How can you get your best clients to say why your business is special? Photo / Getty Images
The reality of life in business is that most of us have competitors who sell similar products and services to what we offer.
So how do we encourage potential clients to choose our business instead of these competitors?
One marketing strategy that could be worth testing is to tell potential clients why your business is unique or special compared to your competitors.
Here are four ways you could position your business as being unique and special.
1: Share memorable ideas about what you do
Jenny Grace is a performance and productivity improvement business coach.
The normal approach to improving staff performance is to give people training on an area they are weak at.
So if a person is not good at time management they are given training in time management.
Jenny takes a different approach and focuses instead on using the natural strengths that people already have and using these to help people become star performers.
Her approach is based on a huge amount of research done by the Gallup Organisation world-wide.
Jenny has written a fascinating guide called 'The Acres of Diamonds High Performance Solution' that explains in great detail how to use this approach to get amazing performance from normal staff.
Jenny says you train strengths rather than try to fix weaknesses.
And this memorable idea make her special in what she does.
2: Provide amazing after sales service that clients tell other people about
A few months ago I decided to set up a new email list using Mail Chimp.
I had never used Mail Chimp before and I couldn't work out how to use it effectively. So I hired a Mail Chimp Training Expert called Kiely Buttell. In a 90 minute personal training session over the internet Kiely helped me learn the key things I needed. I was now using Mail Chimp well.
About a month ago I realized that I needed to learn three more things about using Mail Chimp. I contacted Kiely and told her what I wanted to learn.
Kiely then made three super short 2 minute videos that explained exactly what I needed to learn and gave these videos to me with her compliments.
There was no charge and I was delighted at this amazing after sales service.
(And here I am telling you about it today.)
3: Get your clients to talk about how special you are
Robert Burnside is an executive business coach based in Japan.
I had the pleasure of interviewing a number of Robert's executive clients recently and here is a small part of what one of these clients said about his coaching services...
"Before deciding to join Robert's programme I did a lot of research on my own around leadership coaching in Japan. Robert Burnside is certainly one of the top leadership coaches in the country. He has decades of experience coaching people at very high levels in business and is also very experienced in all aspects of business himself. Robert's services as a leadership coach has my highest recommendation." - Sergio Salvador, Google Japan, head of new business
(It's usually 10 times more effective in your marketing to have delighted clients saying positive things about your business and why you are special compared to you saying the same things about yourself.)
4: Talk about the unique background and skills that make your service so useful
Denis Cooksley owns a business called NZ Property Finders.
His business helps offshore investors and NZ expats based overseas to buy New Zealand Real Estate. What makes Denis unique is his fascinating background.
He's been working in real estate and property since 1982.
In that time he has done pretty much everything that you can do in real estate.
He has managed the creation of subdivisions and housing estates.
He has sold residential houses and apartments.
He has sold and leased commercial properties.
He has also enjoyed being an Expat working in the United Arab Emirates so he knows exactly what it is like to be expat himself.
His background and skills makes him unique and special around what he does.
Even though you may sell similar products or services to other businesses there are many ways you can still position your business as being unique and special.
And when you do this well you greatly increase the odds of people choosing your business to spend their hard earned money with.
"You are one of a kind and unique. Never forget that." - Richard Simmons
1: What memorable ideas can you share around what you do?
2: How can you provide amazing after sales service that your clients can't wait to tell other people about?
3: How can you get your best clients to say why your business is special?
4: What is unique and special about your skills and background that makes your business the ideal choice for a new customer to spend their money with?
Who's in line for influential TVNZ role?; $1 sales: Five NZME community newspapers saved.