As small business owners, we usually can’t afford to compete with the big boys on price or selection. They have economies of scale a small business can’t hope to ever match. When competing with Wal-Mart, Fry’s, Deloitte & Touche, and numerous other giants, your point of differentiation usually comes down to the knowledge and hands on approach you take. How can you leverage your knowledge to keep customers coming back, and better yet, tell others about your business?
Here are some tips on ways to better educate your client base and give them a reason to keep doing business with you instead of the low price leaders:
- Provide prospects and clients with what they want, information and advice- and remove what they don’t want, a sales pitch.
- Maintain your dignity because you never make any effort to sell.
- Establish yourself as an authority because prospects and clients see you as a reliable source of information.
- Reach out to prospects during the first stage of the decision-making process, often before they call your competitors.
- Prove that calling your office is nothing to be afraid of. In fact, it’s a positive experience.
- Screen prospects that are genuinely interested in your services and only do business with those whom you can genuinely help.
- Establish your credibility and make a positive first impression by offering helpful information rather than a sales pitch.
- Save time by answering common questions in your materials and seminars, rather than answering the same questions over and over.
- Earn your prospect’s loyalty because you’ve made an effort to help him, even if he or she doesn’t become your client.
You gain a competitive advantage simply by using this method because few, if any, of your competitors currently use it.
As an effort to keep you, our readers, informed, please note that our weekly Radio Show, Small Business Radio, can now be heard on the web live directly through the KLSX Free FM 97.1 website. Just go to: https://www.radiomat.com/register.php?action=register&station=KLSXFMand register to listen live to KLSX at any time! You can also find podcasts of our most popular shows at: http://www.sbanetwork.org/radio.
Have a great week!