#08 – How to Reposition Your Company as a Premium Provider

ByJudson Rollins

If you talk with your shippers, you already know there’s money to be made in being reliable and providing greater visibility. But can you turn that into higher margins? In today’s episode, host Judson Rollins takes listeners through the “from worst to first” turnaround of the late Continental Airlines, once among the least reliable US airlines but later one of its best.  

Judson dives deep into four fundamentals you should keep in mind when overhauling your operations:

  • File Your Flight Plan and Track Your Progress
  • Think “Money In,” Not “Money Out”
  • Ask Customers the Right Question
  • Make Reliability a Reality

Learn what each of these entails in this groundbreaking episode of Propel Your Revenue! 

What You Will Learn In This Episode

  • The cornerstones of every successful company strategy: market, financial, product, and people
  • The importance of establishing KPIs, analyzing them, and benchmarking them against your competitors
  • The danger of excessively cutting costs
  • The one question you must ask customers to boost revenue faster than cost
  • How to identify an approach that will boost reliability in your operation. 

Money Quotes

“Companies that are headed for disaster try to cut costs, but that can actually sabotage the product, which lowers revenues more because it lowers customers’ value perception. Break the doom loop by apologizing for your mistakes and focus on delivering a better product.” [4:59 – 5:19]

“If you ask customers what they want, they will write you a book. If you ask them what they want and what they will pay you extra for, you will get one clean sheet of paper with a small achievable list of requests.” [13:31 – 13:42]

To Learn More

Article: “Right Away and All at Once: How We Saved Continental” https://hbr.org/1998/09/right-away-and-all-at-Once-how-we-saved-continental

Book: “From Worst to First: Behind the Scenes of Continental’s Remarkable Comeback” https://www.amazon.com/Worst-First-Continentals-Remarkable-Comeback-ebook/dp/B000SEQUZ2