The Inside Advantage: The Strategy That Unlocks the Hidden Growth in Your Business by Robert Bloom & Dave Conti

Author:Robert Bloom & Dave Conti [Bloom, Robert & Conti, Dave]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Business & Economics, Training, Management
ISBN: 9780071762571
Google: 31QPEzifzBEC
Publisher: McGraw Hill Professional
Published: 2007-10-17T00:32:53.732551+00:00

Now that you know how to create an uncommon offering, you may be wondering how you’re going to sell this WHAT to your customer—your WHO. You’ll make this sale just like you make any sale—you’ll be persuasive. Let’s now turn to Part 3, where you’ll discover HOW to persuade WHO to purchase WHAT.

PART 3

Persuasive Strategies

HOW Do You Convince Them?

CHAPTER 7

A Platform Built for One

Imagine a giant table on which you and all your competitors can stand. You are surrounded by potential customers, and each of your rivals is shouting his or her uncommon offering. The result is a lot of noise and total customer confusion.

Now imagine that instead of joining this group of adversaries on the big table, you are standing nearby on a small, but extraordinarily sturdy table that can hold only you. You stand out. You seem different because you are different—different from your competitors. Customers notice you and hear you. This small, sturdy table is the persuasive strategy that will enable you to convince your core customer to buy your uncommon offering instead of all other competitors’ offerings. The success of your business depends on your acknowledgment and true understanding of the fact that all businesses, big and small, compete with other businesses for customers.

On the surface, this statement doesn’t appear very surprising or profound, yet most managers and owners seem to forget it, or don’t understand it, or don’t plan their growth strategies with it in mind. The penalty for not running a business with this reality firmly in mind can be severe and can include a loss of opportunities, customers, and even the failure of their businesses.

You are constantly surrounded by ambitious competitors. Every hungry competitor is, in fact, chasing the very same potential customer you are. Don’t make the mistake that many businesspeople do in thinking that all you have to do is “build a better mousetrap” and customers will beat a path to your door. With apologies to Ralph Waldo Emerson, don’t fall for the notion that potential customers are going to find their way to you unaided and unguided. Your business won’t grow if you don’t make it your primary job to persuade customers that your mousetrap—your uncommon offering—provides them with tangible and emotional benefits ideally suited to their needs and desires.

That imperative applies no matter how terrific your uncommon offering is: you must have a persuasive strategy to convince your core customer to buy your uncommon offering instead of all other competitors’ offerings. In terms of my Growth Discovery Process, this way of standing out, this approach to differentiation, is your HOW. Once you have the right persuasive strategy in place, you have taken the vitally important step of differentiating your business from all competitors’ businesses.

BLOOM ON GROWTH

Don’t make the mistake that many business-people do in thinking that all you have to do is “build a better mousetrap” and customers will beat a path to your door.

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