If you're anything like a “normal” company operating, you've probably got competitors.
That means, of course, that your customers do have a choice. And I guess you understand that one of the key things to recognise is why customers make the choice they do.
When you think about it, they make their choice based on the difference they perceive between you and your competitors. And that means you have to add “hooks” seemingly small (often lateral) ideas that make a major difference in perception.
One of our clients, (we'll call him John) showed me how they did it. John's company sells stationery.
The situation was that they were bidding for a major (as in very major) account for the supply of all of the customer's stationery requirements. It's a mega-sale.
Everyone else had cut their prices to the bone - everyone else except John that is.
He met with the customer's professional buyer and asked this simple question, “What is the most difficult thing that occurs when dealing with stationery suppliers?”
Now John's expected answers like, “Service” or “Lack of on-time delivery.” But what he got was “Reconciliation.”
“How do you mean?” asked John, somewhat surprised.
Then the customer started talking at great length about how all the invoices come in and how it was really difficult to charge the appropriate department for the relevant supplies. John listened intently.
And to cut a long story short, John suggested that his people key all the client's computer account codings into their computer so that the account numbers would appear automatically on all the invoices and statements.
As well as that, John suggested that his company produced a list each month showing how each of the various departments were performing with respect to their stationery budgets.
“Would that make life any easier?” John asked. In fact, what it's did saved the client many previously wasted man-hours.
Result, they are more than happy to pay John's premium prices.
John's added a hook to his product. Could it work for you?
Well, Ackland Brierty tells me it does. Ackland sells vegetables to retailers. Just recently he picked up a major customer by using exactly the same idea.
So, if it works for stationery and vegetables, maybe it'll work for you too. Just ask at your next team meeting, “what hooks can we add to gain more business?”
As specialists in business development too, we can help you build yourself a better business. So give us a call. We can start off simply with a planning session before deciding to go on. That way you are under no pressure, and the choice to go forward is totally under your control. And remember what we said about our guarantee.
