Audacious marketing will get you A BILLION IN SALES.
Trust me. It worked for me.
These thirteen Breakaway Moves lit up the marketing landscape and delivered delirious results.
#1. Be the ONLY ones who do what you do — You must be different from your competitors in a way that matters to your customers—The WHO.
And STOP using CLAPTRAP words like “best”, “better” and “Number 1” to describe your so-called Unique Selling Proposition—USP.
They are absolutely USELESS. They mean NOTHING. They satisfy your narcissistic view of YOU.
If you’re not “the ONLY one who does what you do”, you’re FAKING it and have nothing special to offer at all.
#2. Focus on the WHO—not mass markets—and what they CRAVE — Epic marketers choose a FEW select group of customers to serve, and excel at discovering & delivering what they DESIRE—not need.
#3. Implement initiatives to build relationships with customers, STOP flogging products and services — Sustainable marketing is all about creating trust with people with the long term in sight. An incessant desire to push products AT customers will turn them off early. There goes your revenue stream!
#4. Focus on customer LOYALTY rather than acquisition — Consistent revenue growth comes from maintaining a loyal base of customers. Growing them by satisfying what they CRAVE, and having them as an amazing source of reviews and referrals. Invest in today’s customers.
Have faith they will deliver you the growth you need.
#5. Reframe the importance of the competition: Create Barriers to customer EXIT rather than erecting barriers to competitive entry — This is a cultural component of audacious marketing. Where do you place your attention? Keeping competitors out or keeping customers from leaving. Re-read Point #4.
#6. Reserve your Special Marketing Deals for loyal customers. Don’t use them as a customer acquisition tool. NEVER! — If you lure me to you by giving me a special offer, what makes you think I won’t leave you for a better one?
And do you really think your loyal customers won’t find out you’re treating them unfairly?
Give your head a shake! Invest in the people who have given you their money for the past 5 years.
Don’t try to get the “promiscuous ones” who will leave you in a heartbeat for someone else for a better deal.
#7. Adopt a Premium Pricing Strategy by ADDING value — Simple audacious pricing principle: epic value commands premium prices; mediocre value produces “herd” pricing with commodity status and resultant low margins.
Where would you like to play? The real question is “What value can I add to sustain HIGH prices?” and not “What can I do to lower prices to compete?”.
#8. Find out how people “FEEL” about the value you are delivering — Start a new marketing cult: research and discover how people FEEL about what you are delivering to them.
Market research is flawed. It deals with mass homogeneous groups of individuals (rather than individuals) and seeks to discover what they NEED (rather than how they feel).
People buy on how they FEEL. Why not invest research dollars to FEELINGS?
#9. STOP bundling products and services and discounting prices! — Re-read Point #7. Adding products together and discounting the overall price is competing on price in disguise.
If you must bundle, combine product elements to generate VALUE greater than the sum of their parts and charge a premium price for it.
The end game is to create VALUE PACKAGES that have sufficient “juice” among target customers to generate more revenue and greater stickiness to prevent customer exit. Re-read Point #5.
#10. Create value for people that satisfies what the CRAVE, not need — Shift away from needs-based marketing NOW!
Competition in the “need space” is intense and plentiful, and prices are always under pressure (with margin-squeezing the result).
On the other hand, there are very few—if any—organizations that play in the CRAVINGS space, where the objective is to discover what people desire, covet and lust for. The CRAVINGS space is exceedingly attractive for enhancing customer loyalty with personalized solutions with a high FEELINGS FACTOR—re-read Point #8—and charging higher prices as a result.
#11. Increase customer share not market share — Re-read Point #4. Audacious marketing’s prime directive is to increase the amount of business you do with your EXISTING customers, not increasing the number of customers you have.
If you have 40% of Customer A’s business, for example, your objective is to increase your share of their overall spend in your product and service category to a higher level.
Do you know what your Customer Share is the WHO Groups—re-read Point #2—you have chosen to serve?
You must track this type of performance data, set targets and continue to measure the results of your growth efforts.
#12. Have a direct Line of Sight between your marketing strategy and the Strategic Game Plan of your organization — Dysfunction results when people in an organization are not in sync with its business plan. The plan isn’t clear, or it hasn’t been explained at a granular level as to what it means to the various functions in the organization—marketing, sales, service, finance.
Audacious marketing teams make it a priority to translate the organization’s business strategy into what it means SPECIFICALLY to the marketing team.
What new actions and priorities must the marketing team take on to serve the new direction of the company and what do they need to STOP? How should scarce marketing resources be redeployed?
#13. Implement Internal Report Cards to measure marketing performance inside the organization — Marketing has internal customers, particularly Sales. The question is how well does the marketing team meet the needs of the sales force?
Does sales have all the marketing strategy details they need to effectively execute their role in the strategy? Do they have a direct Line of Sight to the marketing plan? Re-read Point #12.
The vehicle I used to measure marketing’s inside performance was the “Internal Report Card” which Sales and other departments completed regularly. The Report Card asked the recipient how well the marketing team performed (Poor, Fair, Average, Good, Excellent ratings) in areas like: responsiveness, relevance of information they provide, quality of competitive information, product and service information.
The Internal Report Card worked. It helped improve marketing’s performance and the execution of the organization’s strategy.
Audacious marketing took a startup to A BILLION IN SALES. Its growth potential is unimaginable.
If you are driven to grow your business, these 13 proven steps will get you there.
Related: Crafting an Ironclad 'Serving' Strategy: 3 Simple Steps