A
customer has to meet his requirements, by purchasing from somebody. We should give him at least one reason, as to why he should purchase from us, & not from our competitors. There are always differences between companies. We must identify our good points, & use to our advantage, & for bad points we should take necessary actions. We must try to get the edge, to outshine others & to standout in the crowd, not only for our growth & progress but also for our very survival. Some times we have the edge, but we are not aware of it at all, or not aware of it fully & clearly. In ten Chapters of this book, the author has discussed various aspects of this important topic viz. due to competitive
advantage we are in business; it closes deals; our customers save money; our competition will not be merely price-based; it is strength; we must position ourselves at high ground; gaps between reality & perceptions; create an advantage & communicate.
However, in one of the important Chapters of this book, the author stresses on identifying our own company's advantage, since it may or may not lie in the
quality of our
product or service. Even if quality is better, anyone would like to know exactly, what is the difference. But besides quality, there are many other things, which the customers should be made aware of. These could be the internal quality control procedures adopted, actions taken for delivery in time, special efforts & precautions taken etc. Well, we should make the customer know the the same. There could be data like, our rating in the country or world, amount invested by us in new technologies, awards & certifications received by us recently, contribution to community & environment, training of employees, any special celebrity clientele etc. Our specialty could also be, in our simple ordering procedure, testing, packaging, mode of delivery, other extra things provided if any, along with the main item, a discount for next purchase etc. One of these could also be our edge, & may influence customer decisions. Facilities like timings & days during which the office/shop is open, & whether on-line order can be placed etc. also matter. Many of the customers are forced not to believe the contents of the claims made in advertisements, regarding the quality of the products & services. A customer who gets educated about the product, &/or observes the process of production from close quarters & learns the special features himself, is a better customer. There are also other factors like availability of spares, terms of payment, guarantees, time of delivery (i.e. whether ex-shelf or after placement of order etc.), providing training & special precautions & instructions for use & handling to the customer to get the best out of the product, after sales service, life of product, rate of failure, terms of installation, handling of customer complaints & response to communications etc. The knowledge about our special connections or franchise arrangements with some suppliers, our linkages & relationships with others in similar & inter connected types of work, our dominance in the market, average number of years of experience of our main team of personnel, patents held, large investments made or proposed to be made, number & dispersal of distribution outlets etc., as necessitated by individual cases, gives confidence to the customer to purchase from us, rather than from our competitors.
This abstract was checked by WhiteSmoke Solution.
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