1. Avoid making the single most common marketing mistake that most businesses are guilty of

Businesses today are really good at telling potential customers how they are exactly the same as their competitors as opposed to showing how they are different.

For example, every accountant website is basically the same, every financial planner’s website is basically the same, every hotel website is basically the same. And to make matters worse, the businesses state the obvious on these sites.

Consumers are smarter, well informed and well educated. They know that lawyers do law, that accountants do tax and that mortgage brokers do loans. We need to learn to tell potential customers less of the obvious and more of the things that actually make us different – and that means tell more stories, share more of why we do what we do, how we do things differently, what makes us unique not what makes us the same.

2. Become an exceptional communicator

One of the biggest complaints that customers have with professional service providers is terrible communication. People have to constantly chase their adviser for updates and information. They get frustrated, they get grumpy, and they are unlikely to speak favourably or refer the business.

The answer is to become incredible at communicating. In fact overcommunicate where you can.

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Look for every opportunity to become the absolute best at communicating. Outcommunicate your competitors.

This simple strategy will elevate you miles ahead of your poor communicating competitors, and your happy customers will become raving fans.

3. Create extraordinary experiences

One of the greatest ways you can increase your value and as a result charge more for what it is that you do, is to make the shift from doing transactions to creating experiences.

We live in a world that craves and appreciates experiences – and we’re prepared to pay for them. If you can make the entire customer experience extraordinary, in as many ways as possible, you can definitely charge more than your competitors. The key is to focus on the little things not just the big things.

4. Encourage others to rave about you and recommend you

We think that if we do a great job people will automatically refer our business to others. A small percentage will, because that’s their nature, but from my experience it takes a more proactive approach.

We need to get comfortable asking people for both testimonials and for referrals. Often we feel a bit needy when we ask our happy clients to say great things about us. But if you engage them well, explain that you are really proud of what you do and that you want to grow your business, and to do that, you need more wonderful clients like them, and you’re heading on the right path.

5. Build a reputation for being more than your job title

When it comes to deciding who we want to do business with, our decision-making processes have changed a lot in the last 10 years.

Given the choice between two businesses, where one offers a service and that’s it, and one that offers the same service, but also plays a proactive role in the community, shares more of their philosophy to doing business, takes great care of their people, shines the light on their customers and is generally “more”, becomes the clear choice of business to use.

These businesses can charge more, because they offer more value in every way.

In reality the list of what we can do to charge more than our competitors is long. This is just a taste. It all comes back to the fact that we live in a value-driven world, not a cost-driven world.

I’ve seen this shift happening around the world. There is an ever-increasing number of people who are prepared to pay for value, their biggest challenge is finding businesses that can deliver.

Those businesses that really get this and that look for ways to keep increasing the value they bring to their customers are the ones that can charge more for what it is they do. It’s as simple and as complicated as that.

Andrew Griffiths is a small-business author, with 14 books sold in over 65 countries globally.