133

P R O C E E D I N G S
MP3: MP1038 CD: C1038
Y
es, Ive tried a dozen dierent jobs.
Ive worked for big companies and small com-
panies. Ive tried some of my own entrepreneurial
ventures. A couple of them were success stories. A couple
of them werelearning experiences. But all were valuable!
What I do now is write booksfour of them now, all
on business growth. And I speak to groups of people like
you: practice owners, marketers, and sales professionals
who want to bring in more business so that they can take
home more money.
Tis work comes naturally to me because I grew up in
an entrepreneurial family. In fact, my rst real job out of
college was in the family business. I was an S.O.B.son
of the boss. Any other sons of the boss here? How about
D.O.B.s? Interesting relationship with the rest of the sta,
isnt it?
I dont know about your folks, but my dad wanted to
make sure that nobody thought I was getting preferential
treatment just because I was an S.O.B. He started me out
loading trucks in our warehouse business. We lived in cen-
tral Iowa, whichfor those of you who may not be famil-
iar with the central United Statesis a place that gets very
cold in the winter. Its not unusual to see temperatures of
20 below zero in January and February. Our warehouse
was one of those huge metal buildings with no insulation
or heat. It only took one winter there to know I wanted to
be in management!
By the mid-1970s, I was pretty much running the whole
business. One of our companies was in the air freight con-
necting truck business. We had half a dozen trucks that
went all over central Iowa, picking up packages at business-
es. Tese were items that had to get somewhere else in the
countryfast. We took them to Des Moines International
Airport and gave each piece to the airline that served the
city nearest their nal destination. Someone just like us
would receive them at the other end and make the deliver-
ies. We also had inbound freight to deliver.
We handled hundreds of packages every day. Te average
charge to the customer was about $9 per package. We were
makin money, man. Fat, dumb, and happy. Life was good.
Stand Out: Differentiate or Disappear
Larry Mersereau, CTC
Larry Mersereau, CTC, president of PromoPower
LLC, is a business growth expert and has authored
four books on this topic. He speaks to dozens of
audiences every year and shares his unique twist on
the latest sales and marketing techniques available.
Te rst of his four books, small-business classic
Shoestring Marketing, was published in 1995.
His books published since then have all focused on
the needs of the small-business owner. He also has
created online and print marketing communications
for clients in a broad range of industries.
PromoPower LLC
2200 N.W. 159 St., Suite 400
Clive, IA 50325-7990
Phone: 515.987.6071
E-mail: larry@promopower.com
134
P R O C E E D I N G S
Stand Out: Differentiate or Disappear(continued)
Ten one day in 1976 one of my customers called. He
said, I just heard from a fellow who said his new company
could pick up my packages at my door and would make
the delivery clear across the country overnight for just a few
dollars more than youre charging me just to take them to
the airport. What are you going to do about that?
I said, Do? Im not going to do anything about that.
Tats a awed business model. Tey cant make any mon-
ey at that. Tey wont survive. No way!
Way. A little upstart company by the name of Federal
Express. How many of you have heard of Federal Express?
How many of you have ever heard of Tallyho Transport
Inc.? We put the duh in Des Moines.
Well, I think you know the rest of that story. Federal
Express went on to become one of the most powerful brands,
not just in America, but the world. Tey changed the air
freight business practically overnight. (Overnight. Get it?)
Well, I learned some important business lessons that
year. Possibly the most important one was this: In times
of turbulent change, the most dangerous possible strategy is to
keep doing things the same way.
How many of you would agree that were in times of
turbulent change? No matter what part of the world you
live in, youve seen more change in your lifetime than
has occurred in the previous 5,000 years. In my lifetime
Ive seen television go from black and white to color to
digital to a total waste of time. Telephones have gone
from operator-connected to rotary dial to push-button to
mobile. I remember the invention of the microwave oven.
And the computer. What have they done to aect change?
Technology is driving change in many ways, and the scary
thing is: Te pace of that change gets faster every year.
Look at the little notebook computer I carry everywhere I
go. It does more and does it faster than a mainframe that
lled a whole building just 40 years ago. And computers
keep getting smaller and faster every day.
Heck, look at the phone you have in your pocket or
briefcase right now. Okay, some of you have yours out and
youre texting right now, telling your friends what a dyna-
mite session theyre missing, no doubt!
Mobile media is one of the biggest changes in mar-
keting and in nances in recent years. Every year, more
people depend on this little item to get their news, infor-
mation, entertainment, keep in touch with friendseven
make new friends. Mobile banking and account manage-
ment is one of the fastest growing sectors in the business.
If youre not looking at how you can use this technology to
help your clients stay on top of their accounts and policies,
youre missing one of the big changes in technology.
Barack Obama used mobile marketing to win the U.S.
presidential election in 2008. In fact, I think it was pos-
sibly the single biggest dierence between him and John
McCain. Obama wanted to appeal to a young audience,
so he used the technology they love: these little darlins.
Remember when Obama had won the nomination of
the Democratic party but hadnt announced his running
mate yet? Who remembers how he made the announce-
ment? Yes, by text message. And if you wanted to be one
of the rst to know who it would be, you had to sign up for
the list. 2.9 million people signed up for his text message
list. And hes still adding names.
Tink he still uses those names and numbers? You bet.
Not long ago, I was doing a program like this, and one of
the audience members came up to me afterward to show
me the message he had received from the president on his
cell phone during the session. It said that the president
wanted his support for a specic piece of legislation. It
said, Your senator is so-and-so, and your representatives
are these people. Click here to send them a message sup-
porting this side of the legislation. Its a tremendous tool
for Obama with his young followers.
If you want to do business with people who rely on
their cell phones for everythingand the age group of
those people goes up every yearyoud better nd a way
to be in this little box. Heck, even at my age Im using this
for more and more every year. You probably are too, so
you know your clients and prospects are. If you want to
be the brand they think of rst, you have to make their
life simple. Tis is just one of the things you should be
looking at.
135
P R O C E E D I N G S
Stand Out: Differentiate or Disappear(continued)
Remember, one thing that consumers all look for in
times of turbulent change is a little stability. And one place
they look for it is in the brands they buy. Why? Brand
loyalties simplify life for the buyer.
People dont want to have to nd a new supplier ev-
ery time they buy something. Tey especially dont want
to have to nd a new supplier every time they make an
investment or a nancial move of any kind. Same with
insurance. Tey will come back to a trusted brand over
and over, unless something signicant happens to change
their buying habits. Or unless that brand lets them down.
Before a brand becomes the preference, the buyer has
to have a reason to choose it in the rst place. Some things
we use just because we always have. You probably still buy
the same toothpaste your mom bought for you when you
were a kid. Same with peanut butter and facial tissues.
What brand name do many of us use instead of the term
facial tissue? We just say, Kleenex. What if you have
to overnight a package somewhere? We just say, FedEx.
My old buddies.
So why should I choose you? Why should anyone
choose you over the many options that are available to
them? Tey can do what you do online for themselves.
Tey can use any of dozens of brokers or agents in your
market. Why should they choose you?
Everybody nd a partnernot someone you came here
with. Meet somebody new. Now, tell each other what it is
about you that makes you dierent from the other options
your clients and prospects could choose from.
Who heard something particularly good from a
partner?
If you cant articulate in a few words why youre the best
option for your target customers, youre hoping theyll be
able to come up with a reason on their own. You want to
get your answer to the question Why should I choose
you? down to a few choice words and be ready to use it
anytime youre in a sales situation.
How many of you have what they call an elevator
speech? For those who might not know what that is, its
a short introduction you would use when you rst meet
someone. Unfortunately, its the short sales pitch that
rookie salespeople use as they promiscuously hand out
business cards at the chamber of commerce mixer hoping
to get total strangers to buy from them. Chamber of com-
merce mixers are where business cards go to die. Im not
saying you shouldnt be active in your chamber. Im saying
dont be one of those people who walk around handing out
business cards to everyone they meet.
Smart sales professionals identify specic target cus-
tomers and build their practice around serving them
specically. Where you promote yourself, what you say
in your marketing materials, your website, and yes, your
elevator speech. Where you locate your oce, how you
decorate it, what you wear to work, what kind of sta you
hireeverything is designed to tell your target customers
that you know and understand them and that your busi-
ness is built around serving them.
An elevator speech or unique selling proposition or
whatever you want to call it is much easier to write when
you know exactly whom youre writing it for. If youve
chosen target customers for whom you are uniquely suited
and qualied, you can easily stand out from the other op-
tions they might consider.
Assume every prospect, and even your current clients,
are asking this question: Why should I choose you? You
want to be a brand that they relate to, that they are loyal
to. Brand loyalty simplies life for the buyer. Choosing you
should be a no-brainer.
As you create a brand for yourself, the name, tag line,
graphic design, personality, even the colors are going to
grab your target customers and tell them exactly what you
do and why youre the best option for them.
Heres a good way to get started. Remember, youre
answering the question: Why should I choose you? Why
should I come to you instead of one of the many other op-
tions out there? Your answer should be: Because Im the
only one who . You ll in the blank.
Now it doesnt have to be a huge dierence. And it
doesnt even have to be something that nobody else does; it
just has to be something that you do better or dierently.
136
P R O C E E D I N G S
Stand Out: Differentiate or Disappear(continued)
And heres an important point: It has to be something that
nobody else is using as a dierentiation point. If youre the
rst to make a claim, and you make it loudly and consis-
tently, you own it.
Its the claim that will make your brand stand out from
the crowd of other options they have to consider. Tey
want to choose a brand that speaks to them specically,
so make it about themthe target customers. Te more
its about them, the more youll have their attention and
the more likely they are to choose you. And once theyve
chosen you, they really want to stay with you. Brand loy-
alty simplies life for the client. So make it simple for them
to choose you.
Heres one of my favorite brands: Petco. Im a card car-
rying Petco PAL. How many of you are? Maybe some are
PetSmart?
Twelve years ago my wife and I decided to get a dog.
Not just any dog. Tis is Ben. [visual] Hes getting to be
an old man now, but when we rst got him, he was loaded
with energy. In fact, he was my exercise program. Teres
no peace in our house until Ben has had his W.A.L.K. Oh,
you cant say the word or youll be committed.
A trip to Petco is the high point of his month. First
of all, he gets to go for a R.I.D.E. in the C.A.R. When
he gets there, its a big social opportunity. Lots of people
bring their dogs to the store, so he gets to meetand
greetdogs hes never seen before. Of course, they have
to mark territory when they meet somebody new, so there
are regular calls of Cleanup on aisle seven. One thing
you learn quickly. When youre in the dog aisle at Petco,
you never touch anything on the bottom shelf.
Petco sends me oers regularly, both by e-mail and
postal mail. Tey know e-mail isnt nearly as dependable.
You could learn a lot from Petco: Put something in your
clients pocket that reminds them that youre their broker
and that you appreciate them. Contact them regularly
with new information and ideas, but dont depend entirely
on e-mail: Its too easy to get caught up in the spam lter.
Even if its just a postcard, put something in their hands
through the mail on a regular basis.
But look at what I got in my e-mail last fall. PetMeds.
Tis is what I call personalized. I had decided to try
ordering heartworm medication online instead of making
a trip to my vet. I had to provide the dogs name, breed,
and age. I bought six months worth of pills. Six months
later I got this e-mail. Does that photo look like Ben or
what? [visual]
Another important lesson: Each client or prospect
that you talk to is an individual. Individuals respond to
communications that address them specically, the more
specic the better. Your long-term clients have left you a
trail of buying habits, risk acuity, patience, or lack thereof,
preferences of all kinds that you should be using to per-
sonalize communications with them. Certainly before any
conversation you should review that information so that
its fresh in your mind. Why would they ever consider
doing business with anyone else when you already know
them so intimately?
Tat brings me to a tool I use with all of my consult-
ing clients. Its called the Brand Ladder. It represents the
journey people make from being a total stranger to be-
ing someone who wouldnt think of doing business with
anyone but you.
I said total stranger because there are a lot of them.
We now have nearly 7 billion people on this planet. You
have to realize that 99.9999% of them are never going to
do business with you.
Your mission is to gure out who the .0001% who
might do business with you are and concentrate your ef-
forts on reaching them and taking them to the rst step up
the ladder: Recognition.
Recognition means that if I were at a cocktail party
and someone mentioned your name, I would say, Ive
heard of her.
How many times do you think people have to hear
about you before they get to the stage that they recognize
your name if they hear it. Who knows? In marketing they
teach the rule of seven. It takes seven exposures just to
get to the point where people recognize you. Tat doesnt
mean you can send seven e-mails, send seven postcards,
137
P R O C E E D I N G S
Stand Out: Differentiate or Disappear(continued)
or run seven ads, and it will get it done. Tey may not see
them all, or the spam lter may trip you up. You have to
put yourself in front of them in multiple venues, and do it
relentlessly, if you want name recognition.
And put money and energy only into media where you
know your target customers are likely to see you. If youre
after 20-year-olds, youd better be on their mobile devices.
If you want to talk to my generation, well see you in the
morning newspaper. Once you narrow your sights, its
easy to see where it makes sense to put your message. And
once you nd your media, you want to be there repeatedly,
consistently.
And heres something most marketing classes dont tell
you: If you dont look the same every time they see you,
the repetitions dont accrue. Your ads, letterhead, business
cards, brochures, web pages, e-mailseverything you put
in front of the prospect in any media has to have a consis-
tent look and feel.
How many of you read the Sunday paper? Is there a
Best Buy superstore in your city? Is it not in the Sunday
paper every week? Each week Best Buy promotes dierent
products, but its piece is always the same shape and size,
theres a recognizable color scheme, and it uses the same
typefaces and general layout. You can spot the Best Buy
insert from across the room and know whose it is. Tats
the value of continuity and repetition. All that just to get
to the recognition step!
Ten next step is Awareness. At that same cocktail
party, someone asks, Do you know a good nancial advi-
sor? Your name comes up. Now the individual is able to
pull your name up from memory.
Lets do a little experiment: Everyone get out a piece of
paper and a pen or pencil, and write down the names of as
many washing machine brands as you can think of.
Okay, raise your hand if you have at least three. Keep
your hand up if you have four or more. Five or more. Six
or more. Seven or more. Eight or more. Tis is interesting,
because it always happens. Nobody ever has more than
seven. Its the other rule of seven. People can recall from
memory up to only seven brands of any given product.
And if you notice, most of you came up with only three
or four.
What that means is, if youre not one of the rst three
or four names that come to mind when prospects are look-
ing for an agent or a broker, youre not even in the game.
And theyll probably call the name that came up rst
rst. Tey dont go looking in the Yellow Pages or the mail
that happened to come in that day. Teyll go to the name
thats got what we call top of mind awareness.
When they come to you and ask for the free special
report you oered, come to your seminar, or agree to meet
with you, this is the Acceptance step on the brand ladder.
Teyve made a huge leap here. Teyre willing to identify
themselves to you as a serious prospect. Its important that
you handle this well at your end. If theyve been reading
your e-mails, seen your ads, visited your website, talked to
people about you, and now theyre willing to talk to you,
they had better be welcomed like a visiting dignitary.
If they call your oce for the rst time and are greeted
with Please press 1 if youre using a touch-tone phone,
you might as well stop wasting your money on marketing
because youre losing them. A human being who knows
exactly what to do when a prospect calls should be han-
dling your phone calls and walk-ins. And that person
should be treated well so that he or she is always happy to
be handling your phone calls and walk-ins. If he or she has
a bad day and decides to share it with your new prospect,
the prospect will hang up or turn on his heels and walk
back out in a heartbeat.
You want to know what makes people jump o brands
ladders?
A survey conducted in the fall of 2009 by Opinion
Research Corporation asked 1,125 Americans about 21
common annoyances. Tese werent all client service is-
sues, but the two that came out on top both were. Number
one was Hidden Fees. Even after people reach the point
of being ready to part with their hard-earned money,
which is still a few steps up the ladder from where we are
now, if you surprise them with unexpected fees, they will
leave with hard feelings.
138
P R O C E E D I N G S
Stand Out: Differentiate or Disappear(continued)
Number two in the survey was Not getting a human
on the phone. Tat gets back to what I just said about the
acceptance step. When they nally reach out to you, youd
better have a knowledgeable human being ready to answer
the phone or greet them personally when they walk in. If
they respond by e-mail, have a human write a reply that
acknowledges them and their request personally, not some
generic auto-responder message.
You spent all of this money and eort to get someone
to raise his hand. Dont blow it now!
Were doing everything we can to walk people up the
ladder. At each step were working to get them to the next.
If at any point they have a negative experience, they will
jump o your brand ladder immediately. And do you
think theyll come back to give you a second chance? Not
likely. So every step has to be considered carefully and
planned for strategically.
Okay, you have your initial meeting, maybe a couple
of them. Tey decide to do business with you. Tis is the
Preference step on the ladder. Youre their advisorat
least for now.
Whether you realize it or not, we just switched de-
partments. I mean, if youre a big company, you have
departments to handle various aspects of your business.
Which department is responsible for taking them from
total stranger to recognition to awareness to acceptance?
Marketing. Now we have the rst meeting or conversa-
tion. Which department takes over? Sales.
In many big companies theres almost an animosity
between sales and marketing. Marketing should be gen-
erating leads, and sales should be closing deals. But if that
hando from marketing to sales isnt seamless, prospects
will jump o the ladder. If marketing generates leads and
sales blows them o, nobody wins. If marketing makes
promises and sales doesnt keep them, or if marketing
pulls people in under pretenses that sales isnt aware of,
theres a disconnect that makes prospects uncomfortable,
confused, or both.
Anytime prospects are either confused or uncomfort-
able, theyre gone.
So you have a new client and the rst transaction went
well. Surely the client will be back, right? Not necessarily.
Dont forget, a lot of your competitors are sending your
clients e-mails and inviting them to seminars, trying to
lure them in just as you had to.
Its important that you follow up soon after that rst
transactionideally, after every transaction, to make sure
all is well and to provide new information and ideas. If
this were a department, which one would it be? Now were
talking Service. If youre not regularly, proactively con-
tacting your clients, youre doing them a disservice and
probably leaving money on the table. Youre certainly leav-
ing them to nd their own information and ideaspos-
sibly from your competition.
If you want client Loyalty, the next step up the ladder,
you have to be one step ahead of them. Using their history
and the data you have gathered from them, you should be
making suggestions and oering ideas and products that
are a natural t for their own buying patterns.
Do it eectively, and you develop Insistence. Tey
wouldnt even think of going to someone else. You know
them intimately. You come to them with proactive sugges-
tions and ideas rather than waiting for them to call. And
the more you do, the more you learn about them. And
the more you learn about them, the better you are able to
tailor your suggestions.
Tis is a continuous activity. Maintaining and mining
client data so that you are always one step ahead of them is
key to reaching and staying at that Insistence level. Tey
wouldnt even think about going to someone other than
you. And they want to be at this level because they dont
want to have to make a decision every time they want to
make an investment or add some coverage. Tey dont want
to search the Internet or the Yellow Pages. Tey want to go
to someone they know and trust to steer them right. Brand
loyalty simplies life for the buyer. You want to be their brand.
Ive mentioned your competition a number of times.
Lets talk about them for a few minutes.
You and each of your competitors are in one of four
possible market positions. Knowing which ones you and
139
P R O C E E D I N G S
Stand Out: Differentiate or Disappear(continued)
they are in is key to standing out from the crowd. What
you can reasonably say in your sales conversations and
marketing communications is aected by your market
position, so it is important.
I like to use the car rental companies as an example for
this segment because just about all of us have rented a car
at one time or another. Wherever in the world you live,
youll quickly recognize the four market positions based
on this example.
What I want you to do is apply this to your own selling
situation. Be thinking about your market. Who are your
closest competitors? Have them in mind as we go through
this, and be thinking about which of the four market posi-
tions each one occupies. And of course, be thinking about
your own market position at the same time.
In every market there is one organization that is the
clear market leader. Te leader has usually been there the
longest. It is probably the biggest. It has the latest of every-
thing. In the car rental business that means that it has the
newest eet and the largest selection of cars. It oers the
most options, like GPS navigation and ski racks. It has the
biggest and best worldwide reservations system.
Who would you say is the leader in the car rental busi-
ness? Yes, its Hertz. How do you know that? Because
Hertz tells you so! Everything about their business shouts
Were number one. I travel a lot and I use Hertz exclu-
sively. I am now an elite member of their frequent traveler
program. Do you know what Hertz calls the program? #1
Club Gold. Gold is of course also the main color in the
Hertz logo.
When I need a car, I go to the Hertz website, put in my
#1 Club Gold number, the city, dates, and ight informa-
tion in and out, and Im done. Hertz has my credit card
information on le and know my insurance and options
preferences. Hertz knows what kind of car I want.
When I arrive at the destination airport, I get on the
Hertz bus and simply tell the driver my last name. He or
she types it into a handheld computer, and it tells dispatch
that Im en route. When I get to the Hertz lot, Im taken
to a line of cars covered by a canopy. My name is in lights
over one of the cars. Its the car I always rent. Its a car
that has never, ever been smoked in, because thats what
I demand. Te motor is running and, the trunk is open.
If its wintertime, the heat has been running long enough
to warm up the car. In summer the air-conditioning is on.
I throw my bag in the trunk, head out to a gate where I
show the agent my drivers license to verify that its me,
and Im gone. No lines. No hassle.
Tats the kind of thing people expect from the market
leader. Everything just the way the customer wants it, and
everything rst class.
When I have to make travel arrangements, I dont shop
around. I go directly to my preferred airline and my pre-
ferred car rental company. Te client generally takes care
of the hotel, but if I have to do it, I know whom I go
to. Brand loyalties simplify my life. And as long as Hertz
doesnt let me down, I have no reason to change.
Te second market position is the challenger. Te
challenger plays at the same level as the leader. In fact,
the challenger would love to bump the leader o and take
over that position. But the challenger is realistic. Te chal-
lenger knows that, unless the leader makes some serious
business error, the leader will never give up that position.
Te challenger has just as modern of a eet as the leader
and a similar worldwide reservations system. Te chal-
lenger has a frequent traveler program with the car under
a canopy and the customers name in lights.
Who is the challenger in the car rental business? Avis.
How do you know that? Because it says so. When Avis
rst went into business, it hired a very smart advertising
agency who told Avis that Hertz is the established market
leader. You cant go in and say, Were better than Hertz,
so you should choose us. So Avis came up with a slogan
that acknowledges that there is a market leader and that
the consumer knows it. Avis came up with We know
were number two, so we try harder.
Now think for a minute. Are you or your company
either the leader or the challenger in your market? How
would that aect the language you use in sales presenta-
tions and in your marketing materials?
140
P R O C E E D I N G S
Stand Out: Differentiate or Disappear(continued)
Were only halfwayTere are two more market positions.
Te next market position is the follower. Tere can be
numerous followers. In fact, there usually are. Followers
dont go all the way to rst class like the leader and the
challenger do. Oh, they try to look as much like the leader
and the challenger as they can, but they cant do every-
thing the other two do. Followers have new cars, but they
keep them a little longer. You may get a car with 25,000
miles on itmuch more than youd ever see from the
leader or the challenger. If you ask for a nonsmoking car,
they are sure to clean one up real well for you. But if youre
like me, you know if a car has ever been smoked in. Im a
reformed smoker. Were the worst! Tey dont have a can-
opy, and they sure arent going to spend the money to run
the engine while you make your way in from the airport.
Teres only one reason a customer would choose a fol-
lower over either the leader or the challenger. What would
that be? Yes: Price. Te followers only competitive advan-
tage is that it oers a lower price.
Who are some of the followers in the car rental busi-
ness? Tink about some of their names: Dollar, Budget,
Trifty. Price is even in their name.
Tis is a point in the program where I often see some
long faces in the audience. If you just realized that youre
in the follower position, take heart. Teres still one more
market position left.
Many businesses fall into the follower position totally
by accident. Something happens in the market that makes
them feel like they have to oer a lower price to get a piece
of business. Maybe they do it often. Heck, I see adver-
tising all the time that says Best Price or Well match
our competitors price. Tey might even say Well BEAT
our competitors price. If youve been saying something
like that in your advertising, youve been announcing to
the world that youre a follower. Oh, theyre not thinking,
Tats follower language if Ive ever heard it. But they
know where you stand in the crowd of competitors. Youre
where theyll go if price is the most important issue.
If youre constantly getting beat up on priceHey,
I can do this online for $7 a trade, what can you do for
me?they see you as a follower. You havent shown them
that youre worth more than $7, so they expect you to
match or even beat it.
Te fourth market position may be for you. Its espe-
cially for you if youre a small independent. Its the market
nicher position.
Nichers dance to a dierent beat. Tey nd a specic
market group whose needs or demands arent being met
by the others. Maybe they work with an anity group
exclusively, or oer some services, hours, termswhat-
ever. Tey do things that a specic market has told them
it wants and that their so-called competitors dont or cant
oer. I say so-called because once you establish a niche,
you have no competitors. You are unique in your market.
Nichers do things that nobody else does, so they really
cant be compared. Tat means price is much less of an
issue for nichers. Tey oer something so desirable that
people might not even ask, How much? Tey just say,
I want it.
Can you think of any nichers in the car rental business?
Okay, a few of you have answered Enterprise to every
market position. Ill talk about them in a minute, because
they actually started out as nichers.
But here are a couple of other nichers: How many of
you have heard of Auto Boutique? Teyre just outside
LAX airport. As you leave the airport, youll see a lot with
all Ferraris, Lamborghinis, and Porsches. Tats Auto
Boutique. Te cheapest car on its lot rents for $2,500 a
day, plus the insurance. You will buy the insurance, be-
cause your auto policy probably isnt going to cover you.
Hertz and Avis are no competition. Tere are no followers
renting exotic cars. Auto Boutique serves a very limited
market, but that market is willing to pay big time to drive
one of these cars for a day.
Another niche is Zipcar. Have you heard of it? Its
in Chicago and I think a couple of other cities now. In
Chicago, its ridiculously expensive to own a car. Insurance
is outrageous. Parking is expensive as heckif you can
even nd a place to park. If you become a Zipcar member,
you are given pass card. It has cars parked all over the city,
141
P R O C E E D I N G S
Stand Out: Differentiate or Disappear(continued)
in spaces it owns so that nobody else can take the parking
spot. You simply nd one of its cars, wave your card over
the reader under the windshield, and the locks pop. You
get in and drive as long and as far as you want to. When
youre done, you return it to any Zipcar space, anywhere
in the city, and wave your card over the reader to indicate
that youre done. Your credit card is automatically billed
for the time and mileage. Its not inexpensive by the hour
or mile, but unless you drive your own car a lot, youll
spend much less over the course of a year than you would
if you owned a car. And you would never have to worry
about breakdowns, servicing, or repairs. A denite nicher.
Now, Enterprise. Its actually larger than Hertz now in
terms of units and locations. Of course, Hertz still holds
that leader position in the mind of the public, which is the
most important place.
Who knows what niche Enterprise started in? Yes, the
insurance business. On your auto policy, you are probably
allowed so much per day to rent a car when your car is
in for damage repairs. Good luck nding a rental car for
the allowance they give you! But thats where Enterprise
came in. It went to the insurance companies and promised
to provide a car at the allowed rate if they would have
their claims agents refer their customers to Enterprise.
And Enterprise places its locations in busy neighborhoods
instead of at the airport. If your car is in the shop, its a
little dicult to get out to the airport to rent a car. In fact,
now Enterprise will pick you up at home to make your
life really simple.
So which position are you in right now? Is it where
youd like to be? If not, start looking at what you can do
to position yourself dierently. If youre sitting in that fol-
lower spot right now, think about changes you can make
in your language, where you advertise, who you promote
yourself to, even where your oce is located and how its
decorated. And dont forget to look at how you and your
sta dress. Expensive brokers wear expensive suits. Always
suits. Nichers probably dress like their target customer.
Followers wear Dockers. Dont be the person at the cham-
ber of commerce who wears Dockers. I dont care if it is
business casual day. If you want to be the leader or a high-
caliber nicher, you dress like you belong there all the time.
Its part of your brand.
Smart businesses plan which market position they
want to occupy and build their whole business around
giving the right appearance.
And think about which positions each of your com-
petitors is in. When you know youre bidding against one
of them, use that knowledge to your advantage. Te truth
is, most smaller companies have never given this market
position thing much thought. Tey probably dont even
realize theyre followers, so you can really jump on this.
Lets look at a few ads that declare market position.
You already saw what Hertz does. Have you ever seen an
ad like this of Americas top ten steak houses? [visual] If
you ew in here this week, you probably saw an ad like
this in your inight magazine. Do you think someone
voted these to be the top ten steakhouses in America? No.
Teyre ten steakhouses, all in cities served by this airline.
Tey pooled their money and ran an ad. Now, these are all
dynamite steakhouses. It would damage everyone if they
let in some mediocre place. But the top ten designation
is their own. Its leader language. If you just say it, people
have no reason to disbelieve you as long as youre the rst
one who does and you keep doing it consistently. Tis
group has run ads for years. Te participants change from
time to time, but theyre presenting themselves as leaders.
Its all about perception.
I love Sargentos tag line: Persnickety people, excep-
tional cheese. You should be able to say what makes you
dierent when you answer the question Why should I
choose you? in a few words. All of this work were doing
can be cooked down to a few words. Once you have a tag
line like this, it goes everywhere your logo goes: in ads, on
your website, your business cardeverywhere. It denes
your brand in a few words.
Heres another nicher: American Grill. Tis also shows
your advertising doesnt have to be a masterpiece to get
attention and deliver a message. Tere are 12 words in
this ad. [visual] Do they tell you everything you need to
142
P R O C E E D I N G S
Stand Out: Differentiate or Disappear
know about this place? You can picture the building, cant
you? Do you think there will be white tablecloths and ne
china on the tables? No. Tere will be butcher paper and
unbreakable plates, if not paper plates. Are you going to
wear a suit and tie when you go there? Better notsome-
bodys liable to cut your tie o with a pair of scissors! But
do you think the ribs are any good? Oh yeah.
Positioning: Most people dont think of it this way. If
you dont do anything else next week, take some time to
gure out where you are now and if its where you want to
be. Maybe you want to be in a dierent position than you
are now. Tats ne. Just pick where you want to be, and
start building that image. Figure out where each of your
closest competitors is. Ten think about how you can pres-
ent yourself to people in your chosen target market so that
they can clearly see why you are a better choice.
Your sales conversations. Your marketing materi-
als. Even your attitude. Everything about your business
should reect your brand, your dierentiation, and your
positioning.
Once youve determined who you really are, which
.00001 % of the population you want to target, what
makes you dierent, and why those prospects should
choose you instead of one of the many options they have
available to them, every business decision gets easier. Te
next time you have to hire someone ask yourself, Can this
person relate to my target customer? Will my 60-year-old
target customer be comfortable sharing his or her nancial
information with a 20-year-old?
When your lease expires, is there space available some-
where thats more appropriate, more impressive (or better
reects your low-price reputation), or more easily acces-
sible to your target customer? What kind of car should you
drive? What should you wear to work and to networking
functions?
Where should you advertise? What should you say, in
your marketing communications and in your sales pre-
sentations? What promises can you make? What kinds of
products should you promote?
Every business decision gets simple.
Identify those target customers. Position yourself in
their minds as the business thats built entirely around
their unique needs and desires. Know your competition
and position yourself as a unique alternative. Work them
up your brand ladder by delivering what you promised
and more at every step, and by always being prepared for
the next step with every transaction. Remember that, once
target customers choose your brand, their future business
is yours to keep or lose. Tey dont want to change because
brand loyalty simplies life for the client.
Stick to those target customers and reect brand con-
dence in your sales conversation and marketing communi-
cations, and youll bring in more business and take home
more moneymy wish for you in the coming year.