anyone that wants to create this demonstrably different business, now, did I say that properly? No, it might have done. It might have done.

Just a thing. Just a thing. 3D works. 3D works.

I'm going to practice that. Okay. Here's a bit of accountability for you guys listening. Every time you see me, just ask me to say that word, demonstrably, because I will crack it.

I assure you, that's it. If I see you at podcast movement, give me a little sketch around the face. If I can't say it properly, that is a challenge. I love that.

Honestly, I've got a defined challenge and conked my own problems. So let's dig into the actionable tips. So three simple ways that people can create their own 3D business. Action one, I think, is what I call chosen or lose them.

And it's taking a bit of time out to work out to identify who your best customers are. And I say, again, best is in speech marks. What does that actually mean for you? Think about the possibility of those customers.

Think about the value for time that it actually takes. But he creates some time if you've got other people in the team. Yeah, everybody involved to work out who are our best customers. And then, importantly, what's important to them?

But idea one is choose them or lose them. Choose them or lose them. You got a t-shirt. I like that.

Get on a t-shirt for you. Next time I see you. Super stuff. Action one, tip.

And number two, please, sir. This is actually creating some dialogue with your customers and taking those best customers. And I think it's asking some questions. And again, I've got some questions here for you to consider.

The first one is, why do you buy from us? Just be careful how you ask that one if you ask it. It doesn't look as if you're undermining it. Why do you buy from us?

But what makes us special? What one thing would you like us to do differently or to do better? Maybe just what one thing should we never stop doing? The reason I do that is because sometimes people don't realize differences.

They actually assume they'll be also doing the same. And actually, customers come to that because they never actually created that conversation. They don't actually know that that is the thing that makes customers feel that we've got to be dealing with these people. Another one that I think that works quite well is, please describe our business in just a few words.

What words or phrases do people actually use to describe your business? Because again, those are the sort of words and phrases that they may use when they talk to other people about you. And very often, again, that can be a great way of trying to work out what other things that people see that differentiate you from your competitors. Interesting.

I like that. I like the point that you might not understand what makes you different. I think that's really powerful because you just go about your normal day and you just keep doing what you're doing. You know, if things are all well and good, that's fantastic.

But you can actually win back some of the customers that you might lose, even if you only lose 1% of customers, unless you could get that to a half percent. I think that's a very, very good point. Absolutely. Super stuff.

And the third and final action will take place, sir. The third one is standing your own cues. And that is saying what's it like to be a customer of your business. And that could be even very simple things like just go on and revisit your own website.

Everything that you do does one of three things. Either positively reinforces your dramatic difference. It's neutral. It's one thing or the other or it detracts from it.

So starting point for me obviously is to identify the things that detract from it and get rid of them. So that is bring up your own business, go on your own website. Even look at your own out of office and some machine message. Your own out of office, email us.

What does that actually say? Do they always think to demonstrate your own to the difference? Or do they detract from it? Or do they become the same as?

But it's also about, you know, sitting in reception. What's your delivery performance like? The guys that deliver the stuff to your customers. And again, if it's not you doing it and I'd argue if you are the business, let me guess what else to do it.

I'm not saying I have to be in detail, a mystery shop or I'm trying to say here. It's trying to feel for you and your business. Even simple things like Google your own business, Google your name, see what comes up. Go on forums that maybe link to your business.

What are people saying about your business? Maybe even make an inquiry. People think. What I'm trying to say here is not just what you are but how you see and do you actually demonstrate the dramatic difference in what you do.

Standing your own cues. I think that is a, you know, one little, nugget, one little tidbit. Standing your own cues I think really kind of resonates. You know, you can imagine that as a kind of marketing phrase.

But certainly as a, as a, I'm sort of imagining like a business development question. Yeah, why boards that one? You know, everyone's round of table. It's one of those, isn't it?

Absolutely. We went on a lot of programs when I got MD, an entrepreneur from different businesses. And why encourage them to do very often is to pair up and just do it to each other. Tell each other what to look for and just give each other a call, ask for a quote, go on the web.

Just do those things. And because of her, what I've been talking about maybe a little bit more blunt about how they see things about the things, you know, it's a nice colour. It's these are the things that are actually stopping you, sell to existing customers or prospective customers. And I think just going back to that question for our last before about when you're asking your customers, why do you buy from us and when do you buy from us?

Sometimes you'll find that they don't know the full range of things you can do. They only use you for certain things and you're competitive from the else because they're not aware of the full range of things that you're doing. So all this stuff to me is trying to remove what I call the blind spots that a lot of us have. I know I'm guilty of it.

We're only going to be busy. It goes right away from us. They're getting out of the expectations, they're getting high, but we're only going to be busy. So we don't always just take that time out to look at our business, what our customers are thinking, what our people are thinking.

You know, the same in the standing, you know, I'm curious if you have got some front-line people. Talk to them and after them. What do they think of the things that irritate one of our customers? What are the things that stop them giving the level of service that we actually want?

Very often, the obvious things are that maybe you don't see because you're busy doing it. Yeah, that's a really good point. You know, become the mystery shopper and I think you've got to be really objective with that. And you know, I've personally, I've done it before where I get other people to do it for me.

And no one trusts and goes through that process and that really works as well because you get kind of... Sometimes even with the best intentions you can roast things if you're not careful. So I think it's really important to just make sure that you've got a sense of objectivity there. Absolutely.

And listen, that has been such a good chat. We've known for 30 minutes. We've run for 45 and I've enjoyed every second of it. Great stuff.

I love it, honestly. It's been fantastic. So thank you so, so much. And just before we stick a peg in that, where can people find you on the old interwebs?

They can find me on the very imaginary title website, AndyHansleman.com. They can find our social media is AndyHansleman, where it's on LinkedIn, whether it's on Twitter. And if they go on Amazon, they can find thinking 3D, the seven characteristics of dramatically and the months to be different businesses. There.

Demonstrably. Well done, sir. Honestly. I'll forgot that tomorrow, you know.

I'll keep pushing you on it. You have to send me a text like one of the voice monos every single day and just say it. Every single day. One.

Just honestly. Thinking 3D. That's the way to do it. Yeah.

I'm going to do it. That's why I'm going to do it. I like that. Helping me out there.

I love it. Andy, thank you so much. It's my real pleasure. Thank you very much indeed.

Take care. You too, sir. I'll see you for that point. And guys, don't forget everything that myself and Andy have spoken about will be available at the usual web address, excellence-expected.com.

So check it out. Head over there. We have a whole host of content over there. We've got over 140 podcast episodes as at the time of recording this.

We've got three good quality ebooks to help you in different aspects of your business and a whole host of blog content from guest post, guest authors, in fact, and of course myself. So check it out. Excellent. That's it.com.

And thank you for this 45 minutes with us. And don't forget the more you expect from yourself, the more you will excel.