In today's highly competitive business environment, low pricing is becoming less and less of a successful competitive strategy. However low you pitch your prices, someone will be clever (or stupid) enough to provide the product or service at an even lower cost. When that happens, you've got a fight on your hands to avoid going out of business with them! Instead, companies in every industry are now adding muscle to their competitive edge by stressing quality and value.

Adding value to your products or services is a way of pumping up your service offering without necessarily adding to your costs. It means that your customers are gaining some additional advantage that they would not get elsewhere (without having to pay for it or by paying very little compared to its perceived value).

This edition of your newsletter focuses on how you can knock out the competition and add value to your services.

It's the differences your potential customers perceive about your business that make them want to buy from you rather than somebody else. A Unique Core Differentiator is a critical tool to help your potential customers clearly understand the added value your business can provide—the things that really set you apart from your competition. Your Unique Core Differentiators can make the difference between being a contender and being a champ. In one statement it tells prospective customers exactly why they should buy from you and reminds current clients why they continue to deal with your business. A well-formed differentiator targets the hot buttons, real buying concerns or key frustrations of your clients.

How do you find out what those key issues are? Just ask! Talking to your customers in a structured way, on a frequent basis, with specific outcomes in mind lets you focus your energies on creating an experience that will keep them coming back to you instead of your competitors (as well as referring new business to you). We recommend you conduct frequent customer advisory boards to do this.

Differentiate the Product or Differentiate the Process

When people buy from you, they're actually buying the differences they perceive about your business. That means you must differentiate yourself (or at least give the perception that your business is different).

Those differences could be that your business actually does offer a better, more unique product or service, or that the specific way you deliver the product or service brings better results for your customers, such as:

• Your business offers better value for the money
• Your products outperform the competition
• Your experience or knowledge within your business far outstrips your competitors
• You have received special accreditation in your industry
• You offer a unique guarantee that your competitors can't match
• You offer customers a 24-hour service hotline, free delivery, or several payment options, whereas your competitors don't
• It's the little things you do that really mean you go the extra mile for your customers
• You have won service or product excellence awards
• Dealing with your business is more fun

Promote Your "Special-ness" At Every Opportunity

If your current marketing material does not actively promote what is different about your business, you are missing out on a huge opportunity to grow and increase sales. The common marketing mistake that business owners or managers make is to promote the features and price of their products and services rather than the benefits clients would receive—without offering any other point of differentiation. Marketing this way fails to educate your potential customers and clients about the real differences that your business offers—the differences that make yours the better business to deal with.

An example: Federal Express has a great Unique Core Differentiator that says it all—Absolutely Positively Overnight! It clearly says in all of their marketing efforts that they're the people to call if you need something to get there without a doubt. By promoting this and offering a guarantee of overnight delivery, the company actually created a point of difference in the potential customers' minds, something unique to offer customers, something that made them stand out.

"Core"…An Important Point

Your Unique Core Differentiators must permeate your entire business:

• The way your team members present themselves
• The way you deal with your customers or clients
• The way your business presents itself

1. They articulate exactly what the customer wants
2. They give a laser-like focus to everyone on your team

Value-adding marketing tools have two key purposes:

1. To educate your customers about a certain topic or issue
2. To position your business as the expert on that topic or issue

Examples of value-added tools that you can hand out, mail or email potential customers are:

• A how-to booklet on "How to Make the Most of Your ___________"
• An emailed fact sheet on "Making Sure You Get the ______________ You Need"
• A brochure on the "12 Steps to a Better ____________"
• An editorial or special report on "The Six Questions You Need to Ask Your ___________ Before You Say Yes!"

Focus on the Value, Not the Cost

So now you may be thinking this stuff is going to cost me money to produce! Keep in mind that value-adding tools have a high perceived value. Customers perceive these tools as valuable because of what the information can do for them. So despite the fact that it may cost you a little to produce a booklet, brochure, etc., the inherent value of the information to customers will result in a return on your investment many times over. They'll trust you, keep buying from you and tell their friends about you. Remember that these tools can also add value to customers you already have. Customers can use the information just as well, and it's a great way to reactivate them and/or inform them about a new product or service.

A recent three-year study by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) in Washington, D.C. showed that small businesses which put heavy emphasis on customer service were ten times more likely to survive and succeed than competitors who emphasised advantages such as lower prices or type of product.

Consider some of the following suggestions for top-notch service:

1. Get feedback. Positive feedback is helpful and makes you feel good, but it really won't help you improve your service. It's the negative feedback that really counts. Unfortunately, you rarely get to hear what the average dissatisfied customer has to say. They usually just take their business elsewhere. Gathering feedback creates two business opportunities. First, you get a second chance to make it right with an unsatisfied customer. Second, you can use the feedback to identify potential product flaws, faulty or outdated policies or poor customer service that caused this customer (and perhaps numerous others) to have a negative service experience.
2. Commit to continuous improvement. There's no point in gathering feedback if you're not prepared to act on it. But be sure to find the real cause of problems—not just the symptoms. For example, if customers complain about how they're treated on the telephone, don't automatically assume that the problem begins and ends with the people who answer the phone. Make sure the telephone system is functioning properly and that all employees have been trained in how to answer and transfer calls. Being committed to improvement means being willing to address the whole problem.
3. Practice what you preach. Every single person on your team must understand the importance of customer service and also provide great service to people inside and outside of the company. If team members treat each other as valued customers, dealing with the public is a natural extension of a sound internal policy. It's that simple.
4. Empower team members. We've all been frustrated by a situation in which a customer service representative doesn't have the authority or the proper information to help solve our problem. Give your team members as much latitude as possible to solve certain customer problems on their own, immediately, without speaking to a supervisor. If you're making good hiring decisions and providing your team members with appropriate training, you should be able to trust their judgement related to customer service.
5. Reward good service. Praise outstanding customer service early and often. Informal recognition can be a stronger motivator than many formal rewards. Tell your team members what a good job they're doing. And recognise their contributions immediately instead of waiting for the next company meeting.

In a world where search engines are flooded with tens of millions of Web pages, links from one Web site to another are increasingly important. Wired magazine recently estimated that perhaps half the people who come to a Web site find it, not through search engines, but through either references in print media or links from other sites. You offer something extra (added value) to your visitors when you link to sites that will educate, entertain, or serve them.

When you offer an interesting article or service, other sites will link to it because it adds value to their visitors and, thereby, adds value to their site. Keep an ongoing list of Web sites that are related (but not competitive) to what you do. Write a brief e-mail message to the Web site administrator, letting him/her know your site has some information that might be valuable to their visitors:

Hello Webmaster:

I invested some time on your site—great job! It's got good information and it was easy to find my way around. To add to the informational value for your customers, I thought you might like to add this link to your site http://www.yourcompanyname.com/articleonhowto/. It's an article we wrote on "The 12 Steps to _____________" an unbiased guide to help customers make better decisions about _______________________.

Please let me know if you would like more information on our business. I look forward to hearing from you.

Thanks and best of luck with your site.

Sincerely ...

Linking all comes down to adding value. What does my site offer that can add value to someone else's site? What does someone else's site offer that can add value to my customer's experience with my business? Answer these questions and you'll be well on your way to success.

External links are a tricky yet powerful tool to use when developing content for your site. The benefit is that you can leverage the efforts of other Web publishers in order to add value to your own site. The danger is that external links whisk your visitors away with no guarantee that they will return.

Fortunately, there is safety in numbers. Rather than having three or four unrelated links, make your site the definitive collection of links for a specific subject that is of interest to your target audience. You can arrange for reciprocal links to other sites. Add value by carefully selecting and describing each resource. Interested visitors will bookmark your site and return the next time they're exploring that subject.

Customer Support

Much of what we think of as support or service starts with a customer's attempt to find information. User guides, business locations, design specifications, maintenance manuals and other pertinent information, can all be made available online at a relatively low cost (and with different levels of security, e.g., for preferred customers eyes only). And although it generates no revenue, there is real value in providing easily accessible information to visitors when they need it. Profits from repeat business and referrals go straight to the bottom line. The more time satisfied customers spend on your site, the more opportunities you have to sell.

Cyber-Selling

The Internet is not just for information anymore. Some of the most creative and potentially profitable uses of the Net involve a combination of information and service. Web surfers are buying books, ordering flowers, taking delivery of software and balancing their chequebooks online. As consumers and companies become more willing to purchase online and as marketers develop effective business models for this new medium, profitable opportunities will abound for small businesses. This is particularly true for companies that sell to a niche market. A company that caters to a small number of customers on a local basis can suddenly reach a global market without dramatically increasing marketing and distribution costs.

Feedback

Even without high tech Web wizardry, businesses can make interactivity an important part of their Web site's content. All commercial sites should include information about how to contact the company via phone, mail or e-mail. E-mail addresses of actual people are preferable to an impersonal address like "sales@company." In addition, special software can automatically e-mail a response to requests for more information.

"Most successful men have not achieved their distinction by having some new talent or opportunity presented to them. They have developed the opportunity that was at hand."

While every effort has been made to provide valuable, useful information in this publication, this firm and any related suppliers or associated companies accept no responsibility or any form of liability from reliance upon or use of its contents. Any suggestions should be considered carefully within your own particular circumstances, as they are intended as general information only.

We have systems, programs, turnkey solutions and one-on-one business development programs tailored to get results for you, address many of the ideas outlined here and, ultimately, build the business you've always wanted. Call Cameron Lamb on 1800 996 322 before 5:00pm, Wednesday January 17 and receive 2 complimentary tickets, valued at $125 each to our next Business Development Workshop absolutely free. That's a value of $250