Market Dominating Position – Part 3
In the last article you learned the 5 steps that you need to take to create your Market Dominating Position.
If you’d like to revise it, you may go to:
Since it’s been a few months, let me do a quick refresher of the last article.
The 5 step process to creating your Market Dominating Position are:
Step 1, determine your strategic position in the market.
Step 2, determine your primary market dominating position.
Step 3, determine your supporting business model.
Step 4, determine your secondary market dominating position.
Step 5, create your market dominating position statement or elevator pitch.
After reviewing them, select the one or ones that best fit your individual business.
Category number one involves the level of service you provide.
There are a total of six different areas where you can add value when it comes to service.
The first area is typically one of the most important to prospects convenience. In today’s hectic world, the one thing most people value more than money is more time. How else do you explain the dramatic increase in “convenience stores” that typically charge 40% or more for the “convenience” of shopping there?
Few of us have our oil changed at the dealership where we purchased our vehicle. Instead, we visit the local neighborhood oil change specialty shop because it’s more convenient. These shops have grown exponentially because we no longer feel we have the time or the energy to drop off our car at the dealership, secure a ride home while the service is performed and then arrange to pick the vehicle back up. The lure of the local oil change shop is based on convenience. Anything you can do in your business to increase your customer’s convenience will create a market dominating advantage.
Here are six areas to consider where you can provide more convenience.
First, your location.
Although this is probably the best way to provide convenience, for the vast majority of businesses, changing locations isn’t an option. However, a great location is certainly a secondary market dominating position. For a fitness center located near a major residential area, location is certainly their primary market dominating position.
Second, availability.
Your customers want to do business on THEIR schedule, not yours. Ask yourself what you can do to make your business more available including extending the hours or the days you’re open for business.
For example, five years ago the majority of health clubs were open from 8am until 7pm Monday through Saturday. Today, the vast majority are now open 24 hours seven days per week. The ones that have resisted this schedule are struggling to survive in this extremely competitive market. Same thing with supermarkets and convenience stores. We want to shop when we have time, not when the store thinks it’s convenient for us to shop. Please remember these are just suggestions for you to consider. You need to evaluate your customer’s needs to see if this is a viable option that will produce a positive return for making your business more convenient.
You should also test different hours of operation to see what works best for your business from a financial standpoint. If you’re a financial planner, would changing your hours to include Saturday mornings or Tuesday evenings help your clients that work Monday through Friday? If your business involves your customers dropping something off to you, then consider offering something as simple as a drop box. How long would a customer patronize a video store that didn’t offer one?
Many businesses rely on drop boxes as an integral part of their business such as rental car companies, photo finishing, dry cleaners, container shipping, auto body shops that ask you to leave your keys after hours in a key box and so on.
The third area involves the ordering process.
Ordering should be easy. If ordering is typically a headache for your customers then solving this problem can help you to establish a powerful market dominating position.
Have you ever attempted to contact a business where it was all but impossible to speak with a real live human being? Instead, you’re routed through a maze of automated voice mail messages asking you to select an option that has nothing to do with the reason you’re calling. This is not only frustrating to the customer, but it immediately creates enough animosity emotionally to compel this customer to take their business to a competitor.
In contrast, the business that makes ordering convenient by providing easy access to menus with a live operator option, or the ability to conveniently order online becomes the logical choice for most customers.
A fourth area to look at involves delivery.
When providing your customers with a more convenient location isn’t an option, then the next best thing you can do is to bring your product or service to the customer. There are now businesses sprouting up that specialize in delivering local restaurant items directly to your home or office. All that’s required is for you to call an 800 number and place your order from one of 30 local area restaurants. The service then delivers the meal and charges a set fee that’s typically 50% to 100% higher than patronizing the restaurant in person. This further emphasizes the fact that people consider convenience to be more valuable to them than money. Dry cleaners are now using delivery to dramatically increase their revenue and profits. They now offer to come to your home on a specific day and time to pick up your dry cleaning and then deliver it back to your front door when they complete the job.
One area involving delivery that’s now growing by leaps and bounds is mobile services. This is where the business comes directly to your location to perform their services. Home decorators now offer “shop at home” service. The decorator comes to the customer’s home loaded with samples and swatches.
This is not only more convenient but it also enables the decorator to perform a consultative type sale by helping the customer select colors that match their home and their lifestyle. This type of personalized approach often leads to dramatic increases in conversion rates, but more important, it often takes price out of the equation.
You see ads on TV everyday for window replacement services for your car where the technician comes directly to your location and puts in your new window instead of you having to bring the vehicle to them. Commodity businesses like this one should attempt to use mobile services whenever possible. Adding convenience into your mix can easily position your business as the logical choice.
The fifth area to investigate involves payment terms.
If your competition doesn’t offer any type of financing options, you can differentiate your business by offering payment terms over 30, 60 or 90 days. Offer multiple payment options such as a “three easy payment plan.”
Did you know that the latest research shows that a product or service that typically sells for $39.95 can be sold for twice that price by offering the customer a two-payment option where they pay $39.95 at the time they place the order and then an additional $39.95 in 30 days?
Although this is a 100% increase in price, it only decreased the order rate by 17% versus offering the product at the original $39.95 price point.
Consider accepting credit cards if you don’t currently accept them. This alone can increase your sales by as much as 80%. How would you feel if you had to pay cash every time you filled your car up with gas, or had to make an emergency run to the store? The sixth and final area to consider involves miscellaneous services. What additional services do your customers consider to be important?
If your business attracts parents with small kids, consider offering child care services while the parents shop or take care of business.
How much more pleasant would it be for everyone if restaurants offered a separate and secluded child care area professionally supervised and loaded with games and toys? Do you really think that parents that show up with noisy kids really enjoy doing that? Do you think they would relish a quiet hour to have an enjoyable kid-free meal that evening? And do you think that ANY restaurant that offered this one-of-a-kind service would literally dominate their market, practically overnight?
What about the local bank? How often do busy parents have to drag little Sally or Johnny into the bank and spend their entire time trying to corral the kids instead of taking care of business? If your business requires parents to evaluate their purchase decision, such as buying furniture, a new computer or clothing, or requires a lengthy transaction time or office visit, such as the dentist, doctor or health club, then having a child’s play area can be a huge area of differentiation.
So consider these six areas when looking for ways your business can provide more convenience.
In the next article you will learn the 2nd to the 6th of the six areas where you can add value to your business.
Hope this read opened your eyes to opportunities that are missing in your business, don’t forget to apply what you learn to see the difference it will make in your business!
If you need help identifying your market dominating position, try my FREE test drive to gain access to our resources and tools.
Check it out at www.BestEntrepreneurSolutions.com/guidedtour
To Your Success,
Nancy Baki at Best Entrepreneur Solutions
Market Dominating Position – Part 2
CREATING A MARKET DOMINATING POSITION INVOLVES A FIVE STEP PROCESS.
Step number 1: Determine Your Strategic Position in the Market
What specific niche market or segment of the marketplace should your business focus on? Determining this involves combining the skills your business has with the unmet needs of your targeted prospects and then designing your product or service to fulfill those needs. Domino’s strategic position was “fast hot pizza for hungry college kids.” For Starbucks, “delicious hand-crafted beverages that makes life better.”
Step number 2: Determine Your Primary Market Dominating Position
This is the most dominating advantage that separates you from your competitors. Domino’s claimed it could deliver its pizza in 30 minutes or less, or they would give it to you for FREE! This was the primary advantage that met the needs of their newly defined market position – hungry college kids that wanted food fast.
Step number 3: Determine Your Supporting Business Model
How will you specifically deliver what your strategic position and primary market dominating position promises? What changes, if any do you need to consider making to your business to ensure you deliver consistently on your position and your promise? Domino’s built a supporting business model that enabled them to consistently provide their promised primary advantage, which was fresh hot pizza delivered within 30 minutes. To make good on this promise every time, they were forced to create a supporting business model where they built low-cost, plain vanilla stores strategically located near college campuses. And since college kids aren’t the most reliable workers on the planet, they were forced to hire additional delivery staff and have additional drivers on a stand-by basis. Together, these innovations allowed them to consistently meet and often exceed their primary market dominating position.
Step number 4: Determine Your Secondary Market Dominating Position
What additional competitive advantages does your business offer that your customers will perceive as being different from your competition? Domino’s secondary benefits might include special pricing, assorted sizes, a much broader selection of toppings or additional menu items.
Step number 5: Create Your Market Dominating Position Statement or Elevator Pitch
This is a simple statement you can create by combining steps one through four. This helps you to state unequivocally what differentiates you from your competitors to your targeted prospects and customers. Domino’s market dominating position is neatly summed up in its slogan, “fresh hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less, or it’s free.” An expanded version of this might say: “Domino’s provides busy customers with fresh hot pizza and other food items within 30 minutes or less. Our assorted pizza offerings combined with our value pricing makes Domino’s affordable to everyone.” This presentation will focus on helping you to define your market dominating position and then we can help you create a powerful and compelling elevator pitch that will effectively communicate your value to your marketplace.
After reviewing them, select the one or ones that best fit your individual business.
Get ready for the next step!
Hope this read opened your eyes to opportunities that are missing in your business, apply and see the difference it will make in your business!
There are a total of six different areas where you can add value when it comes to service. We will cover that on the next article.
If you need help identifying your market dominating position, try my FREE test drive to gain access to our resources and tools.
Check it out at www.BestEntrepreneurSolutions.com/guidedtour
To Your Success,
Nancy Baki at Best Entrepreneur Solutions
Market Dominating Position – Part 1
Do you know what is a Market Dominating Position?
Does your business have a Market Dominating Position?
The majority of small businesses are established in response to market demand for a product or service. Many build their businesses by serving that demand and enjoy growing profits without putting much effort into long-term planning or marketing.
However, what happens when that demand slows or stops?
What happens when the competition sets up shop with a “new and improved” version of your product down the road?
How do you keep your offering fresh while growing and maintaining your client base?
The answer, Innovate your business and offer extraordinary value by creating a “market dominating position.”
Consider this. Every choice you make when buying a product or a service represents a point of differentiation between one company and their competitors. These differences, whether subtle or distinct, determine which customers will buy what they sell.
Consider the well documented case of Domino’s Pizza.
Why did Domino’s become a billion dollar behemoth in an overcrowded market in just a few years?
Did Domino’s make the best pizza? Not even close!
Did they offer comfortable in-house dining? No way!
Did they offer the largest selection on their menu? They offered the exact same pizza as ALL of their competitors!
They dominated by adopting and implementing one major strategy.
They created a market dominating position, which was fast hot pizza, targeted specifically for hungry college kids.
So now ask yourself what, if anything, makes your business different from your competitors as perceived by your targeted prospects and customers?
For the vast majority of businesses that answer is price.
So then consider today’s top selling companies.
Nike offers a wide range of shoes, apparel and equipment products, all of which are currently among the best sellers globally.
As an example, the top selling Air Jordan 3 is currently selling for $150 and up.
And yet, Target sells an excellent imitation for around $40, but Nike outsells them by more than ten to one.
Have you bought a cup of coffee lately at Starbucks?
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According to their latest data, their typical customer spends between $3.50 to $4.00 on every visit.
That’s around four times higher than any of their competition.
Obviously, low price isn’t the driving force here.
So what is?
The answer, these top selling companies have staked out a specific and targeted market dominating position.
For Nike, their position revolves around being the best athlete, being hip and in style along with the perception of quality.
For Starbucks, it’s delicious hand-crafted beverages which they claim is the secret to making life better.
When you create your own market dominating position, you will consistently get businesses and individuals to choose your business over your competitors.
But what exactly is a “market dominating position?”
It’s simply any value-added customer perceived benefit, or a combination of benefits, that differentiates you from your competitors; and does so in a strong enough manner that it makes your business the logical choice in the minds of your prospects and customers.
As an example, a dry cleaner that offers pick-up and delivery would be the only logical choice for any prospect or customer that values convenience.
This simple distinction represents a market dominating position.
The key is to create added value in everything you do.
Prospects and customers DON’T buy based on price.
They buy based on the value they receive for the price they pay.
Creating added value is a marketing or customer relations strategy that can take the form of a product or service that’s added to your original offering for free or as part of a discounted package.
Like all other elements in your marketing toolkit, it’s designed to attract new customers and retain existing ones.
Another simple example of added value would be a gift shop owner that offered complimentary gift wrapping with every purchase.
If you don’t revisit the value you offer, then over time your customers will be drawn to your competitor who consistently innovate their business so they offer exceptional value that you don’t.
Ultimately, your customers will demand additional value to remain loyal – and they’re the keystones for your business growth.
Everyone can add value to their business.
And adding value doesn’t have to blow your marketing budget or take up hours of your time.
There are many ways to enhance your business in the eyes of your clients.
The key to adding value is determining what your customers and target market perceive as valuable.
You must understand their needs, wants, troubles and inconveniences in order to entice them with solutions through added value products or services.
Adding value will also add to your profits, but if you don’t focus on genuinely helping your clients you’ll have a difficult time attracting them.
Added value works for both product and service-based businesses.
If you offer a service like hair styling, try treating your customers by offering them a latte while they wait, or complimentary shampoo samples or a free conditioning treatment with every sixth visit.
If you sell a product, consider offering convenience services like free shipping or delivery to make the customer’s experience a seamless one.
The customer will feel appreciated and their needs will have been taken care of.
I hope this read opened your eyes to opportunities that are missing in your business.
In the next blog I will help you understand how to create your business’ marketing dominating position.
If you need help identifying your market dominating position, try my FREE test drive to gain access to our resources and tools.
Check it out at www.BestEntrepreneurSolutions.com/guidedtour
To Your Success,
Nancy Baki at Best Entrepreneur Solutions
Steps to Create a Word of Mouth Campaign
Prepare for Lift Off!
Last time I gave you a laundry list of tips and tricks you can use to make your word of mouth program work for you. Hopefully you’ve taken a look and decided which ones are the best fit for your company, products, services and target customers, so you can put them to work in your word of mouth campaign.
We are going to wrap up this series on word of mouth where we give you the specific steps to create a word of mouth campaign.
Now, let’s take a look at those steps:
- Seed the market. Find some way to get the product into the hands of key influencers.
- Provide a channel for the influencers to talk and get all fired up about your product.
- Offers lots of testimonials and other resources.
- Form an ongoing group that meets once a year in a resort and once a month by teleconference.
- Create fun events to bring users together and invite non-users. Saturn, Harley-Davidson, and Lexus have all been successful with this approach.
- Develop cassettes, videotapes, and clips on your Web site featuring enthusiastic customers talking with other enthusiastic customers.
- Create custom CDs for each potential customer.
- Hold seminars and workshops.
- Create a club with membership benefits.
- Pass out flyers.
- Tell friends.
- Offer special incentives and discounts for friends who tell their friends.
- Put the Internet to work.
- Do at least one outrageous thing to generate word of mouth.
- Empower employees to go the extra mile.
- Encourage networking and brainstorm ideas.
- Run special sales.
- Encourage referrals with the use of a strong referral program.
- Use a script to tell people exactly what to say in their word of mouth communication.
These are all amazing ways you can get the word out about your products and services and start a word of mouth campaign that takes on a life of its own. Before you can release your word of mouth campaign out into the world, you need to go through the checklist to make sure you’ve covered all the essentials.
Here’s your word of mouth campaign checklist:
- Are all of your communications sending the same simple message? If it can’t survive word of mouth, it’s not a compelling story.
- Is your product positioned as part of a category? Ex.”A dandruff shampoo that doesn’t dry your hair.”
- Are your examples outrageous enough to be shared?
- Do you enhance your materials with success stories from real people?
- Are you using experts effectively and in an objective manner?
- Have you created mechanisms so people can follow up on the word of mouth they hear, as well as simple ways of inquiring or ordering?
- Have you made the decision process easy for customers?
- Have you created events and mechanisms so that once a year your prospects hear about your product, and it is easier to try or buy?
These are all essential elements to take keep in mind when taking a second or even third check over your word of mouth campaigns. I hope you’ve found this series on word of mouth to be a great resource and are getting ready to put it into action for your own products and services.
Remember, if you need help with anything in this series, try our FREE test drive to gain access to the best resources, tools and business coaches you can find.
Check it out at www.BestEntrepreneurSolutions.com/guidedtour
To Your Success,
Nancy Baki at Best Entrepreneur Solutions
Learn The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing
Put it to Work!
In the last post we talked about how to conduct word of mouth research and then put that research to work. Today we’re going to give you some great tried and true ways to use word of mouth when building and executing your campaign.
We’ve done it in a list form, so you can go through and highlight the ones you want to put into action. These are offered by George Silverman which you can find in his amazing book The Secrets of Word of Mouth Marketing.
Here they are:
- Give them something worth talking about
- Cater to your initial customers shamelessly
- Give them incentives to engage in word of mouth
- Ask them to tell their friends
- The customer is always right
- Always tell the truth
- Surprise the customers by giving them a little more than they expected
- Give them a reason to buy, make them come back and refuse service from anyone else other than you
- Make eye contact, and smile, even through the telephone
- Find ways to make doing business with you a little better: a warmer greeting, a cleaner floor, nicer lighting, a better shopping bag, extra matches, faster service, free delivery, lower prices, more selection.
- Never be annoyed when a customer asks you to change a large bill even if he doesn’t buy anything.
- The customer is your reason for being. Never take her for granted. If you do, she will never come back, and will go straight to your competition.
- Always dust off items, but never let the customer see you doing it.
- Never embarrass a customer, especially by making him feel ignorant.
- Never answer a question coming from a desire to show how smart you are. Answer with a desire to help the customer make the best decision.
- Never shout across the store, “How much are these condoms?” or anything about the personal items a customer is buying.
- When you don’t know, say so. Do whatever you can to find out the answer.
- Every customer is special. Try to remember their names.
- Don’t allow known shoplifters into the store.
- Don’t ever let two sales staff talk when a customer is waiting. The worst thing you can do is count your cash while a customer is waiting.
- If you can suggest something better, they will be grateful. Always respect their choice.
- Never pressure anyone into buying anything.
- Never knowingly give bad advice. Just help people come to the right decision.
- Personally visit the store of the competition or assign people to visit and report back to you.
- Hire a shopping service to prepare periodic reports on how your people are treating your customers.
- If you hear of a store where the management is insulting the customers, buy it, then put up the sign “Under New Management” outside. Then sell it later based on the increased sales.
- One expert (in the drugstore’s case, a nurse or physician) who is convinced you are better brings hundreds of customers and their friends through word of mouth.
- Always look for ways to make a stranger a customer.
- People will walk several blocks to save a dollar, or see a smile, or be treated right.
- Always run a sale promotion or an offbeat event. Make them come back to see what you are cooking up next.
- Use the best sign-maker you can find and pay him more than anybody else.
- If someone is mad at you, they will tell everyone who will listen for as long as they are angry, maybe even longer. So correct any dissatisfaction, and ask customers to send their friends.
- Treat your employees and salespeople who sell to you the same way you treat your customers.
- Have a zero error system. There may be terrible consequences for example, if a mistake is made filling a prescription. Have people check each other’s work for safety.
- Occasionally make intentional mistakes to see if people are checking.
- Always measure your performance.
- Always ask a customer to “come back soon”
- If customers say they are moving away, offer to send them their favorite items by mail.
- Tell jokes.
I know this is a lot of information to digest, so I we’re going to wrap up this lesson and leave you with the homework of going through and taking a look at the tips and tricks you like best. Also, look for tips that fit your company, products, services and target customers for the most effectiveness.
If you need help with this process, try our FREE test drive and get all the help you need from myself, Nancy Baki, a Business Growth Strategist.
Check it out at www.BestEntrepreneurSolutions.com/guidedtour
To Your Success,
Nancy Baki at Best Entrepreneur Solutions
www.BestEntrepreneurSolutions.com