Don’t sell services

I write this coming to you from a hotel room in between baseball games in what will be a long six days of watching 12-year-olds play America’s Pastime. It’s called the Cooperstown Dreams Tournament, or something like that, but I question whose dreams are actually being fulfilled.

Sure, it’s fun to say our little suburban Ohio community team will get to play powerhouses from Michigan, Texas, Florida, California and even Hawaii (Aloha means goodbye!) But outside of the baseball, there’s a lot of long, hot days. There’s stress for coaches and parents to make sure everything is taken care of so their kids can have a great time. And even the kids don’t have the greatest of accommodations either.

Yet, any of those individual complaints don’t outweigh the overarching theme here.

They aren’t selling quality games, luxury hotels for the players or a stress-free vacation for the parents (although does that really exist?)

They are selling an experience. And that’s exactly what you should be selling.

Don’t sell a perfectly mowed lawn or yard; sell that you are a professionally run business that was put on this earth to make customers (the kids in the tournament) feel like they are the only customer you have.

You can be one of the few things during their day or even in their life that they don’t have to worry about, or better yet, that they look forward to.

When they see your trucks and equipment pull up to their home or commercial property, they get excited that you are there to do your job the right way and will make their space look impeccable.

You and your employees will answer any questions as thoroughly as possible and leave the property better than ever, and you will make your customer feel important because they are important.

By the way, we beat the Hawaii team and my kid hit a 3-run home run. Therefore, the Cooperstown tournament is the best experience ever, just like I said all along.