How To Increase Your Profits By Being Seen As Your Marketplace’s Best In Class

From The Desk of Charles J. Kelly

Dear Fellow Business Owner,

In a world where products or services are becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate, many business owners are competing on the worst possible thing…

Price!

If businesses are unable to differentiate their products or services then how do you think consumers are purchasing said products or services?

Price.

If the consumer can not decipher what products or services are different, better or best then the easiest thing for their decision making criteria is to purchase based on ‘what is least expensive?’

Competing on price is a race to the bottom of profitability and is where a lot of your competition is living.

We do not want to live there.

When businesses are not able to clearly articulate their products or services’ differentiators to the marketplace price always seems to be the ‘logical’ thing to compete on.

This does appear ‘logical’ on the surface as businesses will likely attract more business, however there are a few flaws in this ‘logic’.

First, businesses attract customers who are only buying because the products or services are ‘cheap’. A lot of times this results in customers who are a headache to deal with.

Second, although the short-term influx of customers feels and appears good at first, over the long-term those short-term customers’ buying behavior typically will not support a business’ long-term profit goals.

Finally, a business who employs the competing on price strategy typically becomes known for being the business with cheap options.

Once a business’ brand is known as the ‘cheap option’ the business has a difficult time overcoming that brand and suffers long-term. 

As you can see, we do NOT want our businesses to live in that space.

Instead, with the opportunity we have in front of us to reach more people than ever before at any point in human history wouldn’t a business benefit more from properly positioning themselves in their marketplace rather than compete on price?

Of course!

With the various social platforms at our disposal we can easily post with thousands of people seeing it for very minimal costs.

And we are able to control, ethically speaking of course, how we want our business to be viewed in our marketplace.

Just to reaffirm, everything I suggest is to be done from an ethical standpoint and not do anything nefarious or make false claims about your products or services.

So How Can A Business Owner Correctly Position Their Business To Differentiate From Their Competitors Without Competing On Price?

We have all heard of increasing the perceived value of products or services.

But specifically there is practical value and intrinsic value.

Practical value is the value customers get from the functionality of a product or service.

For example, iPhone users get the practical value of being able to communicate via telephone calls, text messages and emails on one device.

However, the intrinsic value is more than just communication via a hand-held device.

Intrinsic value is the unseen perceived value that is created by positioning. 

Of course there are less expensive options for a mobile device than an iPhone.

However, Apple positioned their mobile device as something that was to be experienced through creating an elegant design and yearly advancements of features and benefits that are announced via their Worldwide Developers Conference.

Apple has differentiated their brand and has separated themselves from their competitors through positioning.

Every customer knows their phones are not cheap, but customers will line up outside for hours to spend over $600 (I still remember flip phones from back in the day that were much less!) because of the perceived value the phone possesses. 

Another example is think of your local steakhouse options.

There is the traditional steakhouse that you likely leave there spending less than $150 between two people.

However, there is that really fancy steakhouse that for two people you have to try really hard to NOT spend over $250.

What is the difference? 

Are the steaks really that much better at the more expensive option?

Unless we are talking about Wagyu or something fancy like that, isn’t a steak a steak?

We are willingly paying the higher price because that ‘fancy’ steakhouse has positioned themselves as the premier option.

We can do something similar in our businesses whether we sell products or services.

Before explaining the ‘how’, let us talk about why to focus our efforts on positioning.

So Why Focus On Positioning?

First, by correctly positioning products or services a business can charge premium prices, which directly increase profits, which is the lifeblood of a business. 

Wouldn’t that be easier than chasing all of these suggestions seen on every other TikTok, X (twitter), Facebook post/advertisement promising to provide out-of-this-world-results by making website tweaks, email marketing, specific advertising approach, or whatever is the flavor of the month marketing ‘trick’?

Of course.

Instead of chasing the next internet fad businesses can keep their current customer size base, increase their prices and see their profits significantly increase!

Businesses would see significant increases in their profits by focusing on, ‘How can we charge more?’ rather than ‘Lets try our 7th different advertising approach in the last 2 years, maybe this one will work!’

Second, positioning will increase demand.

For example, a well positioned product is high end sports cars.

Think of those cool Ferraris or Lamborghinis.

When was the last time you saw an advertisement for these cars?

I can’t recall seeing one, maybe ever.

But did you know that Ferraris sell out almost immediately upon release?

Exactly.

And just like iPhones, Ferrari is positioned as one of the most expensive sports cars yet their customer demand is through the roof!

They do not compete on price, but instead have positioned their product with immense intrinsic value.

Those types of cars have a huge perceived value that customers willingly pay extremely high prices to drive around in.

Third, positioning will make selling of products or services easier.

Do the customers of these products know what the price is of those products? Yes.

Do customers of iPhones and Ferraris haggle on price? Nope.

Are the majority of customers ‘happy’ to pay for these products or services without little to any customer complaints? Yes.

If a business owner is going to be an entrepreneur, deal with typical entrepreneur challenges then they might as well charge premium prices for their products or services to deal with customers who happily pay the premium prices rather than the alternative.

So Now That We Have Clearly Demonstrated Why Positioning Is Important To Charging Premium Prices Lets Discuss How To Build That Intrinsic Value.

There are several ways to build intrinsic value so let's discuss each.

First, exclusivity. 

Think of a local private club. They likely charge a fee to join along with a sizable yearly fee.

For what? Exclusivity. 

Members get access to services that no one else gets.

Second, rarity. 

Musk & Bezos are now sending people to space. The first spaceflight with Bezos sold for $28 million. I will just enjoy the stars for free from here on earth.

But due to rarity the price was $28 million.

Third, being exciting, different or contrarian is magnetic positioning.

With being exciting, different or a contrarian this positioning pulls in those who identify with it, but also repels those who do not identify with it, which repelling others is not bad.

As a business we do not need nor want everyone on earth to be our customer, but only those people who align to our business’ products or services values.

Again, if we are charging premium prices then we definitely do NOT need every person to be a customer.

Fourth, being mysterious or forbidden. 

Mystery or forbidden draw people in due to curiosity. Why do so many underage people try to get into bars? They are curious about the ‘mystery’ of a bar or because they are told they are not permitted.

Fifth, popularity.

We have all done something in life because ‘it was the popular thing to do’, which really is ‘I did it because everyone else was and if everyone was doing it then it must be okay, right?’

Finally, affinity. This person is just like me.

We have made a lot of buying decisions because we felt gravitation towards a person.

Now with all of those possible positions, remember this…

A Business Will Be Paid The Most For The Position They Have In The Marketplace!

As a lot of people are visual learners, like I am, let me show you what I mean.

Take a look at this ‘ladder’ of positioning. The bottom represents the least paid while the top represents the most paid.

Let's start at the bottom where we have a generalist.

Think about your primary doctor who you go to when you’re not feeling well, but do not know what is the root cause. This is a generalist. 

The generalist I am sure makes a nice living, however, not like a specialist. 

Next is the specialist who would be someone like a heart surgeon or cardiovascular specialist. They are paid more than the generalist as they have a specialty.

But once again, the specialist is surely making a really good living, but not like someone who is an ‘authority’ in their particular marketplace.

Above the specialist is authority. 

Perhaps in your city you have a well known doctor who everyone goes to because that is where all of the generalists recommend people go to. 

This doctor is an authoritative figure and hence commands very high prices.

This type of positioning is paid handsomely, but there is another level above ‘authority’.

Next is the celebrity. 

These days a lot of people are getting their own shows so think of one of the many doctors on television with their own tv slot on a daily basis. 

Imagine what prices they are charging for their time. Much more than the generalist, specialist and even authority levels!

Celebrity authority is very magnetic to money.

Finally, the highest level of positioning a business can obtain is celebrity authority. This is a combination of a business having both celebrity status and an authoritative voice. 

This position is most magnetic to money.

Can you think of some celebrities who are both famous and have an authoritative voice in their marketplace?

One person that comes to mind is the singer Rhianna.

She hasn’t released new music in a while as she’s busy building her beauty brand.

Again, I’m certain there is similar and less expensive makeup that people can buy that has similar quality, but Rhianna’s celebrity and authoritative positioning pulls in customers at higher prices.

This is where we want our businesses to compete as there is a lot less competition and do not have to bother with competing on price where there is so much more competition.

So the real question is, ‘How do we create and deploy this positioning so we can utilize its benefits in our marketing in our marketplace?”

How To Create And Deploy Positioning

Step one is we want to figure out what your business’ global desired position is.

This is different from what big corporations are concerned with as we want to bring in as much money as possible while delivering the most goodwill we can to our community.

To be clear, we are doing everything that is ethically above board here. No shenanigans, please.

You want your business’ position to be centered around what you want your marketplace to think about your business. 

Imagine putting 1,000 of your ideal prospects in a convention center and you’re presenting to them on stage.

How would you like to be introduced to those people?

This is your opportunity to differentiate yourself and not compete on price.

The first thing you want to do is find out what your business’ magic power is. 

What is different about your business than your competitors that you can clearly demonstrate is true?

What can you say to immediately separate yourself from your competitors that will immediately pull in your ideal customers and make them think ‘this business’ products or services are exactly what I need!’ 

The next thing you need to understand and really identify is your superhero identity.

This is what your marketplace will know you as.

Think about the following people…

Mark Cuban, great at identifying, investing and growing companies.

Elon Musk, Entrepreneur who can create immense value in companies, even when the chips seem to be down for him.

Dan Kennedy or David Ogilvy, amazing advertisers who bring in money for their clients.

Take time to think about this and be specific as this will be what your market perceives you as, which will drive your conversion of customers, demand and profitability.

Next, think about what you stand for and also what you stand against.

For instance, I stand for demonstrating that I can help businesses get more customers before anyone ever pays, always coming from a place of giving as much goodwill as possible to businesses, transparency, working with people I enjoy working with (life is too short to be around miserable people) and honesty.

That is to name just a few.

But I am equally if not even more against low effort people, short-term thinking (get rich quick schemes, changing strategies every month), pessimists, cheap people, business owners who poorly treat their customers and loud/obnoxious advertisers who ‘flash’ their success through ‘fancy’ cars/jewelry/boats (I am sure you are tired of seeing those types of fly-by-night business too).

So How Do We Wrap All Of This Together?

Well, let us start with your magic power.

The framework is, ‘[Your name] is known as the most sought after [insert magic power or superhero identity] in the marketplace’.

My superhero identity is being highly-in-demand by owner operated businesses to help them scale their business to their next $1,000,000.00.

So my introduction would start with, ‘Charles J. Kelly is known as the most sought after direct response marketing consultant in the owner operated business community…’, which is my superhero identity.

Next is my magic power, which is creating marketing/sales campaigns that double, triple and even quadruple their profits.

So the introduction of me would continue with, ‘Owner operated business community…who is famous for creating insanely successful internet marketing/sales campaigns that double, triple and even quadruple businesses profits.’

What I have done here is directly call out that I can help businesses get clients for owner operated businesses that include, but not limited to coaches, consultants and service providers. 

I help them structure their businesses and achieve simplified growth.

So if my ideal client is at a conference, reading my ad copy, visiting my website, etc. then they know I can help them.

You can phrase this any way you want and replace words, I am just giving you something to model so you don’t have to stare at a blank page for hours.

Now onto what I stand for and against as you will see why this is important to attracting and repelling those customers you do or do not want.

What I stand for is to increase brand loyalty and goodwill in the business community.

And finally, what I stand against is building businesses’ profits without being obnoxious or your typical slimy marketer.

So, if I were to wrap that all into an introduction that would read something like this….

‘Charles J. Kelly is known as the most sought after direct response marketing consultant in the owner operated business community. He is famous for creating insanely successful internet marketing campaigns that double, triple and even quadruple business' profits. His campaigns are known to increase brand loyalty and goodwill for businesses’ communities without being obnoxious or your typical slimy marketer’.

Now, that may appear like a lot, however you do not have to use this statement in your advertising, but you want to create and frame all of your advertising and promotional materials around this perception. 

So what do you want your potential customers to think about you before they even have an opportunity to meet you?

This exercise will help you answer that question.

Once you establish your position in in your marketplace you will see a significant difference in:

  • The type of customers you attract, ones that happily pay your premium prices.

  • Customers who tell others about your products or services.

  • Less customer service issues.

  • Your profits and differentiate your business from competitors without having to compete on price.

Now go apply this to your business and let me know if you have any questions.