price alone? We're starting a movement to change the phrase from “cold-calling” to “telespam.” That will put a stop to the courses; no one is going to sell an e-book about “The Top 10 Ways to Better Telespam!”6
So the question is simple: Where on the pyramid are you focusing your marketing efforts? The lowest point with high competition and low margins? Or the middle, while aiming to get to the top?
The main reason people don't focus on the middle is because it takes time. There, we admitted it. Building trust takes time. Fostering relationships takes time. So if you're looking to make the quick buck, go ahead, slide into the greasy bottom level, and enjoy. Just take a shower afterward.
Targeted searches or even targeted ads today are now worlds away from traditional ads. Unlike in the pyramid in Figure 2.1, where they are pictured beside one another, today these two channels are entirely unique from one another.
The ability to very specifically target your ads through Google or on Facebook changes the entire game. You can use the immense amount of information these sites collect from all of us to change the way your ads are served. On the flip side, your customers or would-be market can find you the same way – through a specific, targeted search.
Today we have a blurring of levels on the hierarchy. You can retarget people who already view your company as a recognized expert in a field. You can upload your e-mail list to Facebook and it can be matched with Facebook profiles and serve ads just to them. And heaven forbid you search for cat litter boxes one day like we did, because you'll be looking at ads for them for the next six months.
3
A WORD ON EXPERTS
Let's think back to what we learned from the hierarchy of buying. To successfully UnMarket your business, your goal should be to get to the point where you are a recognized expert in your field. You can choose to be recognized for a certain discipline, whether it's time management or sales or marketing in general. You can also aim to be recognized as an expert in a specific industry. What you have to realize is that there is an important difference between somebody who is selling something and somebody who is an expert. This is one of the problems when you use advertising or direct mail for your marketing: If your potential customers do not have an immediate need for your product or service, then you are potentially turning them off and losing them for the future. When you position yourself as an expert with useful information for people, your marketplace will always have a need for that information. You have successfully pulled people into your funnel, you have their attention, and now you need to do something great for them.
Contrary to popular belief, we are not opposed to advertisements or direct mail. It is just that in general these methods are executed poorly. They are almost always doomed to fail, and companies put too much focus on them. Advertising or a listing in the Yellow Pages or (cough) even a cold-call can “work” if whoever is in contact with you at that very moment has that exact need. And therein lies the problem. You have to blast your message to tens, if not hundreds of thousands or even millions, of people in a spray pattern just to try to grab a few. When you position yourself as an expert in the field, your message is not only in front of people who want to see it, but they have asked to learn about it.
One of the mistakes we see new business owners make, especially in the service industry, is that they don't consider themselves experts. Countless times we've spoken to new clients who balk at the idea of being known as an expert. They tell us they're not ready for that yet. They are adamant that they need to do their work longer to call themselves an expert in their field.
Webster's dictionary defines an expert as “having, involving or displaying special skill or knowledge derived from training or experience.” You have to be an expert to run your own business. You're not going to be an accountant or a nutritionist or even a virtual assistant if you don't know something about your industry. Sure, you may not be the expert in the field, but you can certainly be an expert.
People who claim to be the top expert in a certain field often do it in a way that excludes everyone else. In declaring the top spot, these people claim they know the most and everything there is to know about a certain thing. Really, nobody can claim that. Most industries are ever-changing and evolving, as are marketing tools. Of course, customers are always changing, too, as are their needs. A self-proclaimed expert in social media, the one who says that he or she is the expert in social media, in a field that didn't exist a few years ago should best be avoided.
Pause when you consider hiring someone who calls themselves the expert. We understand because we also get uncomfortable sometimes with getting that title of an expert or guru in social media. Scott is one of the experts in relationship marketing and social media and is a great tool to use for that. But for him to claim that he is the expert would be doing a disservice to everybody who is involved in the field.
What is stopping you from calling yourself one of the experts in your field? Being an expert is not an official designation. You don't get a certificate in the mail, nor do you get a cookie. You are an expert when you say you are one. You know how Scott became an expert in relationship marketing or UnMarketing? He said he was one! This doesn't mean you can become an expert in something you know nothing about. An expert has experience or training in a certain field. Once you have that base set, if you don't have the confidence to call yourself an expert, then you really need to look at yourself. You have to ask, “Why would my customer try to hire me if I don't think I'm great at what I do?”
Once you've accepted the fact that becoming a recognized expert in your field is one of the things you need to do to launch your business off to a great start, we now focus on the term recognized. It doesn't do anybody any good to be an expert only in your own mind, although this does happen to many people all the time. You don't become an expert by just telling people you're an expert – people tell you and then they tell others. When you are great at what you do, other people will say it for you. So focus on positioning yourself with the knowledge you've obtained and set out to help other people with it unconditionally. Use what we lay out in this book to help put you on the right path to not only positioning yourself but also staying as a recognized expert in your field for a long, long time.
4
TRUST GAP
Why do you buy the things you do? Turn the mirror on yourself for a minute and think about how you make choices about your own purchases.
Trust is one of the main drivers of that hierarchy. The higher the trust, the more likely it is that someone will do business with you. This is an important point in service-based businesses that many business owners fail to recognize. One of the biggest challenges is to get someone to try a service for the first time, so companies offer ways to get you to try it “without risk.” Unfortunately, we often equate this with giving something away for free – but this does not always address the issue of trust.
Before speaking at a professional organizers conference, we researched a bunch of their websites and noticed that many organizers were offering a “Free Consultation” of their potential customers' home organizational needs to get their foot in the door. By focusing only on price as a barrier to making the first purchase, they were missing something important. Of course, we do understand that price objection is a legitimate issue with many potential customers. However, there is also a tremendous trust gap. This is the amount of trust you have to earn before your potential customer will consider buying from you. The trust gap can be practically nonexistent, like buying a newspaper, but even then you have to trust that the content will be good. For many service-based businesses, the trust gap is much wider.
So coming back to the professional organizer example, allowing someone into our home requires
We just jinxed it. Someone is going to write this. We picture a guy with greasy hair who runs multiple free seminars in hotels about how to get rich quick in a time of recession. We go to those events just for the free muffins.
