HOW TO POSITION YOURSELF AS NUMBER ONE ON YOUR CUSTOMER’S CHOICE LIST AT THE TIME OF BUYING

By: Maru Panganiba

Do you know how to get your client to choose you, when he has before him a range of products similar to yours in terms of quality, price and benefits?

Do you know the strategy you should use to position yourself as number one in your customer’s mind, but above all in his heart and thus always be his first choice when buying?

Many entrepreneurs still think that advertising is one of the best strategies to invest in to achieve these goals. However, in addition to being more and more expensive, advertising has become less effective since experts have found that more than 60% of consumers are much more influenced by the recommendations of their environment when buying than by advertising.

To mark the minds and hearts of our clients’ environment and to position ourselves as their FIRST CHOICE when buying, we all have an unlimited, inexhaustible, unequaled and, in addition to everything, free tool: CREATIVE THINKING.

And although creative thinking does offer us all these advantages, it is the vast majority of the time REJECTED because of the following beliefs:
• I am not creative
• I was not born creative
• I don’t have that gift
• Only geniuses or artists are creative
• I don’t dare to be creative because I don’t want to get out of the ordinary
• I don’t dare to be creative because I don’t want to be made fun of.
• I don’t dare to be creative because I’m afraid of failing
Do you recognize yourself in any of them?

You are not the only one. More than 70% of people have one or more of these ideas or beliefs.
They are in serious error!

The great psychologist, researcher, writer, consultant and instructor in the subject of cognitive theories, founder of the concept of “lateral thinking”, and creator of several strategies to improve thinking skills such as creativity, Edward de Bono, tells us respect:

“Creative thinking is not a mythical talent. It is a skill that can be practiced and nurtured.”

In turn, the famous German-American sociologist and psychoanalyst, Erich Fromm, affirms that “Creativity is not a quality that artists and other individuals are particularly endowed with, but an attitude that each person possesses.”

As we can see, we can all be creative. Creativity is developed, learned and perfected.
But… How to detonate our creative capacity?

First, we must believe that we have it. Then we must learn how to develop it. We can find endless books and articles that explain numerous strategies to stimulate our creative thinking.

However, today I want to present to you, my dear readers of EMPODERAMIA, 2 of the tools proposed by the experts François Debois, Arnaud Groff and Emmanuel Chenevier from their complete and practical book The Creativity Toolbox (free translation from French: La boite à outils de la Créativité, ed. Dunod, Paris, 2011) and which I have had specially translated for you.

Let’s start by answering the following question:

What is creativity?
More than talking about creativity, the authors tell us about a creative process whose main objective is to find novel solutions to an initial problem.
To achieve this goal, we must combine the respective skills of each of our cerebral hemispheres by making them go through a rigorous methodology that will allow us to establish new ways of solving a problem.

Divergent phase
It is carried out thanks to our right hemisphere that is our artistic engine who is dedicated to creating, dreaming and imagining. In this phase, we must only make this hemisphere work, so we must first completely silence the left brain. This is achieved by carrying out an initial warm-up period in which we do a playful activity with our team. An icebreaker activity or a group game are some examples of starter activities for the session.

It is at this stage that we use creative strategies to generate all kinds of ideas which will be received without any analysis, judgment or comment (which is the job of the left brain). It is time to go “outside the box” to see the problem from different angles and come up with the ideas that come to mind.

Convergent phase
It is done thanks to our left hemisphere which is our rational motor that is dedicated to analyzing, evaluating, calculating and measuring. It is in this phase that we begin to determine the most realistic and viable solutions and determine how they can be adopted and carried out.

Tools to find creative solutions:

Brainwriting
The tool 23 presented by the authors is derived from the well-known brainstorming.
Unlike this strategy that is done orally and in which the participants present their ideas one by one, this is an activity that will allow all the members of your team to participate simultaneously and that the answers will be enriched thanks to the power of collective intelligence.

Necessary material: Sheets of paper (you can use post-it notes to prevent the left brain from wanting to intervene when seeing a lot of space on the sheet) a piece of cardboard and all the energy of your team!
Basic rule: Zero criticism, negative comments or censorship

Development of the activity:
• Present the problem to be solved to your team
• Give them 5 minutes to reflect individually
• Ask them to write an idea on their sheet.
• Each participant must pass their sheet to the colleague next door who must in turn complete the proposed idea going further.
• The process is finished once all the sheets have passed through each of the participants.
• Classify the post-its by themes or ideas on the cardboard and that’s it!

You will have in front of you a potential of new ideas to find a creative solution.

The Chinese portrait
I present the strategy 28 proposed by the authors that will help you create analogies that allow you to see your product from different angles.

Material needed: Cardboard.
Basic rule: Zero criticism, negative comments or censorship

Development of the activity:
• Determine several categories or areas in advance that will allow you to make a new portrait of your product. For example: Tourist destination, animal, food, singer, actor, etc.
• Gather your team and ask the question: If my product were a tourist destination and say what it would be and explain why you made that choice.
• One at a time, participants answer the question.
• The facilitator writes down or records all the answers.
• This activity can also be carried out individually, sending each participant the questions to answer at a distance.

Ready to see your sales and customer service issues from a new angle? These strategies will definitely help you to achieve it.

Remember, there are dozens of strategies that the great experts in creativity recommend to develop your creative thinking.

However, don’t forget that experts and specialists in sales and marketing are there to help you find creative sales and customer service solutions so that you can stay in the mind and heart of your customer and thus become their first choice at the moment. to buy. A consultancy or a workshop given will always be one of your best investments to find creative solutions FASTER, BETTER AND MORE EFFICIENTLY.

Remember…“As competition intensifies, the need for innovation and creative thinking grows. It is no longer enough to do the same better, or to be efficient and to solve problems; much more is needed.” Edward de Bono (Expert in Creative Thinking / Creator of Lateral Thinking Theory).