9 Killer Ways to Break Ahead of the Competition

By CHI Blogger, February 5, 2014

Figuring out how to deliver true differentiation and VALUE in the marketplace starts with being known as the educator. In essence, acting as a “consultant,” who educates the marketplace on what they didn’t know, that they should know, about how current trends are influencing businesses.

There are very few resources out there today that do just that. You will want one that fuses your marketing and sales efforts together wielding a highly professional, powerful and consistent approach that provides your entire marketplace with an undeniable reason to buy. Ideally, you want to be seen as the expert in your industry, someone your prospective clients seek out to do business with. By sharing engaging, value-packed information with your audience you capture trust and credibility that earns you permission to present your solution, be it a product or service. Ultimately, you are solving not selling.

One I’d like to bring to your attention, as an example, is a leading-edge education-based marketing product Chet Holmes’ created called The Core Story^™. This one in particular is the ultimate strategic positioning tool, combining the power of data, research and your brand’s unique story to create a highly credible, audience-targeted sales and marketing tool. Best of all, it units your sales and marketing teams under one strategic and tactical initiative you can hold them accountable with to grow your business.

Over the years, I (personally) have coached hundreds of clients on the execution of their Core Story into their market, and it usually comes down to these 9 killer elements that always deliver maximum results.  Tools like The Core Story must have a clearly identifiable structure and set of elements that sets it apart from all other types of marketing presentations or studies. The most identifiable elements are as follows:

1.         Establish your educational based marketing and sales “core” activity repository founded on well-sourced market motivating research.

2.         Research is chock full of statistics, trended over time, that deliver new information to the audience creating a “WOW” through contrasting and comparing the data.

3.         Information being shared is focused on the prospect—not on you.

4.         Title leads with pain, “The Five Most Dangerous Trends Facing ______Today”

5.         Content is loaded with bad news because bad news motivates.

6.         This new information becomes the “core” of all marketing efforts—messaging, visuals, communications, web content, advertisements, webinars, social media, literature, etc.

7.         Research hinges on market data rather than product data (market data is much more motivational).

8.         Data sets up the buying criteria—positioning you to gain permission to sell.

9.         Set this strategy as a definitive sales methodology your entire team is trained in to make widespread, consistent impact on your audience, which increases your brand standing and conversion rates.

Make sure whatever you create is a superior marketing and audience access vehicle; meaning it is neither a sales, nor features and benefits piece. This means that while the elements of a tool, such as this Core Story approach, may expose certain benefits they will not be about “sell and tell”.  The biggest mistake I see businesses making over and over again is that the key data points that slaughter the client’s competition and position the client as the only possible solution are not based on notable research studies. And if they are wrong you run the risk of instantly discrediting yourself. Now you will never get the opportunity to sell.

The fact is if the center of the sales model is your Core Story then all of the other parts of the sales model must adapt. If a Core Story is considered without a full sales model, it cannot succeed. When the two pieces come together correctly, your entire field of prospects grows dramatically and the business closes more of them. The increased number of prospects, times the increased closing ratio, results in massive revenue gains.

By Chris Steely, VP Elite Consulting at Chet Holmes International

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