I am going to reveal a secret to you….it’s a secret that will change your business forever. It is a tool which, wielded properly, will stave off your competitors and catapult your business to an entirely new level. I’m talking today about Value Proposition. Not the regular old run of the mill value proposition like bigger, better, faster, cheaper, shinier. I’m talking about the value proposition that you live and breath. It’s the nitty gritty value proposition that is the core of YOU and so becomes the core of your business. It’s the deep down dirty little secrets that make you and your business ooze with awesomeness….the value proposition that nobody can put their finger on….they know you’ve got SOMETHING….but it’s so much more than the bigger, better, faster, cheaper, shinier value proposition that you sell on your websites, presentations, and your mission statement. Until recently I wasn’t even sure what made me or my company so one of a kind….but now I know.
After being with a franchise for fourteen years, I left. It’s not because I didn’t love the brand, because I did. It’s not because they didn’t offer some neat tools, because they did. It’s because the employees at the regional level had a history of stepping on me, holding me back from growth, discouraging my partner and I from going after bigger and better. These employees were vicious in their tactics to the point that we couldn’t share our dreams or visions because they’d do their best to subterfuge them….to steal away prospects and give them to our competition. This went on for years. Like a person in a bad relationship, I kept justifying in my own head that I deserved this…that I shouldn’t dream so big because my big dreams scare people. I kept telling myself to dream smaller so that I could fit into the mold that these regional employees wanted me to conform to. In 2014, after telling these employees, who were supposed to support my dreams, that we were about to grow again, they stomped me down again. Have you ever had anyone take your dreams and shred them up in front of you? I have. It’s like a knife in the heart….especially for an entrepreneur like me. I realized then, that my partner and I were going to have to make a really hard decision….the hardest we’ve ever made in our entire combined lives. We had to choose between living in mediocrity forever by figuring out a way to fit within their mold…or we were going to have to break out of it. Breaking out would be the hardest, heart wrenching, move my partner and I could ever fathom making. We knew we COULD do it…because our franchise held us down and broke the rules of our agreements. But did we want to potentially break apart something we had so carefully constructed for fourteen years when the easy thing to do would have been to live within the mold?
For us…the answer was YES. Our dreams….the dreams of our organization were worth fighting for. We made the hardest decision any business owner ever has to make….to throw a huge, heavy, hammer at the beautiful business we built….we had to knock it down to it’s knees to build something better. We had to kill the old to give birth to something new. We had to revolt against the people that stepped on us, kicked us, and thought they could because we were chained by contracts the size of skyscrapers. Our dreams were worth the fight. Our people…our business…our families…were worth fighting for.
It’s so interesting to me because in the past several weeks we’ve been growing our business by leaps and bounds. When agents from other firms tell their old employers that they are joining my firm, those employers say…”Really…They are being sued by their old franchise.” As if, it’s better to throw one last little rock at our company rather than trying to keep agents by reminding them of their own value proposition.
Here’s what I say to that lawsuit: THAT LAWSUIT IS MY VALUE PROPOSITION. We are fighters. We don’t get beat down by the status quo. You cannot shove us into a mold, handcuff, chain us, and kick us down….and think we are going to take it. NO YOU CANNOT. We are brave. We do not stop when someone holds up a stop sign. We don’t stay down when someone kicks us. We don’t retreat when someone fires at us. We REACH! We DO! We fight back… when we know that our dreams are worth fighting for. That lawsuit, my dear readers….my friends, fellow entrepreneurs, and sales professionals…..that lawsuit is my BADGE OF COURAGE. I now incorporate that lawsuit into my presentations. I share it with the world. I tell prospects thinking about joining my firm….Do you want to work for a company that teaches you to stand up for yourself…to REACH…to persevere….to stand up 101 times when you get knocked down 100? Or would you rather work for the little guy who sits back and takes what’s handed to him….and accepts the life, the rules, and the abuse that life sometimes hands us?
I know my nitty gritty, dirty, little, value proposition. I KNOW what makes my organization the best damned real estate firm in the entire world. Do you know yours? I hope so. Because, there’s nothing I love more than when my competition says to an agent that is leaving their firm, “Do you know they are getting sued….” and that agent looks their owner right in the eye and says, “Why yes, it’s exactly why I’m joining them.”
By the way… lawsuits go both ways….they are getting sued by me, my partner, and my business too…..and it will be a cold day in hell before I settle. I will fight this to the end because my dreams…the dreams of my people…my company…my family are worth it. My value proposition is that I’ve got the gumption, guts, and grit to fight for what’s right. Their value proposition? I guess you could say that they enjoy waking sleeping lions….we’ll see how that works out for them.
Stacey Alcorn is the author of REACH! and Tuned In. She is a business strategy and sales consultant for large corporations and Global Fortune 100 Firms. She is also a keynote speaker, blogger, trainer, and start-up consultant. Her sales training products have been licensed by hundreds of organizations around the world who use her one-of-a kind sales training materials as the genesis for their own brand growth. Make sure to sign up here for my REACH! Weekly News for awesome interviews with Leaders & Visionaries that I only share with my VIP members.
