Volume #12

Sell your special way of doing business

“It is not your customer's job to remember you. It is your obligation and responsibility to make sure they don't have the chance to forget you.”

Patricia Fripp

In my special report The Smart Guide to Creating an Unfair Business Advantage I talk briefly about an unusual Australian dentist called Paddi Lund.

Paddi pulled down all his signs, locked his front door, took his name out of the phone book, and “fired” half his customers. Yet Paddi now works only 22 hours per week, earns 3½ times as much money and loves going to work.

One of the reasons Paddi does so well is not because he is a wonderful dentist.

As Paddi himself will tell you, there are other dentists who are more technically qualified than he is. The reason that Paddi does so well is that he sells his special way of doing business more than his actual dentistry services.

One of the interesting things about Paddi’s dental practice is his closed door dental policy. This means he only accepts as new dental clients, someone who has been referred by one of his existing clients. So his dental practice has an unlisted phone number.

Paddi has created an interesting resource he calls his ‘Welcome Book” which explains in great detail his special way of doing business.

When potential clients read his welcome book they understand very clearly what is special about the way Paddi does business. Some people who read his welcome book like what he does and they become clients. Others can see that Paddi’s approach is not for them.

Paddi’s story is a great example of what is possible when you focus on selling your special way of doing business rather than focussing on selling your products and services.

How to sell your special way of doing business

No matter what product or service you sell, there are usually a large number of other businesses offering something very similar.

So with all this competition, how do you get potential clients to choose your business to spend their money with?

One way is to focus on selling your special way of doing business and not the products or services you sell.

There are three ways to sell your special way of doing business:

1: Tell people (in detail) how you work with new customers or clients, before you talk to them about your products and services.

2: Tell people what you do before, during or after a sale that is different from your competitors. (And why your existing customers find this valuable.)

3: Be different from your competitors in ‘how’ you do business. Do this in a way that your customers and clients appreciate.

When selling your special way of doing business you can use one, two or all three of these methods. And they can be used when selling any product or service.

The good news is that you can develop a special way of doing business without spending much money. In fact you can often do it for free!

How to develop a special way of doing business:

1: Tell people (in detail) how you work with new customers or clients, before you talk to them about your products and services.

This might sound very simple to do (and it is), however almost no one does it in business. Before you can sell a person on buying your product or service you need to sell them on your sales process. In other words, let them know clearly what will happen at each stage of the sales process.

By doing this they have a clear picture of what is going to happen and they can then relax and focus on each step.

Remember that customers hate uncertainty or nasty surprises. And when you give them a clear picture of the sales process it removes a lot of the uncertainty they may have about what will happen along the way.

The easiest way to do this is to use the following words:

“The way I work is” or “The way we work is”

Then follow these words with the steps you go through in your normal sales process.

"John, before we talk about my computer services and how I may be able to help your business, what I’d like to do first is tell you how we work with a potential new client like you. First of all we do this.....Then we do this and this.... By doing these things it means this..... "

The more a customer understands what is happening at each step the more comfortable they will be with you.

Letting people know how you do business before talking about your products or services is usually a nice, low key way to get most sales conversations started.

Action Exercise One:

Put down in writing the steps you follow with a new customer for your product or service.

Now explain these steps to a new customer before you start talking about your product or service. Do this at least five times with new customers. What did you notice by doing this?

2: Tell people what you do before, during or after a sale that is different from your competitors. (And also explain why your existing customers find this valuable.)

Here’s an interesting example to get you thinking...

Important Dates Reminder Example:

I was reading recently about something a gift shop does after a person becomes a client and purchases something from their store.

They offer a free special occasion reminder service for important dates in their clients lives. These are things like birthdays and anniversaries of family members and friends. So a client would give the gift shop details of some important dates in their life. It could be a wedding anniversary, birthdays of family members and friends and so on.

The gift shop would then contact their client at least a week before each of these dates and remind them that it was coming up. They would also suggest an appropriate gift and card to mark the occasion.

Clients of this gift shop loved this service because it made their life simpler. They were now far less likely to forget an important occasion like an important birthday or anniversary. And they also had a good amount of time to select a great gift.

Naturally the gift shop had a good increase in sales by offering this service.

They also have something to talk about that sets them apart from their competitors.
I have shopped in dozens of gift stores and never been offered a helpful service like this. (This same service would also be perfect for a jewellery business to offer as well.)

Action Exercise Two:

What are some things you could do either before, after or during the sales process that would be of benefit and value to your customers?

Which one of these things are you going to start doing this week?

How are you going to explain this to your new clients and why is it is of value to them?

3: Be different from your competitors in ‘how’ you do business.

Do this in a way that your customers and clients appreciate.

Here’s a good example:

The prompt email reply:

I regularly purchase a number of marketing products from a marketing expert called Bob Serling. One of the things I love about doing business with Bob is that he always replies promptly and personally to any email I send him.

Now Bob is involved in dozens of projects with a large number of people. Yet he still finds the time to respond quickly to all my emails. I really appreciate that as at least half the people I email never reply promptly. And a large number don’t respond at all.

Because I appreciate Bob’s promptness doing this, I have made it a habit of responding promptly when someone emails me as well.

Action Exercise Three:

What could you change about 'how' you do business that would be valuable to a client? It could be something as simple as sending a hand written thank you card after making a sale.

Summary:

Create a special way of doing business that is different from all your competitors.

There are three different ways to do this.

1: Tell people (in detail) how you work with new customers or clients, before you talk to them about your products and services.

2: Tell people what you do before, during or after a sale that is different from your competitors. (And why your existing customers find this valuable.)

3: Be different from your competitors in ‘how’ you do business. Do this in a way that your customers and clients appreciate.

Creating a special way of doing business is an easy way to position yourself as being different from all your competitors in a very positive way. So use some of these ideas in your own business.

Have a wonderful month and I’ll be in touch again soon with the next volume of Easy Business Success.

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You can contact Graham on graham@twomac.co.nz

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