“You have to be well known for something,” David Avrin advised distributors.

“You have to be known as the best choice in the marketplace for something. Otherwise the decision is just price,” consultant Avrin told a Specialty Tools & Fasteners Distributors Association seminar.

“There are no prizes for second place in sales,” Avrin said. “First place eats while second place watches.”

Customers are checking social media about your company and performance.  “Look at the reviews,” the “Visibility Marketing” consultant urged.

Social media changes the market. Arvin cited the movie, “Jem and the Holograms” as an example of what can happen in social media.  The movie closed within a day as a “flop,” Avrin said. “Word spreads quickly” in social media.

Avrin declared Facebook is “the biggest country in the world.” YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world.

That is a change from the past. People and companies could make mistakes without paying a price. 

“We did stuff and there was no record of it,” Avrin said. “Today everyone is looking you up.”

Customers are more likely to post negative comments than positive, he noted.

“Fix everything that’s not great,” Avrin said. “Give customers something to talk about.” 

You have to be findable on social media. Avrin suggested even hiring speakers for YouTube presentations.

“If you want people to be interested, you have to be interesting,” Avrin finds.

• To get attention, “create value where it didn’t exist before. Is what you are doing worth being remarked about?”

• A company may push potential customers to use the “Contact Us” form on the website. But the customer wants to call you. “Aren’t they telling you how they want to do business?” Avrin asked.

Is filling out the contact form “better for you or better for the customer”? Is it convenient or inconvenient?

• Avrin also suggested offering what the competitors don’t offer.

• Have a happy customer?  Sales people need to ask for referrals as “91% of customers say they’d give referrals and only 11% of salespeople ask for referrals.”

• “Blink and they’re gone,” Avrin said of customers. They have “more choices than ever before. It is so easy for them to move on.”

“Disruption is here,” Avrin declared. He cited AirB&B changing the hospitality industry.  Web: SouthwesternConsulting.com