hi everyone it's Felicia here checking in with you on day two of the total business Mastery seminar did you know that there are four principles of marketing strategy I didn't either watch this brand new footage where Brian explains exactly what they are and how you will become more successful once you start using them of ourselves oh yes uh sometimes I ask my my my uh business clients I say who sets your prices sometimes I have a whole room full of business owners who who sets your your prices by the way and who determines your market share and who determines your profit levels and who determines uh how fast you grow and who determines the future of your business I do I do we do no you don't your competitors do your competition determines everything your competition determines uh your level of sales the prices you charge and how much money you make I've done a lot of work on Military strategy and one of the great principles I learned in military strategy is that no strategy can be made independent of the enemy in other words you can't sit there and plan military strategy ignoring who your enemy is and where they are and how big they are and what their plans and intentions are so no strategy in business can be made without thinking about your competition and who are they and what do they do and why do people buy from them and how can I get them to buy from me and how will they react if I get their customers there's there's volumes of books in the libraries on this and I've got them all there's one book called competitive analysis it's this big by Michael Porter it's 6 800 pages and it's all on things that you have to think about to position against competition big stuff you can get phds in marketing focused on competitive analysis so the four principles of marketing strategy are these number one is your decisions in these four areas whoops these your decisions in these four areas determine the success or failure of your business the first is specialization specialization is uh determining where you you are going to specialize which we'll talk about in your product or service and I'll talk about this I'll Define it a little bit better the second is differentiation differentiation is really the key to business they say that all business strategy is differentiation strategy competitive Advantage is how it is that you are different and better than your competitors because human beings in the marketplace customers always want to know why should I buy from you rather than from someone else and you'd better give me a better reason than your competitor does or I'll buy from your competitor and it's not personal it's just I want to get the very best deal as a customer I want to get the highest quality for the lowest price you tell me why I should buy from you why you are giving me the highest quality the lowest price and if your answer is better than that of your competitors I'll buy from you and if it's not I won't and it's not personal no emotion involved we get emotionally involved because it's our business so differentiation is the key is how and why and where are you different segmentation means looking at your market and saying who are the specific customers in the market who value my area of differentiation and who will pay more for U my area of specialization than anybody else so in other words in every Marketplace and they say that all market now all marketing today is segmentation is segmenting and identifying those customers who are most likely to buy from you the fastest and finally there's concentration once you have determined your very best Market segment for what you do really well what you do is you focus all your energies on them so let's look at this specialization says this is the product service customer Market or area of Technology where you focus all your efforts we also say in specialization it can be a product or service it can be a particular customer that you want to serve uh or it can be a particular market area that you want to work in I'll give you an example McDonald's McDonald's customer is people who want to eat quickly and they want cleanliness efficiency value price and pleasant surroundings and so what they will do is they will offer every product that they possibly can for people who want to eat quickly whether it's a salad or whether it's a a shake or whether it's a type of coffee or whether it's in other words they're constantly looking for other products that they can offer to that customer who wants who's in that market segment which wants to eat quickly and efficiently and they test they test continually very clear about that so the next one is look at that W okay and so and so differentiation is your competitive Advantage which you've heard me talk about but you'll never hear me talk about too much because if you can identify and or create a competitive advantage and convey it to your customers the dam will break you can make more sales and more money in a year with a clear competitive advantage to your customers then you might make it a lifetime if your competitive Advantage is unclear so number two it's your area of Excellence or superiority it's something that you do better than anybody else and I sometimes joke why is your product or service better and they say quality and service quality and service quality and service we give quality and service and people don't understand that that is only an answer if your competitors offer zero quality and zero service in other words other than that it's not an answer if your person says well you should buy from us because of our quality and service they're saying I do not have the slightest idea why anybody should buy from me I'm a complete idiot and I'm a danger to my company and probably to my whole society so it it's interesting when uh Steve Jobs looked at the Blackberry looked at all the cell phones that were out there and he s out with his engineers and he said I want a phone that you can activate with one button they said it's impossible all these other phones have all these other buttons you turn off and on he said I want a phone that you can activate with one button and he keeps sending them back and sending them back until they finally came with the one button you activate it put in your code and Bam you have all your apps and you're ready to go the game is on one button it's never been done before in history can't be done can't be done can't be done can't be done I want it done and there's the phone I said phone cell phones today should not be so darn complicated to start up use get around and so on I had a Blackberry and to get an app on a Blackberry which has far fewer than Apple it's almost like a you need an act of Congress to get a damn app I mean you know what I'm talking about they're so hard and you go to blackberry and I go to go to Apple which my my family and my staff got me into within half an hour I had 30 apps loaded I mean it's unbelievable you're loading them one at a time whoa and now you can float the whole world and stuff stuff that's on there for apps just the free apps blow your mind much less the paid apps and now you have 400 and 86,000 apps think about that but they make it easy so Apple says come to us and it's easy you can access everybody anything anywhere and then they come up with the Apple too and they put that Vis video model on it whereas you can actually hold it up and you can talk by video to anybody in anywhere in the world who has an apple with the same facility it's the most it's the most amazing damn thing I mean you look at it almost like a kid how can this be uh so what is yours and if you don't have it you can't compete but if you do have it you sell 50 million sets and become the highest valued company in the world in five years if you can be really clear about an a an area of Excellence that people want and will pay for uh your unique selling proposition what is what is it that and this is called your USP your USP is the one thing that you offer that no other competitor offers in the whole world it's Unique what do we know about the word unique is it cannot be modified it's the only adjective that cannot be modified you can have more and you can have greater and you can have greatest but you cannot have more unique or uniqu or less unique or uniest you have only one word unique each person here is unique you are not uni uh you are not the uniquest you are unique because there's only one of you in the entire world so therefore what is your unique selling proposition I've worked with people have spent hours to identify this and when they finally identified it their business went up 500% in the next 12 months they could not believe it they went from struggling to living in a big home driving a Cadillac or a Mercedes because they finally found it and then all of your advertising all of your promotion all of your work is focused on conveying that USP to your customers getting it to them so that they are clear what it is and if it's what customers want and value and will pay for they will line up around the street remember when they brought out the iPad because of the iPhone nobody really knew it was in the iPad except it was going to be like a whole broad screen was going to have everything that a computer had they line up around the streets by the hundreds to to f to lay $500 down $500 I don't know about you but I think $500 is a lot of money wouldn't you say $500 these are poor people with flipflops and sandals and tractor caps well they to put their $500 down to get this because they didn't they didn't know what what it was but it's going to be like a it's going to be like an iPod an iPhone with a bigger screen plus all kinds of other capabilities wow and you know what they did they sold 25 million of them in in less than a year 25 million and they totally changed the book retailing industry the book retailing industry like a ship that turned over went from um basically hard cover books in bookstores it flipped Now 51 to 55% of all books are being purchased on as ebooks and the reason is because of the iPad because iPad owners are readers and they buy an average of two to 300 books in the first year and the whole Market flipped and borders one of the biggest and oldest bookstores in America went bankrupt all in less than a year when the iPad was introduced can you imagine I mean we're living in pretty turbulent times would you imagine a company that spent decades building was bankrupt Nationwide within a year with the Advent of one new technology so what is your unique selling proposition there's this convenience you can get everything get everything fast everything convenient more convenient than anyone else everybody tries to compete with the iPhone or the iPad can't do it the Nook can't do it the H Packer got into it with their tablet and just quit it's just can't do it now um uh who is it not Samsung but uh uh the the Korean company is trying to compete and so on but they have a unique selling proposition so my question is what is yours and I'm going to ask you to answer that what is yours what is it that you offer that nobody else offers now here's is an Insight if you're offering something that everybody else sells let's say you're a real estate agent what's your unique selling proposition as a real estate agent if every other real estate agent with 100 miles has same unlimited access to the um um yeah the MLS what's what is your what is your us be what can it be what could it be what should it be come on jeez well the answer is yourself because you the product is all the same you don't even control the product you don't even control the marketing everybody else can have it so what makes top realtors I work with top realtors the average realtor makes about 25,000 a year I work with an entire room full of Realtors average income is $833,000 a year on straight commission selling and they all started off with nothing and they're now at the top of field and some of them make several million selling homes what's the difference personality personality preparation punctuality friendliness warmth follow-up notes phone calls contact in other words they make a supreme effort to build a really highquality relationship with a home buyer or home seller so that that person will never think of going anywhere else I know because I worked with some of these people in buying and selling my homes and I would never buy or sell buy or through any body else but these people because they have they are so good at what they do and every one of them started off on the street knocking on doors and Dialing for Dollars and made a decision that their unique selling proposition was going to be themselves and and and you as an independent business owner can make that decision as well make the decision that I'm going to take such good care of my customers my customers would never go anywhere else I don't have to give them blandishments or discounts I'm going to take such good care of them that they will eagerly come back to me so number four is where are you or could you be the best where are you or could you be the best and this is the great question because everybody here has the ability to be the best at something everybody here has the ability to be the best at something that people will eagerly pay for and tell their friends about and your job is to figure out what it is your job is to figure out what it is and then do continuous and NeverEnding Improvement until finally people say you know you're the best you are really good at what you do you are really good look at Lady Gaga I was sorry at the Grammy Awards as well I don't know anything about Lady Gaga I've never listened to a Lady Gaga song she came absolutely from out of nowhere she's 25 years old she's one of the top 10 tweeted people in the history of the world and she made last year $60 million and where where was she singing in nightclubs or or bars five years ago and she's an incredible Entertainer and there ain't nobody like Lady Gaga you don't even what I'm talking unbelievable why she knew what she had and she she goes to the extreme with her dress and her appearance and everything else and she wraps it around a good voice and just literally has taken over the world of pop music so segmentation is who are those customers who most appreciate your area of superiority who are your very best customers you see your best customers are really easy to sell to they'll buy and buy again they're happy they like you they come back they bring their friends they give you recommendations and testimonials whereas your worst customers your customers from hell you have to literally break your back to sell them anything they complain all the time they don't pay pay uh when they do pay their checks bounce they they stand back and bounce it to you like a basketball um so who are they what are their demographics what are their psychographics the demographics are things that you can observe from the outside age income education family formation psychographics are what motivates them and this is where the future is in your business and every person has psychographics and they have a key psychographic I'll tell you this in a second how would you describe your perfect customer I do this by the way I said imagine that you were at a social or business Gathering and you're networking and someone came up to you and said look I know a lot of people in this community um how would you describe your perfect customer don't tell me what your product or service is I don't want to hear just tell me who would your perfect customer be in terms of their wants needs age education income position and so you would have to describe your perfect customer without mentioning your product or service at all person would not even know what you sold you describe the customer this is what this person is this is what they are give you an example IBM at one time had 80% of the world computing Market 80% then they made some mistakes and now they have much less but they had 80% they had so much that the Federal Government tried to break them up for about 20 for 13 years they brought antitrust suits against IBM just like they tried to break up Microsoft they uh finally Reagan came into power they started in 1970 in 1983 they brought was brought to Reagan's attention they said they federal government has been pursuing IBM in 50 million hundred million lawsuits for 13 years and what did they come up with people buy IBM because they really like IBM and IBM treats them really well they said well if they can't come up with something on IBM they have to drop the lawsuit and they said we can't come up with anything the custo antitrust is supposed to be in favor of be protecting customers IBM's customers love them worldwide then dro the suit they dro the suit after 13 years they did the same thing with Microsoft they harassed them and harassed them and harassed them because they weren't giving enough political contributions that was the major reason uh they weren't giving enough political contributions finally after years they had to say why do people buy Microsoft because they like the product the product is good and it's cheap and it's flexible and everything so so uh so here's so how would you describe your perfect customer the this point I was making with IBM is IBM realized that when they first started selling the 360 Mainframe in 196 64 the customer was really the president of the company making a major strategic decision or we're going to put everything in our company on computers because everything was paper at that time you know and so they they would have to make their presentations to the senior Executives of the company and work out all the numbers and so on but as computers became more and more popular and they started to have PCS and desktops and so on the whole decision making shifted to the purchasing manager of the large companies and so they had to focus and change all of their marketing so it Focus fused on purchasing managers and they learned more about how purchasing managers think and walk and talk and eat and breathe and communicate and where they're educated in the size of their family and their income and their psychographics and demographics and they focused all of their effort on purchasing managers and became the biggest selling company in the world 80% of the World Market because they knew their customer I hope I'm making a point here many people you say describe your customer to me without mentioning your product or service they go huh well somebody wants it theh all right uh so demographics here are the here are the key demographics and by the way if you don't know these find out what we do you know how we find out do surveys ask your customers offer them a prize if they'll fill in the blanks age gender that's important income uh how much did they earn education how well educated are they occupation what sort of work do they do location where do they live and so on and family status those are the main main demographic features and you've got to be very clear because if you change the demographics of your customer you change your total marketing approach your selling approach your packaging your product your service your people and everything else now your psychographics are even more important and this is really neat is what are their goals and Ambitions because remember people are motivated to buy because you offer to help them achieve a goal that they have or what are their wants and needs and motivations they are motivated to buy because they have a need for what you're selling and what are their hopes and dreams and aspirations where do they want to be in the future and can your product or service help them get there and four what are their fears or doubts or worries here's one of the great breakthrough discoveries for me in the last few years is there's always one reason why people will buy from you there's one major reason and you have to find out what it is and convince the prospect that you can give them that benefit there's always one major fear that will hold them back there's always one major doubt that holds them back from buying and you must find out what that is and alleviate it you got to do both in every sale what's the major reason how does Brendan alleviate the fear of making a mistake of going to his program how does he do that yes not only that not only in is the entire the entire fee is refundable he'll pay your airfare and your hotel and he does by the way he'll pay your airfare and hotel for coming just to not waste your time because he's so confident in the value of his program so in other words he's making it a risk-free thing for you to do what is the biggest risk that you have with Brendan's terms and conditions that you really like it and won't want your money back and you'll be out the money that you had paid because you really enjoyed it because you got your money's worth gez that's a real tough downside um number five is what is the problem to be solved is PB we call this ptbs ptbs ptbs problem to be solved problem to be solved problem to be solved people buy your product or service because they've got a problem to be solved like a parent problem to be solved problem to be solved problem to be solved and a goal unachieved is a problem unsolved a need unsatisfied is a problem unsolved a pain not taken away is a problem unsolved this is the focus of your business what is the problem that you solve for your customers when they use your product or service and you must know that with crystalline Clarity you know like that in the uh the movie with Tom uh uh what that is it uh what is it not a perfect gentleman you know the movie I'm talking about with with um Tom Cruz and U yeah not Risky Business uh Jack Jack U yeah what does he say when he says do you understand what I'm saying and he looks into the camera he says Crystal know that is my is what I'm saying Crystal Clear he says it's Crystal well you must be Crystal when uh you're clear when you're thinking about what it is is you do for your customer and all your advertising all your promotion all your business is based around conveying that Crystal to your customer so they understand Crystal you know how um a cafe advertises on the side of the freeway or the highway you're going down the road you see a great big it doesn't say Mom and Pop's best selling uh meatloaf and family cooked food and and come and visit us sometime it says a big sign it says hungry question mark and the next one says turn at the next EX for the best food on the highway in other words they they first of all get your attention because if you're hungry what happens hungry you you'll see that reciprocal the the your your your reticular activating system will see that you see that word hungry now it's got your attention the next sign is turn here for food want food turn now real simple uh so concentration is the fourth part concentration is where you focus your time money and resources remember the old saying 50% of my advertising is wasted but I don't know which 50% it is well maybe 80% 90% of advertising and promotional dollars are wasted and if you can just increase the efficiency of your advertising by focusing your message with greater Clarity on your best customers you can get five and 10 times the response per dollar of advertising that you were getting before so what are the best possible ways to contact your ideal customer and this is moving very quickly today it's shifting all the time second of all what are the best possible media for you to use most of you use the internet exhaustively but the internet is only one method of communication and it's still small relative to all the other forms of advertising and promotion I have a friend who does $35 million a year with radio ads 60 60 to0 Minute radio ads to get people to phone a number where then they are interviewed and then sold uh into another telephone call where they are introduced to a product which takes them to another telephone call just 35 million a year uh with radio ads so there's all kinds of ways imagine if you could run an ad 60 seconds and how do you test an ad we're working with a one of the top companies in the country they develop an ad they narrate the ad they are happy with the ad and then they run the ad in a tiny Market small town they pay $5,000 get 50 spots and see what kind of response rate they get they will run the ads five days a week they'll run one ad on Monday one ad on Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday and five different ads and they see which one causes the phones to ring and then they'll take that and they'll run it in New York and what works in Podunk is going Podunk is going to work in New York at a 100 times the scale in other words they debug the system get a nice ad and what if you could have an ad that would cause qualified people to phone you all day long phone you and call you and say please please please sell me your product or service I've got my credit CR card handy is that possible say yes it's been done all it's been done all the time you ever listen to radio those people are not advertising for fun they're advertising because they're making a lot of money doing it hi everyone Thanks for tuning in to your virtual backstage pass you just watch Brian explain the four keys of marketing strategy which ones will you be implementing we want you to share what you've learned with us so make sure you leave us a comment below this concludes our backstage pass for day two at the total business Mastery of event but if you want to see what happened over the past 2 days and get live streaming access to day three click the get virtual access Now button below we've got great new segments to share with you on the third and final day of your total business Mastery backstage pass so please make sure you stick around we'll see you then