Lowest Price As A USP
In the absence of any other differentiation, lowest price becomes the deciding factor on a purchase. What that means is that if you don’t give your customers a better reason to shop with you, they can only compare your price against others and go to the lowest price.
This is not a place where you want to be as a business, you will likely go out of business in a hurry. You would be far better to stand out in your marketplace with a different message and change the focus of your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) – that is your marketing message – to something else that matters to your customers. Your USP needs to answer the question “why should your prospects do business with you above any and all other options”. And you need to give a compelling reason.
Lens Crafters will get your glasses ready in about an hour, Wal Mart is the low price leader (one of the few businesses to successfully pull off this USP), Domino’s Pizza was the first to deliver in “30 minutes or it’s free”.
Each of these companies chose a particular feature of their business and decided to become the leader in that marketplace.
Is there a void in your marketplace? What can you do or deliver that no one else in your marketplace can? Then, before you decide on a USP, make sure that it matters to your customers. It might be an acccomplishment to be able to deliver a certain widget in 10 minutes but if your customers don’t care, or that is not what they are looking for, then don’t try to make it your USP. It won’t help you if no on is looking for that feature.
Find some way to stand out in your marketplace. Something that matters to your customers and that is currently not being delivered to them. Integrate that into your business, sales and marketing do deliver the message over and over, consistantly.
If you don’t find a way to stand out, your customers will buy on price and you will either lose customers or lose money.
Capture, Communicate, Offer
Capture the name of a prospect, communicate with them and make them an offer. The three basic steps of every follow-up system – and something that almost every business can implement – but for some reason, many do not.
The problem is that many businesses simply just focus on getting more people in the door. Of course this is the more expensive way to try and grow your business but that is all some people know.
What you want to do is make better use of the traffic that is already comig in your door before you invite more in. If 100 prospects come in contact with your business and 50 people buy, what are you doing with the other 50? There are many reasons that a person does not buy right now. Of course, these reasons will be different for different businesses and in different industries but I bet if you ask some people why they didn’t buy and if you check around, then you can find out. Sometimes it can be a silly reason you aren’t even aware of and by following up with those prospects, you may be sitting on a goldmine of potential business.
First, let’s change our viewpoint a bit and let’s put everyone who comes in to your business into one of two categories. They either buy today and are a customer, or they do not buy today and they are a prospect – someone we expect to buy in the future. If you can first view everyone who doesn’t buy as a future customer, you will treat them differently and begin to view them as ann asset which will gain value in the future. So get their contact information and begin to follow up with them.
People buy from people they know, like and trust. Once you start to build a relationship with a prospect, you greatly increase your chances of moving them along your sales process. Many business owners don’t think of building a relationship with their prospects but once people get to know who you are and what your business is about, you will start to see repeat buyers.
The last part of the equation is to make these people an offer they can’t refuse. If you have a list of prospects and are in regular contact with them, make them a special offer. Give them a discount that no one else is getting, add in some personal touch and make them feel a bit special, turn your prospects into an elite little club and make them feel special and privileged to be there.
Once you learn how to take people who are not purchasing from you and follow up with them by communicating and makeing them a special offer, you will grow your business larger and at much less cost than you could just by inviting more people in the front door.
