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Become an expert in your competition. Stop using the same cookie-cutter tactics your competitors rely upon & give retailers the support they deserved & want. Leverage strategies from 30 Days To Prosperity to give your brand the edge it deserves

Welcome to Day 28: How To Create A Sustainable Advantage For Your Business, Know Your Competitors Strategies

The Retail solved Blueprint to teach you everything you need to know to confidently grow and scale your brand, build a connected community of loyal evangelists, and multiply your brands impact, sales, and profits.

If we are meeting for the first time, my name is Dan Lohman. I’ve had the privilege of mentoring and working with hundreds of brands from pre-revenue to multi billion dollars in sales. This a culmination of the best strategies that are working today. I’ve spent years testing and perfecting them to save you valuable time and money while giving you the edge you deserve.

If you haven’t done so yet, download the free 30 Days To Prosperity Workbook at RetailSolved.com/30DayWorkbook to help you get the most out of this brand-building series. Go back and listen to all of the episodes in this masterclass to that you don’t miss a thing. The strategies build upon each other in the order of the series. Please share these and help me raise the bar in natural.

I want to take a moment to recap the last episode - Master Story Telling, The Power Of A Unified Voice

Topic: How To Create A Sustainable Advantage For Your Business, Know Your Competitors Strategies

Before we get into the meat of todays topic, we need to be certain you are fully ready prepared to leverage all that you have learned. Similar to you only get one change to make a first impression, this will set the tone for all future retailer facing engagements. You want and need to take a pause and here and revisit or double check that you are prepared to take the next step.

Consider this. Before any flight takes off the pilot first walks around the plane and then goes through a series a checklists to ensure that everything is in order before the flight. A few moments of prep helps to ensures that they will have a safe and comfortable flight free of drama or incident. The same is true here. In fact, I recommend you go through a similar process before each and every retailer meeting so that you will also be well prepared.

Luck favors the prepared and I guarantee that your competition is not doing this consistently or on a regular basis. In fact, this simple strategy alone can make a huge difference in your ability to grow and scale your brand as well as build your confidence. This is what professionals do. Let the amateurs continue to “just wing it”, you now know better!

How do I know this? I’ve attended a lot of of these meetings where brands present canned presentations with generic top line reports - the exact presentations they share with other retailers. I guarantee that the retailer has forgotten them moments after they left the appointment. If you want to differentiate yourself, you need to get noticed and that begins with the impression you make each and every time you get in front of a retailer. Make each meeting count!

So now, let’s talk about todays topic, How To Create A Sustainable Advantage For Your Business, Know Your Competitors Strategies.

I find that most sales people are so laser focused on achieving their objectives that they overlook what the retailers needs as well as how their competitors are meeting those needs. Remember the three things retailers really want 1) more traffic in their stores 2) a competitive advantage 3) and a reasonable profit

This is why you need to become an expert in your competitors. How well do you know and understand their go-to-market strategy? How well do you understand their promotional strategy? Im not suggesting you spy on them, that would be unethical. This is where you dig into the data and begin to learn everything about them. For example, what demographic group do their products appeal to? How often do they promote and what promotional strategy do they use.

Look for repeatable patterns in how they merchandise or promote. For example, when do they typically introduce their new products - what months? Then build strategies around them.

If they have a sales increase then determine where it came and what fueled the growth. Did it come from new distribution, lower pricing, advertising, or did it come from something else? How did the growth impact their base sales? Is the growth expected to continue or will it decline as soon as they stop aggressively promoting the brand, etc. the answers to questions like this will help you better assess what is working for the retailer and it will help you develop strategies to give you a competitive edge. Remember, rinse and repeat is not a strategy.

I dig deeper into specific strategies you can use on various podcast episodes as well as on the webinars. Leverage these strategies as well as what you’ve learned on the 30 days to prosperity challenge to give your brand the edge it deserves.

For additional inspiration listen to podcast episodes:
SECRETS 131 Josh Tabin With Wild Zora & NatchCom, Profitable Digital Brand Building Strategies. Digital strategies can add rocket fuel to your sales growth. They can give you more runway helping you compete at a much higher level. Traditional retail is expensive & it’s pay-to-play. A blended strategy makes it easier for shoppers to find your brand
SECRETS 213 Foodservice Is Not Dead It’s Different And It Wants To Boost Your Natural Brand, Stephanie Lind with Elohi. Interests in getting paid to sample your brand? Looking for a new way to get your brand discovered? Leverage this innovative strategy to grow sales! There is a huge need for packaged products. They want & need healthy ready-to-eat pre-packaged products. SECRETS 213 Foodservice Is Not Dead It’s Different And It Wants To Boost Your Natural Brand
SECRETS 260 Seth Greene - Market Domination Begins With Knowing Your Ideal Customer With Market Domination LLC and The Sharkpreneur Podcast. Brands striving to appeal to everyone overlook their ideal customers - a costly mistake. Build a solid foundation to grow and scale by picking a laser-focused micro-niche target market. Serve them relentlessly. They will celebrate and share your brand. This episode may not yet be be live depending on when you listen to this so keep checking back. SECRETS 260 Seth Greene - Market Domination Begins With Knowing Your Ideal Customer
SECRETS 263 Ron Karr - Velocity Mindset® - Strategies To Explode Sales And Eliminate Risk. This episode may not yet be be live depending on when you listen to this so keep checking back. Velocity Mindset® is A follow-up to the critically acclaimed Lead, Sell, or Get Out of the Way which was an Amazon bestseller. SECRETS 263 Ron Karr - Velocity Mindset® - Strategies To Explode Sales And Eliminate Risk.

Tip of the day: Become an expert in your competition. Leverage the strategies from the 30 Days To Prosperity series to give your brand the edge it deserves.

I’ve recorded the video which has illustrations and additional information I can’t share on an audio podcast. You can watch the accompanying video on on the podcast webpage and you can get there by going to RetailSolved.com/Session254. In tomorrows show we’ll talk about Look For And Close Category Gaps And Opportunities.

This episode will build on today’s conversation. Thanks for listening and I look forward to seeing you in the next show.