It’s an understatement to say that the business world is competitive. Imagine you’re in an arena filled with a million people. Somewhere in that crowd is one person desperately trying to get the attention of everyone else. The problem is that everyone else in that arena has the exact same goal, screaming at the top of their lungs hoping that someone will notice them. This is a surprisingly accurate description of the business market and the competition that you will be facing every day of your life.
When you think of competition, you often think only regarding the buyer. But actually, that’s just one part of it. You also have to consider how you’re going to compete for the best investors and even compete for the best employees. Yes, the job market is competitive but the best employees can actually choose who they work for and they will. So, it will be up to you to win them over and make sure that they want to work for your company. As such, you need to impress three different groups of people and make sure they are interested in joining your business either as a customer, an investor or even an employee. Let’s look at each of these groups in term and make sure that you are aware of how to do this.
Bringing In The Customers
How do you get customers to buy from your business? It sounds like an obvious question. Marketing, right? But marketing is actually just a tiny part of your business brand. We could write pages on attracting customers to your business and not mention marketing once. Even if you do decide that marketing is key, you still need to make sure that you are taking the right stance with marketing. In other words, you need to approach the customer on a personal level. They need to see that you are ready to give them exactly what they want and basically find/win your target audience.
These days that’s all about making sure that you are offering them the right type of content. The content needs to present an idea, a problem and then provide your service or product as the solution to that problem. It sounds a lot more simple than it is and this is why companies often invest millions in the exact right type of marketing.
But we promised that marketing were just a small part of winning customers, so what are the other aspects? Well, you do need to think about customer service. You need to be able to handle things correctly when they go wrong. And believe us when we say that things go wrong all the time in business. As such, you need to make sure that you are able to handle the issue the way that customers want. In other words, you need to keep your customer service effective, efficient and obey that age-old rule that the customer is always right.
On top of this, you need to think about ensuring that your business looks professional. Customers won’t buy from companies that they deem to be amateurs. Why would they when there are countless professional services on the market they can use instead? Looking professional is about investing money in the right areas and forming business partnerships with people who will uphold your level of quality.
Earning Investors
Investors are a different beast altogether because they don’t care about customer service or marketing. They just want to know that your business is going to make them money and lots of it. That’s why the most important way to win investors is to have a game plan that has longevity. They want to know for sure that your business is going to stand the test of time. That’s why it’s worth thinking about where your business is and where it’s going, putting both on paper and working out a fantastic presentation before you consider approaching any investors.
You also need to make sure that investors remember your company. Remember that arena filled with one million people all vying for attention? Well, that can also be an apt description of a trade show. So, how do you get attention in an arena like this? You create a USP, and this can come in a variety of forms but we think brand merch could be a fantastic choice. According to companies like Fancy Inc, custom merch like this is popular at trade shows because it allows business owners to give investors a little souvenir. When they are thinking about the pitches that they heard that day, they will have a little call back to your company and your campaign. It’s worth pointing out that little free personalised merch can be great for marketing and getting customers to remain loyal to your company,.
The other way to get investors is to make sure that you have a brand with the greatest reach possible. A lot of businesses do not build up a massive platform for their company because of the cost. But that’s exactly what investors are searching for. The more people who can find your business, the more likely it is that it is going to have a long, fruitful history on the market.
Winning Employees
Finally, let’s think about employees, and again we’re looking at a completely different audience here too. They do want to work for a company that is successful and professional, but they mainly want a business that is going to treat them well. For that, we need to think about benefits. Do you want to know the most sought-after benefit for employees in 2018? It’s not the crazy ones you’d expect. Employees are less interested in unlimited days off and more interested in health insurance or dental. Why? These are basic needs of working employees, and these are the benefits that very few companies actually bother to offer. Will it cost you more? Absolutely, but you get what you pay for. If you want a quality team, you need to be ready to pay for it.
They also want to feel protected and secure. Right now there is a heated debate about whether employees do enough to protect their employee’s pay and their emotional/physical health. You don’t want to fall on the wrong side of this line.
