How To Make Your Competition Irrelevant - with Eric Douay - Genius Network Episode #98

You must wow your client. If you want your business to soar and not just survive, you have to keep them coming back over and over.

How would your business change if you made your clients so happy with your products and services that they never think of leaving you? Remember to subscribe to Genius Network so you don't miss a Future episode. Visit geniusnetwork.com subscribe for more do you have any competition?

How would you feel if you could make your competition irrelevant? In other words, your current clients and customers are so happy with you, your products and your services that they would never even think of leaving you? Wouldn't that be wonderful? That is possible according to your next 10 minute talk speaker Eric du English is Eric's third language. He spent half of his life in France and the other half in Canada. However, most of his clients are in the USA to where he travels 12 to 15 times a year. He speaks first French, second Spanish and third English, which in and of itself is a talent. So he has confessed to me that he's been practicing his French to grab your attention. Eric's solution to making your competition irrelevant is quite surprising and yet so natural and powerful. He's qualified to talk about making your competition irrelevant. Eric's company, Fair Merchant Solutions, is much more than just a credit card processing company with over a billion dollars of accumulated transactions for his clients. Eric loves his clients and uses what he is about to reveal to you to express it. He knows it works because he only loses less than 1% of his customers every year. That's an amazing statistic in such a competitive industry that he works in. So Eric's title is how you can make your competition irrelevant. Please welcome Eric Douay. Thank you sir.

How can you make your competition irrelevant? And I'm going to push it a little further. How many of you in this room would like to make the competition irrelevant? Well, this is the answer to these questions is really the essence of wow. And I'm about to share with you a strategy behind the powerful approach I systematically use to get results for my client. And we all know that delivering good products, offering good rates, and really providing great customer service is merely a prerequisite to staying in business. Nowadays. You must wow your client if you want your business to soar and not just survive. You have to keep them coming back over and over. And to find this insight, I examine what is probably the most crowded market on Earth, where maybe 50% of the population is your competition. And yet, despite the grim outlook, many succeed to attract and retain a customer for life and actually in this very room, several of us have many years of success from this battle, won from these battles. And what I'm talking about, what I'm referring right now is the dating market and is an evolved state of commitment marriage. And what better guide and what better source to learn from in this market than the book, the five love languages. In this book, which actually was surprisingly translated in 50 languages and was bestselling on the New York Times for seven years. I think Dr. Gary Chapman, who wrote the book, actually outlined five key categories from how we express and how we receive love. And these are gifts, word of appreciation, quality time, physical touch, and act of services. And to really grasp a little bit the importance of that is that each time somebody tell me, well, how do I do to. To know actually what language to apply? Because what's the point of applying a language that won't fit? You know, it's like telling you, Joel, you love gifts, but I'm going to give you word of appreciation. So what I always say, it always involves a little bit of work, is that you. Before falling head over heels, of course, and applying those love languages, you got to really figure out what is the best language your client respond to. And for that you have to find out through their colleagues, assistant partners, peers, what really how they express love to others and what is their routines, what is their hobbies. And that's why today I'd like to give you some example about how to apply, how we apply the five love languages, but also for you, how to apply the five love languages. So the first love language is gifts and beware, because most people mistake the physical gift to be the important aspect of gifting. Well, actually this is the trap to avoid. Actually, what's really, really most important is all the effort and the care you put into getting and each time giving the gift. And that's what will actually really leave your clients really beaming. And I'd like to introduce you to my hockey loving Kevin, which is one of the good, good clients we have in Denver. And I decided to surprise him. I know he loves gift, and so him, his wife and his executive team, we invited them to a game of the Avalanche. I don't know if you have any hockey fans here, but not that many. Hello. I guess it's with the weather outside. I understand. And we decided to invite him in the box at the Milehouse stadium and see the game. And when they came at the box, here was a sign brick. And the importance of that brick is that it came from the forum, which is for Hawkeye fan is a kind of a, kind of a hockey temple because that's where the former hockey arena where many people saw the Canadian win Stanley Cups. So we had that signed by Patrick Roy with all time goalie and also at that time coach of the Habs. And also in the room they had a Carey Price autograph jersey. So of course they were kind of wowed by the personalization and rare nature. And also what these gifts represented a little bit is between the interests we both share. So now you wonder, but how could I apply? It's good for you, Eric, but how could I apply? Well, if you can think about, I got some ideas from you actually. And I miss the thing. Of course, when you do that new competition. When you do it over time, new competition become irrelevant. So now for you, for you, what could be the gift language you could have? Well, you can do as you can see on the screen, event tickets, gift card, autograph book. And I can tell you when you practice that kind of language with your client, well, your competition become irrelevant. The second love language is word of appreciation. And I use that a lot to building rapport with my clients through building through sending more often because they're actually the one who make us stay in business. We send a lot of greeting cards to express our gratitude most of the time. And each time I actually be able to praise the clients we have in front of the colleague. I never do that and I never miss to do that. And that's very understated but so powerful. So if you have clients, never take them for granted and give you some example. Of course again when you do that over and over, competition becomes irrelevant. And I want to give you an example of what could be your water of affirmation. Could be sending emails, phone calls. I prefer the really personal phone calls and of course mail thank you notes. And when you do that over and over, when you communicate like this with your client, well, your competition becomes irrelevant. The third love language is quality time. And actually this is what you see on my right, which is on your left. What? Actually Chris, which is a financial software company owner, he experienced with us, he came down to check out our operation and finalize the contract that he finally signed. And at the end of the day I said, well, we have a gourmet dinner cruise plan, why don't you join us? And he was blown away because of course it was like music, fireworks. So this was really like when you start to invest time and get to know better your client. Of course, because the idea here is not to Use that memorable experience you did to, to extend the conversation you have in the boardroom, but really to get to know better your clients and what happens. Of course your competition becomes irrelevant. So some of the ideas I have for you, and maybe you already do it, is what could you apply in terms of investing time and getting to know better your client. You have dinner invitation, sharing a special event or volunteering together. And when you do that, well, your competition becomes irrelevant. And the fourth language, physical touch. And I want to be very clear here, if you like to hug your clients, you can. I mean most of them may like them, but I'm not referring to that here. I'm referring to when it comes to courting and developing relationship. I talk about FaceTime, the real FaceTime. You know, when once a year I go and I visit my client because there is nothing better than just talking through the concerns from the comfort of their office. And we always do that. We have a customized scorecard and so they grade us and that kind of keep us accountable. And when we do that, when we have that level of presence and they see how we engage, well, obviously the competition becomes irrelevant. That's the people I should have put that slide before. So I'm going to give you some example. For you, physical touch could be visiting clients in the office, participating to an event that actually your client is hosting, or showing support in a person in grief. So now the last, and of course when you do that over and over and you show how much you care, your competition becomes irrelevant. So the last love language is actually act of service. And one of a good client is here, Scott with his wife Kristen. Scott is a really elite dental consultant in Nashville. And when I got wind that he was planning a weekend for his wife in Montreal, I kind of arranged a guided weekend of adventure, took care of presidential suite accommodation, did the tour guide for them. And of course I was not always there with them, but whether I was there or not, of course they were of course really blown away. And you can see this is where they were in the cathedral. And this of course make your competition irrelevant. So if you have act of services you can do, it's not always about us. You could be referring to prospect to your client giving expert advice to one of your clients in actually a project that is not going to bring you any money or sponsoring one of your client advice. And when you demonstrate that kind of involvement, of course your competition becomes irrelevant. And I want to say that I want to caution you because you know, it's like with your relationship, you know at the beginning it's like we spend countless hours hour with your time and attention to court and most of people sometimes when they get to the first transaction then they forgot about the clients and the only way you're going to stay in business is that if you constantly think of when is the last time I wow them, when is the last time? So today I know I'm a little over my time, but it's because the euro is a little bit more expensive. So the thing is that I give you a roadmap to actually identify and harness your love language in your business. Now what I want you is to go out and fall in love all over again with your clients. And by now I hope I have convinced you that by applying the insights of the five love languages, you can systematically wow your client and make your competition irrelevant.

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