Are you in a market where 90% of customers decide by price?
Can your clients differentiate your ads and benefits from other companies?
Are all competitors using the same media exposure?
Does your sales team give discount options to negotiate at closing?
Hi, my name is Octavio Urzua, and these are the same questions that affect my own B2B merchandising industry (imagine anything more commodity than pens, mugs, tshirts or usb) where all competitors provides the same products, services and benefits. And the only differentiation is who gives more discounts to get the order.
So, I needed to change more than cosmetics to be the leader in my industry instead of reacting to competitors negotiations.
In 3 years, I became the fastest growing company in my industry, and I was awarded as entrepreneur of the year by BCI bank.
If you are wondering how I did it… Among other things I decided not to be the largest, but the most profitable by differentiating my positioning in the marketplace, with the most committed team of employees to bring the changes in several steps.
Now, I want to share the tools and systems to do it in a handful of other industries, at the same time that I continue to implement in my own company, but only with the already proven strategies and tactics.
Why does anyone believe they are in a commodity business anyway?
Among my colleagues I heard the same song: “every business is a commodity business and good ideas are being copied fast”, so they ask me all the time “How do you invest in innovation fast enough and also protect your ideas?”.
We are going to cover this, but before let´s see the reasons behind the commoditization of industries:
- The purchasing behavior is changing due to technology, so we need to understand how prospects process information, what is the purpose when they search for information or suppliers, and what are the key elements to build trust before deciding.
- You know that it is easier than ever to research online and compare features, identify what is the minimum I need, ask for quotations, then push suppliers to improve their prices and quickly. Even doctors complain that patients search symptoms online before attending their consultation, so they are informed to ask alternative treatments, alternative prescriptions, or even second opinion very fast.
- Positioning and Selling 3.0 is evolving by the month. If you try to use your online media exposure as a replication of traditional selling, where your website is just a catalog, your sales team send customers to their web, and expect the customer to understand and decide by themselves, and then the traditional follow up by phone to check if the price was okay. If you do all these, no wonder there is no feedback, right?
- Without thinking, we can see in several industries that the whole marketing process has been designed for the client to research, to compare and to decide by price. What are you doing to avoid this strap?
- And it is getting tougher everyday, right? There are more services (comparison sites, review sites, complain sites, sharing sites) to enhance this behavior, so it not easy to get out of it and build your on platform as we would like to.
- Twelve month ago, one of my clients, Artilec, who import alarms and security systems was struggling due to lower margins every year and his strategy to find cheaper and cheaper suppliers could ruin his branding, but now he is playing a whole different game moving from Commodity to Profitability with a few Key Differentiations in their Value Proposition Offer.
- Another client, SercoLimp who import equipment for restaurants and clinics had be challenged in every bid contract, and after a marketing transformation session now they are the specified contractor in all important bids.
Which results can you expect?
As you can imagine, there are several potential solutions, each in their own right:
- you can hire a digital agency
- you can hire a marketing manager to do it for you and coordinate with outsourcing
- you can outsource single activities according to your current weaknesses
- the key activities to include are: strategy manager, social media community manager, seo and ppc expert, web designer, copywriter, scripts for sales team, etc.
- additionally you might need to review internal processes in: sales team, customer services and operations, because now everything is related and connected, so the success is a result of collaboration and alignment to big and small purposes
- But what is the cost of all these? Can you get results before commiting to this new endeavor?
For instance:
- If you hire a digital agency, which one do you trust your time and budget?
- If you hire a marketing manager, how do you find the proper skills for activities that are constantly evolving?
- If you outsource some tasks, how do you know the 20% tasks who bring the 80% results?
How does our Transformation Process really work?
Fortunately for me, I found a way that enable me: to move out of the commodity game, without having to go through the disappointment of hiring and firing marketing managers. Or spending a fortune on outside agencies who put junior people without business sense on the project.
The transformation process occurs in 7 steps:
PLAN: Find your Commodity-No-More Sweetspot: dig the marketplace to find the sweet spot according to your company´s advantages to ger ideal customers
GOAL: TARGET NICHE SELECTION : choose new target niches, team functions, proper technology, and timeframe for implementation according to your speed
PROCESS: Your Commodity-No-More Process : we will build together the new process with your current team (so they are learning, training and implement simultaneously). This includes outsourcing their weaknesses, take care of new clients with this new methodology
TEAM BUILDING DELEGATION: each new step is documented, the process, the success, the obstacles, everything will documented in order to implement fast and come back for more reviews and improvements. We use the latest IT platform in the cloud, kpi for each person, responsibilities and team alignment so no one is left behind.
MARKETING: Automation and Tracking Do Your Heavy-Lifting : we will build new platform with AR series, results reports, analytics for each product line.
SYSTEMATIC INNOVATION SYSTEM : the fast way to start is with kaizen improvements, then analyze opportunities for leverage and breakthroughs.
ONWARD: STRATEGIC GROWTH PLANNING: at the end of the process you and your team will have more free time for higher and meaningful projects.
Or you can always DIY
Of course you can do it yourself and here are some potential difficulties:
- confusing or even contradicting information about what is the right marketing strategy, the right marketing team, the right social media, the right budget to reach prospects, etc.
- confusing metrics to compare and decide which marketing agency is the most appropiate to your reality.
That is why I recommend not to delegate the marketing strategy at first, but to begin developing a project together, start with a baby small project, implement with your own team, or if possible, outsource some activities, and focus on provide value to the clients, and measure results.
What is your specific challenge?
Do you want to find business opportunities in Santiago de Chile?
Do you want to find real estate investment opportunities in Chile?
Do you want to retire, relocate and live in Chile?
Would you like to bring your business or know-how to Chile?
Would you like to do a tour in Chile before deciding?
Before doing our evaluation assessment to find the current areas of challenges to your company. I want you to send me an email with your current obstacles. Then, schedule a free initial session to talk about your project, your challanges, your expectations, and see if we fit to build a better plan.
All the best,
Octavio Urzúa
Tel. (56-2) 2231 3909
octavio@octaviourzua.com
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