The Need For Marketing Has Changed
From the 50’s through the 60’s the world was rebuilding from World War II, and there were few options for buyers. If you had a product or service, buyers would seek you out. Even into the 70’s choices were limited, and selling was simple. The primary sources for information were the sellers themselves. There was little need for marketing.
Brands Multiply Like Rabbits
As the economy and competition grew, companies would attempt to corner a slice of the market by creating a brand specifically for that small piece. Soon, the practice multiplied out of hand. For example, where once there was one brand of corn flakes there are now 16 (45 if you count grocery stores who brand their corn flakes), and deciding which one to buy became more confusing. General practitioners were replaced by specialists. What was a buyer to do?
Enter The Information Age The dawn of the Information Age looked like it would help buyers sort out all of the confusing options. For example, buyers could go online or go to Barnes & Noble to read a dozen magazines that compare and contrast new trucks and cars. The wealth of information available to the buyer is truly staggering. Unfortunately, this created another problem for the buyer, how to sort through all of the information to make an intelligent choice. Instead of making it easier for the buyer, it made it more difficult. Instead of shortening buying cycles, it increased them.
Yadda, Yadda, Yadda
Today’s buyer is now buried in communications from companies wanting their business. Little is communicated because the messages are all alike. Words like “High Quality,” “Customer Service,” and “Best” have lost their meaning due to misuse and overuse. It’s just like all the messages say “Yadda, Yadda, Yadda.” No message received.
How Do I Find The Right Customers? In the environment described above, getting to the right customers can be extremely difficult. Unless you know EXACTLY what your customers want, how they want it, and where they go to get their decision information, then your chances of success are slim. Most advertising does not work because it fails to properly capture the buyer’s attention. As Napoleon Hill wrote in his famous book, Think and Grow Rich, “It is as useless to try to sell a man something until you have first made him want to listen as it would be to command the earth to stop rotating." If they don’t want to listen, they are not going to want to buy what you are selling.
Making Customers Want To Listen Marketing is what happens before a prospect talks to your salespeople. Marketing needs to be concise, well articulated, and powerfully stated. It’s not afraid of rejection, and it’s not obtrusive. People can review marketing at their own pace, when it’s convenient for them. If they aren’t interested, they can ignore it completely. Marketing screens out those who are poor prospects, and brings to you those who are good prospects.
Having An Unfair Advantage
Your unfair advantage is what you do in your business that is different than that offered by the competition, and which makes you more valuable to your customers. It is what gives you a competitive edge in the marketplace. It is all of your skills, your passion, your systems, the way you conduct business. It is the ideas and impressions customers gain from your direct and indirect communications with them. If you do not have an unfair advantage, then you need to develop one.
Saying It Well To reach your targeted customers, you must tell your story in such a compelling way that they MUST come to you. Creative writing has nothing to do with “Saying It Well.” The basic principles of how to reach targeted customers were established more than a century ago when competition was localized or regionally based. However, these methods were abandoned with the advent of television and their 30 second spots. After 54 years of neglect, these principles are not taught today in business colleges. The results obtained using these tested methods on the fractured markets of today have been spectacular.
Summation and Recommendation
The sections above accurately describe today’s market environment. We see that brand building methods originally created for television work only if you have billion dollar advertising budgets. Companies that survive and prosper in the future will not use worn-out, ineffective sales and advertising techniques. They will use targeted marketing to bring increasing numbers of prospects to them with a message crafted specifically to do that. They will have innovated their companies and services to create an unfair advantage over their competition.
There are two ways that those companies will accomplish this:
They will learn how to do it themselves in Mastermind Training.
They will employ a marketing consultant to direct their programs.
There are a number of information pieces on this website that should help your understanding of how we can help you.
If you have questions, just call (503) 206-0333 or email us and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
