Micro and Small businesses think in terms of increasing sales steadily. A few percent a year, maybe more. Our brains are programmed to think that way. Take this example. If you could fold a piece of paper 50 times, how thick would it be? It startles most people when they hear that the answer is as thick as the distance to the sun!
In this article we’ll show you how you can change your marketing thinking and how you can finetune your marketing plan to make your product or service sales explode like an epidemic.
In many businesses people are content with slow and steady sales and that’s the way they market. Other businesses are really quite unprepared for sales explosions. Colour TV, mp3 players, washing machines and even mobile phone technology didn’t grow sales by a fixed amount every year. Sales exploded like and epidemic and companies were really unprepared to meet the unpredicted demand.
Bass was the first to introduce the mathematics of this theory to product technology uptake. Malcolm Gladwell, in his seminal book, The Tipping Point popularised the idea and turned it into layman’s language.
The graph shows what we mean. The horizontal axis is time and the vertical axis is cumulative sales revenue. For a while nothing much seems to happen. Sales hardly rate on the radar even though you have a good marketing plan and are following through diligently. Then there’s a real ‘ramp upwards’. It seems as if you don’t need to do anything any more to make sales happen; they just explode. This upward curving is the tipping point from which time on sales simply ‘take-off’ at a rate that defies explanation.
So what happens to cause the upward ramp? A few people here and there buying your product or service gives you a sales increase that’s linear. But what if you have just a few key buyers who are influential. Like a fashion designer that uses your accessories on the catwalk, or a key customer that simply must buy your coffee or your cupcakes. Those customers spread the word for you because they are influential. One customer influences many; and with a critical mass your product sales explode like a multiplying virus.
What can you do in your business?
1. Have a product or service offering that is very clearly distinguished from the competition. If you have no point of difference you cannot expect a sales explosion.
2. Know or learn how to identify that key customer(s). Opinion leaders for your product or service. Get there feedback, provide the very best service. Do whatever it takes.
FineTunebiz was once asked, ‘who is your ideal customer?’ Our answer; ‘Any influential client who knows lots and lots of people who our service and who is so clearly impressed with our service and advice that they tell the people they know that they must use FineTunebiz.’ That single customer is our ideal customer because one customer leads to many more…and so on.
Michael Jackson didn't invent the moonwalk. But he was the one to make it an 'epidemic' worldwide.
Michael Jackson didn't invent the moonwalk. But he was the one to make it an 'epidemic' worldwide.
Reasses your marketing plan now.
Interesting article. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteHow very true ... Influential Marketing ... Love it!
ReplyDelete