Be a Market Leader by Leading Customers to Benefits.

In The Discipline of Market Leaders, Michael Treacy & Fred Wiersema wrote about product leadership as offering superior products & experiences.

Let’s add personal leadership because you should lead customers to benefits instead of hoping they’ll determine how products are beneficial. Your basic offer should be: Though your current condition is__, we can increase your benefits with these products & methods. As your current condition changes, we’ll use innovative products plus techniques to maximize positive changes & minimize negative changes.

Be persuasive by presenting benefits to match people’s goals & leading customers to choose & use products to achieve goals.

Show you believe customers deserve the best, by optimizing your store so your offers produce the best results. In Good to Great by Jim Collins, the first circle of the Hedgehog Concept is what you can be best in the world at. Let’s focus on making your offers are the best options for specific results.

To create the best results for your business & customers’ lives, develop a category of options & optimize the best option for each customer. Which resources make that option possible? How will you acquire & integrate those resources? What could interfere with that option? How will you reduce or eliminate that interference?

Even if you have the indisputable best offer according to the most authoritative criteria, you need to build a mental path to your door.

Analogy: After electricity is generated by combining factors, it follows the path of least resistance. After lightning finds paths from clouds to land, the Earth adds power.

Your offers should have enough power to get through mental resistance & integrate with the power of people’s desires for benefits. It can be like people comparing pictures. When offer descriptions match people’s goal visualizations, people believe your offer fits gaps between current conditions & goals.

While monitoring consumers’ conditions, present information so consumers recognize what they have & need for achieving goals. Offer resources to empower people to complete their desired conditions.

Offer Example: ‘You may be frustrated by incomplete projects because something disrupted your plans. Let’s review your progress, so we can reduce obstacles plus add products & information you haven’t found yet. (Store) has (products) & plans for adjusting your conditions. Together we’ll identify what will complete your building project.’

Analogy: Electricity isn’t successfully conducted, when there’s a gap because there isn’t a sufficient conductor &/or the power is too low to jump the gap. Let’s consider products to be conductors & information to be power.

Show you’re part of the circuit of resources people need to achieve goals.

Needs/desires > compelling offers of products plus implementation & maintenance methods > goals

After connecting facts & feelings to show you understand people’s goals, you can use facts to connect goals to your offers.

Offer Example: ‘Are your lawn mower & lawn well-matched? Does your mower fit your physical needs? At (Store), let’s consider facts other retailers ignore. Whether lawn mowing is an act of pride or just a necessary task, (product) makes it easy & quick with less noise. People are quickly tired from pushing mowers over uneven lawns. (Product) has quick adjustment levers for smooth performance whether you push or use self-propulsion. Its wide deck cuts more grass in less time than narrow mowers. It can get close to objects to reduce your need for edge trimming. (Store) includes preventative maintenance plans to sharpen blades & secure other parts. With products & service from (Store), you’ll have fewer hassles plus more time & energy after effective, efficient mowing.’

When people are distracted & distressed, their mental energy is like static electricity.

When mental energy (attention, interest & desire) flows through integrated connections, people can recognize & use coordinated (synchronized) values you create. Distracted people need benefits of coordinated products with goal-focused methods.

Coordination includes information to organize what customers already have & add what they need.

Customer integration builds value & establishes mental links so consumers perceive that value.

The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing

Al Ries & Jack Trout wrote about creating categories & being first. Some laws are:

The Law of the Category If you can’t be first in a category, create a new category to be first in.

The Law of the Mind It’s better to be first in minds than be first in the marketplace.

The Law of Perception Marketing isn’t a battle of products; it’s a battle of perceptions.

The Law of Focus The most powerful marketing concept is to own a word in prospects’ minds. Focus your business practices on a cohesive concept.

If you don’t have time to read/listen to the whole book, you can do an internet search for summaries.

Let’s add some meaning to these laws. To effectively use these, you need to be categorized as being ahead of competitors in prioritizing consumers’ benefits. What do consumers perceive you to be focusing on? Show you want to profit by optimizing their results instead of just pushing products.

Since goal achievement is a journey, busy people prefer smooth, direct routes. It can be disrupting like driving over potholes when people struggle to make products & results conform to expectations.

Too many businesses focus on selling products instead of the benefits of reducing problems. You can be categorized & perceived as a specialist by offering precise kits. Align kits with customers’ goals so people check with you first when desires & needs emerge. You can be first on consumers’ lists if your store offers total integration to connect people to ideal conditions.

Even if you establish product leadership among stores, it’s important to inspire consumers to accept you as a leader, so you can lead them to great results.

Mediocre advertising is basically, ‘You have (problem), I have products.’ It’s like pointing & saying, ‘Go get it.’ That isn’t leadership. The value of leadership is diagnosing problems, finding resources & planning solutions plus preventing recurrence.

To lead people to use optimal resources, you might have to convince people to push aside failure. People might give up & think they can’t afford more efforts after unsuccessful attempts.

Offer Example: ‘When you need basic (project) results & can’t afford to hire professionals, you still need specialized information. If you’ve been disappointed, let’s determine what went wrong & make corrections. We won’t find fault. We’ll identify obstacles. Let’s compare your results & conditions with plans that fit your goal. We’ll find what fills the gap between your goal & current conditions.’

You Can Do What They Did.

Testimonials can describe what worked, so people can compare their attempts with successful efforts. Detailed testimonials can renew hope & desires because people learn other options can be applied or adjusted. Compelling offers renew hope & you can lead hopeful people by showing how results are possible.

When projects don’t work, people don’t always think about trying again with different products or methods. When you offer plans, show people there are ways they haven’t tried. It’s vital to remember people can believe what’s possible when they know how it’s done.

Offer Example: ‘Your frustration is understandable. Let’s work together at (Store), by using plans & checklists to determine what didn’t work & why. Instead of finding fault, we’ll find better options with products & techniques that fit your conditions, expectations & goals. Let’s focus on long-term benefits of high quality products to overcome negative conditions. Complete results are possible with the right knowledge & planning, so you succeed. These are important considerations because (Store) offers results instead of just pushing products.’

Be bold when you compare your store with competitors, so people recognize how your strong value fits their lives. Bold comparisons are more apt to establish consumers’ attention, interest & desire, so your offers inspire action. Identify when & why products are necessary, plus offer support for maximizing benefits.

Offer Example: ‘The right plans & resources make things work FOR YOU, so things are less apt to happen TO YOU. Good results can happen randomly, but when you want the BEST results, you need to make the best happen. Some retailers assume you just need products. They brag about selection or prices, but they don’t mention the cost of low quality, incomplete results. Since product selections only matter when you get the right results, let’s work together to select products for the support you need. When you have __ & __, you’ll be ready to create (benefits). At (Store), we’ll combine the right product versions & be sure you know the best methods for lasting benefits. Projects shouldn’t cause more stress than the relief you expect from your goals. When we know which results you need to create & problems you need to avoid, we can plan your benefits. Since (season) & (weather) are almost here, limited supplies are becoming available. It’s time to be sure you get the results you deserve.’

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Copyright 2021 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

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