Positioning -- Why Success In the Marketplace All Depends on How You Start Your Morning

Rejection is not necessarily a symptom of a bad offer. The packaging could be perfect, but where you might be deficient is in your positioning. To really win, you have to think the exact opposite of your potential buyer, and it has to happen first thing in the morning.
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I've said it time and time again -- ideas alone don't take hold. They have to be packaged appropriately to demonstrate value to those you are trying to get to invest in them, and they have to have a greater market appeal.

I'd venture a guess, though, that many of us go to market with what we think are foolproof offers and endure the same experience. We watch our hopeful buyer put their tongue to the roof of their mouth and begin to sound out that fateful, drawn out "no."

Rejection is not necessarily a symptom of a bad offer. The packaging could be perfect, but where you might be deficient is in your positioning -- you have to figure out how to appeal to and grab the attention of the buyer.

They are human, just like me. It shouldn't be that difficult, right?

WRONG.

To really win, you have to think the exact opposite of your potential buyer, and it has to happen first thing in the morning. Let me explain.

Your morning routine is likely very similar to your buyers to begin with -- hit the snooze button a few times, shower, eat breakfast, get dressed, etc. You may be doing the same sorts of things, but your minds should be in two completely different places. You as the entrepreneur that you are should always be thinking about your prospective buyer. Remember from week two that your success is not about you, but rather is about giving other people what they want.

Your buyers, though, wake up thinking of themselves. They are thinking of all of the things they have to do that day -- the meetings at work, the school concerts to attend, the anniversary gifts to buy. Likely there is enough information buzzing about their brains that they are already feeling overwhelmed. They don't have some attention reserve to disperse out fairly to all the people trying to get them to buy into an offer, so they forge a mental barrier and adopt a default position of "no." For them it is all just noise, and it is far easier to turn off the volume than filter through it and find something worthwhile.

But fear not! People are capable of great change, especially when they are backed by a strong motivation. Be the source of that motivation by giving them something exciting and relevant. Make it hard to say "no" -- make it worth them prioritizing your idea over everything else they have going on in their life.

Ultimately, it becomes about emerging from the massive amount of noise and positioning yourself as the one with the offer that is sharper and more compelling than anyone else's. I like to think of it as being the blue flame instead of the red flame, but you'll hear more about that in the video.

Once you finish watching, I want you to take some time to jot down a few notes:
•What sort of language could you use to talk about your offer that gets directly at the heart of the value it brings?
•How might you grab the attention of the buyer?
•How could you make that "value" seem compelling? What language and evidence might you use?

This is just to give us a starting point that we can go deeper into next week. I want to congratulate you again on graduating past packaging (hopefully you are still out there actively testing and revising your offer), and I want to formally welcome you to the next phase of our journey.

This post is part of a series produced by The Huffington Post and Peter Sheahan on the topic of Making It Happen in Small Business, focused on turning those with the ideas into those with the influence. To see all of the posts in the series, click here.

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