Wednesday, May 01, 2013

Isn't That Special?

I generally trust restaurant servers to steer me in the right direction, so I had no problem last night explaining that I couldn't decide between the special and the chopped salad.

"So here's the thing," the server said.  Today's special is a great value for the price and it's really good.  But even though you can get it every day, the chopped vegetarian salad is really, really good.  I mean, it is really special. So if it was me, I'd forget what's on special and order the thing that is really special."

I ordered the salad.

"You chose well," said my server with a bit of a smug grin on his face.

Here's the thing.  While value shoppers will always be looking to get a good special, a good deal, it commoditizes what we do.

The real opportunity is creating everyday items that in and of themselves are so full of value that they are experienced as special by whomever purchases and uses them.

And it can be as simple as asking "What are we going to do to make this effort extra special?" for all of our work.

So when it comes to specials, what's your choice going to be for your work and the value you create?  

Excellent.  You chose well.

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