Business strategies for Entrepreneurs: Stump & Trump Your Competition

How would you like to attract your buyers before they’re even thinking about buying? And then, once you have their attention, lead them through a logical flow that motivates them to buy, buy now and buy your product—even at a higher price than any of your competitors?

This is a science called “setting the market’s buying criteria.� If you’re the one that sets up the buying criteria for a product or service, YOUR product or service will be the logical choice. Let’s chose an example that everyone can understand and then we’ll tie the same concept to several other types of businesses.

Example from www.howtodoublesales.com

Say you’re a real estate salesperson. The best way to make money in real estate is to have as many listings as possible. If you have more listings, you’ll sell more houses than anyone else.

Any real estate salesperson can place your home in the Multiple Listing Service and they can all advertise it in the local paper. They all can do an open house. So they are all about equal, so if you list your house, after seeing four or five agents, you basically list with the one you like.

Getting more listings than any competitor and before any competitor can even get on the scene.

One broker learned the strategy in this article and became the number one top lister in their county by a wide margin.

He offered a “Free education on maximizing your real estate assets.� He sent this out to homeowners in his area. The promise of the education was as follows:

How to maximize your real estate assets, perhaps the greatest asset most of us will own.

Everything you’d better know right now if you are thinking of selling in the next few years.

The five biggest mistakes everyone makes with home ownership.

Anyone who is considering selling is prompted to look into this. If they are ready to sell right now, they are REALLY interested in something like this.

Here’s another key concept: When you try to sell, you break rapport. No one wants to be “sold.� When you “educate,� you BUILD rapport. You build respect, trust, and influence—all key ingredients to making a sale.

So now as the real estate agent, you come into the home and instead of talking up your company, like all other RE people might do, you provide your “free education� with tons of useful data.

There has never been an easier time to get this information. The web enables anyone in a few hours to get great data from reliable and quotable sources. The best few hours you will spend will be putting together information that helps your customer succeed. This strategy has been applied in every industry or profession and with remarkable results. Later, you can learn how to get this data for your market or business.

Back to the RE example: You show the seller great data about home ownership and how “this is the best time to sell and the best time to buy. Why? The market is in flux right now. Prices are still good to sell, but because the market is slower some folks need to sell faster than others and that drives prices down. If you’re savvy, you can sell at a good price and find a better value for your money.

“Studies show that when a market drops it can take years to rebound. If you’re considering selling, you’d better get going while the market is still semi-strong. Now, if you ARE going to sell, there are classic mistakes people make.� Right there, you give an “education� on the best ways to sell, including listing with the right real estate company. You show them the best criteria for choosing a real estate company that basically fits YOUR company. Do not pitch yourself during this section. You’ll break rapport. If you do a good job, they will ask you about yourself and end up listing with you.

The salesperson used this approach and got 43 listings within a six-month period. Other salespeople had five or six listings.

Here’s the point: Be the one to teach your market a better and smarter way to buy and they will buy from one that teaches them.

Other examples. A company that sold to manufacturers put together a free education on “ The five most dangerous trends facing manufacturers.� Prior to using this formula this company had a terrible time getting appointments and, when they did, they were dealing with a lower level executive who could only say “no.� To say “yes,� the lower level executive had to check with the owner. The company would go through a six-month sales cycle and often get shut down by the owner who wouldn’t take the time to drill down.

When they applied this formula, they were able to get meetings with the owner who wanted to know “The five most dangerous trends facing manufacturers.� They still had to work at it, making cold calls, but it was a heck of a lot easier to get appointments offering a free education than it was to come in to “sell� you something.

A calendar company did some research and learned that per square foot of retail space, calendars are an extremely high-selling item in the fourth quarter. They packaged this with other data of value to retailers and jumped sales 20% in one year after four years of flat sales volume.

A shoe store put together educational binders for each location. Salespeople would show patrons all about their feet (did you know that your feet have 214,000 nerve endings connecting to every organ in your body—and odes that make the quality of your shoes more important?), fashion and the importance of a first impression. This company has grown every year in a market where every competitor is flat.

Take the time to build an “education� that helps your clients succeed. You’ll get in to see your prospects much easier, and you’ll build such a high level of influence and rapport that your sales will go up like a rocket. The ultimate method of succeeding is to help your customers succeed. And during that process, you can set the buying criteria in your favor