Think back 15 years ago. Coffee was a 65-cent item that came in a Styrofoam cup. It tasted like every other cup of coffee everyone else was offering and there was nothing enticing, compelling or appealing about it.

But then someone dared to ask this question: “If I could create the ultimate coffee experience, what would that look like?”

Brilliant question.

And what did that question produce?

Seductive art-deco boutiques… Americano, Cappuccino and Mocha… Baristas in place of clerks or waiters.

And a multi-billion dollar juggernaut industry was born.

Starbucks had a clear vision: make the $2-4 cup of coffee an affordable luxury. Re-invent a commodity and create an extraordinary experience.

Starbucks has successfully created a competitive compelling advantage… and in the process made their business the only logical choice for most people to purchase their morning coffee from.

So stop and think for a moment.

If you could create the ultimate FANTASY about YOUR product, service or business, what would it look like?

When you create a compelling competitive advantage that’s centered around your customer’s ultimate fantasy buying experience, your business literally becomes the middle kingdom between fantasy and reality.

Prospects will read your ads because they pander to that fantasy, and they’ll buy your product as well.

Domino’s Pizza built a billion dollar empire selling lousy tasting pizzas to hungry college kids whose ultimate fantasy was to receive fresh, hot pizza FAST!

Domino’s wasn’t going after the market segment that wanted the best pizza or the segment that wanted atmosphere – it went after the segment that demanded their pizza get to them fast. And through this simple distinction, they revolutionized the pizza industry and became The Logical Choice.

But here is the amazing part.

Domino’s used the exact same cooking equipment and exact same pizza business know-how as everybody else in their industry. Were they the innovators of pizza delivery – NO! Tons of pizzerias delivered… just not fast; therefore the pizza was often cold and the kids were restless when the pizza arrived. Domino’s claimed “Delivery in 30 minutes or less or it’s FREE!” This became their primary advantage that met the needs of their newly defined market position – the busy college kids that wanted food fast.

FedEx let it be known that they could absolutely, positively deliver your package anywhere in the world overnight.

Even dog food is getting in on the act.

Purina now makes a premium line of dog food they named “Canine Creations” and specifically targeted it at the well-to-do dog owner. Their tag line emphasizes their competitive advantage… “Chef Inspired… Dog Desired.”

Do any of these competitive advantages sound familiar?

“The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand.”

“It helps build strong bones 12 ways.”

“Get the body you want, in half the time.”

“Discounted diamonds – unmatched quality, untouchable price, unbeatable guarantee.”

Each and every one of these has a compelling competitive advantage.

Just remember that if you can fulfill a fantasy for an exceptional value (NOT low price), who can refuse that?

Your Compelling Competitive Advantage is not a program… but instead, your business philosophy that should direct your entire future marketing and operational program.

Recently, I read a wonderful article in Go-To-Market Strategies regarding the topic of selling value versus price. If you have been a Small Business Growth Club member for any period of time, you have undoubtedly heard me say repeatedly that your prospects don’t buy price… they buy value.

That’s why you must first focus on identifying the specific things your ideal client wants… and then looking for ways to innovate your business so you not only give them what they want… you go above and beyond what they were expecting.

All small business owners, at some point in time, are faced with the pressure to negotiate price. This is especially true for those of you who sell, or want to sell at the higher end of your market.

There are many schools of thought about dealing with this common sales objection, but the general consensus is to steer the prospect away from the conversation of price and toward a discussion of VALUE.

But what is value?

Technically, value means “the amount of money or relative worth that is considered to be the fair equivalent for what’s to be received in return.” Should be easy to identify and communicate, right? If it were only that easy. The truth about selling value is that it sounds much easier than it is to actually do.

Why is that? The reason is two-fold:

1. Value is in the eye of the buyer, not the seller (what you think has value may not have relevant value to the buyer). We see it time and time again. A company believes they have a value proposition that matters to the buyer, but in the end…it’s not enough. What your customer values, and what they’ll pay for it, are often at odds. Don’t get caught in the fallacy that what you’re providing… and at the cost you’re providing it… will be considered “value” by your buyer. We always recommend that you survey your customers and define your value proposition based on what you find.
2. Buyers assume value is a given…what they really want is VALUE-ADD. When you look at the definition of value again, you can see that this is true. Buyers come to the table assuming that what they’re going to pay for something will be a “fair equivalent” for what they’ll be receiving. What they’re really looking for is a good value. No matter the price point, buyers want to know that what they’re buying is worth more than what they’re paying. As you define your value proposition, look for things you offer that add exclusive yet relevant value, but are included in your price. Make those value-added offerings a tangible part of your messaging!

So, as you begin to develop your “value pitch,” remember these two very important things…your value must be RELEVANT to your buyer… and it must be an EXCLUSIVE (meaning only you offer it) value-ADD.

Innovation at its best…

Let me give you a quick example of this. There is an advertisement I see continuously on TV for LaQuinta Inns. I have stayed at LaQuinta several times in the past and have always found them clean and comfortable. I would rate them in the middle of the road for hotels. They’re better than Motel 6 but not on the same level as a Hilton.

So what are they highlighting in their advertisements? They focus on the fact that they have recently remodeled their sleeping rooms and their lobbies. And guess what? They have COMPLETELY missed the boat. Rooms and lobbies are NOT the hot button issues with travelers. First of all, I EXPECT a nice room when I go to a LaQuinta Inn. In fact, the rooms they show me in their ads actually look tackier than what I remember when I last stayed there. The rooms look exactly like a room in a Motel 6.

As for the lobby, how much time did you spend in the lobby at the last hotel you stayed at? Who cares anything at all about the rooms or the lobby? No one… because they expect both of those to be nice. The key to selling value is to give your prospects what they want and expect so you don’t disappoint… but then “innovate” your business so you blow them off the face of the earth by exceeding what they expect.

If I owned a LaQuinta Inn and my ideal client was a family of four enjoying vacation time, then I know they expect a nice room, clean sheets and towels, probably a swimming pool for the kids and a continental breakfast in the morning. Bu that’s what they EXPECT… so I better make sure I offer all of those.

But what if during check-in, I inform them that they will receive, as part of our service, a 5 minute vacation analysis with our concierge. During the meeting with the parents, the concierge discovers the family is on vacation… and they plan to take the kids to Sea World in San Diego, Disneyland in Anaheim and Universal Studios in Hollywood.

What if the concierge handed them discounted tickets to each of the parks, discounted meal coupons at restaurants close by all of those parks, provided them with free passes to a live filming of one of the kids favorite TV shows and then handed them a Garmin GPS locator to make sure they never get lost during their adventure?

And all of this is complimentary. Think they might “notice” this service? Think they might just mention this to friends, family, relatives, acquaintances and business associates when they return home? Think the local newspaper, radio and TV stations “might” be interested in doing a local news spot on this hotel offering this remarkable “standard” service?

Now, you might be asking what all of this would cost LaQuinta. All of the discount coupons are provided by the parks. Same thing for the meal discounts from the restaurants. The ONLY cost LaQuinta would incur would be to purchase the Garmin GPS locators for a hundred bucks… and they would last for years.

By the way, what if the hotel created a special “vacation package” that included all of these services and discounts? Think they could charge an additional 20% per day for the room rate… and get it all day long? You wouldn’t be able to book the demand for this hotel fast enough.

See what I mean by “value?”

It truly is in the eye of the beholder. That’s why we encourage you to focus on ways you can “innovate” your business. If you massively innovate your business, marketing becomes easy. The value becomes so apparent all you have to do is just mention it without worrying about fancy words or magic phrases. Try it and see if it works for your business. I guarantee you won’t be sorry.

Today I am going to share with you the first step in dramatically improving the results of everything you ALREADY do well – marketing campaigns, sales processes, lead generation techniques, upsells, referrals, collections, inventory management and so on.

I am talking about adding 5%, 10% or even 20% improvements to things like increasing your sales conversion rates by 20% or shaving 10% off the time it takes to perform key tasks.

Perhaps the best part is that none of these incredible added streams of profit will cost you a dime to implement, and you will meet little or no resistance from your staff, and only praise from your customers.

Often I see businesses get so focused on fixing things or scrambling for new business that they make the painful mistake of ignoring the procedures and systems that are the key to their success. But the fact is that these very systems are the easiest to improve and see instantaneous, measurable results.

Finding EASY Profits

The first step of the four part series we call “Leveraging Your Success” is to take a “Success Inventory”. This involves taking an inventory of everything that is working well in your company — marketing campaigns, sales processes, lead generation techniques, upsells, referrals, collections, inventory management and so on. Then evaluating your current procedures (whether in writing or not) to spot opportunities for improvement:

WOW! Scott that is a real revelation &.well, yes. It is. And you will be amazed what simple breakthroughs you will make by spending just a few minutes on this process. In working with thousands of companies, less than 2% have done this process (and only 4 have done all four steps of the Leverage Your Success System).

Let me use a real-life example to illustrate the power of this simple process. A Physical Therapy client produces thousands of dollars in profit every month by cross-selling a medical device to their patients. Basically the process involved asking the patient, at the conclusion of treatment, if they wanted to purchase the piece of equipment that required a medical necessity and prescription from the patient’s attending physician, and a pre-approval from the insurance company.

We revisited the undocumented “success best practice” and broke down the process. As we did this, we identified several simple ways to dramatically improved results — pre-approval was done day one. We streamlined the process and increased conversion rates by 27%. The important distinction here is that there was tons of improvement potential on something that was all ready super successful.

There are two areas to quickly spot improvements:

1) Systemization

This is where you have a process that works well but it is not being done consistently – essentially because you do not have written procedures to follow or a mechanism to measure and monitor outcomes.

Systemization also includes techniques or procedures that are being left to individuals to do “their own way” instead of modeling the best way. In these cases, you will experience tremendous variance in performance — as was the case between Negotiator A and B.

2) Process Improvement

Process improvements include procedures that are relatively systematic but where there is clearly an opportunity to improve certain elements or steps in the process that will make a measurable difference. This is often the fastest way to increase profits. After all, you have a documented procedure. Your staff follows the procedure and is getting results. Therefore, you can easily make changes (test) that often produce profound results.

What are some successful procedures where you can improve one or more elements that will incrementally improve results? Write down 2-3 tasks and then evaluate the process to spot easy improvements.