It’s All About Service

value proposition

It has finally happened: it is 2020 and your business advantage is all about service.  Back in 2018, I spoke at Jim Moran Institute Small Business Leadership Conference. My talk was a workshop to focus attention on how customers buy, rather than how businesses sell.  The theme that year was “It’s all about the customer”.…

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The Reviewing Buyer

Each buyer is inspired in a different way.  When buyers come to you, they will talk to you about your own services and try to use your language. But by asking the right questions, you can understand what has really brought them to your door.  Understanding their journey to get to you will allow you…

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The Proactive Buyer

Your clients find you in different ways and for different reasons.  Sometimes they have an urgent need for your service, sometimes a friend recommends you, sometimes they just happen across your website, and sometimes it is something you said.  The more you know about your audience’s buying triggers — in other words, what prompts them to make…

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Value: It’s Not About You

value proposition

Last week we looked at how price and service are intrinsically linked, because service determines value and price is the manifestation of value. Value is a key area where my business mantra applies: It’s not me, it’s you.  There are two key things to know about Value: It is subjective It is what clients buy,…

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Service vs Price: Who Wins?

Where should a business strategy focus to win clients? Does better service outweigh a higher price? Or are most buying decisions ultimately a battle between pricing options? Most business owners and leaders have wondered this at some point or another; often after having lost a deal to a cheaper competitor. Slashing prices seems like such…

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Stop Selling

That is: if you want to grow your business. People who work with me regularly are familiar with my approach to sales, which is to refocus it on “buying”. A commercial transaction requires actions performed by another person. That is the key to a new sale: it is actually the other person performing the act…

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Make It Easy To Buy From You

You’ve been reading this blog for a while, and have by now determined your market position and messaging. People know who you are, and they know both what you do and what’s in it for them. Now what? Do these people know what to do next? Do they know how to hire you? If you…

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Why Do People Buy From You?

I ask this question of most of my clients when we start working together. Why you, and not the next guy? The answer will tell me what is important to the client. Then, as per my modus operandi,  I proceed to ask for proof, in order to test the assumptions made by the business owner.…

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Fighting Against the Status Quo

When selling, too many businesses forget that status quo is an option for their clients. Just because a prospect is “shopping around”, looking at new solutions, that is no certainty that they will, in fact, make a purchase. Why a prospect does not buy Adopting a new product, service, contact person… is itself a cost, well…

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What is a Budget Competitor

When making buying decisions, clients assign budgets to their needs. In a B2B environment, a budget is often assigned before the sales process begins.  What the budget tells At any moment in time, a budget is finite. A buyer determines how much, out of the available spend, can go towards solving the problems of the…

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