How to elevate yourself above the crappy competition….

‘Don’t advance uphill against the enemy’

Sun Tzu, 5th Century BC

Many pet business owners including dog trainers, walkers and groomers suffer from ‘imposter syndrome’, and are afraid to shout about their amazing skills and services.

This is due in part to the bitchy nature of many pet professionals who seem to thrive by ‘knocking down’ those they feel threatened by. Part of my coaching process is about boosting confidence as well as helping to implement a winning marketing strategy. 

I find the more you position yourself as an ‘expert’, the more your confidence grows, and with it your ability to proudly show off your superpower, and how you can help dog owners in your town.

This idea of striving to being seen (and known) as ‘the expert’ goes back a long way…  

Sun Tzu said ‘It is a military axiom not to advance uphill against the enemy, nor to oppose him when he comes downhill’.

In a traditional battlefield, being above the enemy meant you had the advantage of using gravity to move things down on them, from rolling rocks to projected missiles. 

For you, increasing your expert status will help you ‘rank’ higher than ‘the enemy’, in this case your competition. 

You should always want to be seen as being different and better than your competition. 

This is why I recommend, teach and practise using paper and ink promotional material and not just rely on social media. 

If you have entertaining and educational ‘offline’ marketing mediums like books, newsletters, tip sheets etc then you have a way to put your message in front of affluent and busy dog owners, many of whom aren’t even using social media. 

Affluent dog owners will pay a premium for a service they perceive to be ‘expert’ and more specialised than the ‘ordinary’ pet businesses. 

If you can achieve ‘expert status’ then you immediately make your services more desirable than your competition, which means you can charge more money AND often you can cherry pick the best clients.

So, before you do any promotional activity always think ‘How will this make me appear an ‘expert’, so you rank higher, and sit ‘uphill’ of your competition.

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In 2011 Dom Hodgson revolutionised the pet service industry with his first business Pack Leader Dog Adventures, the UK’s first, award winning ‘dog adventure’ company. Now a respected dog trainer, author, speaker and mentor to pet business owners, Dom’s calling is to help dog walkers, trainers and groomers to excel with their marketing, so they can help change the lives of more dog owners with their amazing skills.

Take that leap today. You won’t regret it.