As J.D. Rockefeller built his fortune around the turn of the 20th Century, he was often accused of exploiting immigrant labor. His critics said he hired those who had immigrated to this nation from other countries because he could acquire their labor cheaper than that of their domestic counterparts. While it is true that he could acquire immigrant labor at a discount, that wasn’t the real reason he hired them.

As H.W. Brands points out in Masters of Enterprise, the great appeal of immigrant workers was that they were not only remarkably dependable and eager to work and learn the skills required of the new jobs they sought, they were actually often more productive than the more experienced workers because they were both willing to be coached and they didn’t have to un-learn any bad habits or be re-trained! They delivered real VALUE to the organization not so much because of what they brought to the job, but because of what they didn’t bring!

Whether you’re looking for a new job or are looking to hire, consider how much more valuable being able to forego having to break old habits would be to your organization or employer. A lack of experience might turn out to be the exact reason a candidate is suited for the job!

Most marketing texts offer a nice discussion about why the Lifetime Value of the Customer (Or Customer Lifetime Value if you prefer that term) is a critical consideration in any strategy.

The bottom-line is that it’s just so much more cost effective to grow business from existing customers than to try to go out and get new ones. When you grow the business of the existing customers (whether the frequency of their purchases, the size of the sales, or grow share of customer through the sale of additional or new product offerings), the margins are virtually 100% because there are no acquisition costs associated with that business.

Plus, any business they refer to you is also essentially at a 100% margin because, again, there are no acquisition costs. So it’s not just a nice-sounding thing to say that customers are our greatest, most important, and highest-yielding asset. It’s something we can prove with numbers. They’re our entire future! Customers ARE the answer!

“Captive customers mean stable revenues and less money and effort on marketing, especially if they make it their habit to put in a good word for you with their friends every so often. Allegedly rival products are less tempting to captive customers; therefore, you get more time to respond to competitors’ innovations. They are not so price-sensitive; therefore, you can afford to charge them a little more, and so forth.” - Dan Herman, Outsmart the MBA Clones

We hear statistics from various sources all the time, and frankly, some can be a little discouraging. The Small Business Administration says that 50% of small businesses won’t last 5 years. 90% of restaurants don’t make it. A good sales person will have an average closing rate of 20%. The employee turnover in the XYZ industry is so-and-so, customer churn is such-and-such, the typical margin in this business is this, and so on, and so on.

Take it from a trained, professional market researcher of over 15 years experience: The best thing you can do with some statistics is to ignore them! I’ve got a way to help any one, from any background, in any industry, with any goal, BEAT the averages!

Here it is: Be above average!

Simply commit to NOT doing what the “average” person or average business would do. If the average sales person makes 30 calls to get 5 appointments and closes 1 sale, don’t be average, be above average! Make 60 calls so you can get 10 appointments and close 2 sales and you’ll be able to say that you’re twice as good as the “average” sales person!

If the average business closes its doors in 5 years or less, study what things the average business does that leads to common mistakes and just don’t do those things! Make a commitment to asking, before you take any action, “What would an average business do in a situation like this?” and simply make a point of NOT doing that and instead of doing something above average!

Find out from your customers what they consider to be an “average” experience or an “average” organization and use that as a benchmark for what NOT to do. This may seem like a rather common-sense, if not downright simplistic, approach to strategy, but you’ll probably find that’s exactly why it can be so effective!

^{“When I was young I observed that 9 out of 10 things I did were failures, so I did 10 times more work.” – George Bernard Shaw}

The Sears Tower in Chicago has added a glass-bottomed observation deck 100-plus stories high on the tower that allows the observer to step out on the deck for a unique, breathtaking view. They call it, “The Ledge!” You can click here for the video and here for some cool pics!

This is noteworthy not just because it’s an innovative idea, but because it reminds us how easily innovation can be achieved if we’ll just take the time to interact with and listen to our customers! As you’ll hear from Sears Tower Skydeck General Manager Randy Stancik at about the video’s 90-second mark, “The idea came from our visitors. Our visitors have asked us to get outside. They want to get closer to the windows,” So they looked into it and, sure enough, an elite team of engineers and builders made it so. They were willing to literally go out on a ledge for their customers!

Innovation can be as simple as responding when our customers give us a suggestion! We have to be willing to “go out on a ledge” by having the courage to listen, then to take what they suggest seriously, and be willing to deliver on what they’re asking for. A risk, yes, but far less risky than just hoping our customers are happy only to find out we lost them to competitors who were listening and were willing to step out into the unknown for them!

The other day I went on John Deere’s website to get my 2 year old son a John Deere cap to replace the toddler-sized one he’d outgrown. While there, I also bought the little fellow a John Deere Toy Lawn Trimmer, seriously considered a John Deere Toy mower, and would have probably bought him a really cool motorized 6 Volt Utility Tractor with Loader (click here to get a look at this thing and tell me it’s not the coolest thing ever!) Fortunately, Mrs. Dr. Burt confiscated the credit card before these impulse buys got the best of me.

John Deere’s real value, it’s real capital, it’s real “green,” is in the power of it’s brand. When Mr. Deere founded the company, he based everything he did on the guiding principle, “I will not put my name on anything that does not have in it the best that is in me.” This commitment to excellence has lasted well over 100 years! It has VALUE because it connects with the customer, the customer believes it, trusts the brand, and is willing to pay a premium for it. John Deere is a brand we can bank on.

This brand loyalty isn’t just true for the heavy equipment which makes up their core product offering, but for any and all ancillary products loyal customers can purchase with the John Deere name on them. John Deere doesn’t make toy trimmers or caps or any of those items. Toy companies and apparel companies and other vendors line up outside John Deere’s doors and pay a hefty licensing fee for the use of the John Deere logo and color scheme, which they’ll then use to  market a line of products using the John Deere name, for which John Deere will receive a generous royalty. The hefty horsepower of the brand lets John Deere make money on the front end with the licensing fees and on the back end with royalties. John Deere wins, the merchandisers win, and of course, the customers win because we’re all part of a value-for-value brand experience.

J. Paul Getty, one of the first “celebrity millionaires,” was often asked for a formula for getting rich. He replied, “Rise early, work hard, and strike oil!” If you build a solid brand, it’s better than striking oil! The residuals are incredible, the passive income is there, and you don’t have to get your hands dirty or deal with the EPA!