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How to Beat Your Competition: Lessons from “Eclipse the Wonder Horse”

I recently read the story of Eclipse, the horse described as the greatest racehorse of all time.

Eclipse raced between 1769-1770 and was unbeaten in eighteen races.

When Eclipse raced it was never a close finish. �He beat other horses by massive distances of one or two miles!

It was this amazing ability that gave rise to the phrase “Eclipse first, the rest nowhere“.

In your market are you beating your competition by miles like Eclipse or is the race to every new customer a close finish?

Follow these three steps and you’ll ensure that it’s your small business first, your competition nowhere.

1. Pick Races You Can Win

Eclipse was retired because other owners wouldn’t race their horses against him. �They knew they would lose.

Picking a race for your small business means picking a market where you can dominate. � You can do this by creating a niche and being different.

Create a Niche

Don’t try to be “everything to everyone”.

Pick an area of your market where you have the expertise and experience to specialise. �Specialising reduces the competition, and a race with fewer runners is always easier to win.

It doesn’t mean you have to turn customers away if they are outside of your niche. �You’re simply focusing your energy on winning the race you pick.

For instance as a web designer you could specialise in designing websites for restaurants.

This focused marketing approach reduces your competition and makes you attractive to your target customers who will see you as the “go to” person in your niche.

Be Different

If you’re facing too much competition, even in your niche, you need to be different.

You need to stand out. �Give new customers a reason to be interested in your small business.

If you’re an accountant and the other accountants in your niche all lead their marketing on audit work or tax advice you could attract new customers by marketing your “finance for non-financial managers” training courses.

As a restaurant you could use items of interest that people will want to see, creating a complete customer experience. �At Shanahan’s on The Green in Dublin they have JFK’s original rocking chair in a case in their “Oval Office” bar. �This attracted me to the�restaurant�because I wanted to see the chair and the other items on display.

Once you’ve gained peoples interest you can build customer relationships�and introduce your other services.

2. Be Blinkered

Blinkering a horse in a race helps ensure that it remains focused on where it’s going and not what’s going on around it.

It ensures that the horse doesn’t become distracted.

In your race to beat your competition you need to keep your small business marketing focused. �Don’t change what you’re doing just because those around you do.

A competitor of a client of mine took several pages in the centre of a local newspaper and filled them with�advertisements�for low quality products and cheap prices. �My client specialises in offering high quality products, great service and has a lot of knowledge. �Following what his competitor did would have wasted a lot of money and would have damaged his reputation because it doesn’t fit his image and wouldn’t attract his target market.

You need to find what’s right for you and keep doing it.

Consistent activity is one of the key factors in ensuring you avoid the feast and famine cycle�and keep your small business growing.

3. Use Your Advantage

Eclipse’s advantage on the race course was his�phenomenal�speed. � It allowed him to leave his competition standing.

In modern racing horses often have their own advantages. �Some have stamina, some jump superbly and some take to a type of ground better than others.

What advantages does your small business have that will help you beat your competition? �It could be any of a number of factors including:

  • broader product range
  • larger local stock
  • greater industry experience
  • faster delivery speed
  • more personal touch

Let people know if your practice has the largest number of qualified lawyers in Toronto. �That would be an attractive benefit to a client who is deciding who to approach with a major piece of legal work.

But don’t ever use price as an advantage. �There will always be someone else who is willing to sell at a lower margin and take a lower profit than you. �That’s a race to the bottom and in it no-one wins.

Know your advantage and ensure it’s clear in your marketing.

The Bottom Line

Pick your niche, be focused and use your advantages to be like Eclipse.

Be so differentiated in your market that you have no competition racing against you!

Your small business first, your competition nowhere.

What are your thoughts on beating your competition? �Please join me for a discussion in the comments.

Wowing Your Customers the Walt Disney Way

Have you ever been to Walt Disney World or Disneyland Paris?

We took our children to Disneyland Paris a few years ago – it was fantastic!

From the moment we entered the park we had a�superior customer experience.

Disney makes a massive effort to ensure everyone loves their visit. �The effort stems from the philosophy of their founder who said:

Do what you do so well that they will want to see it again and bring their friends.

Walt Disney

But creating a superior customer experience isn’t just something for large companies like Disney.

It’s something that you can do to grow your own small business.

Follow these four steps and you’ll wow your customers, build a great reputation for service and gain more customer referrals.

 

1. Set an�Achievable�Standard

Disney set a very high standard for customer experience. �Employees are proactive in being welcoming and friendly with visitors and looking out for those that need help.

They set a standard that they are able to meet again and again.

You have to set a target for customer experience that you can achieve consistently. �If you set too high a standard you’ll only reach it some of the time.

You’ll have some very happy customers but also some very disgruntled customers.

Don’t make the mistake of trying to exceed customer expectations. �If you order a new small car like a Mini from a dealership you don’t expect them to exceed the expectation and deliver a Rolls Royce do you?

Just ensure that every customer gets the most superior experience you can offer. �Set a realistic expectation and meet it.

If you find you are consistently meeting your standard you can raise it. �As Walt Disney said:

Do your best work – then try to trump it.

Walt Disney

Top Tip: Talk with anyone else involved in your small business. �Decide on an achievable standard and write it down so that everyone can keep a copy. �You might decide that you want all phone calls answered within three rings, to respond to new leads on the day you get them and always have someone welcoming at your reception desk.

 

2. Share the Work of Creating a Customer Experience

At Disneyland every employee is a “cast member”. �They all play an important role in creating the customer experience.

In your business everyone has to take responsibility for hitting the standard that you set. �Anyone thinking it’s “not their job” is a risk to the consistency of your customer experience.

It’s also important to remember that employees are like children. �They see and hear everything you do and learn from it. �You need to ensure that you set a consistent example for everyone to follow.

As management expert Tom Peters’ said:

It�s not what your people do when you�re there, it�s what they do when you�re not there that counts.

Tom Peters

Top Tip: �Sit with each employee in your small business and help them understand the part they play in creating a superior customer experience. �If you work on your own create a list of the important things you need to do each day to keep the standard you’ve set. �For example sending hand-written thank you cards to each new customer, and always being welcoming when you answer the phone.

 

3. Measure Results

In order to create a superior customer experience like Disney you have to�ensure you are meeting the standard you set.

The first way to do this is to measure results.

Create a small number of measurements that you can monitor regularly.

If you set a standard of answering calls within three rings, measure to see if you are hitting the standard. �If you aim to respond to all leads on the same day that they are�received�measure how effective you are in doing so.

Also monitor the number of complaints you receive, the number of refunds given and returns received. �All of these measurements are important for customer experience.

Top Tip: Share the measurement�publicly�with everyone in your business and update them regularly. �Reward those who make extra effort to help you provide superior customer experience. �Try eating lunch once a month with the employee who has contributed most to the measurements and customer experience. �It’s not only a great public acknowledgement of their effort but is a great opportunity to discuss new ideas for improvements.

 

4. Get Feedback

The second way to ensure you are wowing your customers like Walt Disney is to get feedback from your customers.

You can do this formally through a survey but this can often be perceived as wasting customer’s time. �Who likes getting phone calls or emails with lots of questions?

Make gaining feedback part of every conversation you have with your customers.

Top Tip: During conversations ask for feedback on their experience with your business, what do they appreciate about dealing with you, what would they change and are there areas in which you can improve? �Train you employees to gather this feedback and regularly review it with them and create action points.

 

The Bottom Line

Do you want your customers to think “wow” when they deal with your business?

If you want to create a superior customer experience like Disney you have to be proactive.

As Walt Disney said:

The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing.

Walt Disney

He knew his philosophy would take massive effort but would bring amazing results.

Follow the steps above and you’ll have your customers returning again and bringing their friends, families and contacts.

What are your thoughts on superior customer experience? �Please share them with me in the comments.

Photo Credit: Loren Javier

5 Reasons to Create a Superior Customer Experience

Can you remember the last time you had a great customer experience?

Let me share mine with you.

My wife ordered a pirate�costume�for our eldest daughter to wear to a party. �It was delayed due to a mistake at the�costume�company.

On the day of the party I thought we would have to leave without it so I called the delivery company.

The depot manager was fantastic, he found our package in a pile of hundreds due to be delivered that day and gave it to a specific driver to bring straight to us. �He gave me the drivers name, mobile number and he delivered the package quickly and exactly when the manager had promised.

 

Customer Experience is more than Customer Service

Some might say he was just giving good customer service, but it was more than that.

Good customer service would have been answering the phone, being polite, knowing the facts and getting the parcel delivered some time that day – that was the service that had been paid for.

But no, this guy took the initiative to give us a superior customer experience. �He not only helped make my daughters day but left me thinking “wow – what a great company!“.

I’ve since recommended the delivery company to several contacts and use them every time I need to send either a business or personal package.

My customer experience made me a fan of the delivery company and in doing so gained them several customer referrals.

Here are five reasons why you should create a superior customer experience for the customers of your small business.

 

1. Building customer relationships . . .

A superior customer experience is a critical part of building successful customer relationships.

Before people will buy from your small business they need to know, like and trust you. �If their first experience with your business is bad, you’ve made that process much harder.

One of the key points about providing a superior customer experience is consistency. �You never know how important a customer will be, how much business they could place with you in the future.

If you ensure every customer gets a great experience you’ll build great long term customer relationships.

 

2. Gaining customer referrals . . .

Customers don’t refer businesses who give them a bad experience.

But if you receive a superior customer experience you are likely to tell others, leading to customer referrals. �These referrals are a great source of new leads and are very important for building a sales pipeline.

The process of nurturing a lead into a sale�is easier with a referral because your�existing�customer has already built some trust by recommending you.

 

3. Saving you money . . .

Providing a superior customer experience will save your small business money in two ways.

Firstly receiving customer referrals means that you can save money by cutting back on other forms of advertising to gain leads.

Secondly you’ll ensure you don’t lose sales due to customers telling others about their bad experience.

 

4. Building a positive brand . . .

I remember reading a note on a cafe menu many years ago that said:

If you enjoyed your meal please tell others – but if you didn’t please tell us!

Social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook have made it much easier for people to communicate their feelings about your business. �They might feel uncomfortable telling you that they were unhappy with their experience, but that might not stop them telling their three hundred friends on Facebook or their two hundred followers on Twitter.

Providing a consistently superior experience for your customers will ensure that you build a strong, positive brand and a great reputation.

 

5. Building customer loyalty . . .

If you offer a superior customer experience you’ll stop your competitors stealing your customers.

You’ll develop a loyalty with your�existing�customers so they return to you when they need your products and services in the future.

 

The Bottom Line

If you want your customers to recommend you to their friends, family and colleagues you need to offer a superior customer experience.

How do you do that? �I’m going to show you the steps in my next blog post, if you’re not already signed up to receive my posts by email please enter your address below so you don’t miss it!

What do you do to provide a superior customer experience? �Please leave a comment and join me for a discussion.

5 Characteristics of a Welcoming Website

Is your website welcoming to new visitors?

It needs to be welcoming as your prospective customers will likely visit your website long before they ever walk into your reception.

The welcome they receive at your website will create their first impression of your company.

If you want to roll out the red carpet ensure your website has the following five characteristics.  I’ve included five top tips that you can start to action straight away.

 

1. A Website that loads fast . . .

No one likes to be kept waiting.

A website visitor won’t be as committed to waiting as a visitor standing in your reception.  If your website takes too long to load your visitors will simply hit “back” and go somewhere else.

You only have a few seconds to grab a visitor’s attention.

Also, it’s not just visitors who hate slow websites.  Google penalises websites in their rankings if they don’t load quickly as it means they offer a bad user experience.

Top Tip: Test your website speed with Google’s PageSpeed Insights tool.

 

2. A Personal welcome . . .

Unfortunately it’s not possible to have a receptionist waiting on your website ready to give every website visitor a warm welcome, so what else can you do?

Avoid the common small business website mistakes and ensure that your header tagline clearly tells the reader what you do at the top of every page.  Remember that not every new visitor will land on your homepage.

Pick a welcome that suits your target market but remember that just saying “Welcome” at the start of your homepage text isn’t really that welcoming.

Top Tip: Add a video to your homepage that visitors can click on to get a personal welcome from you.  Keep the video short, around a minute and depending on your audience you might not want it to autoplay – especially if they are likely to be sharing an office.

You can see a great example of a personal welcoming video on Christine Kane’s website.

 

3. A Clear place to start . . .

When you wait in a reception there is often reading material on the coffee table, perhaps even television news on a flat screen.

As soon as you’ve welcomed a new visitor to your website you want to start engaging the reader and showing the very best of what you have to offer.

You wouldn’t leave a visitor wandering around your office building or showroom so why do it when they visit your website?

Top Tip: Create a “New Visitor? Start Here >>” page which lays out your best content and shows the new visitor what they should read first.

Tom Ewer has a great example of a “Start Here” page on his blog Leaving Work Behind

 

4. A Useful gift . . .

In a physical reception visitors would be offered coffee, perhaps even a couple of biscuits while they wait.

What can you offer new website visitors?

Offer something that will be of great interest, relevance and that you know will be useful.  An accountant might offer a guide on how to keep track of invoices and receipts, an IT expert could offer a set of keyboard shortcuts or an eBook on how to get the best performance from your computer.

Introduce your free guide or other gift content at the bottom of your “Start Here” page and explain the benefits of reading it.

Top Tip:  Offer your free guide in return for the visitors email address so you can add them to your small business email marketing list and send them your future relevant content by email.  I offer a copy of my free eBook “Focused Marketing” to anyone who signs up to receive my future content by email.  It contains actionable information you can use straight away to attract your perfect customers – if you don’t already have a copy please sign up for one at the bottom of this post.

 

5. A Invite to get to know you . . .

Profitable small businesses are based on successful customer relationships.

Invite your visitors to get to know you, join you on social networks and contact you through your contact form so you can start to get to know them and build conversations.

You’ll not only begin building valuable relationships but you’ll learn more about your customers problems and issues and in turn be able to be more relevant in offering them solutions.

Top Tip: Add links to your social networks on your “Start Here” page and homepage and encourage visitors to connect with you and get in touch with questions or comments.

 

The Bottom Line

The internet is filled with millions of websites, several just like yours from small businesses offering similar products and services.

To stand out from the crowd you need to give visitors a fantastic welcome to your website and really roll out the red carpet.

Use the top tips listed above to start improving your welcome today.

Is there a top tip missing, what would you add?  Please join me in the comments for a discussion.

The 5 Laws for Nurturing Leads Into Sales

It�s great when you get a lead for your small business.

But leads don�t pay the bills. �They need converting into sales.

Regularly nurturing leads into sales helps �end the feast and famine cycle.

But is that easier said than done?

Follow these five laws and you�ll keep turning your small business leads into sales.

 

Law #1: Be Prepared

Have a system in place to record all of the information about the lead.

If you use a CRM system with fields for the data then great, if not get a spreadsheet prepared and ready to enter at least the following:

  • Date
  • Name
  • Source of Lead
  • Value of Lead
  • Telephone Number
  • Email Address
  • Product or Service
  • Notes
  • Next Action

Gathering the information helps:

  • manage the lead into a sale
  • give accurate quotations
  • look professional by only asking for it once

Ensure you have any information about your products and services that a prospect may request.

Keep a stock of brochures, menus and catalogues.

Write and save emails that you can reuse that explain your products and services in more detail.

Don�t wait until you get enquiries to start writing response emails – you�ll be keeping important prospects waiting.

 

Law #2: Be Quick

No one likes to be kept waiting.

Never finish the business day without making the first response back to an enquiry, even if you call or email to say thank you and that you�ll be responding the next day.

If you can�t respond to an enquiry within the same business day you are sending the message that the lead isn�t important to your business.

 

Law #3: Be Nice

You don�t need to be friends with every customer – but you do need to be nice.

Whether you sell wallpaper or washers, cables or cakes, let your prospects see it will be a pleasure dealing with your small business from the start.

Regardless how your day is going, or what you have on your mind, give every customer your undivided attention and remember �it pays to be nice�.

Long term small business success is based on building great customer relationships.

 

Law #4: Be Inspiring

Show your prospects how good you are – inspire confidence in you and your small business.

 

Set Expectations

Once you have the information you need to deal with the lead set clear expectations. �If you need until the next afternoon to complete a quotation explain that.

Don�t say you�ll be in touch �as soon as possible�. �As soon as possible might mean tomorrow to you but could mean in ten minutes to your prospect who is desperate for a price.

 

Keep Promises

If you say you�ll call with the price tomorrow ensure you do.

Make dealing with enquiries a priority within your business.

Customers are judging you on your response. �If you don�t keep your promise on the quotation, how will you do when it comes to completing the service or supplying the product?

If you need more time to respond, contact the prospect to explain and confirm a realistic timeframe when you can.

Don�t use up too much goodwill before you�ve even won the sale.

 

Law #5: Be Focused

Keep focused on your enquiry list to ensure you build a sales pipeline and keep a steady stream of leads turning into sales.

 

Follow Up

Once you�ve responded to an enquiry leave it a few days and follow up. �Don�t leave it any longer than a week.

If the customer needs more time ensure you keep following up on a weekly basis, or monthly if it suits your products or services.

Ensure that you treat your follow up routine seriously and not merely as a �tick in the box� process.

 

Review

Review your small business sales pipeline every single day.

What is the next action on each enquiry, do you need to do anything to move any closer to sales? �Are you waiting for a supplier to provide a price or a brochure? �Remember it�s not your suppliers enquiry, it�s yours – keep your customer informed and continue to inspire confidence.

 

Results

Always focus on getting a result.

It�s fantastic if all of your enquiries convert into sales, but if they don�t ensure you keep following up until you get a final result.

If the result is you lost the sale find out why.

Ask polite questions. �Did you lose the sale on price, response speed, service, functionality of your product, delivery timeframe? �If you lost out to a competitor, which one and why?

All of this information is extremely valuable in refining your offering and ensuring you�re more likely to win the sale next time.

 

How is your sales pipeline?

Do you have every lead listed, regardless of value?

Are you reviewing your sales pipeline on a regular basis and doing everything you can to turn leads into sales?

Please let me know about your process and what works for you in the comments.

Do You Make These 10 Small Business Website Mistakes?

Does your website attract customers or turn them away?

A good small business website is a critical part of your marketing. �It helps you:

However, it’s easy to make mistakes which will do the opposite and send prospects running for the hills.

Here are ten mistakes to avoid.

 

Mistake #1: No Focus

Your website must answer the visitors question “what’s in it for me“? �Show the visitor the benefit to them and how you meet their needs before they click away to another site.

Add a tagline to your header that shows at the top of every page.

Use your tagline to quickly explain what you do and who you help.

Not every visitor will start at the homepage. �It’s important that visitors can quickly understand if you can help them or not. �If they can’t decide they are much more likely to look for someone else.

Mistake #2: No Personality

The first step in building customer relationships is helping people get to know you.

Use pictures of yourself and your staff so that people can start to build a connection with you as soon as they visit your website.

If you work on your own don’t try and hide it. �Don’t use “we” – large companies won’t be able to show their personality in the same way which can give you a massive advantage.

 

Mistake #3: No Purpose

What specific action do you want people to take when they visit your website?

Sign up for your email list, download a whitepaper, call you to discuss your services?

Ensure that you know exactly how you want to start the relationship with a new customer and design your website around this purpose.

 

Mistake #4: No Call to Action

To accomplish the purpose of your website you need to ask people to take action.

Position your “call to action” prominently throughout the website.

You’ll notice that I include my email signup form on my homepage, at the bottom of my about page and in both the sidebar and bottom of each blog post.

 

Mistake #5: Unprofessional Design

Your small business website projects your image to prospective and existing customers.

An unprofessional design, unfinished pages and bad graphics make you look unprofessional and leaves people wondering about your services.

A professional small business website doesn’t have to cost thousands. �You’re better to start with a small website that looks professional than have twenty pages of poorly designed, poorly written content that creates a bad impression.

 

Mistake #6: Ignoring Conventions

We all get used to certain conventions that give us a feeling of comfort when we visit a website.

Call your about page “About” and your contact page “Contact” – it’s what your visitors are used to and will help them find these two important pages.

 

Mistake #7: Poor Navigation

Website navigation is like a map to your best content. �It’s pointless writing excellent content if no one can find it.

Use a simple navigation structure so that visitors can get straight to their destination.

You’ll notice that on the Fresh Eyes Consultancy homepage I use one menu for the page titles and a secondary menu for each of my blog categories making it quick for visitors to find posts of interest.

 

Mistake #8: No Regular Updates

This has to be one of the worst mistakes. �Taking the time to create a small business website but letting the content go stale.

Google favours websites that have regularly updated content and your readers will be more engaged with you and return to see what else you have to say.

 

Mistake #9: No Optimization

Google wants to give it’s searchers the best content for each search, the best answers to their questions.

No amount of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will help you build a long term business if you don’t have good content – but if you’re creating good content it’s a mistake not to pay some attention to optimization.

Optimizing good content is like spoon feeding it to Google and ensuring that it’s indexed in a way that will get your content noticed in relevant searches.

 

Mistake #10: Bad Use of Twitter Feed

I’ve seen several small business websites where a Twitter feed is added to the sidebar of the website – every tweet is shown in this feed.

Whilst this can be fine, I’ve seen many where the website owner tweets about topics such as their opinion on the latest TV talent show hopefuls after a few beers at the weekend – it might be fun at the time but doesn’t create a professional image when these tweets are on the front of your website for your next prospective customer to read.

Either remove the feed or use a private Twitter account for tweets you don’t want to share with everyone.

 

Small Business Website Critique

Are you making any of these mistakes? �Is your small business website helping you generate leads and fill your sales pipeline?

My Small Business Website Critique service can highlight all of the areas you can improve on your website and use it to help you grow your small business.

For more information and to order the service please check out the Small Business Website Critique page.

 

What Mistakes Would You Add?

Can you think of any more mistakes that I haven’t included in this list?

Please join me in the discussion by leaving a comment.