Prime Real Estate: Advice From a Marketing Guru


Jay Abraham is a well-known marketing consultant who is the author of Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got. Here's what he has to say about marketing yourself:

"The first problem is that most people who are trying to market themselves don't know what that means. They don't have a game strategy. They don't have a particular end in mind. They don't have a picture of what success will look like in their business and personal lives. They don't understand what they're trying to achieve, mentally and financially.

"The first thing you have to do is start with a clear action plan that you can follow. Start with the concept of optimization: getting the highest and best yield from the minimal time, effort, risk, and exposure. Most people don't think about the highest and best, they just think about trying to work hard and hope it all pays off. You need to consider yourself as commercial real estate.

"Suppose you ask a commercial real estate appraiser to look at a parcel of land in a prime commercial area that has a broken-down, two-bedroom clapboard house on it. The appraiser wouldn't judge its worth by the falling-down house that sits on it. He would appraise it at its highest and best use, which might be a 40-story office building or a large retail store. Learn to appraise yourself the same way—not at your current level, but at your highest and best potential."

Business has only two major functions—marketing and innovation.

—Peter Drucker,
management consultant

More than 10,000 businesses fail each year in the United States. The failure rate for new product introductions is more than 75 percent. Why is that? The first reason is they don't market well. They don't consider all their employees—from the receptionist to the CEO—as salespeople. What happens when you call a company and the person who answers the phone is rude or unfriendly? That's the impression you have of the entire company.

If you go into a retail establishment and the cashier is slow and distracted and looks like she wishes you would leave her alone—you will. And you won't return. Many companies fail to realize that every single individual in that organization is an extension of their product or service. Just as you are an extension and representative of the service or product you are trying to sell.

The second reason companies fail is lack of innovation. Because there are many products on the market that are essentially the same, you have to give the customer a reason to choose one over the other. You have to understand today's customer and anticipate tomorrow's so that you can constantly present new ideas to the marketplace. Even if your product stays the same, you will have to come up with new ideas to get your message across.

Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing. Everything else is the Catskills.

—Al Reis,
writer and marketing expert

Strategy and timing are everything. The problem many people have is that they have one, but not the other. They know what they want to do, but feel they need to wait for just the "right time." Or they know when they want to make their move, but they're not sure what that move should be. It takes both to be successful. Here are three ways to make strategy and timing work for you:

  1. Create your own timing. There is never going to be a perfect time. But you may be able to find a good time to present your product or idea by polling your target audience. Do research to understand just who that audience is—who would use your product or service. Talk to people who are familiar with the market as it is now. Ask them to tell you what problems you might have when introducing your idea, then find solutions to those problems.

    Try merging your product or idea with one in a different market and see if they might complement each other. If you have something to market, take it, test it, do the research. Good timing doesn't happen while you're sitting around waiting for the right market to show up or for people to be screaming for your product. You create your own timing by coming up with solutions that were not available before.

  2. Keep taking action. Even if you decide the timing isn't right for right now, don't stand still. You don't always need to be taking giant steps, but you always want to feel that you're slowly but surely moving forward. Sometimes it takes years for ideas to come to fruition. If you're always networking, there may come a time when someone you connected with years ago suddenly remembers your idea and is now in a position to do something about it. Constant networking is the key. You never know when someone may come along and say, "I'm ready if you are..."

  3. Build a team to help you strategize. Sometimes, even when things are going well, there seems to be one or two puzzle pieces that are missing. For instance, you may have the product, but need someone to help you with the distribution. If you find someone to help you with distribution, they may want to be sure this product is supported by publicity.

    Perhaps there are celebrities you could contact who might have a tie-in with the product. Look for people within your industry who's brains you could pick for ideas (and who might even end up becoming your partners). Keep thinking about the different pieces of the puzzle and how you can create the greatest value by putting a strong team together—even if it means sacrificing some of your own dollars or some of your share of the profits. This kind of strategizing creates good timing; it only makes sense to proceed to the next step when all the puzzle pieces come together.

    Market leadership is gained by envisioning new products, services, lifestyles, and ways to raise living standards. There is a vast difference between companies that offer me-too products and those that create new product and service values not even imagined by the marketplace.

    —Philip Kotler,
    marketing expert




Diamond Power. Gems of Wisdom From America's Greatest Marketer
Diamond Power: Gems of Wisdom from Americas Greatest Marketer
ISBN: 1564146987
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 207
Authors: Barry Farber

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