Summary: You talk a lot about market domination, is that just for effect or are you serious about it?<br> <br> <br> <br> David: Hi and welcome to the podcast today. I am joined once again by my co host, Chris Templeton, who is here to challenge me on the idea of market domination. Welcome Chris.<br> <br> Chris: Hey David, thank you very much for letting me be your interrogator for this podcast!<br> <br> David: Work me over, man. Work me over.<br> <br> Chris: Domination. You know there is a lot of talk about domination and I don't think from a business standpoint we really understand what it is. So, is it a serious word? Are you serious about this, David?<br> <br> David: Well, I'm serious about it to the extent that I believe that in every market there are leaders and followers, someone is leading the parade, and someone is following. If you're leading, then you're dominating. Essentially, you're going to be a recognized force in the market. And if you're not dominating the market, then what that means is there's business that you are absolutely losing out on. So for example, if I'm in the market for any kind of item, pick an item, pick an industry.<br> <br> Chris: New speakers for my computer.<br> <br> David: Okay. I'm in the market for a new computer speakers, so if I think of new computer speakers, what are some places that might immediately leap to mind? I mean it could be whatever... Office Max.<br> <br> Chris: Amazon?<br> <br> David: Yeah, it could be Amazon. Yeah, of course. Amazon, right? It could be Staples. It could be any place that sells speakers, but there are names that immediately leap to mind, right? You said Amazon right away. I deliberately skipped them because they're such a great, obvious example, but in other words, you hear something, and something leaps to mind. The people who leap to mind are the ones who have that top of mind awareness, which results in market domination.<br> <br> David: If I think I need computer speakers and I immediately think of Staples or Best Buy or whatever, and I get in my car and I go there, then if you sell computer speakers, you're never even going to have a chance at that business. Right? Because I didn't even think of you. So, market domination means that you'll at least leap to mind. We named three or four different places that leaped to mind for us. Now. One of them would get the business, the others wouldn't. But those that didn't even leap to mind, they don't have a chance. Because otherwise what I would have to do is do a Google search or try to figure out where I wanted to go. Ask a friend, “Hey, where did you get your computer speakers?” And then I'd have to take action to try to find another place. So, without that level of awareness, it's impossible to dominate markets. This is particularly true for those who sell B2B.<br> <br> So I am very serious about the idea of domination, but I also recognize that not everyone's going to be able to dominate at the level of an Amazon where people think of anything and they say, okay, I'm going to go to Amazon to get it. Or I can go to Amazon to get it. But the advantage here, and I think a really important distinction is the fact that just because someone dominates any market, whether it's Amazon trying to dominate anything, it doesn't really matter because there are people who will say, Oh, I need computer speakers. I'm going to go to Amazon. And there are other people who are going to say, I need computer speakers, but I'm sure not buying them from Amazon. Right? So, but they know about it. So, they have the opportunity to buy from there. And most businesses in most markets, no matter what they do, whether it's lawyers or doctors or salespeople of any kind,
