How Do I Beat My Competitors and Sell More of My Products?
Have you noticed that there are several business that sell almost the same product?
Take a look at KFC and Jollibee, they’re both selling Fried Chicken.
Take a look at McDonalds, Burger King and Wendy’s, they’re all selling burgers.
Nike and Addidas, they’re both selling shoes and other sports apparel.
If you are a small business owner and you are selling a product that is
similar to your competitors, how will customers buy your product instead of your competitors?
If you are into MLM, you are probably selling the same products as other distributors in the same company and probably the same product in other companies as well.
Today, I’ll answer one of the biggest question in business:
How Do I Beat My Competitors and Sell More of My Products?
I received an email the other day:
“Sir Lloyd, I’m in a beauty and wellness business and I’m selling soaps and other beauty products, and so does my neighbour! How can I get people to buy from me instead of my neighbour?”
Here’s my response:
In business, there will always be competition. Competition is not always bad. Competition is actually good for business because it shows that there are people who are willing to sell the same product, which means there are people who are willing to buy the product as well.
If you are in business without any competition, that means, no one is bothering to sell what you are trying selling. You may need to change to a product that people are actually willing to buy.
Now, how do you beat your competitor?
Before I answer that, I would just like to clarify that beating your competitor does not mean putting him out of business so you can be successful in yours. Beating your competitor is co-existing with your competitor such that both of you can succeed without you suffering from each other’s success.
In the early days of history, people do not use money =to buy goods / services. They exchange or trade goods / services for other goods / services.
Metals such as Aluminum was once a precious commodity that people are willing to trade their livestock or farm animals for. Aluminum was such an important part of the lives of people back then that it has a high perceived value. There was no fixed amount of animals to exchange for a 1 kilo of Aluminum.
That’s why paper money was invented to create numerical value when exchanging goods and services.
Nowadays, Aluminum has become so cheap that you throw away soda cans made of Aluminum left and right. Why? People have learned to create Aluminum without mining it. The perceived value of Aluminum has gone done because the ability to produce it has become so easy.
Business is about exchanging of value.
When people perceive your product to be valuable, people will buy your product. They may even pay you more than what your asking price.
In your beauty and wellness business, when you sell your soaps, creams, lotions, you have to get into your customer’s head.
Your customer might be thinking, “Is this soap or lotion or cream worth the price?”
You have to prove to your customer such that in their head, your product is worth more than your asking price. That’s when they’ll decide to buy.
So how do you prove that your product is worth more than your asking price?
You can give examples of how your product (a soap) has additional benefits aside from just being a soap when customers buy from you. May be you’ll offer them additional tips on how to take care of their skin.
You can also prove to your customers that buying your product once is more cost-efficient than buying a cheaper product 10 times over. If your soap is worth P200 and your competitor’s product is P75.
You have to prove that buying 1 soap worth P200 is better than buying 3 soaps for P75. Are you following?
Does this make sense?
You have to remember that in every business transaction, there’s an exchange of value.
Your job as a small business entrepreneur is not to beat your competition, but to answer the question:
“How can I package my product so that my customers will see that it is worth more than the price I am asking for?”
Do not just be like any other Entrepreneur. Be unique and put yourself head and shoulders above your competition.
Let’s take Jollibee and Starbucks as examples. Both companies are successful despite having a lot of competition. The reason for their success is how they market and package their products.
If you think about it, why would anyone choose to eat at Jollibee instead of the others? You have to ask yourself, “What is Jollibee really selling?”
Jollibee is selling the happiness parents feel when they see their children excited to eat their meal. When you ask children where they want to eat, what do they usually say?
How about Starbucks? Why would anyone want to drink a P100 coffee? You can buy coffee for P5 if coffee is really what you want.
So, what is Starbucks selling? I’ll give you a hint: it’s not coffee.
Starbucks is selling the experience of drinking coffee in their coffee shop, a high-end coffee shop where elite people drink coffee. Part of that experience is drinking coffee with your friends or colleagues and just hanging out or the feeling of comfort while you’re doing your work on your laptop with Starbucks’ Free-Wifi.
Average entrepreneurs think that a good quality product is enough that people will just buy it from them automatically. That’s a big NO!
Sometimes, the difference between an entrepreneur who succeeds and who doesn’t is the way they market their product in order to create a higher perceived value.
To Your Success,
Lloyd Labso, MD
Let me know if you have any thoughts on this.
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