Do you know how to stand out from your competition?

We all know that the basics of business is: WIIFM (What's In It For Me)

Customer relationships are built upon consistency.
When you are consistent, you generate trust.
People like to do business with people they can trust.

Do you want more customers? If you do, you probably think that the key to attracting new business is a great product or service, more marketing or a better price.

Perhaps, but maybe not.

The reason is that most of your competitors also have a great product or service, more marketing, and a better price. In fact, everyone has the same advantages as you do.

So what do you have that no one else does? You have to stand out from the crowd and create something so compelling that people will change their behavior just to buy from you.

1. You have to be remarkable!

What is the difference between showing up and standing out? To stand out is to be remarkable. You want to show up in a way that makes people say "Wow!" or "How did they ever think of that?"

Standing out is not just good for business, it's good for your brain. It isn't just about being different. It is about being new --- what you know, how you share it, what you do, how you work.

It is also about being better. Not just different but better. And not just better but more helpful, more fun, more usable, more beautiful. It's not enough to be remarkable if everyone else is remarkable too. You have to be remarkable in a way that nobody else can copy.

2. Build A Relationship With Your Customer.

Consumers are overwhelmed with options. If your market share is 1%, you're hoping to get just 1% of their total attention. You've always got to be thinking about ways to stand out, to make an impact.

The main issue is showing up. If you don't show up in the mind of the consumer, if they can't think what you do, it doesn't matter what you do, right?

You can never be consistent if you don't know what is important to your customers, if you don't understand them on a human level. And if your business is not doing so well or your customer base has shrunk, it's because you have lost touch with what the customer expects from the relationship with your brand.

If you know that, then you also probably know that consistency is not easy to achieve. Especially in customer service. It requires an understanding of what is important to your specific customers, the kind of service they expect and even some level of empathy.

The relationship with your customer is something special, so treat it that way!

3. Establish A Reputation.

If you do a good job you will gain your reputation by word of mouth. If your service is good, people will tell their friends and neighbors about it. This is the most effective form of marketing there is.

The first thing to do is to address any shortcomings in your service, so you can be sure that you are doing a better job than your competitors. From this point on it is all about marketing yourself online and offline where people can see what you have to offer them.

It should be clear to anyone that it's not through not trying or through giving up. It's by making a decision about what you want to do and then doing it exceptionally well.

The only way you will succeed by doing it exceptionally well is when you are passionate about your products, you will be passionate about you present yourself and how you talk about your product. It all shines through when you love what you do.

What I see too often is people jumping into an online business, just to sell something. It is a recipe for disaster, because when things go wrong, or you feel down, that is when your passion and love carries you through.

4. Maintain The Basic Ways Of Showing Up

1. In some industries, where there are many competitors, you might have to spend money on advertising as well as doing a good job. In this case, you must advertise wisely. You should find out what your competitors are doing and address the problem they have not addressed.

2. You can also create an email campaign to announce special deals or discounts that will only last for a limited time. You should also make sure that people receive regular updates about your business via email or regular mailings with special offers during the year.

3. Communicate and engage with your customers on social media but don't fall into the trap of just selling. Here is a great opportunity to create a relationship with your customers where they get to know you!

4. Create Videos or even better, create live videos and let your customer get to know the real you.

5. Make sure that these offers give people great value for their money and make it easy for them to place an order with you quickly and easily. If you make it easy for customers to place orders from anywhere at any time, they'll be more likely to buy.

These are just some basic ways to stay in front of your customers.

5. The real issue is showing up.

If you don't show up in the mind of the consumer, if they can't think what you do, it doesn't matter what you do, right?

What matters is that people can recall your product or service. There are three ways that this happens:
1) You control the customer journey (you're a monopoly like Google),
2) You create an amazing customer journey (e.g. Apple) and
3) You have the right price (retailers).

These things aren't mutually exclusive - but they're not easy either. Gone are the days where all you need to know is how to run a cost-effective direct response campaign or a clever TV ad campaign to be successful.

It's a lot harder today because of the internet and the media fragmentation that comes with it. But, it is easier to meet a lot of people and create those relationships.

6. Don't Try To Be The Watch Guy

You can't do everything. You can't be everywhere. You can't create amazing experiences for all your customers. You can't have the best quality and the lowest price.

What we often see is companies trying to do too much and not doing any of it well. They try to be everywhere and create amazing experiences for everyone, and they end up not creating anything for anyone.

You don't need to try and be the best in every area. That's impossible anyway, because even if you are the best in one area, someone else will always be the best in another area.

Find where you are good enough to make a difference, where you can deliver something valuable, where your way of working with people is unique, where the experience you create is unique, where no one else is even showing up.

The Basics Are Simple

Be remarkable; delight your customers; and price right. If you can do those three things, everything else will follow. The best way to get started with any project is to focus on that list and then see what happens.

And to stay consistent you need to have a goal and a plan. You need to have a clear idea what you are going to do, where you are going to do it and with whom do you want to interact.

Check out my PLANNER to help you keep on track to show up.