Turn Your Marketing Around 180 degrees

Monday morning, and so much to share.

I’m all about balance. I very rarely turn on my computer over the weekend, and take off both days most of the time. But the one thing I will do is catch up on my reading. It’s hard to think of it as “work” when you’re sitting outside enjoying a nice day!

In one of the current Fortune magazines, I read a story about a lobster company that has found an innovative way of selling their lobsters.

Most companies sell the lobster dinner and mail it to you direct. These companies have huge competition from local fish markets, grocery stores, and even local fish restaurants.

But Catch A Piece Of Maine  has a new approach. Instead of buying a lobster dinner, you buy a lobster trap. For $3000, you get a season’s worth of lobsters, with a guarantee of at least 40 lobsters. That works out to $75 per lobster - guaranteed. Where the fun comes in is if your trap brings in more. Price per lobster can go down pretty quickly the more your trap catches.

Instead of focusing on selling more of what everyone else sells, these two brothers have found a new way to sell in a popular niche. It’s a book-of-the-month club taken to a new level.

Three things you can use for your own small business:

1. Find a new way to sell in an already popular niche. When most companies market their business, they do what everyone else is doing. In today’s economy, you’re going to get what everyone else is getting. Which may be a slowing business. A new twist can bring life to your sales.

2. Find a way to make your small business a PR magnet. A quick search of Google found Catch A Piece Of Maine is getting stories printed everywhere (who wouldn’t love a story in Fortune?) The key is a different approach to the way you’re selling your products/services.

3. Create a new package that allows you to get a big chunk of money upfront. Not everyone will take to this new way of selling. In the case of Catch A Piece Of Maine, only about 200 traps have been sold so far. But I’ll bet their average sales are increasing as well. If you don’t want a $3000 trap, maybe a complete dinner for $249 is more your style. The important thing is your prospects have found the site, and have the potential for ordering from you.