Your Compelling Offer

As I passed the roadside sign in front of the pet store, I read its message: “10% Off Fish Supplies.” This sign struck me as a little strange and I felt compelled to keep reading it again to attempt to better understand its meaning. But as much as I looked at it, it still read “10% Off Fish Supplies.”

The reason that I found the sign strange is because of the question I asked myself as I passed by: is ten percent enough of a discount to bring in traffic off of the highway? In a world where retailers are yelling at us to notice their deep-cut discounts of fifty, eighty and ninety percent, is 10% a compelling offer? Not knowing the regular prices of the store in question, I was flummoxed to make a determination on that.

To a small mom-and-pop operation, a ten percent discount may seem like a big deal to the owners, but to the consumers, ten percent may not be much of a compelling offer. Twenty nine cents off of the regular price of an aquarium cleaning brush would certainly not offset the cost of fuel to get to the store to purchase the item. In fact, in most provinces in Canada, a ten percent discount doesn’t even offset the sales tax.

The assumption had to be made that the owners of the pet store have chosen to compete in the market on price and not on service as the sign made no indication that their service was superior. Nor did the sign give any indication that an additional ten percent saving would bring pricing far below its competitors. A compelling offer needs to be relative. Ten percent off of the price of a new car is a big deal. Ten percent off of a $2.99 item is not.

Purchase a new aquarium for $200 and get a free fish net, cleaning brush, gravel, some plants and filtration pump would be the equivalent of a ten percent discount. That might seem like a more compelling offer than a few pennies off the regular price of a fish net.

ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT: What is your compelling offer? Your offer has to mean something to the potential consumer if you are going to sway the decision. You don’t have to be in sales to have a compelling offer. What was your compelling offer when you were hired? What is your compelling offer now to be considered for a promotion?

Are you bringing something to the table that no one else possesses or are you simply filling a space? Are you the leading candidate for promotion or do you feel that because of your tenure, you deserve to move up? Have you read the books on leadership in an effort to position yourself to be the natural choice for a leadership position or will you not bother learning about leadership until there is a need to know how to be a leader?

Does hiring you for the job benefit just you or will it benefit the organization as a whole? How is the organization different as a result of choosing you for the job? If you can make that case, then you have a compelling offer.

If you won’t grow yourself first, then it could be argued that the organization as a whole wouldn’t grow much if you were in a leadership position. Leadership, after all, is an Attitude. If you don’t have the Leadership Attitude, then you aren’t reading the books, you aren’t listening to the audio recordings, you aren’t attending the seminars and you aren’t prepared to invest in yourself. It’s pretty much going to be a case of “same-old same-old” for you. If you won’t invest in yourself first, then why should any organization invest in you and expect much of a return.

If you don’t invest in you, then you’re likely to continue being a small fish in a big aquarium and it could be argued that a ten percent discount in your value wouldn’t much affect the organization. Now if your organization would change by fifty percent as a result of your not being there, then that’s a compelling offer to keep you and pay you more.

Leadership is an Attitude. If you want to attract investors (customers, bosses, promotions), then you have to show a history of increased value and outstanding performance. Compare yourself to the stock market. Are you a blue-chip stock that continues to increase in value consistently? Or are you a penny-stock that investors overlook or dump to get to the blue-chips? It’s your call. What's your compelling offer?