As a result of this column Realtors and Real Estate organizations will discover that: Understand how to gain top of mind awareness with your clients and prospects. Develop a distinguishing and Unique Selling Proposition. Stand out in the crowd, head and shoulders above the competition. Consumers of all Real Estate products or services make buying decisions based on how they perceive you and your business. As a result, proper positioning in the mind of your client or prospect is the most important marketing task you can perform. Positioning means performing activities that are different from you rivals or performing similar activities in different ways. Crest held the top position in the toothpaste market for 35 years. Colgate finally introduced “Total” and created enough differentiation to dominate. Coke continues to outsell Pepsi and Kodak film is still #1. In contrast, Intel, Microsoft, Amazon and others have captured top market share quickly.

Meanwhile, differentiation has evolved from what products and services do, to what people can do with them to solve business or lifestyle problems. There are few industries that solve both personal and business problems as much as Real Estate.

To businesses decision makers, technology is no longer an expense item. It’s a tool for profits, cash flow, and productivity. The leading reason parents buy computers is to get their children on the Internet because their future depends on it.

• Because the relevance of any product or service has evolved to solve problems, people judge superiority in the context of accomplishing some task or goal.
• They assign superiority to the product or service that can best solve their problem.

Tom Trapp. President of Bear Brook Design said, “The goal isn’t to get a customer to take action once, but to establish a continuing relationship. The most effective marketing approach is a combination of brand building - generating awareness and making emotional connections; plus, persuasive direct marketing - using tactics designed to elicit a specific response. Ultimately, the success of any organization lies in using these approaches wisely and in concert.”

Trust is a huge issue in the minds of clients. Prospects will choose the brand that offers the best combination of a powerful value proposition, strong on-going support, a compelling vision of the future, and a high degree of trustworthiness.

Clients and prospects know that when they make a purchase, they are, in effect, buying an implicit futures contract, and they want to know you’ll continue to be around to service their problems.

• The interdependent nature of Real Estate products or services is extremely important and often requires “partnering” to solve a customer problem.

• From the customer’s perspective, every product or service enables a total solution or participates in it.

Thus, organizations must determine what role they play in solving a customer’s problem. Your brand is only part of the solution. Nothing is more important to long-term success than the quality and the quantity of ongoing support. “Partners” such as inspection companies and appraisers are involved, and reflect directly on you, and your on-going customer relationships depend on their proper performance.

Real Estate consumers have evolved to purchasing only when convinced that a particular product or service is the best solution for a problem of personal or business importance. Marketing to them the solutions to their problems is the key ingredient to continued success.

This article is provided by Joe Murtagh, The DreamSpeaker^TM, an expert in solving Realtor challenges. For keynotes, consulting and questions or a free report titled The Three Biggest Mistakes Realtors Make, email us at Joe@TheDreamSpeaker.com or call 800-239-0058.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world. This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker^TM about Business Planning Issues.

In Repositioning authors Jack Trout and Steve Rivkin point out that the market leaders advantage can be used against them in demonstrating the one thing you do better and allow you to stand head and shoulders above them. “Avis ads used to say, ‘Rent from Avis. The line at our counter is shorter.’ It’s hard to see how Hertz could counter this strategy.”

Rivkin and Trout continued that sometimes a company’s marketing can be a weakness. “The number one mineral water in Russia is a brand called Aqua Minerale. Owned by PepsiCo it enjoyed excellent marketing. PepsiCo positioned the brand effectively by disguising its origin. It put ^“mineral^“ in the name and mountains on its label, thus making consumers believe that the water comes from a mountainous region.”

How could you compete and win against Pepsi’s Aqua Mineral? The authors suggest using advertising to reposition Aqua Minerale as not being real mountain water and that real mountain water is the best. “Under the Aqua Minerale label, you would say, this water is produced nowhere near the mountains. Under your label, you would print, this water comes from the mountains, where nature produces the best water.”

Other tips pointed out in Repositioning are that ordinary bananas became better bananas when a small Chiquita label was added. The Green Giant character became the difference in a family of veg­etables and Frank Perdue became the tough man behind the tender chicken.

When Tyson wanted to sell miniature chickens, which doesn’t sound very appealing it introduced Cornish game hens and the sales of pork increased when its producers repositioned it as “the other white meat.”

Even though cleaver marketing may distinguish your “one thing,” anything that other companies can do just as well as you is unlikely to be a long-term source of added value. Ask this question: “Why will we be better at doing this than others?”

The most successful business organizations add maximum value when they create a set of business processes, products and relationships that competitors are not able to reproduce.

All too often, discussions of strategy begin with the question, “What business are we in?” But the question is rarely explored completely, because a company’s business combines three things.

• First, is the market that it serves, which includes the needs of its customers and potential customers. For example, American Airlines and Cunard Cruise Line serve the same market… people who want to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Nevertheless, they are in very different industries.

• Next, do common technology or distribution channels link the industry that it is in, which involves a group of products? Singapore Airlines is in the same industry as Southwest Airlines, but they are in different markets because they do not compete for the same routes.

• Finally, there’s the strategic group, which encompasses the firms that are the company’s direct competitors. Coke, Pepsi and local French soft drink companies are in the same industry and market in France, but only Coke and Pepsi belong to the same strategic group because they are global brands.

By identifying your uniqueness and distinctive capabilities, you can turn them into a competitive advantage. Answer the question: What can we do better than anyone in our market, industry and strategic group? Once you answer that question, you will then stand head and shoulders above the competition.

Questions for discussion:

What one thing can we do better than our competitors that genuinely satisfies the needs of our customers better than anyone else?

Who are our competitors in our specific market, industry and strategic group? Have we learned enough about them to win their customers with a better value proposition? No one has an exclusive on good ideas. Please share you thoughts by posting at the bottom of our blog. Click here This article is provided by Joe Murtagh, “The DreamSpeaker^TM” www.TheDreamSpeaker.com. For keynotes, facilitation, workshops, consulting and questions or or a free report on The 3 Most Common Mistakes Organizations Make, email us at Joe@TheDreamSpeaker.com or call 800-239-0058.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world.This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker^TM about Business Planning Issues. To receive future bi-weekly issues of Business Journal Columns™.

• Countless authors and readers who generate on-line book reviews.

• Publishers that provide sophisticated content.

• Millions of “Amazon associates” who hot-link to the site and extend its sales network.

• Distribution, requiring trained personnel at Ingram books, FedEx, UPS and many electronic venders for using their Kindle e-book reader.

To define and shape the “human capital” strategy, several steps are important. The financial service professional and organization must keep everyone riveted on meeting the needs of clients and prospects while treating employees, vendors, suppliers and contractors as investors. These people can bring brainpower, know-how, energy, and their capacity for innovation freely to your firm.

How much is relationship capital worth? What value should be placed on connections with clients, prospecs, suppliers, and other partners? Does your management team treat producers and employees as a variable cost or think of them as long term investments in the enterprise?

In Firms of Endearment, authors Sheth, Sisodia, and Wolfe state that in companies like Cosco, Wallgreens, USAA and Southwest Air…all forms of human capital including suppliers, employees, customers, investors and the communities they are located in and have an emotional connection with the company.

Firms of endearment focus on the purpose of using their human capital to deliver a product or service that genuinely benefits humanity and to do that better than anyone else. Does it pay? According to the authors, “Over the last ten years ending June 2006, firms of endearment have outperformed the broad market by more than 8-to-1.

Due to the Internet, customers have gained new power because everybody communicates in multiple directions. The brand is no longer an image established through print and broadcast media. All financial service professionals and businesses, which were traditionally the seller to prospects…the hunter of old if you will…must now become the hunted.

Therefore, we must shift resources from traditional marketing to product and service innovation. Tide can say that it washes whiter, but if it doesn’t, customers will find out…in about 30 seconds. Blogs, Facebook and social media discussion groups all make it abundantly clear which detergent really washes whiter.

So, Proctor & Gamble, along with every other company, must redouble its efforts to innovate and actually have the “best products.” What products or services can you genuinely deliver better than competitors? That takes us back to the critical importance of human capital.

Because of information availability, negotiated pricing is challenging fixed prices as evidenced by discount brokerage and fee only planning services. Buyers, not just sellers, establish prices. Fees and commissions have been falling and this is likely to continue. As customers have more information about the actual costs of goods and services, their willingness to pay a high markup over actual cost declines.

To become a market leader, you need to make the effort to inform your clients and prospects. After all, your competitors’ pricing is only a click away. Successful financial professionals and companies will provide reliable information about competitors’ pricing, generating trust, and that is what produces relationship capital.

Honesty has always been the best policy. Today, that old saying is truer than ever before. The Internet world has few secrets.

• If you defraud someone on eBay, the user community banishes you by ruining your reputation and refusing to do business with you.

• Informed and voluntary compliance is the only way to govern a high-performance financial service business in the information age.

• All organizations must “walk the walk” and achieve and maintain the standards that they set.

Every producer and firm needs a strategy to break through the noise, to define and differentiate why the customer should choose your product or service in order for you to secure maximum market share. Rather than touting products or services, professionals and their firms must build relationship capital via honest, comprehensive communications strategies.

Engage clients and prospects in many roles. Involve them in defining value propositions and designing products. Enable customers to personalize products and services with their own knowledge and tastes…there is power in the slogan “have it your way.”

Financial service organizations and producers can best secure what may otherwise be an uncertain future by investing in human capital. Do you believe in “people power?” Although spreadsheets, credit ratings, dividend projections, mutual fund ratings, institutional management track records and technology are the tools of the 21^st Century …it is human capital that makes them work.

Questions for discussion:

What is the value of our existing human capital, how can we better nurture, care for and grow it?

With information becoming universally available to everyone is transparency inevitable? If so how do we define and differentiate why the customer should choose our product or service and over anyone else? This article is provided by Joe Murtagh CLU, ChFC, CFP, “The DreamSpeaker” www.TheDreamSpeaker.com a 37 year veteran and past top producer in the Financial Service. For keynotes, workshops, consulting, facilitation and questions…or a free report titled The Three Biggest Mistakes Financial Service Professionals Make, email us at email us at Joe@TheDreamSpeaker.com or call 800-239-0058.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world. This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker^TM about Business Planning Issues. To receive future monthly issues of Financial Service Journal™.

What does the concept of “human capital” mean to you? Do you believe in “people power” that people, not rooms, meeting space, technology, food, audio visual and themed events are the most important resource of the 21st Century? As a result of this column Meeting Industry professionals and Meeting Industry organizations will: Realize that people bring relationship capital in the form of connections with customers, suppliers, and other partners. Rather than treat employees as variable cost, think of them as investors in the enterprise…people powered assets. Define and differentiate why the customer should choose your product or service and secure maximum market share. Amazon.com draws most of its people power from the business web. Looking only at books, we find that in addition to its own management and staff, Amazon’s human capital base includes…

Human capital…both on and off line from Joe Murtagh on Vimeo.

• Countless authors and readers who generate on-line book reviews.

• Publishers that provide sophisticated content.

• Millions of “Amazon associates” who hot-link to the site and extend its sales network.

• Distribution, requiring trained personnel at Ingram books, FedEx, UPS and many electronic venders for using their Kindle e-book reader.

To define and shape the “human capital” strategy, several steps are important. The meeting industry must keep everyone riveted on fulfilling the needs of end-customers and treat employees, vendors, suppliers and contractors as investors. These people can bring brainpower, know-how, energy, and their capacity for innovation freely to your firm.

How much is relationship capital worth? What value should be placed on connections with customers, suppliers, and other partners? Does your management team treat employees as a variable cost or think of them as long term investments in the enterprise?

In Firms of Endearment, authors Sheth, Sisodia, and Wolfe state that in companies like Cosco, Wallgreens, USAA and Southwest Air…all forms of human capital including suppliers, employees, customers, investors and the communities they are located in and have an emotional connection with the company.

Firms of endearment focus on the purpose of using their human capital to deliver a product or service that genuinely benefits humanity and to do that better than anyone else. Does it pay? According to the authors, “Over the last ten years ending June 2006, firms of endearment have outperformed the broad market by more than 8-to-1.

Due to the Internet, customers have gained new power because everybody communicates in multiple directions. The brand is no longer an image established through print and broadcast media. All businesses, which were traditionally the seller to customers…the hunter of old if you will…must now become the hunted.

Therefore, we must shift resources from traditional marketing to product and service innovation. Tide can say that it washes whiter, but if it doesn’t, customers will find out…in about 30 seconds. Blogs, Facebook and social media discussion groups all make it abundantly clear which detergent really washes whiter.

So, Proctor & Gamble, along with every other company, must redouble its efforts to innovate and actually have the “best products or services.” What meeting or hospitality industry product or service can you genuinely deliver better than competitors? That takes us back to the critical importance of human capital.

Because of information availability, negotiated pricing is challenging fixed prices as evidenced by expedia and price line.com. Buyers, not just sellers, establish prices. You actually need to define the price-discovery mechanism, not the price. As customers have more information about the actual costs of goods and services, their willingness to pay a high markup over actual cost declines.

Therefore, to become a market leader, you need to make the effort to inform your customer. After all, your competitors’ pricing is only a click away. Successful companies provide reliable information about competitors’ pricing, generating trust, and that is what produces relationship capital.

Honesty has always been the best policy. Today, that old saying is truer than ever before. The Internet world has few secrets.

• If you defraud someone on eBay, the user community banishes you by ruining your reputation and refusing to do business with you.

• Informed and voluntary compliance is the only way to govern a high-performance meeting or hospitality business in the information age.

• All organizations must “walk the walk” and achieve and maintain the standards that they set.

Every firm needs a strategy to break through the noise, to define and differentiate why the customer should choose their product or service and to secure maximum market share. Rather than touting products or services, firms must build relationship capital via honest, comprehensive communications strategies.

Engage customers in many roles. Involve customers in defining value propositions and designing products. Enable customers to personalize products and services with their own knowledge and tastes…there is power in the slogan “have it your way.”

Meeting and hospitality organizations can best secure what may otherwise be an uncertain future by investing in human capital. Do you believe in “people power?” Although rooms, meeting space, technology, food, audio visual and themed events are the tools of the 21^st Century …it is human capital that makes them work.

Questions for discussion:

What is the value of our existing human capital, how can we better nurture, care for and grow it?

With information becoming universally available to everyone is transparency inevitable? If so how do we define and differentiate why the customer should choose our product or service and over anyone else? This article is provided by Joe Murtagh, “The DreamSpeaker” www.TheDreamSpeaker.com an MPI member and an expert at solving industry challenges. For keynotes, workshops, consulting and questions or a free report on The 3 Most Common Mistakes MPI Members Make email Joe Murtagh at Joe@TheDreamSpeaker.com or call 800-239-0058.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world. This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker^TM about Business Planning Issues. To receive future monthly issues of Meeting Industry Journal™

What does the concept of “human capital” mean to you? Do you believe in “people power” that people, not luxury homes, mortgage availability, office parks, raw land and technology are the most important resource of the 21st Century? As a result of this column Real Estate Professionals and Realty organizations will: Realize that people bring relationship capital in the form of connections with clients, prospects, and other partners. Rather than treat agents and employees as variable cost, think of them as investors in the enterprise…people powered assets. Define and differentiate why the client or prospect  should choose your product or service and secure maximum market share. Amazon.com draws most of its people power from the business web. Looking only at books, we find that in addition to its own management and staff, Amazon’s human capital base includes…

Human capital…both on and off line from Joe Murtagh on Vimeo.

• Countless authors and readers who generate on-line book reviews.

• Publishers that provide sophisticated content.

• Millions of “Amazon associates” who hot-link to the site and extend its sales network.

• Distribution, requiring trained personnel at Ingram books, FedEx, UPS and many electronic venders for using their Kindle e-book reader.

To define and shape the “human capital” strategy, several steps are important. Your Real Estate business must keep everyone riveted on meeting the needs of end-clients and prospects and treat employees, vendors, suppliers and contractors as investors. These people can bring brainpower, know-how, energy, and their capacity for innovation freely to your practice.

How much is relationship capital worth? What value should be placed on connections with clients, suppliers, and other partners? Do you or your management team treat employees as a variable cost or think of them as long term investments in the enterprise?

In Firms of Endearment, authors Sheth, Sisodia, and Wolfe state that in companies like Cosco, Wallgreens, USAA and Southwest Air…all forms of human capital including suppliers, employees, customers, investors and the communities they are located in and have an emotional connection with the company.

Firms of endearment focus on the purpose of using their human capital to deliver a product or service that genuinely benefits humanity and to do that better than anyone else. Does it pay? According to the authors, “Over the last ten years ending June 2006, firms of endearment have outperformed the broad market by more than 8-to-1.

Due to the Internet, customers have gained new power because everybody communicates in multiple directions. The brand is no longer an image established through print and broadcast media. All Real Estate professionals and businesses, which were traditionally the seller to customers…the hunter of old if you will…must now become the hunted.

Therefore, we must shift resources from traditional marketing to product and service innovation. Tide can say that it washes whiter, but if it doesn’t, customers will find out…in about 30 seconds. Blogs, Facebook and social media discussion groups all make it abundantly clear which detergent really washes whiter.

So, Proctor & Gamble, along with every other company, must redouble its efforts to innovate and actually have the “best products.” What can you or your Real Estate office genuinely do better than your competitors? That takes us back to the critical importance of human capital.

Because of information availability, negotiated commissions are challenging fixed rates and this is likely to continue. Looking at expedia and price line.com buyers, not just sellers, establish prices. You need to define the commission-discovery mechanism, not the commission. As customers have more information about the actual costs of goods and services, their willingness to pay a high markup over actual cost declines.

To become a market leader, you need to make the effort to inform your clients and prospects. After all, your competitors’ pricing is only a click away. Successful companies provide reliable information about competitors’ pricing, generating trust, and that is what produces relationship capital.

Honesty has always been the best policy. Today, that old saying is truer than ever before. The Internet world has few secrets.

• If you defraud someone on eBay, the user community banishes you by ruining your reputation and refusing to do business with you.

• Informed and voluntary compliance is the only way to govern a high-performance Real Estate business in the information age.

• All Real Estate organizations and Realtors must “walk the walk” and achieve and maintain the standards that they set.

Every Realtor and firm needs a strategy to break through the noise, to define and differentiate why the customer should choose you in order to successfully secure maximum market share. Rather than touting properties or services, Realtors must build relationship capital via honest, comprehensive communications strategies.

Engage clients and prospects in many roles. Involve them in defining value propositions and designing services. Enable customers to personalize products and services with their own knowledge and tastes…there is power in the slogan “have it your way.”

Realtors and Real Estate organizations can best secure what may otherwise be an uncertain future by investing in human capital. Do you believe in “people power?” Although luxury homes, mortgage availability, office parks, raw land and technology are the tools of the 21^st Century …it is human capital that makes them work.

Questions for discussion:

What is the value of our existing human capital, how can we better nurture, care for and grow it?

With information becoming universally available to everyone is transparency inevitable? If so how do we define and differentiate why the customer should choose our product or service and over anyone else? This article is provided by Joe Murtagh, The DreamSpeaker^TM, an expert in solving Realtor challenges. For keynotes, consulting and questions or a free report titled The Three Biggest Mistakes Realtors Make, email us at Joe@TheDreamSpeaker.com or call 800-239-0058.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world. This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker^TM about Business Planning Issues. To receive future monthly issues of Realtors Business Journal™

What does the concept of “human capital” mean to you? Do you believe in “people power” that people, not technology, machinery, equipment, manufacturing and production facilities are the most important resource of the 21st Century? As a result of this column you and your organization will: Realize that people bring relationship capital in the form of connections with customers, suppliers, and other partners. Rather than treat employees as variable cost, think of them as investors in the enterprise…people powered assets. Define and differentiate why the customer should choose your product or service and secure maximum market share. Amazon.com draws most of its people power from the business web. Looking only at books, we find that in addition to its own management and staff, Amazon’s human capital base includes…

Human capital…critical for 21st Century success from Joe Murtagh on Vimeo.

• Countless authors and readers who generate on-line book reviews.

• Publishers that provide sophisticated content.

• Millions of “Amazon associates” who hot-link to the site and extend its sales network.

• Distribution, requiring trained personnel at Ingram books, FedEx, UPS and many electronic venders for using their Kindle e-book reader.

To define and shape the “human capital” strategy, several steps are important. The business must keep everyone riveted on meeting the needs of end-customers and treat employees, vendors, suppliers and contractors as investors. These people can bring brainpower, know-how, energy, and their capacity for innovation freely to your firm.

How much is relationship capital worth? What value should be placed on connections with customers, suppliers, and other partners? Does your management team treat employees as a variable cost or think of them as long term investments in the enterprise?

In Firms of Endearment, authors Sheth, Sisodia, and Wolfe state that in companies like Cosco, Wallgreens, USAA and Southwest Air…all forms of human capital including suppliers, employees, customers, investors and the communities they are located in and have an emotional connection with the company.

Firms of endearment focus on the purpose of using their human capital to deliver a product or service that genuinely benefits humanity and to do that better than anyone else. Does it pay? According to the authors, “Over the last ten years ending June 2006, firms of endearment have outperformed the broad market by more than 8-to-1.

Due to the Internet, customers have gained new power because everybody communicates in multiple directions. The brand is no longer an image established through print and broadcast media. All businesses, which were traditionally the seller to customers…the hunter of old if you will…must now become the hunted.

Therefore, we must shift resources from traditional marketing to product and service innovation. Tide can say that it washes whiter, but if it doesn’t, customers will find out…in about 30 seconds. Blogs, Facebook and social media discussion groups all make it abundantly clear which detergent really washes whiter.

So, Proctor & Gamble, along with every other company, must redouble its efforts to innovate and actually have the “best products.” That takes us back to the critical importance of human capital.

Because of information availability, negotiated pricing is challenging fixed prices as evidenced by expedia and price line.com. Buyers, not just sellers, establish prices. You actually need to define the price-discovery mechanism, not the price. As customers have more information about the actual costs of goods and services, their willingness to pay a high markup over actual cost declines.

Therefore, to become a market leader, you need to make the effort to inform your customer. After all, your competitors’ pricing is only a click away. Successful companies provide reliable information about competitors’ pricing, generating trust, and that is what produces relationship capital.

Honesty has always been the best policy. Today, that old saying is truer than ever before. The Internet world has few secrets.

• If you defraud someone on eBay, the user community banishes you by ruining your reputation and refusing to do business with you.

• Informed and voluntary compliance is the only way to govern a high-performance business in the information age.

• All organizations must “walk the walk” and achieve and maintain the standards that they set.

Every firm needs a strategy to break through the noise, to define and differentiate why the customer should choose your product or service and to secure maximum market share. Rather than touting products or services, firms must build relationship capital via honest, comprehensive communications strategies.

Engage customers in many roles. Involve customers in defining value propositions and designing products. Enable customers to personalize products and services with their own knowledge and tastes…there is power in the slogan “have it your way.”

Organizations can best secure what may otherwise be an uncertain future by investing in human capital. Do you believe in “people power?” Although technology, labs, machinery, equipment, manufacturing, production and distribution facilities are the tools of the 21^st Century …it is human capital that makes them work.

Questions for discussion:

What is the value of our existing human capital, how can we better nurture, care for and grow it?

With information becoming universally available to everyone is transparency inevitable? If so how do we define and differentiate why the customer should choose our product or service and over anyone else?
No one has an exclusive on good ideas. Please share your thoughts by posting at the bottom of our blog. Click here This article is provided by Joe Murtagh, “The DreamSpeaker^TM” www.TheDreamSpeaker.com. For keynotes, facilitation, workshops, consulting and questions or or a free report on The 3 Most Common Mistakes Organizations Make, email us at Joe@TheDreamSpeaker.com or call 800-239-0058.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world. This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker^TM about Business Planning Issues. To receive future bi-weekly issues of Business Journal Columns™.

McDonald’s has raised everyone’s standards for fast service, and consistent quality. Federal Express has raised the bar for rapid delivery, and Disney World has awakened us to how friendly service can be. Meeting and hospitality industry professionals and organizations of every size and in every industry no longer compete only with each other but with standards set by the best. As a result of this column Meeting Industry Professionals and Meeting Industry organizations will: Rather than creating what the market needs or wants, just like Disney and FedEx, create what the market would love. Realize that marketing is not a department; it’s your business. Everyone in your organization is responsible for marketing. Know that Xerox invented the mouse, icons, and windows, but lacked the passion to market them. Whatever you do, execute passionately! Those that set the standards, such as Disney, Federal Express, and McDonalds, go beyond what customers say they need and surprise the customer by offering “undreamed of service” and setting new standards. Rather than creating what the meeting and hospitality industry market needs or wants, you and your organization can create what the meeting and hospitality market would love.

Fill customer wants and do it with passion! from Joe Murtagh on Vimeo.

While written surveys produce good results, oral surveys are much better because you ask people to explain their answers, rather than leaving them open to various interpretations. When you listen to customer’s responses, you can hear their anger, frustration, or happiness…you can notice such things as body language.

Remember:

• Marketing is not just a department. It’s your business.

• Everyone in your company is responsible for marketing.

• Every act is a marketing act.

Study every point at which your company makes contact with a prospect regardless if it’s with a business card, your building, office, your brochure, packaging, sales calls or presentations. Ask if you are making a phenomenal impression at every point?

Bear in mind that businesses are about relationships, and relationships are about feelings. The logical reasons why you should win the business…your competence, your excellence, your talent…will only pay the entry fees.

Don’t assume that people use logic to buy. For some reason, logic is not always a part of the sales process. Take, for example a comparison of credit cards. Visa is accepted in three times more locations than American Express. You can pay back a Visa card immediately or over time, but the traditional “Green” American Express must be paid off at the end of each month or you will suffer substantial penalties.

The membership fee for Visa is $20 and for American Express it’s $50. Therefore, we should conclude that truly rational people would choose Visa, but 25 million Americans still use their “Green” American Express.

Once you and your organization know what the market wants…deliver it with passion.

• Xerox invented the mouse, icons, and windows, but lacked the passion to market them.

• Apple’s belief in those ideas put them into play.

• Whatever you do, execute passionately.

Remember that “planning” is about tomorrow. A focus group could not have inspired the personal computer, cellular telephone, or fax machine. Consider three recent innovations: skinless Kentucky Fried Chicken, the McLean Hamburger from McDonald’s, and low-fat Pizza Hut pizza.

Focus groups loved these ideas, but real people didn’t. You must ask your customers to discover what they really, really, really want. Every business organization must be aware that even more important than making a superior choice, your customer wants to avoid making a bad mistake!

Ask yourself what risks might a prospect see in using our product or service? Then, eliminate those fears by providing testimonials, a risk-free trial period or a money back guarantee.

Meeting and hospitality industry professionals and their organizations can enjoy huge advantages by taking the time and spending the money to survey existing clients and prospects. Remember a verbal survey is better and the people will be more honest to the questions if asked by an outside firm. Find out exactly what they want, give them what they would love…and deliver it with passion!

Questions for discussion:

How can we, rather than creating and delivering products or services that our customer needs or wants, create what our customers would love?

What level of passion currently permeates me and my organization, including that of our employees, suppliers and strategic partners? How can that be increased? This article is provided by Joe Murtagh, “The DreamSpeaker” www.TheDreamSpeaker.com an MPI member and an expert at solving industry challenges. For keynotes, workshops, consulting and questions or a free report on The 3 Most Common Mistakes MPI Members Make email Joe Murtagh at Joe@TheDreamSpeaker.com or call 800-239-0058.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world.This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker^TM about Business Planning Issues.

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McDonald’s has raised everyone’s standards for fast service and consistent, although not high, quality. Federal Express has raised the bar for rapid delivery, and Disney World has awakened us to how friendly service can be. Realtors and Real Estate organizations of every size no longer compete only with each other but with standards set by the best. As a result of this column Real Estate Professionals and Realty organizations will: Rather than creating what the market needs or wants, just like Disney and FedEx, create what the market would love. Realize that marketing is not a department; it’s your business. Everyone in your organization is responsible for marketing. Know that Xerox invented the mouse, icons, and windows, but lacked the passion to market them. Whatever you do, execute passionately! Those that set the standards, such as Disney, Federal Express, and McDonalds, go beyond what customers say they need and surprise the customer by offering “undreamed of service” and setting new standards. Rather than creating what the market needs or wants, you and your organization can create what the Real Estate market would love.

Fill customer wants and do it with passion! from Joe Murtagh on

While written surveys produce good results, oral surveys are much better because you ask people to explain their answers, rather than leaving them open to various interpretations. When you listen to client’s or prospect’s responses, you can hear their anger, frustration, or happiness…you can notice such things as body language.

Remember:

• Marketing is not just a department. It’s your business.

• Everyone is responsible for marketing.

• Every act is a marketing act.

Study every point at which you and your organization make contact with a prospect regardless if it’s with a business card, your building, office, car, brochure, sales calls or showings. Ask, Am I making a phenomenal impression at every point?”

Bear in mind that businesses are about relationships, and relationships are about feelings. The logical reasons why you should win the business…your competence, your excellence, your talent…will only pay the entry fees.

Don’t assume that people use logic to buy. For some reason, logic is not always a part of the sales process. Take, for example a comparison of credit cards. Visa is accepted in three times more locations than American Express. You can pay back a Visa card immediately or over time, but the traditional “Green” American Express must be paid off at the end of each month or you will suffer substantial penalties.

The membership fee for Visa is $20 and for American Express it’s $50. Therefore, we should conclude that truly rational people would choose Visa, but 25 million Americans still use their “Green” American Express.

Once you and your organization know what the market wants…deliver it with passion.

• Xerox invented the mouse, icons, and windows, but lacked the passion to market them.

• Apple’s belief in those ideas put them into play.

• Whatever you do, execute passionately.

Remember that “planning” is about tomorrow. A focus group could not have inspired the personal computer, cellular telephone, or fax machine. Consider three recent innovations: skinless Kentucky Fried Chicken, the McLean Hamburger from McDonald’s, and low-fat Pizza Hut pizza.

Focus groups loved these ideas, but real people didn’t. You must ask your clients and prospects to discover what they really, really, really want. Every business organization must be aware that even more important than making a superior choice, your client wants to avoid making a bad mistake!

Ask yourself what risks might a prospect see in using your product or service? Then, eliminate those fears by providing information about yourself and the organization you represent. How long have you been in business, what are your values and how committed are you to service over the long term?

Realtors and Real Estate organizations can enjoy huge advantages by taking the time and spending the money to survey your existing clients and prospects. Remember a verbal survey is better and the people will be more honest to the questions if asked by an outside firm. Find out exactly what they want, give them what they would love…and deliver it with passion.

Questions for discussion:

How can we, rather than creating and delivering products or services that our client or prospect needs or wants, create what they would love?

What level of passion currently permeates me and my organization, including that of our support people, sales people, suppliers and strategic partners? How can that be increased? This article is provided by Joe Murtagh, The DreamSpeaker^TM, an expert in solving Realtor challenges. For keynotes, consulting and questions or a free report titled The Three Biggest Mistakes Realtors Make, email us at Joe@TheDreamSpeaker.com or call 800-239-0058.

If you enjoyed this column you’ll love our Books (click here) and Training Programs (click here). Each is filled with hundreds of leading edge profit enhancing ideas from the best business thinkers in the world. This is one of over 300 columns published and part of the reason why The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times have called The DreamSpeaker^TM about Business Planning Issues. To receive future monthly issues of Realtors Business Journal™