The third phase of the Trail of the Sale™ is the compare stage. If there are so businesses with the same products or services as you have, it can be hard to make your product or service get seen. But even if your business is one of many (I’m looking at you, nail salons, coffee shops, and other local businesses), there are things you can do to make your business stand out from the competition.
Why stand out from your competition?
You want to stand out because you don’t want to be viewed as a commodity. Commodity businesses have to price themselves competitively and are always competing for one audience. It’s really a zero-sum game: if one business wins the customer, it’s a loss for another business. It can essentially be a race to the bottom.
However, if you set yourself apart from your competition by focusing on what you can uniquely offer, you make the competition irrelevant. You can do this by tapping into an unmet need of your customers to create new demand. By doing that, you are changing the rules of the game. You no longer have to focus on how you can beat your competition because you are no longer a competitor.1
1. Tightly define your ideal customer.
When we are starting out with our business, we want to try to appeal to anyone who will buy from us. But what happens in our quest to appeal to everyone is that your messaging is broad, vague, and not relevant for anyone in particular. Some people say “when you speak to everyone, you don’t speak to anyone.” So it’s crucial to identify an ideal target customer. The narrower, the better. But it’s sometimes challenging to figure out who your ideal customer is, so I recommend this workbook to help you out. Once you’re focused on this ideal customer, you’ve likely set your business apart.
2. Research your competitors to spot opportunities.
Next, you’ll need to do some research on your competitors. Find out where they’re doing well and where they’re falling short. This will help you develop a strategy for how to stand apart from them. My favorite tool for this is a SWOT analysis. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats and it’s a way to evaluate how your business is positioned in your market. You can use a simple grid to create one for yourself:
3. Don’t try to look like the big guys.
When we have a small business–especially when we’re first starting out–we sometimes like to follow the leads of bigger, more established businesses. But what you should be doing instead is focusing on your unique differences. That’s true with your visual branding too.
It’s easy to notice this phenomenon at a farmer’s market. So many vendors have the same vegetables at the same price because they see what’s working for other vendors. But what happens? The price wars begin and they become a commodity. Doing something different is what will make you stand out and attract customers.
Even if you’re a solopreneur in a highly competitive business, you can distinguish your business by being you! Your own personal brand can make your business shine. Share your face on social media, give people a glimpse into your unique attitude and your philosophy, and nobody can duplicate that. You will draw your ideal customer.
4. Show your expertise to build trust.
People buy from those who they know, like, and trust. Think about it–nobody will recognize that you’re truly knowledgeable unless you share your competence. Use your experience in your field to your advantage. People will always have questions. Being a resource for them on your blog, social media, your website, in social media groups, and at events will let people know that you are informed, educated, and can be trusted to solve their problems.
5. Add stories to your website through testimonials & case studies.
Testimonials are a powerfully persuasive tool. Case studies and testimonials are opportunities to let the customer tell their story. Everybody is drawn to stories.
When writing them, ask the customer to include their hesitations before purchasing (if any), why they ultimately decided to purchase from you, the problem they had before they bought, and their experience with your product. Let them use their own words. Your goal? To be able to have prospects who read them see themselves in the story. Make the customer the hero, and you become the guide in their story (think Pinocchio and Jiminy Crickett). 2 When case studies and testimonials are added to your website and social media pages, they can help you stand out from the pack.
6. Create a unique value proposition to keep your message clear.
Create a value proposition. This isn’t something that you’d put on your marketing, but it helps you keep your message clear. I recommend using this structure:
We do [product or service you sell ] for [your specific target customer] so that [the unique transformation you create…and include an emotion here.]
For you, that might look list this:
“We sell exercise classes for new moms so that they can feel fit and beautiful after having a baby.”
Or “I create life coaching programs for women who have forgotten what their own dreams were before becoming a mom.”
Writing this out will help you define your product or service and your unique benefit–that alone can be a competitive advantage. It can become your elevator pitch too, a statement you can tell people about what you do in about the time it takes to ride up an elevator.
7. Utilize rating and review sites.
Review sites such as Yelp, Google Places, and Facebook are places people look for recommendations. But often customers don’t think to write one. Asking customers to write a recommendation will help you stand apart from mediocre businesses out there and bring in more customers. Asking customers to add a relevant hashtag to Instagram while sharing a photo of your business works too.
8. Be flexible and adapt when necessary.
Your business should be able to adapt to changes in the market and to your customer’s needs. This means being willing to modify your prices, your services, or even the way you do business. It also means being willing to change your team if necessary. If you can’t adjust, you’ll become a victim of the competitor who is able to adapt.
9. Don’t give up! Slow and steady wins.
One of the hardest games we entrepreneurs play is in our own minds. When things get tough, don’t give up! Most businesses start out slow and grow their reputation over time. There are no mistakes, only opportunities to learn. It’s how you view mistakes that will make the difference between perseverance and throwing in the towel.
How about you? What have you done that’s pulled your business ahead of your competition? Leave a comment below.
1 See Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne.
2 See The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell
