Is Your Marketing Inadequate and Under-Producing?

The Evolution Of Marketing and Selling Over The Last 25 Years…

It’s important to understand that you must focus on marketing instead of selling. Before 1980, (in some industries, before 1990) it was a matter of “simply selling”. During this time it was much easier for a salesperson to sell to a prospect because the marketplace was so much less crowded.

In the eighties, if you wanted to buy a, new car, you went to the dealership. This was just about the only way to see your choices and ask your questions. There was no Internet, very little information in your local bookstore or in magazines to review or compare new car makes and models. The dealership was more or less the only source of current information. In the days of simply selling, there was less competition, fewer choices, so it was easier to make a buying decision. Basically the seller had the “power” because the buyer had very few options.

Simple Selling Is A Thing Of The Past

Today’s prospects have an abundance of resources to educate themselves on just about any product or service, thanks to the Internet. Because of this, business now has increased competition, increased information, increased choices, and more resistance. The buying cycles are longer and there is also price competition that didn't exist before. Products are becoming commodities and it seems many of the marketing messages are identical; so a wedge has been created between the seller and the buyer; this is called "The Confidence Gap."

Definition of "The Confidence Gap": The inability of the buyer to determine whether one industry’s products or services are any better/ worse/different than any of the others.

The problem this creates is that prospects who may want to buy from you now have several different choices. They need you to show them why you are any better or any different from everyone else. Your marketing goal needs to narrow “The Confidence Gap” which will restore the prospect’s faith and confidence.

Bringing the Customer To You

In the business section of just about any bookstore you'll find several books on this topic. Some have titles such as “How To Achieve Better Customer Service”, etc. These books present the theory that if you have better customer service, you'll have more customers; problem solved. The trouble with this philosophy is you must first have a customer in order to give them service. Just claiming that you have “Great customer service", isn’t enough. You must first have a system that will bring the customer to you. Some business professionals say you will bring in more prospects if you just have more sales training, which makes you better at sales. The main problem with that theory is that you actually have to have prospects in order to put those sales skills to use. What you REALLY need to do is learn how to find someone to sell to in the first place.

Some say that to overcome The Confidence Gap you need to use traps and techniques like misleading advertisements. The problem is, hiding things in fine print to get the customer in the door does nothing to build the trust and confidence of the customer; it does the opposite. Instead it builds contempt, mistrust, and suspicion. Using these sales tactics actually widens the Confidence Gap when the goal of the advertisement should have been to narrow it. These techniques may have worked in the days of simply selling, but no more. You, as a business owner, need to overcome this in order to be successful.

Bringing In Customers Who Actually Want To Do Business With You

In the book “Think and Grow Rich”, by Napoleon Hill, he wrote: "It is as useless to try to sell a man something until you have first made him want to listen as it would be to command the earth to stop rotating."

They are not going to want to buy what you are selling if they don’t even want to listen. Now comes the distinction between sales and marketing.

When you are selling products or services, you need a marketing program that makes people want to listen to you. It helps prepare the prospects/buyers so they will come to you, then you, in turn, will have an opportunity to sell. Sales skills and time are used much more productively in closing sales rather than forever chasing them down.

Bridging The Confidence Gap

Marketing needs to be to the point, well expressed, and powerfully stated. There needs to be little or no pressure, but still needs to educate. No sales pitches needed. This helps the consumer review marketing at his/her own pace and when it's convenient for them. If they aren't interested, they can just ignore it with no commitment.

In the Monopolize Marketing system, we teach and help put into practice a Marketing Program that helps businesses overcome the Confidence Gap by addressing two major points - the Inside Reality and the Outside Perception.

Your Inside Reality is everything you do in your business that makes you valuable to your customers and also gives you that all-important competitive edge in the marketplace. It encompasses all of your skills, your passion, your systems, and the way you conduct your business. The Outside Perception is how customers and prospects perceive your business. These are the ideas and impressions consumers get from your direct and indirect communication with them.

Why The Outside Perception Of Your Business Should Match The Inside Reality

The Outside Perception of your Business should match the Inside Reality to be successful and helps you have continued success in your industry. If you spend all your time and energy developing the Inside Reality and neglect the Outside Perception, you will achieve minimal results with your product or service. Of course this works both ways. If you focus only on your Outside Perception and neglect your Inside Reality, prospects will soon discover there is not much value in the product or service which will result in little or no repeat business.

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