Show notes
You talk a lot about market domination, is that just for effect or are you serious about it?
David: Hi and welcome to the podcast today. I am joined once again by my co host, Chris Templeton, who is here to challenge me on the idea of market domination. Welcome Chris.
Chris: Hey David, thank you very much for letting me be your interrogator for this podcast!
David: Work me over, man. Work me over.
Chris: Domination. You know there is a lot of talk about domination and I don't think from a business standpoint we really understand what it is. So, is it a serious word? Are you serious about this, David?
David: Well, I'm serious about it to the extent that I believe that in every market there are leaders and followers, someone is leading the parade, and someone is following. If you're leading, then you're dominating. Essentially, you're going to be a recognized force in the market. And if you're not dominating the market, then what that means is there's business that you are absolutely losing out on. So for example, if I'm in the market for any kind of item, pick an item, pick an industry.
Chris: New speakers for my computer.
David: Okay. I'm in the market for a new computer speakers, so if I think of new computer speakers, what are some places that might immediately leap to mind? I mean it could be whatever... Office Max.
Chris: Amazon?
David: Yeah, it could be Amazon. Yeah, of course. Amazon, right? It could be Staples. It could be any place that sells speakers, but there are names that immediately leap to mind, right? You said Amazon right away. I deliberately skipped them because they're such a great, obvious example, but in other words, you hear something, and something leaps to mind. The people who leap to mind are the ones who have that top of mind awareness, which results in market domination.
David: If I think I need computer speakers and I immediately think of Staples or Best Buy or whatever, and I get in my car and I go there, then if you sell computer speakers, you're never even going to have a chance at that business. Right? Because I didn't even think of you. So, market domination means that you'll at least leap to mind. We named three or four different places that leaped to mind for us. Now. One of them would get the business, the others wouldn't. But those that didn't even leap to mind, they don't have a chance. Because otherwise what I would have to do is do a Google search or try to figure out where I wanted to go. Ask a friend, “Hey, where did you get your computer speakers?” And then I'd have to take action to try to find another place. So, without that level of awareness, it's impossible to dominate markets. This is particularly true for those who sell B2B.
So I am very serious about the idea of domination, but I also recognize that not everyone's going to be able to dominate at the level of an Amazon where people think of anything and they say, okay, I'm going to go to Amazon to get it. Or I can go to Amazon to get it. But the advantage here, and I think a really important distinction is the fact that just because someone dominates any market, whether it's Amazon trying to dominate anything, it doesn't really matter because there are people who will say, Oh, I need computer speakers. I'm going to go to Amazon. And there are other people who are going to say, I need computer speakers, but I'm sure not buying them from Amazon. Right? So, but they know about it. So, they have the opportunity to buy from there. And most businesses in most markets, no matter what they do, whether it's lawyers or doctors or salespeople of any kind, most people don't have that sort of recognition. And so, what happens is they don't even know about the business that they're missing. What I'm talking about is creating a level of awareness in the marketplace so that when people think of the product or service you offer, you will potentially leap to mind so that they can at least consider you for the purchase. Hopefully that makes sense.
Chris: A really, really important point because I can tell you there are listeners that are saying, well, there's no way I can have the level of awareness of an Amazon, and what I want the audience to understand is that's not the level of awareness that you need for your market, in all likelihood. Unless you're selling computer speakers, which I would then recommend that you consider a different business. But let's talk about two things. Number one, how do you define a market?
David: Okay, well, one of the things that we do in the Total Market Domination course is we really identify exactly what is the market that the person wants to dominate, right? Is it a particular geographic market? Is it a particular vertical market or niche? Who is it that they would like to dominate? In other words, if you could paint a picture of your ideal scenario, what is the group of people that you would like to dominate with your product and service? So, if somebody is selling cars in a particular area and they want everybody in that particular area to know that they sell this particular type of car, then it's defined, they know exactly what they're going after. And so, from that standpoint, you can then say, all right, can I create a level of awareness with this group of people so that I can make them aware of the fact that I sell this particular product or service in this particular market?
And in a lot of cases, the answer is going to be no. In other words, I don't have the resources to be able to reach every single person in the market that I would like to reach with this message and that's where one of the things that we do with our clients is we encourage them to look at the idea of sub-markets… markets within the market. So, if I can't reach everybody in my desired market to be able to communicate to them, then what segment of the market can I reach? Can I reach half of the city? Can I reach a section of the city? Can I reach a particular group of buildings within the city? If I can't reach that, can I reach one building in the city with a bunch of businesses in it? And if I can't even do that, can I do one floor in that one business or just the businesses to the left of the elevator when you get off the fourth floor. There is always a market that you can identify, that you can create awareness with, and you can ultimately create top of mind awareness with that. Once you've done that, then you can expand it. You can grow it and you can get to more businesses like that and you can begin to create the type of awareness that you want with a larger and larger market.
Chris: And you know, I think one of the things that's important about what you said is that it's a good thing to start small, but specific, where you can begin to build. Now, do you think most businesses need to think about a target market in terms of an industry or can it just be geographical?
David: It can be, I mean, if you're talking about a realtor for example, that might be a geographic area, but even within something like that, it's not a matter of saying, okay, I'm just going to target this particular geographic area. Maybe I'm going to target higher end homes in this particular geographic area, or maybe I'm going to target a particular type of home in a particular section of that area and I'm going to become known as the specialist in that. And by doing that, then I can dominate that particular section of the market so that if somebody is buying a very inexpensive home or looking to sell a very inexpensive home, they're not going to think of you. You're not going to leap to mind because that's not the market you're targeting.
Chris: Right, and I think you said a really important word because specialist is a great, great word from the standpoint of if I can be considered a specialist in a market, whether it's a real estate agent in a specific area or a specific development, when I have the role of specialist in people's minds that are potential clients, I've really shifted how people perceive me in a pretty dramatic way.
David: Well, yeah, and I think that this idea of targeting these people too. One of the things that you had mentioned earlier is the idea that people need to start small, and what I encourage them to do is to identify what I call their largest manageable sub-market. Okay. So, it doesn't have to be starting really tiny. It's like, what is a manageable sub-market for you? What section of the market could you conceivably dominate? How big is that? And then what are the steps necessary to make that happen? And so, when we work with our clients through our Total Market Domination course, that's a lot of what we do. We identify what is that largest manageable sub-market and then what sort of communication is necessary to be able to engage those people and make them aware of what we do? And of course, there are different levels of communication that are involved. I first have to make them aware of the fact that I'm alive, taking in air on the planet, and then they have to decide based on that, do I want to have a conversation with this person? Do I want to interact with them? Do I want to even consider them for what they do? And then beyond that, the levels of communication change. It's no longer about I exist. It's about how can I help and how can I provide solutions that are going to be better and different than what you can get elsewhere.
Chris: One of the things that I've heard a lot in the past, and this used to be very strong in social media, although I think it's, I don’t know if it's as strong as it used to be,