Today, I’m going to share an extremely powerful marketing tip with you. It’s something that the vast majority of your competitors either won’t be doing correctly or won’t be doing at all. Get it right and you’ll give yourself a massive competitive advantage.
It starts with this fundamental truth.
People, including your prospective clients, universally HATE the hassle associated with switching providers.
Think about it.
I’m willing to guess that you and I probably have at least one current provider, who isn’t ideal. Their charges may have increased, with no meaningful increase in the value we get from them. Maybe they’re slow to respond when we contact them for support. Perhaps they’re not as interested in dealing with our problems, as they used to be. And we’re pretty darn sure that there are better providers out there.
So, why do we stay with an under performing provider?
We stay, for the same reason your prospective clients have stayed with their current provider.
It’s simply this.
Switching providers is risky and a time suck
People are hardwired to intentionally avoid risk. And because switching to a new provider feels risky, we tend to avoid it.
Yes, YOU know there’s no risk whatsoever in switching to you from their current provider. You know that you’ll look after them better than they could dream of, because you’re capable, reliable, trustworthy and honest. But THEY don’t know that!
People are also busy and switching providers is often time-consuming and frustrating.
So, what’s the answer?
Make switching stress free and easy
The proven solution to this problem is something I call The Easy Switch. It’s a strategy where you make it as easy as possible for prospects to switch to you. It requires a two pronged approach.
1. Showcase your trust assets.
Make it as easy as possible for prospective clients to see for themselves, why they should trust you. You do this using your trust assets; things that help establish you as a safe, low-risk option for them.
Your trust assets might include providing them with a list of your success and achievements. You can also highlight the promises and guarantees you offer, along with testimonials you have from extremely happy clients. And if you’ve been in your current line of business for a long time, don’t keep it a secret. Include that, too.
2. Make switching to you as simple as possible.
This is the most important part. Even after trust has been established, the perceived challenges involved and the time required in order to switch providers is enough to put people off.
Some providers use a version of the lock in effect / vendor lock in, where they deliberately make moving from them as hard as they can, for their clients. This is a huge problem in some industries, but less of a problem in others.
Regardless, you need to make the switch to you as frictionless, uncomplicated and stress-free as possible.
The best providers have a client transition process in place, where someone from their team manages the whole process for new clients. They stay in close contact with the new client to answer questions, overcome issues with the former provider and offer all the help they can. I do this with my new clients and I very strongly advise you to do the same.
Show them how easy it is to switch to you
Once you’ve addressed those two parts of the switching process, it’s really important to let your prospective clients know. It needs to feature very prominently in your marketing, especially if you’re in an industry that’s known for making it hard to switch. It needs to be a key point in your conversations with prospective clients.
Equipped with visible trust assets and an equally visible strategy to make switching to you an absolute breeze, you become a much more attractive choice for prospective clients.
You will become the natural choice. The stress-free choice. And for many, you will become the only choice.