HOW TO BECOME A GURU IN ANY NICHE

Here's a market niche that's crying to be filled. Re-position your company as the source for Industry information -- as the expert in the Industry -- and you'll be amazed at the Increase in business that results. First, do some homework. Read everything you can get your hands on to keep abreast of industry trends, developments and forecasts.

You can have somebody ghostwrite a book or report for you that you disseminate through press releases, trade journals, or have the publication available free to anybody who wants it. It can also be distributed for free and/or sold by people who own bookstores.

Approach bookstores, and offer to allow them to sell your publication and keep all the money for themselves -- just for showcasing the book. lf it's a report, you can have people give it out as a bonus or, let them sell it for pure profit. You're getting all the free publicity you could hope for -- and the only costs are your writing and printing expenses.

You could put on seminars throughout your area -- either free or for a low cost. You could team up with other business experts, who have complementary products or services and who are noncompetitive with you, to organize the seminars. For example, if you're an accountant, you could get together with a financial planner, an attorney, and a management consultant, and do seminars on how entrepreneurs can protect and increase their wealth.

'You can become the keynote speaker at all sorts of organizational meetings. You can start hosting regular breakfast and lunch meetings at your facility (or at a restaurant) on the subject that you're expert in. You can publicize yourself and your product.

If you become widely recognized as an authority (and this takes years) you instill confidence in your customers. This is a form of branding. In other words, it's a powerful method of brand recognition which automatically leads customers to you and your product.However, when you make yourself a personality, you better follow through with superb service and quality; otherwise, negative word of mouth will rapidly make your name mud.

Start sending out lots of press releases. You'll get reporters calling you. Start a local, regional, or national telephone information hotline service. You can have a free, informative recording. At the end of the recording, make this proposition: If you want more information, call this number and talk to one of our specialists.

People desperately need to be acknowledged and told that they're important. Educate them without making them feel stupid, and then direct them to action. Believe It or not, you also have to tell people what in the world you want them to do. Tell them what to do next. 'I've acknowledged you; you're important, and your needs are more important than mine. I've taught you about the product or service, and now here's what you do.

If it makes sense for you, try it! Come Into my store and take a look. Buy a piece of furniture and try it for 90 days. If It doesn't suit your house! If It's not comfortable, if the bed Isn't the best you've ever slept on. We’ll take it back.' But take them to action; make an offer that's irresistible. That technique has value anywhere in anybody's business. Again you're going to have certain people who take advantage of you. but not many.

The whole premise is that you must have a quality product or service. at whatever price. Whether you're low-priced or high-priced doesn't matter. But if the product doesn't fulfill the expectations, shame on you. You deserve to get creamed. If the product Is a quality product, you dramatically enhance the response and the sale ability because you take all the risk away from the customer."

Tactical Advantage

The first person to tell the public something - even something that every other competitor is doing - if the public doesn't know anything about it, it sounds like a profound revelation. Just tell them the things you do for them, even if It's things that you and every other competitor take for granted, The public doesn't take It for granted, and they'll think you're the first to do it for them.

People don't appreciate what you do for them unless you articulate it. It's a very delicate thing. If you sort through one hundred representative examples from a hundred manufacturers before you cull out the three brands worth offering, how will your customers know unless you Inform them of what you've done? People don't know what you do for them unless you tell them. But you've got to do it very delicately. I believe everyone should always try to give more than anybody else.

It may be a longer warranty period, maybe something free when they buy from you that no one else gives, and something they get to keep even if they want their money back. I think people should make irresistible offers. What you want to do is get the product placed. Get someone to buy it and try it. If it doesn't work, if the screws aren't the best screws, it will not hold your house together better, bring them back.

If I told people my shirt was the only one made of a certain material, which the dye was flown in from Brazil, and that I had to have my tailor flown in from South Africa to measure me -- I could build a perception of value, by educating people. Don't perceive that people automatically understand anything about your product or service. You've got to educate them."

What I'm all about is simplicity and logic. Human beings want information. If you give them information and you give them sincerity, even if it doesn't always make you money, it becomes implicit that you can be trusted, and people favor you. People want to know how they can enhance their circumstances. So you answer one key question for them: How do they benefit by doing business with you instead of with somebody else? If you can answer that, you're in.

Was this information helpful?