Ep 28 Transcript: Transforming Challenges into Opportunities

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Shauna Lynn Simon (00:00)

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Hello and welcome to the Real Women Real Business podcast. I am your host, Shauna Lynn Simon. And today we're diving into a really powerful topic. I want to talk about how to promote the value of your unique differences, even when it's being framed by your competitors as a bit of a drawback. So we're going to cover how to reposition that perceived negative into a compelling feature that helps you to showcase your business's true value.

So I wanted to start with a little bit of a comparison of something that I think we can all relate to. If you're watching any sort of ads or commercials these days, you're seeing something in the accommodations industry. So we've got the main players, I would say, are hotels. And I'm to group all hotels together in this. So we've got our main players are hotels, Airbnbs, and Vrbos

And I'm seeing different ads and commercials for each of them. And I have to say, I've always been super intrigued by marketing and advertising. And I love watching what people come up with for their ads. so, you know, when you look at the Airbnb ads, for example, they're talking about, you know, the value of staying with a host. So not all Airbnbs are staying with a host. Sometimes you've got your own place to yourself.

But one of the things that their competitors have really hard done is the fact that they have a host. So what this means is that in Airbnb, sometimes you can stay at a property where the host is in the same property as you, where you're sharing common spaces with them. And so Vrbo promotes the fact that there's nobody else there. You've got the whole place to yourself. And so they've come up with some really clever commercials that show the things that you would do if you were all by yourself. So it might be...

simply walking around in your underwear or singing a crazy song or just relaxing and lounging. But the things that you would enjoy knowing that there's no one else that's coming anywhere near you, that your host isn't gonna be bothering you at all that entire time. But what Airbnb has done is they've created similar marketing, but they're promoting the value of having a host. They're talking about how your host can become a friend of yours, someone that you keep in touch with for years to come.

someone who can help be a bit of a guide for the local area and tell you the best places to eat and different sites to see and things like that. And so now we've got hotels coming into the mix because I think it's pretty safe to say that Airbnbs and Vrbos have taken some business away from hotels over the last several years. But where hotels are really promoting their value is they're showing like a whole family.

all hanging out and having a fantastic day together. And then they're showing, you know, the grandparents are going off to their own room while the kids go off into a separate room and they're promoting the value of having that space. Like you're not sharing a whole house with these people. You're not having to worry about being in the same space as the kids. As much as we love spending the time with the kids as grandparents, you you still want to have your own privacy, your own space and your own distance and time apart. And so essentially Airbnb is saying, you know,

it's great to have a host. They're focusing on that part of it. Whereas Vrbo is saying that's a negative thing. Both are saying how it's so great to have a property as opposed to having like a hotel. So I know, for example, Airbnb has talked about how it's more pet friendly to be in an Airbnb as opposed to in a hotel, because it's like your dog's got to go outside. You've got to take an elevator downstairs and there isn't, you know, the same sort of park and grass and, you know, natural landscape and such.

Whereas, you know, a hotel, like I said, is promoting the fact that they're going to be catering to those people who want that little bit of space. The point is with all of this is that whatever a drawback to your competitors is, you can totally spin this. So each is going to highlight the features that cater to the different preferences. So what one person sees as a limitation, another may see as a benefit. This is why it's important to understand who your ideal client is, of course, because at the end of the day, you're not for everybody.

and you don't want to be for everyone. So if you can ensure that you are connecting your messaging with the people who are going to value those things and see what some perceive as a drawback, they're gonna see it as a feature. So this is all about perspective. As business owners, it's crucial to recognize how we can shape that perspective. Now, as you probably already know, if you've listened to previous episodes, I got my entrepreneurial start in home stage and I've been teaching and promoting

a certain aspect of doing the consultation for a number of years. And that is to do the written report with a consultation. This can apply across a lot of different types of services and industries. But I know that a lot of my listeners are home -stagers. And if you're not a home -stager, you understand that the idea is that someone comes in as a stager, does a consultation for you. If you're living in your house and you're planning on selling it, and they're going to tell you all of their recommendations for preparing that house for sale.

I have always been a huge proponent of the written report for the consultations. There are two distinct types of consultations. One is a written report and the other is what's called a walk and talk. With a walk and talk, you do not get that report, which means that you as the homeowner are taking your own notes. Now, here's the thing. I'm gonna preface this by saying, it might not surprise you to learn that I was actually the president of the debate team in high school. And I was often given

the opposite side to debate on. So the less favored side, the one that no one really wanted to debate, I was often given that side because even if I didn't believe it, I always had this knack for being able to see both sides and be able to argue both sides essentially. And so I would say the same goes for the home staging consultation, the written report versus the walk and talk. Again, I prefer the written report and I can tell you a slew of reasons why.

I prefer the written report. For example, I feel like it makes it less work for clients. feel like homeowners are already quite overwhelmed. So I would emphasize when I would promote that we did the written report, I would say how, you know, your homeowners have enough to deal with when it comes to listing their house for sale. The last thing they want to do is make their own report and take all the notes, not to mention what happens if they forget to write something down or they could easily misunderstand a recommendation and write it down incorrectly.

based on me writing down the report, I can assure that they're going to get the accurate information. The other part of that is also, I would find when I was working with homeowners, sometimes they would be quite overwhelmed. And so if they kind of got to the point where, you know, they were feeling like it was already too much work, they might just skip certain recommendations where, you in their mind, they're thinking, I'm really not gonna do that. So I'm not gonna bother writing it down.

And what I would find is that with the written report, because I've already written those recommendations down, something that they initially thought they might not be able to do, it actually turns out that they can find the desire, the energy. Once they've started making some improvements, they're seeing the results, they're seeing the difference that it's making. There's a little bit more buy into all the recommendations. They're more inclined to move forward with things that are written down that maybe they were initially thinking they weren't going to do. So I've come up with a system to be able to provide a written report.

in the same amount of time as a walk -in talk. So that's one of the biggest things that people have against doing a written report is that, you know, well, it takes a lot more time. I have come up with a system where it takes the same amount of time. Now that said, someone who does walk -in talks, they can totally promote why their version is better. So the homeowner's taking the notes where I'm saying, you know, don't burden your homeowners with taking the notes. If I'm someone who's selling walk -in talks, what I'm going to say is,

As the homeowner, we want you involved in the process. So you'll be taking your own notes to ensure that you clearly understand all of the recommendations and you're on board with them. So you see how I can argue both sides of this. The point is that whatever you have in your business where someone is saying like, you should be doing it differently. If you see it as a feature or if you just have no plans on changing it, spin it as a feature, like change the perspective of it. It's a lot easier to sell something

if you've got a bias, so instead of like drawing attention to a drawback and saying, well, I know that this is not the most convenient, but it's how we do things. Can you spin it? Can you put a different perspective on it to turn it into a positive? And I'm not talking about a fake positive, obviously I'm talking about a real positive. Your uniqueness, your differences can become your strongest selling point. But I often see business owners that allow that to be a drawback.

So, for example, let's take business coaching. We've recently started to team up with a financing company. We're still working out some details, but we're working on teaming up with a financing company because I find that the clients that I coach sometimes are having a little bit of cashflow difficulty. And that's one of the things that I'm going to work with them to help them to resolve. So it's a bit of a catch 22 in that they need to spend the money to invest in my services in order for me to help them to improve their cashflow.

but the reality is when they're signing up with me, they just don't have the cash to do it. So having a financing company can certainly help with that. Now, if I don't offer financing, I can certainly put a different perspective on this and say, you know, I don't offer financing to my clients because I want to ensure that you can financially afford to invest in my services before we move forward because it is a process and I don't want to put you in a precarious position. So if you don't feel comfortable that you can afford my services, then you probably shouldn't proceed.

So you see those two different perspectives. One coach offers financing, one coach doesn't offer financing and both are promoting that as a feature and a benefit to working with them. So whatever it is that makes you unique, maybe it's your process, maybe it's your whole approach to things, maybe it's your product specifically. It's all about how you frame it. And like I said, I was the president of the debate team in high school. So...

I've got a little bit of experience with this myself. And I do find actually that the skills that I learned from being on the debate team have helped me in framing different arguments and understanding those opposing views. And so I'd actually encourage you to even just take a topic that you are on one side of. And this is a really healthy exercise to do. Try to argue the other side of it. Try to see the other perspective and see if you can argue the other side of it. And if you can, now you wanna apply that in your business, right? With the right positioning,

even the least favored argument could actually become compelling when it's positioned properly. So understand your competitors' perspectives and what it is that they're leveraging on their end and see how you're different, see how you're unique, and then focus on how can we articulate why our offerings should stand out with our clients and really resonate with our clients? Why is that the way that we do things better than our competitors?

And you can articulate this without having to actually take someone else down. So you don't have to specifically name a competitor or something that they do, but we do see it in commercials all the time where, you you're promoting the value of who you are what you do. And what it's doing is it's highlighting something that may be lacking from someone else. This is something that in the home staging industry, I have encouraged my clients to promote the fact that they are certified, insured,

registered as a legal business. And why do they do that? know, the law often asks me, well, you know, isn't that kind of a standard? Like shouldn't people expect to get that? And here's the thing in the home staging industry, it's what's considered a self -regulated industry, which means that technically you don't need to be certified. You don't need to take any specific type of training in order to become a home stager. And because of that, sometimes people are thinking, well, I'm only doing this.

part -time I don't need insurance, but any business needs insurance. Any business should be legally registered, especially if that business happens to be dealing with a homeowner's largest asset, like a person's largest asset. And so by just putting on your website, I'm a legally registered business and I'm fully insured. What that does when people visit your website is it immediately triggers them to think, if they're highlighting this as a feature,

Perhaps other companies don't have this. So it's giving them that insight that perhaps someone else is not doing that. So here's a few tips to help you to effectively promote your unique value. The first thing is you've got to know your audience. We spoke about this earlier. You have to understand specifically who your ideal client is and who your messaging is being targeted to because you're not going to be for everyone. So understand what it is that your clients truly value and then tailor your messaging to

highlight how your differences meet their specific and unique needs. And then take a look at how you're framing that message. So instead of, know, shying away from what makes you different or, you know, mentioning it, but saying it as like a, I'm sorry that this is inconvenient, but kind of thing, you want to actually embrace it. So highlight how it benefits your clients. The key is to focus on the benefits. Why is this of value to them? And remember, it's all about

that we've talked about this on previous episodes. A lot of times when it comes to our marketing, we're so focused on why we think it's good or why it works for us. So for example, someone who's selling a walk and talk consultation might consider that an easier thing for them because they're not having to create a report. But the clients don't care if it's easier for you. They care about whether or not they're getting the full value that they need. So think about how your differences

benefit your client. And this is a great exercise to go through. any sort of negative feedback you've ever received about your business, can you reframe that? Can you reposition that as a benefit? And then my next tip is to tell a story if you can use storytelling to create an emotional connection. share your own personal experiences if that's or talk about client success stories that illustrate

that value of those unique offerings of why it really benefited them. Personally, I love the phrase in my experience. And we do this with our design clients all the time. So again, I'm no longer in the home stage in industry, but we do, I do still operate an interior design firm. And with our design clients, you know, sometimes they'll ask us to step outside of our process. You know, we'll give them a proposal and they'll say, I don't need all of that. I just need something simpler than that. need, I just need this, this and this.

And we'll often say, well, in our experience, if we try to cut corners, it turns out to you end up missing out on critical information. Like you don't know what you don't know as the homeowner. That's what you're bringing us in for is our expertise. And in our experience, in order for us to ensure that you have everything that you need to complete this project successfully, we need to follow our process. And so using that phrase in my experience.

That is gold when it comes to talking with your clients, because first of all, it's telling them you've got experience. It tells it tells them that you know what you're doing, but it also shows your confidence in how you're doing things and the value of it why it works. So consider how you can tell some stories and using that phrase in my experience. And you can use an actual specific story like, this one time I had this client, they didn't follow our process. Here's how everything went completely downhill. Remember that the way that you present

your differences can significantly impact your business success. So I want you to really embrace that uniqueness and position as a strength. So I want you to take a look, like I said, at everything that you're doing in your business and identify if there are things that are, you you're often getting negative feedback for. It's a couple of things to do. First of all, I want you to take a look and say, can I improve this for my client experience? You know, in the tech industry, they always talk about UX, which is your user experience.

in your UI, which is your user interface. And these are things that, anytime a technology is being developed, they're concerned about, you know, can a user use it? It's great if the developer behind the scenes knows all the ins and outs to using it, but ideally can a user use it? And I think one thing that we've learned about technology over the years, especially, is that people want to be able to jump in and get up and running without having to do some long tutorial or take an actual class to learn how to use that program. We want to make things as intuitive.

as possible. So think about that when it comes to your clients, any services that you're offering or any products that you're selling as well. How is the user interface? So this is the overall visual of it. How does it look? How can it be navigated easily? And then what is the user experience that you are creating and work to pull out any of those negatives, let's work to eliminate those and make them a positive. And then for any of those potential drawbacks that

still remain where you're like, this is just sort of a necessary evil. Can we reposition that? Can we change the perspective on that? Can we turn that into a value add as opposed to a drawback? So that's your exercise for this week. I hope that you've enjoyed this. I hope that you found this useful. And thank you so much for tuning in to the Real Women Real Business podcast. If you found today's episode valuable,

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