Selecting a niche…. create a differentiation

differentiation, Marketing, Positioning, Product Management

Whenever you try to create a differentiation – it is always with respect to a market.

The red egg differentiation will not matter to a person who does not eat eggs.

I talk multiple times about Joe Polish and Dean Jackson. The reason I am so impressed with them and their podcasts on ilovemarketing and morecheeselesswhiskers is because they explore this concept in so much depth.

You will hear a lot of marketing people talk about identifying a niche in the market, but fail to say the immediate statement after that. Is there a market in that niche

This is the most critical aspect when you decide to segment the market for a niche.

When I started my career in selling process control equipment, we had an amazing product which was also very expensive. Indian industry at that time was still new to the idea of micro processor based process control equipment.

Our product was very good good for controlling complex processes. However there were very few companies who really had the need for such a powerful equipment. And we didn’t have a range of products.

While there was a niche in the market for controlling complex processes, there was no market in the niche…. because there were very few companies with a need for such a product.

Eventually this product could not take leadership even though we came out with this amazing product much before anyone else.

So while finding a niche in the market is important, to be able to differentiate and stand out. You should always see if there’s a market for you in the niche.

Till next time.

Carpe Diem!!!

Relentless

Marketing, Sales

It’s an adjective.

Synonyms – Persistent, Non-Stop, Continuous…

An adjective qualifies the noun – grade 5 English grammar course. In this case, the noun is going to be a person. A relentless person a persistent person is how this will be used.

So what is the significance of this English grammar lesson for today’s post.

The other day in one of the posts I mentioned about the I love marketing podcast episode with Chris Voss and I explained why I admired him because of his usage of of words.

With a background in hostage negotiation you have to be careful with your words and the words should have the the exact Nuance of what is being thought by the speaker. That is one of the reasons why his vocabulary is so good.

During the podcast, one of the questions asked to him was on the launch of his book, in 2017 I think, and how he went about promoting it.

One word that he mentioned which immediately stuck in my head was the fact that he was relentless in ensuring that he was on two interviews a week at the minimum, to promote his book which he is doing to this day.

While the book – Never Split the Difference – is very good, but if people don’t hear about it they will not go and buy it. So it’s a terrific lesson in marketing.

We may have a terrific product or a terrific service but if people do not come to know about it then people will not buy it.

In one word he had put out such a big strategy for marketing

Everyone knows about Coke. But they relentlessly advertise about their product so that when you visit the shop or restaurant and you are thirsty the first word which comes out of your mouth is a Coke.

Everyday in marketing and I am including sales as part of marketing only for the purpose of this blog, if you are not somehow reaching more and more customers everyday , by some mechanism , you will not be able to build a sustainable pipeline and a predictable business.

You need not be brilliant, you need not be teriffic , but if you want to succeed you have to be relentless, persistent et al.

Till next time

Carpe Diem!!!

Serendipity

Everyone has heard the cliché “all that glitters is not gold” but we still end up taking a lot of decisions based on the way something is shown.

Today however I have to tell you how accidentally decided to hear a podcast episode and it turned out to be such a revelation. Pure serendipity.

I have mentioned multiple times to you about the podcast ilovemarketing by Joe Polish and Dean Jackson. If you have any thing to do with marketing, you should listen to this podcast.

Anyway….to today’s story….I was actually intending to hear the episode where Joe Polish talks about his sabbatical. While going through the episodes list I accidentally pressed the episode with Chris Voss.

If you haven’t heard of Chris Voss, he was the chief hostage negotiator of FBI and has written the amazing book Never Split the Difference.

Coming back, when I heard the first few words at the start of the podcast talking about the difference between assertive and aggressive and collaboration and cooperation I got captivated.

I love people who can give the nuances between words and know how to use the right word…. true wordsmiths

But as I heard the podcast further it had so much wisdom, that I was enthralled. I had no intention of listening to this episode when I had started Google podcast. but I got so much value listening to it.

Sometimes you are looking for something and you accidentally come across something so amazing. I would strongly recommend , that if you’re in any way involved in doing negotiations or love how human interaction can be improved, you should watch this episode on YouTube.

Till next time….

Carpe Diem!!!

Mind Control – Part II

Affirmative action, Breathing, Habits, Human Brain, Yoga

I was thinking on this topic since the time I posted yesterday on the comment “how can I stop my mind from wandering”

While I wish, I had a silver bullet answer, I don’t.

However there are some more things which help put my mind in better state to get into flow. In yesterday’s post I already suggested you watch a video on YouTube of Ilovemarketing episode on the 50 minute focus finder. Its one of the best methods of getting the mind cleared and then fully in flow. Earlier to that I have spoken about breathing and yoga.

Another thing which I have found very useful when I am doing any activity which requires intense focus is to play Mozart and Beethoven symphonies. Those have a massive impact on my ability to concentrate when I am trying to do a job which requires immense brain power. In addition I use a paper and pencil to put my thoughts down on paper as they come.

The brain is like the CPU of the computer, it typically is working at a speed which is more than a 1000 times faster than the input-output devices connected to it . If you leave the mind idle even for a milli second, it will like to wander and think of multiple thoughts.

In the life of an average person a typical waking day of 16 hours has about 57000 seconds. You brain has massive compute ability, which means it typically processes tasks very fast and then till it gets the next task, it wanders. Potentially your brain could be wandering 50000 times in a day hoping from one thought to another.

To keep the brain engaged you should use multiple sensory organs (the input-output devices of your body).

If I am reading a book – especially a non-fiction book – then my mind tends to wander. So what I do is I use my fingers to scan through the pages diagonally. Since my eyes follow my finger, two sensory organs are involved and the mind wanders less, in addition I play Mozart and Beethoven symphonies and my ears also get involved resulting in much higher concentration levels.

Why not try these two ideas in addition to what I had mentioned about watching the video by Dean Jackson and doing yoga.

Let me know your feedback and do let me know if there are other methods you have found useful and share it with us.

Till next time

Carpe Diem!!!