I’ve been on vacation. That said, I’m a terrible business owner slash sales person in general, because I almost never have business cards or a book with me. It’s true, I brought both of those on my trip, but they were safely packed away with my laptop in my hotel room when I ran into a very nice young gentleman.
We got talking about his family’s business, and how they’ve been running an extension to their business without marketing for several years. They’re planning on trying to “flip the switch” on marketing at the beginning of 2015.
Their main product is physical. There are numerous people throughout the world to whom they can sell over and over again – you might call them collectors. But the main problem is that the physical product they sell has different pricing in different geographic regions of the world, so it’s not something they can easily sell on the Internet without screwing up sales with customers who could pay more.
While this isn’t a common reason, it is a more common type of problem than you might think. So instead of a physical product (they also have a hands-on product they sell that requires you to be in their store), what can they sell?
- Knowledge
- Expertise
- Certification
KNOWLEDGE
They were already looking for a way to monitize interaction over the ‘net, and were looking at webinars. I suggested giving free seminars, funneling some of the attendees who were looking for deeper knowledge into paid webinars. This would help those collectors looking to be able to distinguish between different qualities of product – low, medium and high. They could also provide information on how to distinguish between products from different sources.
EXPERTISE
For people looking to move from private collector to reseller or consultant level, even deeper courses could be designed. They might specialize in one particular aspect of the industry at a time, and those who are interested would sign up for online courses.
CERTIFICATION
You can get a piece of paper from governmental bodies, trade organizations, private groups. . . almost every industry offers some type of certification. This company might also offer levels of certification, based on how many courses an individual has taken. The more interested an individual, the more they understand cost. “Cost” would include cash payments, of course, but also the time and travel to come to my new friend’s location to take hands-on courses. This would also put them in the position of being able to buy the physical product this company sells! This brings the company in a complete circle, providing a knowledge product for a profit, that leads to selling a physical product as well.
If this is something you or your company needs help with, please contact us. We can help you achieve these goals.