Grant Cardone - If You're Not First, You're Last - Sales Strategies to Dominate Your Market and Beat Your Competition

Look for every opportunity to go the extra mile and give that little bit of additional service; it can mean the difference between merely satisfying the client or customer and dazzling them. Just in the way you greet someone, answer the phone, or get them a cold drink can create the wow experience. When I was in my twenties, I was selling a highly competitive product. I was meeting with a prospect on a very hot day, so I asked him if he would like something to drink. He said, “I would love a Diet Coke.” I left him and came back with a silver platter, one glass with ice and one without, straws in both, and a can of Diet Coke. As I pulled the tab and opened it for him, I smiled and asked, “How would you like it—in the can, a glass, or over ice?” The client looked at me and said, “Wow, nobody does that. You should be selling luxury yachts or something!” We made a deal on a highly competitive, high-margin product, and I closed the transaction without discounting the product. Even better, I continued to sell to this man and his family for years, and they all sent me business as well. They would bring people to me and tell their friends that regardless of what they paid me, I would exceed their expectations. Now that is advertising that works! There are unlimited creative ways to deliver a wow experience that have nothing to do with discounts or even the product being sold.

A friend of mine recently came to Los Angeles to take some courses that I had recommended. He was planning to stay at the Peninsula Hotel, where he normally stays. I suggested that he instead stay at the hotel where the course was being held. I admitted that the hotel I was recommending couldn’t compete with the Peninsula in terms of location, proximity to shopping, or even the amenities to which he was accustomed, but I guaranteed that it would exceed the Peninsula’s service and that he would get more out of his studies by staying there. He took my suggestion.

I called the hotel’s managers and asked them to go the extra mile and do whatever it took to wow my friend. They welcomed him upon arrival; they unpacked his clothes, hung them in the closet, and made sure the staff addressed him by name each time they saw him in the lobby. How does an unknown, small hotel in a less-than-desirable location compete with—and even take customers away from—a great hotel in a prime location with an international name and all the amenities? By delivering wow experiences to customers who are so impressed that they refer others to it! You can’t advertise wow; you can only deliver it.

The single best protection against a downturn in business is having an active list of wow-ed, elated, truly satisfied clients who give you a steady stream of continuing assignments because they love the way you treat them. You must also commit to wow the clients in your power base—whether they buy from you or not. Follow-up, contacts, e-mails, and personal visits are all opportunities to wow those on your list. Anyone can buy a product similar to yours, and someone is always willing to sell it for less. The only thing that keeps you above the fray is cultivating, nurturing, serving, and doing everything you can to amaze your current customers.

Don’t seek to satisfy; seek to wow. The more you wow, the less you have to promote—because others will do it for you! If they give you a dollar, ask yourself, “How can I deliver 10 times that in terms of wow?”

Price is always a very sensitive issue, especially during times of economic contraction. You’re constantly getting hammered with the notion that people don’t have money, and your “weak” competitors are lowering price as a solution to a tougher environment. The reality is that money is tighter and people are scared and more selective with their purchases. The first response—an incorrect one—is to reduce price. A lower price won’t necessarily sell your product or make up for the lost volume you may encounter. And I can assure you from experience that a lower price will not get your clients to buy your product if they aren’t fully sold on its value, excited about it, and confident that it will solve their problems and/or make them happy.

Unless you are Wal-Mart or The Dollar Store, whose entire business models are built around very small margins and high controls on their inventories, the “lowest-price” approach will probably fail you. Selling on price is an indication of a weak-minded and poorly trained individual or organization. As I mentioned earlier, plenty of organizations that have used the lowest-price model have filed for bankruptcy or closed their doors this year alone.

If you are going to sell fewer products due to a tightened economy, you have to do a better job of determining your prospects’ needs. You must then do a great job of building value and making your customers feel confident that your product will solve their problems in order to get the price you need to stay solvent.

Remember: Everyone is aware that things are tight. You have to make adjustments to respond to this knowledge, but lowering price shouldn’t be one of them. A lower price might even convey a reduction in value to clients. People who are ready and willing to spend money during economic hardship are conditioned to believe that they can get a better deal—either because others are not buying or because your competitors are (incorrectly) using price to get their attention. Do the math, and you will discover that this lower-price-with-less-volume formula will not work out for you. You have to learn how to sell your product and justify the price by building value, selling yourself and your company, and creating a wow experience.

It is also important to understand that those who are ready to buy will not just shop your product against a competitor’s like product; they’re also comparing your product to unlike products. As they become more concerned about money, they become more selective about what they choose to purchase. So the question is what they will spend their money on. A lot of salespeople and managers miss this point; they only focus on what they sell without bothering to consider that their prospects may be contemplating completely unrelated investments. They become so concerned with direct competition that they overlook unrelated products and services that become competitive choices for the now more selective buyer.

An example of this might be the car dealer who is so worried about losing a deal to his direct competitor down the street that he shortcuts building value into the automobile. He discounts his price to compete with the other dealer down the street while the prospect decides to invest the $40,000 in a new kitchen for his home instead—all because the dealership failed to build real value. During periods of contraction, the issue becomes where individuals direct their money . Remember this rule: Money will find what people perceive as value; not the lowest price . If a prospect isn’t completely convinced of the usefulness of your product or service, that person will elect to do something else with his or her money.

The value proposition is greatly misunderstood. Hopefully, the following example can clarify it for you. If I sell you a book for $30 and you give me $30, the reality is that you either believe that the book is worth more than $30, or you don’t value your $30. You might feel like the book is worth $30, but because I didn’t really convince you that it is worth more, you may decide that your money would be better invested in dinner with the family. People will not give you any amount of money if they think what they are getting is worth exactly that much . They will only do so when they believe that what they are getting is worth much more!