The 7 Marketing Strategies That Make All The Difference Part III

Regardless of whether you sell products or services, offline, online, or a combination of both, there are seven strategies which could substantially increase your results providing you apply them to your business!

 

The first and second strategies have been sent to you already. If you missed them click on the links here which will take you through to them.

 

Click here to read Stratgey #1
Click here to read Strategy #2

 

Here’s the 3rd strategy ……

 

Before people Buy,
They Have To Trust You

 

Although the recession is over I’m sure most of you would agree that it can still be pretty tough getting new prospects to buy. This is because your prospects are still being careful with their budgets and desperate not to make a mistake by choosing the wrong product or service.

 

Become a Trusted Advisor to Your Customer

When prospects first come into contact with you, they are always going to pigeon-hole you into just one of the following three categories:

 

1. ‘Trusted Advisor’
2. ‘Consultant’
3. ‘Salesperson’

 

Only one of these three has the prospects best interests truly at heart. And it’s this one that can lead to maximum long-term sales and profits.

 

As soon as your prospect receives your mailing, sales letter, email, advertisement, or phone call, they will immediately (and understandably) put you into category 3. “Salesperson”.

 

Remember, your prospects naturally have a healthy scepticism about your claims, and a natural resistance to being sold to.

 

The key to being able to differentiate your company and gain the market’s attention (and custom) is to raise yourself from a ‘Salesperson’ to the ‘Trusted Advisor’ role by POSITIONING your company properly.

 

Whilst you could position your business as the fastest, the safest, the most creative, most expensive, the most honest and so on, there’s only one positioning that will work for virtually any business in any market…

 

The answer is to become the recognised expert…

 

It’s a FACT that prospects nearly always prefer to buy from an industry expert.

 

Why? Because it’s the safest choice. Your customers will feel that, as an expert, you are the most likely of all their options to deliver on the benefits and promises you are making.

 

But you can’t just say “We’re the market experts” and expect people to believe you. You have to earn the right to be regarded as their “Trusted Advisor”.

 

How do you do this?

 

Well, there are several different ways but one of the very best is to produce a Free Report or Buyer’s Guide. This is much better than offering a free brochure, because reports appear more tailor-made for the prospect, and their content can be on a very specific subject.

 

A special report is usually a step by step list of guidelines produced by a specialist for the benefit of the reader. The report’s aim is to instruct the reader how to achieve a certain objective successfully, or avoid common mistakes that others have made.

 

The report should come across as an independent piece of work that relates real-life examples, not theory or concepts. It should never try to sell your company and its solutions, until the very last page. Here you can offer further useful information (another report on a different aspect of your industry is ideal), as well as making a hard offer, if appropriate.

 

Examples include:

 

“The five biggest mistakes people make when buying new windows –
And how to avoid them”

 

“The seven key questions you must ask before buying your new windows –
And the answers to them”

 

“ A Quick But Essential Guide To Network Preventative Maintenance”

 

Other tools that can be used to help position you and your business as the true experts, include video profiles, interview transcripts and recordings, webinars, teleseminars, live events, and ‘how-to’ articles published online or via press releases.

 

Strategy #4 which is all about how to make your marketing messages come alive is coming soon. Look out for it in your inbox.