“Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.”
Bill Gates
The pressure on small businesses is much more significant than anyone can imagine. Only if you are a small business owner, then you can understand what it means to fight established corporations to sustain your business and keep your neighbourhood yours.
Most small businesses lose the fight because they lack the right resources, like enough capital, effective strategies or a powerful team, etcetera. However, they don’t realise that they still have a chance to keep their share of the neighbourhood by believing in themselves and employing the correct approach.
Read ahead to learn about some incredible ways that will help you win, summarised by Arcadia Online experts:
Personalise
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The advantage that small businesses have over big corporations is the knowledge of the neighbourhood. “With knowledge, comes wisdom”, and they can use it to personalise their marketing and sales approach. Whom would your customers’ trust: a local brand that they know and who knows them or a company, who consider them just a bunch of numbers on their sales sheet? The answer is pretty straightforward; however, the approach needs more significant efforts than usual. The next method will help you understand this further.
Tap the emotions
Emotion-selling has proven that you can sell anything if you can tap into the emotions of your target audience. Apart from explaining the benefits of your customers, you must tell them how your products and services are designed especially for them. Your target customers should feel valued, and if your marketing strategy can achieve that, your sales will skyrocket in no time. Be it cleaning services, promotional mugs or dietary eatables; it does not matter what you are selling, what matters is how you are selling it. Make them believe that you value them, and they will be convinced to make a purchase.
Your employees can make a significant difference
Treat your employees like gold. Although you may not be able to pay them as much as established organisations, if you treat them right, they will ensure wonderful results. The primary concerns that local businesses have are lack of skilled employees and lack of financial resources to sustain them. If you can be a great leader, then they will be an efficient team; always remember this. Your employees may have the same mindset as your customers because they are locals, they know the market better than anyone. So have an open-mind regarding opinions. This will make sure that your products and services are well suited for your target audience.
Don’t target the entire neighbourhood
Grab a niche and run with it. Yes, you heard it right! As already mentioned above, you may not have sufficient resources required to hire and sustain skilled employees, let alone target the entire market. If you can produce products and services for a niche and are able to attract them towards your brand, you will see significant growth of your business. This will reduce your market research, suppress your production abilities and make sure that your quality is up-to-the-mark.
Prefer quality to cost
Quality triumphs price at all times. Most established companies have earned trust and loyalty because they don’t compromise with their quality; however, their prices increase as the fame does. This is a drawback that they have, which you can exploit to your advantage. If you are catering to a niche audience, then you don’t have to increase the number of employees or the spend on raw materials and other expenses, right? You can use these savings to drop your margins a little further because you should focus on sales maximisation and profits will follow. Never compromise with your quality and keep your products & services within the range of your neighbourhood.
You should not lose hope if you are not able to fight the established companies; believe in yourself and follow the tips mentioned above to ensure success at all costs.
“The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance. Remember, the greatest failure is to not try.”
Debbie Fields
