By David Brown, President of Edge Retail Academy.
Published originally in The Retail Jeweler.
If you want to win the battle for your customers spending dollars then you probably realise you need to offer something a little more tangible than just telling customers that you’re going to give them good service. It’s important to constantly reinvent your business and come up with fresh ideas that you can implement to attract customers to your store.
Ideas alone however are not enough...there’s no point having heavy artillery isn’t much use if you don’t fire a shot. Good ideas won’t make you money unless you implement them. If you want to implement a unique selling proposition or point of difference for your business that sets you apart from your competition and will increase sales then follow the 6 step plan below to put things in place
1. Determine who your competitors really are. OK so you probably have their names in your head but have you written it down and eyeballed the list? ...and are they really competition or just people in the same industry aiming at a different part of the market? If you’re selling Ferrari’s and your “competitor” sells Dodges then you probably aren’t competition at all. One of the best ways of eliminating competition is to narrow your niche and aim for a smaller market but speak more specifically to them.
2. Scout the enemy and find out what they have to offer. Mystery shopping your competition is the best way to find out what they offer. Now you’ve narrowed the list down what are you really up against? It always amazes me how many businesses claim they are bigger, better and brighter than their opposition but when you ask them specifically what the opposition offer they aren’t able to tell you. Ever since warfare began commanders would scouts ahead to find out how many opponents there are and how much artillery they have. Would you really go into battle not knowing the size and location of the opposing troops?
3. Come Up with your point of difference. Now it’s time to look at the list of ideas you have after reading the last article. Are the ideas you have better than what your competition offer? You may have thought you’d come up with a winner only to find your opponent is offering something better. Revisit the list of ideas, remove those guarantees, warranties and promises that can’t/won’t work and see what you’ve got that you can implement.
4. Trial your Offer. Let’s say you decide to implement a 30 day money back guarantee but aren’t sure if it will help you close sales (and let’s face it the point of all this is to help you and your staff close more sales). Don’t spend a fortune on fancy marketing and rolling it out until you know it makes a difference. Have your sales staff offer it to customers for a period of time as one of their selling techniques and measure whether this sales strategy leads to an increase in sales
5. Implement It! If the reaction is good and you are converting more sales then it’s time to make it policy
6. Tell People! This is a big one – the second worst thing (after not offering your customers something different to the competition) is having a point of difference and not telling anybody. This happens so often. I’ll often be asking a business owner why I would buy from them and, after I get all the standard answers about great service and being around since 1945 they’ll suddenly hit you with a real winner. When I ask them if they include it in their marketing material or when they’re trying to close the sale the answer is usually no. There’s no point in keeping it a secret. If you have an awesome point of difference then sing it from the rooftops. What’s the point if you don’t?
So there’s a simple 6 step process to follow through and implement…now get to it!
Published originally in The Retail Jeweler.
David Brown is President of the Edge Retail Academy, an organization devoted to the ongoing measurement and growth of jewelry store performance and profitability. For further information about the Academy’s management mentoring and industry benchmarking reports contact inquiries@edgeretailacademy.com or Phone toll free (877) 5698657.