Would you invest $ 100k knowing you’d never get that investment back? No, you wouldn’t.
Would you invest $ 100k knowing you’d double your money? Most people probably would.
Would you invest $ 100k knowing you’d get your investment back five-fold? Most people would jump on that.
This is the question we usually get asked as consultants. Why would we spend $100k on your services? The age old WIIFM question applies here. What Is In It For Me!!
There is a simple answer to that. We can guarantee to find improvements in any warehouse / distribution centre / fulfillment centre which will repay the investment in our services at least five-fold. This can either be improved storage utilisation, cost reductions, automation options, process efficiency improvements, etc.
Bold statement?? Not really. If we think your operation is already efficient and there isn’t much we can do to make it more efficient, we will tell you and let you be. This is why we usually schedule an initial site visit and phone conversation to understand the state of your operation.
We generally uncover more than a five-fold return on the initial investment for our services but we’re confident that we can at least get you a 5x return on investment.
So why do we bring this up? Because it’s all about value adding and this is something a lot of independents struggle with. Sole traders, consultants, web designers, marketing people, you name it.
We all get asked, why would I spend that much money with you? Will I ever see it back? Will I get a return on my investment or am I better off doing it myself or find another party who can do it cheaper? Nobody likes to spend money on services when they think they can do it better themselves or when they think there are better alternatives in the market.
On my desktop I have a photograph that I should really put into all our proposal documents because it is so true. A copy of it is below so you can see for yourself.
To be honest, most people understand that to get good service, it’s going to require some investment and it’s going to take some time. We do, however, come across people who don’t understand. This is when we get the question: “why are your services so expensive?” or “why does it take so long to get results from your analysis?” And I’m sure we’re not alone in this.
So, what does it mean when someone asks these questions? It means we haven’t showed enough value in our proposal. It should be immediately obvious how much value we provide. Whatever we do should never be about the investment in dollars and/or time, it should be about the obvious value we provide. This is how we’ve been successful so far and we actually haven’t had a single, unhappy customer since our inception, almost 5 years ago. We will go to the end of the earth to uncover additional value if we haven’t achieved our five-fold guarantee.
Then what is the meaning of this Fuzzy Friday article? It is to tell you to ask for value every time someone puts a service proposal in front of you. What is in it for you? How much value will you get back from your investment? Is it worth investing any money in the first place?
Bas Schilders is the principal consultant at Fuzzy LogX who are the leading warehouse, logistics, and process improvement consultants in Australia. With a career spanning 2 continents and 20 years in warehouse improvements and solution implementations, Bas is one of the most experienced consultants in the country when it comes to logistics improvements and implementing warehouse automation solutions.