People Yearn. Are You Fulfilling Their Desires Better Than Competitors?

When people confront simultaneous issues, cognitive labor becomes mental juggling & hoping to escape. Clarify customers' thinking.

Customer integration helps people settle important issues & tame others, so people progress from expecting relief to experiencing peace. Differentiate your store with advantage offers of ability instead of only coping.

Discounters' offers might bring hope. You should increase functional hope so customers confidently create plus maintain advantages.

Until automobiles provided transportation plus protection from weather & dust, people tolerated saddled horses, buggies, wagons & stagecoaches. Some discomfort & inconveniences were accepted as normal plus results were good enough.

Offers aren't compelling unless they significantly decrease some discomfort & inconveniences &/or provide enough comfort & conveniences to offset negatives.

Before ignition systems & starters, drivers used cranks to start engines despite hassles & injuries. Early cars were hazardous & many people rejected undependable, newfangled horse-less carriages priced for a few hundred dollars.

People thought mostly of negatives until manufacturers offered more advantages compared to disadvantages of horses. As sales increased, product quality improved, so advantages increased & disadvantages decreased.

Now vehicle owners disregard horses as primary transportation & compare automobile models. People keep vehicles until disadvantages outweigh advantages plus replacements restore lost advantages &/or bring new advantages.

Proposed design changes didn't make sense to early manufacturers &/or consumers until somebody developed ideas into insightful information. Features weren't desirable to consumers who didn't perceive enough benefits to offset hassles of changing habits.

Nonmonetary switching costs include transitions between alternative products & suppliers. Assure customers as they master new processes, switching advantages outweigh switching costs. New products & methods aren't perfect but older, less beneficial products & previous methods/habits are less attractive.

Reduce switching costs with insightful information to increase benefits & decrease frustrations.

Value explanations should focus on people's feelings.

Example: ‘Though (product) seems strange, as you master these new methods, you'll create better benefits. Different things are necessary to establish best practices & gain superior benefits. When you learn (methods), you'll have the (product) advantages to create (benefits) faster & easier. The short-term uncertainty will be like learning other skills you use to achieve long-term progress.’

Many ideas seem strange until somebody explains value & people accept wisdom of value, which establishes social proof & brings wider product adoption. Wise value sets patterns like: ‘People in Wisconsin use (products) with (methods) to create (benefits). Since cities have different conditions & requirements, (Store) is dedicated to helping individuals achieve fully advantageous goals.’

People often want to get-ahead but don't automatically link products & techniques with progress. Help people redefine progress in contexts of their lives & goals.

‘Product-X $36’ doesn't influence how people compare their conditions to product benefits. Challenge common perceptions while confirming individual's perceptions of product benefits plus how you add customized value.

Offer Example: ‘If you think (product) isn't worth $23 at discount stores, you're right! Product reviews & friends' complaints justify your disinterest in products made for cheap price points instead of optimized experiences. When discounters dictate prices, manufacturers use thinner materials & cheaper labor without environmental concerns. At (Store), (brand) is worth $53 because high-quality (feature) is designed for (benefit) plus with (Store) consultation, you'll gain (advantage) customized for your goal.'

Do Offers Exist If People Aren't Aware?

Consumers seem to consciously/subconsciously assume problems indicate solutions don't exist because "If somebody invented anything better, I'd know because people would be using it." Until people receive compelling offers, problems are tolerated or situations are avoided.

To reduce stress plus save time, 1) people might ignore seemingly minor problems instead of investigate solutions; or 2) rush through discount store purchases without optimally planning projects.

People, who settle for inadequacy, respond to discount store ads & expect low prices. If you can't accommodate low prices, why advertise like discounters? If you offer better value, use compelling advertising to explain that quality.

Help people create functional hope by preparing for problems.

As you learn about people & products, which scenarios could fit people’s needs & desires?

Examples: Would protective problem mitigation be practical, if customers can’t afford time, energy &/or money for full projects? Can some products & techniques prevent more damage by stopping or avoiding threats until customers can do full projects? Investigate if customers do WX to delay YZ, could they mitigate (threat), avoid (damage) & fix (problem) later?

Since June 2022 without human stereotypes, we've extended Marshall Goldsmith’s bear salmon analogy about avoiding success delusion.

Analogy: Salmon seem pressured to spawn when bears are pressured to pig-out for hibernation preparation. Otherwise, bears might be satiated with one fish if hunger & opportunity coincide. Hibernation preparation requires active searching instead of waiting for opportunities.

Bears often forage for whatever's available (honey, bugs & fruit) like discount store customers foraging for cheap stuff. Bears go for high-quality food from rivers to prepare for winter. Bears sense changes & prioritize other value accordingly.

Humans should be guided to notice changes & how to recognize value plus prioritize offers.

Whether goals are survival or thriving, determine which products & techniques achieve customers' goals. Explain how offers match consumers' needs & desires plus enhance current abilities & resources. What increases necessary abilities & resources so they're optimally available on-time?

Salmon & bears want to survive to fulfill goals & approach rivers differently with different abilities. We don't know exact reasons for some of their choices, but we see results.

Compare case study results to help customers refine perceptions plus cause & effect theories into reasons. When reasons are determined, causes & effects can be located, so 'HERE' & 'THERE' options can be evaluated based on moving toward or away from causes & effects.

Mentally & physically, customers are 'HERE'. Help them define why 'HERE' isn't fulfilling plus define why 'THERE' options can be better.

Salmon go ‘THERE’ where rocks might be constant obstacles, logs can be more numerous after floods & bears are more ravenous before winter.

If salmon could work together & reschedule spawning, they might avoid some obstacles & threats. Some obstacles could aid or hinder bears & salmon if they'd determine how to increase/adapt the aid & decrease hindrances.

Without examining conditions & resources, people easily assume similar adequacy of products in the same category. People also assume information & methods apply to cheap products. Your specialty should include tracking conditions & products plus finding & offering insightful information applied to specific products.

Salmon react impulsively & can't prepare for unknown or forgotten problems or even typical land-based predators & obstacles. Fish don't have updated criteria for evaluating threats or best practices for overcoming obstacles without increasing risks.

Whether actions fulfill necessities or felt-needs, it's easier to plan familiar steps than predict potential problems or combinations. If salmon will be vulnerable swimming in shallow water &/or leaping over obstacles, should preparation for predatory birds or bears be prioritized?

Insightful information aids predictions, preparation & prioritization, so advantage offers are possible.

Are Predictions Based on Knowledge, Outdated Memories or Superstition?

After people have "Been There, Done That", they might misinterpret what happened &/or misremember their actions.

Ask customers for case studies revealing what barely worked or could've failed without adjustments for changed conditions.

Example: 'It seemed like the same problem as before. If I hadn't notice (symptoms), I would've tried fixing the wrong problem. I had a consultation at (Store) & we diagnosed the current problem. I have the (Store) advantage because we planned the project & I bought (products). Each step is right, so I'm confident about long-term success. I’m not relying on luck, I’m producing predictable advantages.'

Consumers' predictions might not fit your offers. Example: If novice gardeners expect a drought & can't afford irrigation equipment, they'd reject watermelon seedlings.

Customers' testimonials or authoritative endorsements could be more persuasive by including relevant tips for: 1) preventing &/or solving problems; 2) creating & maintaining advantages.

Consumers might have one chance for effective purchases to prevent problems. Offers should incorporate assurances like endorsements & testimonials including before-&-after stories to explain why your advantage offers are the most effective, efficient products & actions.

You could include reports of those who wish they would've prevented problems. Did bad luck come from bad products, information &/or techniques?

Explain how the good in your offer reduces current bad luck effects & prevents bad luck causes.

If long-term benefits come from good luck, compare those with effectiveness & efficiency of using updated equipment.

Negative changes can cause gradual failure & in effect, corrode lucky results. "Good luck" can be created & maintained with optimal methods to use optimal products.

Lucky people like believing "success" comes from their efforts instead of despite using outdated products. You're more apt to convince them with direct offers plus by building momentum through cumulative customer successes.

If you focus on lucky people &/or those depending on luck, you need better offer descriptions or adjust niches instead of giving up.

Don't let bad luck ruin your confidence. Create good luck with customer integration.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2023 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Are People in Better Positions With You or Competitors?

Positioning is a major marketing practice & should include how consumers perceive consequences of their mental & physical positions. Customer integration helps people use current & new resources for progress from current to desired positions.

Retailers should offer advantages including psychological incentives to emphasize total product value to fulfill goals & retain gains.

When retailers dread monetary & inventory risks of full shelves, advertising ‘Product-X $30’ seems reasonable. But ‘Product-X’ doesn't promise beneficial opportunity fulfillments or problem-relief. Paying $30 means consumers have less money & possibly feel stuck with fewer resources.

Rough days feel worse when consumers have less money. Effective marketing explains how advantage offers justify prices by improving conditions or maintaining improvements. You can justify profitable prices by offering preparedness so people are assured they can cope when days become rougher.

Offer consultations to increase the probability of successful improvements, so you can afford refund/product exchange guarantees. Assure people your offers are superior to: 1) holding money as inflation erodes value; & 2) hoping cheap products will optimize results.

Offer Example: ‘You can spend your $30 any day for potential benefits. In (Store), you can invest your $30 today for definite (result) advantages. Get full-quality (products) & guidance from (Store) instead of hassling through driving to big store parking lots, searching stores without help & waiting in checkout lines. (Store) refunds money or replaces defective products. Since you deserve superior (solutions/opportunities), (Store) advantage offers include stress-relief of guidance to create high-quality product benefits. Before you buy, consider what kind of value would ensure you're investing in long-lasting advantages? Would you get that value & assurance from discounters? There are no guarantees about good or bad days. As times passes, inflation increases prices as wages buy less value & (problem) expands. For peace-of-mind, you need assurance of solving (problems) now, so you can focus on other issues.’

Unending Moderate Stress is a Major Problem.

Even if you don't offer total relief, offer essential physical & mental rest so people enjoy activating other brain & body cells than those engaged in tiresome tasks. Morale is boosted by anticipating enjoyment especially by increasing delightful variety. While enduring rough days, which memories or planned experiences can inspire intermittent mental relief/recovery?

People can use pictures, souvenirs &/or sounds to retrieve feelings. What would restore previous comfort, self-confidence &/or encouragement? Offer resources to establish mental & physical sanctuaries so people can cope longer with stress because they know durable recovery resources are reachable.

What would help customers achieve long-term foundational abilities despite changing conditions? Optimize flexibility & strength of foundational abilities, so customers create, maintain & defend advantages without undue concern about losses.

Which advantages create well-being & increase psychological satisfaction as people advance in the Hierarchy of Needs. Lives are destabilized when people lose needed basics. If something blocks or reverses self-actualization, self-confidence & peace-of-mind may seem threatened.

Cheap products form insecure self-actualization foundations.

Even if discounters promise advantages, how confident are customers in integrating & retaining advantages? Assure customers you offer attainable & maintainable advantages. Advantages are hard to fully enjoy when people are stressed about losing them.

Distracted people want enjoyable days without studying & interpreting overwhelming details. Since you specialize, it's easy to think everybody shares your priorities, curiosity & knowledge. Despite 8 business hours per day, you might be ready for more details, but consumers' attention is split among different level urgencies. As urgencies seem to become emergencies, stress pushes people to act quickly or surrender.

On good days, people might procrastinate to avoid stress & expand pleasure. On bad days, people might procrastinate to escape current problems & avoid other stresses.

Stress motivates people, as brains scramble to search memories for examples & facts which can clarify or clutter interpretations of current troubles. As mental clutter increases, people feel more vulnerable to trouble plus manipulative sellers.

Customer integration retailers can decrease vulnerabilities & increase trust, so customers are less concerned about manipulation. People don't want to admit vulnerabilities to potential manipulators, especially as vulnerabilities increase. Trust brings comfort & openness to ideas.

Long-term Progress

Despite not controlling what consumers understand or want to receive, we can influence their choices with customer integration. By integrating your store into consumers’ lives, you build trust by showing how you increase value by learning how to fulfill customers' desires & needs.

Some retailers don't ask service-oriented questions. Big retail customers are motivated to buy low-priced, cheap-quality products, but you should know advantages niche members want. So, differentiate your offers by emphasizing progress from effective, efficient products & techniques.

Consumers might wonder why customer integration retailers ask questions before recommending optimal products & methods.

Analogy: If you aren't a pharmacist, you might not know about off-label uses. Physicians might prescribe medications for conditions manufacturers hadn't considered. This can apply to how people use other products. Maybe products can be used with other methods in other conditions for other results, especially when people don't read instructions or use strange tutorials.

Your understanding of products & people's conditions is important but secondary. For successful offers, the primary importance is how people's desires & needs affect perceptions of conditions & understanding of products.

Start with what consumers (think they) know because if you don't work with what's in people's minds, you'll have trouble influencing plus connecting with beliefs.

Positioning involves where & how problems, opportunities, competitors & you are prioritized in people's minds. As problems & opportunities emerge, people's journeys could route toward or away from solution & optimization resources. By positioning your store in people's minds, you can influence their journeys.

If you & consumers don't know each other, you need to get in front of them as a guide. Are consumers observing/experiencing problems & correctly/incorrectly journeying toward prevention/solutions? Are consumers observing/experiencing gaps & correctly/incorrectly journeying toward opportunities?

As you consult with customers, you can refine your positioning in their lives plus your position in specific journeys.

Start with paradigms. The concierge paradigm can be based on people wanting to be treated like VIPs. You can go further by helping people fulfill very important person roles by being most valuable players for loved ones &/or organizations.

Analogy: For people’s journeys, do you sell equivalents of generic maps to theater parking lots? Would you specifically map customers’ routes based on personal needs, vehicles, traffic patterns & weather to parking lots & walks to theater doors? Would you be like an usher to choose seats according to physical needs or combine those like a concierge plus provide beverages & snacks?

Position your store in customers’ processes to establish & maintain advantages that wouldn’t exist or be complete without your resources. People might have 'set it & forget it' mindsets leading to frustration because high-quality products can last while conditions change.

Conditions can change & show how results hadn’t been fully prepared for multiple problems, though preparation might’ve been complete for current conditions.

Results may be as complete as possible from big retailers’ resources. High-quality products can make results more beneficial.

Your added value can establish advantages which include guiding customers’ journeys to avoid/reduce problems which makes advantages more powerful & retains power plus makes it useful as conditions evolve.

In WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON’T GET YOU THERE, Marshall Goldsmith & Mark Reiter wrote about success being a journey. They analogized Success Delusion with this: "The bear was about to clamp onto an unsuspecting airborne salmon jumping upstream. [An UNUM] headline read: YOU PROBABLY FEEL LIKE THE BEAR. WE’D LIKE TO SUGGEST YOU’RE THE SALMON."

Some of Goldsmith's statements are: "Successful people believe they are doing what they choose to do, because they choose to do it." "Successful people have a unique distaste for feeling controlled or manipulated." "Their personal commitment encourages people to 'stay the course' and to not give up when the going gets tough. Of course, this same steadfastness can work against successful people when they should change course."

Anthropomorphized salmon might deny instinct drives them to spawn where they hatched. Small fry survived swimming downriver, but successful & failed salmon don't return to oceans to warn potential spawners before they fully commit. They might believe their "choices" & abilities are optimal, but accept advice about avoiding predators.

Position your store in people's minds & lives where commitments are made & journeys begin.

Advise customers about techniques for using products for reducing or avoiding obstacles & risks.

As much as practical, make successful projects more attractive than perceived bargains of discount products.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2023 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Create New Familiarity with Effective, Efficient Offers

Though customer integration won't bring instant riches, it connects consumers' lives to retailers by building incremental success & reciprocal benefits. It optimizes customers' conditions with customized advantages beyond generic 'What's In It For Me?' offers of trading products & money.

After observing local successful advertising, check marketers’ social-media & mass-media outreach for examples of integration with people’s lives.

Even if you refuse integration, make advantage offers like urgent care prescriptions including: 1) indications: understanding what to solve &/or prevent; 2) contraindications: determining what not to use or stop doing; 3) prognosis: expectations to determine if treatments are effective & complete.

Insightful knowledge makes offers advantageous, so customers confidently, comfortably do necessary things to optimize long-term advantages.

Comfort Is Added Value

Naturally comfortable emotions can seem logical because they feel compatible. What makes your offers fit so naturally in customers' lives, anything less wouldn’t make sense? How can you make results completely advantageous? Advantage offers bring as much satisfying accomplishment as customers can afford.

Favorite authors/performers understand fans & magnetically attract people who feel naturally comfortable connections. Even if their criteria are nonverbal, fans' devotion feels so deeply vital, they defend its relevance.

Customer integration offers connect to & protect what people want to preserve, add value to or create.

When people experience benefits through viewing, hearing &/or reading creators’ samples, nascent connections start bridging gaps. People want to complete & maintain those connections to avoid losing those gains. When you integrate your store into people's lives, there's value people don't want to lose.

Offer Knowledge to Create New Familiarity

Unfamiliarity seems uncomfortably threatening enough to disintegrate people's achievements. People cling to comfortable, familiar things, so explain how offers connect effectively, efficiently with people's lives.

Ill-advised familiar things can feel "objectively" &/or subjectively compelling because people equate familiarity with safe expectations.

People might prefer familiar stressors over uncertainties. Progress could bring relief but entails confronting unknowns.

Mixed (Yes? Maybe?) emotions disrupt people's commitments to benefit creation & maintenance. Consider how uncertainties affect approach/avoid (accept/reject) dynamics of interpersonal rapport & reputations.

Build your reputation & rapport (reasons to purchase) by decreasing uncertainties. People avoid stress of potentially foolish mistakes by rejecting uncertain challenges that threaten internal peace (self-rapport).

Case study testimonials & descriptive risk-reversal (refund/exchange) offers can inspire comfort by settling uncertainties. I don’t mean ‘Product $32 with 30-day return policy’. Product returns are energy/time-consuming hassles.

Advantage offer descriptions help people with cognitive labor by clarifying purchase decisions. Explain how advantageous products achieve goals, so product returns are only necessary for defects.

Offer Example: ‘Before storms hit, (advantage) seems optional. Prevention preserves your (benefit) so you don’t need to deal with problems or hassle with insurance adjusters. (Store) inspires comfort & confidence with these product & service criteria: __. What are your criteria for (result)? Whether you've set (advantage) goals or want guidance, (Store) has information & advice about goal-setting & achievement plus optimal product choices. Discounters profit by taking money from people who tolerate low-quality standards. Do discounters conform to your criteria? (Store) offers necessities for (advantage) goals. Defective products can be returned for refunds or exchanges. Now it’s up to you to accept this offer, so you can confidently experience (advantage). Will you choose a product supplier & service collaborator like (Store)?’

Cognitive labor can become cognitive friction for consumers having insufficient information & insights to optimize labor. Suboptimal methods, tools & materials lead to excessive effort wearing people down like friction.

People think decisions are wrong if energy, time &/or products are wasted. Criteria can predetermine potential waste plus preserve resources.

It’s easy to think good decisions bring good processes & results. "Good" is a contextual judgment, so help people recognize contextual criteria.

People might give up or deviate from plans if unrealistic project criteria indicate failure.

Since people tend to rationalize emotional purchases, explain logical justifications for desires & prices. Add logic for comparing competitive offers plus avoiding buyers' remorse.

Customer integration includes the logic of 'Let's be sure we create & maintain the right advantages' so customers are assured they won't regret purchases.

Potential regrets can establish tipping points away from your offers. Don't expect people to make tipping points favor you; you're responsible for establishing emotional & logical tipping points. Explain pleasures plus pain reductions, so people will know what they'll lose if they don't buy from you.

Successfully Prepare For Safety & Danger

If prevention/solution attempts &/or opportunity fulfillments are misperceived as successful, failures might not be perceived until second chances aren’t practical.

If second chances are possible after preventions & solutions fail, people might await literal or perceptual storms passing &/or product availability. “Storms” could be whatever diminishes results, wastes investments &/or obstructs recovery.

As people succeed, confidence preserves personal reserves. Failures undermine reserves, so people lose confidence & are unmotivated to risk anything.

Would better products & methods produce resilient enough advantages to encourage people to try again? What would be people's resilience criteria? Which case study testimonials would demonstrate resilience?

You can create case study projects for publicity & easy confirmation. Which businesses & consumers would work with you to produce resilient advantages? Steps could be recorded & you could offer insightful knowledge for adapting steps for people’s needs & abilities. Include what-ifs, so people recognize actions to do or avoid & to assure progress.

If second attempts can be productive, people might not know whether to: 1) choose products according to current skills or available tutorials; or 2) check product availability to determine which skills to learn.

Guide purchases & learning simultaneously based on needs & goals, so customers avoid delays by preparing themselves & conditions while opportunities can be optimized.

People might prepare without defining full preparation. It isn’t pessimistic to consider what-ifs. Even if customers buy all supplies & plan optimal steps, what-ifs indicate when to ask for guidance about potential interruptions.

Won't Get You There

Since June 2022 without human stereotypes, we've extended Marshall Goldsmith’s bear salmon analogy about avoiding success delusion.

When starting journeys, salmon might be optimal but only spawn once possibly because of genetics or self-sacrifice in suboptimal conditions. They seem to sense success in finding natal rivers & dash upstream without eating. They’re equipped for spawning but barely equipped for threats or obstacles.

Anthropomorphized salmon might think they’re safer in shallow rivers between rocks where sharks & lamprey eels can’t attack from below.

Salmon are optimized for swimming & males might fight others in water. Bears & birds grab fish from above. Salmon can’t escape those attacks by diving into river silt or turning in tight spaces.

Though seized fish seem to fight, they’re trying to swim away which doesn’t work in air. Fish might successfully escape or fight bigger water-dwelling predators & expect similar future success.

While swimming in rivers, salmon are in predators' familiar territory. Predators have evolved into riverbed territory, but salmon hatch, leave & return to spawn then die.

Evolution is nature’s way of experimenting, optimizing & keeping what works. Learning about options improves survival but as conditions change, salmon don’t stay to explain life lessons to hatchlings.

As discounters come & go, show how you & customers can adapt & thrive together.

Jim Collins Offers Good Insights.

His Hedgehog Concept is inspired by hedgehogs' effective self-protection against foxes. However, SUVs could hit rolled-up hedgehogs while foxes watch for threats & flee. While crossing highways, hedgehogs should be aware of other threats even during fox attacks.

One method can fail against other threats if rolled-up hedgehogs become caked with mud & blinded while successfully resisting foxes. Testing & practice are vital to develop methods for changing opportunities & threats.

Imperfect performances seem wasteful but appropriate unsuccessful attempts are better than perfect methods mismatched for conditions. Example: Bears catch salmon swimming over rocks.

Could outdated, rolled-up retailers convince consumers there's nothing to fear in pursuing opportunities? Rolled-up retailers survive against big competitors until consumers want different offers.

Hedgehogs might roll-up differently in wet weather or for nonlethal nuisances. It could be wise for hedgehogs to keep an eye open, listen & be sensitive to ground vibrations to monitor if foxes attack, leave or crowd around.

Would walking away & monitoring for threats & opportunities be better than trying to run? Which weather conditions are threats or increase vulnerability to other threats? Which weather conditions reduce predators’ abilities?

There are issues to consider in adapting Hedgehog Concept 3 circles based on conditions to achieve goals & prevent problems.

What indicates conditions can’t be sufficiently suppressed or assets can’t be adequately adapted? How easily could vulnerabilities be decreased? Which criteria would reveal if efforts should be expended or suspended as vulnerabilities increase or fade? What would indicate too much &/or outdated reliance on established abilities? What indicates other options are necessary?

Retailers might inadvertently discover their Hedgehog Concept 3 circles are effective. Without knowing reasons, it's hard to know how to increase effectiveness & efficiency. Insightful evaluation is better than luck. Resilience requires adapting resources & testing methods while conditions change.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2023 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Client Relationships Are Destinations In The Customer Integration Journey.

Customer integration shows your commitment to be a personal resource & move beyond share-of-wallet tactics to strategic client relationships. It means helping clients choose & implement personal optimizations to establish your loyalty to them. Until then, don’t expect customer loyalty.

Customer integration offers are: ‘Here’s what you need to __.’ Client relationship offers are: ‘This is how we’ll __ together.’

Blog readers vary in knowledge, so we're reinforcing customer integration while setting our vision to explore horizons. You should set customers’ visions to find new advantages.

To some extent, you can optimize current methods but when you’re close to peak performance, further advancement is limited.

As you optimize a marketing offer & method, you’ll need other offers & methods to appeal to other consumers. You’re more apt to increase profits with sales to customers who respond to additional offers & methods. Until you explore beyond your current reach, you won’t know how much more success is available or how to achieve it.

Since I’m proposing what’s unfamiliar to you, you think about risk because you haven’t implemented customer integration. Consider consumers’ risk perceptions. If you refuse to integrate your store into their lives to make offers less risky & more fulfilling for them, how can you expect them to initiate integration?

If you refuse to reach out further to consumers, don’t expect them to reach further to you. Customer integration shows you’re reaching out to help them instead of grabbing their wallets.

After you implement & optimize customer integration, you’ll transition beyond reaching out. You’ll stand out where customers want to be & they’ll join you. When you’re standing with customers, you can form client relationships.

Since June 2022, we've used Marshall Goldsmith’s bear salmon analogy to avoid success delusion. Goldsmith uses personal coaching to explore successful causes & effects.

Quotes From WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON'T GET YOU THERE:

“Successful people have a unique distaste for feeling controlled or manipulated. Even when I’ve gotten the greatest advance build-up as someone who can help people change for the better - in other words, I’m effective at helping - I still meet resistance. I have now made peace with the fact that I cannot make people change. I can only help them get better at what they choose to change.”

“People will do something - including changing their behavior - only if it can be demonstrated that doing so is in their own best interests as defined by their own values.”

Which Advantages Do People Value?

Let’s explore how client relationships build advantages on the customer integration foundation. Both models increase retailers' understanding of consumers' current 'HERE’ plus help customers realize why 'THERE’ is a more advantageous destination.

Retailers can be like students' guidance counselors by building insights to create & reach destinations. Help clients learn how to maintain progress while expanding horizons.

Consumers want benefits others enjoy but impractically deplete resources trying to get ‘there’. Help customers understand when somebody else’s ‘there’ isn’t suitable. Advantage offers include reviewing goals & conditions to develop a personal advantageous ‘THERE’ so costs are justified with increased positives &/or decreased negatives.

It includes describing how clients should fully own/maintain advantages of being 'THERE'.

'Client' implies relationship since clients have relationships preferably with fiduciary-like providers who serve based first on creating client advantages.

By relating to advantages, people form 'relationships' when things are gained, so losses are felt physically & emotionally.

Though healthy interpersonal relationships include sacrifices, advantages can equal or exceed sacrifice costs. Insightful information gives people perspectives for perceiving & comparing advantages & costs.

Insightful AIDA offers bring Awareness/Attention leading to Interest, building to Desire & inspiring purchase Actions. Client relationships justify purchases with guidance for productive actions.

Short-term Goals Long-term Costs

Salmon sacrifice themselves to spawn 'THERE' because they relate to actions & locations but not to results of hatchlings surviving & swimming to oceans/lakes. Adult salmons' struggles seem to indicate dedication to offspring but suffering is detrimental.

By equalizing sacrifices & self-preservation, adults could survive to warn offspring about those dammed rivers & bears. Warnings & workarounds strengthen individuals plus their relationships. Client relationships form bonds of interdependent help because each contribution makes advantages for all involved.

Discounters relate to profitable sales, so there's little dedication to customers because service is considered a cost. Discounters may claim to serve customers, but how do they define “service”? Investors grab profits instead of reinvesting in product & service quality.

Customer integration service includes matching products & actions with goals.

Example: Toddlers’ parents build adaptable recreation rooms to last long enough for teenagers to enjoy. Buildings should be top quality. Furniture & equipment should be safe even if units wear out in a few years because children will want age-appropriate units. Teenagers will probably reject formerly-favorite kiddy-size furniture & toys. Temporary decorations would fit teenagers’ evolving ‘relationship’ with their long-lasting 'clubhouse'.

Are customers’ desires for change & consistency realistic based on evolving product technology & probable developments? If customers’ desire & priority fulfillments require cooperation, which explanations could create understanding with those who can add resources & share benefits? How can you help customers persuade others to cooperate?

Relationships are based on similar priorities even if members don't prioritize equally.

Example: Greenhouse operators' dedication to beautifying cities might be a #2 priority, but citizen volunteers might prioritize public flowers at #8. Retailers could sell plants & materials at cost for civic projects & hope people pay full price for home projects. If volunteers are too tired to maintain civic & home projects, declining quality could discourage participation. Volunteers could share dedication to goal achievement but not commitment to maintenance.

Client relationships should include knowledge for realistic prioritization according to requirements & resources. Do your best to help clients preserve advantages as worthwhile investments.

If priorities & desires change, what do those changes indicate about goal achievements that established value? Do life changes or personal resource shortages force clients to abandon achievements? Do clients want to reduce activities but preserve property & equipment value? What do clients need for transitioning to other advantages? If people can't store & maintain equipment, do you offer maintenance, storage or rentals?

It's easy to start enthusiastically when people realize what their commitments can bring, but would requirements be too burdensome?

Consultation Example: 'You can start with in-stock products. Step #3 requires ordering (products). Rainy weather might strike anytime after (products) arrive. You'd have to dedicate time &energy to rush through remaining steps. I'll place the order if you're sure you can make it work.'

Consultations show your attention-to-detail.

Retailers' inattention or attention-to-detail indicates to consumers whether relationships or transactions are worthwhile.

Relationships Should Be More Valuable Than Transactions for Retailers & Clients.

I agree with Jay Abraham about serving clients instead of attracting tactical, transactional customers, especially if transactions are reactive instead of preventative & progressive. Relationships involve interactions, not just transactions.

Ideally, prevention & progress are planned. If you want clients more than customers, justify your role in clients' planning.

Jay used The Greek Parthenon analogy for supporting businesses with multiple pillars/methods. Customer integration builds powerful pillars.

Pillar & relationship combinations require architecture/planning to build & position pillars advantageously.

We can add "Positioning" by Al Ries & Jack Trout because you should position your business in people's minds & solidly position it in people's lives. If your advantageous business is removed, people's lives won't be complete & could be unsteady.

People happily think problems are over even if relief is temporary. It's important to differentiate preliminary & long-term results so customers don't stop too soon. Which analogies & comparisons demonstrate importance of next level results?

Offer Example: 'After last month's storm, (Store) has filled orders for (benefits). Since major damage & risks are reduced, it's time to finish with customized repairs. Stopping now would be like relying on temporary spare tires for your car. You need full-size replacements. At (Store), let's personalize product & method choices for your current & emerging needs so you'll avoid stresses of searching for & comparing important information plus deciding on options under pressure of approaching problems.'

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2023 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Your Strong Marketing Structure Strengthens Customers' Lives.

Jay Abraham advocated developing multiple approaches to make your marketing solid like the Greek Parthenon.

Competitive & economic forces might disrupt some approaches/pillars while other pillars still support your business infrastructure. Though successful approaches might eventually fade, you can avoid total failure by testing methods & adapting offers to customers’ emerging realities.

Alternative offers & methods might have some redundancy but appeal to subniches.

Example: Depending on local people & infrastructure, hybrid & electric vehicle offers can be similar but should be adjusted according to preferences plus technological advancements. There are similar environmental appeals of hybrids & EVs, but vehicle & charging system prices plus driving needs & traffic add variables affecting personal advantages. Variables increase potential confusion. People need help with personal considerations. Consultation Example: ‘I understand ABC is changing, but XYZ isn't. Let’s compare options to reach your goal of LMOPQ. (Hybrid) would help you fulfill KLM & (EV) would help you fulfill OPQR. So, (EV) fulfills more priorities but not your current top two. As your life changes, your needs will evolve. (Hybrid) seems better considering prices & availability of charging systems & fuel. (EV) fits your emerging commuting needs plus growing infrastructure & technician availability. Commuting increases necessary maintenance, (EV) will require less maintenance than (Hybrid). It means less long-term expense & hassle.’

Include customers' concerns in advantage offers to inspire testimonials.

Example: Dealers might lease new vehicles & sell previously leased vehicles. It’s important to compare new vehicle warranties with older model remaining warranties or buying extensions. When leases expire, are there more advantages for lessees to buy familiar, comfortable vehicles or lease new advanced technological vehicles?

Your comparison methods should evolve as improved elements of advantage offers so competitors’ offers are more likely to stagnate than yours. Differentiate your business by creating the difference between mediocrity, possibly irritation, & optimal advantages.

Cognitive Labor makes a big difference because consumers don't always know what they should research. Until you connect facts, how can customers discover what they need to know?

Example: If they drive vehicles without automatic pressure monitoring, people can check tire inflation during trips. Specific tire inflation depends on vehicle model recommendations. If people check tires during long summer trips, heat might make pressures seem too high. Drivers need reminders because they're mostly concerned about safety from accidents & crimes plus are distracted by biological needs.

If current offer & method effectiveness stagnates, use tested alternatives to attract customers, so marketing pillars won’t collapse while you test & build new options. Your offers & methods should be as current as changes of conditions & consumers’ priorities. Offer & method viability varies with consumers’ conditions. You can’t control consumers’ conditions or responses but you can control your responses so you’ll become more influential.

Though it’s important to keep using productive offers & methods, tests increase your viable options & resources. Optimization is easier to start & maintain with multiple options. Self-imposed limited options would restrict your ability to adapt to competitive, consumer & economic changes.

You won’t know which options will be best for attracting specific customers until they compare offers with their progress & obstacles.

Increased sales can make your store more valuable for suppliers. If you order more products, suppliers might prioritize you so you can afford to specialize & stabilize inventory costs.

Things Aren’t As They Seem

People perceive reality differently. Stressed people might decide what’s true instead of perceiving & coping with inconvenient facts. Since some retailers don’t advertise or do it inadequately, they seemingly decide consumers are aware how product benefits prevent or solve problems.

Whether you promote new or familiar product technologies, people vary in awareness of product benefits &/or problematic circumstances. With limited awareness, people might: 1) underestimate problems &/or comprehensiveness of preventions, mitigations & solutions; 2) undervalue product necessity & reject offers.

Reality checks can be uncomfortable until people accept necessary changes. Reality checks can bounce if people don’t know how facts connect plus which causes & effects can modify those connections.

Example: Rodents can sneak into houses, then find & hide bird seeds in places humans don’t see. Even after people exterminated current rodents & used sealed containers for bird seeds, future rodents can find hidden seeds. It’s important for retailers to suggest using sealed containers for bird seeds starting with the first purchases.

Causes & effects are easier to acknowledge when people have functional hope of remediation. Information & insights build functional hope by showing routes out of/away from problems & to fulfilled expectations.

Example: If people decrease rodent access with sealers, fewer rodents will enter. Those few will find less food to eat & hide. Sealers block rodents from exiting, but as they hunt for food, they’ll become susceptible to traps.

Show you’re interested in customers’ wellbeing instead of just sales. Explain how products fit customers’ conditions & how benefits connect to customers’ desires. Maximize product benefits with advantageous information & insights.

How Will People Know Where to Find the Best Value When They Want to Go 'THERE'?

If you’re offended by my explanation (below), you should change/add approaches.

I keep expanding Marshall Goldsmith’s bear-salmon analogy because too many retailers & consumers are like spawning salmon. They’re optimized for one method in one condition which they don’t control. Retailers’ optimization declines as consumers develop new preferences & find better fulfillment from competitors.

When nature & humans change rivers, salmon are more negatively affected than bears that have more options to change approaches. Bears have more influence on & options in salmons’ conditions than salmon do. The salmon species survives because many hatchlings survive, but individual spawners don’t.

Bears skillfully pursue prey on land & adequately in shallow water. Salmon skillfully evade predators in deep water but can be at disadvantages in shallow water. Many fish die quickly out of water. Bears bite fish & hold them out of water, so fish run out of advantages.

You need advantage offers because big competitors already have more advantages than you. Suppliers favor big retailers so they have more resources to build advantages for themselves & consumers.

Retailers & consumers have agency but stubbornly reject options then blame others or conditions for failure. Retailers reject opportunities & claim consumers are fickle! Consumers feel retailers are financial predators unless they offer advantages of functional hope (based on consumers’ criteria).

If you need consumers to change, you should change your approaches instead of faulting consumers!

Analogy: Roger Miller’s hit “Kansas City Star” expressed: “I’ve got credit down at the grocery store. My barber tells me jokes." He rejected another offer: "I’m the King of Kansas City. No thanks, Omaha. Thanks a lot.”

If you refuse to help customers feel like queens & kings, service-oriented competitors will SEEM to cause you royal pains. You’ll give yourself royal pains if your offers aren’t more advantageous than competitors'.

Though the Kansas City kiddy show star probably got some exclusive privileges, other privileges are special treatments available also to regular folk. Help customers be & feel like stars.

Some testimonial/case study ads have disclaimers: “Results not typical”. You can add: “Special treatment IS typical for all (Store) customers. Though (Store) special treatment isn’t miraculous, let’s review your needs & expectations to develop your goals.”

Specialized added-value might be exclusively available to your customers who are equally special. Though product ownership can imply social status, help customers focus on long-term value whether they own products or create special memories from experiences.

If advice isn’t among your offered special treatment, customers might not give you direct testimonials about your offers. Ask consumers & suppliers for product focused, descriptive testimonials to introduce product benefits.

Specialized offers can inspire local testimonials highlighting advantages you offer. Your customers' testimonials & case studies can explicitly or implicitly compare results of people who settled for competitors' offers. Even if you buy from the same suppliers as discounters, customers can gain advantages from your knowledge & attention-to-detail.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2023 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Happy New Life! Be Careful What You Wish For

People wish without considering consequences of fulfilled desires.

Is it success delusion or partial success when people get ‘THERE’ (where they want), yet settle for less than full effectiveness & efficiency? They’re disappointed with results but glad they saved money.

They can’t get ‘THERE’ from ‘HERE’. Did they choose the wrong ‘THERE’, methods, equipment &/or journey? Every input affects outputs.

People want treasured experiences, even if they never experience financial treasures. Life enhancements are built with experiences but can be ruined by low-quality.

Analogy: Can sweet orange juice be squeezed from sour lemons? If people can’t afford oranges, what’s available for desirable lemonade? Assessment: Perceived citrus differences are __ & adjustable with (current plus available resources). Uncorrectable differences are __ & can be offset with __.

Urge people to consider which benefits are important enough for optimization efforts.

Create & sustain happiness by connecting comfortable familiarity with adventures.

When people are bored with ‘HERE’, they create an adventure ‘THERE’. If it's more intense than expected, they return to ‘HERE’. Without recognizing current & necessary factors, people’s methods won’t work for full comfort or adventure.

Before planning comfort & adventure upgrades, help customers identify & rate desirability plus necessity of current comfort & adventure factors.

Find ways to prevent stale familiarity & excessive adventure riskiness. Create different familiarity versions by replacing dull comfort factors with adventure. How much can customers reduce familiarity without creating uncomfortably strange experiences? Like strapping in for rollercoaster rides, perceived risk can augment controlled adventures. People don’t always perceive seriousness of risks.

Analogy: Toddlers like edging away from parents, but running-away might be too risky. Children want freedom, but misperceive their readiness to achieve it. They learn by exploring boundaries of independence & ability to take control.

Accurate knowledge & product quality can be the difference between achieving or merely perceiving control. People might be at-risk because they assume products are dependable. Cheap product purchases can leave money for more activities but people are disappointed or injured by pushing beyond personal & product limits.

To create & benefit from treasured experiences of possessions & activities, clarify goals & compare with probable results. Offer optimized value & risk reduction by matching customers’ aspirations with product specifications to successfully implement plans.

Offer guidance to ensure people recognize practical treasures. That might seem like minimal cognitive labor, but it’s unfamiliar to overwhelmed customers. Differentiate your store as a treasure resource by covering step-by-step requirements, so people don’t dig for treasure & get stuck with junk.

Treasure Hunt: Inside the Mind of the New Consumer by Michael Silverstein & John Butman

Consumers might trade down without perceiving differences between cheap & high-priced products.

Smart people don’t pay more than necessary. They imitate smart examples, want to be perceived as smart & want money for security &/or investing in high-quality.

People’s Value Calculus involves financial, practical & emotional factors of paying the lowest prices for adequate quality to fulfill purposes. Cars, jewelry & shoes can contribute to fulfilling fashion purposes though two of those have practical purposes.

If people don’t socialize at-home, cheap furniture might seem good-enough unless retailers emphasize comfort as a health issue. Ask chiropractors how using cheap furniture causes enough cramps & sleep troubles to interfere with people’s experiences.

If at-home socializing is treasured, people will trade up for comfortable, attractive furniture. Help people adjust value perceptions so they don’t undermine goals. If people serve food & beverages, messes can reduce furniture value. If appearance is a high priority, which furniture will look good before & after visits?

Successfully Arrived, Failed to Thrive

In WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON’T GET YOU THERE, Marshall Goldsmith & Mark Reiter analogized Success Delusion with this: "The bear was about to clamp onto an unsuspecting airborne salmon jumping upstream. [An UNUM] headline read: YOU PROBABLY FEEL LIKE THE BEAR. WE’D LIKE TO SUGGEST YOU’RE THE SALMON."

By returning to natal rivers, anthropomorphized salmon might satisfy biological urges, but not nostalgic treasure when conditions change. Starvation, swimming upstream & bear attacks subtract more value.

Why do fish endanger themselves to spawn? Salmon struggle to bypass logjams to reach specific treasured spawning areas.

If people successfully clear obstacles to make another river suitable, fish might not recognize that value & struggle to return to their natal rivers. Should people state 'Fish hatching in this river also return to spawn here'? Or should people prioritize certain fish-stocking techniques & optimize maintainable spawning areas?

In effect, it’s like developing market niches by understanding them & helping them understand your advantage offers.

When your store is integrated in customers’ lives, you’ll learn about motivations & results. Learn about customers’ conditions to scout ahead for obstacles & recommend effective, efficient purchases & plans base on case studies.

Example: ‘(Customer) wanted (result) to create (benefit) & used (products) with (learned skills) to do (methods) & implemented (plans).’

People figure purchases are logical without admitting subtle, embarrassing or hard-to-express criteria. Advantage offers with in-store guidance can connect with customers’ subconscious/nonverbal emotions & prevent embarrassing mistakes.

Example: People might pay so much for luxury boats, there’s barely enough money to buy cheap tarps. Would it be wiser to buy mid-priced boats & rent winter storage units?

Comfortable offers are like keys opening mental locks, so people consider your options to fulfill opportunities.

People limit their opportunities though they can afford better options. Limited spending might prevent money shortages but could limit ability to prevent/solve problems. Explain unfamiliar causes & urge people to consider short- & long-term effects.

If low-quality is disregarded, low-prices seem logical but people also have emotional reasons. You might not identify all reasons but you can test offers to unlock people’s stresses & reveal freedom access. Explain alternatives to trading down.

Explain how offers improve conditions, so trading down doesn't feel reasonable.

Offer Example: ‘(Problem) solution requires __because __. Cheap commodities aren’t strong enough to withstand __. (Store) consultations focus on problem-causing vulnerabilities, so you’ll know what to fix & prevent.’

Trading down can be a short-cut eventually adding stresses instead of being a convenient detour.

Cheaper options can be cheap-shots that insult the intelligence of “smart shoppers” who set expectations plus compare conditions & products.

“No material difference” perceptions, expectations & experiential lessons might include outdated opinions. Explain essentialness of specific options. Gain insights into customers' obstacles by learning about local people’s goals & conditions. People want advisers to understand their current levels & find means to higher levels.

People personally & socially balance “I can go without (result-A) but can’t go without (result-B)”. Those beliefs are affected by potential criticism: ‘Why did you buy that instead of this?’ Those thoughts can be conflicting expectations, needs &/or desires.

Help define plus defend needs & desires. If you don’t explain offer advantages, people might get-by with coping mechanisms instead of optimizing conditions.

Explain why there’s more functional hope in trading up.

Help People Feel Extraordinary

Eventually, people might be intolerant of ordinariness especially when they see treasures displayed via social media. Trading down for commodities maintains ordinariness but hopefully reserves finances for trading up in treasures.

If people tolerate ordinariness to save money, use advantage offers to add logic to emotion.

Example: Some manufacturers make basic cars look like luxury models which possibly reduces luxury model attractiveness. Luxury models can seem logical with added-value of fuel-economy & safety. Frequent &/or long-distance drivers should offset their added risks with updated safety technology. With logic, luxury vehicles seem like investments, not splurges.

Help adjust customers' reasons for trading up & down with guidance about prioritization & fulfillments.

Consultation Example: ‘Why is weight-loss preferred to cardiovascular fitness? Weight management will be easier as you increase stamina. Your ‘Why’ for weight-loss is great. Let’s make your ‘Way’ great also. Benefits are limited from diets or exercise but the combination is powerful. Diets frustrate people. Some give up exercise because benefits aren’t instant, but discomfort is. If people exert too much too soon, their ‘Way’ probably won’t support their ‘Why’. If people try slimming down for social perceptions instead of personal reasons, their ‘Why’ might not support their ‘Way’. Feel better by improving your lifestyle with optimal nutrition & activities to increase stamina. You’ll gain energy from your effort & time investments in your health. Your increased energy will help you maximize your time for other activities.’

People might figure there’s treasure in goals/destinations until journeys become overwhelming. Some figure journeys are/should be treasured. When journeys are treasured, long-term destinations can seem worthwhile. Discomfort discourages people & brings failure delusion. Discomfort doesn’t always indicate failure.

What can you add to plans to reduce discomfort & add enjoyment to journeys?

Success delusion can start anytime in planning, journeys &/or arrival at expected or unexpected destinations. Journeys & destinations can be adjusted. Schedule advantage offers for typical times of customers’ planning, journeys & arrivals before or while circumstantial disadvantages start. When you know what disrupts success, offer to disrupt disruptions.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2023 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/

Is Success Measured with Shallow, Quick Quantity or Deep, Lasting Quality?

Discounters appeal to people wanting quick benefit quantity without considering long-term satisfaction from benefit quality.

A lowest price criterion can bias people’s step-by-step evaluations from planning to results. Higher-price product benefits might feel like cost-overruns. People might expect faster, better results than conditions allow or products & methods can create.

When low-prices & short-term perceptions are used to evaluate results, successful long-term efforts could be perceived as delusional failures. Offer specific high-quality benefits to guide purchasing & realistic long-term expectations.

I use success & failure analogies to avoid offending people. Books & cartoons feature anthropomorphized animals to teach lessons without ethnic stereotypes.

Bears & humans disregard rules & nutritional reasons for appropriate food. Humans disregard logic of quality because cheap prices satisfy emotions.

If Yogi Bear expects to survive on human-abandoned food, acquisition costs might seem like bargains. If Yogi disregards nutrients & thinks fishing is burdensome, fish acquisition costs seem extravagant. Raiding two picnics might be easier than catching one fish.

In WHAT GOT YOU HERE WON’T GET YOU THERE, Marshall Goldsmith & Mark Reiter analogized Success Delusion with this: "The bear was about to clamp onto an unsuspecting airborne salmon jumping upstream. [An UNUM] headline read: YOU PROBABLY FEEL LIKE THE BEAR. WE’D LIKE TO SUGGEST YOU’RE THE SALMON."

See the Big Fish I Caught with My Rod!

Will friends’ referrals or authoritative endorsements help people choose products from your store? Which consistent & nascent issues do people discuss? How do/can your offers fit people’s discussions? What would induce discussions of your ability to affect result quality & satisfaction levels? You should help customers make social connections beneficial. Give customers information & insights to share with knowledgeable/authoritative people & evaluate your offers.

What should people know when planning/revising projects?

Since preparation requires knowledge & other resources, which criteria assure customers can influence conditions?

If you expect people to buy goal-achievement resources, offer the most possible. When customers regularly depend on you for advantageous goal-achievement, you’re integrated into their lives.

When weather, inflation, supply-chain disruptions &/or other issues affect people’s planning progress, consultations can reveal product & method options. When people’s efforts seem blocked & high-value seems out-of-reach, offer descriptive compelling options.

Clayton Christensen wrote people hire products for jobs-to-be-done.

Offer Example: ‘When you need (benefit), consider long-term results as if you’re hiring workers. (Store) advantage offers include screening product qualifications for your jobs-to-be-done. Products should be compatible with your desires & long-term stress-relief. Discounters push products without concern for your well-being. (Store) is dedicated to your life-quality.’

If people seek opinions about product & method choices, you should be chosen for authoritative guidance.

Consultation/Evaluation Example: This case study plan was successfully adapted to (local conditions) with knowledge & methods defined & refined according to results of (ABC) & emerging indications. Differences between those conditions & ours are __. Because of those differences, let’s (BCD) substitute for (ABC). Step-1 is adapted because (difference) & will be finished with (products & techniques) creating (result). The gap between your goal (full benefit) & (result) is __ & can be filled with (supplies & techniques). (Skill) is necessary for (techniques) & can be learned with (tutorials). Step-2 includes (products & techniques) to create (full benefit).

Boost customers' confidence by guiding them to learn applicable information & skills. Academic counselors open resources & opportunities for students. Introduce customers to achievements you can help fulfill.

Start Small & Increase Credible Momentum.

If loved ones have compatible conditions, people might recommend products after experiences of fulfilling needs & desires. People can help with referrals if you authoritatively evaluate conditions, goals & resources compatibility. You can be perceived & endorsed as an authority as you learn & share knowledge.

Trust involves predictable reliability & relates to determining whether to attempt diagnoses & repairs or ignore problems. Information inspires trust so people avoid failures & lost opportunities. Explain why & how to solve problems plus futility of ignoring problems. Describe your approach to projects, so people will join you.

Referrals are based on interpersonal trust & help inexperienced people. People are apt to approach you about potential trouble when you establish predictability by restoring/maintaining/controlling past, current stable &/or emerging circumstances.

Anthropomorphized bears might anticipate winter & think Yogi gets enough picnic baskets, but hibernation preparation is no picnic! Yogi might be stable now, but will he survive? It’d be Success Delusion if Yogi fills up with human food & feels successfully prepared. He could hibernate but might not emerge. Hibernation is an intermediate result for optimal living.

Success Delusion can be illustrated with the Three Little Pigs. Two pigs might feel successful after building stick & straw houses. Shelter & safety aren’t identical. It’s vital to consider all threats because preparation for one hazard doesn’t guarantee total safety.

Household ambiance control is a long-term goal that can be disrupted by typical weather & destroyed by storms.

Analysis: We want (benefit) in our current condition. What will indicate condition changes? When indications come, how will we prepare? Current/emerging problems are __. We’re evaluating our preparations with these criteria: __. We want (benefit), so we (do action). If we notice (indications), we’ll change plans or preparations.

High-Quality Products Have Specifications; Solutions Have Criteria.

People should consider personal, long-term costs when choosing options. Differentiate short-term easiness, quickness & cheapness from what creates better, long-term benefits. Discounters ignore those & offer easy, quick, cheap purchases.

If Yogi doesn’t learn about hibernation, picnic food might seem OK because it's easily obtained. It’s vital for Yogi to learn about fulfilling sustenance requirements.

Human nutrition is a valid analogy because opinions & requirements vary. Doctors compare averages & treat aberrations. Activities & rest burn average calorie levels & food replaces calories plus nutrients that alter calorie use & replacement.

It’d be a Boo-Boo if Yogi thought there’s no need to hibernate. As winter hits, humans stop picnicking, so baskets probably aren’t available. Yogi would need to prioritize other food for hibernation or survive winter without preparation.

People have comfortable biases, reject uncomfortable facts & need remedial help. Adjust best, better & good offers for early preparers, last-minute movers & late-comers, plus explain necessities.

Whether Yogi prioritizes picnic baskets or bears prefer certain fish, biologists might emphasize criteria based on current or emerging needs plus resource comparisons.

Bears might want to pig-out while fish are plentiful without understanding digestion, metabolism & energy-production aren’t instant. Storms & other problems can hit before bears adjust to extra weight & finish preparations.

Humans choose junk foods causing sugar spikes & crashes without sufficiently satisfying hunger. That’s analogous to cheap stuff not fulfilling expectations.

Even if discounters accept returns, consumers expend time & energy returning stuff instead of finishing projects. After that waste, prevention could be too late, so people need remediation.

Criteria, Plans & Readiness

Will customers do testimonials about how you relieved their frustrations?

Help customers combine information, observations & experiences into criteria, so you can add insights to their plans.

Consumer conversations & activity observations can reveal expectations. Consumer advocates & complaint forums reveal frustrations. Compare product quality with those expectations & frustrations, so you know what to offer & how to guide customers.

How Much More Value Would Bring Satisfaction?

People might feel their lives are incomplete & yearn to 'have it all’ without defining ‘it all’.

If billionaires have it all, can they actively enjoy it all? Example: While enjoying Activity-A with Product-1, Product-2 is in-storage because it’s made for Activity-B. Seasonal changes limit activities & return-on-investment.

Affluent people buy from discounters when cheap products seem to fulfill criteria just like expensive versions. Emphasize how your advantage offers make activities optimally enjoyable & financially practical.

You influence customers’ attention-to-detail by investing attention in step-by-step effects so quality lasts. Your success depends on demonstrating importance with thorough guidance. Your concern for benefit quality indicates concern for customers.

Take-it-or-leave-it attitudes indicate customers are low priorities. When choosing between ambivalent competitors, stressed people opt for low prices.

Yogi might prefer picnic baskets because injuries prevent effective fishing. If you dismiss him as afraid of drowning & recommend a life vest, you wouldn’t be integrated into his life. That lack of integration would block future sales & referrals.

Though Yogi should recognize his limitations better than others, he might not realize how injuries interfere with fishing techniques. Maybe his limitation is limping. Which techniques would be restricted by limping? Which techniques could he do instead? Which techniques should/shouldn’t Yogi do?

If Yogi agrees fishing is better than picnicking, how should he rate readiness for technique riskiness? Would numerical or verbal ratings be meaningful? Example: Though (Technique-A) is generally high (#9) in effectiveness, because your injury is ___, Technique-A) is moderate (#5) in riskiness. (Technique-B) is moderately (#6) effective & might require more time, but it’s low (#2) in riskiness. You can feed yourself without jeopardizing your recovery. This tutorial shows how to do (Technique-B) despite your injury. If pain increases, rest & eat __. Retry tomorrow.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2022 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.

When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here- https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/