Any reader of this weekly column knows I loathe the overuse of generic business jargon. These are the words and phrases that take up a lot of space but say very little. For example, at any business meeting you might hear something like this: “We need to think outside the box to take our business to the next level by leveraging our bleeding edge core competencies, utilizing best practices, and creating value added and robust solutions for our clients.”
What does that even mean?
It seems that saying nothing of tangible use – and taking up a lot of space in doing so – has become an art form. Lately this practice has been elevated to include a phrase which puzzles me: “our goal is to become the Uber of <fill in the industry>.”
Since its founding in 2009, Uber has spread like wildfire across the globe, has completely disrupted (perhaps even destroyed) the taxi industry in major metropolitan areas, and is today worth around $60 billion. To make the story even more astounding, consider that Uber owns no vehicles yet they are the largest taxi company in the world.
Due to both the visibility and success of Uber, people from almost every type of business now clamor to be the “Uber of” their industry. Many think this is a forward-thinking perspective when, in fact, it’s quite the opposite. Very few individuals or organizations that experience wild success do so by merely copying the approach of another. Instead, they boldly blaze their own trail and have the foresight to understand transactional friction points so they can be removed. In other words, they are able to both comprehend and predict what their audience needs to move quickly through a purchasing journey.
In the case of Uber, it was as simple as founders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp having difficultly hailing a cab on a snowy evening in Paris. Their solution – brilliant in its simplicity – was to create an app where the user had to only tap a button to get a ride. They didn’t set out to disrupt the taxi industry, but the solution they created removed so much friction from that process that it’s difficult to imagine traveling in a large city without using a ride sharing app. It was original, met a need, and dramatically reduced friction for their target audience.
In business, your clients don’t want or need you to be the next Uber of anything; they need you to make their purchasing journey easier. Instead of trying so hard to be the next “Uber of” something, take a close look at the purchasing journey of your clients, find the friction points, and remove as much of them as possible. The fact is, precious few have the ability, patience, or resources to truly disrupt an industry. A much more realistic – and dramatic – way to impact your bottom line is to take the necessary steps to make it easier for a client to get what they want.
Bill is president of PromoCorner, the leading digital marketing service provider to the promotional products industry, and has over 17 years working in executive leadership positions at leading promotional products distributorships. In 2014, he launched brandivate – the first executive outsourcing company solely focused on helping small and medium sized-promotional products enterprises responsibly grow their business. A featured speaker at numerous industry events, a serial creator of content marketing, president of the Promotional Products Association of the Mid-South (PPAMS), and PromoKitchen chef, Bill has extensive experience coaching sales teams, creating successful marketing campaigns, developing operational policies and procedures, creating and developing winning RFP responses, and presenting winning promotional products solutions to Fortune 500 clients. He can be reached at bill@PromoCorner.com.