The global Animal Health and Nutrition industry is very competitive, with a few well-established, dominant players and scores of smaller ones bringing innovative new technologies to the market. How can you win in such a fiercely contested environment? The secret may be in not focusing too much on the competition itself but rather on how well-positioned your brand is in the eyes of the customer.
I’m not going to say that beating the competition is easy. Whether your brand is a market leader or a striving and nimble new contender, the nature of competition is that nobody is completely satisfied, and no position is permanent. You must earn it every day anew. In this article, we will go over key ideas for beating the competition without really trying.
Find your ideal customer and become their ideal partner.
To find your ideal customer, you must first realize that your product will not be “the best in the world” for every possible customer. Your ideal customers are those who will, by virtue of their own self-interested evaluation of all the options available to them, conclude that your product is the best fit for them.
But how will you find your ideal customers? If you already have established customers, look for those who are the most loyal and have great results with your brand. Find out what they like most about your brand. Is it your product’s efficacy, performance, ease of application, or something else? Once you understand what your best customers find so special about your brand, you will be able to find other prospects who are likely to see your brand as the best solution to their problem, too. Those will be your ideal customers, and you should pursue them with laser focus.
If you are entering a new market and don’t have an established customer base, you must let your ideal customers find you instead. You do that by communicating very clearly what problem you can solve better than any other brand already present in the market and where those interested in your solution can learn more about you. Resist the temptation of talking too much about you, your expertise, your science, and your new product. Stay focused on the customer’s problem that you propose to solve. Show that you understand the problem deeply, know how much it hurts, and care about the pain it causes. The more you know about their problem, the faster they will get to trust you and give your brand a try.
You don’t beat the competition by copying what they do. You win by doing it differently.
Have you ever heard a decision-maker in a food animal operation say that if they got two fewer points of feed conversion out of every product that makes that promise, they would not need to feed the animals anymore?
To carve out a unique space in your ideal customer’s mind, you must find new ways to present your value proposition. A great way to find that unique space is by paying attention to what your customers and prospects say. If you talk about their problems the way they do, they will conclude that you “get it” and will be more open to listening to what you offer as the solution to the problem.
Once you gain their attention by speaking about their problem in a way that resonates, you are on trial. They will start judging your offer to see if it is really the best fit for them. If your sales pitch is some variation of the old message, “My product will shave 2 points off of your feed conversion”, you will fail the test. Instead, you should dig deeper and get more information about their problem and only present your solution when you feel reasonably sure your brand is the right match for their needs. Decision-makers appreciate it when someone is honest enough to say, “I don’t think I have the right solution to your problem.” If you do it, they will see your brand as one of a kind and remember it when the right moment arises. Then, they will be ready to be your ideal customer because you have shown that your brand really is their ideal solution.
Be your customer’s companion on their track to success.
When you finally earn that first order, you may be tempted to relax and lower the guard. After all, you already won the competitive battle. It’s totally fine to celebrate, run a victory lap or do a little dance, but know that you now have many more opportunities to delight your customer and show how truly unique you are. Of course, your product must deliver on its promise and solve the problem that afflicts your customer. But that’s not all. Your customers will be monitoring not only the product’s efficacy and their animals’ performance but also how well your company delivers on many other fronts. Was the product delivered on time? Was the invoice correct? Was the customer’s team trained in how to use the product? Did your company provide the service that was promised? If there was a question or problem, did they know whom to call, and was their call answered promptly? Every little interaction between your brand and the customer is a chance to continue adding to (or subtracting from) the total value they receive.
You can also engineer some extra interactions. For example, send a handwritten thank you note to your customer after they place the order (bonus points if the handwritten note comes from the company’s CEO). Sign them up to receive your company’s newsletter (Don’t have a newsletter? Consider creating one). Stop by their office and leave a folder with technical information and a list of all the people in your company they can contact in case of questions or problems.
Finally, ensure your sales team is prepared to investigate other problems your customers may have. After you score a match, it is easier to score other matches with the same customer. After all, by now, they already trust you. It will be much faster to reach the try-and-buy phases of the relationship than the first time around.
In summary, if you want to beat your competition without really trying, you must find your ideal customers and become their ideal business partner; you must do things differently by focusing on the customer’s problem instead of repeating the same old sales pitch; be prepared to walk away if you find out that your product is not the best solution to their problem; and after you win the sale, become your customer’s companion on their track to success. By following these steps, your brand will shine like no other, and you will meet and exceed your sales goals without worrying too much about your competitors.
If you are ready to start winning the competitive wars for the customer, contact us .
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