If you truly want to get ahead, get respect, and charge high prices, you MUST position yourself apart from the pack…
What’s the difference between Jay Abraham, who sells his time at $100,000 per day, and other marketing experts that don’t get 1% of that — despite having much of the same knowledge and capability?
How is it that I’ve managed to increase the price tag for my own services by 10X in less than a decade?
Why is it that some eminently-talented professionals (in any field) spend their whole lives scraping by or even doing well, but never seem to get paid at the level of the value they provide?
AND why is it that some products in a category can easily sell for 2X or more what products with competitive features sell for, and their customers are the happiest in the industry?
What makes the difference?
It all comes down to positioning.
And this applies equally to service-providers (such as copywriters, consultants, coaches, etc.) AND folks selling products (physical products, software, etc.).
With expert positioning in the marketplace, you will make more. You’ll be able to ask for fees that will make your potential clients and customers wince — but get out their checkbook anyway.
Whatever it is you offer, the market will prefer you over competitors, and even be willing to pay more for the privilege of doing business with you… As well as endure whatever unpleasantness you want to put them through (adapting to your schedule, coming to your location instead of you theirs, etc.).
The alternative?
If you look, feel, and sound like everyone else — if you’re a “me too” — you’ll get commodity pricing. You’ll get commodity treatment. You’ll be replaced in a heartbeat, the moment another option comes along.
To paraphrase… You won’t get no respect.
I recognized this very early on when launching my marketing consulting business. I knew I never wanted to be a commodity. I knew I never wanted to be a commodity.
I knew, when it came down to it, that I didn’t want clients buying my services (and now my products)…
I want you to buy ME!
My goal and secret since day one has been to put myself in a category of one: Roy Furr.
By making that my early and ongoing intention, I’ve done everything necessary to make that happen. And it continues to pay off. But it’s not just me.
For nearly every single client I’ve ever worked with, I’ve proactively worked to position THEM in this way as well. And the better we do, the more we sell.
— For IT training, we found that some training sold better than others simply based on who the trainer was. Part of this was personality, yes. But the better we positioned the trainers, the more they sold.
— In selling the backup solar generator for one client, we found that positioning HIM provided a boost to sales. I uncovered one piece of proof that established his conservative credibility (which was his market), and it caused immediate audience association.
— Just think: how many products or services sell right now because of WHO is associated with them, not what they are? This is the very nature of celebrity endorsement!
So then, what does it take? I have three tips for you to move beyond “me too” into expert status…
Positioning is about being PREEMINENTLY DIFFERENT…
Let’s break this down.
Preeminent is a word I’ve been using a lot recently, that comes from Jay Abraham’s Strategy of Preeminence.
Preeminent means “surpassing all others; very distinguished in some way.”
In simple language, to be preeminent, you must be the best. The best at what?
The best solution to a problem your market faces.
I’ll quickly address the different part, then we’ll look at how to get to “best.” By its very nature, for something to be the best, it MUST be different. It must stand out. Either the science or the art of what you do must separate you from the rest. (Read that sentence about 10X and you’ll realize it’s deep but we won’t get there today.)
Now, there are a lot of ways to be the best solution to a problem your market faces.
Most don’t have anything to do with you becoming the world’s best at some big topic, like marketing or copywriting.
Using that as an example, the broadest goal could be the best direct response copywriter in the world, for any business in any market.
That’s tough! But what if instead of focusing so broad, you got ultra-specific.
Let’s say you picked the family dentistry market. And, let’s say you customized direct response principles specifically to online funnels to bring new families into family dentistry practices.
Assuming you’re any good, that’s likely a market you could own in short order.
The market: family dentistry practices.
The solution: getting new families in the door.
Your solution: profitable new patient funnels.
Suddenly we take that broad goal and make it ultra-specific, and it’s easy for you to be preeminently different.
Not only that, it’s a TON easier to establish this positioning there than, for example, financial copywriting, the category I’ve done much of my work in over the last few years. Heck, what I’ve just laid out is actually way easier than even going after the same family dentistry market with a generic copywriter pitch.
The more specific you are, the easier it becomes to position yourself as the preeminent expert on anything. As long as there’s a market there, this can be extremely profitable.
Positioning comes from CATEGORY DESIGN…
Again, this is something I’ve written about before. In fact, it even put me on the radar of one of the world’s top experts on the topic.
If you want to be seen as the preeminent expert on a category, it pays to CREATE that category yourself.
The book Play Bigger (get it via the link above) actually walks through the process of Category Design, and is probably the most important business book I’ve read this year.
Some examples of successful category designers have been Uber (crowdsourced taxi alternative), AirBNB (crowdsourced hotel alternative), and Tesla (exciting electric cars).
But it’s NOT the exclusive territory of Silicon Valley.
Take Ryan Levesque’s ASK method (survey funnels), Jeff Walker’s PLF (a blueprint for launching products online), and even the category of Category Design itself.
These were all CREATED categories that instantly positioned their creators at the top.
One secret of category design before I move on: it’s all about establishing buying criteria.
Regarding the backup solar generators I mentioned above, I’m particularly proud of how we established the unique category of EMP-resistant backup solar generators.
The client actually did it first, through product design. But after I saw that not being leveraged to the hilt and used as an effective basis for Category Design, I knew I had an opportunity.
And so I laid out a complete set of buying criteria and a supporting marketing message that sold prospects on why the category was necessary, what it would look like, and why my client’s product was a superior solution.
In one 12,000+-word marketing message, we created the category and sold a ton of generators.
(I actually did a breakdown of this copy, line-by-line, as part of The Story Selling Master Class. It’s the “Look Over Shoulder” Video on Object 2014-28E. It’s an hour and 45 minutes, and offers huge insights into the thinking behind a 7-figure promotion.)
Finally…
Positioning requires EDUCATION…
I’ve largely laid out the case for this here, in the previous points.
But it’s not enough to be preeminently different, or to design a brand new market category but keep it to yourself.
You have to share it with your market…
You have to help them understand…
You have to educate them about why what you do is different, and better…
You have to introduce them to the new opportunity you provide…
You have to establish the buying criteria that favors your product, and help your prospect understand why those are the best buying criteria to use…
You have to hold their hand as they walk the path toward the buying decision…
And again, this is all just as important if you’re selling a physical products as it is if you’re selling a service. The scalability and economics all change. The more you can automate and replicate — in either case — the better.
Your goal, if you want to be seen as the expert, is to actually become that, for them!
You are their thought leader.
You help them understand the market, the problem you solve, the solution, the products and services available, all of it.
And then you give them the opportunity to work with you, to go deep.
To go deep on how to do this, a process I call Value-First Selling…
To create marketing and selling systems and funnels that move you beyond “me too” into expert status…
Check out the new Value-First Funnel Strategy from BTMSinsiders.
Yours for bigger breakthroughs,
Roy Furr
