Dominate Your Market!
I recently spoke at a friend’s seminar in Los Angeles, and while I was having coffee in the hallway during the break, someone asked me if I would tell him what I thought the most powerful marketing strategy was.
I told him that it didn’t have anything to do with referrals, advertising, or any of the other methods used to create a customer.
Before any of those methods will ever have an impact on your business, you have got to uncover and communicate a way in which your business is different from every other business that says they do what you do. You have got to create a simple idea or position in the mind of your prospective customer or client.
You must create an environment where your prospective customer or client will think of you immediately when they need what you have to offer.
Fed Ex with its “Overnight” theme, and Domino’s Pizza with its “Delivered In 30 Minutes Or It’s Free” promise, are a couple examples.
Another example is how I am offering those of you who do business-to-business selling to put your own title page on my “10 Marketing Mistakes That Steal Your Cash” book and gift it to your B2B customers…free of charge to you. I also allow you to use this newsletter to help you grow your business; you can use it in your newsletter, on your website, or any way that will help you grow. Just let me know when you do so.
When you offer additional benefits like these to your B2B customers, you now become not only the person who provides your product, but also someone who wants to help them grow their business and get more customers. See the difference?
Here are a few more examples:
Whatever business you are in, you can make arrangements with a car wash to detail your customer’s vehicle whenever they visit you. If you’re an accountant, while you are preparing their return, you can have their vehicle cleaned. I bet when they leave, they will rave to their friends about this unique touch.
How about becoming dominant with your offer? I know of an accounting firm that offers their clients a 100% refund on their preparation fee when they refer four new clients. They are known as the 100% refund guys.
Here’s the last one. Solve a problem. Is there something that customers or prospects fear in your market or seem to believe is universal for what you do? If so, create a system of communicating how you have the answers. For instance: “Painless Dentistry”.
I’m sure you can offer a guarantee that no one in your industry would dream of doing. When I had my insurance company, the department of Insurance said that our customers had a free 30-day look. They could ask for a refund if they didn’t want the product.
I turned that into a guarantee. “If within the next 30 days you feel our product doesn’t meet your expectations, just return it and we will refund the money you gave us.”
I don’t know why a guarantee scares most business owners. You probably guarantee your work anyway. You just don’t say so. Boldly announce that you guarantee results and watch what happens.
Put your creative head gear on and I bet you will come up with a few ways to dominate your market and become the “one” to buy from.
The last step is to communicate your difference in all your promotions and marketing tools, literally shouting about that difference.
Thank you for your ideas. What else did you use in your insurance business? I have a P&C agency
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Hi Steve,
In answer to your question about what else I did, I did a number of things. The most important was to create letters and reports to communicate with my customers consistently each month. My suggestion in this blog article for you to use my “10 Marketing Mistakes That Steal Your Cash” e-book to gift to your business customers is a prime example of things I did.
Ken
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Good ideas, all. The principle involved is relationships. When I taught customer relationship management software to sales people and business owners, I used to say we must create the illusion we care until we really do, in fact, care. We need to have more than a database, we need to have compassion, connection, understanding and desire to help improve the lives of our customers to really succeed.
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Ken Varga Reply:
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:06 pm
@Thomm Morgan,
True Thomas. In my opinion, it’s essential to want to help improve the lives of my customers. Otherwise, why be in business? Otherwise, where’s the fun?
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Thanks Ken. How can I dominate the Bottled Water industry in my region? There are several companies producing same. Help me please…..
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Ken Varga Reply:
September 10th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
@Deji Ibikunle,
Hi Deji,
To compete with a commodity product, you have to provide something your customers want that your competitors are not providing. To find out what that may be, you need find out more about your customers. You’ll need to observe your customers’ habits, listen to their complaints, listen to what makes them happy, find out why they buy bottled water (for instance, is it for convenience, for confidence that the water is pure, for what? With information like that, you can figure out how to make things more convenient for them, or give them more confidence in the purity of the water, etc.) In other words, learn what their true motivation is for buying (beyond buying water), and you will know what you need to do.
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Think like your customers. What is bothering them? what are their biggest issues? Then set about taking some pain away from them.
Customers really appreciate companies that take away pain.
The next problem comes though when they forget how much pain they had and take you for granted, but thats another issue.
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Ken Varga Reply:
September 19th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
@Pool Tables Man,
That’s right. It all starts with knowing your customer. The better you understand them, the better you can solve their problems and please them.
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Hi Ken,
Your thoughts are wonderful. I have been in my business for the last 16 years when nobody else was supplying reusable bags. To date I am a fish in a large ocean. so many have come up to get involved in this business and they really do not know what they are talking about. all they see if big sales and big dollars. i have done so much for my customers like meeting target date even if it meant flying goods in at my expense. Now that it has become so competitive I sometimes feel lost in how to either get back old customers who have left for lower prices and lower quality. Or my cold calling has become boring. Any suggestion that can bring me back up to the level that i was at years ago. warmest regards
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Ken Varga Reply:
October 17th, 2010 at 7:23 pm
@Sylvia,
Hi Sylvia,
It sounds like you need to do some innovation. Call up or go see the people who used to be your customers and try to find out the important intangible factors that caused them to buy from your competitors. When you know those factors, you have a better chance of innovating. Try to dig below the surface of the budget.
For instance, yes they want lower prices. But why? They used to see your product as one with a distinct advantage. Now they see it as a commodity. Before all the competition, they say you as a solution to the environmental problem. Now all your competitors’ products are seen as solving the same problem. What other problem solution can your product provide that’s different from your competitors? You have a channel of distribution with your current and past buyers. There are probably suppliers looking to gain access to your distribution channel. Maybe you can create a package with your product and their product and give a discounted price to the buyer. You keep your price the same, and the partner supplier provides the needed discount to get his/her foot in the door.
This is one idea. Give it a shot.
You won’t be able to get back to the same level you were without innovating, because everything has changed. Now you must change too.
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This webpage truly addressed my worry, Thank you! !
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