RR#064 From Michelin Star to MRE: Where Does Your Business Fit?
No doubt you’ve heard me talk about productized services before. And chances are you have something in mind when you hear, “productizing services.”
Maybe you think of creating a digital course, or packaging your services into a few pricing tiers. Perhaps you think of creating processes to make client engagements more streamlined and scalable.
Which is the right way to think about productizing?
Well, all of them. Because productization exists on a spectrum.
Imagine this spectrum. On one end, you have a Michelin-starred chef crafting a bespoke meal in your kitchen - the equivalent of a fully customized consulting service.
On the opposite end, you have military MREs (Meal, Ready-to-Eat). These fully standardized meals provide a no-frills, no-substitutions experience, much like selling a pre-packaged digital course online.
But the universe between these extremes is vast and varied.
Consider the world-renowned Eleven Madison Park, an exclusive NYC restaurant voted the world's best (for good reason).
Or Nobu, offering a high-end fusion cuisine across multiple locations. Here, you can order Omakase - a semi-customizable chef's choice experience.
A notch down, there's Olive Garden, serving consistently good, budget-friendly Italian-American cuisine across 900+ outlets.
Further along the spectrum, Chipotle offers fast, customizable, but limited-option meals, and McDonald's exemplifies efficiency with its standardized fast food.
Each caters to different tastes, budgets, and experiences, just as your productized services can meet diverse client needs.
So, where should your business fit on this continuum?
It depends on many factors - your clients, your goals, and your preferred business model.
There's no one-size-fits-all approach to productization. But some critical considerations can guide you.
One key factor is whether you aim to be the business or build the business.
Playing the Michelin-starred chef, crafting individualized meals for high-end clientele, may sound exciting. But remember, those clients will expect you to deliver the service. So, there are limitations to growth.
Moving down the spectrum towards standardized but high-quality services, you create growth opportunities independent of your time. These services are easier to market, and your potential client base expands.
The important thing to remember is that you don’t have to jump from one end of the continuum to the other. There are a wide range of options in-between that allow you to control the quality and scalability of your solutions for clients.
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