What if you only had one week to sell your product to a prospect you might never see again?

4 replies
Helicopter tour companies in Hawaii often have only one week to differentiate themselves to tourists. There are seven companies offering helicopter tours. How would you do it?

Here is how each of them tackles this challenge.

7 Ways to Differentiate and Position Your Business

Some have a distinct USP. Others, not so much. Here is one quick takeaway: emphasizing too many qualities about your company equals emphasizing nothing. Pick one USP and run with it.
#product #prospect #sell #week
  • Profile picture of the author ewenmack
    Great examples Joe.

    How they all can own a space in the mind of their market.

    Best,
    Ewen
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  • Profile picture of the author mjbmedia
    Good piece Joe thanks for sharing.

    Just a discussion piece re the jack of all trades approach, they must still be making profits else they wouldn't still be around, so is it actually such a bad approach or is it just the blog writers point of view.

    The tourists have a week on the islands to say yeh or nay, ideally they'd have determined they wanted a chopper ride before they even got there, especially with internet telling them about the options , so there is more than 7 days to win their business really. Anyway the clients may know what experiences they want from the tour, or they may not, so in the case of giving them a number of 'this is what we dos' I don't think that's such a bad approach in this sort of scenario, I mean focussing on safety, well yeh everyone wants to land alive, that should really be a gimme, not a benefit, giving tourists 6 reasons to use your tour company rather than just one covers more bases, and whilst it wouldn't be such a good move in a longer sales cycle scenario, in this one it clearly works as they're still trading.
    Interesting piece though.
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    Mike

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    • Originally Posted by mjbmedia View Post

      Good piece Joe thanks for sharing.

      Just a discussion piece re the jack of all trades approach, they must still be making profits else they wouldn't still be around, so is it actually such a bad approach or is it just the blog writers point of view.
      Well, there are some business authors that think the USP approach is overrated. In some industries, many of the players are interchangeable, yet they all survive.

      Nonetheless, I believe for most businesses a solid USP will result in more business. When Mark McCormack started one of the first sports management groups in the 1950s (IMG), he started out representing golfers like Jack Nicklaus.

      When tennis started to grow, tennis players sought him out and he began to represent some of the biggest names of the game. They trusted his expertise in sports management, even if it was a different sport. It gave them something they could hang their trust on. If he hadn't concentrated on one thing at first, he would have been just another lawyer from Cleveland.
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      Marketing is not a battle of products. It is a battle of perceptions.
      - Jack Trout
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  • Profile picture of the author jayspann
    In the dirty car sales game we always offered something if the deal closed that day... because nine times out of ten "bebacks" never come back.

    I've had a lot of luck trying what I have seen others do online.

    Offer a fast action "scholarship" if they act now. Show the value in the "normal price" and how the scholarship price is a no-brainer.
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