"The Right Stuff"

Your customers or clients want to be informed and to remember the values you give them - tools, you can money, time and anger. But for many entrepreneurs and managers can not, what are the competitive advantages. Providers not to disclose the fruits of the sea, that the sale of fresh salmon with a longer period of validity and to improve its customers bottom line, with a threat to its competitors in the market. To be extra for your customers, not realizing that you can actually save. Or, if you do not have the tools, now you can begin to correct them. You can obtain competitive advantages. Consider the following: Terms. If you have a small or medium enterprise with respect to a class Killer, you have a lot of flexibility in terms of funding, like the great guys can not match. For example, a wooden building in the north have a solid business with young people to compete in Home Depot began to close in a Home Depot box opened twenty miles away, and then another ten miles on the track. Observers expected that companies will soon tavole bulldozers society. Of course, it could not compete on price, Home Depot is not contrary to'purchase. Wood is wood. Thus, focused on the case of Home Depot, where they are threatened. It offers more - flexible finance for its major clients - from small businesses that are not on the lines of bank credit. The company has the prices of wood construction to drop to stay in business. Has new advantages. Warranties. E 'customary that participants in my workshops tell me that their companies are the only sector in our multi-year warranty on their products. But if so, whether a large amount of guarantee for the buyers, who say they are not. The reason is usually the same: "If we insist on the guarantee, customers in many conditions." This is a poor excuse. Whether you offer a warranty or not. If you are sure, will be in the product is, first, is a point of sale. Statistics show that a very small percentage of customers in a business in a way guaranteed. But the guarantee is very likely that the purchase and lots for Clincher. Inventory done. One of my favorite stories in the inventory of a manufacturer for sale of clothing, clothing stores for women in the country. When I asked what was different from its competitor, said he thought his clothes are "bearable". "Contrary to what" I asked, not laughter. He began to talk about design, fabrics, cutting, and so forth. When I asked what its competitors, it'ie, gesticulating with his shoulders and said, "I take the same ... But I know the things I sell a lot better." I asked him what his customers, the owners of the store, she cares more. "Whatever he does not sell," he says. I asked if the owner of the shop inventory. He replied that some have taken the initiative. I proposed to them, as for the measurement of inventory and then there was the owner of the store is selling more clothes. My point is that sales of portable clothes "like everyone else, and the sale of inventory turn. Movement of goods, is what counts. Note: Make sure you can expect. Your customers will know soon enough if it is not possible. As with any competitive advantage they say, make sure that you provide. Materials. A client in the host, improving the sales trailer train knew that its product is "more and better", because the materials used. But he did not know that, without strong partisan and subjective. Make its employees a number of issues that I have learned from one of its technicians, the company that the product has a more wind against the competition of products. In many geographic markets, the biggest influence purchasing office. Thus, if the equipment is stronger and provide customer service, shouting in a way that is measurable. Delivery. If you have the same product as competitors, but offer a better service, your competitive advantage. But what is important? The Compleat Company, advertising sales, decided to find out. Companies based in Seattle customers the importance of on-time delivery. It was found that its customers not only appreciated, the provision of services, was fairly low tolerance for too late. Eighty-eight per cent of customers to define "The time of delivery provided that 97% or more of the time. Only 4% of customers to accept a program for lower rates to 93%. Compleat A director told me that now company focuses its energies and resources to ensure that this expectation. Compleat If customers want their deliveries, they are located. Information. In economics as in war, intelligence may be valuable. In Business @ the Speed of Thought (Warner, 1999), Bill Gates, wrote: "The way to differentiate your company from competition, the best distance between you and the public, is an excellent information. How to collect, manage and information to determine whether we win or lose. " Knowing what your competitors are, and remain with the trends in your industry, are forms of intelligence, and is essential if you are a positive development. So, listen to your customers. (Your competition. ") The competitiveness of business, you are, the more important is the role of intelligence. You can not afford to catch flat feet if, for example, a laboratory for cutting the supply of critical strike, you need equipment. Or, if the prices of raw materials or sudden peak. O decreases the confidence of consumers. Or, if you developed new products, your opponent threaten your markets. Whatever you're in business, not for some time about the changes in your company can be fatal. Many of these "intelligence" does not have. It 's just smart by practical experience. If you're a B-to-B supplier, which sells at retail, the success of your clients that determines how well you do, too. Your experience can help clients to avoid errors. Small and medium enterprises are often at sunset on the main developments in their field. There is a lack of time, money and know-how to collect and assess information. But that does not mean that it is not important. See prices for products or services they buy. Prices Advance word changes, or new products, exceeded by others, which may be a lack of opportunities, purchase, or inventory, which would soon be obsolete. Protect your clients on trends, therefore, may not be healthier and therefore more commercial. Word of mouth of your distribution is a time-honored way to do this. But in this era of Internet, there are other effective means, as well as the e-mail to Web sites, customers on prices and other developments in the field. One of my former clients, the Institute for Trend Research in Concord, New Hampshire, and analyze economic trends and forecasts accurate if these trends can be transformed. The shop is the prognosis of experience in a wide range of sectors, the construction industry and the movement of agricultural products on market interest rates, prices and inflation. Members of the publisher EcoTrends a bonus: a discount on EcoCharts. EcoCharts, the use of raw data that the participants themselves, he said, the indicators EcoTrends relate better to their specific activities. ITR has four phases of economy of movement, if the trends that are on your business during the phase C, then we expect a decline. Their actions also reduced inventory and training, prevention and long-term purchase commitments deeper focus on cash flow and budget. On the other hand, in phase B, a tendency to report, is to accelerate the training, pricing, terms, production, and distribution centers open. This information allows companies with competitive advantages. Training. Many large companies offer special training for their customers free or at cost, so they can improve their business. McDonald's has an academy for new franchise owners, for example, can train for common problems and to maximize the profitability of their investments. The company is based on the experience of thousands of other franchise owners and shares that knowledge, because it is very important to start their own business. I often recommend that customers, if you must invest in education and the starting point is competitive. For example: "We are investing half a million dollars each year training our employees" or "... The training of our customers." Extract to create competitive advantage Jayne L. Smith and William G. Flanagan Copyright ฉ 2006 by Jayne L. Smith and William G. Flanagan. Retrieved from approval of the Exchange, a division of Random House, Inc. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.