Two furniture stores open up in a town on nearly the same day. One is totally tactical and the other is very strategic. If you go in to look at couches in store one the salesperson tries to sell you a couch. Tactical. Over a four-year period, this store grows at about ten percent per year, mostly driven by the increasing costs of furniture.
In store two, of course they try to sell you a couch, but the management constantly trains the salespeople to sell the store. “First time in our store? Well, let me tell you about it.” And while the salesperson is on their way to the couches, they pitch the heck out of that store. They tell you about the history, the owner’s devotion to service, why they have lower prices than their competitors, how well trained they are on furniture construction and how that benefits you as the consumer.
The purpose of this buyer education is to create brand loyalty. Over time, this store builds a large and loyal following of customers who automatically come to them first when they are interested in any type of furniture. When you shop for furniture, you probably go to various stores with little or no brand loyalty. Or you may see a sale in the newspaper and go because of the sale. But if you had a relationship with a store that stood behind their product like no other and could thoroughly explain the differences in furniture quality (and there’s quite a bit to know) and even offered expertise in decorating, you might have an affinity, a loyalty, a preference for that particular store. When you needed furniture, you would go there first because of the relationship that they purposefully built with you. Over a four-year period the tactical store remained a one-store location and the strategic store opened six locations.
People will even pay more if they perceive there is a greater value or a deeper reason for buying from one provider over another. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve helped companies step up out of the commoditizing world in which they live by being more strategic. In a moment I’ll have you do an exercise that will really pound this idea home. Let’s do a little more set up so you get as much as possible out of the exercise to follow.
Here’s a question I want you to answer: When your buyer looks to purchase your type of product or service how much of an expert are they? When I ask this question in front of a large audience, everyone pretty much admits that in any given purchasing situation, the average buyer is not much of an expert. For example you are probably not much of an expert at all about carpet cleaning, are you? If most of your buyers are not experts at what to look for in your product or service, this opens a gaping strategic opportunity for the brilliant strategist to capitalize on.
I call this the science of setting the market’s buying criteria. Basically it means that every

buyer can be taught how to be a better buyer of your type of product or service. Using the

carpet cleaning example, the buyer calls in with loose or little buying criteria at all. The

salesperson then resets that buying criteria by educating that consumer about the EPA

studies on the importance of clean carpets to the quality of the air and life in your home.

You can do this for your company with profound results.

Chet Holmes has worked with over 60 of the Fortune 500 companies as America’s top marketing executive, trainer, and strategic consultant. Chet is the author of the best selling book, The Ultimate Sales Machine (#1 business book on Amazon, #1 Sales and Marketing book on Amazon, and also on NY Times best seller list). Chet has identified and developed the 12 core competencies that are proven to provide the main structure of truly great companies and he has developed more than fifty proprietary methods to implement them. To learn more about how to double the sales of your company, go to http://www.howtodoublesales.com

I’ve always found Amazon quite a poor performer - maybe it’s just me or my placement. WidgetBucks is very slow to load and a real pain, although I have made a few dollars from it, but I won’t be putting my name down for that new Mercedes just yet!

I’m currently trying Bidvertiser for PPC. It’s a lot of work but you have the one advantage over adsense that makes all the difference in my mind - the ability to open the clicks in a new tab/window so you don’t lose the visitor on your site. You can also configure which ads you want to see and which you don’t so you can target the higher paying ads only. But I think a lot of people are put off because that side of things is really time consuming and fiddly - just right for me then!

Terry