But they don’t want to get a bad deal.

In fact, the fear of getting a raw deal often outweighs the love of buying a good product.

When the reward of your product or service outweighs the risk to a potential customer, you have a buyer.

Said another way, people buy from you when the reward of enjoying your product or service is bigger than the risk of exchanging the money.

The reverse is also true: When the risk is bigger than What’s In It For Me?, the sale is lost.

You know this already.

But you may not know how the best companies position themselves to gain more buyers, more often.

This is why your Value Proposition is so critically important.  Your value proposition is what makes you unique and separates your product or service from all the other sea of options your customers can choose from.

Your value proposition is very simple as it clearly describes the

Benefit a customer can expect from your products and services

In this tutorial, we are going to develop some simple strategies that you can easily do to immediately empower more customers, both existing and new, to buy from you more often.

Why should I buy from you instead of your competitor?

This is the question you must answer at the heart of your selling proposition.

As we dig deeper into this critically important topic, here is an excellent article to help you build your Unique Selling Proposition (USP):

How Do You Write a Unique Selling Proposition (USP)?

Which leads us to the first important method for getting customers to choose to buy from you, and not your competition.

Regardless of the stage of your company, the most important portion of your value proposition is finding “product - customer fit”. That is, ensuring there is a match between your product and the customer you are selling to.

This is a constantly evolving strategy because products, services, and customers' needs change frequently. Your job is to stay ahead of your customers and continue to adapt your value proposition to best serve your customer.

Companies that choose the Customer Intimacy Value Proposition excel at this.  This is why a customer feedback strategy is so important to have in place for your company, regardless of your business.

Developing the value proposition and finding fit is a very simple process and is done two ways:

1. Create value -- develop the list of benefits and characteristics of your product or service
2. Observe your customers -- make a list of the characteristics your customers want based on customer feedback, buying habits and observations that have been verified in the market.

So, the first important job is to closely match the value created with what the customer actually wants. When you do, you’ll have a better chance at finding product - customer fit. 

For an excellent article on finding message market fit, go here:

What is the first rule of marketing? (Solved!)

It's a fluid process to get right. But when you do, the next step in the process is where you can truly answer the question on behalf of the customer:

Why should I buy from you instead of your competitor?
First, the product or service must meet the basic needs of the customer. Second, when more value is created, usually in the form of a lesser price or more quantity or other value added compared to the competition, the customer will choose to buy from you. The take-away is to identify the basic customer needs in the market and provide more value to gain a customer versus the competitor’s value proposition.

Let’s now move on to some important strategies that give customers more reasons to buy from you, instead of the other options.

Top reasons customers buy

Customers buy for a variety of reasons. But looking back at the core value proposition, they ultimately buy because the value outweighs the risk.

But now, let’s look at the top reasons why customers choose to buy from you instead of the competition.

And it all comes down to value.

But more specifically, it comes down to clarity of the value being delivered.

And this is where you highlight your clear value proposition and put all attention on it.

Here’s the top most common reasons customers buy from you:

Product benefits are clearly stated:

This is directly tied to what your customers actually value. Focus on what you know they want and deliver it clearly in your product benefit list.

Product is easy to use:

This is another reason to get regular customer feedback. Show how easy your product is, even compared to the competitors product(s) with video, images and customer testimonials and this is a powerful strategy giving the customer more reasons to choose you.

Your product is easy to buy:

Reduce friction in the buying process. For example, in ecommerce, the fewer buttons a customer has to click to check out and purchase, the easier it will be for them to buy. Remove as many barriers to purchase as you can.

The offer is clear and easy to understand:

This is a big one. Many sales are lost because the offer is either not what the customer wants, or is too complicated.

Social proof:

Industry credibility, testimonials and social media can add reasons to support a customer’s choice to buy from you.

Guarantee:

For example, “If for any reason, you are not delighted with this product after 30 days, you can return it for a full money back refund. No questions asked.” You’d buy from a company that supports their product this way, wouldn’t you?  So will your customer.

Free gift:

“Free” is the most powerful, and probably the most underused word in the marketing world. Everyone likes free. Your customers do, too.

Customer support:

People like to know they can be supported in their purchase.  Providing some element of customer support will reduce returns and increase frequency of customer transactions.

Education:

This is a powerful strategy to engage your customers and give your customers more reasons to buy from you.  Educate the customer on what your product or service can do for them.

Regular communication:

Regular communication is one of the most powerful of all the reasons customers buy from you. When you stay in great communication, regardless of where the customer is in the buying cycle, communication builds trust. Most companies are lacking in regular communication, but when you implement systems you can win more customers who choose to buy from you over the competition.

To help you start your marketing strategy and get started in advertising, here is a great article:

How is “Free” used in marketing? (5 clever strategies)

Let’s now move on to a fun, simple marketing strategy you can use now to educate your customers on why they should buy from you.

10 reasons to buy your product

One of the best strategies you can do to win more customers is to simply tell them in clear language why you are better than the competition.

Don’t be slick, sly or confusing. Just state the facts.

You often see this in infographics. This is a fantastic way to clearly show the value you provide in a clear and transparent fashion.

Plus, this not only helps educate your customers on your product benefits, but it also educates your team, suppliers and stakeholders on your value proposition in the marketplace.

Here is a free template format you can use to build you own "10 Reasons Why Customers Choose Us".

This will help educate you educate your potential customers, and help them feel more comfortable in doing business with you.

Here is the exact format we use, and you can use it for yourself.

Simply get with your team to develop your "10 reasons why" to buy your product over the competition.

This can be listed anywhere on your site and provide reasons to ramp up your email communication to your customers so you can explain each reason in more detail.

Free Template: 10 Reasons Why

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As we close out this incredibly important topic, here is a very helpful article to help keep more of your customers continuing to buy from you:

6 Reasons Why Customers Stop Buying

About Your Strategic Marketing Partner

Since 2001, Your Strategic Marketing Partner is like having an experienced, trusted advisor sitting alongside you at the executive table. But the difference is: we roll up our sleeves and get to work and help you develop great marketing campaigns, increase lead flow, generate more sales, build a better brand, get more out of what you are doing and ultimately help you gain more customers, and keep more customers.  Go here to work with Your Strategic Marketing Partner near you.