I want to share with you an interesting story that happened to me yesterday which relates to marketing and how you can put this to use in your own business to “steal” customers from your competitors. (or know how they can take your customers from you)

Here’s how it went down…….

I noticed before getting into my car a couple of days ago that the left rear drivers side tire was pretty low on air, so I drove down to my local gas station and put some air in the tire to bring it back up to where it should be. No big deal.

The next day when I got into my car I noticed that the air in the tire was low again.

“Okay, we got a pesky one here”, I said to myself.

So I drove down to a local Les Schwab tire shop that I’ve done business with before as they had fixed a flat tire for me about six months earlier and I really liked their service and the minimal wait time, plus they only charged me $12 to fix the flat last time I went to their shop.

Well this time I rolled up to their shop early in the morning to get my tire fixed after I dropped my kids off at school.

The first thing the guy sitting behind the counter says to me when I walked into their store to ask them about fixing my tire was that he couldn’t fix it because their tire machine that mounts rims like mine went down on Saturday and that they expect a guy coming later in the evening to fix the machine.

Okay, no big deal I thought.

So I told him, “okay I’ll just come back this evening”.

He said, “I can put some air in your tire if you would like”.

“Ok”, I said, “thanks I really appreciate that”.

So I just waited in my car while he put some air in the tire and when he was done he came up to my window and he said, “you know that tire only has about 20 pounds of pressure in it, I would get that fixed as soon as possible”

I said, “yeah I’ll have you guys fix it later this evening or tomorrow morning when you get your machine fixed, hopefully the air you put in it will hold up overnight”.

He said, “if you can, I would go somewhere else and get the tire fixed as soon as possible because that’s a low-profile tire and if you ride on it too long it will damage the side wall of the tire and you’ll end up having to buy a new one”

My first impression after he made this statement to me was “wow” this guy is really concerned about my needs as a person with an issue rather than my business as a customer.

I was a bit perplexed as you really don’t find such honesty too often.

But something else happened in my mind too, when he told me that he couldn’t fix my tire(in addition to what I’m going to tell you in a minute)

I had my mind set on getting my tire fixed at their store because the price was right, I liked their quick service, and I also like to eat their popcorn out of their popcorn machine in the waiting area while I read their magazines and watch the news on T.V. (If you’ve ever been to a Les Schwab you will know what I mean.)

But when he took all that away from me I wanted my tire fixed even more….

Although they had a legitimate reason why they couldn’t fix my tire, as soon as he told me he couldn’t fix it, I suddenly wanted him to fix my tire more now than I did before I even drove to their shop to ask them to fix it.

Interesting isn’t it?

When you make something available to somebody, and then you suddenly take it away from them after they had already made up their mind that they wanted it, it makes them want what you have even more and they will do just about anything to get it.

So what did I do?

I immediately drove down the street to their competitors just like he recommended me to do. I had an urge I needed to fulfill and their competitors fulfilled that for me.

It probably didn’t turn out like he anticipated by turning me away though…….

Because when I ended up going down the street to his competitor to have the slow leak in my tire fixed I had a pleasant surprise after they made the fix when I learned that they do not charge for repairing tires.

Honestly I couldn’t believe it. I thought Les Schwab was a great bargain for $12 to repair a leak in a tire. But this place fixed my tire at no charge and it only took them nine minutes when they were clearly busy with other customers.

In response to my shock, the manager of the store simply said to me, “the only thing we ask in return for fixing your tire with no charge is that if you ever need any tires in the future that you’ll come back and purchase them from us or if you have any family or friends that need tires that you will refer them to our company”

So what’s the real marketing lesson that can be learned from this story?

There’s actually a couple of things that you can learn from this….

First and foremost by losing a small amount of money on the front end from providing a product or service for free to your customers you can often reap the rewards many, many times over in the future for your back-end products or services. Word-of-mouth travels fast too, trust me. (in this case I ended up referring four or five people because of my experience with this company today)

So how much money do you think this company is going to make off me in the future as a lifetime customer?

If you figure out how much money the lifetime value of your customers is worth you can easily find something from your product or service line that you can give away free to your customers/leads that has a high perceived value or appeal as an entry level product/service to bring new customers into your sales funnel.

When you provide something of value to your customers/leads for free you automatically break down the barriers and start the trust building and relationship process with your customers and once they’re in your web or sales funnel it will be much easier to provide continued value and you’ll be rewarded in the process for your efforts.

The other thing that can be learned here is that when you have a customer or lead who wants something that you have, and you suddenly take it away from them before they get it, it makes them want what you have even more and they will do just about anything to get it. 

You can either sell to them what they want as quick as possible increasing your conversions or get them in your web and draw them near when the time is right to make the sale. (reserving their spot for a lower price later) Wait too long and they will go to your competitor.

Theres a few different ways you can use the “take away” strategy in your business so use your imagination, its open water.

Integrate these marketing strategies into your own business and you’ll be pleasantly surprised how very well they work at increasing your profits in your business.

Would you like to get more real world marketing strategies to increase your sales and profits for your business?

Click here to get into Secret Society Coaching

 
Frank Bruno