I’ve had the good fortune of working in several different businesses in my 30+ year career. Mostly, I’ve worked in the retail management, construction management and customer service industries.
Many, many years ago, I was a manager for a large, national home improvement retailer who shall remain nameless, but their color is orange. At one time, it was a GREAT company to work for; you were valued and there was an entrepreneurial environment that was fostered which created a sense of ownership.
Then, as many companies do, they expanded rapidly, maybe too rapidly. The increase in stores outnumbered the number of available, talented people and micro-management set in.
That is typically the beginning of the end for most companies and while this particular retailer is still successful, most of the entrepreneurial-minded people left, as did I.
I went to work as a sales manager for a family owned lighting, hardware and bath showroom. This was a whole new experience for me. For my entire career at the national home improvement retailer, I was told there was no way a small, family owned, local showroom could compete with a national company. They didn’t have the buying power or the technology. They couldn’t compete price wise. They couldn’t handle the large clients. And they didn’t have the knowledge to compete.
Guess what? It was all one big lie.
Can you guess what else they didn’t have? They didn’t have large corporate headquarters. They didn’t have executives making millions of dollars. They didn’t have astronomical labor costs or huge operating and advertising budgets.
What I found was, not only could a family owned showroom compete, it could be hugely successful. We were able to be more than competitive price wise. We had a small group of long term employees that had forgotten more about the products they were selling than most of the employees at the large box store would ever know.
They were able to offer good advice to customers as to what best suited their needs. If a problem arose, they were able to rectify the situation right there without having to call 4 different people or talk to a manager to get things done.
And did I mention customer service? Anyone who has shopped at a national box store knows customer service is almost non-existent.
Now that I’m working for a family owned business in a new industry, guess what? I’m hearing the same lie I heard when I was in the retail world. I hear the same EXACT statements: You can’t compete with a national provider’s technology. You can’t compete with their price or their products. You can’t handle the large clients.
And guess what? I’m here to tell you that not only can we compete, but we can actually do it better. We have the technology. We are more than competitive in price (usually actually saving clients 30-40%)! We can handle clients from 1 to 1,000 employees. We have the knowledge. And most importantly, we have the service.
When you’re ready to stop believing the lie, give Patrick Payroll a call at (901)752-2422 and let me show you how we can add value to your business.
Stoney Simons, Sales and Business Development at Patrick Payroll LLC via LinkedIn
