The keys to dominating your local dive market include:
- Knowing your customers.
- Creating exceptional products and services tailored to hook the right customers and knock out the competition.
Here are three ways to do this.
1 Get rid of the “wrong” customers
There’s no point in doing business with the wrong customers because you may lose the right ones in the process. Sometimes this is hard to swallow, but the wrong customers are more detrimental to your business than you realize. Your business will grow once you learn how to identify them. How do you know which ones are the wrong customers?
First, pay attention to their expectations. Does your business satisfy their needs? Are they always asking for a “better” price? If their expectations exceed what you can do for them, and you don’t have the resources to meet the level of value they expect every time, maybe they should be customers of a different ddive center.
If these customers are looking for a different ddive center entirely, you may lose many of the right customers by changing your business model to satisfy the needs of the wrong ones.
Next, you need to research your customers. A few years ago, Sprint sent letters to several customers advising them to find new phone carriers because the company no longer wanted their business. Sprint decided to send these letters to people who called the call center 50 to 100 times monthly.
At this point, it’s not something wrong with your product; instead, it is that these are simply abusive customers. These customers are taking resources away from the profitable customers.
2 Avoid discounts
When customers ask for discounts, they’re saying they don’t see the connection between the price and the product you’re selling. When you agree to give them a discount, you admit that you and your product aren’t as great as you initially claimed. “What’s the point of setting a price if you’re not going to stick to it?”
Instead, lower the value but not the actual price of your product or service. If you usually sell a large package deal, create a smaller package and sell it for half price. This gives your customer the option to choose, and often, the perception of a lower price ends up putting more money in your pocket because they still must buy the entire package, but at different times.
This smaller investment multiple times yields a larger total sale price. This also helps you identify your value buyers versus your price buyers. Once identified, you can ensure the value correlates to customers’ willingness to pay.
Remember: When you try to compete in the “race to the bottom” on pricing, the only one who loses is you.
3 Offer your customers something your competition can’t
The most important thing you need to understand about your competition is how desperate they are for a sale. People do many stupid things when they’re desperate. If you can understand their confidence level, you can exploit their weaknesses. Figure out exactly why your competition is desperate and make sure whatever area they’re lacking is the area in which your business excels.
For example, if they lack customer service, deliver an authentic and personalized experience to your customers. If you’re a smaller company, send your customers birthday cards and personalized letters. This will differentiate you from other companies offering similar services and products.
People today gravitate toward the emotional side of things, so be authentic and stop trying to emulate your competitors.
This article exists because Aquatic Ventures owner Kary McNeal couldn’t sleep and could not get any rest until he put what was keeping him awake into words. We’re hoping to see more articles like this…but only if, like this one, he promises to write them at 3:00 am. By the way, if you want to see a very effective dive center website that accounts for tens of thousands of dollars in additional sales, check out AquaticVentures.com.