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Ensure Your Product Or Service is a Winner in the Market

Guest post by: Paul Tobey

Article Overview: How do you stay ahead of your competition in a dog eat dog world? Almost every one believes their business is the best choice. This has to go beyond a vague feeling to being a reality. Few people work to ensure that this is true and is clearly communicated to customers and prospects. If you want more business, "Give me the business instead of giving it to my competition," although common is not a very powerful or successful appeal. If you want the business there has to be a reason, from the customers perspective, to give it to you.

Ensure Your Product Or Service is a Winner in the Market

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but there are other companies out there that offer the same products or services that you do! Of course, deep-down inside you know that, but do you act that way? What are you doing about it? A simple fact of life; everybody is in competition with everybody else. This means unless you are better than your competition or at least equal to them you are in a dangerous position and you should probably get out of the business. This may sound harsh, but it is the reality. I often say that the secret to being successful in business is that there is no secret. You simply have to do a lot of things well. Everything counts. Don’t be lulled into thinking that some things don’t count or are unimportant. They may be to you, but how can you be sure your customers and prospects feel that way? Every moment of truth either adds to the experience or takes away. Everything either helps or hinders. Nothing is neutral. When you understand this you are beginning to develop the winning edge. In the Olympics, athletes win by millimeters and milliseconds. The same is true in business. Minute differences make all the difference when it comes to winning business. You’ll know when you provide the best value because people vote with their wallets. So how do you improve to the point where your product or service is a winner? The simplest way is by asking your self a series of questions designed to reveal real value. 1. What’s selling well right now in my market? This information can be uncovered via search engines, trade journals, magazines, television, top 10 lists, and simply by listening and observing. 2. What’s missing from these products/services? 3. How can I improve my existing product or service to make it a winner? Question 3 becomes a jumping off point for a whole series of questions you can ask yourself to improve your product or service. + What can we add to the product? My last notebook computer had an external wireless card. This was a nuisance as it had to be removed for travel. My latest laptop, bought only a few weeks ago, now has wireless capability built in and then on top of that a whole lot of new features that I hadn’t expected. + What can we take away from the product? Staying with my laptop, I now have a machine that is several pounds lighter than my previous one. How they achieved that I don’t know, but it certainly makes a difference. + Can we change the way people use the product? People are now using exercise balls for office chairs to improve posture. + Can we change the market? Once primarily a business tool, cell phones are now being offered as safety tools for young children. + Can we change the price? Is there a way to make buying easier for our clients? Installment plans work, so do unbundled products. + Can we bring back something from the past? The retro styling of the Mini Cooper and VW Beetle are perfect examples of this kind of thinking. + Can we alter the size? Remember the days when a cell phone was the size of a brick? Now they are tiny little pocket devices. + Can we do creative things with colour? My wife went into buy a cell phone the other day and came back with a bright pink one. Over the next few days review your product or service against these criteria. Make them into a check list and each time you have a spare moment, spend some time thinking about how to create a winning product or service in your market place.

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Article Tags: improve, market place, product, prospects, service



Related Forum Posts
Re: Service Or Product? - I agree with starting a Service-based Business in the economy. Here is what I think is critical: 1. Researching that your Service business has a market. 2. Marketing the Service with as much leverage as possible. 3. Product-izing the Service (aka Package Expert Knowledge). This will only help elevate you as "the" expert in your niche and make you accessible to people in different price points.
Show the Benefits - Offer a free test drive of the Product or Service with a Money Back Guarantee - Take the Risk out. This will help them make the decision but you have to work with them to realize it by explicitly state the benefits they are receiving.
Re: Ideas For Business - Hello Lucy, you may consider this list for Ideas for Business: (Top 23 list) Rank Company 1 Google 2 Genentech 3 Wegmans Food Markets 4 Container Store 5 Whole Foods Market 6 Network Appliance 7 S.C. Johnson & Son 8 Boston Consulting Grp. 9 Methodist Hospital Sys. 10 W.L. Gore & Associates 11 Cisco Systems 12 David Weekley Homes 13 Nugget Market 14 Qualcomm 15 American Century Invest. 16 Starbucks Coffee 17 Quicken Loans 18 Station Casinos 19 Alston & Bird 20 QuikTrip 21 Griffin Hospital 22 Valero Energy 23 Vision Service Plan
Offer Credit instead - I'm not sure if ChrisH was referring to this but i'll state it more expicitly .. Charge upfront and offer a refund of double the value back in "Credit" towards your Product or Service you have for sale at the end of the event.
Don't leave your Wallet on the table - Targetzone, Evan has great points on targeting you package. Also I read the revenue model you mentioned and i believe you are leaving a lot of money on the table. Aisde from making just $15/sale of a package you could also be making income from sales generated after the people use the coupon on their second and ongoing visits to the Service/Product company. I've sent you a PM - We can talk more advanced strategies. BTW - I'm a Dollarmakers Member and have taken the Joint Venture BootCamp 101 and highly recommend it if you wish to pursue this idea. PM me privately and we can talk.


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