How to stand out from the competition and get selected by customers?

Hi, this is Mayur Bardolia and you are listening to Love Your Business Podcast. This podcast isn't about magical tactics on running the business that makes you bored and tired. Instead, it's about how to love your business so that you can enjoy doing it and enjoy more time for yourself. In the year 2018, I was conducting a workshop on how to create the sales pitch to some of the business owners, and there was a participant called Abhishek. He runs a digital marketing agency. When we met, he was only 10 months old in his business. He specifically wanted to be the best at content writing, creating ads and promotions. Now Abhishek was struggling in his business. Just like everyone else, he was calling people and seeking for appointments, sending proposals and doing cold calls, having meeting after meetings. He was constantly chasing one after another in search for more customers. He had strong work ethics, but nobody was giving him the work. He asked me, I recently started the business of digital marketing and jumped on the online and offline market, but there is so much competition. Everyone is doing the same as me. How do I separate myself from the crowd? Well, we all have the same question. We hate when a customer says no and selects our competitors, and it's painful. First of all, there is zero competition and there is no such thing as market saturation, and it's all not true if you are good enough. And second of all, it's easy to separate yourself from the crowd and stand out like a unique. So in this podcast, I'm going to use Upwork to illustrate how. Upwork is U-P-W-O-R-K, formerly known as Elance oDesk, and it's an online global freelancing platform where businesses or individuals connect to conduct business. And Upwork connects businesses of all sizes to freelancers, independent professionals, and agencies for all their hiring needs. So whenever someone posts a job on Upwork Then clients apply to the job in terms of the COVID letter where each freelancer would describe his skills. And this is how they do business on Upwork. It's a wonderful platform to do business anyway. So I'll give you an example of what I showed to the participant called Abhishek on Upwork, but the thinking process behind this should be used to separate yourself from the competition even in the offline market. So, okay, whatever you're doing, you know, you can use the same strategy not only on Upwork or any other online platforms, but also on our offline business as well. So there are 3 things we are going to cover. Number 1, find out what you're doing. That means evaluate your data. And part 2, figure out what everyone else is doing. That means collect the data. And part 3, Do what work on you plus a little bit more. So use data. Let's dive in, shall we? So let's say you are going to a place which is about 100 kilometers or miles away from where you are now. You know where and how exactly you are supposed to reach. So you pack your bags. You fill up the gas, you make sure your car is in good condition or not, and you set your destination's location on GPS or Google Maps, whatever. But what's the first thing you need to do to start your journey? You need to know where you are now. You can't move until you know what's the next turn or direction you need to go to. We can't go on a ride without knowing where we are now. So in the same way, in business, you need to know where do you stand in the market. One very important question you should ask is, what's your offer? So if you don't know what you are selling, then what are you going to propose to customers? People fail at marketing is because the customers don't understand what you are selling to them. Then they stop listening to you. In my book OfferCraft, I have given the 8 ingredients that are required to create an offer. If you miss out any of these ingredients or components, your offer will be too weak. If you haven't read, go to Amazon and buy the ebook OfferCraft. You will know how a powerful offer is created. Now find out what's your offer. What are you selling? What problems can you solve? What do you promise? How are you going to deliver? I asked that participant Abhishek to do the same. You also need to write down what you can do as well as what you cannot do. So prepare the list, okay? Find out what you can do and what you cannot do. So that takes us to the second part. In any team sport, before they play any match with another team, they find out what others are doing so well and what they don't do well. They analyze the past and current performance of each of the players of the opposite side. They look at the data and do a lot of planning. The sports games that we watch is not an accidental event. Is the result of painstaking and time-consuming plans. They don't play randomly to win. That's the kind of planning and brainstorming we need to do to win. That will give you uniqueness in the market. So how are we going to do it? Let's find out what I shared with Abhishek, and it worked really well. Put yourself in the shoes of a client on Upwork, okay, or any offline market. But just think that you are your customer. I mean, really do it. You can create 2 types of account called freelancer and clients account on Upwork. From the client account, you are posting this job. In this case, like in the case of Abhishek, I asked him to post a general content creation or copywriting job. That means he is looking for some content writers and copywriters. Now, if you don't know what is copywriting, uh, the spelling is C-O-P-Y-W-R-I-T-I-N-G, and it's an art of creating ads, promotions, and offers using the words. So after posting the ad for the requirement Sit back and let the proposals and applications come in. Now here you are becoming a client, the type of client you are looking for, and hiring the people like you. Take note of how other content creators and copywriters, or should I say your competitors, are pitching you. Now take a note of which applications you like, which ones you don't like, Make a list and write this stuff down. Observe what they are offering and how they are offering. Remember that if you are your client, you need to find out which applications are appealing to you. You also need to notice what you as a client didn't like at all so that you too don't make the same mistake. Notice what are the worst offers and don't do what you don't like to do. That takes us to the third part. Imagine you're going for shopping. You want to buy a pair of formal shoes. You're not too fussy about specific brand. You just want to buy a nice pair of shoes. You go to different shops in a shopping mall. They all are showing similar or slightly different shoes. If you're not too brand conscious, you get confused. Then you go to a shop where the shop owner is offering you a free shoe polish when you buy a pair of shoes from them. Not only, they also give you a 20% discount when you buy a pair of socks from them. You're going to get extra what nobody offered you earlier. If you're like others, you will buy it because we love it when someone gives more than anyone else at almost the same cost and also gives something for free. Now, after going through the application and offers you received as a client, find out what are the one or two of your competitors are doing so well. Do the stuff that work on you. If people were using a storytelling approach to win you over, use a storytelling approach in your own pitches. If people were using a conversational style approach, use a conversational approach in your own pitches. If they are showing you video presentation that you like, do the video presentation, but then go a step beyond. Once you do step 1, you will have a good indication of exactly what everyone is doing, and you will see a list of common patterns to avoid. Then all you have to do is figure out new things you can do that no one else is doing. Once you do these things, you will stand out instantly. Now it's time to write down what you're going to do. But I have got a few things to share with you. And here are a few ideas to get you off and running. Instead of replying with a full-text proposal like everybody else, shoot a quick personalized video and submit it alongside your proposal. And it's more personal, real, and different. This alone will win you a bunch of clients. And here's a hint for you: my students and customers have done something very similar with their highly targeted cold emails and attracted up to 30% more response. You can also offer bonuses. So when you choose me to be your content creator or copywriter, not only will you get high-converting ads But also bonus one, bonus two, bonus three. So you can apply the same as we as I did with Abhishek. You can say if you hire this service, you will also get this as a bonus one, two, and three. Whichever is comfortable for you. So that's the end of the final part. So let's summarize what we have covered in this podcast. So in our business, we see many people do the same thing as we do. So how can we stand out from the crowd and stay ahead of the competition? Now we cover 3 things. Firstly, find out what you're doing. You need to know where do you stand in the market. Ask yourself, what's your offer? If you don't know what you're selling, then what are you going to propose to customers? People fail at marketing is because their customers don't understand what you're selling to them, and then they stop listening to you. So what are you selling? What problems can you solve? What do you promise? How are you going to deliver? Write the answers to these questions and also find out what you can do as well as what you can't do. So prepare the list. Then in the second part, figure out what everyone else is doing. Now you become a client you're looking for and post a requirement of a person who does the same work as you do. You can post online, you know, we talk about the example of Upwork, but you can do offline too. So take a note of how your competitors are pitching you and take note of which applications you like. And which ones you don't. Make a list, write this stuff down. Observe what they are offering and how they are offering. Remember that if you are your client, which applications are appealing to you. You also need to notice what you as a client did not like at all so that you too don't make the same mistakes. Notice what are the worst offers. And don't do what you don't like to do. That takes us to the third and final part. Do what works on you, plus a little bit more. So we love when someone gives more than anyone else at almost the same cost and also gives something for free. Now, after going through the application and offers you received as a client, find out what are the one or two of your competitors are doing so well. Do the stuff that work on you. Use the style that you like. It can be the storytelling, presentation, video, etc. But then go a step beyond. Once you do step 1, you will see a list of common patterns to avoid. Then all you have to do is figure out new things you can do that no one else is doing. Once you do these things, you will stand out instantly. Go the extra mile. Keep going to deliver where your competitors stop. That takes us to the end of the podcast. So, what's happening in my world? Do a small experiment. Talk to some of your friends and clients. Share your business offer to them. See how they respond. Ask them if they understand what you say. If you find out that 70% of your people don't understand what you have to offer, then there is nothing wrong. Surprising, isn't it? Well, because 70 to 80% of people can't communicate their business clearly. That's why their customers don't buy. In my book OfferCraft, you will find in the first chapter that customers don't buy the best product or service. Customers buy what they understand easily. If your customers are not buying from you because they don't understand your offer, I invite you to be part of my online course where I will guide you how to create the marketing offer that customers pay attention to. You are not going to find some loosely thrown information. I hate that as much as you do. Not only you will learn each part precisely, but I will also guide you along each step. I will be doing this online course on OfferCraft application. I haven't decided the final name yet. It's just the name I thought of. I'm going to do it at the end of September 2020. You can send me an email on mayur@mayurbardolia.com and I will add you on my waiting list. Yes, there is a waiting list. Not everyone can join. You should read the book OfferCraft if you haven't yet. Go to amazon.com, buy the ebook, and read it. You will love it. It's Mayur Bardolia. Bye for now. Still listening? If you haven't subscribed to my podcast and newsletter, go to mayurbardolia.com/subscribe. Once you subscribe, you will get my free ebook, One-Liner Report. The One-Liner Report will show you how to explain your business so that your customers listen and understand in just 1 minute. You'll also get more podcasts Full of new ideas, free articles, offers, announcements, and free goodies. You should subscribe if you haven't yet. So go to mayurbardolia.com/subscribe. It's Mayur Bardolia signing out.