Greetings Floor Dealers!
In the previous installment of this series, I listed the three reasons most advertising fails floor dealers: 1) There is a ton of misunderstanding among floor dealers about advertising; 2) they are unaware of alternatives to “brand building” types of advertising; and 3) as a result dealers wind up copying each other.
This week I discuss the final reason.
Reason # 3: Dealers copy each other’s advertising
Unfortunately, knowing the technical aspects of flooring (installation, product knowledge, etc.) does not necessarily make you good at marketing and selling. Marketing and selling flooring requires a completely different skill set.
Since most dealers have not been trained in using direct response marketing, they are not sure how to promote their businesses. Almost by default they look around at what other dealers are doing and copy them; albeit with some minor changes, but by and large their marketing messages are virtually identical to their competitors. Here’s proof: pull up your website and your competitors’ websites. I’ll bet you the biggest lobster in Maine that all of them have the business name at the top, tabs (or bullets) listing their products, and contact information. I call these name, rank and serial number sites. Even though the graphics and colors are different, the marketing messages are the same.
Does your website (or other advertising) answer the unspoken question on every prospect’s mind: why should I do business with you instead of your competitors? If not, then you’re setting yourself up for competing on cheap price. Some web designers and other advertising professionals make the problem worse. You sit down with a web designer and the first thing he does is pull up flooring websites. He then begins pointing like a rabid monkey to all of your competitor’s sites and says things like, “You could do one like his!! Or one like his…or his…or his!!” Well hello! That’s the entire problem in a nutshell. (This kind of thinking infects newspaper, yellow pages, radio, and TV ads too.)
Just because everyone else is doing these kinds of ads doesn’t mean they are working. Earl Nightingale said that the crowd is always wrong. He also said that if you don’t have a good success model to follow, look at what everyone else is doing and do the exact opposite. Excellent advice! Following everyone else a dangerous mindset; you might wind up following them off a cliff!
I teach my Flooring Success Systems members that one of the most powerful ways to stop following other floor dealers and to set yourself apart is through the use of a Unique Selling Proposition (USP). A good USP focuses like a laser beam on a specific, concrete benefit to the customer. It’s the opposite of a Universal Selling Proposition. Here are some examples of both:
Universal Selling Propositions
• We carry wood, laminate, carpet, tile and vinyl
• Financing available
• Free estimates
Unique Selling Propositions
• When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight (Fed Ex)
• Fresh hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less (Dominos)
• We’ll arrive on time or we take 10% off your bill
Financial empires have been created on the strength of a good USP (Fed Ex and Dominos are great examples). Taking the time to craft a strong USP will go a long way towards differentiating you from your competitors. Just be careful not to slip into simply reworking tired, worn-out Universal Selling Propositions like those mentioned above.
To Tons Of Customers!
Jim Augustus Armstrong is The “Coach”
Jim Augustus Armstrong is the President of Flooring Success Systems, a program that equips dealers to double their profits, cut their work hours in half and beat the boxes! Many dealers have totally transformed their businesses and their lives for the better after joining Flooring Success Systems.
See what real, live dealers are saying!