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How to Differentiate Yourself in Business

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By Deb Bixler

If you are looking for new strategies for selling you need to know what it is that makes you shine above your competitors.

Knowing what makes your business truly unique is what will help you thrive with your customers rather than just blend with the masses. Find out what helps you differentiate your business from all others by knowing just where to look.

Direct Selling Strategies

What are your direct selling strategies?

home party plan businessMany business owners don’t realize that they are literally driving their business into the ground by using the same old selling tactics as everyone else.

If your direct selling strategy involves a twist- be it a link to a website tutorial or a cute magnet or pen that showcases your company name- then you are moving in the right direction to make sure that your business is truly different in its own way.

Don’t be afraid to narrow your niche down. When you firmly believe in what you are uniquely offering you can then attract the ideal customer. Many believe the opposite that a narrow niche will eliminate some leads.

We are taught in direct sales that you should be marketing to EVERYONE but really it is impossible for everyone to be your ideal customer. Define yourself better and you will be defining your customer better.

Your business personality is part of your direct selling strategies.

Consider Your Business Personality

How is your business’s personality? There are literally 100’s of methods of direct Selling so what makes you different?

What is your sales personality?

Is it upbeat and friendly like every other business in your industry, or does it take on a more serious tone?

Does your business reflect a common ‘tone’ expected of your niche? If so, you may want to consider differentation by way of creating a whole new personality for your business.

Perhaps taking a ‘green’ approach to something that is normally serious, or adding humor to a positive atmosphere can make all the difference for your business and make you really stand out. Or is it the budget lessons or healthy tips that you offer or even are you more controversial than most?

This is branding YOU, not just your direct sales company! You need to sell yourself first and your company second.

Simple direct selling strategies will help you stand out. For some people, differentation is no piece of cake.

However, there are smaller ways to make your business stand out so you can have the edge on your competition without having to change your whole direct sales strategy.

Try switching from business cards to key chains, hire someone to check your email so messages can be returned faster than your competition, and make sure that you are choosing terms for your product(s) that your competition isn’t using.

Sometimes, simply going from ‘organic’ to ‘healthy green’ can make all the difference.

Make sure that no matter what differentation tactic you choose to use, it isn’t so different that it actually compromises the message of your business. While you want to remain unique, you don’t want to sacrifice your business’s overall integrity just to make it stand out. You want to differentiate, not reinvent your image, after all.

How do you make your business stand out from the rest?

Author’s Bio:
Deb Bixler retired from the corporate world using the proven business systems that made her a success working for others by incorporating them into her home business. In only 9 months Deb replaced her full time income with the sales and commissions from her home party plan business. Find her on Twitter at: http://www.Twitter.com/debbixler

A 5 Point Plan to Differentiate Your New Business

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Jacob E. Dawson

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Building a new business is challenging, frustrating, exhilarating and rewarding. If you’re embarking on the journey of entrepreneurship, it will be the hardest yet most satisfying adventure you can imagine. You will have a million things to take care of on a daily basis, and a seemingly endless check-list of tasks you need to undertake in order to reach the success you’re striving for. In addition to discovering your customer’s pain-points and creating a great product to satisfy their needs, you’ll also need to take care of the books, understand the legal requirements and make sure you can keep your head above water as you approach profitability.

A 5 Point Plan to Differentiate Your New Business

If that seems overwhelming, you can take a deep breath and relax. There are plenty of valuable guides for new business owners. in order to give you a helping hand, which is why we’ve put together a 5-point plan to help you differentiate yourself from competitors once you’ve entered the market with a new product.

  1. Embrace Your SmallnessEveryone has dreams of building a giant business that experiences hockey-stick growth and explodes onto the market. That’s fine, but one of the best ways to turn a weakness into a strength is to embrace it. Acknowledge the small size of your business in the early days and use it to your advantage. People love to root for the underdog, and will often support you and your business more eagerly than they would a larger, more established company.
  2. Pour Your Personality into the BrandIn addition to embracing your small size, you can also help to build a strong customer relationship by pouring a lot of your own personality into the business. Large corporations are renowned for feeling faceless in their customer communications, and this is a huge point of differentiation that you can use to your advantage. You can cleverly insert quirks and idiosyncrasies into your brand character, helping your business to feel unique, friendly and approachable.
  3. Encourage One-On-One ConversationsWhen you are establishing your new business in the marketplace, marketing and promotion are some of the most difficult parts to get right, especially when you have a very limited budget to work with. There are, however, a few ways to maximise what you have by utilizing the power of word-of-mouth, by finding your most passionate customers and lavishing them with attention. When you invite them into your world, share your business’s journey and give them access to unique insights & offers, you can turn a customer into an evangelist – someone who will passionately share your business with the world – maximizing your valuable marketing dollars in the process.
  4. Show Yourself as a ‘Hands-On’ ExpertIf you can’t compete with larger businesses pound-for-pound, you have to find other ways to outdo them. One of the best ways to do this is to establish yourself as an expert in your field. Write informative blog posts and ‘how-tos’, start finding forums and seminars that you can speak at, seek out public-relations opportunities where you can show your expertise through the media. Before long your customers will see you as an expert in your field, strengthening your business reputation, and enabling you to compete with larger, less hands-on competitors.
  5. Tell Your Personal StoryYou know that starting a business is one of the hardest journey’s that you can embark on, so why don’t you share the challenges you encounter with your customers? When they know much effort you put into offering them the best products and services possible they will become more attached to your brand and feel much more invested in your future success. Let them see the ups-and-downs and your willingness to share will be repaid with stronger customer relationships and, eventually, a successful business.

I hope that this 5 Point Plan to Differentiate Your Business has given you some ideas and inspiration to help you to sharpen your new business and begin your journey towards success! What are your thoughts about these techniques, and which ones do you think that I’ve missed? Do you have any personal experience that you can share with us? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!

Author’s Bio:
Jacob E. Dawson writes for Delivery Hero, the best way to find local home delivery . Jacob E. Dawson is an entrepreneur, marketing and SEO / SEM expert with a passion for making the most of every day! You can follow him on Twitter as @jacobeddawson

 

Thank you for adding to the conversation!

Be Weird

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Rosemary O’Neill

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When I was in fifth grade, my mom sent me to school with my lunch in one of those silver ice cream bags from the grocery store. I was already “the new kid,” so this cemented me as “Silver Bag.” It started as a put-down, but grew into a term of endearment. I was weird, but weird-good.

As a new person encounters you and your business, do they think you’re weird? Do you allow them to see your weirdness?

It can be a secret weapon that throws people off-guard, especially in a purchasing situation. When people approach a new company, or new business contact, they try to put it in a bucket they’re familiar with. If you refuse to be categorized easily, their brains will keep processing you, trying to put a button in you.

Seth Godin’s book “We Are All Weird,” seems almost contradictory…if everyone’s weird, how does weirdness get recognized? And yet we are in a time now where off-beat is celebrated. How else to explain the rise of Nyan Cat?

One of the defining characteristics of Instagram is that you can do odd things to your photographs. They are also weird because they don’t have a web component—it is strictly a mobile application (we’ll see if Facebook removes some of that weirdness, I hope not).

Most businesses actively try to suppress their weirdness; I say “let it out!” Your target audience will have a much easier time finding you if they can see and relate to your particular brand of strange.

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Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

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Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

How to Distinguish Yourself and Business Market

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Build Brand Equity Now

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Doing well in business is all about distinguishing yourself from your competitors. The virtual world provides multiple avenues for you to accomplish this. Meticulous planning, effective implementation and use of creativity can do the trick for you. As the virtual medium does not call for large investments from your end, even small organizations get an opportunity to build brand equity.

Perseverance and the attention to detail in your marketing campaign can get you the desired results. Work towards your goal with a plan. Here are the factors that you need to incorporate into your strategy.

1. Establish an emotional connect with the consumer

For a brand to stand out among a plethora of products available in the market, it is important for consumers to relate to a brand in a manner that it emerges as their preferred choice. Build a campaign people can relate to, something that instantly makes people identify with the story narrative. Connect with people to attract buyers initially and to ensure customer loyalty later on.

2. Win the trust of consumers

Trust plays an important role in the purchase decisions of consumers. People are willing to pay more for a brand they have had a good experience with and avoid brands that do not get good customer reviews despite a lower price of products. Attend to the issues faced by consumers to avoid putting off potential buyers. A disgruntled buyer can cost you in terms of loss of revenue. Make online reputation management a priority while attending to people’s grievances.

3. Give customer service a priority

A good customer service is a major differentiating factor in the world of business today. Consumers seek instant resolution to the problems they face. If not immediately, it is important that organizations attend to customers’ grievances within a specified time frame. Build urgency around your customer service initiatives and make it a priority.

4. Involve people in your marketing campaign

Use contests, discount coupons or an intriguing feedback taking methodology to involve people in every stage of product development and product launch. Give attention to feedback collection and assess the results to understand the areas for improvement in products and services.

5. Unleash your creativity in your marketing efforts

Creativity is the backbone of any marketing initiative. Use different social networking platforms to reach out to your target consumer segment. Work towards making your campaign go viral over the web. Use blogs and social networks to attract traffic to your website for more information on products. Work towards conversion through an e-commerce platform.

Businesses thrive and even command a premium on their products if consumers see value in the products. For consumers, quality reigns supreme. Aspirational value and a connection with the brand come in next. Use all the means possible to project your product as the one that does well on the parameters of quality. Work towards creating an emotional connection between the consumers and the brand to effectively separate your brand from the clutter of multiple brands and products available in the market.

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Author’s Bio:
Brianne Walter writes about eco friendly buildings and green technology at ecofriend.com . Recently, she wrote an article on Nokia 701 specifications. You can find her on Twitter as @.Brianne

Thank you, Brianne!

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

Don’t Chase Down Your Dream, Bring It to You

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Own Your Dreams

When I was young my dad used to say, “If you’re going to be a teacher, own the school.”

I’d explain that’s not how schools work — that schools provide a place to do what I want. I’d tell him about what I’d teach and how what kids would learn would change the world.

He said I had my dreams in the clouds.
He said that was no way to own my dreams.

Don’t Chase Down Your Dream, Bring It to You

My dad didn’t care if my dream was to run a corporation, a classroom, or a saloon. He cared that I understand how dreams work — how we bring them us rather than chasing them down.
My dad made three points about how to fill my dream with attraction.

  1. We can make any idea attractive by turning it into action.
  2. It’s the action not the idea that makes the difference, the difference we alone bring to the idea.
  3. People who bring action build their future by delivering value that would be missed if they weren’t there.

Whether we work in the most obscure company, or work for ourselves at contract jobs. People notice value added contributions. People look for folks who offer them unique value.

Value added is an irresistible contribution and it brings surprising opportunities as a reward.

Don’t wait for your dream to deliver …
deliver yourself to your dream everyday …
… in small amounts, in small steps, in small and big actions.
Get where your dream lives by always keeping it in view.
Show up with your dream in every breath and in heartbeat,
and every moment will bring you closer to that dream.

How do you bring your dream closer to you?

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz on your business!!

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11.5 Rajesh Setty — About the Book: How It Got Published

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How It All Came Together

Last week and this, Raj Setty has shared thoughts and insights that expand what he wrote in Beyond Code.. He shared his personal story, how team loyalty and individual goals can work together, “The Inner Game” of attitudes and philosophy about career, life, and ambition, and “The Outer Game” of learning leadership.

Today we talk about Raj’s book, Beyond Code: Learn to Distinguish Yourself in 9 Simple Steps! how it came to be published, what he learned in that process, and advice he has for others who might want to follow his lead.

Raj, how did an IT consultant convince a publisher that he was qualified and able to write a book on how people might distiguish themselves to lead a fuller more successful life? What did you learn from the exprience? What advice for future writers do you have to share?
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