As competition increases across all B2B market sectors, making a decent profit can feel like an uphill struggle.
With money at the top of every prospect’s agenda…or so it seems, it’s not surprising many business owners find themselves cutting their prices to stay competitive.
The thing is, although competing on price can feel like your only option, it is more than feasible and reasonable to do the exact opposite and charge a premium.
The secret is to prove you’re worth it.
Monkeys and Peanuts
With product and service commoditisation becoming more commonplace, your prospects are learning very quickly that cheap doesn’t always mean best value.
More often than not cheap buys cheap and can frequently end up costing a lot more in the long run.
While low prices lure people in, it’s not uncommon for the savings to quickly lose their lustre. Many of us have bought into a low-cost mobile, electricity or internet tariff only to find you definitely get what you paid for.
Worse, the customer service is almost non-existent when things inevitably go wrong.
Price is always going to be important but that doesn’t necessarily mean your prospects want the cheapest. Given the choice between paying less and getting the results they want, savvy buyers will almost always choose results.
Ultimately, what they really want is the certainty they are choosing the right partner for the job. And for that certainty, many will be willing to pay a premium.
The question is – how do you position yourself as the ideal people for the job.
How to Tick the Right Boxes
The answer lies in your ability to answer 5 simple questions.
- Do you understand the problems I’m facing?
- Can you get me the results I want?
- Do you have experience in my sector?
- Have you worked with a company of my size?
- Will working with you be a positive experience?
In asking these questions albeit unconsciously, your prospects are measuring you against 3 factors, credibility, relevance and results.
They want to know you have the right experience, expertise and track record to help them overcome their specific issue and deliver them to their happy place.
The more ticks, the greater the certainty you will inspire.
When your prospects tick all 5 boxes, paying a premium is a no-brainer.
A Powerful Box Ticking Tool
Case studies offer one of the most powerful ways of ticking these boxes by:
- Providing information on your current clients including the seniority of your client contacts, the sectors they work in and the size of their company
- Outlining the objective they want to achieve
- Detailing the challenges that your clients came to you with
- Offering tangible, measurable proof of the results that you are able to achieve
- Delivering testimonial evidence on what it is like to work with you
- The problem is many case studies don’t do the job they were designed to do. Too often they don’t have the information your prospect needs to select you.
The good news is, with a bit of a tweak, many existing case study materials can be souped-up so that they veritably hum.
Find out what the 5 most common case study mistakes are and what to do about them in our new eBook on compelling case study creation.
You can download a copy for free here.
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