How do you sell yourself to customers? What do you do well that is unique compared to other shops? To explain this to prospective customers, you need to have a good understanding of what your unique strengths are. It is not always easy to see your own strengths, so you need to think strategically.
View your experience
Reflect on your work experience in the food sector. What have you spent the most time on? Often, you are good at the things you have done the most. This could be selecting high-quality products, for example, or providing excellent customer service.
If you have specialised in chilled products for years, you have probably built up a lot of knowledge and expertise in this area. This can be a unique strength that you can use to differentiate yourself from other shops.
Look for your biggest successes
Look back at moments when you achieved something special. What were the factors that contributed to this success? Was it something specific that you did?
Maybe it was a clever marketing campaign or a special promotion.
Suppose you organised a local farmers' market that attracted a lot of customers. What did you do to make this success possible? Perhaps it was your ability to work with local cooperate with producers and offer a wide range of fresh produce.
Consider soft skills or soft skils
Don't just look at your knowledge and hard skills. Hard skills are things you can learn and measure, such as financial management, food safety and marketing.
Also look at soft skills such as communication, problem-solving and reliability. These soft skills are just as important in your work.
If you are always friendly and helpful to customers and help them find the right products, this is a valuable strength. Customers will remember your shop as a place where they get good service.
Your reputation
What do people say about your shop? If people have praised you before, what did they like about your services? Look for comments where a customer has expressed satisfaction with the work you did and look specifically at what they were happy with. Collect as many of these comments as possible and look for patterns. If you can't find many, contact your current clients and ask for their feedback with a short questionnaire.
If customers often say they appreciate your shop because of the freshness of the products and friendly service, this is something you can use to attract new customers.
Focus on the positive
Focus on the positive aspects of your work. Instead of saying "I never turn in my work late", say "I always finish on time". This puts a positive spin on your strengths.
Compare with other shops
If you have the opportunity, look at other food shops similar to yours and see what is different about their approach. You can discover your own strengths through this.
Suppose another shop has limited opening hours, say only weekdays from 9 to 5. If, on the other hand, your shop also has evening and weekend is open, this offers more flexibility for customers who work during the day. This is an important strength you can emphasise to attract more customers, as you can serve them better at their convenience.
Make a list of as many natural strengths as possible and use customer feedback to back them up. Use this information in your marketing materials to show potential customers why they should shop for your shop choose.
Keep collecting feedback regularly to stay abreast of your strengths and any changes in them.
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