“Please all, and you will please none.”
-Aesop
In continuation of our blog series covering Gino Wickman’s Traction, this week we will address the Marketing component of the Vision/Traction Organizer (V/TO). Our last post covered establishing clear goals, or “Rocks” as they are referred in the text.
The text quotes an anecdote that has the same moral as a story from Aesop’s Fables: If you please all, you please none. Wickman is recommending that you hone in on your marketing and sales strategy. Energy, time and money are wasted when your marketing efforts are scattershot. The marketing guide in Traction is about identifying your ideal customer and how to stand out to them. Wickman recommends using your already established core values and focus from previous exercise to help determine your ideal customer.
Your marketing strategy is made up of four parts, which we will address in this week’s post:
1. Target Market/“The List”
2. Three Uniques
3. Proven Process
4. Guarantee
1. Target Market/“The List”
This is defining your ideal customer. As stated above, use your existing information from the previous exercise that helped you find your core values and focus. Not only are these customers who need your services, but they also mesh with what makes your business different from the competition. Demographic, geographic and psychographic information will be needed to further narrow your focus in finding the ideal customer to whom you will be marketing.
“The List” is Wickman’s term for the database of your ideal customers. This is a highly detailed file with the demographic, geographic and psychographic information of your clients. It is an admittedly thorough process to compose “The List,” but it pays dividends once a part of your repertoire.
2. Three Uniques
Simply put, what are three words, terms or phrases that describe your business and set you apart from the competition? The text recommends contacting customers and asking them personally their thoughts. This is another step in the process of focus. Your unique attributes have the ability to show both what you do and do not do; this is part of ridding your business of the habit of trying to be all things to all people.
3. Proven Process
Your proven process is a sort of how-to guide. Think back to what has worked before with clients and organize that into a step-by-step guide. The text says there are typically seven steps in a company’s proven process. Going along with avoiding a scattershot approach, having a Proven Process can show employees a successful method to conducting business unique to your company. The text recommends naming your Process after your business and having your Process visually represented by a graphic designer. An established Process makes life easier on employees and looks impressive to clients.
4. Guarantee
What is a problem in your industry and how does your company fix it? This is your guarantee. As the other steps attempt to do, this is about setting your company apart from the competition while narrowing your focus to your ideal client. Your guarantee is meant to put clients at ease. They’re coming to you to solve a problem and you want to assure them that they made the correct decision in picking your company to help them solve this. “You will not go out of business without a guarantee, but you will attain your vision faster with one,” says Gino Wickman in Traction.
After completing these four parts of your marketing strategy, you have now established the base of your marketing efforts. If done right, this newly-focused marketing strategy will help you attract more business and close business you were unable to beforehand. We want to hear from you – How are you going to narrow down your target market and focus on the customers you really need? Let us know in the comments below.
Stay tuned for the next in our blog series inspired by Gino Wickman’s Traction.
Traction by Gino Wickman is available on Amazon, iTunes, Barnes & Noble and your local library.