Archive for April, 2009

Be focussed. Be specific.

Thursday, April 16th, 2009

get focussed

Don’t have a generic product, that can do lots of things.

This is especially important if you are a services company.

Ok so you can do lots of things, for lots of customers.

You are good at custom made products, or customized services.

But that is HARD to sell, pitch, understand, communicated, comprehend, remember.

MBAs teach mass customization, and a market of one. But the marketing for that is difficult.

The worst of it is – if the customer doesn’t understand all your inherent flexibility, and market of one, he might be embarrased that he doesn’t understand. Emabarrased customers just dont call you back.

You need to tell a story. That starts with your brand, the dicussions you have, and continues with brochures/websites. The story needs to be beleivable, and simple.  This, at a minimum, gives you credibility. I say simple, so it can be remembered, referenced, recalled and acted upon.

get specific

be that what your customer NEEDS

to do that ….. you need to be a cheese knife when your customer have just bought a block of cheese …. no sense in being a swiss army knife …. that makes a mess of cheese, mess of the knife, and no-one would think to use it for cheese

I  am a cheese knife

i am a    cheese   knife

customer thinks : who cares …. what is that guy smoking ?

i am a cheese knife ….

now when he buys some cheese ….. he will think …. i need a cheese knife guy …. wait I know one …..

now if you were your normal, I can do everything, swiss army knife guy ….. the customer just would have used a kitchen knife on his cheese – he’s just isnt going to ring swiss-army-knife guy.

be that cheese knife guy