A New Way to Market Your Expertise

A New Way to Market Your Expertise

The way we market our products and services is changing.
Social marketing is a good example of this.

Many professionals I talk to are challenged because
the way they market and the groups of people they
market to are no longer buying what they have to
offer.

Through working with clients, I have discovered an easy
way to “test” the market for a new product or service.
It is easy to do and unless you decide to buy contact
lists, the only investment is your time.

Here is an example. Let’s say that you offer recycling
to companies. Your current sales are slowing because
of the economy. You have had a desire to work more
closely with the hotel industry and even focus exclusively
on working with them. Your next step is to test this
market.

The steps you take are as follows:

1. Create a visioning statement about what you
would like to contribute to the hotel industry.

2. Make a contact list of hotels.

3. Write a list of questions you want to ask them.

4. Create a list of product and service offerings
at different price points.

When you call the hotels, it is a good idea to make sure
to include questions which enable you to find out their
biggest issues and challenges regarding recycling.
The actual survey questions are the subject of another article. Most important is that you understand their problems, how you can solve them, offer specific solutions at different price points and make it easy for them to begin doing business with you.

When you want to serve one industry, you can develop
many services and products to help them. For example,
as a recycling company serving the hotel industry, you
can offer the following services:

1. A book about recycling which can be purchased
by your hotel clients and given to their employees.

2. Consulting services about how to implement
a recycling program.

3. An extensive implementation program.

Once you start making telephone calls, you will understand
the needs of the industry in great depth. This is one of
the best ways to discover how to design your products
and services so that you can be of the greatest service
and also develop a steady and expanding revenue stream
for your company.

As you become known as an expert in this field, greater
visibility and more opportunities will come to you as you
find additional ways to make a difference and increase
your income at the same time.

© 2009 Oshana Himot, MBA, CHT. All Rights Reserved.