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Become The Dominant Force
by Gerry Robert
Here are 15 strategies for gaining a clear marketplace advantage.
- BE DRIVEN
Become marketing-driven, that is! It's easy to become totally
sales-driven, forgetting to pay as much attention to customer
concerns. Make sure it's the customers who are running your
business. A marketing-driven company operates just one way:
the total effort -- product, service, price, and promotion --
must be adapted to the needs and wants of customers.
HOW?
Ask them. Take a marketing survey. If you ask they will tell
you. Listening is the key to success here. Survey's shouldn't
take longer than 3 minutes to complete.
- BECOME BASIC
Concentrate on the basics. The single most important job remains
the same: to get and keep customers. When you have customers, you
have sales. It's that simple. The only way to do this is to help
your customers solve their problems better than anyone else. Don't
assume you have the answers. Learn what 'better' means to each
customer and prospect. Then, adapt your product or service so it
is perceived as 'better' in their eyes.
HOW?
Find 4 to 6 positive-minded individuals and do some brainstorming
or masterminding about how you might actually improve on what you
are doing in order to sell more and keep more clients happy.
- CUSTOMIZE AND CONSULT
Customers aren't looking for 'off-the-shelf' solutions to their
problems. Continue to develop new ways to tailor your services to
meet precise needs. This means taking more time to be helpful,
understanding and supportive. Now is when more and more time
should be spent with customers.
HOW?
Start a new service which includes an evaluation or an analysis
to customers which will tell you exactly what they are thinking
about. Give them a FREE consultation, evaluation, or report.
- GET AGGRESSIVE
Change your marketing strategy to fit the psychology of the times.
Emphasize how your products or services save time, cut costs, and
increase productivity. Take this route and you'll stand out in the
marketplace because most of your competitors will be depending
only on the momentum of the economy to carry them forward.
HOW?
Create a U.S.P., Unique Selling Proposition and tell the world
what it is. What's your #1 competitive advantage? Put that on
everything you do, like Fax Cover Sheets, name cards, invoices,
websites, everywhere!
- ADD VALUE
Use 'Value-Added' techniques to get an edge on competitors.
Distinguishing your company from others in the same field is more
important now than ever before. To discover what you can do to
dramatize your uniqueness, think like a customer. It's never the
value you want to add that makes the difference. It's the value
the customer wants to receive that's important.
HOW?
Think outside your industry. Find some way to differentiate
yourself from everyone else. Why not be the first to get a
website if no one else has one in your field? Consider offering
additional services that your competition can't or doesn't offer.
Create your personal brochure. Do a video or audio sales letter.
- STRUT YOUR STUFF
Demonstrate a 'we can do it' attitude. Customers are alert to
see if a company remembers the lessons it learned during
recessionary times. You may have the best products or service
but that's not enough. Go the next step. Show enthusiasm for
going out of your way to prove that you're still highly
service-oriented.
HOW?
Make prospects ecstatic by giving them your home telephone
number, giving them a special gift, getting them faster service
than anyone else in the industry. Doing something for free for
them will show you care.
- STAY ALERT
Keep a watchful eye on the competition. Too many businesses take
their direction straight from the competition. Now is no time to
let a competitor lead the way! The competition may be completely
in the dark and its activities could be nothing more than weak
attempts to get moving. Write your own marketing and sales plans
and then stay on track.
HOW?
Find 5 things your competitors do well, then write a plan to
absolutely blow them out of the water.
- SELL
Tell your customers and prospects that you want their business.
Don't ever assume that they know. Don't think that price is all
they care about. Show appreciation. A short thank you note may be
far more effective than a pair of tickets to the ballet!
HOW?
Today, sit down and either write a personal handwritten note to
ALL past clients or fax them a nice note. Let each one know that
you are happy they bought from you in the past and that you would
relish that happening again and finally, tell them that you want
their business and that of their friends.
- RESELL CUSTOMERS
Only a fool assumes that all customers know everything you do.
Whether you've been doing business with a customer for a month or
a decade, plan a marketing program that aims at educating your
customers on all your products and services.
HOW?
Do up an audiotape featuring all the new products or services you
have. Interview someone important on the tape. (Sorry, I'm too
busy!) Ask them questions that the prospect cares about. Make it
informational not commercial. Solve problems.
- NICHE IT!
Practice niche marketing. Look for markets which best match your
company's products and service -- and come out swinging! Strive
to become a big fish in a small pond. Competition is generally
less intense in niche markets and your strong position will fend
off unwanted intruders. As you successfully serve new customers,
you have a good chance of becoming a preferred supplier.
HOW?
Come up with an alternative list of places where your niche
market congregates then make a plan to market to 3 which are new
for you.
- GET HELP
Make your employees and suppliers your firm's ambassadors.
Improved economic conditions can lull many companies into a
false sense of security. This is very dangerous. Communicate
often, emphasizing good news via pay envelope stuffers, bulletins
and newsletters to employees, suppliers and customers. Don't ever
fake it, but always accentuate the positive.
HOW?
Develop a Winners Circle. Find 20 people who are influencial who
could give you a lot of business. The best Winners Circle members
are those who are regularly in front of large numbers of your
prospects and are so in an influencial positions.
- STAY IN TOUCH
When things start looking up, it's easy to forget about existing
customers. Don't tempt your customers to take their business
elsewhere. Studies show it costs five times as much to gain a new
customer as it does to keep an existing one. Work harder than ever
to demonstrate that you care about your present customers. Stay
in touch.
HOW?
Send out a SMART THOUGHT OF THE MONTH by fax to all your past
clients. Smart Thoughts is simply a motivational or inspirational
quote with your name on it. Don't push your logo, telephone, etc.
Put your name in small print over to one side and all it should say
is "Courtesy of your name."
- ADD STYLE
Polish up your company image. Position your firm in the best
possible light by customers, prospects, suppliers, and opinion
leaders in your business and local community. Does your firm appear
professional? Is it known for a high level of expertise? Is customer
service your number one priority? Then, publicize those 'special'
qualities that place you on the cutting-edge.
HOW?
Write something. Anything! Interview someone, ask some questions
and get something written. It could be a book, tape, report but
people like to work with people they consider experts. It's strange
but whenever you see anything in print, you believe it. (Or at least
I hope you do, given that you are reading this.)
- GET AGGRESSIVE
Change your marketing strategy to fit the psychology of the times.
Emphasize how your products or services save time, cut costs, and
increase productivity. Take this route and you'll stand out in the
marketplace because most of your competitors will be depending only
on the momentum of the economy to carry them forward.
HOW?
Find another aggressive marketer and do a cross-promotion. You sell
your clients on buying his service and he does the same for you.
You send all past clients a letter selling the virtues of this other
person and recommending them wholeheartedly. They do the same for you.
- PROMOTE MORE
Increase your promotional efforts. Go on the offensive and promote,
promote, promote! Double your efforts, especially when things are
tough. When you don't have money to invest in promotion, is exactly
when you MUST do it.
HOW?
Put on a seminar to attract prospects. Take out 100 classified ads
offering a FREE special report. Double your telemarketing efforts.
Do 10 more appointments this week. Commit to it and do it.
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