THE 7 Pillars to Standing Tall in Business

Have you ever wondered why in business some people stand taller and stronger, and have more impact, influence and success than others?

I guarantee you’ve noticed those people. They capture their market, time after time. They get media exposure. They have a successful business. They have a big community following them. And they have people wanting to associate and do business with them too. Whatever they touch seems to turn to gold.

Their profile and success makes you feel green with envy. And, intuitively, you know their technical or business skills aren’t any better than yours.

These frustrations are realities in any business – traditional bricks and mortar businesses, shops, and services businesses as well as online businesses.

Some people seem to have the X factor and you can’t put your finger on why. You ask, ‘Why them and not me?’

Good news. You can have that success, those wins, that profile, height, and impact in business too. It’s available to all of us if we know what to do.

Once upon a time (that’s code for before the digital and social media age), it was much harder to have the public profile that many enjoy today. You had to pound the pavement, grease the right palms, have a convincing story and more… to get into the media, to get noticed.

That’s all changed. It’s now a level playing field. Anyone can stand tall and stand out.

It takes just seven steps…. Ready?

At its most simplistic, this is all that ‘those’ people are doing:

They’re clear about what they want to achieve.
They use their personality to endear themselves to others.
They have their ‘patter’ – their UVP or sales pitch – nailed.
They make a point of getting noticed where they want to be seen.
They offer products and services that people want.
They find people who want to do business with them, partnering with others.
They work hard.

Simple! Or is it? I can hear you say, ‘well I do all that too!’ We all do some of that. But do you have a full-on strategy or a system around all that?

The real winners – those who really get noticed and achieve the success that many of us aspire to achieve – have total clarity and commitment to what they’re doing and why they are doing it.

They embrace 7 pillars that support them to stand tall, stand out, and get noticed, being: Passion, Personalisation, Positioning, Platforms, Products, Partnerships, Performance.

The reality is those people who implement the 7 pillars become BRANDED.

The 7 Pillars to becoming BRANDED

People who stand out embrace the idea of being branded, and here’s how.

Blazing Passion – they live and breathe what they do in business and life. We can feel their passion for their work and life. They’re dreamers who are full of vision… they’re on a journey, a mission – they live with purpose… and we go with them.

Refreshing Personalisation – gone are the days where we show everyone what we want them to see of us. Now it’s about seeing the ‘real’ us. People connect with us in an intimate, human – person to person – way. That’s how communities are created, and why followers follow. We get to know them – warts and all! It’s become personal. 🙂

Accomplished Positioning – they know what their market is; they are niched and proud of that niche. They aren’t trying to be everything to everybody. They love the people who make up their market, and they know how to position themselves as experts or authorities in that market so people connect with them and their message.

Notable Platforms – this is the really exciting part. Regular people are achieving extraordinary success and getting noticed by putting their message out to their market by choosing the platforms that work for them. It might be a combination of networking, blogging, any or all of the social media channels, writing books, guest speaking, hosting webinars, running a podcast… the possibilities are endless. They are there and available for everyone, and branded people are using them.

Decent Products – they may not have the ‘best’ products or services on the market – that’s subjective anyway – but what they offer is good and they serve the market they’re focused on. The products they offer vary – free offers, lower entry offers, high priced/premium products, guarantees… we can all do this, regardless of our business type – it’s ‘out of the box thinking’ – seeing things differently.

Enabling Partnerships – people want to partner branded people as the relationship is mutually beneficial. It’s not a one way road. Branded people are connected to other ‘movers and shakers’ in their world, and they work together. Great things happen for all when partnerships are formed.

Dedicated Performance – success comes with discipline and work. Full stop.

That’s it. The 7 pillars to standing tall in business are there for the taking… for you and everyone you compete with in your market. Are you going to take the plunge and become your very own brand? I am. And I can’t wait…. watch out world… here I come!

ACTION: Who do you admire in business? What does their personal brand stand for? I’d love to hear your thoughts. As a starter, my favourite personal brand is….. Jamie Oliver. I just love everything Jamie stands for!

Could some guidance from me be helpful to you? If so, please arrange a free 30 mins Skype strategy meeting with me. Here’s my calendar to book a meeting. I’d love to support you in some way to gain ‘seductive clarity’ in any aspect of your business or life.

Is Your Business Irresistible?

“Mystery, sensuality and intimacy are the future of successful businesses! Businesses must be irresistible to be successful.” – Kevin Roberts, Worldwide Executive Chairman, Saatchi & Saatchi

Remember when you fell in love? Think of the emotions you felt at that time.

You probably loved the mystery, the unknown aspects of the person you fell in love with. Those slowly unfolded as you got to know them better over time.

Do you remember loving hearing their stories of life before you? Then you became part of their story, and they became part of yours.

What emotions were activated when you fell in love? Was your breath taken away?

Did you feel like you couldn’t imagine life without the person you’d fallen in love with?

How about intimacy? Ahhh, those moments of pure pleasure!! Remember them?

“What an idiot” or “She’s fallen off her rocker” – is that what you’re thinking? – Why write about falling in love, when this is a business blog?

Well, I’m being totally sane….and very serious in my comments.

Business is so competitive these days. Everything is branded. A brand is the new commodity or the new normal, therefore there’s nothing special in being a brand.

What we need in business is “brand loyalty beyond reason”, according to Kevin Roberts. “Loyalty beyond price, beyond product, beyond design!” We want to create brand love; we want to be irresistible to our customers.

Apple is not irreplaceable, yet it is irresistible!

How does your business measure up? No business is irreplaceable. These days, due to the internet, we’re all a ‘dime a dozen’ – another business like ours can so easily be found.

So, we need to be irresistible to our customers. Kevin calls it becoming a ‘Lovemark’. Be a Lovemark not a brand. “Create mystery, sensuality and intimacy with your customers and target audience”, says Kevin.

It’s about creating a movement of people who connect with you and your brand – your Lovemark.

So how do we do it? Firstly, look out for the interview I did this week with Kevin Roberts (it’ll be in your inbox on Sunday, 12 July) where we discuss these topics at great length.

But to get you started…

Create mystery with your customers by telling and sharing stories. People want to be part of stories, so let them. Create opportunities for your community to create and be a part of your story and the evolution of your business.

Create sensuality. As Kevin says, we live life through five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. Most businesses use two of them when marketing – sight and sound. How can you use all five senses with your community?

Create intimacy through empathy and give your customers what they never dreamed possible. Go beyond their expectations. When the industry norms are ABC, do XYZ instead. Stand out, get noticed. Get to know your customers, their dreams, aspirations, needs, wants, and their fears. Understand your customers, add value to their life, and wow, you’ll become a Lovemark for them.

Now you may be thinking: “What a load of rubbish – this Lovemark stuff is for big business”.

No, it’s for everyone – big or small. Fail to understand this and you’ll be left behind as other players in your industry are doing all this.

I love Kevin’s winning company quotient. IQ + EQ + TQ + BQ wrapped around CQ.

IQ – is hire well. Recruit the best as you need them to compete.
EQ – create an emotional vibe across your business. Value your people and your customers.
TQ – make technology work for you; let it be your slave.
BQ – be ‘bloody quick’ as business changes fast and you need to too. Be agile. Be willing to change.
CQ – is customer quadrant. Wrap IQ + EQ + TQ + BQ around your customers are you will be a winner.

So, let’s all focus on becoming a Lovemark for our community. That’s what I focus on in my businesses and with my clients. I help them to achieve brand love with their customers and community. It’s really exciting stuff.

Stand out and be proud. Be irresistible. Be a Lovemark and have a legion of cheerleaders who are loyal beyond reason. Now, that’s a successful business in my mind.

ACTION: I’d love to hear more about how you create irresistibility for your business in your community. How are you a Lovemark for them? Please leave a comment below and share your story.

Sir Richard Branson asks….

“What business do I really think I could improve?” ~ Sir Richard Branson

I’ve just listened to an interview that Sir Richard Branson gave late last year and, as you’d expect, the topic was his take on entrepreneurship success.

Sir Richard expressed great concern for entrepreneurs who are establishing businesses purely on the premise of ‘where I can make money’, rather than looking at business from the point of view of improving an industry.

Sir Richard always asks the question, “What businesses frustrate me?”, then he goes off and starts businesses in industries he wants to clean up and improve.

The stories of Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Rail, and more recently, Virgin Money are legendary, and certainly these Virgin businesses have disrupted the industries they compete in so that we, the customers, are winners. Why? Because in improving an industry, all players must follow and up their game or else they fail. Therefore, the industry improves.

Virgin Airlines is a brilliant example of this. Virgin Atlantic was the first to introduce individual TV screens on the backs of airline chairs so that we could watch the movies we chose, rather than what the airline wanted us to watch on the communal screens. Now all airlines flying long haul have this feature. If they didn’t, no-one would fly with them as this is the ‘new normal’ that we as customers have come to expect.

Sir Richard Branson’s comments got me thinking.

If we’re already in business, are we as business owners disrupting and improving the industry that we’re a part of or are we just like all other players out there, delivering the same old homogeneous products and services to our customers?

Now you’re probably thinking, “But I am just a small player in my market, and I don’t need to disrupt anything, I just need to get on and do the work”.

Yes and no! Yes, you may be a small fish in a big sea, but you will have lots of competition, even if you only compete in your local market.

And no! You can’t just get on and do the work. You and your business must stand out and do things differently and better otherwise someone else in your industry will create the new normal and you will be left behind. You and your business will irrelevant; a dinosaur!

Size is of no importance in disrupting an industry. Doing lots of things a little bit better than everyone else is what stands the best players out from the rest. Any business can do that.

How about thinking of businesses that you as a consumer or business owner support because to you they are better than and different from the rest? What stands them apart from the rest for you? Often it’s lots of little things and not just one BIG thing that make the difference.

Now for some big questions:

How are you and your business standing out from the crowd? What distinguishes your business from others in your industry?
What does your business’s brand represent?
What part of your industry are you improving?
What about you, the business owner/entrepreneur? How do you stand out?
What impression do you leave? Are you personally branded so you are different to all the other business owners out there in your industry?

Food for thought? I hope so.

You as the person behind your business must stand out. Your business must stand out. Be different. Disrupt and improve your industry. Be better than the rest. Do all this well and the money, the profit, the success will follow. I promise.

How about starting a conversation and letting me know how your business is disrupting and improving your industry at a macro or micro level? I’d love to know.

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

Seven Secrets of Super Successful Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship vs The Meaning of Life
Entrepreneurial Success Without Fulfilment: Who Wants That?
All Work + Little Play = Boring!
Mega Entrepreneur Defined!
Supercharge Your Profitable Business!
Leadership Qualities
NZ Entrepreneurship Success
Millionaire Mindset
7 Secrets of Business Success
Ordinary vs Game Changing
Thriving within the Juggling Act
Business Success and Cookie Dough
What Ice Cream Flavour is Your Business?
What Makes Great Entrepreneurial Leaders?

What’s Your Personal Brand?

“Regardless of age, position or the business we happen to be in, all of us need to understand the importance of brand. We are CEOs of our own companies. Me Inc! To be in business today, our most important job is to be head marketer for the brand called YOU!” – Tom Peters (from the book A Brand Called You).

Everybody’s heard of the word ‘brand’ and often we think about brands in relation to companies like McDonalds, Coke, Apple and Virgin.

But think of those last two, Apple and Virgin, and the two people most associated with those companies: Steve Jobs and Sir Richard Branson. In his black jumper and steel-rimmed glasses, Steve Jobs never detracted from the Apple brand, he embodied it. The same is true of Richard Branson; he is a walking entrepreneur, he never wears a tie, is awkward in interviews, and his whole being is on the pulse of what his customers want, need and dream about.

Okay, you may be thinking, but these are two of the most successful people on the planet in recent history. How is personal branding really going to make a difference to my life, career or business?

Regardless of whether you’re a small business owner, searching for a job, are an employee or even a student, it will benefit you to think about and own your personal brand.

When we pay attention to our personal brand, we create a vision for our future, and with our brand strategy, a path of action with which to get there. The impression we make, the interactions we have, the products we create, and whether we are truly authentic and consistent are all key ingredients of personal branding and hugely impact our success as a business owner or employee throughout our career.

Reputation has always been a key to success and in today’s social media age we have more opportunities than ever before to build our reputation through our style, presence and expert content. And don’t think that content is only for ‘creative’ people. Whatever you do, in whichever field, people will always ‘Google you’ before they meet or employ you. What will they see? It’s up to you.

Your personal brand is what defines you and what you would want to be remembered for. Right now that might not be immediately apparent, and so the first step is to take a little time to really understand yourself, who you are, what you do, your values, skills and passions, and how all of these things come together to create your unique brand. Personal branding is about getting to the essence of you, so that everything you build upon is true to your values, passions and personality.

Once you understand who you are and what you do, you can identify your audience, the people who will benefit most from what you have to offer.

With just a little knowledge you can begin to influence all of those impressions. Don’t leave your reputation to chance when you can easily be your very own PR guru.

In my opinion, it’s time to stand up, stand out and be counted. What do you want people to think of when they hear your name? What do you think people say about you? What is your personal brand?

I’ll start. With some recent surveying I have done, I’ve been told that I am true to my informal slogan of being an ‘Inspirator, Agitator, Motivator’ in that my clients are inspired by my achievements and breadth of knowledge and experience in business, entrepreneurship and high performance. When they work with me, we set big goals and plans for them to work on and achieve which at times they can find a little scary until they have jumped that hurdle – so they connect with the ‘agitator’ in me, in that I am there to push them beyond their comfort zones. When working with me they are motivated to achieve everything they want, knowing that they will be supported by me during the journey. Finally, everyone also said that I am true to my personal values which are: trust, happiness, health, generosity, creativity, optimism, courage.

Whew, hopefully that means I am branded… or at least part way there. I’m so passionate about the importance of personal branding that the next book in my Small Business Huge Success™ series is on this topic. It’s due to be released in a few months time.

Let’s start a conversation. In the comments below, how about writing what you think your personal brand is? I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Other articles on Branding, Marketing and Pricing:

Do You Compete on Price? Bad Business Decision!!
Is Customer Service YOUR Key to Business Success?
Creating Superior Customer Value – do you do that in your business?
Which are Your Most Profitable Customers?
Finding Customers via LinkedIn
Using YouTube for Finding Customers
Who Wants High Customer Retention?
Increase Your Prices & Make More Profit
What is a Customer?
What is Business Marketing?

What ice cream flavour is your business?

An ice cream is an ice cream. A laptop is a laptop. A plumber is a plumber. A business coach is just another business coach. They are all homogenous ─ basic commodities that can be bought anywhere in a competitive market. Right?

Yes and no. Many entrepreneurs operate as commodity businesses. They look and sound the same as everyone else in their industry. They trade on price, often reducing their price to ‘win the business’. Nothing makes them stand out from the crowd. They are like plain vanilla ice cream; something that can be bought anywhere.

Yet, one of the most pressing issues facing many businesses is how to attract more quality customers. That is the constant concern I hear when networking with and coaching entrepreneurs.

Why? Often is it because they have not identified and communicated to their customers the value they offer with their products and services.

When we are selling value to the customer, we are selling benefits – things they want and need; an emotional connection to the product, and often an experience too. When we do that we are selling something that stands apart from the rest and cannot be bought anywhere.

Let me explain.

I am an ice cream ‘snob’, yet we could argue that most ice creams taste very similar. In London, I will travel to Notting Hill just to visit a particular store to marvel over their range of gorgeous flavours, buy one, and then sit and savour it. When in New Zealand I will only eat one brand of ice cream. I can buy it from a handful of stores or in tubs in the supermarket.

So why do I bother being so finicky over ice cream? Because I am buying something more than just ice cream. I am buying an experience – a moment when time stops as I savour the joys of the ice cream. I am also buying a perception of luxury – as defined by me. The personal benefits of the ice cream brands I buy are worth the inconvenience of travelling far and wide to buy them.

The same goes for many other products and services I buy. I will return to buy certain products and services time and again, as they are selling something that is of value to me.

Look at your business. Is it selling something that is highly valued by your customers? Do you have differentiated products and services that your customers can only buy from you? Do your products and services emotionally connect with your customers so they come back time and again?

Starbucks is great example. They enjoy customer loyalty that most businesses can only dream of. Yet, I am sure the same quality of coffee can be bought in many coffee shops around the world – and more cheaply. But Starbucks is selling an experience that its customers will pay for.

Value is often intangible. It’s in the mind of the buyer. So as business owners, we need to get into the minds of our desired customers and understand what benefits, value, and experiences they are seeking when buying the products and services we offer.

Once we understand, it is our duty to effectively communicate our ability to deliver those values, benefits and experiences to our potential customers. If we do that effectively, we will be seen as different, relevant, and necessary by our customers.

Our businesses will be branded differently from our competitors… so long as we deliver on the value and benefits we promise. If we don’t, we are doomed to be seen once again as a commodity business.

Get value, benefits, and experience right in the eyes of our customers and we will be able to set premium prices for our products and services. Price is only an issue when value is not perceived.

And finally, not all business coaches are the same. I have branded my business to work with business owners/entrepreneurs around the world who want to be ‘mega performing’ – achieving all that they desire in business and life – as they define it. My business is a Swiss chocolate ice cream made with only organic products, and with little ‘sweet treat surprises’ scattered throughout… and it can’t be bought anywhere else other than from me.

What ice cream flavour is your business? And where can it be bought?

Let’s start a conversation. What makes your business stand out from others in your competitive market? How do you define and communicate the benefits you offer your customers? Write your thoughts below.

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

Seven Secrets of Super Successful Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship vs The Meaning of Life
Entrepreneurial Success Without Fulfilment: Who Wants That?
All Work + Little Play = Boring!
Mega Entrepreneur Defined!
Supercharge Your Profitable Business!
Leadership Qualities
NZ Entrepreneurship Success
Millionaire Mindset
7 Secrets of Business Success
Sir Richard Branson Asks…
Ordinary vs Game Changing
Thriving within the Juggling Act
Business Success and Cookie Dough
What Makes Great Entrepreneurial Leaders?

Business Success Tips : Meet Francis Preedy

Francis Preedy
Trade Mark Attorney, Nucleus IP Limited

Are trademarks relevant to small businesses? Are personal trademarks necessary? You might think they are not, but let me tell you just how important they are.

About 10 years ago, a business in New Zealand had a trading name and logo that was very similar to that of Harrods in London. It was a teeny weeny business at the bottom or the world (don’t get me wrong, I love NZ, but it is a very long way away from London). Harrods wouldn’t care, you would think. Oh yes they did! They came down on that little business like a tonne of bricks. Via their lawyers, they were intimidating and very aggressive. They threatened to prosecute that little company if it did not desist in using that trading name and logo.

What happens if another business starts calling itself by the same or similar name to yours? You can’t do a thing about it… unless you have trademarked the name and protected the category you are operating in. If you are an international business, you can protect your name, logo and category around the world too. And it is not as difficult to do as it might sound or feel.

Meet my friend, Francis Preedy, a leading London based Trade Mark Attorney, working with Nucleus IP Limited. Listen to the fascinating interview I did with him this week on the importance of trade marking your business name and logo, and possibly your own name.

Regardless of where in the world you are, or how big or small your business is, think about your business name and logo. How would you feel if someone else started trading with the same name in your local area? How might that impact your business?

Enjoy the interview and all the information that Francis passes on to help keep your business and its intellectual property safe.

You can listen to the original interview with Francis Preedy here:

To connect with Nucleus IP:
W: www.nucleus-ip.com

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

…where she interviews successful entrepreneurs from around the world, asking them to share their entrepreneurial stories, and other business ‘subject matter experts’ who share business success tips. If you would like to be art of Adèle’s success community and receive the interviews and much more directly to your inbox, please click here.

Listen to more Subject Matter Experts and be inspired in the Business Success Tips: Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

Seven Secrets of Super Successful Entrepreneurs
Entrepreneurship vs The Meaning of Life
Mega Entrepreneur Defined!
Supercharge Your Profitable Business!
Leadership Qualities
What Makes Great Entrepreneurial Leaders?
All Work + Little Play = Boring!
Entrepreneurial Success without Fulfilment: Who Wants That?
Millionaire Mindset
NZ Entrepreneurship Success

Business Success Tips : Meet Lucy Czakan

Lucy Czakan
Branding and communications expert

Is your business branded? Are you as a business owner/entrepreneur/key person of influence/employee branded?

In all instances, you must be. Branding is not just for big business, tea, beer and celebrities.

Branding is for all. Branding is what takes tea and turns it into PG Tips, or Lipton Tea Bags. Branding is what takes beer and turns it into Stella Artois or Budweisser.

Branding is what turns Jamie Oliver from a chef to a worldwide icon… or David Beckham into another sporting icon… or Oprah into a media icon, even though there are loads of other TV show hosts who do what she did/does.

Branding is what separates you as an authority in your market from other people who are working in your industry regardless of whether you are an employee or business entrepreneur.

Branding is what separates your business from all the others you compete with.

Branded products and services get noticed! My 13 year old daughter ‘gets’ branding. She is very clear about what brands she MUST have (otherwise life wouldn’t be worth living), – Converse, Superdry, Zoella, New Look, Baby Lips, Top Shop to name a few….

Let me introduce you to my dear friend and business colleague, Lucy Czakan. Lucy is a branding and communications expert based in the UK. During her career, she has worked on many major and internationally recognisable brands (including Flora Margarine, Magnum Ice Cream, PJ Tips, Lipton Tea, and Oxo). These days, Lucy works with small and medium sized businesses, helping them to get branded so they stand out in their market.

I am delighted that Lucy agreed to talk to me about branding and communications, and its importance to small businesses around the world.

Enjoy the interview. I hope you learn a lot about how you can brand your business.

Equally importantly, you will learn how you can brand yourself as an authority in your field, regardless of whether you are an entrepreneur or employee. Stand out from the crowd. Get noticed!

You can listen to the original Interview with Lucy Czakan here:

To connect with Lucy Czakan:
W: www.neovitae.co.uk

Adèle hosts an interview series entitled:

• Successful Entrepreneurs’ Stories : Adèle McLay Interviews…..
• Business Success Tips : Adèle McLay Interviews …..

Listen to more Subject Matter Experts and be inspired in the Business Success Tips: Adèle McLay Interviews….. YouTube and Podcast series:

Other articles on What Makes Successful Entrepreneurs:

Do You Compete On Price? Bad Business Decision!!

The price a business owner establishes for the sale of their products and services is arguably one of the most important business decisions they will make. And yet, pricing is one of the most feared elements in managing a business.

One of the many conversations I have with business owners is on pricing, and those discussions usually start with me saying, “Your prices are too low.” They look at me in shock and often respond with all the reasons why they cannot raise their prices:

I’ve lost jobs because I was too expensive.
I’m more expensive than some of my competitors.
I’m barely making enough profit as it is, and I can’t afford to lose customers by raising prices.
You have got to be joking— put my prices up in this depressed market?

Responses like that generally indicate those business owners don’t understand the impact pricing has on a customer’s perception of their business and its branding in the market. I have a business mantra: “Never compete on price”.

If your prices are too low, your market will label you a low-end player and you’ll attract bargain hunters who will invariably try to get you to discount your products even further. Lower prices also make it unlikely your business will build long-term relationships with customers, who by their very nature will shop around to get the best prices on a product or service, not staying loyal to any one business.

Higher pricing raises customers’ expectations of a business, which can be a challenge. But if you constantly deliver on those expectations your business will usually enjoy customer loyalty, and you will attract a better quality customer that is willing to pay more for quality customer service.

It comes down to branding. What does your business, your brand stand for? What is the promise you make to your customers? Branding is about building a relationship with your customers, and over time they expect certain things from your brand, as that is what you have promised them.

A brand can turn something that is pedestrian or homogenous into something that is unique and that stands out from the crowd, regardless of the market. If a business is branded it can set you apart from the rest. A strong brand builds respect, loyalty and retention, and allows a business to set its pricing strategy accordingly.
Dr Michael LeBoeuf, international business consultant, focuses a lot of his work on how to win customers and keep them. He created a matrix based on extensive research on why customers leave a business.

Based on that research, of those customers who leave a business, only 9 percent leave due to pricing, whereas 82 percent of customers leave because they are not treated as special or there is an unresolved conflict. In essence, they leave due to a lack of customer service.

Therefore, key to the success of your business is not worrying about the price you charge your customers, but concentrating on the customer value proposition you deliver to your customers to keep them happy and returning for more. It’s about going beyond the call of duty to provide value and service to your customers. It’s about creating customer cheerleaders, customers who will be loyal to your business for a long time and at the same time, will refer their family and friends to your business too.

Pricing is not an arbitrary decision; all businesses should have a pricing strategy. When determining your business’s pricing strategy, the key is to determine your value proposition for your customers, rather than pitching your business against your competition and attempting to undercut them to win more customers.

Get that right and your brand will create an impression in your market, and you can price your products and services according to that positioning.

Never compete on price. That is a business decision that will see you, your business, and your staff and suppliers lose in the end. Why? Because, if you are prepared to discount your price once, you will do it again and again. At the beginning, in order to maintain your profits, you can create increased operational efficiency within your business to compensate for reducing your prices. If you continue to reduce your prices, then eventually you will need to reduce your staff numbers or their pay (or both), and no doubt you will also be asking your suppliers to reduce their prices to you. Do that for long enough, then your staff can’t afford to work for you and your suppliers won’t be able to afford to supply your business, so you won’t have a business. It is a lose/lose business strategy.

A brand is a differentiator. A brand is an image. A brand is a promise. A brand is an experience. A brand is a perception. A brand can move a business or a person from the ocean of obscurity to the river of relevance and riches. Focus on building your business brand, and the need to compete on price will be a thing of the past as will the fear of making pricing decisions.

Other articles on Branding, Marketing and Pricing:

Is Customer Service YOUR Key to Business Success?
Creating Superior Customer Value – do you do that in your business?
Which are Your Most Profitable Customers?
Finding Customers via LinkedIn
Using YouTube for Finding Customers
Who Wants High Customer Retention?
Increase Your Prices and Make More Profit
What is a Customer?
What is Business Marketing?
What’s your Personal Brand?