My wife is crazy about another man. I’d be jealous, but I’m crazy about him too. He’s my lawn guy Brian.

Brian has a small landscaping and lawn maintenance company. His was the third lawn service we tried this past summer. The first two didn’t cut it (pun intended).

My spouse has very high standards for the little patch of green that surrounds our home. But after the first day Brian was on the job, our lawn looked like a magazine ad for Scott’s lawn food. My wife was ecstatic. “Look at how well he edged,” she gushed. “There’s no cuttings on the driveway or street.”

One by one she listed his accomplishments, from the diagonal cutting pattern in the front lawn to his wonderful weed whacking. I had to agree with each point. We looked at each other and just knew we had found “our lawn guy.”

Be “My Guy”

I’m always pleased when a client introduces me as “my marketing guy” or “my ad guy” or “my PR guy.” Or when a customer introduces several Farris staffers as “my marketing people,” or “my ad people,” etc.

I don’t care what we’re called — as long as it is preceded by the word “my.”

Ultimate Positioning

Although you may never see it as a tag line or in a mission statement, I can tell you that being introduced as “my [fill-in-the-blank] guy” by a customer is the ultimate positioning.

If a customer refers to you by saying, “This is the guy that does my taxes,” or maybe “These are the people that service our trucks,” you probably have some work to do to get to that next level in your relationship with your customer.

But when a customer refers to you as “my tax guy,” or “my service guy,” they have accepted you as a key component in their organization. You are the incumbent, and your competitor is going to have a tough time unseating you.

Keys To Becoming “My Guy”

To get to the ultimate “my guy” position, you must do outstanding work…that’s a given. You must develop a good relationship with your customer, of course. And you must make sure your customer knows how much you’re doing for him or her — and how well you’re doing it.

It’s easy to get used to good service and just overlook it. So don’t brag, but submit work recaps and performance reports on a regular basis. Show what the alternative might have been if you had not done the job so well. Point out the savings, sales or results of your work. Maybe even send it with your invoice and make sure your customer sees it.

You Gotta Be “My Guy”

Work towards the goal of being positioned as “my guy” or “my people” by your customers. It’s the best positioning you can ever have.

P.S. If you need a lawn service next summer, contact me. I’ll hook you up with my guy.