One of the biggest questions I get from business owners is “how can we compete when our
competitors product is cheaper”
It’s’ a great question and one that I have been meaning to write about for a while
But before I do, I want to cover off on a couple of things first…
Firstly, many sales people think that the number one criteria that buyers use to buy is price.
This is incorrect. There is a percentage of buyers who buy purely on price but in many studies
on this part of the market, this percentage is about 10% but no more than 20%.
These are the buyers that will spend $25 on fuel on a round trip to save $5 on an item – I kid you not !
(and if you’ve been in sales as long as I have, you will have met your fair share of people from that
group.)
The trouble with always being the cheapest is…
– you can always be beaten on price
– your clients are not loyal – in fact as soon as they can get it cheaper they move on
The other thing to understand is that all things being equal, everyone buys on price – what that means is
if your buyer sees no difference between the product or service they get from you and
the one that they get from some one else, then of course they will buy from your competitor.
So how do we change that?
We have to create inequality in how our business is perceived we have to give them other criteria to
base their decision on – there are 3 main ways that you can do this
1.Position your business differently
What does that mean ? well you can position your offer differently by how the market perceives you.
One of the best ways to do that is to position your business as a specialist in a particular sub market in your industry
The best example of this is in the medical industry. There are certain surgeons and physiotherapists that specialise
in knee surgery and knee rehabilitation.
In short, when we become a specialist in a particular task or a particular product, suddenly our expertise is elevated
in the market and people will choose us over our competitors.
2.Become an educator
You can do that by creating education based marketing material that informs your target market
on how to buy better and avoid common mistakes that un informed uneducated buyers make.
Buy offering free un biased advise that is useful to your target client, you add value.
By adding value, suddenly you have again achieved the strategic outcome of becoming UNEQUAL in the mind
of your prospective client
3.Offer extra complimentary products or services that have high perceived value but low cost to you
One of my eyewear clients created a huge business and smashed their competition by simply offering
a buy one get one free offer. The clients flocked to their stores to get their free spectacles.
The “free range” were decent spectacles that looked just like the name brand range but they
were sourced overseas where they could be purchased at low per unit cost.
So the real question for you to ask is this…
What can I do in the way of…
Narrowing my target market so we can be experts to a particular segment of our market?
Becoming educators to our potential clients to gain trust and differentiate ourselves in the market?
How can we add additional useful products or services that have high perceived value to our potential
clients and low cost to us?
If you’d like to have a 10 minute chat with me about how we can change your offer to the market
so you get less and less resistance on price, simply click here.
If you’d like to attend a live training with me where you can learn how to create big shifts in your sales
results without working any harder or spending any extra money on marketing, click here
