Goals are weird. There’s a significant emphasis on having them in every part of your life. We even have a whole month that’s basically obsessed with setting new goals for your life and your business. The other day I was talking with a friend, and he asked about the financial goals that I had for Infinity for the year. I sort of blew his mind when I replied: “I don’t have any.”
That’s right, I literally don’t have financial goals for my company.
You might think that sounds absurd. I mean how on Earth do you know if you’ve been successful, profitable and viable as an organization to continue on if you don’t have goals to measure your success? That’s simple, I’ve changed the mindset of my team and my company’s direction to not be focused on financial goals but to be focused on being remarkable.
Why is “being remarkable” better?
In business, originality and differentiation doesn’t come easy and standing out amongst the rest of your peers can be an ongoing battle. Everyone says they can make your SEO amazing. Everyone says they have the best of the best working for them. Being remarkable as defined as the ability to “Attract notice by being unusual, striking or extraordinary.” So being remarkable means going above the norm or expected by doing, saying, offering or being that individual (or company) who puts more heart, soul and thought into what they do.
Being remarkable takes a “common occurrence” and turns it into that extraordinary moment of opportunity when you have a company that values being remarkable over having a financial goal for the year. It also takes a ton of stress off the people working for you so they can focus on doing what they do best.
Being remarkable also requires offering superior customer service that’s based on nurturing and connecting with clients. After all, remarkable service translates into impressive results so you have to value the whole client relationship and not just your ability to make money from them. You have to focus on people, not numbers.
So how do you define remarkable in business?
Being remarkable happens in both the inconsequential moments as well as the great ones that happen throughout your relationship. It means you need to value your client and know what they need. Sometimes in business, we know what they need, but because they won’t pay us, we don’t give them what they need. If you are remarkable, you just find a way to have all their needs met or at least are honest about why you can’t make them happen.
Innovate
The common everyday strategies within any business can be inspiring and lead to more personalized approaches, but you have to look at them and learn to appreciate those moments. The world is hungry for inventive ideas that show them you offer more than a typical experience. We look for ways that we can offer that experience to our clients AND that our clients can offer it to their clients. Don’t tell them how to do things, show them exactly what to do to make things happen.
Do the Unexpected
Average and ordinary don’t get the job done. The unexpected can be the difference between a mediocre result and or a spectacular, life-altering one that changes their business. It also means knowing who you are working with and giving them more. It also can mean being honest and not giving them the same line of BS about their SEO goals that everyone else is. It means saying we think you can do more and here’s how you’re going to do it and then make it actually happen.
Value Knowledge
Nothing creates a stir more than controversy so here’s a little for you- we don’t hire interns, college grads or rookies. It’s not because they aren’t a great resource for getting work done but it’s simply because when you are going to be remarkable, you have to know your shit.
I also realize that there’s an argument for interns, college grads and rookies being passionate about what they do and how that energy can be great for business. I’ve found that only working with a collection of experts allows me to find the right people that will make delivering remarkable service easy. They know their stuff already and they have the bandwidth for giving that little bit more because they are confident in their skills. It’s no knock to those getting started, but for us, experience helps us make the magic we like to make.
So when you hear all this, focusing on being remarkable makes a whole lot more sense than focusing on money. Imagine if you just got to wake up in the morning and be amazing. No bills, no worries that you don’t have enough money to go grocery shopping. You would just get up and be amazing. So why can’t we do that in business?
So if you really want to build a sustainable company, stop overpromising and looking for ways to get more money out of your clients and just find out ways you can do business better. Find their pain points and then fix those for them without attaching a dollar sign to them. Be remarkable.
J.C. Granger is the CEO of Infinity Marketing Group. Infinity Marketing Group is an inbound marketing agency headquartered in Denver, Colorado that specializes in helping SaaS companies achieve their lead generation goals.
Connect with J.C. via Linked in or by email at JC@infinitymgroup.com. Download his free eBook, “3 Essentials of Inbound Marketing”.
