Vertical Industry Marketing

The core strategy of Agreement Seekers is a method called Vertical Industry Marketing.  This bears some explanation. 

First, a vertical industry is a group of companies that focus on a specialized market.  For purposes here, let's talk about Landscapers as an example.  Landscapers obviously have expertise in turf management and shrub/tree maintenance.  They have skill sets in equipment care and are generally multi-taskers and problem solvers... are industrious and entrepreneurial. They have relationships with equipment vendors, landscape architects, lawn sprinkler companies, nurseries, arborists... and of course, all of their customers, however, customers are not included here.

All of these companies are in the same "vertical", however the most important is the one not mentioned.  It is a landscaper's competition - other landscapers.  This is the main opportunity for this marketing method. Essentially we give every "industry vertical" the opportunity to capitalize on their competition in a positive manner.  How and why is this so?

One of the primary dynamics of communication and the establishment of trust is perceived similarity.  The technical term for this is called "homophily".  It is the tendency for people to seek out people who are similar to themselves.  When a Landscaper talks to another Landscaper, there is instant "street cred" based on assumed common experience.  These common experiences, in addition to what is mentioned above, are the frustrations of finding good and reliable help, managing the books and payroll, managing taxes... not even mentioning the best practices for sharpening mower blades or servicing customers.

Fill in the blank(s) for any industry, job, trade or profession.  Peoples' work is a common frame of reference and establishes a baseline for affinity between two people.  Suffice it to say, when two industry professionals talk to each other, on a credibility and trust level, it is a much different conversation than with those who are not in that same industry.

Therefore, when a Landscaper calls a Landscaper to talk about a new supplemental income method, there is a much higher probability that there will be a reception to the message.  This is true for any industry vertical - both blue-collar and white-collar.  

So, the conversation would go something like this: "Hi Name, I own my own Landscaping business like you and I am also a Recruiter for Agreement Seekers.com.  I don't want to take any of your time now, but thought you would be interested in how I make extra money as a supplemental income source.  Do you have a pen and paper handy?  First, you can go to this website:  AgreementSeekers.com and read just that one page.  Then, if this piques your interest, follow up with me by emailing "whatever@gmail.com".  Or if they do not have a pen handy, tell them to hang up and you will call them right back and leave the instructions in their voice mail.

Sidebar:  Just so you know, "whatever@gmail.com" is an email account that you set up, put permanently on Vacation Response and acts as single message autorespnder.  This email exists only for this one purpose.  (We teach how to do this as a part of our on-boarding process.)  This email provides insturctions for taking the next steps in our three step process:  1) outreach, 2) qualification and assessment, and; 3) business model disclosure.  (Note:  we do not lead with a business opportunity.  What we do is much larger than a single biz opp.)  

Also, we do not "give away the store" early in the process because what we do is quasi-proprietary.  We want to work with people who understand our culture and community and have a relatively high level of buy-in - on both pragmatic and conceptual levels - before we talk about how we make money.  We don't want to be perceived as money grabbers looking for warm bodies to "sign up".

In any event, I digress.  To get back on track, for someone who is not in a vertical, the conversation would go something like this:  "Hi Name, I am a Recruiter for Agreement Seekers.com and I am looking for Landscapers interested in supplemental income to market to other Landscapers on a national basis.  I don't want to take any of your time right now.  Do you have a paper and pen handy...

To close, it is important to note that we posture ourselves as Recruiters for a Business System specifically designed for income enhancement /  supplemental income creation marketing specifically to focused markets on a national scale.  

Footnote:  The rest of this blog speaks to many of the elements that make our Business Model viable in terms of culture, character, and "what it takes" to be successful.  It is a store of practical, pithy, and no-nonsense guidelines of how our organization works within the Home Business industry.  Combine this with our Systems, Best-Practices, and onboarding that are talked about on this blog, you will get a solid sense of why our approach is significantly different than any other "opportunity" in the Social Commerce Industry.