Competitive Advantage

As business owners, we all strive to outwit our competition by providing something that they don’t. This often comes in the form of “cheaper prices”, “superior service”, “a convenient location”, “a wide selection” and various other buzz words we tout in our advertising. While these are great competitive advantages, they are no longer enough.

I would like to introduce you to a new concept. Really though, it’s an old concept we just forgot about and that I’m hoping to bring back. It’s what I call the Killer Advantage, and if you utilize this in your business, you will increase your sales dramatically. Before I tell you what the Killer Advantage is, let me share with you how I discovered it.

A while ago, I went to my local store for some groceries, and I experienced something that would change how I do business forever. I didn’t discover this in the store itself, but rather in the parking lot outside of the store. As I was walking in, I was approached by a man who I knew was going to try to bum some money from me. In a big city like Los Angeles, you are faced with this almost everywhere you go, so if you give in to everyone, you’ll end up in the same position as them!  I was ready to say no, when the man said to me, “Excuse me sir, I don’t believe in handouts so while you are in the store I am going to wash your windows for you, and if you think it is worth a dollar or two then I would sure appreciate it.” I glanced at my car and the window were in fact dirty, so I gave the go ahead and went into the store. About fifteen minutes later, I came out and sure enough my windows were spotless. The guy did a fantastic job! I looked around for him and saw him a few aisles down cleaning someone else’s windows. I walked over and gave him a few bucks and we both left happy.

As I was driving away, I realized something. I don’t know if it was because my windows were the cleanest they have been in a while or what, but everything became clear. The reason the guy in the parking lot was able to succeed where others have failed is because he offered something much more than a window cleaning. I look back on it now and realize that it was brilliant. You see, it wasn’t the window cleaning itself that sold me.  It was the meaning behind the window cleaning.  He was willing to provide value without receiving anything from me.  In offering this to me, he separated himself from the rest of the pack and resurrected my belief in people.

Like many of you, there are lots of things that cross my mind when I am approached by someone who wants me to just give them money. First, I feel lucky that I am not in that situation. Then, I feel bad for the person and wonder what events in his life led him to the point where he has to ask strangers for money. And finally, I feel angry because this guy might just be scamming me and may be too lazy to get a job. Sometimes I give in and sometimes I don’t, but either way I don’t feel good about any decision I make. With that in mind, I thought it was amazing that the window cleaning guy took all that away just by offering to clean my windows. Just by investing in a bottle of window cleaner and a few napkins on loan from McDonalds, he not only created a win for both of us but made me feel good about giving him my money and showed me that not everyone on the street wants to take advantage of me.

This experienced caused me to flash back to when I was a child and I would go with my dad to the gas station. We would pull in and there would be a service attendant ready to service us. He would not only fill the gas tank up for us, but he would check under the hood to make sure all the fluids were at an acceptable level. A few short minutes later, my dad would roll down the window, pay the guy, and we would be on our way. We received all of this service without getting out of the car. Imagine how you would feel today if you pulled into a gas station and got that kind of service.  Not only would you keep going back, but you would tell all your friends about this wonderful “new” service you got at the local gas station.

I also remembered going to the grocery store with my mom as a kid.  When we were finished shopping, someone from the store would bring the groceries out and pack them neatly in the car for us. What happened to that concept? Today, we are lucky if we even get our groceries bagged!

Thinking about the guy in the parking lot and about these memories from my childhood inspired me to find my “window cleaner” aka Killer Advantage. What could I do to impress my prospects so much that it would make them feel great about hiring me and my company to help market their company on the internet?

Since I am in the business of driving traffic to a client’s website, it seems obvious to give them some free traffic. So now, every time I meet with a potential client, I create a press release about their company and release it a few days before the meeting. In most cases, by the time we have the meeting, the press release has generated at least a few hundred hits. At the meeting, I tell them I want to show them something I did for them a few days ago. I go on the computer, search Google for keywords their potential customers would use and sure enough, on the first or second page of the search results is their press release optimized for those keywords. I pull it and show them that I have not only gotten their company ranked high on Google with these keywords, but I have also acquired a few hundred potential leads for their website. That’s my “window cleaner”.  On the surface, my Killer Advantage says I know what I am doing, but beneath the surface, it says so much more to a business owner. It says we take initiative, we have knowledge of their industry, and most of all, we are different from the rest of the pack.

This is my window cleaner. What’s yours?