If You Really Want to Compete Against “Low Balling” Competitors in the Document Destruction Industry…You’ve Got to Have One of These…

by Jay Wallus

   Have you ever heard of the term “gobbledygook”? To me, phrases like “market leader”, “convenient locations”, “friendly, knowledgeable staff” and “competitive rates” (all of which salespeople tend to string together in an attempt to gain more clients) qualify as gobbledygook. In the data destruction business, it’s common for a salesperson who is trying to convince a potential client to make the switch from their current vendor to repeat these gobbledygook phrases – a lot. When the potential client doesn’t seem interested by the initial pitch, some salespeople think the answer is to keep repeating these phrases (but with more emphasis), to keep spewing more gobbledygook (only louder). This type of pitch usually ends with the standard, “You’re more than a number with us, we’ll take care of you, etc.”

   I have worked with companies of all shapes and sizes to help them more effectively market their services and to find creative ways to help them gain new clients. Before I can help business owners and salespeople find solutions, I have to know exactly why they think their company deserves success. Generally when I pose this question – “Why does your company deserve success?” – I tend to get a lot of that same gobbledygook repeated to me. In my experience, the companies that really do well (i.e. sell for more profit) are the ones that have the guts to challenge the status quo, not the ones that rely on sales pitches full of goobledygook. In document destruction, as in other areas of business, goobledygook will not effectively separate your company from the pack. The way to truly differentiate your document destruction business is by developing a USP – or Unique Selling Proposition.

   What do American Airlines and Domino’s Pizza have in common? At first glance, not much, but upon closer examination, you can see that they both took similar steps to set themselves apart from their competition. Let’s start with American Airlines. I’ve always wondered why you had to stay over on a Saturday night to get a halfway decent fare with an airline. Here’s the sad but true answer: That’s the way it’s always been in the airline industry. Check out those commercials on TV, at the end you’ll see an advertised rate but the disclaimer at the bottom always reads, “Saturday night stay required”. What did American Airlines do? They eliminated the Saturday night stay – a move that made their services more attractive to customers (and probably angered their competitors). In other words, they challenged the norm.

   How about Domino’s pizza? Their pizza is okay, I guess, but what made them successful wasn’t the “freshest ingredients”. Rather, it was their guarantee to deliver their pizza in 30 minutes or less or it’s FREE. How’s that for standing out in the marketplace and believing in what you promote? The pizza industry for decades was populated with a ton of small pizza shops with “the freshest ingredients,” and they did an alright job taking care of their customers. But in comes Domino’s with its ultra-fast, guaranteed delivery concept and many of those small pizza shops began losing customers and revenue. Years later, Domino’s has over 10,000 locations and many of the smaller shops are out of business. The ones remaining are left complaining that the margins just aren’t there any more, but the cold, hard truth is that those shops never made any changes to their sales and marketing business model – and lost a lot of customers because of it. They’re unhappy about Domino’s – and have been for years – but instead of challenging themselves to come up with new and creative ways to service their customers they’re trying to compete on price – and they’re losing (sound familiar?). Domino’s did such a good job on building a brand that it’s just about become a household name. It’s something that the other pizza shops were never able to accomplish.

   What’s all of this got to do with having your document destruction company excel? Everything! You and your salespeople are out there in the trenches every day attempting to sway potential clients away from their current vendor by explaining exactly why they should switch to you. Even the best of salespeople will fail if they don’t truly believe that their company really is better than the competition. You see, they can mouth the words, but if they don’t truly feel it inside, the prospect will know it instantly.

   So, you’re ready to help your document destruction business excel, but just how do you get started? Well, the first step is to stop being so afraid to shake things up. According to Seth Godin in his book Purple Cow, “If you’re remarkable, it’s likely that some people won’t like you. That’s part of the definition of remarkable. Nobody gets unanimous praise – ever. The best the timid can hope for is to be unnoticed. Criticism comes to those who stand out. Where did you learn how to fail? If you’re like most Americans, you learned in first grade. That’s when you started to figure out that the ‘safe’ thing was to fit in.” It’s okay to step outside of the norm. After all, you want to stand out, don’t you?

   Next, take a look at your list of clients and go get some testimonials – lots and lots and lots of them. Why? Because, unfortunately, nobody believes you. That’s just the way it is. You could have the best sales pitch in the world, but the fact is your potential clients don’t want to be the pioneer and put their butts on the line when it comes to making decisions to switch document destruction services. What they really want to know is that it’s SAFE to switch to you by seeing who else in their industry is doing business with you. For example, if you’ve found a unique system or method to shred documents for medical billing companies, they will feel more comfortable in going along with the medical billing crowd. After all, how could all those people who wrote great things about you be wrong? NEVER underestimate the power of testimonials – they’re like pure gold!

   Last but not least, take action and make the necessary changes to build a Unique Selling Proposition for your document destruction company to share with the world. Your USP is a pitch with all of your newfound ideas put together in a way that will compel your target audience to switch their services to your company. It could include a motivational saying placed on top of the bins after you do your weekly service or it could be a scheduled pick up within 24 hours of their call or it’s free. It could be a gift of homemade chocolate chip cookies hand delivered after you complete a long and difficult purge. Whatever it is, your USP, if it’s a good one, should get you and your salespeople excited. If your USP excites you and your sales staff, it will excite your potential clients too. So, don’t lose clients to low-balling competitors. Ditch the gobbledygook and develop a great USP!

   Jay Wallus is a sales and marketing consultant that specializes in creating VERY unique processes to get salespeople in front of hard to reach decision makers in a business to business environment. You can get his special report, The 5 Reasons You Can't Get Your Foot in the Door and What To Do About It, at his website...it's free! www.howtogetyourfootinthedoor.com