You talk a lot about market domination, is that just for effect or are you serious about it?
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David: Hi and welcome to the podcast today. I am joined once again by my co host, Chris Templeton, who is here to challenge me on the idea of market domination. Welcome Chris.
Chris: Hey David, thank you very much for letting me be your interrogator for this podcast!
David: Work me over, man. Work me over.
Chris: Domination. You know there is a lot of talk about domination and I don’t think from a business standpoint we really understand what it is. So, is it a serious word? Are you serious about this, David?
David: Well, I’m serious about it to the extent that I believe that in every market there are leaders and followers, someone is leading the parade, and someone is following. If you’re leading, then you’re dominating. Essentially, you’re going to be a recognized force in the market. And if you’re not dominating the market, then what that means is there’s business that you are absolutely losing out on. So for example, if I’m in the market for any kind of item, pick an item, pick an industry.
Chris: New speakers for my computer.
David: Okay. I’m in the market for a new computer speakers, so if I think of new computer speakers, what are some places that might immediately leap to mind? I mean it could be whatever… Office Max.
Chris: Amazon?
David: Yeah, it could be Amazon. Yeah, of course. Amazon, right? It could be Staples. It could be any place that sells speakers, but there are names that immediately leap to mind, right? You said Amazon right away. I deliberately skipped them because they’re such a great, obvious example, but in other words, you hear something, and something leaps to mind. The people who leap to mind are the ones who have that top of mind awareness, which results in market domination.
David: If I think I need computer speakers and I immediately think of Staples or Best Buy or whatever, and I get in my car and I go there, then if you sell computer speakers, you’re never even going to have a chance at that business. Right? Because I didn’t even think of you. So, market domination means that you’ll at least leap to mind. We named three or four different places that leaped to mind for us. Now. One of them would get the business, the others wouldn’t. But those that didn’t even leap to mind, they don’t have a chance. Because otherwise what I would have to do is do a Google search or try to figure out where I wanted to go. Ask a friend, “Hey, where did you get your computer speakers?” And then I’d have to take action to try to find another place. So, without that level of awareness, it’s impossible to dominate markets. This is particularly true for those who sell B2B.
So I am very serious about the idea of domination, but I also recognize that not everyone’s going to be able to dominate at the level of an Amazon where people think of anything and they say, okay, I’m going to go to Amazon to get it. Or I can go to Amazon to get it. But the advantage here, and I think a really important distinction is the fact that just because someone dominates any market, whether it’s Amazon trying to dominate anything, it doesn’t really matter because there are people who will say, Oh, I need computer speakers. I’m going to go to Amazon. And there are other people who are going to say, I need computer speakers, but I’m sure not buying them from Amazon. Right? So, but they know about it. So, they have the opportunity to buy from there. And most businesses in most markets, no matter what they do, whether it’s lawyers or doctors or salespeople of any kind, most people don’t have that sort of recognition. And so, what happens is they don’t even know about the business that they’re missing. What I’m talking about is creating a level of awareness in the marketplace so that when people think of the product or service you offer, you will potentially leap to mind so that they can at least consider you for the purchase. Hopefully that makes sense.
Chris: A really, really important point because I can tell you there are listeners that are saying, well, there’s no way I can have the level of awareness of an Amazon, and what I want the audience to understand is that’s not the level of awareness that you need for your market, in all likelihood. Unless you’re selling computer speakers, which I would then recommend that you consider a different business. But let’s talk about two things. Number one, how do you define a market?
David: Okay, well, one of the things that we do in the Total Market Domination course is we really identify exactly what is the market that the person wants to dominate, right? Is it a particular geographic market? Is it a particular vertical market or niche? Who is it that they would like to dominate? In other words, if you could paint a picture of your ideal scenario, what is the group of people that you would like to dominate with your product and service? So, if somebody is selling cars in a particular area and they want everybody in that particular area to know that they sell this particular type of car, then it’s defined, they know exactly what they’re going after. And so, from that standpoint, you can then say, all right, can I create a level of awareness with this group of people so that I can make them aware of the fact that I sell this particular product or service in this particular market?
And in a lot of cases, the answer is going to be no. In other words, I don’t have the resources to be able to reach every single person in the market that I would like to reach with this message and that’s where one of the things that we do with our clients is we encourage them to look at the idea of sub-markets… markets within the market. So, if I can’t reach everybody in my desired market to be able to communicate to them, then what segment of the market can I reach? Can I reach half of the city? Can I reach a section of the city? Can I reach a particular group of buildings within the city? If I can’t reach that, can I reach one building in the city with a bunch of businesses in it? And if I can’t even do that, can I do one floor in that one business or just the businesses to the left of the elevator when you get off the fourth floor. There is always a market that you can identify, that you can create awareness with, and you can ultimately create top of mind awareness with that. Once you’ve done that, then you can expand it. You can grow it and you can get to more businesses like that and you can begin to create the type of awareness that you want with a larger and larger market.
Chris: And you know, I think one of the things that’s important about what you said is that it’s a good thing to start small, but specific, where you can begin to build. Now, do you think most businesses need to think about a target market in terms of an industry or can it just be geographical?
David: It can be, I mean, if you’re talking about a realtor for example, that might be a geographic area, but even within something like that, it’s not a matter of saying, okay, I’m just going to target this particular geographic area. Maybe I’m going to target higher end homes in this particular geographic area, or maybe I’m going to target a particular type of home in a particular section of that area and I’m going to become known as the specialist in that. And by doing that, then I can dominate that particular section of the market so that if somebody is buying a very inexpensive home or looking to sell a very inexpensive home, they’re not going to think of you. You’re not going to leap to mind because that’s not the market you’re targeting.
Chris: Right, and I think you said a really important word because specialist is a great, great word from the standpoint of if I can be considered a specialist in a market, whether it’s a real estate agent in a specific area or a specific development, when I have the role of specialist in people’s minds that are potential clients, I’ve really shifted how people perceive me in a pretty dramatic way.
David: Well, yeah, and I think that this idea of targeting these people too. One of the things that you had mentioned earlier is the idea that people need to start small, and what I encourage them to do is to identify what I call their largest manageable sub-market. Okay. So, it doesn’t have to be starting really tiny. It’s like, what is a manageable sub-market for you? What section of the market could you conceivably dominate? How big is that? And then what are the steps necessary to make that happen? And so, when we work with our clients through our Total Market Domination course, that’s a lot of what we do. We identify what is that largest manageable sub-market and then what sort of communication is necessary to be able to engage those people and make them aware of what we do? And of course, there are different levels of communication that are involved. I first have to make them aware of the fact that I’m alive, taking in air on the planet, and then they have to decide based on that, do I want to have a conversation with this person? Do I want to interact with them? Do I want to even consider them for what they do? And then beyond that, the levels of communication change. It’s no longer about I exist. It’s about how can I help and how can I provide solutions that are going to be better and different than what you can get elsewhere.
Chris: One of the things that I’ve heard a lot in the past, and this used to be very strong in social media, although I think it’s, I don’t know if it’s as strong as it used to be, but this idea of a conversation and you can have a one way conversation with somebody as long as you don’t just try to sell or 100% of your messaging is 100% sales. Right?
David: Right.
Chris: And talk a little about some of the examples of how you’ve helped somebody to kind of move from the, well, I’ve just got to tell them what I can do for them versus how you build a conversation with a prospect.
David: I think a lot of it is about initiating conversations. In other words, if a lot of our marketing can be designed to do that, then that’s really what’s going to get us there. In fact, the reason that we’re doing this podcast now, the way that we’re doing it, is that previously our podcast has been a monologue. It’s me talking to people. It’s me telling people what happened to be on my mind in any particular week. One of the things I like about what we’re doing here is that it gives you a chance to say, hey, wait a second. I don’t understand that. Or what do you mean by that?
Chris: Right.
David: So just by having that conversation, hopefully you’re going to be able to pull things out of me that wouldn’t have been in a previous, you know, four or five minute podcast might take a little longer, but hopefully we can go deeper and help people with that communication. So, when we’re talking about salespeople being in the field and needing to communicate in a way that is authentic, a lot of it goes back to what we talked about in the previous podcast where it’s about intent. You know, what is their intention in doing this? Are they actually there to help them? And if they are, how can they communicate that?
Then getting back to the specific point you just asked about, if my marketing, whatever it is, if it’s an email broadcast, post in social media, video, whatever it is, if that communication initiates dialogue, that’s where the magic starts to happen, right? So, if as a result of this podcast, somebody says, hey, that sounds good, I think I’d like to have a conversation with these guys, then they might initiate doing that. Now most of the people who listen to this won’t do that, but there’s going to be a segment of the market that will, and that’s the segment that we’ll be engaging with. We’ll be having those conversations. So, I think from a purely marketing and sales standpoint, it’s about initiating those conversations in a one to many situation and then engaging in the conversations beyond that for the people who want to engage one-on-one.
Chris: And I think it’s especially hard for people that are new in business or in a position where they’re struggling is to look at the long term. If you said, “Hey, you know what, Chris, I’m going to do three podcasts and that’s all I’m ever going to do.” Well, you’ve pretty much put yourself in a situation where they are not going to benefit you very much. And the other thing that I think is so important is when I take a longer term view, I also understand that the third, the fifth, the eighth conversation, or podcast may be what moves me to action, but what you’re doing, and like we talked a little bit, I think it was on the previous podcast about the importance of relationship. We begin to see that relationship build. Even though I think a lot of people miss this, is that even though I’ve never had a one on one conversation or you’ve never had a one on one conversation with a lot of your audience, that doesn’t mean that they don’t feel connection. They know who you are, that you’re authentic, and if this whole podcast had been about selling the whole time, your course, they would have dropped off a long time ago, but what you’re doing is delivering information that’s useful to them in a way that makes sense to them and then when they are ready, guess what? Oh wait, that’s it. It’s market domination because now I’ve said, oh, the first person I know that I need to talk to is David Blaise. He’s been doing these podcasts. They’ve really been helpful for me, really got me to think, and I can tell this guy is authentic. He understand B2B selling and really believes in what he’s doing
David: And have been living it. I think it’s one thing to talk about things. It’s another thing to just live it day after day. And that’s really what makes a big difference is that the people that we’ve been working with are living it, as I have lived it. And we love it. You know? It’s the kind of thing where if you don’t think you’d like it, then yeah, it’s not a good fit. But if you think about that idea and you go, wow, that would be kind of cool. I’d like to work with somebody who not only believes it’s possible, but maybe could help me know how to do it, then that’s awesome.
Chris: And I think that’s a really good point. When we’re talking about breaking out of our bubbles in the last podcast. I think one of the biggest things that we face is, especially if we’re a single business owners, is that we think that we can do it all on our own and we can, but if I want to figure out the quickest way to really dominate a market, what does that look like? What do we say to a business? Say, Oh man, that just sounds like so much work. What’s the quickest way we can make that happen?
David: Okay, well first of all, it is going to be some work. You’re not going to dominate a market by accident, so it doesn’t happen like that. It involves a lot of focus. It involves a lot of self-discipline from the standpoint of being able to follow very specific advice and very specific action steps. A lot of it is about identifying what is that largest manageable sub-market that I want to target. A lot of it is about what specific communications do I need to have with that market in order to get their attention so that they’ll pay attention to what I have to say. And so, from there that I can get them comfortable enough with me that they’ll place that first time order and then establish the relationship that would lead to them coming back again and again and again. So ultimately sales always boils down to establishing relationships, meeting needs, and helping people. If you’re able to do those things, you’re going to be successful at it. Dominating markets is just about being able to do that on a broader scale. And again, not necessarily that you’re going to dominate an entire market right away, but to be able to start in a particular area, create a level of awareness in that market so that they start talking about you, creating buzz. You know, a lot of people talk about buzz and social media and it’s like the kind of thing that they just wish would sort of happen. Well that also doesn’t always just happen organically. Sometimes it needs a push, sometimes it actually needs some focus and a strategy designed to make it happen. And once you’ve identified who the people are, what the market is that you’d like to dominate, and you’ve identified the communications that you need to engage in to make that start happening, then that’s what gets it moving.
Chris: And I think you said something that was really important, which is yeah, it takes some focus and it takes some discipline, but when it’s done, when the system is working, you really do love it, don’t you?
David: Oh yeah. Even when in the early stages when you’re still experimenting and then you’re testing things out and you’re trying to message and go, oh, that didn’t work well. It’s still interesting and it’s still fun because we’re doing it in a way you don’t have to spend all the money that you have in making this happen. In a B2B selling situation, you’re starting out with your largest manageable sub-market, which is essentially a smaller group that you know, that you can create awareness with and you’re building from there. So, there’s far less risk.
Chris: And that is something that I don’t think somebody who’s kind of stuck in their bubble doesn’t recognize is the risk that they’re introducing into their own business by not taking the time to figure these types of things out. And so, for you to be able to bring something that is systematized that you’ve done over and over again with many, many clients and help them to provide that focus and that structure has got to be huge.
David: Well, yeah, again, for the people who get it and the people who are willing to do it, it is huge. But part of it too, is that when we have conversations with people in advance, in other words, when they schedule a strategy session and we talked to them about, okay, what’s the market you want to dominate? Who are you trying to reach? And all that sort of thing. We have these conversations with people before they actually sign up for the course. Part of it is we’ll have a conversation like that and with some people it’s like, okay, you know what? This isn’t a good fit. You know, this doesn’t seem to make sense. And for others it does. And once again, it goes back to what we were talking about before that we want to be able to interact with our ideal clients. I want that for myself. I want that for everyone listening to this podcast. If you’re a business owner, if you’re a salesperson, I want you to be able to interact with exactly the types of clients that you want and avoid the ones you don’t want. And the biggest reason that salespeople end up taking on clients that they don’t like don’t enjoy interacting with, can’t stand is because they’re afraid that if they let them go, they’re not going to have the business. And so one of the things that we’re very big on focusing on is being able to generate leads, proactively identify the types of clients we want to attract them on an ongoing basis so that if we have a client that is no longer a good fit for us, we can let them go and not have to worry that we’re going to be going out of business.
Chris: And you know when you let somebody go because it’s just not a fit. The client already knows it’s not a fit.
David: I mean, it feels so good to do it. I mean, it feels so good to do it. There are sometimes clients that you’ve been interacting with for a long time and they require too much work for not enough reward. They nickel and dime you, whatever it is, and it is just incredibly liberating at some point to be able to get to the point where you can say, you know what? I don’t think we have a good fit anymore. Let me refer you to somebody who might better suit your needs. You know?
Chris: Absolutely. And you know the other thing is that if I’ve got those clients, it is literally consuming me and impacting how I work with the rest of my clients. The minute that you have all clients that you really enjoy working with and it is possible, it’s absolutely possible. It’s a game changer in terms of how you view your business and you’re more profitable at nine out of ten times, you’re happier. You got a better family life. The impact is tremendous, and I think businesses have a tendency to forget just how draining a bad or many bad clients can be. Yeah, very true. Okay. We’ve got to wrap up. Last two questions. Number one, for somebody who doesn’t feel like they can do this, what do you want to say to them?
David: Well, maybe you can’t. I mean, not everybody’s going to be able to do it, but for those who are serious about it, for those who are committed to doing it, if it’s a ten on a scale of one to ten for you as opposed to being a three or a four, then it’s likely that you will take the necessary actions to make it happen. But if you don’t think that you can do it, the problem with that approach is that very often you won’t even try. You won’t even attempt it. So simply recognizing that, okay, yeah, it is possible to identify a segment of the market that you can create awareness with that you can essentially dominate, and you can grow it from there. If you can buy into that simple concept and if you understand that there are very specific things that need to be done in a very specific order and you’re willing to do that, execute on those steps, then it may make perfect sense for you to work with us and do that or to try to figure out how to do it yourself. But it all starts with that idea of recognizing that it’s possible. Because if you don’t think it’s possible, you’re just not even going to do it.
Chris: I think it’s so important in the one thing I think you’re missing is, is just that what your system brings is that structure, that system, that way to follow. So that even though it requires a little bit of extra discipline on your part to get through it, you know what each step along the way is and that is huge.
David: Yes, and it’s interactive as well. So, if somebody gets to a point in the course where they’re stumped and they’re like, Hey, wait a second, I don’t understand this, or I don’t understand that they have the ability to ask the question, get answers to the question. In some cases, what I’ll do is if it’s a big answer, if it’s not something that can be answered in a couple of sentences, I’ll actually create a separate training video to answer it and then build it into the course so that the next person who’s coming through, we’ll have it built in automatically. So, it really is very interactive and it’s about getting results. It’s not about going through a course, it’s about getting the results that you’re looking for in your business.
Chris: And let’s face it, it’s all about cash-flow. When we got sales coming in, everything else is easy. Very true. Okay, last question. What’s coming up in our next podcast, David?
David: Well, in our next podcast we’ll be talking about how leaders communicate, because it’s not the way that a lot of people do.
Chris: I like it and I’m looking forward to that conversation. Thanks so much, David. This has again, just been a pleasure.
David: Thank you, Chris.
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