Placement. What a superpower!
Shape time and space in your favor. It's one of my favorite P's of marketing and perhaps the most subtle.
Better geographical location is obvious as a strategy to make people more likely to choose you. Look how much franchises value corner stores for their prime location and how those cereals in the supermarket on the eye-level shelves sell more units than those on the top and bottom shelves.
Placement in time can be just as important. Bill Gross gave a TED talk a few years ago in which he analyzed the reasons for success and failure of startups. The most common was not money, skill, team or product but timing.
Analyze your sales cycle, ask; When do people decide to buy? What drives them to buy? When do they actually buy? Don't know? Start asking your customer, either in person, via email or incentivize them to fill out a survey. For big ticket items or smaller businesses simply pick up the phone.
Your customers will be glad to discuss their motivations with you. Once you know this information you can effectively time your marketing efforts for maximum effect.
