The other day I was talking with my mentor and he asked an interesting (I thought) question. “What does EffortlessHR offer a CEO that would make them want to use your product?”
I, of course, went through all the benefits and features of EffortlessHR (which I can also recite for you if you don’t know what they are), but it made me stop and think – what is it that the busy CEO/Owner of a company is looking for in any program or service? How do you get their attention and make them want to learn more?
Let’s face it – there are a lot of products and services out there and more are available every day. So, how do we make ourselves stand out or above all the others? Is it timing? Is it luck? Is it marketing? It probably is a bit of each of these three issues. But, I think there are some other pieces to the answer.
Solution – does my/your product provide a solution? According to the dictionary, a solution is the act of solving a problem or answering a question. I look at EffortlessHR and I believe that we do provide a solution. The problem may be too many spreadsheets, or personnel files disorganized or incorrectly filed. A question might be about what the laws or regulations are in a state regarding any number of subjects that impact a business and the employees of that business. So, if a busy CEO needed a solution to those problems, I think we could provide a Solution.
Integration – does my/your product or service integrate with the workings of the busy CEO and his or her company? The definition of Integration is the act or process of making whole or entire; the process of fitting into a community. EffortlessHR is a standalone HR program that can fit a growing company’s HR needs. You can have a solution, but if it doesn’t fit the company values and infrastructure, integration may not happen.
Ease of Use – is my/your product or service easy to implement and use? This step is defined as the ease with which people can employ a particular tool or other human-made object in order to achieve a particular goal. EffortlessHR provides a basic platform that is easy to implement (within 30 minutes you can be up and running) and easy to navigate (Quick Starts and clean, clear functionality). Many products or services have so many moving parts and sections that the user gets tired of trying to use it effectively. Remember the “some assembly required”? Your Solution, in order to effectively integrate, must be Easy to Use.
Timely – is my/your product or service timely? Timely means that this is an opportune time to use it or has appeared at the right time and place. EffortlessHR is a timely product because there are over 6,000,000 small businesses in the USA that are looking for help in dealing with HR issues, employment laws and regulations, and the multitude of issues facing employers. Maybe you are looking at an audit by the Wage and Hour Division for how you have categorized your employees or about overtime pay so you are looking for answers. If all is going smoothly, you are not looking for my product, but at the timeliness of a different product or service.
There probably are other answers. I am sure my Mentor asked the question to get me to think of those other answers – I will send him this and see what he says.
In the meantime, I feel pretty good that I have come up with 4 things a busy CEO may look for in a product or service. Now, I have to make sure EffortlessHR can provide a Solution, that is Integrated in a Easy to Use methodology and is Timely to the client’s needs.
Let me know, as a busy CEO, what gets your attention.