In our last post
we discussed how much you should charge for your products and services and how
to find the optimum price that will have you winning all of the time. This post
comes from a question that we get with a little added on the end as in: “How To
Beat Your Competition and lock them out!”
If you haven’t
read out last post, please go back and read it now as it will help you to get
the full picture of what we are discussing here. You do NOT want to build your
business by always selling on the lowest price. If you do this you have nowhere
to go but down. If your competition is bigger, stronger and wealthier, they
will keep lowering prices until they put you out of business so don’t try to go
this route. It would be far better to give more, do more and/or be more to your
customers rather than lower your price. Again, please go back and read our last
posts “How Much Should I Charge,” both part 1 and part 2.
Every business
wants to beat their competition and we will discuss this here but we also want
to add some very important information. Once you beat your competition, how do
you keep them out? Many businesses won’t think twice about lowering their price
to get back in with the customer – even if it means losing money. It won’t be enough
to beat your competition; you will also need to keep them out – permanently!
After our last
two posts you now know how to go out and win the business that you need to keep
your business growing. Now that you have the customer we are going to be sure
that you never get pushed out by a competitor with a lower price.
Ask your
customer what things are causing them pain, whether that is in your industry
and the products and services you provide or outside of your industry. Once you
know this, find ways to take the pain away. Let’s use a basic example to
illustrate this point:
If you are in
the janitorial services business, you will no doubt have people that will
complain because you missed something. If this happens enough times, the office
manager will get tired of dealing with this and you will become a source of
pain for them.
Go to your
contact inside the building and ask them where you can leave a notebook in a
public area that will always be in the same spot where the employees will have
access to it. Also ask them to announce it to the employees and let them know
the book is there for them to make note of things that need to be improved or
were missed.
By doing this,
the complaints stop going to the office manager (which will assure that you are
not becoming a pain to them). When you or your employees come in to clean, the
first thing your supervisor does is to check the book and do those things
first. They then check off the items once they are completed and inspected (and
only then). Now they can start their normal work for your customer.
Once you have
done this, start looking around for other items like:
- Window
Washing
- Carpet
and Tile Cleaning
- Coffee
Service
- Vending
Machines
- Paper
Products
- Hand
Cleaning Solutions
- Anything else they may be buying or need
As you build a
great relationship with your customer, offer to give them a price on these
other items and do all you can to match or beat the price (read our last two
posts for more on this).
As you take
these other items on and you are successful with them, there is no way that
your competition will be able to push you out because they don’t do all of
these things and the hassle that your customer once felt but no longer has to
deal with will keep you in their forever (provided you keep providing them top
notch service). Plus your monthly billings are increasing and you are becoming
more successful!
What about if
you are selling computers or computer peripherals (printers, cables, etc.)?
Offer the other products along with what you are selling now. If your customer
has been buying computers from you, what about items such as:
- Cables
- Printers
- Ink
and Toner
- Networking
Gear (patch panels, hubs, routers, switches, etc.)?
- How about working a deal with a cable installer to get a lower price so you can add some on and offer that service as well?
Many customers
that are buying computers and all that goes with them will also need:
- Large
Screen Televisions
- Projectors
- Software
- Conference
calling equipment
- Service
Contracts
- And
the list keeps going
I hope this is
opening your mind up to all of the possibilities that are available. Please
note that you do not have to be the company that does all of this in-house. Go
out and make deals and become partners with those that do and get more business
because of it.
Also, once you
do partner with another company you can offer all of the same things to them so
that your partner is also your customer and you continue this cycle of
increasing revenue while locking out your competition.
If you would like help with this or any other
business, sales, marketing, social media issues and more, contact us at:
- info@empowermediallc.net
- www.facebook.com/EmpowerMediaLLC
- https://twitter.com/empowermediabiz
- www.youtube.com/EmpowerMediaLLC
If you know someone that is thinking
of starting a business but aren’t sure what business to start or what to do, we
have the most awesome FREE help available. Have them go to www.getaninstantraise.com and
download the FREE eBook that is available and they will be on the right road,
the right way and can get started now for FREE!
Until our next post – we wish you all success!
