What's the primary reason for choosing a retailer in your category? Location can be important, but people buy based on offers.
As you consider what to offer, you can start with people's general situations, then narrow your focus to an issue. As you explore an issue, determine which aspects you can impact most.
The potential demand for an offer & your profit depends on specializing in a subject or combination that relieves conflicts between reality & people's goals.
Example - Home ownership is a horizontal part of life. By focusing on an aspect, you can go vertical, example: lawn care. When you offer a combination (mowing, fertilizing & weed control), people can pick what they'll do or delegate to you.
Multiple Opportunities From Dividing Life Into Issues
You can explore opportunities by dividing life into issues & determine much relief competitors offer. Compare your offers & competitors with local conditions.
Can you offer more of an advantage for some consumers? An advantage can be an easier, more complete or less expensive way to improve conditions.
What kind of an advantage would inspire people to change brands or stores?
If an improvement requires higher priced products, is the improvement worth more?
A manufacturer can claim a 30% product improvement but its value depends on effects on people's goals & local conditions.
Local retailers should excel in helping people achieve their goals.
Is It A Real Improvement?
In a cold climate, we have ice melting chemicals so we can drive & walk without slipping.
Ice melting chemicals are often improved, but what's a real improvement? They can: 1- melt ice faster or last longer; 2- be safer for the environment, plants &/or animals; 3- be easier to spread; 4- work in sub-zero weather; 5- be less apt to damage pavement.
Whatever the product is, an improvement can negate another, so one product probably won't include each possible improvement. It can be impractical to use multiple versions simultaneously.
Choosing among them can be confusing, so people might ask for advice. You can help find better options &/or eliminate bad options for a condition.
If packages are big, you can have easy-to-hold comparison charts. These charts could focus on specific concerns. Example for ice melting chemicals - You can have a chart for people, who have pets or wild animals on their land. Chemicals can be compared according to effects on animals. You could have tips for limiting animal exposure.
Desires, Needs, Expectations & Affordability
Though businesses can sell products more quickly than services, optimal profitability can depend on product & service blends.
Is your business model flexible enough to offer product & service blends?
Complete solutions often require customized products & services. Since competitors can sell the same or similar products, you should add value with services.
Services can be more than repair & maintenance. Services can be helping people: 1- find the best options for their conditions; 2- get full value from what they buy or rent; 3- mitigate & cope with problems they can't fully solve; 4- enjoy things they couldn't do without your help; 5- reduce uncertainty; 6- save time, money, energy, etc.
The success of your offers depends on how well you understand people's desires, needs & expectations. You shouldn't assume you know.
When you consider what to offer, you can adapt these questions:
What does relieving a problem mean?
Can pain be eliminated or just reduced?
Is permanent relief realistic?
If permanent relief costs more than occasional temporary relief, will people pay more?
Does total relief mean avoiding hassles by paying somebody to solve a problem?
How much do people want to be involved in the solution?
Do they want to help plan the project? Do they want to do some or all of the work?
Would people do all of the work to save money or because they get satisfaction?
What do people expect & what can they afford? They might expect a perfect lawn without realizing how much it'd cost. Offers should be based on expectations & reality. Example - Reduce weeds by 74% in 7 weeks.
Take Customers From Guess? To Yes!
Though products come with instructions, you can give lessons for specific conditions, so people don't struggle with details.
After people notice symptoms, they can describe conditions, use pictures, video & audio recordings. You can use their descriptions, pictures & recordings to process symptoms & diagnose problems.
After a diagnosis, you can find materials & tools, plus create plans for using what people buy. You can teach them or help them find instructions & tutorials about specific problems, materials & tools.
When people have a problem, each guess is another stress. Guesses lead to mistakes & more stress.
Customer satisfaction should start with confident thoughts like "Yes! I can do it."
People feel less stress when they're sure about positive results.
If a total solution is too much to expect, can you reduce a problem by a significant percentage?
You can help people manage conditions & expectations by explaining options & costs.
Often satisfaction isn't found, it's achieved. If they expect too much or too soon, they may never achieve satisfaction.
You can help with a realistic goal & resources to achieve it. Instead of lowering their standards, they may need to adjust.
If they don't know the range of possibilities, they might not buy because they have low expectations. Example - They might be dissatisfied with results of other products. By testing soil, you might adjust fertilizer so a whole lawn will grow evenly.
You know what's possible since you know your inventory. You might help people get more than they expected.
Offer Solutions Based On People's Definitions
Products & services can be sold individually or bundled based on how people define problems.
Example - To some people, weeds aren't bad, so lawn care is limited to mowing. Mower maintenance could be a problem. You could have a mowing service, fix mowers & sell maintenance products. This combination could serve a sizable niche.
If you want to sell a service, determine which tasks people don't have enough time or skills to do.
People might want to do repairs & maintenance. Some products are designed for manufacturers to easily & cheaply build, but repair & maintenance are hard.
Consumers should be given information & advice about durability, repair & maintenance. Cheap discount tools could break or wear out before people finish a project.
You also should warn them if they might have to interrupt a project to replace a tool. It might be better to invest in a more durable tool.
You should have policies about what you will & won't sell, plus how you'll explain policies to consumers.
Some products are intended for professionals only because specialized knowledge is necessary.
Will you stock products for direct sales (for consumer self-service) or only as part of a service you can perform?
Better Offers For Different Needs
Competitors might have undifferentiated offers that don't fully satisfy people. Check with suppliers for products with fewer or more functions that can provide just the benefits people need.
Help people determine the difference between needs & desires. If they can't afford all they want, maybe you can help them get what they need.
As they improve their conditions (including finances), they'll be closer to their desired state. They can do more when they more time & money.
Example - They might want an unblemished lawn, but they can afford only to eliminate weeds. They might remove blemishes from animals later.
As you help people improve their conditions, you can build relationships. You & your clientele can support each other with long-term efforts.
Selling A Service For What It's Worth
Examine a process in various conditions to find valuable changes. Are there people who don't need each process step or product?
Can you improve a process by changing, adding &/or removing steps? Can results be improved with a different product?
Improvements can be reducing costs &/or changing results.
Can you customize some things without compromising your principles?
Be sure customers understand your offers & what you will & won't customize.
You should encourage consumers to talk about their needs, desires & expectations. A little investment of time could save time, money & frustration later.
Are they willing to advance incrementally or do they insist on quick results? Can you accommodate their schedules?
How do they define quality in products & results? Do they expect to pay too little for high quality?
Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.
Copyright 2018 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/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Monday, February 26, 2018
Friday, January 19, 2018
Compelling Offers Based On Customers' Conditions
When people feel doubt about conditions, they feel an emotional darkness. You can inspire hope by sharing knowledge.
Knowledge is like light. You can focus knowledge specifically where customers need it.
People are the only sources who can focus knowledge specifically. Books, articles, videos, etc. are useful only if a person can apply information directly.
As big retailers add more services, you need better services that fit people's lives. You need to understand their conditions.
You should make compelling offers based on their conditions, not just on your inventory.
On a local level, customers have similar conditions. You should know those general conditions, discuss customers' specific needs & customize solutions.
Some things can make conditions unbearable - 1) not being in control & 2) unknown causes & effects.
Even if people can't control everything, they want to control something. Coping is hard if people control nothing & don't know what to expect.
People get some relief when they know what causes a problem. After a problem is found, people can focus on preventing & mitigating effects.
Cause & Effect Story Lines
Purchase decisions can be based on cause & effect story lines. Even if people don't think of their lives as stories, they go from problems to solutions.
Descriptive ad copy should highlight benefits so people recognize products they need to improve their stories.
Stories might be simple summaries of conditions. Things happen in particular sequences.
Problems will continue unless somebody changes the conditions. Your ads should help people recognize conditions & what can be done about them.
To integrate your store & offers with people's lives, you need to know their stories.
What do they want? What will they want? What might interfere with their plans? How can they reduce interruptions?
When you help people identify specific causes & effects, you can help them make the right changes.
When you ask questions to help people solve problems you'll also get information for future offers.
You can ask questions like these:
When you think about potential changes, which change is most important? What makes it most important?
Which problem bothers you the most? If you could only afford to solve one problem, which would you solve?
We need to find the cause so we can solve the problem. What did you notice first? What did you do after it happened? Did that reduce the effect?
Are Their Priorities Practical?
Priorities are important. Reasons for priorities can lead to trying to solve minor or easy problems instead of what's most damaging.
You can base suggestions on customers' needs or preferences but preferences aren't always practical.
People might want to solve what upsets them most instead of preventing or fixing damage. Example - People might want to kill invasive insects, but they also should plug holes insects use to enter houses.
Though symptoms can be stressful, it's best to identify symptoms to solve problems. If customers can't afford to solve problems, maybe you can mitigate problems.
Diagnostic Scenarios
Stories can be organized into scenarios. Scenarios are organized details. Problems are diagnosed according to details.
When you consider local conditions, you can review your inventory & determine how people can use products.
What do people want to do? What do people want to avoid? What do people want to decrease or increase? What do people need to solve?
When you have those answers, check your inventory for solutions.
To write ads, go through answers to the questions above & write questions like these: Do you need/want ___? Have you noticed ___? Do you want to avoid ___?.
Describe how your products/services fulfill those desires & needs.
Scenarios can describe conditions for using products. Here are some examples:
For selling garden tools, you can describe soil conditions & explain how to use those tools.
For selling health products, you can describe symptoms & explain how to apply those products.
General descriptions can help people determine if their conditions fit those scenarios. Invite them to your store for specific information. In your store, you can ask questions & answer their questions.
When you do these things, you'll help people get maximum value. Compared to competitors, who don't offer information, you have information customers need.
Be An Advisor
Just like fiction, stories aren't totally original. There are familiar subjects with different details.
You can help people adapt options according to personal details.
Based on your inventory & local conditions, you can ask questions & determine which solutions to offer.
There are common patterns in some life conditions. Based on patterns, you can show people what might happen with or without solutions.
If you recognize patterns, you can help people avoid or mitigate some problems.
You can help people plan tasks, so they'll have time to learn how to get optimal results.
You can promote free consultations with purchases. If they buy from you, you can continue to guide them if they have questions later.
As you increase your trade skill, you're apt to learn what works for people in your area. You can show how to adjust to changing conditions.
You can tell customers if you think an idea won't work. They might want to experiment anyway. If there's a safety issue, you might refuse sell something & explain why.
Risk Reduction
Consider potential risks people face when they buy a product or service. Even if you can't remove each risk, you can reduce some risks. Example - When people use tools, there are probably common incidents. When people know a product's limits, they can avoid problems.
People need information to pick & use the best products for their conditions. You can help them avoid using the wrong products.
Avoiding risks is a major value. You can use information to reduce people's risks.
Sales may depend on whether people are sure about advantages & assured against risks of disadvantages.
Reassure customers by helping them know when & how to use products, so they'll avoid injuries or damage.
Risk reversal (refund or exchange) is important if a result is reversible. If a result is irreversible, people may want guidance to avoid waste.
Somebody might refuse to buy even if you think a risk is minor. For a socially evident product, people might risk disapproval if they don't know how or when to use a product well.
People might feel too embarrassed to ask for advice. To reduce risk & embarrassment, you can have advisory documents with products.
Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.
Copyright 2018 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/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Knowledge is like light. You can focus knowledge specifically where customers need it.
People are the only sources who can focus knowledge specifically. Books, articles, videos, etc. are useful only if a person can apply information directly.
As big retailers add more services, you need better services that fit people's lives. You need to understand their conditions.
You should make compelling offers based on their conditions, not just on your inventory.
On a local level, customers have similar conditions. You should know those general conditions, discuss customers' specific needs & customize solutions.
Some things can make conditions unbearable - 1) not being in control & 2) unknown causes & effects.
Even if people can't control everything, they want to control something. Coping is hard if people control nothing & don't know what to expect.
People get some relief when they know what causes a problem. After a problem is found, people can focus on preventing & mitigating effects.
Cause & Effect Story Lines
Purchase decisions can be based on cause & effect story lines. Even if people don't think of their lives as stories, they go from problems to solutions.
Descriptive ad copy should highlight benefits so people recognize products they need to improve their stories.
Stories might be simple summaries of conditions. Things happen in particular sequences.
Problems will continue unless somebody changes the conditions. Your ads should help people recognize conditions & what can be done about them.
To integrate your store & offers with people's lives, you need to know their stories.
What do they want? What will they want? What might interfere with their plans? How can they reduce interruptions?
When you help people identify specific causes & effects, you can help them make the right changes.
When you ask questions to help people solve problems you'll also get information for future offers.
You can ask questions like these:
When you think about potential changes, which change is most important? What makes it most important?
Which problem bothers you the most? If you could only afford to solve one problem, which would you solve?
We need to find the cause so we can solve the problem. What did you notice first? What did you do after it happened? Did that reduce the effect?
Are Their Priorities Practical?
Priorities are important. Reasons for priorities can lead to trying to solve minor or easy problems instead of what's most damaging.
You can base suggestions on customers' needs or preferences but preferences aren't always practical.
People might want to solve what upsets them most instead of preventing or fixing damage. Example - People might want to kill invasive insects, but they also should plug holes insects use to enter houses.
Though symptoms can be stressful, it's best to identify symptoms to solve problems. If customers can't afford to solve problems, maybe you can mitigate problems.
Diagnostic Scenarios
Stories can be organized into scenarios. Scenarios are organized details. Problems are diagnosed according to details.
When you consider local conditions, you can review your inventory & determine how people can use products.
What do people want to do? What do people want to avoid? What do people want to decrease or increase? What do people need to solve?
When you have those answers, check your inventory for solutions.
To write ads, go through answers to the questions above & write questions like these: Do you need/want ___? Have you noticed ___? Do you want to avoid ___?.
Describe how your products/services fulfill those desires & needs.
Scenarios can describe conditions for using products. Here are some examples:
For selling garden tools, you can describe soil conditions & explain how to use those tools.
For selling health products, you can describe symptoms & explain how to apply those products.
General descriptions can help people determine if their conditions fit those scenarios. Invite them to your store for specific information. In your store, you can ask questions & answer their questions.
When you do these things, you'll help people get maximum value. Compared to competitors, who don't offer information, you have information customers need.
Be An Advisor
Just like fiction, stories aren't totally original. There are familiar subjects with different details.
You can help people adapt options according to personal details.
Based on your inventory & local conditions, you can ask questions & determine which solutions to offer.
There are common patterns in some life conditions. Based on patterns, you can show people what might happen with or without solutions.
If you recognize patterns, you can help people avoid or mitigate some problems.
You can help people plan tasks, so they'll have time to learn how to get optimal results.
You can promote free consultations with purchases. If they buy from you, you can continue to guide them if they have questions later.
As you increase your trade skill, you're apt to learn what works for people in your area. You can show how to adjust to changing conditions.
You can tell customers if you think an idea won't work. They might want to experiment anyway. If there's a safety issue, you might refuse sell something & explain why.
Risk Reduction
Consider potential risks people face when they buy a product or service. Even if you can't remove each risk, you can reduce some risks. Example - When people use tools, there are probably common incidents. When people know a product's limits, they can avoid problems.
People need information to pick & use the best products for their conditions. You can help them avoid using the wrong products.
Avoiding risks is a major value. You can use information to reduce people's risks.
Sales may depend on whether people are sure about advantages & assured against risks of disadvantages.
Reassure customers by helping them know when & how to use products, so they'll avoid injuries or damage.
Risk reversal (refund or exchange) is important if a result is reversible. If a result is irreversible, people may want guidance to avoid waste.
Somebody might refuse to buy even if you think a risk is minor. For a socially evident product, people might risk disapproval if they don't know how or when to use a product well.
People might feel too embarrassed to ask for advice. To reduce risk & embarrassment, you can have advisory documents with products.
Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.
Copyright 2018 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/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Friday, December 15, 2017
Bring Customers Back With Value
People remember what feels best or worst; those are peak experiences.
Problems can be negative peaks. Solutions can be more powerful positive peaks.
Successful business owners solve problems & create positive peaks. They focus on solutions more than just selling products & services.
People will return because they want to repeat positive peaks & avoid negative peaks.
Peaks don't have to be summits, just significant issues.
Your advertising should show how you help prevent & solve problems.
These can be simple like possible uses people might not expect. Example: Somebody complains about another broken ice chopper. Ice chopping is done straight up & down. Some ice choppers bend & break if they're used for scraping because it's a different angle. A spade can be better for scraping & removing chopped ice.
Your ads should show ways to produce & expand positive effects.
Check competitors' offers & add value, so your offers are better.
Some people don't like discount stores but they perceive a value in low prices. Though saving money feels good; solutions can feel better & become better memories.
Confirmation Bias In Your Favor
It's vital to get confirmation bias to work in your favor. When you're perceived as a community supporter & value provider, each value increment will confirm people's positive feelings & thoughts.
People will like your offers better than competitors'. If anything negative comes up, it might be disregarded or considered to be an exception.
Memories Last Longer Than Experiences
To avoid problems & negative memories, encourage customers to ask questions before & after they buy. Some manufacturers have tech support or trouble shooting guides. Show customers how to find & use those.
People can have good in-store experiences & be satisfied with product/service results, but still regret purchases later. If a good result doesn't last, the final memory might be bad.
If they find a lower price later, they might regret paying more unless they remember a significant added value. Added value can lead to better results that are worth the prices.
Total satisfaction can depend more on memory than experience. Solving long-term problems can lead to positive memories.
According to Daniel Kahneman ("Thinking, Fast & Slow"), pleasure & pain often are remembered based on peak & end levels. The length of pain or pleasure may be disregarded if the experience changes.
Pain might decrease toward the end, so people remember relief.
People will remember an inconvenience & they'll remember who helped solve a problem.
Satisfaction can be mentally linked to your store, so people want to return.
Advice can make a difference between satisfaction & remorse.
Your information, advice & instructions can lead to satisfactory results, so people are less apt to regret a purchase.
If people bought a product from a discount store without added value, results might be unsatisfactory.
Remorse can happen if a price seems too high compared to the value of results. Added value can improve results that are worth a higher price.
Remembering In-Store Experiences
Some retailers use music, fragrances, colors & pictures to influence moods.
When people are in a good mood, they might accept & remember advice.
Make added value a regular part of your in-store experience.
When people think about your store, they should remember the values you offer. It should be like a word association. When people need solutions, they should remember your store.
People remember a positive difference, even if it seems small; so, offer various things & track what people accept.
Your success can depend on how you affect people's conditions & moods.
General quality of life can be like a tide & moods can be like waves.
Mood troughs can be deep, so crests bring important relief. People have crests when they get relief from problems.
Your store should be mentally linked with crests. If people feel better in your store, they'll have a favorable impression. Crests & peaks tip a scale in your favor when people think about which stores to patronize.
You can help people add peaks & crests by finding what's missing. What do they need?
Fulfilling goals requires a series of steps. You can offer information & products for planning & completing steps. People can return for what they need for each step & future projects.
Increase Knowledge & Decrease Risk
People need knowledge, skills, money, time, work space, tools & materials. By removing these barriers, you can gain advantages over competitors.
You should welcome beginners who might not know how to start.
Even if they can't identify symptoms, they know something is wrong. They have risks if they do something wrong & don't solve problems.
They need help diagnosing problems so they can buy the right solutions.
They need the right knowledge, materials & tools. Your ads should show you're the right source.
Beginners don't know if they'll have a long-term interest or need for tools. If you have a rental or trade-in program, people can try new skills with low risk.
People can return what they won't use again & you can offer used tools.
People can start with low investments & you can profit from selling tools multiple times.
You might be able to start a club or work with an existing club.
If members share expenses with others, you'll have multiple customers who can afford to buy or rent things.
If you have to order & sell materials in big lots, you can encourage members to divide lots into smaller amounts.
People can save time by working with others & learning together. If each person specializes in a skill, people can solve complex problems more quickly. They can specialize in what they learn & buy.
Clubs can provide work shops & hobby space. Example: A remote control plane club has a small air field. Members share knowledge & skills, so beginners can start with little risk.
Product & Information Sources
People might buy from whomever provides valuable information.
Do your ads have enough information for purchase decisions? If people check manufacturers' web sites, they might buy from manufacturers.
Information from manufacturers might not apply directly to people's conditions. You should offer information about using products in local conditions.
If local conditions don't affect how products are used, you need to produce a different kind of value. Help people choose & use products effectively & efficiently for personal conditions.
What can you offer to make products easier to use? What can you provide to prevent problems?
You can offer what people want before, during & after producing specific results. What can you provide to make those results easier? What can you provide to make those results better or last longer?
Which products can be combined to produce different or better results? What's the best way to produce those results? Are there instructions or will you write the instructions?
Tutorials can help people produce good results. You can help people choose tutorials that fit their conditions & help them adapt information.
Any Relief Is Valuable
Though you should offer maximum value, people might expect less. They can return for more after they settle preliminary issues.
In people's minds, current issues often are magnified in importance & urgency. Their thoughts aren't necessarily on what's realistically most important & urgent. It's like a picture focused on an object, other objects seem blurry.
When people are involved in a situation, they might not see the big picture clearly. As an outsider, you might have a wider perspective.
To satisfy them, you might need to solve what's on their minds. You can use your perspective & knowledge to help them get the most value they can afford. Even if they can't afford the best value, they can get some improvement & improve their morale.
People need morale boosts because it's a burden to constantly feel low.
They realize burdens still exist, but they need a mental rest like setting a load down. Even temporary pleasures are good because people get relief when they don't dwell on problems.
Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.
Copyright 2017 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/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Problems can be negative peaks. Solutions can be more powerful positive peaks.
Successful business owners solve problems & create positive peaks. They focus on solutions more than just selling products & services.
People will return because they want to repeat positive peaks & avoid negative peaks.
Peaks don't have to be summits, just significant issues.
Your advertising should show how you help prevent & solve problems.
These can be simple like possible uses people might not expect. Example: Somebody complains about another broken ice chopper. Ice chopping is done straight up & down. Some ice choppers bend & break if they're used for scraping because it's a different angle. A spade can be better for scraping & removing chopped ice.
Your ads should show ways to produce & expand positive effects.
Check competitors' offers & add value, so your offers are better.
Some people don't like discount stores but they perceive a value in low prices. Though saving money feels good; solutions can feel better & become better memories.
Confirmation Bias In Your Favor
It's vital to get confirmation bias to work in your favor. When you're perceived as a community supporter & value provider, each value increment will confirm people's positive feelings & thoughts.
People will like your offers better than competitors'. If anything negative comes up, it might be disregarded or considered to be an exception.
Memories Last Longer Than Experiences
To avoid problems & negative memories, encourage customers to ask questions before & after they buy. Some manufacturers have tech support or trouble shooting guides. Show customers how to find & use those.
People can have good in-store experiences & be satisfied with product/service results, but still regret purchases later. If a good result doesn't last, the final memory might be bad.
If they find a lower price later, they might regret paying more unless they remember a significant added value. Added value can lead to better results that are worth the prices.
Total satisfaction can depend more on memory than experience. Solving long-term problems can lead to positive memories.
According to Daniel Kahneman ("Thinking, Fast & Slow"), pleasure & pain often are remembered based on peak & end levels. The length of pain or pleasure may be disregarded if the experience changes.
Pain might decrease toward the end, so people remember relief.
People will remember an inconvenience & they'll remember who helped solve a problem.
Satisfaction can be mentally linked to your store, so people want to return.
Advice can make a difference between satisfaction & remorse.
Your information, advice & instructions can lead to satisfactory results, so people are less apt to regret a purchase.
If people bought a product from a discount store without added value, results might be unsatisfactory.
Remorse can happen if a price seems too high compared to the value of results. Added value can improve results that are worth a higher price.
Remembering In-Store Experiences
Some retailers use music, fragrances, colors & pictures to influence moods.
When people are in a good mood, they might accept & remember advice.
Make added value a regular part of your in-store experience.
When people think about your store, they should remember the values you offer. It should be like a word association. When people need solutions, they should remember your store.
People remember a positive difference, even if it seems small; so, offer various things & track what people accept.
Your success can depend on how you affect people's conditions & moods.
General quality of life can be like a tide & moods can be like waves.
Mood troughs can be deep, so crests bring important relief. People have crests when they get relief from problems.
Your store should be mentally linked with crests. If people feel better in your store, they'll have a favorable impression. Crests & peaks tip a scale in your favor when people think about which stores to patronize.
You can help people add peaks & crests by finding what's missing. What do they need?
Fulfilling goals requires a series of steps. You can offer information & products for planning & completing steps. People can return for what they need for each step & future projects.
Increase Knowledge & Decrease Risk
People need knowledge, skills, money, time, work space, tools & materials. By removing these barriers, you can gain advantages over competitors.
You should welcome beginners who might not know how to start.
Even if they can't identify symptoms, they know something is wrong. They have risks if they do something wrong & don't solve problems.
They need help diagnosing problems so they can buy the right solutions.
They need the right knowledge, materials & tools. Your ads should show you're the right source.
Beginners don't know if they'll have a long-term interest or need for tools. If you have a rental or trade-in program, people can try new skills with low risk.
People can return what they won't use again & you can offer used tools.
People can start with low investments & you can profit from selling tools multiple times.
You might be able to start a club or work with an existing club.
If members share expenses with others, you'll have multiple customers who can afford to buy or rent things.
If you have to order & sell materials in big lots, you can encourage members to divide lots into smaller amounts.
People can save time by working with others & learning together. If each person specializes in a skill, people can solve complex problems more quickly. They can specialize in what they learn & buy.
Clubs can provide work shops & hobby space. Example: A remote control plane club has a small air field. Members share knowledge & skills, so beginners can start with little risk.
Product & Information Sources
People might buy from whomever provides valuable information.
Do your ads have enough information for purchase decisions? If people check manufacturers' web sites, they might buy from manufacturers.
Information from manufacturers might not apply directly to people's conditions. You should offer information about using products in local conditions.
If local conditions don't affect how products are used, you need to produce a different kind of value. Help people choose & use products effectively & efficiently for personal conditions.
What can you offer to make products easier to use? What can you provide to prevent problems?
You can offer what people want before, during & after producing specific results. What can you provide to make those results easier? What can you provide to make those results better or last longer?
Which products can be combined to produce different or better results? What's the best way to produce those results? Are there instructions or will you write the instructions?
Tutorials can help people produce good results. You can help people choose tutorials that fit their conditions & help them adapt information.
Any Relief Is Valuable
Though you should offer maximum value, people might expect less. They can return for more after they settle preliminary issues.
In people's minds, current issues often are magnified in importance & urgency. Their thoughts aren't necessarily on what's realistically most important & urgent. It's like a picture focused on an object, other objects seem blurry.
When people are involved in a situation, they might not see the big picture clearly. As an outsider, you might have a wider perspective.
To satisfy them, you might need to solve what's on their minds. You can use your perspective & knowledge to help them get the most value they can afford. Even if they can't afford the best value, they can get some improvement & improve their morale.
People need morale boosts because it's a burden to constantly feel low.
They realize burdens still exist, but they need a mental rest like setting a load down. Even temporary pleasures are good because people get relief when they don't dwell on problems.
Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.
Copyright 2017 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/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Discount Chain Competitors - Competing At A Product Level
This post continues from my previous post "Hedgehog Concept As a Basis For Tactics & Strategy".
This is based on "Marketing Warfare" & "Bottom-Up Marketing" by Jack Trout & Al Ries, plus insights from miscellaneous sources.
I don't have space for each detail of these books. You might need to read the books or thorough summaries.
I've written other posts based on what Al Ries & Jack Trout have written. My post URLs change when they're automatically archived. You can do a search to get what might be in an archive.
You need a tactic & strategy. Choose a tactic (action: idea to implement) others aren't using in your market. Use a strategy (plan to implement your action) to make the tactic effective. It means developing a solution & getting people to use it to solve specific problems.
Marketing battlegrounds are in people's minds. Their mental conditions are affected by physical conditions & competitors' offers.
Your offers should fit people's conditions better than competitors' offers, so you need to know what their conditions are.
Solutions are bought in people's minds before money is paid. As people weigh options, you need to tip their scales with compelling descriptions of value.
Too much retail advertising is just product names, pictures & prices. It works for big retailers offering familiar products for low prices. It works when people are ready to buy from familiar stores. When people are familiar with products & stores, connections are made quickly when desires or needs arise.
You shouldn't compete with the same offers. Your success might depend on new products big retailers won't stock. It's hard for them to justify stocking thousands of units without a clear market. If you stock a few units, you can get sales while big retailers wait for a market to grow.
Better Information & Superior Results
You need to show your store is a better source for better solutions. Provide persuasive information about benefits to show you offer more value.
When people think products are the same, they focus on prices. You need to explain how products are different & why it matters in particular conditions. You should add information people need to get superior results.
Your advertising doesn't have to compete for attention against clutter.
You can reach people through employers, businesses, clubs, schools, etc. Community involvement is vital for long-term success.
Guerrilla marketing is modeled after guerrilla warfare. Optimal success in any guerrilla effort depends on winning people's support.
When your offers are valuable incentives, you can ask employers, businesses, clubs & schools to distribute offers.
Incentives could be donations or better value than competitors offer. Donations would be in exchange for sales compared to paying for advertising.
Example 1 - Your donations can help clubs & schools buy equipment.
Example 2 - Employers can reward workers & make their lives easier. Compared to competitors, what can you offer to improve conditions at work or home? Will they be less stressed & possibly more attentive at work? Will their morale be better?
Marketing Principles
These principles in "Marketing Warfare" are applicable to small stores:
Guerrilla Marketing Principles:
1 - Find a segment of the market small enough to defend.
2 - No matter how successful you become, never act like the leader.
3 - Be prepared to bugout at a moment's notice.
Flanking Marketing Principles:
1 - A good flanking move must be made into an uncontested area.
2 - Tactical surprise ought to be an important element of the plan.
3 - The pursuit is as critical as the attack itself.
Let's apply these principles.
Find a niche you know better than competitors do. Combine products, services & information to develop superior offers for specific conditions. It's best to offer what competitors don't. If a product or service is similar, use information to innovate a significant difference.
Offer information people need to get optimal results, so they don't have to guess or rely on inaccurate tips.
A Profitable Category
Find a small category that's unprofitable for a competitor. Even if your category is profitable for you, it's risky if it's similar to a strong competitor's category. If a competitor expands, you may need to adjust or abandon your category.
Your category can be based on helping people thrive in conditions in your area. Your category should be small enough to defend with limited resources. It means you can reach niche members with compelling offers often enough for significant profits.
It should be a solution category more than a product/service category because people need solutions.
Example - There isn't a product that fits every condition. People remove wet & dry dirt in various ways. Your promotions should show solutions, so you can serve people according to current problems. You should adjust your inventory when people's conditions or competitors change.
Though big stores have cleaning products, small stores can have better quality & selection. In a small store, people can quickly find supplies & go home to start cleaning without having walk through a big store & parking lot.
When you have problems, do you want miscellaneous product lists or clear solutions? Instead of offering miscellaneous products, you could group specific products.
Determine which products apply to current conditions & make compelling offers.
Critical Mass Is Vital For Offense & Defense.
Critical mass (CM) is putting more resources in a space than a competitor has there. Though your resources are small compared to big retailers, your focus can make a difference. You can advertise enough to hold your niche's attention with solutions they need.
When you determine which conditions you can mitigate & who needs help, you can send offers through somebody they trust.
If competition is too strong & you can't generate CM, you can bugout of a product line or category.
A competitor's identity is tied to its category. You need to be careful, so your identity won't be a weak copy. You need to make it very different to keep it strong. Your business's identity depends on its category.
A category & identity are important for top of mind awareness. You need people to remember your store in the right contexts. You can't afford to let a competitor fit your context & category better.
Niche members should recognize what you offer & be interested enough to learn more. Your ad copy should explain how your offer fits their conditions better than competitors.
Big competitors watch each other; they can't afford to watch everybody. Even if they notice your store, they can't afford to change tactics & strategies to match multiple small stores.
Since you have a small business, you should be flexible enough to adjust. You need to test methods & determine what to stop or adjust.
Big businesses tend to move ahead instead of sideways. They have a lot of infrastructure to change. With a smaller infrastructure, you can change when competitors or consumers change.
You need to make your focus fit the population so you'll have enough sales volume. If you're in a small city, your opportunities might be shorter, so you might have to change quickly & often.
When local demand is satisfied, you can pursue other opportunities. Be ready for significant changes, so you can get in & out quickly.
Hopefully, you have fast product turnover, so you can change your inventory quickly. You can adjust your marketing quickly. Big businesses might have warehouses of inventory so changing is hard. Their promotions are set months ahead.
As you track results, you'll know what to pursue or stop. You'll notice what's worth more investment. When something isn't effective, you need to put resources toward testing other things.
As you monitor your niche, you'll notice what matters to customers. Track how they respond to your promotions & what they say.
When success wanes, you should consider why. When necessary, you need to withdraw.
A market leader might try to defend a position. Guerrillas move to different positions.
Specialists Concentrate On Specific Problems
Like medical specialists concentrate on specific functions, you should focus on functions in people's lives. When you know what causes problems, you can restore optimal functioning.
You should be an authority on specific life functions. As an authority, you'll be credible when you advise buying & using products.
Instead of advertising miscellaneous products, you can promote solutions to specific problems. You can reduce people's stress by helping them find what fits their conditions.
Since you have direct consumer contact, you can learn about new conditions & stock products for those conditions. Your promotions should emphasize optimal solutions.
Based on people's goals, you can determine if you have what they need to make positive changes.
When you plan promotions, focus on how competitors come up short of full solutions & what you can do better to fill gaps.
Instead of thinking about what you can sell, your inventory & promotions should based be on eliminating problems.
High Quality & High Price
Manufacturers justify high prices with high quality benefits. You need to show those benefits are worthwhile in local consumers' conditions. Example - For people in cold regions, are sewing machines powerful enough for multiple layers of thick fabrics?
In my area, a retailer offers warranty service. Warranty service is seldom required for high quality products. Customers get more benefits because the machines seldom wear out or break. The products are more expensive & last longer than what big stores sell.
Replacing cheap machines is more expensive than investing in long lasting quality.
He chooses good suppliers & adds value. He offers free lessons to help people get maximum benefits. He & his suppliers make the machines well worth the prices.
His store is profitable though big stores sell cheaper machines.
Copyright 2017 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/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
This is based on "Marketing Warfare" & "Bottom-Up Marketing" by Jack Trout & Al Ries, plus insights from miscellaneous sources.
I don't have space for each detail of these books. You might need to read the books or thorough summaries.
I've written other posts based on what Al Ries & Jack Trout have written. My post URLs change when they're automatically archived. You can do a search to get what might be in an archive.
You need a tactic & strategy. Choose a tactic (action: idea to implement) others aren't using in your market. Use a strategy (plan to implement your action) to make the tactic effective. It means developing a solution & getting people to use it to solve specific problems.
Marketing battlegrounds are in people's minds. Their mental conditions are affected by physical conditions & competitors' offers.
Your offers should fit people's conditions better than competitors' offers, so you need to know what their conditions are.
Solutions are bought in people's minds before money is paid. As people weigh options, you need to tip their scales with compelling descriptions of value.
Too much retail advertising is just product names, pictures & prices. It works for big retailers offering familiar products for low prices. It works when people are ready to buy from familiar stores. When people are familiar with products & stores, connections are made quickly when desires or needs arise.
You shouldn't compete with the same offers. Your success might depend on new products big retailers won't stock. It's hard for them to justify stocking thousands of units without a clear market. If you stock a few units, you can get sales while big retailers wait for a market to grow.
Better Information & Superior Results
You need to show your store is a better source for better solutions. Provide persuasive information about benefits to show you offer more value.
When people think products are the same, they focus on prices. You need to explain how products are different & why it matters in particular conditions. You should add information people need to get superior results.
Your advertising doesn't have to compete for attention against clutter.
You can reach people through employers, businesses, clubs, schools, etc. Community involvement is vital for long-term success.
Guerrilla marketing is modeled after guerrilla warfare. Optimal success in any guerrilla effort depends on winning people's support.
When your offers are valuable incentives, you can ask employers, businesses, clubs & schools to distribute offers.
Incentives could be donations or better value than competitors offer. Donations would be in exchange for sales compared to paying for advertising.
Example 1 - Your donations can help clubs & schools buy equipment.
Example 2 - Employers can reward workers & make their lives easier. Compared to competitors, what can you offer to improve conditions at work or home? Will they be less stressed & possibly more attentive at work? Will their morale be better?
Marketing Principles
These principles in "Marketing Warfare" are applicable to small stores:
Guerrilla Marketing Principles:
1 - Find a segment of the market small enough to defend.
2 - No matter how successful you become, never act like the leader.
3 - Be prepared to bugout at a moment's notice.
Flanking Marketing Principles:
1 - A good flanking move must be made into an uncontested area.
2 - Tactical surprise ought to be an important element of the plan.
3 - The pursuit is as critical as the attack itself.
Let's apply these principles.
Find a niche you know better than competitors do. Combine products, services & information to develop superior offers for specific conditions. It's best to offer what competitors don't. If a product or service is similar, use information to innovate a significant difference.
Offer information people need to get optimal results, so they don't have to guess or rely on inaccurate tips.
A Profitable Category
Find a small category that's unprofitable for a competitor. Even if your category is profitable for you, it's risky if it's similar to a strong competitor's category. If a competitor expands, you may need to adjust or abandon your category.
Your category can be based on helping people thrive in conditions in your area. Your category should be small enough to defend with limited resources. It means you can reach niche members with compelling offers often enough for significant profits.
It should be a solution category more than a product/service category because people need solutions.
Example - There isn't a product that fits every condition. People remove wet & dry dirt in various ways. Your promotions should show solutions, so you can serve people according to current problems. You should adjust your inventory when people's conditions or competitors change.
Though big stores have cleaning products, small stores can have better quality & selection. In a small store, people can quickly find supplies & go home to start cleaning without having walk through a big store & parking lot.
When you have problems, do you want miscellaneous product lists or clear solutions? Instead of offering miscellaneous products, you could group specific products.
Determine which products apply to current conditions & make compelling offers.
Critical Mass Is Vital For Offense & Defense.
Critical mass (CM) is putting more resources in a space than a competitor has there. Though your resources are small compared to big retailers, your focus can make a difference. You can advertise enough to hold your niche's attention with solutions they need.
When you determine which conditions you can mitigate & who needs help, you can send offers through somebody they trust.
If competition is too strong & you can't generate CM, you can bugout of a product line or category.
A competitor's identity is tied to its category. You need to be careful, so your identity won't be a weak copy. You need to make it very different to keep it strong. Your business's identity depends on its category.
A category & identity are important for top of mind awareness. You need people to remember your store in the right contexts. You can't afford to let a competitor fit your context & category better.
Niche members should recognize what you offer & be interested enough to learn more. Your ad copy should explain how your offer fits their conditions better than competitors.
Big competitors watch each other; they can't afford to watch everybody. Even if they notice your store, they can't afford to change tactics & strategies to match multiple small stores.
Since you have a small business, you should be flexible enough to adjust. You need to test methods & determine what to stop or adjust.
Big businesses tend to move ahead instead of sideways. They have a lot of infrastructure to change. With a smaller infrastructure, you can change when competitors or consumers change.
You need to make your focus fit the population so you'll have enough sales volume. If you're in a small city, your opportunities might be shorter, so you might have to change quickly & often.
When local demand is satisfied, you can pursue other opportunities. Be ready for significant changes, so you can get in & out quickly.
Hopefully, you have fast product turnover, so you can change your inventory quickly. You can adjust your marketing quickly. Big businesses might have warehouses of inventory so changing is hard. Their promotions are set months ahead.
As you track results, you'll know what to pursue or stop. You'll notice what's worth more investment. When something isn't effective, you need to put resources toward testing other things.
As you monitor your niche, you'll notice what matters to customers. Track how they respond to your promotions & what they say.
When success wanes, you should consider why. When necessary, you need to withdraw.
A market leader might try to defend a position. Guerrillas move to different positions.
Specialists Concentrate On Specific Problems
Like medical specialists concentrate on specific functions, you should focus on functions in people's lives. When you know what causes problems, you can restore optimal functioning.
You should be an authority on specific life functions. As an authority, you'll be credible when you advise buying & using products.
Instead of advertising miscellaneous products, you can promote solutions to specific problems. You can reduce people's stress by helping them find what fits their conditions.
Since you have direct consumer contact, you can learn about new conditions & stock products for those conditions. Your promotions should emphasize optimal solutions.
Based on people's goals, you can determine if you have what they need to make positive changes.
When you plan promotions, focus on how competitors come up short of full solutions & what you can do better to fill gaps.
Instead of thinking about what you can sell, your inventory & promotions should based be on eliminating problems.
High Quality & High Price
Manufacturers justify high prices with high quality benefits. You need to show those benefits are worthwhile in local consumers' conditions. Example - For people in cold regions, are sewing machines powerful enough for multiple layers of thick fabrics?
In my area, a retailer offers warranty service. Warranty service is seldom required for high quality products. Customers get more benefits because the machines seldom wear out or break. The products are more expensive & last longer than what big stores sell.
Replacing cheap machines is more expensive than investing in long lasting quality.
He chooses good suppliers & adds value. He offers free lessons to help people get maximum benefits. He & his suppliers make the machines well worth the prices.
His store is profitable though big stores sell cheaper machines.
Copyright 2017 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/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Friday, October 13, 2017
Hedgehog Concept As a Basis For Tactics & Strategy
Hedgehog Concept As a Basis For Tactics & Strategy
This post is based partially on "Bottom-Up Marketing" by Al Ries & Jack Trout and "Good to Great Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't" by Jim Collins.
I don't have space to do complete reviews. To get fuller explanations, please read the books or summaries.
Often you can get more value from a book by combining it with another. I'm adding insights from other sources.
Pick an Action & Make a Plan
Choose an available tactic (action) nobody uses in your local business category. Use a strategy (plan) to make the tactic effective.
For manufacturers, tactics are making & marketing products for specific purposes. For retailers, optimal tactics are stocking & marketing products for people in specific conditions.
Strategic details should include choosing advertising media to reach people with offers based on where they are.
Successful strategies are focused on general factors like -
Which specific benefits do we offer? Who will buy those benefits? Why & how will they buy those benefits?
A few more specific factors are -
From whom, do they prefer to buy those benefits? Where do they want to buy those benefits? How often will they buy those benefits?
Tactics should be refined based on strategic insights.
Ultimate Success Requires Specialization
Jim Collins emphasized using a Stop Doing List because people should do what's most important. In his main analogy, a fox knows many small things & a hedgehog knows one big thing, which works in many conditions.
A fox should use a Stop Doing List to narrow its focus. A hedgehog protects itself with one effective tactic, so it's already focused.
Some criteria for forming a tactic are the 3 Circles of the Hedgehog Concept.
1- In your local business category, what can you do best? Among those abilities, what can you consistently do better than everybody else?
2- When you consider things you can do best, what do you feel passionately compelled to do?
3- Now you need an economic engine. When you've chosen what you can do best & feel compelled to do, determine how to it professionally.
Collins advises doing what you're genetically encoded to do. He emphasizes focusing on natural abilities because excellence is more likely.
You might create superior value with your natural, tactical abilities.
You should offer what people won't get from others. When your business is based on unique natural abilities, your offers can be unique.
You need to determine which personal & professional resources will make your economic engine effective & efficient.
You don't need a perfect engine because you'll need to make adjustments as you test methods.
A Strategy Makes A Tactic Effective.
What's your strategic plan? Which methods will you use? What will you do & not do?
If you offer a service, will you do it at your location or customers' homes & offices? You could pick up machines & deliver them after your service.
If you offer a product, will you sell from a permanent store, a truck or in customers' homes & offices?
How will you get needed resources? What kind of equipment will you use?
Which skills are necessary? How will you develop your skills? How will you find people who have necessary skills?
How will you incentivize skilled people to join & stay on your team? Which opportunities will you offer?
Team members are employees, plus product & service suppliers.
Jim Collins advises finding people before determining what to do. Collins used an analogy of getting the right people on your "bus". His case studies were established businesses, so in effect, they had buses already.
New businesses have different needs. Business owners should build a "hedgehog vehicle" for a particular purpose.
When you establish a general direction & purpose for your hedgehog vehicle, you can determine who can contribute what you need.
When you decide what to offer, you'll know which skills your team needs. Each skill contributes to building & operating your vehicle, so you can reach your destination.
Your economic engine is your ability to sell. You need to work on other things even when they don't lead directly to sales.
If you focus too much on your economic engine, you might neglect other functions. Working on each skill is like maintaining your whole vehicle.
If you try to do too much by yourself, you might not have each necessary skill.
Big competitors have necessary skills to defeat you. You need multiple skills for simultaneous driving, navigating & maintenance during a non-stop race.
As you build your hedgehog vehicle, you should check your conditions. How will your vehicle endure economic & competitive forces?
As you assemble a team & gather resources, you'll test methods & track consumers' responses. You can change your To Do List & Stop Doing List based on their responses.
You should also decide what to do more & what to do less.
You & your team might adjust your roles. When roles change, you might need different team members. Each change can lead to other opportunities.
As you test methods & monitor competitors, you can make adjustments. You might avoid big, expensive detours if you test & adjust regularly.
You'll need to adjust your vehicle, so it should be built for a variable competitive terrain.
You can protect your business with defensive adjustments as you monitor conditions.
As competitors test methods & change inventories, you can track their results & effects on your business.
You need to make your main tactic & strategy consistent, yet flexible. You need your business to be flexible enough to bend, so it doesn't break as the terrain changes.
When you set up methods, you need to decide why some methods will be similar to or different than competitors' methods.
Example - Big box stores cut labor costs by pushing self-service. You can make different aspects of your store self-service. You can have information kiosks & charts, so people can find answers. While some customers serve themselves, you can help others with more complex tasks.
If you do it, you'll offer more information than some big stores, plus you'll provide more service. You could include a statement on your kiosks & charts to explain how you can serve people better while others find information.
Retail Connections
Big box stores push products, you should promote solutions.
You can increase your trade skill by listening to customers & offering solutions. Improving your trade skill will make you a stronger competitor.
As you listen & learn, you can adjust your offers.
Stores can be more than places for people to buy products. Retailers can connect people to better conditions.
Some people know what they need to achieve better conditions. Others feel a gap, but they don't know how to fill it. They can't solve problems with vague product knowledge.
High tech products are often crammed with features & potential benefits. You can help people convert features to solutions in their conditions.
You can guide people from current conditions to their desired conditions.
Your tactic & strategy can include guiding people. Matching products with people's needs can be part of your Hedgehog Concept.
Needs can be expressed as gaps. People's conditions can be expressed as puzzles.
You could offer pieces that fit gaps better than competitors' pieces. Your Hedgehog Concept could include putting pieces in place better than anybody else.
You can adjust your business according to what's currently important to your niche.
What are more important now could be product factors like functionality, reliability, durability & convenience.
You might need to adjust aspects of your business like location & business hours, plus wide &/or deep selection of primary products & accessories.
Copyright 2017 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies and tactics. You'll find them here-
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
This post is based partially on "Bottom-Up Marketing" by Al Ries & Jack Trout and "Good to Great Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don't" by Jim Collins.
I don't have space to do complete reviews. To get fuller explanations, please read the books or summaries.
Often you can get more value from a book by combining it with another. I'm adding insights from other sources.
Pick an Action & Make a Plan
Choose an available tactic (action) nobody uses in your local business category. Use a strategy (plan) to make the tactic effective.
For manufacturers, tactics are making & marketing products for specific purposes. For retailers, optimal tactics are stocking & marketing products for people in specific conditions.
Strategic details should include choosing advertising media to reach people with offers based on where they are.
Successful strategies are focused on general factors like -
Which specific benefits do we offer? Who will buy those benefits? Why & how will they buy those benefits?
A few more specific factors are -
From whom, do they prefer to buy those benefits? Where do they want to buy those benefits? How often will they buy those benefits?
Tactics should be refined based on strategic insights.
Ultimate Success Requires Specialization
Jim Collins emphasized using a Stop Doing List because people should do what's most important. In his main analogy, a fox knows many small things & a hedgehog knows one big thing, which works in many conditions.
A fox should use a Stop Doing List to narrow its focus. A hedgehog protects itself with one effective tactic, so it's already focused.
Some criteria for forming a tactic are the 3 Circles of the Hedgehog Concept.
1- In your local business category, what can you do best? Among those abilities, what can you consistently do better than everybody else?
2- When you consider things you can do best, what do you feel passionately compelled to do?
3- Now you need an economic engine. When you've chosen what you can do best & feel compelled to do, determine how to it professionally.
Collins advises doing what you're genetically encoded to do. He emphasizes focusing on natural abilities because excellence is more likely.
You might create superior value with your natural, tactical abilities.
You should offer what people won't get from others. When your business is based on unique natural abilities, your offers can be unique.
You need to determine which personal & professional resources will make your economic engine effective & efficient.
You don't need a perfect engine because you'll need to make adjustments as you test methods.
A Strategy Makes A Tactic Effective.
What's your strategic plan? Which methods will you use? What will you do & not do?
If you offer a service, will you do it at your location or customers' homes & offices? You could pick up machines & deliver them after your service.
If you offer a product, will you sell from a permanent store, a truck or in customers' homes & offices?
How will you get needed resources? What kind of equipment will you use?
Which skills are necessary? How will you develop your skills? How will you find people who have necessary skills?
How will you incentivize skilled people to join & stay on your team? Which opportunities will you offer?
Team members are employees, plus product & service suppliers.
Jim Collins advises finding people before determining what to do. Collins used an analogy of getting the right people on your "bus". His case studies were established businesses, so in effect, they had buses already.
New businesses have different needs. Business owners should build a "hedgehog vehicle" for a particular purpose.
When you establish a general direction & purpose for your hedgehog vehicle, you can determine who can contribute what you need.
When you decide what to offer, you'll know which skills your team needs. Each skill contributes to building & operating your vehicle, so you can reach your destination.
Your economic engine is your ability to sell. You need to work on other things even when they don't lead directly to sales.
If you focus too much on your economic engine, you might neglect other functions. Working on each skill is like maintaining your whole vehicle.
If you try to do too much by yourself, you might not have each necessary skill.
Big competitors have necessary skills to defeat you. You need multiple skills for simultaneous driving, navigating & maintenance during a non-stop race.
As you build your hedgehog vehicle, you should check your conditions. How will your vehicle endure economic & competitive forces?
As you assemble a team & gather resources, you'll test methods & track consumers' responses. You can change your To Do List & Stop Doing List based on their responses.
You should also decide what to do more & what to do less.
You & your team might adjust your roles. When roles change, you might need different team members. Each change can lead to other opportunities.
As you test methods & monitor competitors, you can make adjustments. You might avoid big, expensive detours if you test & adjust regularly.
You'll need to adjust your vehicle, so it should be built for a variable competitive terrain.
You can protect your business with defensive adjustments as you monitor conditions.
As competitors test methods & change inventories, you can track their results & effects on your business.
You need to make your main tactic & strategy consistent, yet flexible. You need your business to be flexible enough to bend, so it doesn't break as the terrain changes.
When you set up methods, you need to decide why some methods will be similar to or different than competitors' methods.
Example - Big box stores cut labor costs by pushing self-service. You can make different aspects of your store self-service. You can have information kiosks & charts, so people can find answers. While some customers serve themselves, you can help others with more complex tasks.
If you do it, you'll offer more information than some big stores, plus you'll provide more service. You could include a statement on your kiosks & charts to explain how you can serve people better while others find information.
Retail Connections
Big box stores push products, you should promote solutions.
You can increase your trade skill by listening to customers & offering solutions. Improving your trade skill will make you a stronger competitor.
As you listen & learn, you can adjust your offers.
Stores can be more than places for people to buy products. Retailers can connect people to better conditions.
Some people know what they need to achieve better conditions. Others feel a gap, but they don't know how to fill it. They can't solve problems with vague product knowledge.
High tech products are often crammed with features & potential benefits. You can help people convert features to solutions in their conditions.
You can guide people from current conditions to their desired conditions.
Your tactic & strategy can include guiding people. Matching products with people's needs can be part of your Hedgehog Concept.
Needs can be expressed as gaps. People's conditions can be expressed as puzzles.
You could offer pieces that fit gaps better than competitors' pieces. Your Hedgehog Concept could include putting pieces in place better than anybody else.
You can adjust your business according to what's currently important to your niche.
What are more important now could be product factors like functionality, reliability, durability & convenience.
You might need to adjust aspects of your business like location & business hours, plus wide &/or deep selection of primary products & accessories.
Copyright 2017 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies and tactics. You'll find them here-
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Sunday, September 17, 2017
Be A Stronger Competitor With Better Relationships
Subject: Customer Relationships Author: Dennis S. Vogel Date Posted in an earlier blog: 05/23/01
Some people want high-tech and high-touch.
Some companies send out messages from their CEOs. These messages may have been written by others who do it for the CEOs, but what's important is the effort to reach out to people.
If customers are more apt to identify with somebody else (other than the CEO), then a person who is like them ought to chosen to communicate with them - a spokesperson.
The messages may not elicit warm & fuzzy feelings though they may be written in an informal, friendly way. However, they still show an effort is made to have a relationship.
In a relationship, each party involved has to "own" it. As owners, they're able to change it. So, a company doing what I propose should be flexible. A rigid agenda will probably lead to failure.
A facilitator, like a moderator, will have to "drive" the project but still be open to directions from the customers. As a facilitator, s/he may have to stir things up at times by introducing new subjects.
Each part of a business has to be like this to thrive. Too many business owners watch competitors too much & listen to customers too little.
The internet, with e-mail, gives businesses quick access to customers. Businesses should be open to quick access from prospects & customers. The internet is too powerful to be used only for advertising.
A possible way to get people to opt-in to receiving messages is to show the company has opted-in to receiving messages from customers who have concerns. To do this effectively, the company must have real people for customers to contact (burt@abc.com instead of info@abc.com).
This can cause problems when people like "Burt" quit or are downsized. It may leave customers feeling abandoned. It may be worth the risk.
Dennis S. Vogel
When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies and tactics. You'll find them here-
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Be A Stronger Competitor With Better Relationships
Connections Are More Than Transactions
People can interact superficially with businesses through transactions. Some stores sell products instead of solutions.
People need to know how to use products to solve problems. You can serve people better by offering more than superficial transactions.
People value results more than products. You can help people get superior results with the right products & information.
People value relationships & they can't easily replace great relationships.
A great relationship improves at least one aspect of a person's life. Your business can improve lives instead of only selling products & services.
People can connect to achieve goals. Since people buy products because they have goals, you have a good chance to connect with them.
People connect through meaningful communication. It requires exchanging information, not just money.
Products don't end people's struggles when they don't get the advertised results. Your advertising should show how you help people get expected results.
How Hard Can It Be?
When people have instructions, they may be overconfident. After they start, they might have problems. Encourage them to ask questions before & after they buy from you. Any bit of advice can make a difference between a mistake & success.
Your success might depend on helping people get full value from products. That full value often includes relief from stress. For full value, they need to learn how to get the best results for their specific conditions.
It's hard to quantify effects of stress & benefits of stress relief. When people experience that extra value, they'll want more.
There's stress involved in taking time to learn another thing. People might have trouble understanding instructions.
If you have different ways to explain how to use products, you can reduce people's stress.
You could try to help people find instructions they understand.
You can help people adjust instructions for their specific conditions. You can help people adjust actions according to changing conditions.
You should compete by supplying products & knowledge people need to fill gaps between current conditions & desired results. Until gaps are filled, people won't be satisfied.
You can profitably fill some satisfaction gaps better than competitors. You need to combine product knowledge with insights about customers.
You can help them with specific problems when you encourage them to describe their situations.
You can say, "There are different ways to use this product. If you answer some questions, I can help you get full value from this. What are you working on? What's the main benefit you need?"
You can ask diagnostic questions like doctors do.
When did it start? How often does it happen? What have you tried? Did that help at all?
As you learn about products & customers, you'll know which questions are applicable.
You can help customers determine causes & effects, so in the future, they can avoid negative causes & repair the effects.
By asking about what they have now, you can help customers determine what they need. You should have ways to help find them tools & materials.
After tools & materials are found, you can help them with techniques. If you have instructional resources, you can show exactly what people need. If you don't offer instructional resources, you can help people find instructions by title or author.
There are instructions available through the Internet, but people might be skeptical. You can review videos & written instructions, so you can help people find reliable instructions that are applicable to their conditions.
Gathering & Storing Information
You should have a process for finding, retrieving & prioritizing information.
You might find instructions for multiple products & using a product in many ways.
You can organize information in cabinets &/or computer flash drives.
As you plan product & service promotions, you can gather information & instructions about what you promote.
As you help customers find information, you should save what you find.
Search engines find expired links, so you should save some information.
If you don't download a resource, you should keep a record of titles & authors with the links. If links expire, you can do a search for titles & authors' names.
You can keep lists of favorites & bookmarks in web browsers. You can also copy & paste listings into documents about specific subjects.
Some text editing programs let people click URLs to launch web browsers.
When you have information available, you should include that benefit in your advertising, so people will know you offer solutions, not just products.
You can include printed or digital resource lists with products.
Analogy About Driving, Faith & Trust
If people have faith in your driving skills, they might let you drive their cars. If they ride while you drive, it shows they trust you.
Solving problems can be like a long, stressful commute. When you help people with information, it's like you're sharing the driving responsibility.
By sharing a drive, people can go further in less time.
Your advice can help people avoid mistakes. They'll have more time & energy to do more tasks. They might have more money to buy more.
People might have enough faith to buy what you sell. As you build relationships, they should accept your advice.
When you inspire a trusting relationship, people are more apt to buy from you.
There's a lot of value in trust. People want assurance.
Think about how much better you feel when you deal with people you trust.
You should do what you can to inspire trust, so people can be less stressed.
When you help people solve problems, you'll help them build self-confidence.
Self-confident people tend to be less stressed as they solve problems.
When you connect with customers, you can benefit them in hard-to-quantify ways. Psychological benefits are real & people may return to get more.
What Is A Connection?
Personal connections involve agreeing. In a retail context, people can agree about a goal & how to achieve it.
You can help people with techniques, so they know what to do. They might need help with step-by-step plans.
You can help people recognize problems, so they don't try the wrong solutions. They might need tips, so they know when problems are solved & don't do more than necessary or stop too soon.
You can help people determine which tools & materials to use plus how to use them.
If you don't have particular tools & materials, you could find people find sources of what they need.
Connecting & Understanding
People will feel some relief when they know you understand. They'll doubt your advice if you seem to misunderstand.
A good lesson about communication is in "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey. Covey wrote a chapter about "Habit 5 Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood."
Thank you for using my blog.
Please let me know if you need any clarifications.
Copyright 2017 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/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Some people want high-tech and high-touch.
Some companies send out messages from their CEOs. These messages may have been written by others who do it for the CEOs, but what's important is the effort to reach out to people.
If customers are more apt to identify with somebody else (other than the CEO), then a person who is like them ought to chosen to communicate with them - a spokesperson.
The messages may not elicit warm & fuzzy feelings though they may be written in an informal, friendly way. However, they still show an effort is made to have a relationship.
In a relationship, each party involved has to "own" it. As owners, they're able to change it. So, a company doing what I propose should be flexible. A rigid agenda will probably lead to failure.
A facilitator, like a moderator, will have to "drive" the project but still be open to directions from the customers. As a facilitator, s/he may have to stir things up at times by introducing new subjects.
Each part of a business has to be like this to thrive. Too many business owners watch competitors too much & listen to customers too little.
The internet, with e-mail, gives businesses quick access to customers. Businesses should be open to quick access from prospects & customers. The internet is too powerful to be used only for advertising.
A possible way to get people to opt-in to receiving messages is to show the company has opted-in to receiving messages from customers who have concerns. To do this effectively, the company must have real people for customers to contact (burt@abc.com instead of info@abc.com).
This can cause problems when people like "Burt" quit or are downsized. It may leave customers feeling abandoned. It may be worth the risk.
Dennis S. Vogel
When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies and tactics. You'll find them here-
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Be A Stronger Competitor With Better Relationships
Connections Are More Than Transactions
People can interact superficially with businesses through transactions. Some stores sell products instead of solutions.
People need to know how to use products to solve problems. You can serve people better by offering more than superficial transactions.
People value results more than products. You can help people get superior results with the right products & information.
People value relationships & they can't easily replace great relationships.
A great relationship improves at least one aspect of a person's life. Your business can improve lives instead of only selling products & services.
People can connect to achieve goals. Since people buy products because they have goals, you have a good chance to connect with them.
People connect through meaningful communication. It requires exchanging information, not just money.
Products don't end people's struggles when they don't get the advertised results. Your advertising should show how you help people get expected results.
How Hard Can It Be?
When people have instructions, they may be overconfident. After they start, they might have problems. Encourage them to ask questions before & after they buy from you. Any bit of advice can make a difference between a mistake & success.
Your success might depend on helping people get full value from products. That full value often includes relief from stress. For full value, they need to learn how to get the best results for their specific conditions.
It's hard to quantify effects of stress & benefits of stress relief. When people experience that extra value, they'll want more.
There's stress involved in taking time to learn another thing. People might have trouble understanding instructions.
If you have different ways to explain how to use products, you can reduce people's stress.
You could try to help people find instructions they understand.
You can help people adjust instructions for their specific conditions. You can help people adjust actions according to changing conditions.
You should compete by supplying products & knowledge people need to fill gaps between current conditions & desired results. Until gaps are filled, people won't be satisfied.
You can profitably fill some satisfaction gaps better than competitors. You need to combine product knowledge with insights about customers.
You can help them with specific problems when you encourage them to describe their situations.
You can say, "There are different ways to use this product. If you answer some questions, I can help you get full value from this. What are you working on? What's the main benefit you need?"
You can ask diagnostic questions like doctors do.
When did it start? How often does it happen? What have you tried? Did that help at all?
As you learn about products & customers, you'll know which questions are applicable.
You can help customers determine causes & effects, so in the future, they can avoid negative causes & repair the effects.
By asking about what they have now, you can help customers determine what they need. You should have ways to help find them tools & materials.
After tools & materials are found, you can help them with techniques. If you have instructional resources, you can show exactly what people need. If you don't offer instructional resources, you can help people find instructions by title or author.
There are instructions available through the Internet, but people might be skeptical. You can review videos & written instructions, so you can help people find reliable instructions that are applicable to their conditions.
Gathering & Storing Information
You should have a process for finding, retrieving & prioritizing information.
You might find instructions for multiple products & using a product in many ways.
You can organize information in cabinets &/or computer flash drives.
As you plan product & service promotions, you can gather information & instructions about what you promote.
As you help customers find information, you should save what you find.
Search engines find expired links, so you should save some information.
If you don't download a resource, you should keep a record of titles & authors with the links. If links expire, you can do a search for titles & authors' names.
You can keep lists of favorites & bookmarks in web browsers. You can also copy & paste listings into documents about specific subjects.
Some text editing programs let people click URLs to launch web browsers.
When you have information available, you should include that benefit in your advertising, so people will know you offer solutions, not just products.
You can include printed or digital resource lists with products.
Analogy About Driving, Faith & Trust
If people have faith in your driving skills, they might let you drive their cars. If they ride while you drive, it shows they trust you.
Solving problems can be like a long, stressful commute. When you help people with information, it's like you're sharing the driving responsibility.
By sharing a drive, people can go further in less time.
Your advice can help people avoid mistakes. They'll have more time & energy to do more tasks. They might have more money to buy more.
People might have enough faith to buy what you sell. As you build relationships, they should accept your advice.
When you inspire a trusting relationship, people are more apt to buy from you.
There's a lot of value in trust. People want assurance.
Think about how much better you feel when you deal with people you trust.
You should do what you can to inspire trust, so people can be less stressed.
When you help people solve problems, you'll help them build self-confidence.
Self-confident people tend to be less stressed as they solve problems.
When you connect with customers, you can benefit them in hard-to-quantify ways. Psychological benefits are real & people may return to get more.
What Is A Connection?
Personal connections involve agreeing. In a retail context, people can agree about a goal & how to achieve it.
You can help people with techniques, so they know what to do. They might need help with step-by-step plans.
You can help people recognize problems, so they don't try the wrong solutions. They might need tips, so they know when problems are solved & don't do more than necessary or stop too soon.
You can help people determine which tools & materials to use plus how to use them.
If you don't have particular tools & materials, you could find people find sources of what they need.
Connecting & Understanding
People will feel some relief when they know you understand. They'll doubt your advice if you seem to misunderstand.
A good lesson about communication is in "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" by Stephen R. Covey. Covey wrote a chapter about "Habit 5 Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood."
Thank you for using my blog.
Please let me know if you need any clarifications.
Copyright 2017 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/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Products DO NOT Sell Themselves
Subject: Products DO NOT Sell Themselves Author: Dennis S. Vogel
Date Posted in an earlier blog: 11:30:06 05/23/01 Wednesday
Let's Set The Record Straight -
Products DO NOT Sell Themselves
If you think they do, take a product out of its package and put a price on it. Put it somewhere that people will only find it by accident. Be sure it can't depend on anybody's or anything's reputation to gain favorable impressions.
Don't use any point of purchase signs, no sales presentations, no packaging.
Don't let anybody know that the product exists.
Don't answer any questions about it.
Don't use any attractive displays.
Don't list any features, advantages or benefits.
Don't demonstrate it.
Don't let anybody have for a trial use.
Don't offer any warranties or guarantees.
Now think about this logically - Do you think enough people, if anybody, will buy enough units to make it profitable?
If your answer is "No," then don't ever think that products sell themselves.
Dennis S. Vogel
Your business will thrive, no matter who
your competitors are, if you market it
powerfully and do everything else correctly.
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Make Your Offers Match People's Conditions & Goals
Hopefully, we've eliminated that fallacy about products selling themselves. Successful selling requires effort.
To successfully sell a product, you have to do the opposite of what I wrote in the post above.
I'm writing some basics in this post before moving to more advanced knowledge.
For brevity, let's refer to what you offer as a product (even if you have a service).
Let's focus on a local area for a store as opposed to worldwide access for a web site.
In your business trade zone, people can buy your product in face-to-face transactions.
In your trade zone, people use your product for specific results that could be different than other areas. Manufacturers emphasize results for general users. Actual results depend on conditions in certain areas.
You should focus on results that fit conditions in your trade zone.
Example - People want cars to look good. Cars can be washed for short-term & long-term appearance.
Where I live, short-term appearance changes quickly in sloppy weather. Long-term appearance is a matter of reducing rust.
We put salt on streets to melt ice & snow, so we can drive safely. Salt ends up on our cars & causes metal to rust.
We can put wax on our cars in any season, but in winter, wax is used to resist some rust. Even if it's the same kind of wax, we buy it for different results.
In sloppy winter weather, our cars are coated by dirt. A coat of wax won't shine through dirt.
Shiny wax finishes are offered in warm weather.
Specific Results In Specific Conditions
Which results are commonly desired?
Rank them in importance to people in your trade zone.
You should consider the value people can get from competitors. How can you add more value to produce the most important result?
Can your product be used to produce multiple benefits?
Your advertising should explain how well your product can be used to produce those results in your trade zone.
Your advertising should include your offers of detailed advice.
Can people get better results by using products differently - maybe a little more or less - than manufacturers advise?
Which other products could be added to increase benefits? Which products could decrease side effects?
What Are Their Problems?
You might get insights from consumers' reviews & articles of professional critics (Consumer Reports).
You can use a search engine to find web sites people use to complain or get advice.
Some of these might be manufacturers' blogs. You might find reviews in your competitors' web sites.
Based on what you read & hear from customers, you'll learn about product limitations & people's frustrations.
You should advise customers about problems in your trade zone & how to solve those with your product.
If you don't have testimonials from local people, explain how you used the product to produce results.
After you help them, they might give you testimonials.
Meaningful Messages
If the manufacturer has pictures of people using a product, are they realistic?
Examples - If your trade zone is in Wisconsin, don't use pictures of people using a product near palm trees.
If your product is used to clean vehicles, use pictures of vehicles like those your niche members own.
Help niche members imagine themselves experiencing product benefits.
Your advertising should show what's realistic in niche members' lives, not just based on manufacturers' specifications.
Can the product be safely adapted without voiding a warranty?
Do ads lead people to have the right expectations?
Example - Paint might be easy to apply in ideal conditions.
In a cold, rainy area, is it realistic to apply primer & a coat of paint before rain falls again or the temperature drops?
Ask customers about their conditions. What can you offer to make things realistic?
What can you offer to make things as close to ideal as practical?
Does the manufacturer provide enough information for people to get superior results in their specific conditions?
Is the information easy for customers to use? Do they need it in a different format?
You should help customers determine what they need to know, so they can be totally satisfied with their results.
People need an ally to help them defeat problems. You should show you're a knowledgeable ally.
Sorted Details
Retail web sites help people sort products according to prices or other general details. Those details don't always help people choose the best solution.
Some sites have recommendations based on browsing & buying. Those recommendations don't show people how to use products.
People don't always understand product specifications. Based on customers' goals, you should help them understand which details matter more.
You should help customers compare details about products & conditions.
You can ask for descriptions of their conditions.
What's the main thing they want to change? How long has a condition existed?
When do they expect different results to start? What have they tried before?
What caused them to be dissatisfied with previous results?
You can help them be realistic.
They might expect a specific solution where a different solution is better or only mitigation is possible.
What should be their criteria for deciding about repairing or replacing a product?
As you interact with customers, you'll get insights so you can anticipate their concerns. You can prepare checklists, charts & documents for customers to check as they look at products. They can use your checklists, charts & documents at home while they check their conditions.
They can use these as guides for making decisions. They could bring checklists back to your store for discussions.
They could use mobile devices to show you pictures of their conditions. They could use pictures to show you their progress, so you can refine their results.
Necessary Costs & Risks
You need to invest time & money to get information, so you can provide advice.
There's a risk of people misunderstanding your advice.
Despite costs & risks, you need to offer unique value to compete with discount stores.
Can you offer more value than competitors if you don't offer advice?
It can be hard to prescribe solutions based on somebody else's description of conditions. You need to be sure customers understand your guidance is based on their descriptions.
When you determine the kind of advice you'll offer, you'll know which questions to ask customers.
As you refine your questions & advice, you'll learn how to help customers clarify their answers.
As you guide them to final decisions, you can help them with small decisions by excluding information that doesn't fit their conditions.
I Wish I Would've Known That Before
Imagine somebody just bought a product from a different store.
What would be one detail that could've persuaded that person to buy from you instead?
Why would somebody regret not buying from you?
"If I knew that before, I would've bought it from you!" What would cause somebody to say that?
You should have at least one superior detail like that, but more of those details would make your offers more compelling.
Superior product quality is vital, yet you depend on a manufacturer to fulfill it. That product quality is available through other stores, too.
You should control your superior details as much as you can, so you don't have to depend on individual manufacturers.
Manufacturers might change their quality standards &/or distribution channels.
It's better if your superior details apply to your whole business, not just products.
Your superior details could be how you customize products specifically for each customer & include your product selection.
You could offer free or low cost lessons or preventative maintenance.
When you have a powerful differentiating advantage, you can form a successful central marketing theme.
Buyers' remorse often happens. When it happens, it should be because customers didn't buy from you.
Thank you for using my blog.
Please let me know if you need any clarifications.
Copyright 2017 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
Your success depends on providing more value than competitors
& making compelling offers.
To get free information, you can use these URLs:
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Date Posted in an earlier blog: 11:30:06 05/23/01 Wednesday
Let's Set The Record Straight -
Products DO NOT Sell Themselves
If you think they do, take a product out of its package and put a price on it. Put it somewhere that people will only find it by accident. Be sure it can't depend on anybody's or anything's reputation to gain favorable impressions.
Don't use any point of purchase signs, no sales presentations, no packaging.
Don't let anybody know that the product exists.
Don't answer any questions about it.
Don't use any attractive displays.
Don't list any features, advantages or benefits.
Don't demonstrate it.
Don't let anybody have for a trial use.
Don't offer any warranties or guarantees.
Now think about this logically - Do you think enough people, if anybody, will buy enough units to make it profitable?
If your answer is "No," then don't ever think that products sell themselves.
Dennis S. Vogel
Your business will thrive, no matter who
your competitors are, if you market it
powerfully and do everything else correctly.
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/
Make Your Offers Match People's Conditions & Goals
Hopefully, we've eliminated that fallacy about products selling themselves. Successful selling requires effort.
To successfully sell a product, you have to do the opposite of what I wrote in the post above.
I'm writing some basics in this post before moving to more advanced knowledge.
For brevity, let's refer to what you offer as a product (even if you have a service).
Let's focus on a local area for a store as opposed to worldwide access for a web site.
In your business trade zone, people can buy your product in face-to-face transactions.
In your trade zone, people use your product for specific results that could be different than other areas. Manufacturers emphasize results for general users. Actual results depend on conditions in certain areas.
You should focus on results that fit conditions in your trade zone.
Example - People want cars to look good. Cars can be washed for short-term & long-term appearance.
Where I live, short-term appearance changes quickly in sloppy weather. Long-term appearance is a matter of reducing rust.
We put salt on streets to melt ice & snow, so we can drive safely. Salt ends up on our cars & causes metal to rust.
We can put wax on our cars in any season, but in winter, wax is used to resist some rust. Even if it's the same kind of wax, we buy it for different results.
In sloppy winter weather, our cars are coated by dirt. A coat of wax won't shine through dirt.
Shiny wax finishes are offered in warm weather.
Specific Results In Specific Conditions
Which results are commonly desired?
Rank them in importance to people in your trade zone.
You should consider the value people can get from competitors. How can you add more value to produce the most important result?
Can your product be used to produce multiple benefits?
Your advertising should explain how well your product can be used to produce those results in your trade zone.
Your advertising should include your offers of detailed advice.
Can people get better results by using products differently - maybe a little more or less - than manufacturers advise?
Which other products could be added to increase benefits? Which products could decrease side effects?
What Are Their Problems?
You might get insights from consumers' reviews & articles of professional critics (Consumer Reports).
You can use a search engine to find web sites people use to complain or get advice.
Some of these might be manufacturers' blogs. You might find reviews in your competitors' web sites.
Based on what you read & hear from customers, you'll learn about product limitations & people's frustrations.
You should advise customers about problems in your trade zone & how to solve those with your product.
If you don't have testimonials from local people, explain how you used the product to produce results.
After you help them, they might give you testimonials.
Meaningful Messages
If the manufacturer has pictures of people using a product, are they realistic?
Examples - If your trade zone is in Wisconsin, don't use pictures of people using a product near palm trees.
If your product is used to clean vehicles, use pictures of vehicles like those your niche members own.
Help niche members imagine themselves experiencing product benefits.
Your advertising should show what's realistic in niche members' lives, not just based on manufacturers' specifications.
Can the product be safely adapted without voiding a warranty?
Do ads lead people to have the right expectations?
Example - Paint might be easy to apply in ideal conditions.
In a cold, rainy area, is it realistic to apply primer & a coat of paint before rain falls again or the temperature drops?
Ask customers about their conditions. What can you offer to make things realistic?
What can you offer to make things as close to ideal as practical?
Does the manufacturer provide enough information for people to get superior results in their specific conditions?
Is the information easy for customers to use? Do they need it in a different format?
You should help customers determine what they need to know, so they can be totally satisfied with their results.
People need an ally to help them defeat problems. You should show you're a knowledgeable ally.
Sorted Details
Retail web sites help people sort products according to prices or other general details. Those details don't always help people choose the best solution.
Some sites have recommendations based on browsing & buying. Those recommendations don't show people how to use products.
People don't always understand product specifications. Based on customers' goals, you should help them understand which details matter more.
You should help customers compare details about products & conditions.
You can ask for descriptions of their conditions.
What's the main thing they want to change? How long has a condition existed?
When do they expect different results to start? What have they tried before?
What caused them to be dissatisfied with previous results?
You can help them be realistic.
They might expect a specific solution where a different solution is better or only mitigation is possible.
What should be their criteria for deciding about repairing or replacing a product?
As you interact with customers, you'll get insights so you can anticipate their concerns. You can prepare checklists, charts & documents for customers to check as they look at products. They can use your checklists, charts & documents at home while they check their conditions.
They can use these as guides for making decisions. They could bring checklists back to your store for discussions.
They could use mobile devices to show you pictures of their conditions. They could use pictures to show you their progress, so you can refine their results.
Necessary Costs & Risks
You need to invest time & money to get information, so you can provide advice.
There's a risk of people misunderstanding your advice.
Despite costs & risks, you need to offer unique value to compete with discount stores.
Can you offer more value than competitors if you don't offer advice?
It can be hard to prescribe solutions based on somebody else's description of conditions. You need to be sure customers understand your guidance is based on their descriptions.
When you determine the kind of advice you'll offer, you'll know which questions to ask customers.
As you refine your questions & advice, you'll learn how to help customers clarify their answers.
As you guide them to final decisions, you can help them with small decisions by excluding information that doesn't fit their conditions.
I Wish I Would've Known That Before
Imagine somebody just bought a product from a different store.
What would be one detail that could've persuaded that person to buy from you instead?
Why would somebody regret not buying from you?
"If I knew that before, I would've bought it from you!" What would cause somebody to say that?
You should have at least one superior detail like that, but more of those details would make your offers more compelling.
Superior product quality is vital, yet you depend on a manufacturer to fulfill it. That product quality is available through other stores, too.
You should control your superior details as much as you can, so you don't have to depend on individual manufacturers.
Manufacturers might change their quality standards &/or distribution channels.
It's better if your superior details apply to your whole business, not just products.
Your superior details could be how you customize products specifically for each customer & include your product selection.
You could offer free or low cost lessons or preventative maintenance.
When you have a powerful differentiating advantage, you can form a successful central marketing theme.
Buyers' remorse often happens. When it happens, it should be because customers didn't buy from you.
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Copyright 2017 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
Your success depends on providing more value than competitors
& making compelling offers.
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