“When Times are good, rejoice. When Times are bad consider” Ecclesiastes 7:14
Lets start off our engagement together here with some true facts about the state of the economy:
- Consumer spending is up 2.3% for the first quarter of 2012 but barely enough to even register against the 13% unemployment across the nation. This is factoring in inflation.
- Despite gas prices being stuck near the $4.00/gallon mark, more Americans took to their campers, cabins and lake houses this past memorial than 2011. More than 500,000 Americans than last year took the trek to go farther than 600 miles (on average) than in 2011.
- Disposable income (which is money left over from income produced minus taxes and inflation costs) dropped for the second straight month which seems to have no effect as Americans line up for $3.95 lattes and electronic gadgets.
- Black Friday sales for 2011 were up 6.6% from 2010 totaling $11.4 billion
So with all these crazy statistics on whether the economy is actually improving or we are just being blinded and herded like sheep, there is still a very active 87% of well producing American money being spent faster than ever. How do I know this? Go to your towns hotspot on a Friday night around 6 pm and let me know how long the reservation line is to get inside. Count the vehicles at a stop light that are newer than 2005 (based on appearance). How long is the line at Starbucks at 10 am and 1 pm each day? How many iPhones and iPads are seen flashing throughout todays trendy scenes?
So just how do you take your business to the next level in todays economy? I have studied this thoroughly and strongly believe that todays business world is greatly approaching a world of “focused intent” when it comes to your client base.
Lets face it. Very few businesses have customers lining up like Starbucks and Apple to buy their products (although I strongly recommend you study every reason why people do buy from them....the experience). So I want to touch on three main sources for booming your business in todays economy.
1.Repurposing your product: This is a strategy taught to me by remarkable marketer Ryan Deiss and it breaks down your physical product to appeal to a smaller, yet more focused client base. Lets take Colgate toothpaste for example. You will see that Colgate Total, Colgate White and Colgate Fresh all contain the exact same amount of active ingredients that deliver what they promise on the flashy outside packaging. But...where the genius part of marketing comes in is that these products are designed to appear as though they provide a different experience for the user. Some people want Total protection from cavities while yet whitening, others want to have whiter teeth and others want to have fresh breathe. Now while the user beleives they are being treated for what the product says it provides, the real magic is happening in the active ingredients of Sodium fluoride (.24%) to prevent cavities and Triclosan (.30%) for gingivitis. Just look at all the products on the shelves next time you go to the store. I see alot of this style marketing adapted towards todays Facebook crowd. I for instance when doing a marketing campaign decided to do 10 smaller campaigns that focused on smaller, more specific groups of customers than one giant campaign that just blanked a mass market. One segment of this campaign focused on teaching Realtors how to invest in real estate while another focused on people searching for “work at home” opportunities. Another was geared toward single mothers who needed to provide a steady simple income while having the total flexibility of being a stay at home mother. You can see how breaking this down to appeal to a more specific market place has a much better probability than blanketing a entire crowd that just sees that wonderful “shiny object” so many people are familiar with. It works. Try it and see. If you don’t you will be stuck wondering why those spenders are spending with you.
2. Clearly state WHY your product is better than your competitors. This is not meant to bash or belittle anyone but people today are blinded with over 3200 marketing messages per day and even I understand if you don’t clearly point out WHAT your product does to make my life better, there is a great chance I will just glance right over it. Simon Sinek has a R-E-V-O-L-U-T-I-O-N-A-R-Y video about why people by your product. Truly people dont give a hoot about Starbucks or Apple. They do however love the experience they provide and the association they are now involved with. For instance, you will never hear a MacBook owner say “I own a computer”. No, they say, I own a MacBook. You don’t ask “want to go have a coffee”? You ask, “do you want to go have a Starbucks”? The world we live in is clearly becoming one of association and when that wave of why your product provides a better experience for your consumer catches on to the masses, there is no greater source for marketing than that. By the way, take note to next time you are in a Starbucks. You will see people who seem to be living an extraordinary life, enjoying a extraordinary coffee experience, doing research on a product that provides an extraordinary surfing experience with most screens tuned into a website that provides a unique social connection experience. Study those three businesses and implement one brick per day into your company and you will wind up owning a majority share of your unique market.
3.The result you give to your customer and the relationship you have with your customer. This one is probably the most radical change to the world today and it partially defies what you read in the previous paragraph. People do business with people they know like and trust. I experienced this first hand in an industry flooded with magic pills for people to become successful and I created a very simple “test” for anyone who came to me asking for advice (I make my money in real estate, so I never needed to cross lines and begin marketing my skills to become an info marketer). First thing I ever advised people on is don’t go out and spend $25,000 on a seminar if you don’t even know if its for you. do your first few deals, then decide if you want to build that empire. THEN, before you do swipe that credit card that you arent sure how you are going to pay for it, verify that they are the real deal. Call their offices. Ask for recent buyer and seller statements showing they made the profit. Only then do you get that mentor that promises to change your life. Don’t get me wrong, I am one of the fortunate ones who spent well into six figures to always have that edge in my business and it paid off heavily. I was one of the 5%er’s that was sitting in the crowd. I hand selected my mentors based on what I wanted to create for my life. Each one of them had their own purpose in my life and business and each one of them delivered time and time again. The one small secret they gave me dished out dividends in my business over and over again. At times I felt I was robbing them. But I also understood that there isint just one magical, flash in the pan product that promises to deliver everything. I was in it for the relationship and the result.
4.This is just a total bonus round based on my personal experience and a recent revelation I got while reading an incredible book...and it was to outsource anything that isint directly in line with a mega breakthrough to your business. There are systems and workers and places like Fivver.com that will make your life fun again if you are clear on what you are trying to accomplish and are able to put enough creativity and trust into your communication skills to hand off building that website or outsourcing your data entry each weekend. Start asking around and get resources on simple places to find virtual assistants who work circles around office workers for less than $5 per hour. They are highly efficient, credible, unbiased and treat your business as if it is part of their own.
To bring this full circle and allow you to get a tight grip on todays “new economy” it all boils down to the fact that unless you are one of the new “Big 3”, then you are working harder to fulfill your business expectations. These few tips will allow you to work smarter and get in tune with the new economy that is changing pace so rapidly it burns out 3 in 5 small businesses in the first 2 years. The way to eat an elephant is to do it one bite at a time. Will Smith says you build a stone wall one brick at a time. Don’t get overwhelmed and remember you got into your business to be free. Start by doing these few simple steps for one hour each week and watch your business take off (or at least you will be able to “take off” more time).
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