Go where CMOs go for new ideas. Expert blogs. Videos. Research. Go!
Market test decisions, changes and ideas with 5000 users & get insight
Professional Coaching helps Businesses Achieve More.
It's not always easy for coaches, consultants or independent professionals to carve out a real difference from their peers. What makes one fitness coach different than the next? Are all marketing consultants built the same?
Here's the problem if you're not able to differentiate yourself in the marketplace you end up in a sea of sameness....motoring along like a ship without a rudder. Your target market is unable to understand what makes you better, or different than your competitors, so one of three things occurs. Either your target market won't engage your services often enough because they really don't understand your position in the marketplace; they will choose one of your competitors; or they won't act.
But, there is a compelling strategy that coaches, consultants and independent professionals can adopt called the strategy of business preeminence. This strategy is implemented when the coach or consultant positions themselves above the rest of the marketplace by establishing the criteria for buying a particular product or service that decisively differentiates their brand from all the other competitors. Once this is done, the coach, consultant or independent professional needs to make absolutely certain that their services and products consistently meet this strict criteria.
A couple of examples will help clarify the strategy of business preeminence.
A marketing consultant may be the first to demonstrate how important it is to treat marketing as a step-by-step systematic process providing a clear differentiation from other marketing consultants about what is required for a business owner to grow their business. The differentiation must be real and valuable to the business owner. Offering a different approach to business marketing without providing value to your clients is not a long-term successful strategy for the consultant. Therefore, the preeminent position adopted MUST provide value and results for your client.
A personal trainer may include a nutritional element to his training sessions positioning exercise and nutrition as the only genuine way for their clients to achieve the most success when beginning a personal training program.
An important point to keep in mind about this strategy is that the business owner doesn't have to be the only business positioning their business this way, but only the person to communicate this difference to the marketplace outlining the criteria, then satisfying their clients before their competitors do. If your competitors are doing something similar but not advertising this difference then the advantage goes to the coach, consultant or trainer that educates his target market about the importance of difference.
By advertising the buying criteria for your product or service first, and how it benefits the buyer, the coach or consultant will usually realize a first-mover advantage. First-mover advantage is the advantage realized by being the first company to move into a new market or set the standard for doing something a certain way.
An effective tactical strategy to use once you have established a strategy of business preeminence is to consistently provide education-based content educating your target market about the criteria they should use to decide the worthiness of a particular coach or consultant. Education-based content on your website, in blogs, white papers and with article marketing are effective ways to position your business in a preeminent position and position you as the authority.
Your articles should grab the attention of your target market by including what they need to know before hiring a coach, consultant or independent professional in your industry.
Examples of effective titles for your articles include:
What Everybody Ought to Know Before Hiring an Attorney
If Your Pharmacist Goofs, You Could Be Dead. How To Protect Yourself
The Three Lies You'll Hear From Real Estate Brokers... Even Honest Ones
The 5 Things You Should Demand From Your Business Coach
Ask Your Stock Broker To Reveal The Three Most Important Ways to Make Money in the Stock Market
All the above headlines for reports or white papers entice the reader to want to know more about a particular industry and how to make the best decision when hiring a coach, consultant or independent professional.
Think differently, act differently and achieve amazing results,
Joe
Joe Costantino is a business development consultant, coach and trainer who helps committed coaches, consultants and independent professionals grow and improve their practices. He does this by helping them create and install marketing, sales and business development systems into their practices.
No comments:
Post a Comment