CompetitionProof means creating relationships that can’t be attacked by competitors. And the tighter the emotional connections with your customers, the more difficult it will be for a competitor to get in.

The good news is that it’s easier than ever to create emotional connections with social media. We can share personal information that in the past we wouldn’t have time, nor the inclination, to disclose.

For example, one of my audience members who friended me on FaceBook has become a voracious cook (like me) posting recipes and bakes cookies for her clients (what a great idea!). I would have never known this without social media. I feel connected and it only takes a few seconds to maintain that connection.

The same goes for companies that I do business with that I watch on FaceBook. I’m much more likely to buy from them because I’ve developed an affinity and loyalty through our social interaction. It’s probably true for you.

So ask your clients to join you on LinkedIn, follow you via Twitter, watch your tech tutorials on YouTube, read your articles on Digg, check your blog, and even like you on Facebook. Sure, not everyone will oblige. Yet social network sites are visited by more than 80% of the U.S.!

I recommend that you use LinkedIn for professional clients, FaceBook for friends, FaceBook fan pages for clients, Digg, YouTube, your blog, and Twitter for the general population. Of course, interlink and cross post because people use them in various ways.

Make sure that your post has at least two of the following attributes for your target audience: entertaining, educational, emotional, and evocative.

Check FaceBook daily (be careful, some people become addicted). Make a post to LinkedIn three times a week. Tweet several times a day. Write an article or blog post a week. Total time required; about 90 minutes a week. I do this waiting in line, filling five minutes before a meeting, and so forth, using my iPhone. I do sit down to write this blog, though.

And before you know it you’ll have many fans and followers, every one of them making you more and more CompetitionProof.

P.S. Never post after cocktails. Even though you can delete a post, you can never completely recall it from cyberspace because the search engines grab it almost immediately.

Most companies believe that customer satisfaction is the key to competitive success. Satisfied customers are ripe for picking by a company that knows how to be CompetitionProof.

The reality is that customer satisfaction is the price of admission to the market. Satisfaction simply means that customers will pay for what they’ve already ordered or won’t return what they’ve bought. But satisfaction doesn’t guarantee that they’d buy that product of service again nor even if they’d do business with that company again.

For example, I’m sure that you’ve had a recent meal at a restaurant where the food was acceptable and the service was passable. You were satisfied; you paid your bill and left a standard-size tip. But, do you have any plans to return to that restaurant in the immediate future? If not, your satisfaction has no value to that restaurant owner.

Now, think about your favorite restaurant. Would you say that the dining experience is satisfactory? Or would you use other words? Perhaps you might say delightful, amazing, or extraordinary. Do you have plans to return, perhaps to celebrate a special occasion or enjoy some extra money that came your way?

Becoming CompetitionProof means going beyond satisfaction to creating customer delight. And it’s really not that difficult to delight your customer. It just means thinking about doing the unexpected, like taking responsibility for a great customer experience.

For example, I recently ordered an old book on-line. I paid for the transaction but the book never arrived. I contacted the bookseller, and here’s the note that I received back from the book seller:

I am sorry. I don’t know what could’ve happened to your book. It was mailed out on the 21st, so something must have happened between here and there. We will refund your card for the total amount (which was $7.27). We no longer have your card info, so you will need to send it in a couple of separate emails, or if you prefer we can send you a check. If you prefer the check please send your address in the email.

Again, we apologise for this inconvenience.

Thank you.
Susan and Chip

Wow! They totally took responsibility where most resellers would have said, “Tough, not my problem.”

I responded:

Thanks for checking on it. The mail does get lost sometimes. Perhaps it will show up sometime soon.

I’m not worried about $7.27. So I’m going to decline your kind refund offer.

Best regards,

Mark S.A. Smith

I don’t mind taking the hit when I didn’t ask for insurance. I’m willing to take responsibility, too. But they being people who know the value of a customer over a transaction they responded with:

Thank you. You’re very kind, however we don’t feel you should have to pay for something that you did not receive. We have found another copy of this book online and we are having it drop shipped to you.

Thank you.
Susan and Chip

And the reordered book showed up in the mail the next week.

So if you ever need to find an old book, I heartily recommend Givens Books of Salem, Virginia, http://www.biblio.com/bookstores/chip53.html

And that’s a great way to create loyalty and become CompetitionProof!

If you’re like most businesses, you’re under competitive attack. Ruthless vendors aim to take your hard-won business. At this blog, you’ll learn what you can do to substantially reduce the impact of your competitors. Discover what you’re doing that leaves you vulnerable. You’ll leave with an action list of things you and your staff can do immediately to stop your competition cold.

CompetitionProof is a new book scheduled for Spring 2008 release that shows entrepreneurs how to create a sales and marketing experience that prevents competitive attack, written by Molly Leander and Mark S. A. Smith.

As part of CompetitionProof, we will have a number of sales tools that permit an organization to systematically create a CompetitionProof environment, and we’ll make those available on the site as part of the promotion of the book.

One of the best ways to learn about CompetitionProof principles is to find them in your life. When someone you buy from does something that makes you less likely to do business with their competitor, you’ve just experienced CompetitionProof in action.

For example, I was in Louisville, Kentucky last week (delivering a speech) and I stayed at the East Side Marriott. It’s an older hotel, enduring maybe 25 years of public abuse, so it’s not a stunner–nothing to write home about. But, when I arrived in my room after dinner, on the desk was a nice note from the hotel manager, signed in ink (I did the “spit test”–you know, rub a bit of saliva on the signature to see if it smears, meaning it’s signed by a person, not a printer). Along with the note was a key chain of a leaping horse. Nice! This simple, and cheap, gesture went a long way to turning a mediocre experience into something memorable.

And that’s CompetitionProof in action! What have you experienced that’s CompetitionProof?

I’m astounded at how companies squander the opportunity to delight a customer and cement the relationship, creating a CompetitionProof situation. The problem comes from well-meaning managers who create policy that destroys customer relationships at the cost of a single transaction.

For example, Thursday I was in Houston with HP working on content for the next event tour. At the end of the day, my host took me to a new upscale restaurant called Martinis and More. They’re newly opened and have been hustling for business in a competitive market.

As I was digging into my Cobb salad (wonderful, by the way), a well-dressed executive approached the bar: “Can I still order a happy hour drink?”

The bartender replied, “I don’t think so. It’s up to the computer.

“Why would ANY manager want a computer to drive the relationships that they have with customers?

DO YOU WANT A TRANSACTION OR A REPEAT CUSTOMER?

CompetitionProof strategies don’t work if all you want is a single transaction–like a door-to-door magazine salesperson. But if you’re business thrives on repeat customers, then consider this CompetitionProof concept: the customer is more important than the transaction.

If a repeat customer is more important than a single transaction, then the staff must have options to delight the customer, creating the unshakable relationship that makes you CompetitionProof.

Imagine if the bartender had the flexibility to say, “Although happy hour’s over, I think that I can get you one more round because I’d like for you to be a regular!” What do you think would happen to that executive’s opinion of the restaurant?

A secret of becoming CompetitionProof is to make sure that your customer treatment doesn’t go unnoticed. Building up favors with customers brings them back.

By the bartender adding the last phrase, he’s banking the favor and creating the CompetitionProof relationship with the customer that means they’ll be back.

This tactic can be used intentionally. What if the management allowed bartenders to override the computer and grant happy hour prices for about 10 minutes after the official end? What do you think would happen to customer relationships during that time? How can you do this with your business?

Perhaps you can offer sale prices to a customer for a day or twoafter the sale ends. Maybe you can extend a special offer a day or two before it becomes available to other customers. (Nordstrom has sold me more shoes this way: “This other shoe that you like goes on sale next week. I can send it to you then at the sale price. I’ll even cover shipping. Would that be okay?”)

Back to the story… the good news is that the gentlemen got his drinks at happy hour prices–apparently the bartender’s watch was fast. The bad news is that the establishment missed an opportunity to create a CompetitionProof experience.

And that’s a CompetitionProof Goof!

CompetitionProof is about your passion for the business and transferring that passion to your customers–you must love what you do and who you sell to. Are you doing what you want to be doing for the next ten years? If not, find something that you can get excited about.

Choose customers who need what you do, value what you do, and are willing to pay you well for what you do. If your customers don’t meet all three of those criteria, then they aren’t good customers, and you can’t create a CompetitionProof relationship.

Figure out who you can serve well–at a good profit–that you’ll want to serve for a long time. You can count on customers fleeing from your business if they sense that you don’t want their business. Choose customers who you want to do business with for the next ten years and then create a plan to do business with them for the next decade.