How to Have Success in Business

In today’s post (and video below), I want to share one of the best pieces of advice I ever received on how to achieve success in business.  It’s actually just a simple 5 word phrase.  I’ve used this philosophy in every business I’ve ever started and it has served me very well and allowed me to compete against people with much more experience and much bigger followings.  I would even argue that this phrase is one of the most critical keys to success in business that you will ever find.

And that simple 5 word phrase is this:  “Different is better than better“.

While most people are trying to convince the market that their product is better than their competitors’, the smart entrepreneurs are simply looking for a way that they can be different.  And I can tell you from experience, it’s much easier to be different than it is to try to be better because there’s always going to be somebody with more experience or more skills or better connections or more influence.  Trying to compete in the “who’s better” game is an exhausting battle.

Let me give you a real world example …

A Very Smart Lingerie Marketing Strategy

I was reminded of this very important lesson on how to achieve success in business a few days ago when a news story came on about a young lingerie company that is having amazing sales increases from one particular marketing campaign.  That company is Aerie.  They are a division of American Eagle.

Now before I tell you what their marketing strategy is, let me ask you a question … when you think of lingerie, do you think of American Eagle?  I don’t.  Who do you think of?  You probably think of Victoria’s secret or Frederick’s of Hollywood because they are the biggest players in that market.

Now, American Eagle could have attempted to gain market share by trying to be “better” than Victoria’s secret.  They could have tried to make better lingerie (whatever that would look like … I’m a man and I pretty much like it all, but I digress), they could have tried to get better models or have better photos taken.  But that would have been an uphill battle when competing against these market giants.

Instead, American Eagle launched a campaign where they banned all airbrushing from the models in their photos.  The message being that if you have scars or stretch marks or blemishes or belly rolls, that’s ok because you’re beautiful just the way you are.  While all of other lingerie companies are trying to get the best looking models and airbrush the photos to perfection, Aerie asked how they could be different (not better).

“Did their strategy work?” you might be asking yourself.  Boy did it ever.  They’ve gotten tons of publicity.  Women love the message and reportedly, sales have increased 9% since Aerie launched the campaign.

How Can You Be Different from Your Competition?

One of the best ways that I’ve found to set yourself apart as different and create fast success in business is to educate your market instead of sell; provide value instead of pitch; and position yourself as an expert and authority instead of a salesperson.

For example, I make a large part of my income by selling affiliate products (by the way, you might want to check out my training here that shows you step-by-step how to make a full time income by promoting other people’s products).  But one of the challenges with promoting affiliate products is that you have a LOT of competition.  There’s usually many other people trying to make money by promoting the exact same products that you are (by the way, this is true for network marketing, affiliate marketing, direct sales, insurance … basically anything where many people are promoting the exact same product).  For these industries especially, the “different is better than better” philosophy is extremely important (and I show you exactly how to do it in this training)

Does it Work for Small (and Home) Businesses?

Well, I’ll let you judge for yourself based on my story.  I only got started promoting other people’s products online back in Sept. 2013 (and I literally had zero experience with online marketing at the time).  There were a LOT of people with way more experience; way bigger lists; and a lot more skill than I had.  I wasn’t going to be able to compete on trying to be ‘better”.  Instead I asked myself, “what are most people doing to promote affiliate products and how can I do things a little bit different?”  What I found was that most people were focusing on tactics.  They were trying to learn the best facebook tactic or the best copywriting strategy or the best retargeting method or create the prettiest landing page and I didn’t know any of that stuff.

Here’s what I did know … I knew that if I could make people like me on a personal level, I could get them to buy from me.  And how do you get people to like you? … it’s easy.  You provide value in their life.  For me, this meant that I was going to teach them stuff and give away my best knowledge and information for free in the form content (much like what you’re consuming right now).

This strategy actually accomplished two goals.  It allowed me to sell with a lot more ease and way less resistance.  But it also allowed me to build my most important asset …. a following and a personal brand.  And therein lies the real secret to success in business:  Build relationships and rapport first and you never have to be a pushy salesman.  I’m here to tell you this works better than anything else I’ve ever done in business and I’m spilling the beans on exactly how to do it right in this training.

Did you like this post about how to have success in business?  If so, make sure you comment and share …

To your success!

Tyson’s Marketing and Success Blog
Skype: tzahner
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Email: tyson [at] marketing-boot-camp.com

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