If you are thinking about starting a business, take an hour to consider is how you can help save people time.
Uber is in the time-saving business, helping you to avoid the wait for a taxi to show up on a street corner. They leverage the “uber” availability of cars by showing you that you only need to wait 5 minutes for your personal driver to show up.
Supermarkets are clocking in and getting in on the game with personal shopping too. You can go online at Harris Teeter (A North Carolina-based grocery chain), place an order and then go through a drive through to pick it up. They too are in the time-saving business, and it’s a growing segment of their overall sales.
Sometimes positioning your service as time savings can be another way to leverage this emotional connection to customers. A landscape company whose message is about giving you back your weekend to play with your kids is about time-saving not cutting the grass. A restaurant that encourages you to swing by for takeout if you don’t have the time to dine in– also about time savings. Or Door Dash that will deliver to you from the restaurant. Even auto payments for services for personal or business use can help you save time (and money) on routine activities. Why not marketed it this way?
Saving Time as a Positioning Framework
How could you reimagine your message to your customers to help them save time?
- Can you turn your business into subscription services that give your products or services on a regular basis and saves customer’s time? Amazon is doing this with high-velocity products that people buy over and over again like Diapers and Detergent. Check out their dash button service.
- When beauty salons reserve the 1st Tuesday of each month at 2:30 for you, aren’t they saving you time?
- When you take other routine activities, and someone makes it easier to do, you start to put a value on time saved – what is it worth? Think of the dry cleaner who picks up and delivers to your door, so that all you need to do is put your laundry by your front door. You don’t have to make two trips or worry about payment since your credit card is on file.
- Manufacturing companies who supply ingredients or materials to customers can manage inventory for them and deliver on schedule, without the need for the customer to place an order. This vendor inventory management is fast becoming big time savers for companies and puts the time (and expense) of placing frequent orders on their supplier.
- The bookstore that offers a free text and delivers service where you text them what you enjoy reading, and they will send you three books that are new and fit that genre is saving you a trip to the store but allowing you to engage with knowledgeable staff.
Time is a wonderful product to market. How can you make this tick for you?
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Got the time to talk about leveraging time in your business? Connect with me here.
Photo credit: Pixabay Free Images
