Get Your Black Belt in Marketing: 81 Power Moves to Outperform, Outmaneuver, and Outsmart the Competition
482
Get Your Black Belt in Marketing: 81 Power Moves to Outperform, Outmaneuver, and Outsmart the Competition
482Paperback
-
PICK UP IN STORECheck Availability at Nearby Stores
Available within 2 business hours
Related collections and offers
Overview
Are you looking for proven revenue generating strategies to grow your sales immediately? In this book you'll find strategies that are used by some of the fastest-growing & most successful companies in the world. These moves are so powerful they are rarely even discussed in public forums.
These inside secrets are known only to the world's top marketing gurus & have been closely guarded in the inner circles of marketing for decades. Well, now in Get Your Black Belt in Marketing, learn 81 moves to cut through the marketing clutter. These moves are absolutely guaranteed to increase your sales!
For the last 20 years, Ali Pervez has marketed in 22 different countries around the world. He now distills his knowledge, wisdom, & findings into 81 powerful marketing moves any company, of any size, in any industry, can use to increase sales revenue. It's full of expert advice, proven revenue-generating strategies & time-tested.
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781600374821 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Morgan James Publishing |
| Publication date: | 06/01/2009 |
| Pages: | 482 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.20(d) |
About the Author
He is the author of the book Marketing is King!, has over 20 years of global marketing experience, & has done marketing projects in 22 countries outside of the U.S. Starting as a marketing analyst, he rose to the position of Chief Marketing Officer. He has held senior marketing positions at start-ups & major U.S. Fortune 500 Companies, including Abbott Laboratories, Sonoco Products Company, & Robert Half International. At Abbott Laboratories, he was a recipient of two Vice President Awards for outstanding contribution in marketing within one year. In 4 months, he was also able to triple the sales of the division he ran for one of the fastest growing companies in the U.S., & he nearly tripled the sales of a Silicon Valley Biotech startup within a year.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
MOVE 1
Understand marketing and know its purpose
To be a true black belt marketer, you will need to adopt a new way of thinking that is different from conventional marketers. You will often do the opposite of what other marketers do. You will need to develop a new mind-set, or way of thinking, about marketing. In the world of black belt marketing, mind-set is always more important than method. The techniques will follow naturally once you adopt the mind-set. So let's get started by asking the obvious question: What is marketing?
Marketing is the process of bringing value to the market. It is value that customers — or soon-to-be customers — believe to be important that enhances their lives. Marketers call it perceived value. People buy products and services they believe can improve their lives. Knowing that marketing is about perceived value is a secret that marketing gurus have known for centuries. It is a jealously guarded secret, and now you know it, too.
True black belt marketers stay focused on the customer, not the competition. The customer or potential customer should always be at the core of your thinking.
"There is no objective reality. There are no facts. There are no best products. All that exists in the world of marketing are perceptions in the mind of the customer. This perception is reality."
— Jack Trout and Al Ries
"Marketing is about perceived value."
— Professor Donald Sexton
Trump University/Columbia University
A black belt marketer's goal is to be "on the mark" of the perceived value that others want. It's called marketing for that reason: to be on the mark of what the market wants and values.
Mark > Market > Marketing!
You will find that most of your competition focuses on how great their product or service is. They have it all backward. They are in love with their products' or services' wonderful features instead of with customers. But a black belt marketer is in love with customers first — how the product or service can add value for its customers. As a black belt marketer, you must figure out what your customers value and how to deliver that perceived value. When you do, you win the game of marketing!
The goal of the black belt marketer is not to present a product or service to soon-to-be customers but to show them how they can gain immense benefit and maximum value from an offering. Black belt marketers care for the success of their customers more than anyone else ever will. A black belt marketer never makes anyone buy anything but helps others make informed decisions.
I will now share with you another of the biggest and best-kept secrets in marketing: The best product or service does not always win; the product that enables the customer to make a decision in the shortest amount of time will win every time.
When prospects approach you, they already have identified a problem they think you can potentially solve. Your job is to convince them you can. You help people make the right choices by providing as much information as possible. Here's another way to look at it:
Product or service = What solves the problem Marketing = How it does it
Black belt marketers are the best teachers and educators in the world! They show people how their product or service solves problems.
Top marketers know that education is the best way to market. Educate your prospects and customers on how it is in their best interest to deal with you and no one else. Unless you continually educate your market, people will not appreciate the value you can bring to them. For example, if I am trying to sell you a health supplement, simply telling you what it is will not impress you. But if I educate you on the physiological benefits that the health supplement may have on your body and how people of your age group are experiencing more energy and vibrancy using this health supplement, I now will have a greater chance of getting your attention and making a sale.
When a well-qualified prospect appears (someone with a true interest in your offer), the only thing standing between that prospect and a purchase is the education she needs to see you as the best solution. Education helps customers make informed decisions.
Never forget the end game of marketing is always to improve and make others' lives better with your product or service.
When you adopt this mind-set, failing in business in unlikely. Marketing becomes easy because you never sell but instead help others buy. People are always looking for help. Your message should focus on how your product or service brings value to customers, and, as such, they will naturally become interested in you. Once they understand you want to help them, they will want to help you by buying your product or service. The mind-set is the prospect and customer first, you later.
Marketing is not about manipulation or making money. It is about serving customers at the highest level possible and showing them you can solve their problems. Money is simply the reward for doing this. In its purest form, marketing is about enhancing the quality of others' lives. If you are a medical sales representative, you are selling products that can even save lives!
Black belt marketers differ from conventional marketers, whose message is self- serving. Your approach is to serve others — to improve, enhance, and add value to their lives. Most of the competition you face on a daily basis has its own self-interest at heart. As a black belt marketer, you will put your customers' success ahead of your own. You know your customers' success is your success, and you'll do whatever it takes to make them successful.
Always aim to deliver maximum value in the shortest possible time. For example, a company may have cash flow problems and need sales in the next thirty days to cover expenses. You would recommend that they ask all their existing customers for referrals. We will cover this in move number ten. This will add maximum value in the shortest period of time. In the past, the company may have assumed that its customers will provide referrals; now it asks for them!
This way you will succeed. The world pays for value — it's the honey that bees are attracted to! Once you show your product or service is invaluable to the market, you will immediately attract the bees!
You have a moral obligation to both the product/service you represent and the market.
Marketing simply marries products and services with the market. You are a broker.
Now that you understand the purpose of marketing, which is to serve and bring value to others, let's move to strategies to make this happen.
CHAPTER 2MOVE 2
Make sure you've got the goods
Before we dive into specific black belt marketing strategies, we need to verify you've got the goods. The starting point of all successful marketing programs is a tested, robust, and proven product or service — something that can enhance the lives of your customers.
The first questions people ask when they see a new product or service are, "Will it work for me?" "Will it really do what they say?" "Will it solve my problems?" "Will it make my life better?" "Is this just another gimmick, fad, or marketing hype?" This is why you must have the goods before starting any marketing campaign. No marketing can help you unless you have a product or service that can truly enhance the lives of others.
Have you done the research? Tested the product? Shown it to as many people as possible? Have you improved your product or service based on feedback, and now feel it's "on the mark" of what the market wants? Are you ready to market? Do you have a marketing plan? In this plan, you should have formal feedback from the market. Some organizations call this a marketing requirements document, or MRD. It can simply be a one-page summary that validates your idea.
You must be convinced that what you offer will give immense benefit, value, and performance to your customer. Before you start marketing, you need a remarkable product, which means people will make a positive remark about it. Will they say, "Thank you for bringing this to my attention"? Don't go out to market with just another product. You must have a clearly differentiated product or service (see move 9).
More than ever, people are skeptical. Many before you have over-promised and under-delivered. There are not many marketers who truly care about making a positive impact on the world.
Your marketing is like a courtroom battle. You have to prove to the world that your product or service is "innocent" and can make a difference in peoples' lives. As a black belt marketer, you must defend your product for the betterment of humankind. Remember, in the court of marketing, you are guilty until you can prove the value of your product to others!
You are going to have to fight to get through the clutter and noise and to prove you have something the market needs and values. Yes, marketing can help you succeed, but it can just as easily destroy you. If you promote a product or a service that does not deliver, it will destroy your reputation and your credibility.
Marketing does not make something right or wrong, it simply reveals it in the shortest possible time. At the end of the day, it is the product or service that sells the product or service. It has to stand on its own if it is to survive in the competitive marketplace.
Your competition thinks that a product and marketing are one, but they are two different things. The product or service is often tangible and visible. The marketing is intangible. It is the invisible force that takes the product or service into the hands of your customers.
Black belt marketers recognize marketing as a true force. Marketing, when done correctly, will make the process of obtaining a sale very easy.
You must under-promise and over-deliver. Surprise your customers as much as possible. Always exceed expectations by providing more value items, gifts, bonuses, and additional services than your customer expects. This will build trust, loyalty and separate you from the competition. Statistics clearly show one satisfied customer refers, on average, three new ones, and one dissatisfied customer tells eleven others. This is why you must never get seduced into making claims you cannot support.
If you have the goods, it's time to market! Let's move on.
CHAPTER 3MOVE 3
Develop clients, not customers
In the first move, you learned to adopt the mind-set of a black belt marketer. It is an attitude of being of service and bringing value to others. The best way to serve others is to treat them as friends and family. It means you love them and sincerely care for their well being more than anyone else's does.
You want what is best for your customers, and you want to take care of them. Most of all, you want to protect them from making the wrong decisions. You are committed to their success. You are concerned for their well-being. You care at a far deeper level than your competitors do. Once customers recognize this, they will become your clients for life!
The difference between a customer and a client is that a customer is someone who buys from you once and a client is someone with whom you have a long-term relationship. As a black belt marketer, you are in the client — not customer — generation business. Clients are people with whom you have a deep relationship. They trust you implicitly, and they buy from you and refer to you because they love and respect you.
You should be the only choice, because you provide outstanding value faster than your competition. Black belt marketing is a mind-set of wanting to improve the lives of others, and caring for their success and well-being.
For example, let's say you gave a friend a microwave as a birthday present. What would you do after two months? You'd ask him how it was working out for him. If he was having trouble, you might give him a microwave cookbook. If after another few months he still had not used it, you might ask him to give it back because it wasn't being used! Then he may protest and use it.
Do the same with your prospects and customers. Your goal is for them to gain tremendous value from your product or service; do everything in your power to make this happen. Follow-up is powerful because it changes your mind-set about marketing and about your prospects and customers. It's the moment they start to see you differently, as well.
Several years ago, my doctor asked me to take cholesterol-lowering medication, because I have a family history of high cholesterol. I refused and told him I didn't like to take drugs. He looked me in the eye and said, "If you were my brother, this is the advice I would give you." I took the medicine, and he will be my doctor for life, because I now know he cares deeply about me as a client.
I went to see Spider-Man 3 the other day with my kids, and they loved it. I thought of my friends, who are clients of a company I consult for. I sent them tickets with a hand-written note from the company CEO that said, "You may have heard that Spider-Man 3 is said to be the best of the series. I want you and your family to enjoy the movie!" The clients loved it! Through this simple gesture, we treated them as clients, friends, and family. A little sincerity and intentionality set my company far apart from the competition.
Black belt marketers have real relationships with their customers, which converts them to clients. If you first serve others and your product offers them benefit and value, they will be more than happy to help you in any way you want. But, remember, it is others first.
CHAPTER 4MOVE 4
Build quality relationships as quickly as possible
People buy from people they know, like, and trust. But what is trust? Trust is simply the prediction of an expected outcome.
You purchased this book because you trusted I could teach you some powerful revenue-generating techniques. That is your expectation. If by using this book your sales increase significantly, you will trust me more and want to develop an ongoing relationship.
A relationship begins when trust has been established.
The biggest factor preventing people from buying your product or service is a lack of trust that it will deliver on its promise and work for them. They worry about whether they are making the right decision. They are both cynical and skeptical. This is why the majority of business is conducted through referrals, because a referral is the quickest way to get to trustworthy people.
Networking, referrals, and relationship building are the top three revenue- generating moves you will learn in this book. Master these moves alone, and you will run circles around your competition.
Black belt marketers know the way to build trust is to build a relationship first. No one will buy from you unless they have an established relationship with you. The only exception is a well-established brand. The way that you build a relationship before a sale is to invest in your prospective clients, to provide them with information and education that can help, improve, and enhance their lives. Most marketers call these things "value items." Free reports are one of the best examples of value items. People want to know you before they will invest in your product or service.
In The Power of Focus, we are told that Warren Buffet always makes his final investment decision based on three things:
Do I like the people I am investing with?
Do I trust the people I am investing with?
Do I respect the people I am investing with?
His final decision is always based on whether he feels he will have a good relationship with the company that he is investing with.
You must build lasting relationships to grow sales. Do this by implementing move 3, treating your prospects and customers as friends and family. The ability to build relationships quickly is an innate skill all black belt marketers possess. Black belt marketers have the ability to make customers feel like the most important people in the world, because they are!
Black belt marketers also know that one quality relationship in business is worth millions of dollars. They understand that people buy from people they know and trust, so they invest much time upfront building quality relationships before asking for the sale. They earn respect and trust first. Those untrained in black belt marketing call this small talk. But small talk makes people talk big about you!
People will even pay more for inferior products or services because they have established a relationship with the salesperson. Relationship building is a skill that is at the core of black belt marketing. Unless you learn how to build quality relationships, you cannot earn your black belt in marketing. Relationships are the foundation of black belt marketing.
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "Get Your Black Belt In Marketing"
by .
Copyright © 2009 Ali Pervez.
Excerpted by permission of Morgan James Publishing.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Dedication v
The Black Belt Marketing Credos xi
Acknowledgements xiii
Introduction xv
Move 1 Understand marketing and know its purpose 1
Move 2 Make sure you've got the goods 9
Move 3 Develop clients not customers 15
Move 4 Build quality relationships as quickly as possible 19
Move 5 Get externally focused 27
Move 6 Get as much feedback as possible 31
Move 7 Get testimonials 39
Move 8 Never invest until you test 45
Move 9 Always differentiate UVP vs USP 55
Move 10 Use referrals 63
Move 11 It's all about you, you, you 73
Move 12 Hook up with good transmitters 79
Move 13 Know the ultimate marketing success formula: M = M × M 83
Move 14 Use powerful headlines 91
Move 15 Set up an e-newsletter 95
Move 16 Commit to a marketing function 101
Move 17 Go cable, then go national 107
Move 18 Master the greatest sales tool in the world 111
Move 19 Get a database 117
Move 20 Work your database 123
Move 21 Simplify 129
Move 22 Know the secret 135
Move 23 Advertise effectively 141
Move 24 Master the four moves to sales checkmate 147
Move 25 Focus on value not need 155
Move 26 Get a mentor 159
Move 27 Use the Internet as your market research department 165
Move 28 Marketing = Investment 171
Move 29 Know that there are only three ways to grow sales 177
Move 30 Become a master networker 183
Move 31 Know how to calculate a marketing budget 189
Move 32 Know the three types of customers 199
Move 33 Let food sell for you 203
Move 34 Focus on up-and-coming customers 207
Move 35 Use TLC 211
Move 36 Remember that two thirds of the money is on the back-end 215
Move 37 Make the most of trade shows 221
Move 38 Spend thirty minutes daily with yourself 225
Move 39 Make the most of your sales materials 231
Move 40 Use AIDA when communicating 235
Move 41 Feed your mind daily 241
Move 42 Create curiosity and uncertainty 245
Move 43 Go direct and always get a response 249
Move 44 Be an optimist and opportunist 255
Move 45 Become an expert by writing a book 261
Move 46 Focus on serving others 265
Move 47 Go for unpaid advertising 269
Move 48 Document everything 275
Move 49 Do what you love 281
Move 50 Remember, everything in marketing starts with a P 285
Move 51 Get the team behind it 291
Move 52 Capture those million dollar ideas 295
Move 53 Marketing is a set of tools 299
Move 54 Reach for the stars 305
Move 55 Know what management is 309
Move 56 Know that small things make a big difference 313
Move 57 Make doing business with you fun and exciting 317
Move 58 Make friends with strangers 323
Move 59 Strengthen your marketing vocabulary 331
Move 60 Know the I percent rule of direct marketing 335
Move 61 Use questions to define the buying criteria 341
Move 62 Maximize your purchasing power 347
Move 63 Customer Service = Marketing + Product Development 353
Move 64 Tell stories 359
Move 65 Hire only the best 365
Move 66 Anything you can do, I can do better 371
Move 67 Repetition, repetition, repetition 375
Move 68 Command and control 379
Move 69 Outperform anyone's guarantees 383
Move 70 Know that empathy sells 387
Move 71 Surprise your customers 391
Move 72 Be disciplined and systematic in your sales efforts 395
Move 73 Turn life into a marketing university 401
Move 74 Know the best form of marketing is the truth 407
Move 75 Never stop marketing 411
Move 76 Make the most of your Web site 415
Move 77 Be or get a spokesperson 425
Move 78 Give more than you expect to receive 429
Move 79 The more you tell, the more you sell 435
Move 80 Get the ultimate reward: A brand 439
Move 81 Execute black belt style 447
About the Author 453
Free $300 Marketing Bonus Gifts! 455
eBook Special Offer! 457