Get to know your customers before they get to know your competition

By: Edward Garber at The Florida Design Group

Submitted on Thu, Nov 1st, 2007 12:00 am

In today's market almost everyone has something to sell. While you may have a strong product to sell or an exemplary service to offer, it is essential to differentiate yourself from the pack. But how can you make your product or service stand out in a consumer's mind? How can you make sure that your target consumer picks you over your competition? Below are a few tips to help you create and market a point of distinction for you and your business and get you noticed by your target audience:

1. Know who you are trying to reach. Spend some time examining who you are trying to sell to. For example, if you are in the business of renting property are you targeting students, couples who just moved to the area, retirees or families looking for a summer vacation rental? Knowing your market will help you learn what your clients want and how to better serve them. For example, if you are targeting young families you can emphasize your knowledge of the quality of area school districts, but if you are targeting retirees you can emphasize proximity to shopping, restaurants and community activities.

2. Know what your consumers want. Once you know who you are trying to sell to it is much easier to learn what they want. Spend time with people who are similar to your target customers and learn what they are looking for in a product or service. Don't be afraid to ask past customers what they liked most about your product or service and what they think could be improved.

3. Learn about your competition. Now that you know who you are trying to sell to and what they want, find out whom else is trying to sell to them. Analyze your product or service in comparison to theirs. Do you have better customer support but a slightly higher price? Do you offer a certain level of experience that your competitors don't have. Once you learn about your competitors, you will be able to understand how you stand out from them.

4. Be honest…with a glass half full attitude. If you know that your customer service is better than your competitors' but your price is higher, emphasize your customer service. Don't hide the fact that your price is higher but learn to play up the reasons why your product or service is more expensive. If your product is inexpensive but you don't offer the same quality as your competitors, focus on the great price you offer. If your product offers a feature that no one else offers make sure your customers know about it and that they can only get it from you.

About the Author

Edward Garber
The Florida Design Group

A Fort Lauderdale, Florida based Website Design & Internet Marketing company, we combine our knowledge in Website Design, Advertising and Search Marketing with our passion for helping businesses grow, which has offered our company significant growth, fueled by the success of our clients. We can do everything and anything online, and always make sure our clients know that "our success derives from their success", as the more money we make our clients, the more they have to spend on us. Our corporate office atmosphere can best be described as Florida business casual, as we believe in a nice, easy to work enviroment - somewhere that we can happily hang our hat and truly enjoy and love what we do.