Becoming the Expert

Marc Friedfertig is the founder of a company called Broadway Trading that offers brokerage services to individuals who want to day-trade for a living. Here is his insight into marketing:

"What I saw happening in 1995 was that changes in regulation and changes in technology were making it possible for an individual at home to have the same instant access to information and the ability to get very quick executions as I did. So I recognized that it was possible to take what I was doing on the floor and apply it electronically.

"What I did differently than everybody else, was that I recognized that just giving people the technology wasn't enough. In fact, in many cases it was detrimental. When we started giving people this technology and this access to markets that were previously only available to professionals, we recognized that the most important thing about giving them this technology was to teach them how to use it. As a result, we started doing training programs. Then people wanted to get a more in-depth understanding of what we were teaching. They couldn't grasp all the information. So we wanted to document the key points that we were teaching. We started drafting handouts and exhibits. Ultimately, these things formed a book.

"Writing a book was something I never dreamed I would do. I really did it out of demand from my customers who were seeking more information.

"It differentiated us. I became the person who wrote the book on the subject. Everybody wanted to learn from the person who wrote the book. It branded us as the guys who wrote the book. It became the first of many books that came out on the subject, many that borrowed topics that we discussed. It differentiated our business, and that was a key to our success. We differentiated ourselves by recognizing key aspects of the business. And that was educating the customers to use our product properly, by teaching our customers to use our product effectively and efficiently. Having done that we created tremendous demand for our product. Successful customers breed a successful business.