Top of Mind Awareness Workshop Series

Lesson 2: The 12 Biggest Obstacles to Creating Top of Mind Awareness with Your Ideal Clients

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In the second lesson of this workshop series, you'll discover:

  • 00:07 - Thank you for your feedback.
  • 00:12 - Leaders and followers.
  • 00:41 - Leading your market is not about control or manipulation.
  • 01:08 - If you're not yet creating awareness, you're not leading.
  • 01:16 - If you're not leading, it's likely someone else is.
  • 01:31 - A quick exercise on how to start creating top of mind awareness and dominating your market.
  • 01:45 - It starts with identifying your market.
  • 01:56 - What's your ideal scenario?
  • 02:15 - Start with your own idea of success.
  • 02:21 - In which market would you would like to be known?
  • 02:55 - Examples of target markets.
  • 03:21 - Be specific.
  • 03:30 - Which market are you targeting?
  • 03:34 - What if you can't dominate the market you want?
  • 04:18 - Regardless of your situation, you can identify a segment or sub-market.
  • 04:30 - You've probably already done it.
  • 04:53 - Proof of Concept: Dominating a one-person market.
  • 05:40 - The Twelve Biggest Reasons People Fail to Create Top of Mind Awareness.
  • 05:56 - Reason/Obstacle #1
  • 06:14 - Reason/Obstacle #2
  • 06:40 - Reason/Obstacle #3
  • 07:00 - Reason/Obstacle #4
  • 07:28 - Reason/Obstacle #5
  • 07:57 - Reason/Obstacle #6
  • 08:32 - Reason/Obstacle #7
  • 08:55- Reason/Obstacle #8
  • 09:37 - Reason/Obstacle #9
  • 10:26 - Reason/Obstacle #10
  • 10:56 - Reason/Obstacle #11
  • 11:25 - Reason/Obstacle #12
  • 12:30 - Advice from Winston Churchill
  • 12:47 - In our next video...
  • 13:10 - Let's get your feedback.

Please enter your questions or comments about creating top of mind awareness in the box below...

33 responses to “Workshop Lesson 2: The 12 Biggest Obstacles”

  1. Another fantastic video. Identifying the target market and breaking it down to a manageable size is a great way to begin and not feel overwhelmed!

    • Glad you liked it, Josh. This approach is one of the core concepts our clients use to get noticed and create top-of-mind-awareness with their ideal clients. I look forward to your feedback on the next lesson!

    • Great question, Judie. Meaningful content often leads off with issues that are related to something the prospect is likely to be dealing with. When someone has a problem or challenge and we address that in our content, they are far more likely to pay attention to what we say next. Their needs usually follow from the issues or problems they’re dealing with, so we would address those next. And our solutions — what we do to support them — follows from there and comes at the end. So the ideal flow is usually:

      Problem -> Need -> Solution.

      Many businesspeople make the mistake of leading with their solution, before ever determining whether or not the prospect has a problem that requires the solution they provide.

  2. Great 2nd video and have several comments, the most important; how to identify the actual decision makers. Have spent lots of time connecting with certain industries but have run into road blocks to reach the right contact.

    • In our full Total Market Domination course, we have entire Modules dedicated to Selecting Your Target Markets, Identifying the Appropriate Contacts (i.e. the Decision Makers) in each organization, and Initiating First Contact in a way that positions you as a valuable asset instead of just another salesperson.

      But the quick answer to your question is that you need a system — normally in the form of a few quick questions you can ask — to identify the buyer within each organization. Without such a system, getting customers can be extremely grueling. It’s “a slog” as TMD client Kurt Hoge discusses in this video.

  3. David,

    As usual, great insight and thoughtful information. Do you have any advice for someone who needs help with a national website targeting a very specific niche market? I have been in promo sales for 25 years. This is a new project that we are have just started.

    Thank you for your time.

    • Yes, Rex. In fact, I used to own a national website that sold millions of dollars in products a year targeting a very specific niche.

      While many of the same rules apply, selling Business-to-Consumer (B2C) targets a much broader audience, and it also requires a completely different style of copywriting than in Business-to-Business (B2B) selling. If you’d like some help with this, here’s a link to my calendar to discuss: https://www.topsecrets.com/db/

  4. Thank you, David! A lot of good points for me to think about to Jump start my business to what I want it to be. Great video, ready for the next one

  5. I have a niche market and we do vertical marketing, but as the years have gone on my automobile customers have dwindled. I don’t have as much time to call on them as I had before due to administrative things I didn’t have to do before. I am on a mission to turn this around after everything that has happened in the last year and my sales team is still working, but some of them on different niches. What would you recommend?

    • Kelly, much of what we’re working on with our Total Market Domination clients is geared toward leveraging yourself with things like video, social media and automation tools. These are one-to-many media which allow you to get in front of more people in less time, without actually having to be there physically. If you’d like to know more, please let me know.

  6. David — great comments as usual from a pros’ pro. As one of the old guys out there, I found your items 10 and 11 particularly needling. Looking forward to hearing more in Video 3.

    • Thank you, Steve. I always appreciate hearing from established pros like yourself, who are still open to new ideas or even friendly reminders. I hope I’m “needling” you in a good way!

  7. David,
    Once again thank you ! Establishing proof of concept is, what I believe to be the most important thing anyone can take from this. Confidence isn’t always built in but if they listen to you…they will find it and with direction, replication becomes second nature.

  8. David, okay… now I need Video #3 so that I can take new action starting today! It is 4:30 EST and I have a few more hours of work to do before I head home. I am really enjoying this series from you! Sharon

  9. David Great video after watching this I realize a lot of mistakes I’ve been making and the thing is is I knew what I should be doing by the 12 obstacles you mentioned and have just not been applying it

    This was a good reminder of making sure that I’m hitting my target market and I just realize a week ago that the people that I was going after was not my target market and watching this video just confirm that

    • It’s a great thing when we realize that we’ve been going after the wrong people, Patty, because it gives us a chance to go after the right ones! Some people pursue the wrong prospects for months or even years. When you’re able to shortcut that learning curve, everything good starts happening faster. I’m glad you found this helpful.

  10. quickbooks has a great place under the customer files for notes also. If you are using that for your business accounting, you can make it work for contact management as well. I have not been great at it, but the times I use it, I see the benefit. Goal for 2019. Take better notes and continue forward with DOMINATION!

    • Great point, Julie. In many cases we already have the tools we need, it’s just a matter of using them. This is particularly true of contact management which can be done on anything from paper, to Excel spreadsheets, to digital calendars or even word docs. As you said, the key is to “take better notes and continue forward with DOMINATION!”

  11. David, i really enjoy your videos and learn a lot from you. I want to find a good way to keep up with all of the people I’m calling on so that I can become a LEADER in my market. Do you have a CRM recommendation or any method for keeping up with everything?

    • John, I’m glad you enjoy the videos and find them helpful. There are tons of choices when it comes to CRM systems, but the very BEST system is whichever one you will actually USE. Most CRMs offer a demo or free trial, so I would recommend trying a few of them out to see which suits you best. Many people use solutions like Salesforce.com, ACT, Goldmine, etc. In the promo industry, people use resources from Sage and ASI. But I also have clients who do more than a million dollars a year who keep track of their clients in Outlook (don’t ask me how.) Some still prefer physical journals or planners like Day-Timer, Franklin Covey, etc. The main thing is that you have access to all of it in one place and that you use it consistently. Hope this helps!

    • Completely agree, I have been suffering too long in this industry- 15 years and I need a total overhaul! What i am doing is not working and i need your assistance to get my sales up before i close my company. Start leading …Thank you ..

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