A simple way to stand out from the crowd
If you do a Google search for your type of business, in most cases you’ll find there are lots of other companies offering similar products and services.
So how do you get potential clients to choose you instead of your competitors?
And how do you get them to do this without spending a fortune on marketing and promotion?
The answer is simple. You have to differentiate your business so you become the logical and obvious choice for people wanting to buy what you sell.
There are dozens of clever (yet delightfully simple) strategies that you can use to positively differentiate your business from all your competitors.
Here is one of those simple strategies.
Have a catchy name or nickname
In a crowded market, the first thing you want to do is get noticed by potential customers and stand out from all your competitors.
And that’s where a catchy name or nickname is a great starting point.
Daniel Feiman is the managing director of a business consulting firm that used to be called Diversified Solutions and Finance.
Feiman changed his business name to Build It Backwards and the results were immediate.
His name recognition shot through the roof and suddenly conversations were about what his business did and how they did it.
Business opportunities increased dramatically. His shirt bears his company logo and website address, prompting inquiries from fellow plane passengers as to what the name means.
Here’s another example of a catchy business name.
A business sign in a small rural town caught my eye recently.
The sign read ‘‘Short Back’n’Sides: Solving your tree problems’’.
The sign was promoting an arborist and the memorable name and slogan made me both notice and remember the company.
You can still keep your original business name if you want to.
Just add a memorable nickname or slogan so you are remembered.
Here’s an example. Imagine you are a plumber and you call yourself XYZ Plumbing.
You could easily add a memorable nickname to this so you get noticed. So you become XYZ Plumbing: The Punctual Plumbers.
Now suddenly you are the ‘Punctual Plumbers’ which instantly differentiates you from all your plumbing competitors.
The Hugging Butcher
Here’s another great example of adding a nickname to your business to instantly differentiate it and quickly increase sales.
Seventeen years ago Lori Prokop scraped together her savings to attend a seminar being put on by Ted Nicholas (a direct marketing master and copywriting genius).
She got his attention during the break and told him the story.
Prokop and her husband had been struggling with their butcher shop (and almost to the point of closing the doors), as the entire parking lot was ripped up and unusable for six months – totally destroying their customer flow.
So how could she get more customers in?
Nicholas started asking some questions and found out that her husband was quite a tall man, and he loved to hug people as well.
Nicholas gave her the one single piece of advice that turned their lives around almost immediately.
He said: ‘‘When you get back home – first thing I want you to do is call your butcher shop ‘The Hugging Butcher’ – advertise it everywhere, new signs and all over your marketing’’.
‘‘Use direct response style marketing and make that husband of yours the hugging butcher and have him stand at the front door and hug everyone that walks through – men, women and children.’’
She followed that advice to a
T.
Quicker than she ever could have dreamed, business was booming!
People couldn’t wait to visit the hugging butcher. Business went through the roof (parking lot or not).
Soon, they were able to raise the price and commanded the highest price in the market they served – and clients lined up at the door.
After a few years they sold that business for a very large sum of money – it’s amazing what a simple differentiator can do for a business!
Now she runs a multimilliondollar consulting business – teaching similar techniques to those that Nicholas teaches.
Action exercise
Look at your own business name or nickname.
Does it reflect what you do? Is it catchy?
Does it make people ask you anything to engage in a meaningful conversation? Conversations lead to possibilities which lead to prospects which lead to business opportunities. What else could you do this month to positively differentiate your business from all your competitors?
Graham McGregor is a marketing adviser. You can get his free 129-page marketing guide, ‘The Plan B Sales Solution,’ at www. simplemarketinganswers.com