My trusty old Dell laptop blew a motherboard fan in the middle of a presentation last week, so this weekend I finally broke down and bought a Mac. I rationalized my decision by reminding myself that because Apple makes both the software and hardware, it would be a more reliable machine. In truth, I was seduced by all of that slick marketing.

Similarly, a lot of romancing needs to be done if you want to sell your business, so I thought it might be fun to deconstruct my Apple experience for you in the context of building a sellable company.

Once I had selected my computer, the salesperson (er, “concierge”) told me about “Apple Care,” a glorified warranty that gives customers access to a special support phone number (among other things) for $100. Now, I’m the guy who never buys the insurance—not from Best Buy, not from Hertz—so it was a surprise to me that I was seduced into buying Apple Care.

It got me thinking about how to make the intangible seem real. First of all, Apple branded its warranty in a unique and memorable way. The concierge avoided using the generic word “warranty,” opting for the word “care” instead. As she explained the benefits of Apple Care, she handed me a shrink-wrapped white box with a plump red apple on the cover. On the back of the box was a bulleted list of the benefits being described by the concierge.

I’m not sure there was anything in that little box. Clearly, Steve Jobs was not poking his head out between the seams ready to answer my every technical query, but somehow the box in my hand made Apple Care feel more substantial. In short, it felt like a product, not a service.

Making the squishy seem real is a big part of selling a business too. You need to make your:

• sales pipeline look real even though you may have no idea what will close
• budget projections look solid even though they may not be much more than an educated guess
• employees look like highly qualified experts even though some may be best characterized as generalists
• product or service seem tangible and scalable even though in truth it may be a malleable offering that you customize for customers at every turn

Running a business can be messy. What have you done to make your business look more concrete?

P.S. I thought you might enjoy a couple of my recent articles below….

Do you need a brain transplant?

~ published April 13, 2010, The Globe and Mail

Last weekend my wife and I were browsing the shelves of our local Rogers Video and couldn’t find anything to watch. We have seen The Blind Side , and I have no interest in watching the Michael Jackson movie. As we scanned the rest of the titles, nothing jumped out at us.

Fortunately, Toronto’s Beach neighbourhood is home to an independent video store run by a husband and wife team who offer an alternative experience to that of the traditional video store chain. After walking into their cluttered store, instead of scanning the new-release wall, the initiated head straight to the owners and ask for a recommendation. »more

Six reasons to stop charging by the hour

~ published April 14, 2010, The Globe and Mail

I received a bill from my lawyer and he itemized his time spent on my file last month. He spent four-tenths of an hour on an e-mail to a colleague and one-tenth of an hour leaving me a voice mail.

I have found billing by the hour to be a liability when trying to build a sellable business. Years ago I owned a small design studio that charged by the hour. We had $750,000 in revenue, of which more than 20 per cent was flowing to the bottom line, yet the business was worthless because we were simply four people hawking hours. »more

Lessons learned from a lame attempt

~published April 15, 2010, The Globe and Mail

We were having lunch at Bravi, an upscale Italian restaurant in downtown Toronto. Across the table was the head of corporate development for a large advertising agency holding company. Fifteen years my senior, he was perfectly turned out with a crisp shirt underneath a tailored suit. He had flown in from Montreal to discuss “a possible partnership.”

Once the lunch plates were cleared, he got down to the real purpose of his trip. “Have you ever considered selling your business?” »more

Make Your Service Business As Easy to Sell as a Bottle of Tide

~ published About.com

In the 1990s, he owned a graphic design studio and was approached by someone who wanted to buy his business. Excited, he met with the suitor only to find out he expected to buy the studio for nothing down with a promise of future payments if Warrillow hit targets in the future as a division of his company. Incredulous, Warrillow asked the buyer to justify his valuation methodology. He explained that service businesses are difficult to sell because the assets are the people and if the people leave, there is no more company.

The meeting inspired Warrillow to transform his service business into one that looked more like a product business. He reasoned that, to be valuable, his business needed to seem tangible to outsiders and not so reliant on people. Procter & Gamble is the granddaddy of product marketing so he picked up a bottle of Tide and followed their formula. Here are the five steps he recommends you follow if you want to make your service-related business almost as easy to sell as a bottle of detergent.  » more

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