Here are a few ways I’ve used to make my competition irrelevant. 

Focus on the moment of truth, the place or position that your products or services will be offered to the customer.  For example, if you have a retail establishment, this may be a wall display or a counter display.

On the internet this may be an on-line store, E-bay if you have an account with them to offer your products, or your own personal web site.  Sometimes the moment of truth may be in the form of a bid or proposal after several months of working to convert your prospect into a client or customer. 

The moment of truth is the moment that the customer has an option to make a purchasing decision, to buy your product, or to invest in your services.  This is the moment you need to put your best foot forward.

Each time you present something to your prospect or customer, provide a value proposition to them.  Your value proposition should be something that can be conveyed in three to five precise and succinct statements. 

A value proposition should contain the essential elements of feature, advantage, benefit, and offer.  This is a reference to a specific important feature of your offer, the advantage as compared to the competition and what’s in it for your customer. 

The other thing you can do is to differentiate yourself from the competition.  Common examples of differentiation for products may be size, speed, color, or accessories.  Examples of differentiation for services would be performance, quality, availability, or ease of use.  Show how your product or service is better than the competition.

In today’s world, our clients and customers are bombarded with so much information, advertisements, and commercials that it is sometimes impossible to keep the attention of your prospects focused on what you are saying to them. 

If you focus your methods on the Moment of Truth and create a differentiation, you will leave your competition in the dust.

Technorati Tags: differentiation, differentiation and positioning, differentiation of products, differentiation of service, value proposition, winning against competition

Here’s an interesting question:

“I’m a personal lines insurance agent, and I would like to be able to have a 95% closing ratio, high retention, and a great system for getting my clients to give me referrals.”

All I can say is WOW.  When I was in the insurance business, I created ways to prospect that were not normally done within the industry.  Of course, back then, we also did not have compliance departments breathing down our necks, as most of the insurance agents have today.

Any of my readers can massage the suggestions I’m going to give here to fit their own industry or business.

The first thing I did was to create a prospect list.  I started with 100, and then increased it to 1000 individuals whom I wanted as clients.

Then I accumulated articles and any other free information I could locate, and kept in touch with them over a period of at least one year.  My thoughts were that if after one year, they still didn’t want to do business with me, then color me gone and out of their life.

By doing this, I developed a relationship with them.  Of course I also created unique letters to send them with various forms of GRABBERS.

For instance, I created a letter like the following where I sent a shoe with the letter.

Jeff…Now You Can Increase Your
Net Worth By $1,000,000.   Effortlessly!
            (Include one Right shoe with your Letter)

Dear Jeff,

As you can see, I’ve sent you a “right” shoe with this letter.

I did it for two reasons:

First, because what I have to share with you is so important, I needed some way to make sure this letter got your attention.

Second, because I want us to start off on the right foot, I thought sending you the shoe was a good way for me to get my foot in your door.

Anyway, here is what this is all about…

(Continue with the rest of your offer)

Think of ways to adapt this letter to the product or service you are selling.

Another thing you can use is to offer my book, “10 Marketing Mistakes That Steal Your Cash” to your prospect and clients. Go to www.kenvarga.com/report.php and take advantage of the free book offer.  It’s free and will bond you with your customer.

In prior blog posts, I gave you suggestions to the last two items of your question…high retention and a referral system.  Refer back especially to the last post on “How To Create Lifelong Customers”, and to the post on April 26, 2008, “Growing Through Referrals”.

Technorati Tags: Closing Ratio, Getting Referrals, growing referrals, Referrals, retention, retention rate

In this post I’m going to continue my discussion on developing niches.

As I mentioned in my last post, before going into a new niche you must try to confirm as closely as possible that the numbers will work for you. In general, you should satisfy yourself that you will have positive answers when you ask the following questions:

1. Are there enough qualified buyers in the group you are considering?

2. What would it cost you to make a sale? How much profit would be left over after the sale? Is that sufficient for you?

3. Is this a growing market or a shrinking market? You want to get into a growing market/niche.

4. Will you have a competitive advantage in this niche? Can you create one?

5. How hungry are prospects for solutions in this niche?

These are some preliminary questions you should answer before making a decision to pursue a niche. And here is a very personal question you should also ask, maybe even before the others I just posed: will you enjoy working with the people in that niche? Can you become their friend? If not, I suggest you go on to another niche where you can both enjoy the people you work with while making the money you want.

Technorati Tags: Growing your business, Niche Development

Ok. Believe it or not, I’ve got a large number of insurance people as subscribers so here goes to one of them.

He listed three problems:

1. Launce my national fax broadcast to my niche market restaurant business insurance.
2. Develop another niche market for personal lines insurance upgrading his website and generating via SEO (Search Engine Optimization).
3. Develop a third niche market for commercial lines yet not sure which of the 3 to pick… automotive industry, office buildings, vacant office Buildings.

I’ll answer the first and 3^rd questions in this post and answer the question about the website and SEO in a separate post later. Here are some of my thoughts…

This applies to everyone. You must educate your prospects and customers. This even applies to the ice-cream example above. Educating your prospects and clients about what they get when they own your product, or deal with you, differentiates you from your competition. Remember the example of how Schlitz beer differentiated itself from the other beers by telling its story of how its beer was made? If you’ve forgotten that example, re-read the Marketing Tip of The Week issue that related that story.

The first thing I did when I created another company was to determine how I was going to bring that potential customer into my funnel. What this means is that I wasn’t thinking about how I was going to approach and then get that potential customer to respond to something I offered. Instead, what I did was offer something educational.

So for the restaurant insurance, you need an incentive to offer them in the fax and/or whatever method you are currently using to get them to your site, to get them to go there. Try to create an offer they can’t refuse.

Figure out what your prospects want to know and educate them about that. As you provide value, they will flow into your funnel over time. Since restaurants always need to be bringing in more customers, maybe you can educate them on that. Send them free tips or free reports. This way you’re creating value for them, instead of asking them to buy. If you create value and relationship first, then you build trust. If they trust that you have their best interests at heart, then it’s easier for them to buy from you.

You could create a report on the Top Ten Mistakes Restaurant Owners Make When Buying Insurance. Or you can distribute a report on trends in restaurant insurance. Most restaurant owners are working so hard, they don’t have time to follow the big picture. A trends report is a good one because as the trends change, it gives you a good reason to keep contacting the restaurant owner. Or you could do a report on how to survive the deepening recession.

Until you create these tips or reports, you are welcome to offer my “Ten Marketing Mistakes that Steal Your Cash” to your restaurant prospects, or you can offer to give them access to my Marketing Tip of The Week. You could simply let them know that you are always looking for helpful resources to refer to your clients and that you believe the report and newsletter will be very useful for them in growing their business. This could be done in various ways, like by a tip on your website, in your newsletter, in a flyer, in a postcard, or by any means you use to stay in touch and offer value to your prospects and clients.

Or you could also provide a hard copy of the report to them, and put “Courtesy of (YOUR NAME) on the front cover. If these ideas appeal to you, let Reggie at our office know, and he can help you set things up, by phone or email, to get the report and the tips to your prospects. You can reach Reggie at reggie@kenvarga.com

This offer also applies to anyone reading this post. For instance, the ice-cream company mentioned in my first post could gift the report to the various stores that sell its ice-cream.

Now regarding question number 3 above regarding developing a 3^rd niche, the question you need to ask yourself is: Which of the three industries you mentioned has the greatest numbers? In other words, choose the industry that has the largest number of prospects for you to go after. In your example, I’d assume office buildings, so go after them first. But you should do as much research to confirm the numbers before you start.

Remember, you must think and create ways to get your potential customer into your funnel first by offering them something they are hungry for, then develop the relationship with them. And remember, treat them like your best friend. I hope I’m doing that for you with this Blog.

Technorati Tags: Grow Your Business, Niche Development