Surefire Way To Never Have To Compete On Price Again!

“There are no traffic jams along the extra mile.” – Roger Staubach

With an 18 month old daughter... who is now very mobile... and a second child on the way, my wife and I decided it was time to fence in our yard for both their safety and our sanity. So we started to solicit estimates from a few vendors. Much to our dismay the prices for what appeared to be comparable fences varied by over $2000. Unfortunately for the vendors, there was little if any differentiation between them. They asked too few questions and made too few recommendations. They essentially positioned themselves to compete on price... in my opinion, the worst positioning a small business can take!

So as responsible and mindful consumers what did we do? While we didn't hire the lowest price vendor, we did however ask the one that gave us the best warm and fuzzy feeling to at least come close to the lowest price. We don't mind paying a few extra dollars for that warm and fuzzy feeling, even amongst the current state of the economy. And my guess is that many other consumers feel the same.

My suggestion... avoid this scenario for your business at all costs! Don't position yourself for a price war. Stand out!

How? It's simple... Be willing to do the little things that your competition is either unwilling or too lazy to do.

Why? Because it's the little things that make all the difference! It's the little things that show you actually care! It's the little things that justify your existence and your fees! It's the little things that get you hired!

We're not talking about breaking the bank here. If you put just a little creative thought into this, there are literally dozens of little things you could do to out-class the competition.  For example:

• Provide your prospect with a tips sheet on selecting the best vendor and/or solution.
• Educate your prospect on any unforeseeable hiccups they may experience in the buying process (e.g. special permits and variances they may need to move forward, other expenses, etc.).
• Provide price quotes from and/or public information about a few of your competitors to show how you clearly are the best choice. I don’t mean bad mouth your competition. Just stick to the facts and point out the differences between the companies that seem to matter to your target market most.

And to keep your existing clients happily paying your fees, you can model...

• The chiropractor who buys balloons and sings Happy Birthday to his patients.
• The cleaning company who leaves mints on your pillows and fun animal shapes out of a towel at the foot of your bed when their done cleaning your home.
• The landscaper that provides you with great time-saving and beautification tips for your yard.

Sounds so simple right? Yet so few small businesses do these little over and above gestures. These little gems are examples of great marketing!

I'd be willing to bet that most customers of these vendors won't be so concerned if their prices were a few dollars more.

The bottom line... Be remarkable amongst an unremarkable world! Do that and you most certainly won't be competing on price any longer.

© 2009 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Want to use this article in your newsletter, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include the following complete blurb with it (including links).

Liked this article? -- Then check out Long Island-based marketing consultant, coach, and entrepreneur Dean Mercado’s highly acclaimed marketing blog 'The Motivational Marketer’s Journal' at http://www.MotivationalMarketer.com. Additionally, for even more small business marketing and success tips, sample the latest edition of his FREE marketing tips newsletter the 'Marketing Minute', -- a multimedia e-zine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes.

Dean Mercado, Online Marketing Muscle, marketing articles, compete on price, remarkable marketing, target market, small businesses, small business marketing

In Regards to Marketing… let Freedom Ring!

“Freedom has its life in the hearts, the actions, the spirit of men and so it must be daily earned and refreshed -- else like a flower cut from its life-giving roots, it will wither and die.” -- Dwight D. Eisenhower (34^th President of the United States from 1953-1961)

Every 4^th of July, with barbeques blazing and skyrockets soaring, here in the states, we sure know how to celebrate our freedom. And fortunately for us, the extent of our freedom goes way beyond that very special day. As Americans, our civil liberties grant us the right to be, do, or have whatever we want, so long as we abide by our laws and no one gets hurt in the process.

Our limits become only the ones we set upon ourselves -- both personally and professionally. So in essence, freedom is not enough; it’s how we exercise our freedoms that make us truly free.

Let me explain.

Whether you are either an independent professional or a small business owner, your freedoms of speech and self-expression allow you to promote and “brand” yourself and your business pretty much however and whenever you choose.

Essentially, you’re the artist. You paint the picture you want your target market to see. Then you show it to them whenever you want.

Now unless you’re playing out a specific game, withholding that picture from those who could clearly benefit from it is simply negligence -- that is, once again, so long as you don’t have a specific reason for doing so.

As a marketing coach and consultant, it amazes me how often I see businesses for whatever reason being stingy with their marketing, yet complaining that business is slow. I’ve heard 1001 excuses why they couldn’t market themselves… “I have no money”… “No time”… “I don’t know how”… etc. etc. etc. I’m sorry but with today’s resources available, especially with the availability of the Internet, there just is no excuse.

I firmly believe that it’s our duty as businesspeople to consistently educate our target market on what we make possible for them through our products and services -- our marketing is simply a vehicle for communicating that.

As a free market society, it’s sometimes easy to forget just how good we’ve got it. Imagine a world where you weren’t free to market your business. How would your target market find you? How would they know to even look for you in the first place? How long do you honestly think your business would last? -- Probably not very long.

Well lack of marketing will most certainly bring the very same result. But what’s worse is you having a choice of either success or failure and choosing failure by opting to not market yourself effectively.

In our free market society, your marketing becomes the sustenance needed to make your business not only survive, but thrive. Stop nurturing your business by not marketing, and it will most certainly wither and die.

In a nutshell, effective marketing builds strong roots, and strong roots bear healthy fruits.

So in closing, I’d like to leave you with some questions to ponder. Are you fully leveraging the freedoms available to you and effectively marketing your business? If so, how and how often? Do you have a marketing plan? If so, does it position you to fully leverage the freedoms bestowed upon you?

© 2007 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Want to use this article in your newsletter, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include the following complete blurb with it (including links).

Liked this article? -- Then you won’t want to miss Long Island-based marketing consultant, coach, and entrepreneur Dean Mercado’s highly acclaimed marketing blog 'The Motivational Marketer’s Journal'. Additionally, for even more small business marketing and success tips, sample the latest edition of his FREE marketing tips newsletter, the 'Marketing Minute' -- a weekly multimedia e-zine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes.

Technorati Tags: marketing articles, Dean Mercado, target market, marketing plans, marketing planning, marketing coach, marketing consultant, small business marketing

5 Factors To Look For When Choosing The Perfect Target Market

As a marketing coach and consultant, one of the biggest and costliest mistakes that I see small businesses make time and time again is that they’re neck deep in their business and they still haven’t clearly defined their target market. They continue to try to be everything to everyone -- that’s just not realistic -- and unfortunately, that usually ends in them being nothing to no one.

As one of my marketing mentors, Dan Kennedy says it, it’s critical that you “find your herd”. Your “herd”, or your “who” as I call it, being your ideal target market -- your perfect prospects and clients so to speak.

It’s critical that you understand that that your “who” is more important than your “what”. In other words, it’s more important to be clear on who you’re serving than what you’re serving them with. The “what” will most definitely change in one way, shape, or form over time as you target market’s wants and needs change.

So how does one go about choosing the ideal target market for their business?

Well here are my 5 factors to look for when choosing the perfect target market.

1. They’re Hungry!
Your target market should already want or need what you offer and the more insatiable the appetite, the better!

The key word here is “already”. If they don’t already want nor need what you offer, it will ultimately cost you much more in marketing dollars to educate them on what it is you do offer and why they should buy it now.

2. They’ve Got Cash!
Simply put, it doesn’t matter how hungry your target market is. If they can’t afford to buy what you’re selling, they may not be a good target market for you – you simply can’t draw blood from a stone.

However, there’s always the possibility of finding someone else who can afford you on their behalf. In other words, look for others who have the cash that would stand to benefit from your shared target market having access to what you offer and market your idea to them.

3. They’re Easily Reachable!
The harder it is to get in front of your target market, the more expensive it gets -- and for small businesses, that typically spells disaster. Unfortunately or fortunately, small businesses just don’t have that bottomless pocket full of cash to spend on marketing themselves -- this forces them to be smarter and more creative marketers.

Bottom line here is you don’t want to make your job any harder, or more expensive, than it has to be, so pick a target market that you can get to easily.

4. There Are Enough of Them Around!
A proper target market has to be large enough for you to not only survive, but thrive. Chances are that if there are only a handful of prospects interested in what you offer, unless your product is extremely consumable, it may be difficult to sustain your business -- let alone grow it.

Bottom line; pick a target market that’s sizable enough for you to serve and relentlessly go after its sweet spot.

5. You Like Them!
You know, some people may think this one is silly, however I’m a firm believer that if you generally like those you serve, you’ll serve them better. And the better you serve them, the better you chances of increasing your market share.

Bottom line here is that life is too short to spend your most precious commodity, your time, with people you don’t like. So why do it? Even if the money is good, chances are that eventually you’ll feel unfulfilled -- so play with people you want to play with.

So in closing, don’t make your job any harder than it needs to be. Clearly choose and define your target market, right from the get go. Take the time to find out everything you can about them -- know their demographic and psychographic profiles -- Be able to answer such questions as: What are their interests? Where do they hang out? And what makes them tick? An understanding of the answers to these very simple yet profound questions can make or break your business.

© 2007 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Want to use this article in your newsletter, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include the following complete blurb with it (including links).

Liked this article? -- Then you won’t want to miss Long Island-based marketing consultant, coach, and entrepreneur Dean Mercado’s highly acclaimed marketing blog 'The Motivational Marketer’s Journal'. Additionally, for even more small business marketing and success tips, sample the latest edition of his FREE marketing tips newsletter, the 'Marketing Minute' -- a weekly multimedia e-zine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes.

Technorati Tags: Dean Mercado, target market, marketing plans, marketing planning, marketing coach, marketing consultant, small business marketing

WARNING: Look Out For This Small Business Marketing Killer

"Don't wait until everything is just right. It will never be perfect. There will always be challenges, obstacles and less than perfect conditions. So what. Get started now. With each step you take, you will grow stronger and stronger, more and more skilled, more and more self-confident and more and more successful." – Mark Victor Hansen

Visualize with me for a moment while I share with you an analogous somewhat satirical tale about 3 airplane pilots desperately wanting to fill their own empty passenger airplane with paying passengers.

Now it just so happens that as much as each pilot wants to load up with passengers, the potential passengers are located at a different airport… so if the pilots really want the passengers, they’re going to have to go where those potential passengers are, let them know they’re there, tell them why they should choose their airplane over the vast array of other transportation options – for example, other planes, trains, buses, cars, etc… And ultimately, persuade them to buy tickets.

So each of the pilots should know what they need to do, right? Well unfortunately knowing what to do and actually doing them are two totally different things. Let’s visualize further.

The first pilot starts his engines and prepares for takeoff. Get ready, get set, no not yet, there’s too many clouds… maybe in a few minutes. The clouds pass… Get ready, get set, no not yet, it’s too early in the week, my potential passengers probably won’t be ready to fly until the weekend. The weekend comes… Get ready, get set, no not yet, it’s getting dark, by the time I arrive, the potential passengers will never see me land. Excuse after excuse after excuse the pilot never pulls the trigger to takeoff. So he just continually taxis his plane around the tarmac in hopes of the perfect flying conditions. Better yet, he starts to wishfully think that just maybe his potential passengers will see him taxiing and buy a ticket… unfortunately for him though, the potential passengers being too far away never see him… and as a matter of fact, they don’t even know he exists… that’s too bad too, he has a beautiful airplane and could’ve provided a stellar flying experience. So the first pilot continually taxis round and round the tarmac until he finally runs out of fuel and money… end result, he quickly goes out of business.

Now the second pilot actually takes off en route to where the potential passengers are. As he approaches the airport he circles it in a holding pattern waiting for the most perfect moment to start his descent and land the plane. Get ready, get set, no not yet, there’s too many clouds… maybe in a few minutes. The clouds pass… Get ready, get set, no not yet, it’s too early in the morning and the potential passengers are probably still sleeping... I’ll try later. Later comes… Get ready, get set, no not yet, it’s too dark out now, the potential passengers will never see me land… maybe tomorrow morning. Excuse after excuse after excuse the pilot never pulls the trigger to start his descent. He eventually runs out of gas and crashes and burns… and as you probably can guess, he’s quickly out of business as well.

Now the third pilot without hesitation takes off en route to where the potential passengers are. He arrives at his destination and as soon as he’s cleared to land, he immediately does so. Once on the ground he makes it known he is there… he makes his case for choosing his airplane over any other options… he makes it real easy, lucrative, and fun to travel with him… so as a result, he sells a few tickets, not as many as he would have liked however, enough tickets to survive another day and try again tomorrow. So tomorrow comes… he repeats this process… except this time he tweaks it a bit based on what his experiences taught him the day before. End result, he sells even more tickets. Now he continues this tweaking process over and over and ultimately, he starts to see his profitability soar.

The moral of this story… perfectionism and marketing do not mix!

Now I’m not going to get into the root causes of perfectionism as that’s a whole other conversation for another day. However, in marketing there comes a point in time where your quest for perfection actually does more harm than good… every tweak you make past a certain point adds less and less value to the overall marketing effort. It is imperative to be able to identify this point and pull the trigger to release your marketing as close to it as possible. That’s not easy to do however trial and error will certainly get you closer than delays driven by perfectionism.

Don’t get me wrong here… Perfectionism when properly applied to certain aspects in business can be a wonderful thing… for example keeping your financial books in order is a great place for perfectionism... Marketing in my opinion however is not.

You also should consider the potential missed revenues or ‘opportunity cost’ that you would be creating for your business by delaying your marketing efforts.

As a marketing coach and consultant I see it all the time… Businesses getting ready, getting set… , getting ready, getting set… getting ready, getting set… and for whatever reason never pulling the trigger to go and do whatever it takes to make it happen. They make the excuses… they look for the perfect conditions… all the while never pulling the trigger… then they wonder why business isn’t as good as they’d like.

So I challenge you to ask yourself… and be honest… which pilot are you going to be today? Your choice has the power to make or break your business.


© 2007 Online Marketing Muscle -- All Rights Reserved.

Want to use this article in your e-zine, blog or web site? You have my blessing so long as you include the following complete blurb with it (including links).

Liked this article? – Then you won’t want to miss Long Island-based marketing consultant, coach, and entrepreneur Dean Mercado’s highly acclaimed marketing blog 'The Motivational Marketer’s Journal'. Additionally, for even more small business marketing and success tips, sample the latest edition of his FREE newsletter, the 'Marketing Minute' – a weekly multimedia e-zine designed to give you a jolt of marketing wisdom in less than 5 minutes.



Technorati Tags: small business marketing