Marketing vs Product – What’s More Important?

Igor: Hi, my name is Igor Kheifets and this is the List Building Lifestyle, the only podcast
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Welcome back to another edition of “The List Building Lifestyle” with your host Igor Kheifets.
When anyone starts online they have an idea that all they need is a winning product.
Usually, what I hear from people is that when they’re not ready to market something,
when they’re not ready to buy advertising for something, is because they don’t believe
in their product. It’s interesting to me because product in my opinion is very overrated.
Product is only a part of the process where marketing is far more superior, and here’s
an example that actually proves that.

So, in a double blind test Pepsi always outperforms Coca-Cola, and it’s been done
literally thousands upon thousands of times, Pepsi wins every time. However, Coke
is the superior soft drink because it controls 51% of the soft drink market in
America, while Pepsi drags behind at just 21% market share. It doesn’t matter how
hard Pepsi tries to prove that their product is better, even in their ads, the
thing is that people will still drink Coca-Cola more than they do Pepsi because
Coke is a superior marketing company. Not only that, Coke has secured a bunch of
additional positions that allow them to maintain the lead in the soft drink
market. For example, the whole fast food franchise concept where almost every fast
food joint out there, they sell Coke.

So, back to the whole dilemma. What’s more important, product or marketing? What
comes first, product or marketing? Maybe in the traditional world of business you
need to go out there and invent the product, which you then go market, but in the
online marketing game this is completely different. In fact, many times the
product is actually interchangeable and replaceable when marketing becomes the
actual product of your business. So, in internet marketing, what is the product
that you’re working on is your marketing. I know it sounds a little bit confusing,
but think about it. Why would a leader in a company, let’s say six month ago joins
company X and builds a large team in that company, then goes and switches, exits
company X, joins company Y and builds a large team in that company using virtually
the exact same marketing materials and sales funnels that they’ve used for company
X. Well, that is because the marketing of the company in and of itself is the
product of the business that the top earner’s running, that’s the ultimate goal.

The ultimate goal is for you to become a marketing machine, as free to be able to
create marketing to fit almost any product and that’s where you want to spend the
lion’s share of your time working. Then the question is, what is marketing? How do
you define marketing? How do you define the whole process, or what exactly does
that mean? And even though we’ve done a couple of episodes about that, marketing
is when you educate the prospect why your product is superior to all the products
out there and how it’s different from all the products out there, and how this
product is basically solves their problems and improves their life.

So, in many ways marketing is nothing but telling the customer that you understand
the problem they’re going through right now, that you understand what they’re
going through and that you understand what they’re dealing with, and then offering
them a solution in the form of your product. That’s why the whole product thing is
so interchangeable because if you’re solving a problem like financial, like a
financial stability or poverty, then the solution to poverty may come in like
dozens of different ways. So you may offer any one of these solutions to your
potential customer, and the actual marketing may not even change. Like, if you’re
a member of an income opportunity right now or a network marketing opportunity you
can write a sales letter, which is the process of marketing, and then put those
marketing words on digital paper and send people to the website to read those
marketing words. So you can create a sales letter that fits both your income
opportunity and the network marketing program just as well.

So, if you choose so you can switch the product without even the customer knowing
it and they’ll still be buying something just because of your marketing process.
Now, this is probably a paradigm shift for many people listening, because again,
most people come into this industry believing that product is where it all starts,
that without the product there’s nothing, that nothing happens without it. The
truth of the matter is, I’ve sold courses where I’ve created the product after
I’ve sold it. I’ve only outlined an idea, a method, a system, something, an idea
that solves a problem and the moment I was able to offer that solution to the
potential customers who had that problem they were willing to give me money and
then I was able to go to work on the product.

Not creating the product first and then going out there finding out whether
somebody will actually buy it, which is another reason to create your marketing
first before creating the product because when you work in the marketing first you
can immediately test it out, and you can see whether or not this is actually a
concept that can work. Now, of course if you’re selling software, or something
where people need to use it immediately, then you may want to create just a basic
version, but before you can you still have to determine what is that big problem
or problems that your product is solving for the customer because without it you
won’t be able to create the marketing.

Now, this brings me to another interesting point where a lot of people believe
that marketing is just basically explaining to the prospect about the product.
This is not correct. Like, I was, a couple of days ago, me and my wife, we went
out car shopping, and we visited the BMW dealership where the nice little guy
wanted to sell us a BMW X5, so he allowed us to take it out for a spin and then he
spent an hour and a half talking about all the great features of the car. He
didn’t ask me one question, he didn’t ask me why I want BMW and not some other
car, he did not ask me what is my budget, he did not ask me what did I used to
drive before BMW and why am I making a transition and how come I’m not getting the
exact same brand I used to drive before.

Like, the dude did not discover a single thing about me, not where I work or where
I live or how long have I been in Toronto, right? What’s the purpose of the car?
Do I want a sportier thing just because I have a midlife crisis or do I need it
for the kids? He sort of assumed that we’re getting an SUV because it’s snowing
outside. That’s a mistake on his part because he failed the marketing process. He
failed the one part of the process where he is supposed to establish rapport and
show me that he understands exactly what I’m looking for and the problems I’m
experiencing right now because if he was able to do that, then the price tag is a
secondary issue. If he’s able to do that he will not have to try and steal me from
BMW and Audi and Range Rover dealerships because I will be going there next.

The interesting part is that I told him, I’m like, yeah, so we’re gonna test drive
the BMW and then we’re gonna head over to Mercedes, and then we’re gonna take the
Q7 for a spin at Audi, and then I’m gonna take out the new Range Rover for a spin.
He just assumed that that’s the natural part of the process and that’s exactly how
it’s supposed to be. He did not attempt to close me. He did not attempt to do
anything other than convince me. He did not attempt to do any sort of questioning,
he did not attempt to understand my needs, and he really just flunked the entire
fricking thing because he was so obsessed about explaining to me about all the
great features of the BMW. How the technology’s superior, how the driving
experience is tailored for the driver, how you’re getting all these extra things
in this other package, and yada, yada, yada, yada…

He even went as far as explaining to me that he can get me a lease deal for
$1,200, but again, with that said he still did not understand what I was going
through and he did not offer me a great solution to my problem. He sort of assumed
that I will buy and that he just needs to explain to me what the car is because I
walked into the dealership that day. That’s a very common mistake that people
make, both online and offline, where all they do is just talk about the features
and benefits of the product. That’s all they do, and they think that’s their job
as marketers, but the reality is that a marketer is more like a psychiatrist,
where the first thing you need to do before you can heal your patient or help the
patient heal himself or herself, you need to show the patient you hear what
they’re saying, understand exactly what they’re saying, understand what they’re
going through, because at that point the patient opens up to be healed and to
basically hear out what your solution is.

So, keep that in mind. Marketing is always superior to the product and often you
need marketing first before you can sell anything and product can even come second
after the purchase actually takes place. Again, in many ways that’s how it works,
it’s just we’re not used to seeing that way. So keep that in mind and always put
your marketing efforts first, and recognize that marketing in and of itself is
your product if you’re marketing income opportunities. That’s not a big concept.
You should always remember and not get sucked into searching for the next best
income opportunity because, let’s face it, a lot of them are similar, a lot of
them do the job, and a lot of them can make you successful, but a lot of it
depends on how you market them.

So, with that said, this is another episode of “The List Building Lifestyle.”
Thank you for tuning in. This is your host, Igor Kheifets, and until next time we
chat, have a good one.

Thanks for listening to The List Building Lifestyle Show, make sure to
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one conversion tactic we share on the show might double your list and double your
business. Download the transcript of today’s episode and all future episodes at
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of “The Wealthy List Builder’s Survival Guide” at listbuildinglifestyleshow.com/survival .
This is Igor Kheifets until next time we talk, have a good one.