Video: Sam the Irreplaceable
I’m just here in my office doing some little preparation for a speaking event that I have coming up in a couple of weeks. I’m going to be speaking in Phoenix to Sam Beckford’s coaching clients. Around 400 will be in attendance.
I decided to record a video for you for a couple of reasons. First, I’m going to be teaching them about the Invaluable Factors, one of which is Irreplaceability, but also because Sam is a great example of this factor of Irreplaceability—and I wanted to illustrate why.
One of the things that determine how much money you make per hour and how much people want to work with your business is how irreplaceable you are. And Irreplaceability really comes down to two factors: one of course is supply (meaning how many other options do people have) and the other is understanding.
The reason why I wanted to bring up Sam in particular is because he is an awesome example of Irreplaceability. He has built a business that is irreplaceable, but to a target market. And that is the key, is to determine who your target market is and be very specific with them.
If “everyone” is the target market, if “everyone” is someone that you can work with, you are replaceable because you are competing with everyone. But when you focus on a particular market, suddenly there’s less supply. By definition, there are less people who are working with you and less people that are competing with you.
My guess is the majority of those reading this have never heard of Sam Beckford. And the reason why is because he targets music studios, dance studios, and gymnastics studios in providing his business coaching services. He has built a widely successful business based out in Vancouver, Canada. And part of the reason why he’s so successful is because he is so targeted.
Remember that I said Irreplaceability comes down to two aspects, and one is supply. So by focusing on a certain niche, he has made himself in scarce supply. And second of all by focusing on a certain niche, he has made himself someone who understands his market better. Understanding is the second aspect of Irreplaceability. The more that you focus on people, the more you understand your customer and provide services that fit them in a unique way, the more irreplaceable you make yourself.
Think about businesses, product and services that you think are irreplaceable, that you just want to keep doing business with them over and over again. A big part of that is that they understand you and your needs. In most cases, they have done a lot of research and a lot of careful thought into making sure that they understand you and build products and services that are matched to your needs.
Dave Crenshaw has appeared in TIME magazine, SIRIUS XM Radio, Forbes, MSN Money, been interviewed on radio and TV stations across North America and is the President of the National Association of Productivity Coaches. His book, The Myth of Multitasking: How ‘Doing It All’ Gets Nothing Done, has been published in six languages and is a time management best seller. His next book, Invaluable: The Secret to Becoming Irreplaceable, will release in all major bookstores in May 2010. Dave is the foremost expert in helping you increase the value of your time in an ever-changing market and has helped thousands of clients worldwide. To get a series of free Candid Productivity coaching videos from Dave, visit www.BeInvaluable.com.
Please comment! I’d love to hear your comments both about my example of Sam and also other product and services that you can think of that have shown that they understand YOU—and have, in turn, made themselves irreplaceable.
