Do you really know why people choose to do business with YOU rather than your competition?
Do you know how to improve your results by up to 30% in the next 90 days?
Or a better question may be: Do you know why people choose to do business with your competitors instead of you?
The answer is simple: Perceived Value
To show you what I mean – sit back and listen to this tale:
The other day I pulled into a service station on the way to visiting a client here in the metro area of Perth, Western Australia.
I filled up with fuel, but then, I felt like a coffee but which one?
This petrol station (a 7-Eleven) has the coffee in house, and a Gloria Jeans Coffee right shop next door.
So which Coffee should I choose?
Gloria Jeans Coffee is at least $6 to $7 depending on what I wanted, and the 7-Eleven is $1 to $3 depending on size.
Do I go on price? Do I go on taste? Do I buy on status? Do I buy on extras that might be available? Do I buy on pure ease of access (I was buying fuel at the 7-eleven so it was easier to get a coffee in house than line up in another shop), what should I do?
As I was filling up all of these thoughts floated across my mind.
As it stands, both coffees are a basic commodity – Gloria Jeans coffee is more expensive, but they have more flavours to choose from, but the 7-Eleven coffee is only $1 to $3.
That got me thinking about how this particular franchise of Gloria Jeans could drive more traffic in-store compared to the competition.
The answer (at least to me) was simple – by Perceived Value!
If the business owner added a few things in Gloria Jeans favour, it might tip the scales and make most consumer take their eye off the price comparison?
For starters they could run a competition for a 7 day holiday, be it a cruise, a holiday in Bali, a trip to the Gold Coast, across to the wine region of Margaret River. So every time you buy a coffee you get a ticket for a chance to win. Or they could do something simple like what Muzz-Buzz Coffee does and sweeten the deal with a free mini-cookie with their coffees.
Now their customers would think that Gloria Jeans is now not just a coffee.
It is an EXTRA-ORDINARY COFFEE!
So would this tip the scales 20% to 30% in Gloria Jeans favour? Yes, yes it will.
This one little strategy would add hundreds of thousands of dollars to the bottom line of the company.
So how does this story make people want to buy from you?
Do you do things to make you and your station an EXTRA-ORDINARY BUSINESS to deal with?
I have heard of one radio station where the stations street team follow the rales reps every Monday and Friday to go to new sales calls – park out the front and do a live cross to show clients how many people they attract.
Another company has the sales team take with them free drinks and freebies when they see new clients. Including free stickers and shirts, caps and frisbees.
Yet another sales rep that I worked with organised for clients cars to be washed while they met (they arranged this with the office receptionist so there was no shock or questions asked).
Personally – I used to bring enough coffees to clients for everyone in the admin team and office, plus the occasional extras (small cakes, slices, etc).
Believe me, turning up with 10 free coffees makes me a popular person to see when I walked in the door.
The funny thing is – my clients would tell other clients, who would then call and ask for me to see them. Increasing my sales by… 20-30%.
The best thing was – it made clients and their office staff look forward to visits, made the sale easier and created extra value in the minds of the decision makers – our perceived value as a station went up, and we made more sales as a result.
Keep in mind that these small gestures and perceived extra value do build up over time, and if you fail to deliver you get clients asking “where are our coffees?” – so if you start it – you need to continue doing it.
Try it – see if you can make you and your radio station an EXTRA-ORDINARY BUSINESS to deal with and increase your sales as a result of doing this!
P.S: The 7-eleven had massive posters advertising their coffee’s from only $1, and Gloria Jeans had no advertising on the outside of their building – so, which did I buy?
