In today’s information age, educating customers is a key sales strategy that will beat your competition. Information is king, and providing information that is aligned with customers wants and aspirations creates higher price points, more loyalty and repeat a and referral business.
To successfully move your price point up the scale and away from your competition, your customers need to value your offer. If you are not unlocking how your customers perceive and relate to your product/service’s features and benefits, and to their specific issue, then all a customer can do is try and compare these, and if they cannot separate them (or they get confused), then customers will look to price or perhaps service or trust to differentiate the offers available in the marketplace.
So, how should I approach this concept?
First, if we accept that most small businesses get stuck competing around price points, then we need to have something that is “magical” to move away from just price. Education is this “magical” process, and the key to building a sustainable business strategy driving long term profits and cashflow.
To survive and thrive financially, imagine if your business had a deep understanding of your customers, and you know why they buy, and what’s really important to them. With this knowledge, your value to a customer must be higher than your competitors because your customers say, “you get me”. This is gold – buying your is still an emotional action, and we want our customers saying “you get me”. I have talked before about emotion being a killer sales tool https://www.unlockingyourfuture.com.au/why-emotional-co…iller-sales-tool/ but the first phase if this to educate your buyer.
Education is about identifying your customers’ wants or aspirations, and how your offer solves their specific issue. In part, much of our education initially is around dealing with risks and fears, and why my product/service reduces or eliminates a risk or fear. It requires a deep analysis of your customers and the customer base you want to build. Education is the stepping stone that helps customers know you understand their issue, and the process to eliminate the reasons they will not buy i.e addressing the risk or fear in your marketing and sales communications.
Much of our marketing activities today utilises social media. Social media and especially facebook, is about identifying the specifics of a potential customer, and education through stories and examples, but more importantly, information that helps move them down the buying chain.
Valuable information, provided by you, and fed to potential customers over time, respects there limited available time, builds trust with your brand, and yet when done correctly, requires minimal hard sell. When customers are ready to buy, they will come to you because your education has been valuable to them. You may entice them with a discount or special offer to move them into “buying mode”, but once the education has been done, then they are emotionally connected with your business.
As a Melbourne Business Coach I work with business owners who want to take their business to the next level. To grow revenues by 27% – 70% per annum, that’s $100,000 and more, whilst creating more cash and profits than your business produced the year before, then let’s start a conversation. I have successfully coached many business owners to dive deep to understand their customers, and together we have pulled apart and rebuilt how your service/product relates to what’s important to your current and future customers.
It’s a very powerful a successful partnership – education and value, and aligning your business with the very thing that sustains every business – its customers, perhaps this will be the best decision you have ever made.