Let’s start by looking at how two of the leading brand giants overcome this and stimulate some debate…

Perhaps you have also been thinking about some of the following questions:

• How can you get more customers to buy from you rather than your competition?
• What exactly is it that makes you different?
• What is your ‘Position’ in a very busy market place?

Put simply a position can help buyers to differentiate, particularly useful in a crowded market. Having a tangible and meaningful difference is vital if you want to stand out from the mass of Me 2 products and become a brand of choice.

Consider the changes made over the decades at ‘New Generation’ Pepsi vs. “Original” Coca Cola. Both launched over a century ago and essentially offer the same product give or take a taste bud or two!

However Coke has positioned its self as a ‘Heritage’ brand with the iconic Father Christmas adverts (you can almost hear that “Holidays a coming” theme tune). Whilst Pepsi has adopted more of a ‘New Generation’ position, aligning themselves to music (Concerts, Festivals, and Michael Jackson etc). Both are positive yet very different.

So what can we learn about ‘Position’ from this?

Positioning is all in the mind of the audience. What your audience thinks of you is your position. Their perception is their reality. For example we think Apple are “Insanely creative” so that’s their position…from our perspective.

What is your Position?

You might think it’s unusual for a biz development agency to be talking about brand? But if you don’t know what your position is (and are not clearly marketing it) what chance does any sales person have of convincing your prospects?

Do you know what your clients really think of the service they receive?

Remember in a fiercely competitive world we have to make the buyers purchasing and decision making process as simply as possible.

Why not share what you think of your favourite brand?

We would love to hear your thoughts on the importance of brand positioning and look forward to helping you identify your uniqueness in our next blog.

I’m back – Well in truth I actually arrived back in Blighty last Sunday morning but it has taken me until now to recover, get out of the shell shock and realise last Thursday morning I actually made it to the top of the summit!

What a journey! I’m waiting to collect in the mass of photos and film (and put together the full presentation / slide show) I have uploaded a new film and wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all again for your very kind donations!

So far we have raised over £4,290 (85% of my target) and I’m confident when all those pledged donations are in and counted we will break the £5k mark! Please if you have pledged and haven’t had time to click through and donate yet you can do it here right now.

Our group of 23 strangers not only had the highest success rate for summit night but we all stayed together and had the highest percentage achieve summit than in over 5 years!
There is a short film of some of the highlights here and I have listed below the best memories:

• Being in safe hands from the start, our guides were called Moses & God Bless (honestly)
• Inspiring moment – Being passed by a porter carrying over 50lb balanced on their head!
• Keeping it real – Sharing a tent with Amar aged 19 from London (who had also lost his Dad)
• When the IPods had run out, we started playing “I went on holiday and in my suitcase I packed”
• What goes up must come down – Forgetting it would take 2 days to get off the mountain
• Procol vitamins – make for the best Shrek coloured wee (thanks Clare)
• Prayer meetings – 1st night alone, on summit night praying with over 12 people involved
• Where can you hear Bob Marley and Oasis performed by the worst live cruise ship band ever? The Glacier bar in Moshi winner of weirdest bar in Africa!

There were 6 people on Kili raising money for CAP meaning together we will have impacted on the real poverty that exists here in the UK. Many people who are living on very low incomes and are struggling to meet debt repayments will now be able to afford the basics of life that include regular meals heating and medication.

If you would like to know more about CAP and where your money is going check out linda’s story and if you haven’t got around to donating yet it is as simple and safe…DONATE  NOW
£50 – Imagine if your cupboards really were bare. That’s the harsh reality for so many families in debt. £50 will provide a week’s food for a CAP client who has absolutely nothing when CAP arrive on the scene.

ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU !!!
Donny / Neil / Slimmerman / Mr November

I did it!!!…Come on!!!

In short, here is my story outlining my journey up Mount Kilimanjaro, all for raising money for UK families living in poverty… Enjoy!

After an epic 24 hour flight, I arrived at our destination before setting off up Kilimanjaro in the early morning. I was sat (stuck!) next to a real bird watcher. I was soon ready for bed when we landed…after learning all about blue tits!

Day 1 – The first day climbing. I was nervous, but excited and anxious all at the same time! We climbed for 6 tedious hours through thick rainforest – funnily enough it rained all day but saw amazing sights! I was feeling good. We camped at 3000m on our first night.
Seeing the porters carrying all of the gear was an absolute inspiration. Our guides were called Moses and God Bless – seriously! So I was in good hands…

Day 2 – I started my second day off feeling very sick, after having only one hour sleep. I soon picked up after taking some medicine my darling wife armed me with!
Very scrambling rock faces today…and it rained again – I was very glad of my boots…which I left drying in my tent whilst having supper at camp. It is starting to get cold now as we are 3900m high tonight. We saw the summit in the moonlight and covered in snow – it was absolutely AMAZING!

Day 3 – Day 3 done. And by far the toughest yet! Awoke to gorgeous sunshine, and I wisely set off in my ‘ron hills’ (licra trousers) …looking good! Climbed 4600m by lunch today – head felt like it had done 5 rounds with Tyson.
As we reached Lava Tower people were going down! But I kept my head high and my determination was even stronger. It was the Ibuprofen and prayers that saw me through.
We climbed down a beautiful waterfall to camp number 3 at 3900m high. It was the Barranco Wall in the morning…then the summit! Was still feeling good at this stage, with me mug of tea!

Thursday 5^th November – THE GIANT WAS SLAUGHED!!! Extremely happy and extremely tired and sore I got to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. It was breath taking. What an achievement, it was an amazing experience. Sat and had a reality check whilst up there, was overwhelming.

On my way back down I had an update to say I was nearly on target with donations, what an update it was! At just the right time…so I would like to thank everyone who has donated and those who keep donating. We are nearly there…but I have conquered KILIMANJARO!!!!! COME ON!!!!!

Wow this has really come around quicker than I expected! In less than 9 hours our party of 22 strangers will be meeting up in Heathrow to set out to climb Kilimanjaro.

After a long flight we have a bit of time to get sorted before we start to climb on sunday morning. If I have got the timings right we should be hitting the summit on thursday morning with the sunrise (what a view thats going be)

We will be trying to update the site on my progress so be sure to keep checking back.

Thank you for all your kind words and donations and if you are amongst the few who haven’t yet managed to click through and sponsor me please be reassured your money will make a huge difference to people right here in the UK suffering in poverty.

£50 – Imagine if your cupboards really were bare. That’s the harsh reality for so many families in debt. £50 will provide a week’s food for a CAP client who has absolutely nothing when CAP arrive on the scene.

See you all soon

Neil / Donny

This recession is causing havoc in many people’s lives across the UK, with more and more families falling into uncontrollable debt. CAP as the number one debt relief charity are of course upping their game and are planning to open another 60 centres which combined with the existing 102 Centres, will increase the number of families that they help by 2,250!

There has been some weird experiences during training, recently when we conquered Snowdon we first had to board “the park and ride” to get to the start line and this week was no different. Would you believe at the summit we met a guy in all the gear who stops and asks “would you mind if i asked you a few questions?” – street surveys on a mountain whatever next (perhaps Kili will have its own shop)!

Enjoy the latest film and Thank You all for your amazing donations. This week we received the furthest donation yet, all the way from OZ and one from our very own TV star!

Finally a little reminder of why - Real poverty exists here in the UK and debt is a major contributor. For people who are living on very low incomes and struggling to make ends meet, debt repayments can mean they are unable to afford the basics of life: regular meals, heating, clothing or medication. Your donation will go straight to the number one debt relief agency in the UK.

If you haven’t had a chance to donate yet please don’t delay go there now – Honestly every penny counts especially as we get close to the magic target!

Watch out for next weeks challenge as the final panic training kicks in, its off to the Lake district!

Cheers

Neil

Noticed the rush of businesses now jumping on the Twitter band wagon? All trying to raise their profiles and create awareness. Many are Tweeting about themselves hoping their followers will pick up on what they have written. However where is the social part in this micro-blogging process?
Ok you are talking to your audience, at least those that are on at the same time as you, but who ever actually responds and interacts with you?
There are no groups where you can discuss your shared interests. When you up-date your status it soon goes off the page because Twitter pros have written 20 posts since you did yours!
And then how many people actually click ‘show me more posts’ which displays old posts – I say old but what I really mean is 5 minutes ago!!!

So where is the social part in this micro-blogging process?

In actual fact engagement and interaction are quite limiting for something which has been hyped-up to be a social networking tool!

Please let us know what your experince is?

Is anyone else feed up of hearing about the state of the current economy?

We say stop listening to the media today! Now is a great opportunity to up your game in your market place? Think about it, your competitors are probably going quiet and choosing to keep their heads down…Why not take advantage and get your brand out there. Shout above and beyond your competitors and come out the other side bigger and stronger

Do you think businesses should remain cautious? Do you believe everything the media tells you around the R word?

Or do you agree what really matters is business is all about taking risks?

In the office we are convinced he is having a mid life crisis. He has taken on the gigantic challenge of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro…all in aid of raising £5,000 for a worthy cause – Christians Against Poverty. Neil says “Its actually 3 challenges in one, first the weight loss (i want to drop 3 stone) then the fitness and then the fund raising”.

He has been working so hard, you can catch up with his progress on www.slimmermanjaro.info. He has already raised over £3K and with only 41 days until the climb…(aaaarrggghhh)  you can still show your support and donate by clicking http://www.justgiving.com/slimmermanjaro/

PS. The comments are well worth reading  :)

How many times have you been excited about closing that amazing new piece of business only to find out your prospect has to now run it past their boss? Aaahhh we hear you squeal!
You now face going back to the start with the real boss or rely on your contact to sell for you.

Don’t worry your not alone and this demonstrates the importance of qualifying the key decision maker from the start. But this is a tricky task in itself!

What about when multiple influencers are involved?

What about when your prospect thinks he is the decision maker?

In our experince there is only one real way of establishing the facts,  say ”Can I confirm you hold the budget?”

Cold Calling is a real skill and takes lots of practice, with more and more people now competing can you afford to not be at the top of your game?

We would love to hear about your frustrations when making or receiving cold calls?

When does getting attention matter the most to you? It is when you want to win-over those big dream clients you have dreamt about since you started your business or when you need to secure that deal to hit target?
So how do you cut through and get big attention from big prospects?

Its simple. Be different. Think big!

Why not send Mr Dream Client a massive cup from Starbucks, with shortbread inside…along with a note to say lets meet for a coffee! Add some dates for when you are free and a reply email.

What ever you do remember significant attention is required for significant people!

What is the biggest thing you have ever done to win over a prospects attention? Or what would you like to do?