Are you using the worst marketing strategy ever in your business?
If you sell your product or service using “price” as your main selling point, you are guilty of using the worst marketing strategy ever! You’re not alone if you do, but now you can correct this and take advantage of a great opportunity.
I’m not sure if the economy is causing business owners to do this, or I am just noticing it more now. For example, I read the local newspaper every day. I do this because I want to see the ads more than anything else.
In my local newspaper there are a group of HVAC companies that advertise regularly. And every single one uses “price” as their marketing strategy. And it drives me completely nuts. I really mean that too.
It drives me nuts for a few reasons. First, I refer to this as “incestuous marketing”. Maybe you’d call it “monkey see – monkey do” marketing.
But you get where I’m coming from here. It’s like the HVAC business owners look at their competitors ads and think they have to compete using the same marketing strategy. That’s a mistake. A BIG mistake!
In fact, instead of playing follow the leader, you’d be much better off if you did the complete opposite of your competitors! Think about it. Do you think you will stand out from the crowd by doing what the crowd does, or by doing the opposite of what the crowd does?
Next, and this is a biggie, if you only have price as a marketing strategy, you have a failure of a business in the making! Strong words, yes. But it’s the truth. The ONLY way you can possibly compete on price is if you are Wal Mart.
Are you Wal Mart? If not, I urge you to find a better marketing strategy, one that does NOT involve price.
Have you heard the term “Unique Selling Proposition”, or “USP”? Price is not a USP. There’s nothing unique about price when everyone in your market uses price as a selling point. I’m not saying you can never have a sale and use price to promote the sale. No, that’s not at all what I am talking about here.
I’m talking about using price almost exclusively as a USP. I mentioned HVAC companies, but they’re certainly not alone here. I see it being done in so many different markets. I even see Dentists and Plastic Surgeons using it, which to me is even worse than HVAC companies.
Ask yourself what it is that sets your business apart. What is unique about your product/service? And please don’t say “we have excellent customer service”. That’s not a USP any more than price is. It should be a given that you have excellent customer service, and you should be sure your prospects know that by using “social proof”. An example would be testimonials from past customers.
Don’t think of your USP as being something shallow, or something your customers should expect anyway, like excellent customer service. You need to really give this a lot of thought. There is almost always something unique or special about a business. It’s not always the product or service itself. It can be something about the business, or the way you do business.
Why should someone want to do business with you and not one of your competitors? You need to answer this question, and communicate this answer in your marketing to your prospects. Here’s the kicker when you do. You will find that you can actually charge more for your product/service then your competitors, and the customer will be happy to pay it because they can clearly see the benefits of doing business with you over your competitors.
By the way, when is the last time you raised your prices? if you can’t remember it’s probably because you haven’t discovered your true USP yet. Seriously, you need to work on this. It will allow you to move away from your competitors, so you can stand out from the crowd and sell a lot more of your product/service, and at a higher price.
Any questions? Comments?
Until next time…
Yours for Massive Results from your Marketing,
Jay
