Risk & Business Magazine Benson Kearley IFG Fall 2019 | Page 17

ATTRACTING IDEAL CUSTOMERS
"PEOPLE DON’T BUY FROM YOU BECAUSE THEY
UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU DO. PEOPLE BUY FROM
YOU BECAUSE THEY FEEL UNDERSTOOD..."
W
hen most people think
of marketing, they copy
what everyone else is
doing because they think
that’s what works.
Far too many people narrowly focus
on their own industry, imitate their
competitors, and hope for the best without
realizing that most of their competitors
don’t know any more about marketing
than they do. The problem is that most
businesses waste their time and energy
trying to reach everyone rather than
targeting the best possible prospects for
their business.
Peter Drucker, one of the most highly
influential authors and management
consultants of the last century, said,
“Because the purpose of business is to create
a customer, the business enterprise has
two—and only two—basic functions:
marketing and innovation. Marketing and
innovation produce results—all the rest are
costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique
function of the business.”
If you accept Peter Drucker’s definition
of business, you would think there would
be a huge emphasis on marketing and
innovation.
Unfortunately, too many people confuse
sales with marketing.
• Selling is what you do when you’re on
the phone or in front of a prospect.
• Marketing is what you do get someone
on the phone or face-to-face with
you, properly positioned, so that by
the time you talk to them, they’re
pre-interested, pre-motivated, pre-
qualified, and pre-disposed to do
business with you.
Note: neither sales nor marketing has any
relationship to the actual quality of your
product or service.
You want to invest your time and effort
attracting and selling to the best prospects.
You could be the greatest salesperson in
the world, but you’re not going to make
much money selling lifeboats to people
in a desert. Yet, even if you’re the worst
salesperson in the world, you could easily
sell lifeboats to people on a sinking ocean
liner—because these prospects would
be pre-interested, pre-motivated, pre-
qualified, and pre-disposed to buy your
product.
Your marketing efforts should be devoted
to finding these types of ideal prospects.
However, you don’t want to spend your
own time looking for these people. You
want to structure your marketing so these
people come to you.
1. UNIQUE SELLING POINT (USP)
Your USP is a precise statement of why your
company is special.
This should answer a prospect’s question,
“Why should I do business with you instead
of any of your competitors or not do
anything at all?”
Think of every successful company that
offers a clearly defined USP, such as Federal
Express’s “When it absolutely, positively,
has to be there overnight.” Apple’s USP
for its first iPod was “1,000 songs in your
pocket.” The USP gives a clear, distinct
description of what that company has to
offer. And when customers need what a
company’s USP offers, they think of doing
business with no one else.
Without a clear, distinct USP, most
businesses simply say, “Because I have
a great price,” or “Because I’ve been in
business for 20 years.” The reason you can’t
make any of these claims is because that’s
exactly what everyone else is saying.
2. FOCUSING ON CLEAR BENEFITS
This is the secret to a powerful USP.
First, it’s important to understand the
difference between features and benefits.
A feature is what the product is or what
How?
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