Today, I’d like to share with you the audio of a presentation I did on the twelve obstacles to creating top of mind awareness and dominating your market. This is part two in our workshop series, so if you missed part one or if you’d like to see the videos that go with this series, you can get access to that now at topsecrets.com/tmd. That’s topsecrets.com/tmd. Now let’s get to the presentation!
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Hi, I’m David Blaise… welcome to Video 2 in our workshop series on how to create top of mind awareness and dominate your market.
I’d like to thank everyone who provided feedback on video one, where we discussed the fact that there are leaders and followers in every market, and that leaders tend to dominate, while followers are often left fighting for scraps.
We explained that market leaders are those who immediately leap to mind when a prospect starts thinking about buying a product or service, and how those who don’t leap to mind immediately are at a big disadvantage, because they’re effectively shut out of the decision-making process before they ever have a chance to be considered.
We revealed that dominating a market is not about control or manipulation, it’s about creating an environment in which all the very best prospects for your products and services know who you are, know what you do and have the ability to make an informed decision about whether or not to do business with you.
We also covered a lot more in that video, so if you haven’t seen it, I would encourage you to go back and check it out as soon as possible. Because if you’re not yet creating a level of awareness in your market that allows your very best prospect to know about you, it means you are not leading.
And if you’re not leading, then it’s likely someone else is, and that is not going to help you at all.
Now if you’ve been thinking you can’t do this… that you can’t move from follower to leader… Or if you think it’ll be too hard or take too long or cost too much, then I’d like to walk you through a quick exercise designed to show you how you can begin to create top of mind awareness, in exactly your target market starting right now, even if you’re working with a very limited budget.
You see, creating top of mind awareness begins with identifying exactly the market you want to go after.
So today, I’d like you to ask yourself this question:
What’s your ideal scenario when you think in terms of the market that you’d like to dominate?
Is it the universe? If so, get over yourself Darth Vader, we’re not there yet. Is it the world? Sorry Dr. Evil, you’re probably going to need to start a little smaller. In reality, most business owners have a pretty good idea of what success would look like for them. So let’s just start with that.
What is the market that YOU want to be completely aware of you?
Is it a geographic market, like a city? Is it a particular industrial market like manufacturing if you’re selling B to B? Is it a particular group of people, like yoga enthusiasts, or a demographic, like single women between the ages of 18 and 34?
The target market is different for every business, but creating awareness HAS to start with identifying, as clearly as possible, exactly the market you want to reach. For example, a financial planner might want to target people with a net worth of a million dollars or more who live in a particular city or geographic area. A real estate agent might want to target homeowners in a particular community or development. A print or promotional business might want to target companies of a certain size in a particular industry that historically have spent a lot of money on print or promotions. The more specific you can be about identifying your target market, the sooner you can start to create the level of awareness you’re going to need.
So what exactly is the market you’re targeting?
Once you’ve identified it, you may feel frustrated because you don’t feel like you have the resources to be able to create top of mind awareness with that market. If that’s the case, don’t worry. What’s a subset of that market, a smaller piece of that market, that you COULD identify and target? In other words, if you can’t dominate the entire city, can you start with one area of that city? If not, how about one neighborhood in the city? Or one part of one neighborhood?
If you’re selling B to B, can you start with just the industrial accounts in the city? If not, how about one particular industrial park within the city? Or one building within that industrial park? You get the idea. Regardless of your situation, you should always be able to identify at least one market segment, or sub-market, in which you can begin to dominate.
Remember, in our last video, we discussed the fact that if you’ve been in business for any length of time, it’s likely you’ve already created top of mind awareness — and therefore some level of market domination — among a particular group of people… your best clients. If they think of you first when they need the products or services you offer, it means you’ve already achieved top of mind awareness with them. In fact, if even one person thinks of you first, it means you’ve achieved top of mind awareness with that one person.
It won’t make you rich, but it IS a starting point. In fact, it’s more than that. It’s proof of concept. It demonstrates you can actually do it, because you’ve already done it! After that, it becomes about expanding your presence, rather than completely starting from scratch. This is what makes it doable.
In our previous video, I said that most people fail to lead or dominate their markets, not because they’re doing it wrong. But because it never occurred to them, so they don’t even try. But fortunately, that no longer describes you.
Now you know that dominating your market isn’t about control, it’s about creating top of mind awareness among the most influential and successful people in your market… building a highly profitable customer base, packed with high achievers and market leaders… and making the very best prospects in your designated market aware of YOU, so they can start chasing you, instead of the other way around.
But the fact that it never occurs to most people is just one reason that so many professional, hard-working, conscientious business owners and salespeople fail to create that top of mind awareness and dominate their markets.
Now let’s take a look at some of the other reasons that happens:
Number 2: They don’t know who they’re after.
They fail to clearly identify their target market, which makes it unlikely, if not impossible, that they’ll ever reach them. If you followed along with our brief exercise today and identified exactly the market you’re after — and perhaps a sub-market or two that you could target — then you’re already way ahead of the curve on this. If you didn’t, I would encourage you to go back and do that now.
Number 3: They fail to establish meaningful contact with the decision maker.
It’s pretty straightforward and simple. If you’re not in touch with the person who buys, then you can’t sell to them. So if you don’t have an effective strategy for initiating contact with that person, creating entry-level awareness, and then comfort level awareness as we discussed in the previous video, then you’ll never be able to dominate.
Number 4. Poor or ineffective communication.
Many business owners and salespeople “wing it” when it comes to their messaging. They fail to provide value in each communication, as we discussed earlier. When they fail to create value, some try to compensate with the brute-force selling and hard-core closing tactics that everyone hates. As a result, they lose more business, their communication continues to deteriorate and they fail to dominate.
Number 5. They fail to get attention.
Even if it occurs to you… Even if you know who you’re after… even if you know how to communicate, if you can’t get their attention, you can’t accomplish any of it. Market leaders know that it’s impossible to establish meaningful contact if you are unable to get their attention. So how are you currently doing that? Are you running ads? Are you making cold-calls? Visiting in person? In the words of Dr. Phil, how’s that working for you?
Number 6: Their follow-up is terrible… or maybe just terribly ineffective.
Most businesses are very sloppy when it comes to follow-up. They don’t keep track of exactly what they have to do… or when. They take inadequate notes, so they don’t remember their last conversation with a prospect. They have little to no ability to pick-up a conversation exactly where the last one left off, so they’re constantly having to start over with people. Poor follow-up is an epidemic among businesses large and small, and it’s a huge reason many fail to lead or dominate.
Number 7: They don’t know who’s where or what’s what.
This is similar to the previous one, but a little more specific. Most business owners and salespeople have no idea where each of their prospects stand in terms of the buying cycle. They don’t know who’s ready to buy now, who’s open to buying, who’s never going to buy or who’s gone radio silent. As a result, they have lots of rudderless conversations that fail to get them to their goals.
Number 8: They’re spotty.
They fail to remain visible. In our last video, we talked about the fact that many businesses are completely invisible to the markets they’re trying to serve. The people in their markets don’t even know they exist. That’s not what I’m talking about here. Instead, I’m talking about people who HAVE been in touch with their prospects, they’ve let them know who they are and what they do. They’ve engaged in conversation, moved the discussion forward, but then… they dropped the ball before the prospect had a chance to buy. This happens in business all the time and it kills way too many deals. Don’t let this be you.
Number 9: They can’t do it all themselves. They’re overwhelmed.
Many businesses fail to adequately keep in touch with their prospects, as we just discussed in number 8, but then they blame it on number nine. They say they just can’t do it all themselves. And this is probably true, particularly for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. For that reason, market leaders of all sizes learn how to engage people, even when they’re busy doing other things, by delegating to technology. This is one of those areas that clearly demonstrates what I was talking about in the previous video, when I said “the world of sales and marketing has changed, and if you’re not keeping up, you’re definitely falling behind.” If you can’t do it all yourself, you’re going to need some technology to help out.
Number 10. They can’t close the sale.
I’m not talking about the outdated approach of beating people over the head with manipulative closing techniques and hard core closes. I’m talking about the inability to simply get a yes or no decision out of a prospect who has already expressed interest in buying from you. When you do the rest of these things well, this part becomes a lot easier. But you still have to be able to close the sale. If you can’t, you can never dominate.
Number 11. They don’t know what’s working.
Business requires experimentation. That means we’re always trying new things. Nothing wrong with that at all. But remember, the reason we experiment is to determine what’s working well, so we can build it into our process for next time… and what’s working poorly, so we can either fix it or eliminate it. If you fail to keep track of what’s working and what’s not, then all the experimentation you’re doing is wasted.
Number 12: They quit too soon.
Many business owners and salespeople may be very close to accomplishing great things. But they have to keep going if they want to get there. Creating top of mind awareness with your target market is not something you try. It’s not something you dabble with. Creating top of mind awareness is mission critical if you want to succeed long term. When you’re doing it right… it becomes a lifestyle. Everything you do becomes about creating or enhancing awareness of you and your business among the people inside the target markets and sub-markets you’ve identified. From your emails and texts, to your social media posts and phone calls, it becomes a symphony of coordinated communication. It’s proactive. If you drop the ball and go back to just responding to whatever’s coming at you, you are no longer leading. You’re just following the priorities established by those who manage to work their way inside your inbox.
When you make the decision to become known in your market, follow the advice of Winston Churchill: “Never give up. Never, never, never give up!”
OK, in this video and the last one, you’ve heard a lot about what prevents business owners and salespeople from creating top of mind awareness and dominating their markets. In the third installment of this workshop series, I will walk you through a twelve point mind-map I created for you. You can print out and tack up on your wall to show you exactly how to overcome each of the twelve reasons we just discussed, about why so many hard-working business-people fail to create the necessary top of mind awareness and dominate their markets.
In the meantime, if you have a question or comment on anything I covered in this video, just post it in the box below. If you haven’t checked out the first video, be sure to go back, have a look and comment on that as well. I love it when smart, focused business professionals are able to cut through the clutter, grab attention and create the awareness they need to get clients and dominate their markets. That’s what this entire series is all about, so I hope you’re finding it helpful.
Enter your comments below and I’ll talk to you soon.
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