The first
question is, “What is hidden wealth?” Hidden wealth is an unused, dormant or
under utilized part of your business that contains great value. All businesses
have at least one hidden wealth. Even the best businesses in the world contain
hidden wealth. The key is to determine your hidden wealth and begin to mine the
potential gold that lies therein.
All
businesses are different. Each business should require their leaders to conduct
a concerted effort of introspection and egoless honesty to determine what their
hidden wealth may be. One way to begin is to ask deeper and better questions
about your business than you ever have before. What is the story of your
business? How is that unique and more importantly, how does that benefit the
customer?
Begin a
journey to determine what your business does best. What does your business do
better than anyone else? Then ask yourself these questions about that one
thing, “How”, “Why” and how can I prove it to my customers in a way that
benefits them and motivates them? Once you determine the one thing that you do
better than anyone else, then ask your customers what they think you do best?
See if what you feel and they feel are the same things. If your business does
something great but your customers don’t know, it won’t matter. If you
customers don’t hold the same value in what you think you do great, it won’t
matter. Better questions lead to better answers and better businesses.
You must
also ask yourself, what do you have that others don’t have and what do you have
that is better than what others may have? Is your sales staff better? Is your
service better? Is your location better? Is your product better? Is your
pricing structure better? Is your process quicker? Is your facility better?
When you determine what you have that’s better, you must ask yourself, why is
that true?
Wait,
you’re not done yet. You must also ask yourself, how can I explain what we do
and how it’s better in very specific terms that the customer cares about? You
can’t say you have a large inventory. It doesn’t mean anything. But you can say
you have 500 widgets worth ten million dollars in inventory and that no one
comes close to your selection and because of that it takes the hassle out of
shopping. What ever you decide is your strong point, ask yourself this
question, “Who cares?” If you can’t tell your customer in a way that benefits
them, they won’t care.
Some
businesses have a large database of customers that are not being valued and
asked to do business again. Some businesses have a great location with many
possible synergies with other local businesses that aren’t being explored. Many
businesses have community relationships that aren’t being utilized. Many
businesses have talented but untrained people. Many businesses are either
sending the wrong or mixed message to the market or sending a good message to
the wrong market or utilizing either the wrong medium or not enough mediums to
reach their market.
Each business has under utilized assets that contain
vast riches if they can be explored and tapped. In your dealership are you
looking for the next “magic” angle and the real magic is already there right
under your nose and it’s just not being used?
