Knowledge Marketing Use what you know to sell and market more effectively
Knowledge Marketing Use what you know to sell and market more effectively
Knowledge marketing involves setting yourself apart from competitors by becoming an expert in understanding perceived customer benefits. It also involves understanding your specific marketplace and the trends that impact customers. This goes beyond product knowledge and sales demonstrations to becoming a valued advisor to your prospects and current accounts.
Become an Expert
You will stand out from your competition as an expert in your marketplace. This is easier to do than you may think. It does not involve hours of product training, but rather the ability to decipher and communicate market trends that are driven by the needs of your customers.
For example, a friend of mine works in employee benefits. Walter is an expert in employee health insurance trends and the reaction to those trends by consumers and companies. He can provide firsthand examples to back up his points. I am amazed at how much Walter knows about the industry.
Because of Walter’s marketplace knowledge, he is my first choice for employee health insurance. He understands the market and how it impacts his customers. What is interesting is that Walter does not discuss his products or services, but I can see why he has a successful business. It is assumed that he knows his products, which he does, and better yet, he thoroughly understands the market and customer needs.
Stay current on the trends in your marketplace. The best way to do this is through discussions and feedback from your prospects and current customers. This will help you understand real customer benefits, which are the key to sales and marketing success.
The Magic is in the Details
It is the details of your product and service that push customer hot buttons and make up benefits. You should understand these details as they relate to the specific needs of your customers. Sales people are notorious for spending time on features that do not mean anything to customers and ignoring the most important buying signals that can lead to a sale.
When a consumer begins the process of buying a product or service, there are usually a few key items that are very important and at the heart of the sale. In their first interaction with a sales rep, they are often overwhelmed with information. Rather than dumping information, take a step back and listen to your customers and get to know their business.
Ask Before You Speak
Have probing questions ready to go that get at the real issues on the mind of your customers and prospects. Use the answers to build a database of knowledge and information that you can use to relate back to your target market. More importantly, use this information to educate your customers and become an expert in your marketplace.
Knowledge Marketing Action Plan
In order to get results with knowledge marketing, you must begin educating and training your target market. This can be done through seminars, workshops, sales meetings, articles, public speaking and other methods that bring your message to your prospects and customers. The key is that your message must provide value and benefit to your target market. It must be a transfer of knowledge that helps your customers do their jobs better or enhance the quality of their lives.
Internet Knowledge Marketing
The Internet is a fantastic vehicle for knowledge marketing. Visitors to your Web site are looking for information that can help them do their job more effectively or enhance the quality of their lives. Get in touch with these customer objectives and provide valuable content on your site and via email newsletters. Also, distribute that content to other Web sites that attract your target market.
The Web is loaded with product reviews and information on products and services. These reviews are incredibly powerful marketing resources and great tools for understanding customer reactions. Provide outlets on your Web site for customers to discuss your products and services. Build on this type of information to become a knowledge marketing wiz.
Knowledge Marketing Use what you know to sell and market more effectively - To learn more about this author, visit Thomas Young's Website.
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There is no question that it is becoming more difficult to gain a competitive edge in marketing services and products. Market forces push marketing and sales professionals to find new ways to differentiate themselves from competitors and add value to their customers. One often over-looked method for doing this is through “knowledge marketing.”
Knowledge marketing involves setting yourself apart from competitors by becoming an expert in understanding perceived customer benefits. It also involves understanding your specific marketplace and the trends that impact customers. This goes beyond product knowledge and sales demonstrations to becoming a valued advisor to your prospects and current accounts.
Become an Expert
You will stand out from your competition as an expert in your marketplace. This is easier to do than you may think. It does not involve hours of product training, but rather the ability to decipher and communicate market trends that are driven by the needs of your customers.
For example, a friend of mine works in employee benefits. Walter is an expert in employee health insurance trends and the reaction to those trends by consumers and companies. He can provide firsthand examples to back up his points. I am amazed at how much Walter knows about the industry.
Because of Walter’s marketplace knowledge, he is my first choice for employee health insurance. He understands the market and how it impacts his customers. What is interesting is that Walter does not discuss his products or services, but I can see why he has a successful business. It is assumed that he knows his products, which he does, and better yet, he thoroughly understands the market and customer needs.
Stay current on the trends in your marketplace. The best way to do this is through discussions and feedback from your prospects and current customers. This will help you understand real customer benefits, which are the key to sales and marketing success.
The Magic is in the Details
It is the details of your product and service that push customer hot buttons and make up benefits. You should understand these details as they relate to the specific needs of your customers. Sales people are notorious for spending time on features that do not mean anything to customers and ignoring the most important buying signals that can lead to a sale.
When a consumer begins the process of buying a product or service, there are usually a few key items that are very important and at the heart of the sale. In their first interaction with a sales rep, they are often overwhelmed with information. Rather than dumping information, take a step back and listen to your customers and get to know their business.
Ask Before You Speak
Have probing questions ready to go that get at the real issues on the mind of your customers and prospects. Use the answers to build a database of knowledge and information that you can use to relate back to your target market. More importantly, use this information to educate your customers and become an expert in your marketplace.
Knowledge Marketing Action Plan
In order to get results with knowledge marketing, you must begin educating and training your target market. This can be done through seminars, workshops, sales meetings, articles, public speaking and other methods that bring your message to your prospects and customers. The key is that your message must provide value and benefit to your target market. It must be a transfer of knowledge that helps your customers do their jobs better or enhance the quality of their lives.
Internet Knowledge Marketing
The Internet is a fantastic vehicle for knowledge marketing. Visitors to your Web site are looking for information that can help them do their job more effectively or enhance the quality of their lives. Get in touch with these customer objectives and provide valuable content on your site and via email newsletters. Also, distribute that content to other Web sites that attract your target market.
The Web is loaded with product reviews and information on products and services. These reviews are incredibly powerful marketing resources and great tools for understanding customer reactions. Provide outlets on your Web site for customers to discuss your products and services. Build on this type of information to become a knowledge marketing wiz.
Knowledge Marketing Use what you know to sell and market more effectively - To learn more about this author, visit Thomas Young's Website.
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Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
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David AchesonDavid Acheson is the founder of DCJA Consultancy. DCJA Consultancy is a management consultancy business specialising in B2B sales consultancy. They offer bespoke and packaged sales consultancy including Sales Optimisation Review, Interim Sales Management, Sales & Marketing Review, 1:1 Sales & Management Staff Analysis, Management Training, Solution Sales Training, Creation of New Pay Plan, KPI's, run Customer Feedback Campaigns, assist with Recruitment, Coaching, Appraisals and set up Strategic Marketing Campaigns. David spent his early career in accountancy and then moved into sales in 1982, working in Office Equipment, IT, Advertising, Training, Outsourcing and Consultancy. He has held many Senior Positions in SMBs and Global Organisations including Head of Sales Operations & Head of Business Development. His knowledge, skills and great experience of the Sales Industry has led to David making keynote speeches and running educational sessions to key businesses through organisations including The Chamber of Commerce and Business Link. - Visit David Acheson's Website |
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Kim CastleWith nearly two decades in the advertising and design business, with clients like Domino's Pizza, General Motors, Direct TV, Pedigree, Wolfgang Puck, Higher Octave Music, Hollywood Celebrity Products, Disney, and Paramount, as well as thousands of entrepreneurs around the world define, structure, communicate, and position their business for greater profits, BrandU(R) co-creators Kim Castle and W. Vito Montone discovered that entrepreneurs could experience the same power that big brands command for a fraction of the cost with the world's only process-based results-drive Integral approach to business creation. BrandU(R) is helping entrepreneurs grow with the power of extreme clarity from idea...to brand...to market(TM) and helping one million entrepreneurs become successful and whole so that they can make a difference in the world. Are you one of them? If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank(TM), get started now at http://www.brandu.com. - Visit Kim Castle's Website |
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John PowerJohn Power, founder of Biltmore Franchise Consulting, has extensive experience developing and marketing franchises and business opportunities. He has been in and around franchising for over twenty years. From 1980 through 1990 he conceptualized, organized, and developed the American Video Association. He grew AVA to 2,000 national members, before selling the company it 1990. It was later merged into another home video marketing company. From 2000 to 2005 he worked as a contract marketing and human resources consultant to several local and national companies. In 2005 Mr. Power began working as a franchise development consultant on a full-time basis. Since that time he has helped more than three dozen companies initiate and develop their franchising program. He notes that there are many companies interested in developing a franchise program, and who need his specialized assistance. Mr. Power is a “hands-on” franchise consultant. He said, “I am the ‘nuts and bolts’ person who tends to the details for my clients.” Mr. Power holds a B.S. degree with a major in Marketing. See: www.biltmorefranchise.com You may contact Mr. Power at: jpower@biltmorefranchise.co - Visit John Power's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Jeff FosterWebBizIdeas.com is a Minneapolis website design company founded to help people start an internet business by providing them with website, business, and internet resources that help foster the growth of successful online businesses and develop innovative Internet business ideas. We specialize in internet consulting & internet marketing. - Visit Jeff Foster's Website |
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Stephanie RobeyStephanie Robey is President and CoFounder of Pivot Positive, LLC - an Internet marketing business focused on helping people start work at home ventures. Previously, she was employed at The Search Agency with over 20 years experience in graphic design and 10 years experience in online marketing. She was responsible for launching the Conversion Path Optimization (CPO) unit where she and her team have conducted hundreds of optimization tests for online companies across multiple verticals. She is a successful entrepreneur having started and sold 2 companies and remains on the board of directors of the third, PhotoSpin.com Stephanie began her career in the direct marketing realm creating and producing direct mail for many of the major cable television companies and directly attributes her understanding of Internet marketing to those early offline experiences. Stephanie is a graduate of San Diego State University with a BFA in Graphic Arts and also holds an Executive MBA from the Graziadio School of Business and Management at Pepperdine University. Read Steph's Blog Meet Steph and Dave Sign up for our Free 7-Day BootCamp: Self Employed & Rich - Visit Stephanie Robey's Website |
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Jay Kubassek(Jay's Full Bio: EvanCarmichael.com/jaykubassek) In five years, Canadian-born entrepreneur Jay Kubassek went from selling mufflers at a Midas franchise to revolutionizing Internet marketing with the 2004 launch of CarbonCopyPRO, a online marketing education company, now worth over $20 million with customers in over 160 countries.
As an independent film producer, his upstart film fund Aliquot Films is currently producing a films with Spike Lee and Abel Fererra (starring Ethan Hawke and Dennis Hopper.)
Jay's entrepreneurial spirit is irrepressible. He’s the owner of five companies, a professional speaker and trainer, international real estate developer/investor, extreme sport enthusiast and emerging philanthropist. Jay resides in NYC with his wife Jamie, son Milo and dog Cooper. Visit Jay's official website: www.JayKubassek.com - Visit Jay Kubassek's Website |
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