• Innovative Strategies That Create More Profits

Category: Blog Post

How To Leverage Your Competitive Advantage 

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

Leadership needs to identify and understand the specific asymmetries between your offer and your competitors’ offer. For example, if you can produce your product at a lower cost then your competitor you have a competitive advantage. However, how you use that advantage can make a significant difference.

Much of the following information comes from UCLA Professor Richard Rumelt’s  discussion of the sources of power and how to overcome obstacles in his book on good strategy/ bad strategy,

The advantage is not generally across the board, It depends on which products and which applications, knowledge and tastes, etc. There is no such thing as having an advantage across the board to all customers,

For advantages to be sustained, competitors must not be able to duplicate them or the resources underlying the like patents, trademarks, talent, economies of scale, network effects, etc. Apple is a good example.

Competitive advantage and profitability are not equal. You can’t make money or get wealth by simply having, owning, buying, or selling a competitive advantage. The connection between competitive advantage and wealth depends on the interaction between the product and the market, Wealth increases when competitive advantage increases or when the demand for the resources underlying it increases.

Increasing value requires a strategy for progress on at least 1 of 4 different fronts,

  • Deepening the advantages
  • Broadening the extent of advantages
  • Creating a higher demand for advantaged products
  • Strengthing the isolating mechanisms that block easy replication and imitation by competitors

Therefore, a competitive advantage is interesting when one has insights into ways to increase its value,

Have you identified your competitive advantage overall and product by product, and how you are going to exploit their value?

How To Use Anticipation As A Powerful Strategy Tool

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

 

Insights into anticipated future events or behavior can deliver opportunities. In business, these insights are generally about future buyer demand or how competitors will respond.

These future events take time to develop, and they will not always evolve the way you anticipate them too. But, most often these trends, technologies, regulations, etc are in the open and already underway and visible. They may be ways off, but you have to seek them out, monitor them, and anticipate where they are headed. Otherwise, you could miss a significant opportunity or end up like Blockbuster.

Once you understand the significance of this future change or trend and the timing, you have to find a pivot point that you can leverage to your advantage. Finding this pivot point will take some insight. It could be re-imaging your product or value proposition or your technology or operations or other organizational functions.

Once you have identified your pivot point, you will need to concentrate and focus on specific, limited objectives around that pivot point that will generate the most significant profits. Unless you have unlimited resources, you will have to select and limit yourself to one target,

Is your company using anticipation of future events to build or maintain your market position?

If you would like to learn more about how to develop your business, check out our website at www.https://harborcapitalgroupinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Braintopview-1.jpg.com

At Harbor Capital Group, we help serious entrepreneurs turn ideas into businesses.

 

How To Use Your Website to Build  An Enormous eMail List

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

 Encourage visitors who go to your website to signup for your email list and make it easy for them to sign up. In today’s market, you have to build trust before you can convert prospects into customers. One way to do that is with popup displays on one or more pages on your website. It’s easy to do. You can do it yourself and it’s very inexpensive, 

You can use popup displays in many ways, to capture names and email addresses. A/B testing of messages, product or service value propositions, and more. The email signups can even go automatically into your mail program (for example Constant Contact or MailChimp).  

There is also a lot of analytical information you can get from the program. I use OptinMonster and  following are some basic things to think about when designing your program,

 1 Create a clear, very visible call to action (e.g., email address)

2 Personalize your popups (friendly tone and referral source if you know it, or special segment if the source was targeted).  

3. Offer an irresistible incentive (special white paper, informative blog, special price, etc.)  

4 Use a design that stands out (but it should also blend into your site because it is your offer, not some company’s advertisement. 

 There are many different kinds of popup designs and many different ways to use them depending on your needs and marketing strategy.  Ask yourself how you could use these popup ads, and if interested, put a plan together to use them effectively. It does take some time to prepare and develop the materials you offer (blogs, newsletters, white papers, etc.).

You might also want to look at our blog post on how to write effective headlines at https://https://harborcapitalgroupinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Braintopview-1.jpg.com/how-to-write-headlines/

If you have questions, you can always go to Contact and email me.

How To Breakout From Destructive Competition

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

Many companies today face a very competitive market and are looking for a way out to break out. When every competitor is focused on short-term tactics (ie, special sale, drawing for a prize, etc.) the solution only lasts until one of the competitors comes up with a new tactic.  

Self-destructive competition is one of the problems W.Chen Kim and Ranee Mauborgo take on with their book, “Blue Ocean Strategy”.  For example, if your company is experiencing: 

  • Margins shrinking
  • Competition growing more intense
  • Competition driving commoditization
  • Rising costs

Too many companies focus their strategic thinking on the competition which puts the competition, not the customer, at the core of their strategy. Stop benchmarking the competition and responding to their strategic moves because it means you look more like the competition. 

Instead, put your strategic focus on the buyer and innovate new ways to deliver more value. Note: just because a  competitor is doing something, doesn’t mean it of value to buyers.

Think about these questions:  

  • Which features of your product or service could be dropped because they are not valued by the buyer?
  • How much would this reduce your costs?
  • What products or services could you add with those savings that would have value to the customer?   

If you know someone struggling in an overly competitive market, tell them about this post.  Maybe it will help. 

How To Write Headlines

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

What makes a headline go viral?

Following are some suggestions from Optinmonster.com

People want to share, want to increase the quality of their relationships with others, and want to increase their self-esteem and standing with their peers.

There is a magic 3-word phrase “will make you ____” This states that the topic will have an impact on you and often an emotional one.

There are five basic types of headlines that go viral

 

1 List posts — 50 Smart Ways To Segment Your Market

2 How to posts — How to optimize your site for the holidays

3 Resource posts — the ultimate guide to a simple option vs a double option — which is better?

4, Question post — How long should it take to earn revenues?

5. Heart-to–heart posts — An open letter to writers struggling with their first book

 

Now, if you add an infectious agent to those headlines your chances of going viral are much greater because they trigger emotion.  For example awe, anger, anxiety, fear, joy, lust, surprise, shock.

Examples

“40 belief-shaking remarks from a ruthless nonconformist”

Type: list post

Infectious agents: awe, anger, surprise, shock, anxiety

Belief-shaking — challenges you by stating its content will shake your beliefs

Ruthless — image of someone who doesn’t care

Nonconformist — someone unafraid and nonconventional

 

“How to hit 1,000,000 visitors in a year by blogging”

Type: How to

Infectious agents: awe, surprise, shock

“1,000,000” who wouldn’t want that. Even if you are skeptical, you will want to check

“In a year” desirable deadline

“Blogging” pinpoints its target audience and their biggest desire

Net: promise the desired result and a timescale for achieving it,

 

“Where to find free images”

Type: Resource post

Infectious agents: Awe, joy

Net: look for common questions or problems that people have, and write a headline that directly answers their question or solves a problem.

 

“On dying, mothers, and fighting for your ideas”

Type: Heart-to-heart

Infectious agents: awe, anger, surprise, shock, fear

“Dying” — strong emotive word, it congers up images in people’s minds

“Mothers” — emotive whatever your relationship with mother 

“Fighting” — emotive, congers up images in people’s minds of struggle, aggression

Net: fighting for your idea suggests motivation and inspiration 

 

“Are you good enough?”

Type: Question

Infectious agents: anger, anxiety, fear, surprise, shock

Net: are you good enough to challenges people. It asks a question everyone asks themselves, Ask a big question that drums up deep, human desires.

 

How to start writing viral headlines

1 Get to really know your audience

2 Know where your audience hangs out (media,etc.)

3 Discover your audiences’ infectious agents (follow them on social media, what are they sharing, any patterns in words and phrases? (topics, headlines, links)

4 Lay in those infectious agents.

Why Your Strategy’s General Policy Is Critical

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

SnapDeal is an Indian company that is very successful in selling high-transaction products to value-conscious customers. They have been successful because they adhered to the General Policy of their strategy. What they were willing to do and not willing to do. Sometimes the decisions were very difficult.

While merchants everywhere were touting the latest cell phone, they decided not to sell them because they could not make the transaction efficient enough to be profitable. Many people told them not selling cellphones was a mistake. They didn’t rule out selling cellphones, they ruled out selling cellphones until they could do it efficiently and make a profit.

Based on their strategy of selling to the value-conscious customer, their General Policy was if they were unable to make the transaction profitable, they would not sell the product regardless of its popularity and selling price.

By sticking to their general policy, it did not turn customers away. In fact, it solidified the  “Positioning” in their customer’s minds as a retailer of value products. Today the company is thriving in a very competitive marketplace,

This story illustrates the value of having a long-term strategy and adhering to the strategy’s general policy and coherent action.

Are you staying on the path laid out by your strategy?

The Perfect Value Proposition

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

Sarah LaFleur of MM LaFleur knew she had the perfect value proposition. Well designed, quality women’s clothes at affordable prices sold through her online platform. The only problem was that this was her definition of what people wanted. She was relying on direct mail marketing and Instagram. After a year, she was in trouble, She had lots of inventory, and her conversion rate was meager.

Then she started paying attention to customers and found out that while they liked her clothes and pricing, they still wanted to see and feel the clothes before deciding to buy. So, she put together a box, the “Bento Box”  of six clothing items, based on information from earlier email responses and told the prospect to look at the clothes, no-obligation, send back the clothes they didn’t want; and they would only be billed for the clothes they kept. Bingo! Her conversion rate went from 2% to 8%, and she is now doing great.

This may be hard to believe, but every zip code has hundreds of different mindsets, and many may not match yours, and maybe fewer still match mine. 🙂 The way to product-market fit is customer-centric, not product-centric.

 

Positioning: An Important Way To Differentiate Your Brand

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

SaaS companies are no longer unique, and most have many SaaS competitors with similar services.

This makes it difficult to break out and get attention.

Getting attention is similar to the problem marketers had in the ‘70s and ‘80s

when getting through the media noise was almost impossible.

That’s why its time  to take a look at your competitive position in the minds of buyers,

 

Marketing ROIs were getting expensive. Then, JackTrout wrote a book about “Positioning.”

The idea of positioning is to find and take a unique position in the customer’s mind. 

 

For example, many car rental companies were fighting each other at that time. 

Hertz was the acknowledged leader.

Avis realized that service was an essential outcome people wanted and a position no one owned.

So, they positioned themselves in the minds of consumers as being  #2,

because “We Try Harder” propelled them into number 2 and above the crowd.

 

Many SaaS companies are facing that same competitive environment today.

Therefore it’s time to take a look at your competitive position in the minds of buyers,

In an article by Yasmine de Aranda from Martet8, she stated you must ask the critical question, “

Why should a prospect choose you over the competitors”?

You need a compelling reason for them to buy from you.

Remember, they don’t care about your awesome company until they care about what you can do for them.

The right position will increase responses and conversions, a shorter buying cycle, higher retention, and scalability.

Some information you will need to create your positioning:

  • Who are your potential customers?
  • What outcomes are they trying to achieve?
  • Why are your competitors unable to achieve these outcomes?
  • How will your solution make your customer’s life better?

 

Don’t just write down the answers. Ask your customers for the answers.

We help turn ideas and startups into businesses by working with you as a consultant or

by guiding you through the development process with our online ClickVisor subscription-based platform.

Customer-Centered: How Can I Help You?

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

In today’s world, most people realize that you must put the customer first, not the product. ?

But does that mean that you accept everything the customer tells you? NO, 

But it doesn’t hurt to be customer-centered and ask how can I help you.

 

According to David Stucer, in a Sales & Marketing article, you believe the customer when

he is talking about his issues. You do want to pay attention when they tell you their needs

when they tell you what’s broken in their lives, when they tell you why where they are hurting?

 

A customer comes to you or wants to do business with you because he wants you to solve his problem.

Therefore you have to show him how you can solve his problem or issue.

 

As David would say: “We hear you, we can help you, here is how.”

This is easier said than done, however. You can grasp the problem conceptually,

but most people have difficulty conceptualizing the solution.

Make it easy for them to see how you can solve the problem,

 

People often jump to talking about their company and their product or services.

That’s certainly not customer-centric. The customer doesn’t want to hear about your business;

they want to hear about how you are going to solve their problem.

 

You  will get a better reception if you focus on how your business can help him improve his business,

As David would say, “People are far less concerned with doing business with an awesome company

then they are about whether the company can solve their problem”,

What you want to do is consistently tell the story in every media,

about how you solved this problem and that problem related to their problem, market, or industry.  

 

 

Jim Zitek/Harbor Capital Group 

https://https://harborcapitalgroupinc.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/Braintopview-1.jpg.com 

 

 

How To Lead Your Audience Through Your Presentation

Posted on by harborcapitalgroupinc

You are now ready to shift to your left brain and put the clusters you identified in a sequence and logical flow. You need to develop a pathway to determine the best order to present the clusters in your presentation.

Here is the problem you are facing. If you read something and you don’t understand it, you can go back to the book, find the material and reread it. When you are presenting, listeners can’t do that, so if they miss something, they have to start thinking and stop listening or interrupt you or give up. None of these options are acceptable.

Therefore, you have to become the navigator for your audience, make it easy for them. To do this, you have put these segments into a logical sequence to create a lucid and persuasive presentation. These techniques are called Flow Structures, and there re 16 of them to cover various types of presentations.

I can’t go through them all in this brief blog, but they are available on our platform or in Jerry Weissman’s book, “Presenting To Win.” They range from the simple like modular or chronological to issues/answers to rhetorical questions.

The flow structure you should use is the one that best fits your situation, your style, and helps tell your story. Remember, the mission is to get to Point B, the call for action. It’s more important that you select one or two flow structures to use. Not choosing a  flow structure risks that your presentation rambles along, confusing the audience.

Before choosing, ask these four questions:

  1. What is your Point B?
  2. Who is your audience, and what’s in it for them (what benefits)?
  3. What are the main clusters you need to address?
  4. Why have you organized the clusters the way you have?