A restaurant owner purchases a building used by a previous
competitor and sells it with the stipulation that the building can never be a
restaurant. Or, let's it sit vacantly or use it for storage; anything so a competitor can not use it? Is this ruthless or “Smart marketing”?
I’d like to share a thought with my “followers”, “students” and
clients, as you may think of yourself.
If you have an opportunity to “own” a media, you want to “own”
it. In marketing, if you run radio ads, you want to have more ads than your
competition. If you have billboards, you want the most billboards in the area.
Remember Yellow Pages; the “print version”. When having an ad in the Yellow
Pages you wanted the biggest ad and have it at the top of the page and the
right side page. If you are reading this and you will adapt any of what I’ve
just told you, you will add profit to your business. (When I partner with a
business and offer this consultative advice I usually get a percentage of the
growth in profit so you reading this, you are welcome).
So here’s my point. In media “own it”. So let’s say that I
speak to you offering Welcome Wagon’s exclusivity. First, I would not reach out
to you or would politely refuse your request if you reached out to me unless
your business offers an excellent reputation, integrity, and service to your
customer. We won’t settle for less. Now when your business passes that “test”,
why should your business be the
exclusive recommendation by Welcome Wagon in your area?
Recently I spoke to a prospective Welcome Wagon partner that felt that “direct mail” is “dead” to the younger, more hip crowd who are their customer and that they have the digital part taken care of.
First direct mail is not dead, to any generation; especially
for smart marketers using it wisely. And with digital, you really can’t have it
totally taken care of. Does anyone really know the total size of the Internet?
I like what someone told me, “With the internet and social marketing (and I
think with all marketing) you should use multiple ways on multiple days”.
But, I never try to change someone’s mind when it comes to
almost anything with marketing. I am a consultant; not a salesperson and I
know that as America’s #1 Business Consultant offering Advocacy, Branding, and
Cash Flow Strategies that over time most business people work with my firm in
one way or another. I educate.
Now let’s get back to my point about exclusivity. When
someone offers you “exclusivity” with a marketing program, POUNCE ON IT! If the
program doesn’t make sense, make it make sense; or at least exhaust every area
in seeing how you can make it work. Why? Because you can OWN IT.
Did you know that large companies do this to capture and own
a bigger part of the market share? Find out the cost of this marketing program
to be exclusive before saying “no”. Sometimes it is worth it if only to keep
your competitor from getting it. So the next time someone offers you
exclusivity with their program, if the company and program are legit (and
Welcome Wagon has been helping to market business since 1928), consider long
and hard before you literally give the opportunity away to a competitor when
you had the opportunity to say “yes” first. Take the program, it's “cheap”
enough and you’ll lock in your exclusivity; and OWN IT. (Yes, I am yelling).
BTW, please know that I am not speaking for Welcome Wagon
here in any official capacity. I’m speaking to business people who want to “wake
up” to new ideas and old principles which will always work when they are
adapted and “tweaked” a bit to work with updated advertising vehicles.
Would you like to get a no-fee, no-obligation, 30-minute business consult with Yours Truly?
Use the contact form and you’ll get a reply with optional time slots from which
you can choose.
Own a business located anywhere in the USA? Are you a salesperson or are you in direct sales with your own business? Welcome Wagon is such an inexpensive way to tell new movers about you and what you do offering many marketing options. Please contact me and let's do a short Zoom session so you can see for yourself.
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