Creating a 'memorable point of difference'

What's a point of difference in your business? Photo / Thinkstock

When you boil it down there seem to be four key areas for success in marketing.

Key 1 is lead generation.
This means you do things that produce a number of interested, qualified prospects to talk to on a regular basis.

Key 2 is sales conversion.
This means you get a number of people each month to spend money with your business and become happy paying clients.

Key 3 is repeat and referral sales.
For some businesses, repeat and referral sales can be responsible for up to 50% (or more) of their revenues each month.

Key 4 is creating a competitive advantage.
A competitive advantage means you give your clients and customers reasons to choose your business over many of your competitors.

One way to do this is create a 'Big Bold Statement' about your business.
I learned about a 'Big Bold Statement' from business expert Andrew Griffith in Australia.

Andrew was contracted by the Government to go out to regional Australia a number of years ago to help small businesses that were struggling. One business that he came across was a general store in the middle of nowhere in Queensland.

This old store had been there for a long time and an old lady ran it.
The store itself was in two parts. One half of it got so full of old mining and farming equipment about 30 years ago that they literally closed the doors. (It was full of all this stuff still and the owners just moved the general store next door.)

The general store was on a through road and very few people were stopping to buy.
Business was terrible.
Andrew was talking to the old lady running the store and asked her 'can you tell me how long it has been a general store for?'

And she said "Oh well over 100 years".
Andrew then asked "Is it the oldest general store in Queensland?"
Her comment was "Well it could be."
Andrew did some homework and found out that this general store was in fact the oldest one in Queensland.

So the Big Bold Statement was he made this business...
The oldest general store in Queensland.

Then he thought 'we need a bit more of a hook here, half of the shop that's filled with junk, if you have a look at it, it's actually very interesting.

If we kind of open that door we could have people walk on in, we could actually call this a museum. And the path through all that stuff leads into the new general store. So we could have a museum and why don't we make it free entry for this museum as a great hook?'

So all of a sudden we've gone from a nondescript general store with dust on the side to the oldest general store in Queensland with a museum that has free entry.
And bizarrely this Big, Bold Statement literally turned the business around overnight.
Andrew got some very cheap signage put up that said:

The Oldest General Store in Queensland
Before long there are film crews from around the world filming this general store.
Busloads of tourists are stopping and getting out the front and getting their photo taken with the oldest general store in Queensland. They are buying food and drinks and souvenirs. It got featured on Japanese television shows, German television shows; it's in Lonely Planet travel guide books and so on.

Now nothing changed here apart from some signage about the Big Bold Statement.
Andrew turned a very ordinary business into something significant that stood out and all he did was come up with a Big, Bold Statement about the business.

What's Andrews own Big Bold Statement?
If you look at his website you'll notice Andrew describes himself as
'Australasia's # 1 Small Business & Entrepreneurial author with 12 books now sold in over 60 countries.'

That is certainly memorable.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Andrew a few years ago for my 'Unfair Business Advantage Report.

And as Andrew explained in our interview you can create a Big Bold Statement for any business by following some simple steps.
And he gave some great examples on how different businesses have done this.

You can read my full interview with Andrew in my free marketing resource 'The Unfair Business Advantage Report.

There are many different strategies that you could use to create a memorable point of difference for your business.
And a 'Big Bold Statement' is one that might be worth testing.

Fitting in is a short term strategy, standing out pays off in the long term'.
Seth Godin

Action Exercise:
What is a 'Big Bold Statement' you could come up with about your own business?

Graham McGregor is a consultant specialising in memorable marketing. You can download his 396 page 'Unfair Business Advantage' Ebook at no charge from www.theunfairbusinessadvantage.com