Stop Selling Start Positioning How Marketing Pros Thrive in the Best and Worst of Times

I disagree with conventional thinking that the #1 fear in America is public speaking. I personally “love” to speak in public. The #1 fear in my book - as it is in most business owners’ books - is “selling. Hard-core, grubby, “get ready for rejection” traditional selling.

If you are like me, you have taken a zillion sales seminars ... learned all the “secret techniques” ... listened to all the motivational tapes of top salespeople (like Tom Hopkins) ... rehearsed your phone script with a mirror in front of you, and the bottomline is “You still hate sales”!

I have been a highly successful business owner for 21 years and have NEVER gotten any business through “selling.” Where I *have* gotten ALL my business is through “marketing” and “positioning.”

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Positioning = Marketing, Attracting Customers
Selling = Convincing, Overcoming Customer Resistance
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“Positioning” is about creating a market presence ... positioning yourself in your prospects’ mind as the “expert” and the “preeminent leader” in your industry or field ... so that good, qualified, eager customers *seek* you out for your products or services.

What are the essential steps to successfully “position” your business?

1. KNOW YOUR *BEST* MARKETS ... based on your experience, skills, expertise, interests and passions.

2. MARKET FROM A PLACE OF UNIQUENESS ... eg., a “unique” success formula, a patented product, a proprietary process or “better than average” results. Without uniqueness, your offering is a mere commodity.

3. MAKE YOURSELF VISIBLE TO YOUR MOST LIKELY TARGETS. There are many, many ways to make yourself visible - both online and offline. It is beyond the scope of this article to address any strategy in depth. Let’s, however, briefly look at some of the most common ways:

=>> Writing articles, books, reports, booklets, ezines, etc. FREE or “inexpensive” works best.

=>> Gaining credibility and “celebrity status” through publicity. PR is worth its weight in gold.

=>> Speaking to associations or special interest groups in your market

=>> Expanding your target markets through cross promotions and endorsements

=>> Serve as an officer of a professional organization or special interest group

Down times are perfect opportunities for investing more time in making yourself visible to the marketplace. Those businesses who “position” themselves thrive in both good times and bad.

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COACH’S ACTION ITEM:
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Identify the top 3 ways you make your business more visible, more unique, more attractive to your best markets. Create an action plan or work with a coach to follow-through on those strategies ... starting TODAY.



Stop Selling Start Positioning How Marketing Pros Thrive in the Best and Worst of Times - To learn more about this author, visit Denise Corcoran's Website.

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