Revenue Journal®

"Fast, right, cheap. Pick two."

Print shop owners used to like to post this little truism near the front desk of their shops. There's a lot of wisdom on those five words. If you do it too fast, it's likely to be wrong. If you take too much time obsessing over details, it isn't going to be fast. And if you get it cheap, you might also get it fast, but it probably won't be right.

The problem is, today's customers assume that they can get "all three" if they just look hard enough. Google has given them a virtual, endless, global shopping mall. If one vendor can't give them all three, they'll just keep looking. Click. Click. Click.

This leads us to another truism associated with today's buyer: no one vendor is able to hold any customer "hostage." Before the Web, the only way someone could visit a store was to get into the car and go there. Once there, after going to the trouble of driving there, they were more likely to "settle" for less than what they wanted. Or, rather than coming away empty-handed, making it a completely futile trip, they would buy something anyway.

That shopping momentum is no longer a factor in the buying process. Yes, it's true that if you sell a complex product or service, and the customer has spent some time working on the estimate with you or talking at length about their problem, and you will have a little bit of momentum working in your favor. But don't count on it. The Google mentality has given every buyer an easy out, a mental escape hatch. No matter what happens, they assume that if they need to, they can always go back to that unlimited shopping mall on their computer screen and find someone else who can provide exactly what they want.

Plus, if you're selling a complex purchase-process product, that same customer is certainly working with other vendors at the same time, getting their estimates and talking to them at length about their problem. You're not the only guy knocking at the door with flowers and candy.

Even when a shopper isn't satisfied by a Google search, they assume it's just because they didn't search properly. They think, "Surely SOMEONE has exactly what I'm looking for." That's why, when you interview customers about how they buy your type of product (of course you're doing that, right?), one interesting question is, "If you hadn't found us with your first search term, what would you type in next?"

Learn from those who have pulled it off

The truth is, there are some companies that have mastered "all three" - fast, right, cheap. Amazon comes to mind, as usual, but there are others - such as HomeReserve, the sofa-delivered-to-you-via-UPS company. And, Staples has managed to move nicely in that direction over the last couple of years, with its focus on "EASY."

The companies that have mastered fast/right/cheap made a conscious effort - starting with that goal in mind. Amazon was a web-based company from the start, with its main competitive advantage being its infrastructure and processes, rather than its product or service. Which is why the company has been able to shift from selling books to selling, well, almost everything.

The companies that were "web" from the start have an advantage in today's web-based world. But there is hope for those who are struggling to change their businesses to the newer model. HomeReserve started out as a traditional furniture manufacturer, making sofas for hospital waiting rooms. You can read their story, which is educational and nicely told.

They started with an end goal in mind, and designed everything to meet that goal. The challenge was to fit a couch into one or two UPS boxes. There were a couple of other end goals, such as "easy to assemble" with "removable covers" and "storage space under the seat cushions." These customer-pleasing goals drove their product development efforts - and the way they designed their business, to make it easy for customers to buy from them and put the couch together once they received it.

If you want to compete in the fast/right/cheap world, you have to start with some very specific customer-friendly goals. Not those mushy corporate vision goals, like "making sure our customers are satisfied," but implementable specific goals, such as, "Every email will be responded to properly and within a half hour." Then you have to set up your business so you can actually pull this off.

You have to look at your business with this new end goal in mind, then figure out what you have to change to make it happen. You need to tell your staff what the end goal is, and ask for their help in reaching that goal. Not only will they be more likely to support the solution if they are part of it, but what you are asking them to do will make sense to them. Too many company leaders leave out this step, so that even their most laudable goals turn into the butt of office humor.

Where to start?

The most straightforward way to approach this is to open a spreadsheet. Label the columns:

• Point of Interaction
  
• Current Situation/Process
  
• Fast
  
• Right
  
• Cheap (use "affordable" if "cheap" rubs you the wrong way)
  
• Customer Expectation
  
• New Situation/Process
  

In the "Point of Interaction" column, list all the ways your customer comes in contact with your company - through your website, your store or company, your sales agents, your shipping and service, and so on.

In the Current Situation/Process column, describe how that interaction happens now. When you get an email from someone via a form on your website, what happens to it? How long does it take you to respond? I bet it could be faster. Put "no" in the Fast column, because this is something you need to do faster. Do your salespeople send out emails they write themselves, or have you provided them with templates that ensure the response is easier to compose quickly and more professionally - better copy, all the right things included, etc.? If not, put a "no" in the "Fast" and "Right" columns - because they could be doing this faster and better.

I'm sure you're starting to get the idea. Make sure the "current situation/process" is accurate; show it to those directly involved in these activities and make sure they agree with your evaluation. Incorporate any changes if they have any.

Now it's time to fill out the Customer Expectation column. Do customers expect you to respond to emails in a half hour? At this point, I'd show this spreadsheet to some of your more friendly customers. They will give you great input on the things that you left out - things that are more important to them than you realize. Things that will give you a critical competitive edge - good thing to have during a slower economy.

Finally, it's time to start filling in the 'New situation/process" column. What changes are you going to have to make in your business so that you can answer those emails on time? Which processes can be improved with a small amount of effort? Which ones are the most important - the ones that are currently creating barriers to the sale or causing you to lose business to competitors? Prioritize them all, and get to work. Make sure everyone in the company knows that these new goals have been established and ask for their help meeting them. When you manage to start doing these things fast enough and well enough to meet (or exceed) customer expectations, you can change the "no" entries to "yes."

CEOs and business owners, in all industries, are struggling to meet the new fast/right/cheap standard. If you put this system to work for you, you will be way ahead of your competition. Your customers will take notice, and reward you with their business and their referrals.