Variety vs. Consistency

Every morning I make coffee at home.  I brew a couple of mugs in my kitchen and drink them while I have a bowl of cereal, trying to keep an eye on the kids while they get ready for school.  For me, it's not just about saving money (it costs less than a buck a day at home, even for "good" coffee).  It's mostly about variety.  I almost never buy the same kind of coffee twice.  I get coffees from every region of the world in every flavor.  In fact, I usually buy 2 or 3 bags at a time, because I can't make up my mind.  Right now at home I have some organic french vanilla, Folgers cinnamon, and a bag of some kind of antioxidant "breakfast blend."

Many folks, however, prefer consistency.  They want their Tim Horton's coffee every day (for example) because they know there won't be any surprises- The cup this morning will be the same as the cup they got yesterday, and that's ok.

Whether it's coffee, cereal, cars or anything else, the two forces of variety and consistency will always compete for consumers' business.  However in the service industries, including sales, consistency is a higher priority because services are based on relationships.  People will generally not choose a different realtor every time they want to look at houses.  Rather, they want to work with someone they know and trust, in order to feel confident.  This means, of course, that in order to maximize success in sales, sales professionals have to maximize their consistency, not their variety.  Variety may be good (in fact, necessary) for marketing (to draw in new clients), but service must be consistently excellent to retain existing clients.  There really shouldn't be any surprises... except to exceed expectations!

Obbee always strives to exceed expectations when it comes to sales leads.  We use proprietary web-based tools and methodologies to create motivated prospect lists for the real estate, insurance (home & health), mortgage, debt settlement and loan modification industries.  Our approach is one of consistency- except for the office coffee, of course.  :)

- Dave