Business Mentor Weekly #26 – Competitor Weaknesses

“There is an axiom in economics … that every situation bears the
seed of its own reversal. This is the law of nemesis: That nothing
good lasts indefinitely, because others will want to share it.” ~
David Landes

Implement This Principle: Knowing your competitor weaknesses gives
you insight on how to position your products and services to take
advantage of their weaknesses.

To Get These Results: When you go head to head you gain competitive
advantage because you know how to sell against your competitors.

Thoughts to Ponder: An entire industry has grown up around competitor
analysis. Competitive information is critical to your sales efforts.
Knowing things like your competitors published pricing, product
offerings, target markets and territories are important, but knowing
their weaknesses can position you with a competitive advantage.

Take Action: Research your competitors and create a spreadsheet
matrix of what you learn. Here are some ideas to get you started.

• Ask customers who have left the competition why they left.
• Public companies are required to publish information
• Survey the competitor’s customers and ask what they would do
• differently if they were running the company
• Library articles
• The internet and the company’s website
• Past employees you might know
• Trade shows
• Linkedin and other social networks

Use 50 web tools to keep tabs on your competitors at

http://www.bschool.com/blog/2008/50-web-tools-to-keep-tabs-on-your-competitors/

You can find out what not to do on BNet at this link:

http://www.bnet.com/2403-13241_23-60254.html

Next Week’s Topic: Marketing Plan Development

Business Mentor Weekly #27 - Marketing Plan Development

“This may seem simple, but you need to give customers what they
want, not what you think they want. And, if you do this, people will
keep coming back.” ~ John Ilhan

Implement This Principle: Marketing is about moving people. A well
thought out marketing plan establishes strategy, goals and methods to
identify, contact and attract customers and provides the context in
which to achieve them.

To Get These Results: A detailed plan to guide your company in
winning market share and meeting its revenue goals.

Thoughts to Ponder: A marketing plan assures you understand your
target market, how to reach them and how to move them toward your
products.

The marketing plan:

Explains the purpose of your marketing
Explains how you achieve your purpose by describing the substantive
benefits you provide to clients
Describes your target markets
Describes you niche
Outlines the marketing weapons you will use
Reveals the identity of your business
Provides your marketing budget.

Take Action: Develop a marketing plan in an outline form first and
then fill in the blanks once you have answered the tough questions.

The marketing plan should answer the following questions:

What business you are in
What industry you are in
What products or services you offer
Who uses the products or services
What other kinds of customers could be using your products and
services
How could you reach these new customers
How do you sell your products
What other methods or sales channels could you use to sell your
products
What is your competition
How do your products or services differ from your competitors
How could you distinguish your products or services from your
competitors
How much business did you do last year
How much business do you plan to do the next year
What resources must you allocate to make this plan happen
What products will take us to our goal
Which customers will help us reach our goal
How can we reach new customers
What are we doing now that is not working
What are we doing now that should be expanded

Next Week’s Topic: Unique Sales Proposition

Business Mentor Weekly #28 – Unique Sales Proposition

Value proposition is a description of the customer problem, the
solution that addresses the problem, and the value of this solution
from the customer’s perspective. ~ e coach

Implement This Principle: Understanding and promoting the differences
between your product and the competitors allows you to target your
sales efforts more effectively.

To Get These Results: Highly targeted marketing efforts result in a
good fit for your product and your customer, which increases sales.

Thoughts to Ponder: The Unique Sales Proposition is “The single
most self serving advantage you offer your customer above and beyond
your competitors”. Jay Abraham

The statement “My Life Is Beautiful” makes a catchy tagline, but
it’s not what we consider a true value proposition. Why not? Because
it doesn’t answer this question: “If I’m your ideal prospect,
why should I buy from you instead of anyone else?” Answer that with
“My life is beautiful” and you’ll clearly see the disconnect.~
Hunter Boyle

Take Action: Answer these questions posed by marketing guru Jay
Abraham.

1. What do I do that sets me apart from everyone else?

2. What unique experience and background do I have that I can draw on
to communicate and contribute?

3. When people give me feedback, what do they say that they enjoyed
or got out of the interaction?

4. What resources both personal and environmental have I failed to
recognize and utilize?

5. How can I communicate the benefits of what I do to the people that
need it?

6. What kind of person will want what I have to offer?

7. How can I communicate that benefit in a potent way?

Next Week’s Topic: Develop Marketing Strategy

Business Mentor Weekly #29 - Develop a Marketing Strategy

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ” - Leonardo DaVinci

Implement This Principle: Strategy is like DNA, your marketing
strategy guides the planning and implementation of the marketing plan
much in the same way DNA guides the growth of an organism and provides
self correction in the process.

To Get These Results: Marketing is targeted and focused on best
practices for achieving your marketing goals resulting in more sales
at a lower cost.

Thoughts to Ponder: Your marketing strategy should have three
components.

1. A foundational statement that carries with it the essence of the
CEO’s passion

2. How this foundational passion will manifest itself in your
marketing plan

3. A statement of how to communicate the foundational passion and how
it is manifested

When these guiding principles are employed in the development of
strategy they assist in the development of a strategy that is both
helpful in strategy development and in aligning the marketing strategy
with the CEO’s passion and vision.

Take Action: Once your CEO’s passion is discovered, include it in a
foundational statement about your marketing plan. Develop the rest of
the strategy in conjunction with how the passion is manifested and
communicated. Test it against your existing marketing plan. If your
new strategy provides guidance on how to make your marketing plan
better, you have a good start, if not, you either have a great
marketing strategy already, or you do not have the essence of a good
marketing strategy yet and need to continue working on it.

Next Week’s Topic: Develop Product Strategy