So you open the phone book, or search the World Wide Web in search of a service or product and uncover an overwhelming field of choices. Some companies feature big ads splashed about the pages, looming over the smaller ads featured in the area of services you are seeking. Google or Yahoo offer thousands of options to consider. What makes you choose one service over another? The size of the ad? The special wording? Name brand or recognition? For today’s consumer, differentiation is the ticket.
Traditionally, we’ve depended on key words like “experienced” or “exceptional service” to win our trust, but recent studies indicate that the consumer is immune to these unoriginal words. They are really looking to be swayed with some striking differentiation in the marketplace.
In his latest book “Purple Cow”, Seth Godin, drives home the importance of being “remarkable”, stating “You are either remarkable or invisible”. At a recent presentation Seth stated that “being very good…isn’t”, requiring us to provide a much more robust image to be noticed.
So the question to ask yourself is: What can you do today to become more “remarkable” in your service offerings?
- You’ve heard it before – Develop and market your particular expertise or brand in ALL of your marketing endeavors. A brand goes beyond a catchy phrase, or tag line. A true brand is the promise of an experience; an expectation of what you can anticipate. That process happens in the mind of the consumer when they hear your name or check out your website or ads. What are they getting now? Same ol same ol? How can you deepen and enrich your market perception?
- What “brand effect” are you communicating when you offer your services in any of your communications? Begin with your employees. How fired up are they about what they do, how they do it and who they do it for? One immediate way to shift into remarkable is quite simply by how your employees answer the phone, one of the first places of contact. Think new, think REMARKABLE! Take the opportunity to “re-frame” the caller and begin the answering process in a new and exciting way. – “Great things are happening at Terri Murphy’s office” or “It’s another GREAT day at Susie Smith’s office” – Kick the calls up with new energy, new excitement about the privilege of doing business with this new prospect, present customer or future client. Enthusiasm is infectious. People LOVE doing business with people who care.
- Look around. What special certifications do you have that support your services that the others don’t? If a prospective buyer checks out the yellow pages or your website, what jumps out and makes you the best choice for their needs? Value pre-empts price. If a consumer “feels” like you have the edge, whether it is additional certification, education, out of the box services, or exceptional guarantees, you might just get a new customer instead of losing them to hundreds of other choices available.
Our information age pummels us with millions of information bits a day. It takes a jolt to get our attention, and in many cases, not a big jolt, as our competition is often sleeping at the switch. Take a good look at how you are positioned in your market, how you communicate that position and what you can do to kick up the volume and compel a larger spotlight in the marketplace.
