1. Segmentation Domination
This is a working session. By the end of our time togethter, you will have a blueprint to identify a market segment, build your foundational assets, use an ROI calculator to determine your goals, and have a real working model of a nine month plan of attack. And, I’m going to give you the actual spreadsheet tracker with the calculations and formulas from a program I built that delivered an 1100% increase in revenue in that segment, which translated into a 39% contribution to the bottom line.
So let’s get to work.
How Play Against the Big Boys and Win in a Competitive Market

2. Where’s Waldo? Whats the one thing waldo wants? To be found.
Segmentation can make you crazy if you let it
What do the big boys have that you don’t?
What do you have that they don’t? your LOVE group.
That’s the segment you might want to focus on first.
Write down who your love group is.. List at least 3 attributes, and list up to 3 clients who belong in this group.
That will be your segment.
Where’s Waldo?

3. Market Research Lite
Waldo is part of the striped shirt segment. How many people had striped shirts in this picture?
Blue pants?
Hats?
Purse?
Men/women?
Segmentation is key, but it needs to include a few attributes to be worthwhile.

4. “Domination”
verb (used without object), dominated,  dominating. To occupy a commanding or elevated position
Being recognized in a segment as an expert, and winning more business because of it.
Let’s talk about domination. What is the definition of domination?
So for most us, domination is just not going to happen by any of those definitions, so lets adjust the meaning for our reality,
The dictionary defines domination as (read)
For you, that translates into the following:
Being known in a segment as an expert, and winning more business because of it.

5. Strategy: Make your own pond
You don’t need to be a big fish in a small pond. You need to be the smartest fish in your own pond.
How do you define your pond? Several ways:
Look at the one you’re in and find a way to make it better.
Combine services/needs and offer a new way to approach things.
Find an area where you’ve had a major success and exploit it – may require a sub-market or micro niche
Write down one way you will determine your pond, or the niche you will serve
Make your own pond

6. Attainable universe Your pond should:
1) Have a large enough addressable or attainable universe
2 Most profitable buyer persona
3) You have been successful in, even if one client
4) There is a blue ocean opportunity you are ideal for / no dominant equivalent player (ex: Epic vs. pediatric EHR)
5) You have a reasonable budget, sales and executive buy-in
6) You have a UVP they care about
Attainable universe

7. Blue ocean Who can tell me what a blue ocean is, in marketing terms?
Your pond may include some small blue ocean opportunity. If there isn’t one, that’s ok, but look for it.
New Products in undefined markets are blue oceans.
Underserved market segments or a laggard market could be a blue ocean, if there is new urgency for adoption that didn’t exist before.
Write down one blue ocean opportunity that either exists or that you can help create. It’s ok if you change your mind about this later.
Blue ocean

8. Executive buy-in Without this, you are doomed.
Under promise, over deliver
Get agreement on:
Definition of success
Timing
Budget
Perseverance
Set the right expectation
Write down who you need to have buy-in from, and what you need to provide to get it. Ex: ROI potential, market potential, sales opportunities… issue with a competitor you can capitalize on.
Executive buy-in

9. CLIENT SUCCESS
This is perhaps the most critical piece of your program.
Who can give me an example of a marquee client who had major success with your product?
Make a list of up to three clients you can identify. If you can’t, make a note to talk to your sales team to get the names.
If you don’t yet have a client, what could you do here instead?
Launch a pilot program and find a beta test site willing to take you on at little or no cost.
They agree to become a business case and give you testimonials.

10. Unique value prop
What is your unique value proposition? You should be very clear on this, so write it down, even if you already know what it is.
Then, think about one more. Find one untapped benefit that you can exploit.
This might come from your discussions with your clients.

11. Last, who is your thought leader. Who is your SME
Last, who is your thought leader? Who is your SME? Do you understand the depths of their expertise? Interview them. Get them to tell you their story.
Where do they already lead in the community or industry?
Can they write in a way that people will want to read? Are they able to speak at events and can they blog or use social media?
Find out everything they are able and willing to do.
Write down your SMEs and make an appointment with them to talk to them.
Subject matter expert

12. My own segmentation domination story.
Newly acquired company
Newly acquired an ehr/pm company going after all specialty ambulatory practices; more than 1000 competitor systems
Had been test labbed in an ENT group for 2 years.
Had a champion and a subject matter expert who was instrumental in its development
My segment was otolaryngology; my SME was Dr. Mark Brown, I interviewed his practice and wrote a business case and blogged on their story about how they chose their EMR; I then wrote a white paper on how to switch EMRs; we built a landing page just of them, and we won the black book award for the #1 Top EHR for ENT that year.

13. Q1: Prepare Q2: Execute Q3: Execute Segment, Goal, Plan & Budget
Exec/Sales Buy-in
Content & Opportunity inventory
Content Creation
Q1: Prepare
Content creation
Webinars
Events
Retargeting/Digital
Q2: Execute
Social media
Live events
Articles published
Association marketing
Q3: Execute
First three months - prep:
Campaign and budget
Executive buy-in
Sales buy-in and training
Developed a lead workflow
Content inventory and gap analysis
Interviewed key clients
Submit abstracts to targeted events
Built marketing toolkit: content, collateral, landing pages, digital assets
Month 2:
Wrote business cases and white papers
Webinars through associations
Small, regional events near client sites
Retargeting campaigns using testimonials
Month 3:
Leveraged association marketing (newsletters, s)
promo for downloadable content
Retargeting campaign using testimonials
Live events with SME presenters
Published articles
Talk about live event experience – we hosted an invitational to our regional clients; spoke at association meetings, etc.

14. Content and Opportunity Inventory
Interviews
Articles you write
Webinars
Videos
Business cases
White papers
Social media
SME speakers
Events
Group presentations
Association partners
Blog posts
Strategic partnerships
Marquee prospects
I did a content and opportunity inventory

15. Goal Calculator
Resist the temptation: If we get 10% of 9,438, we’ll be doing great!
Instead: Use the reverse math method and back into your number.

16. ROI: 9-month campaign
This is the actual year over year comparative results of the nine month program that I ran.
Here are a few key numbers.
I ran the ROI of the campaign year over year,
Then I ran total new business year over year.
The per-deal revenue increased by nearly 100%
We saw some brand rub off in other segments because of our dominance in ENT, so you can get ancillary benefits you can’t account for as a bonus.

17. Michelle Boucher
VP of Marketing, QIExpress.com
l @mlmboucher l in/mlmboucher l