We live in an over-messaged environment. You have a choice. Either learn the new rules—or face dismal ad response and lower sales!

As business people, it's easy for us to see how changes in technology, legislation and economics impact the marketplace. What's not so easy, however, is figuring out how to maximize our opportunities in the face of those changes.

The landscape of business has changed. Here's what happened.

Go back to before 1990 or, in some industries, before 1980. Let's call this the "days of simple selling." The marketplace was a lot less crowded, buyers had less information, and purchasing options were more limited. For business buyers and consumers alike, making choices was a simpler, easier process. Because of this, the seller had more power. Business strategies generally focused around sales and how to sell more effectively than the competition.

Fast forward to the 1990s. Key events occurred that have changed forever the nature of the marketplace:

• Technology revolution- the widespread adoption of personal computers enabled small businesses to operate efficiently. This lead to the growth of millions of start-up firms as entrepreneurs broke off from large companies to pursue their own ventures.
• Explosion of businesses- the overall complexion of American business evolved from fewer large companies to many, many smaller businesses. This reached such a level that, in 2002, the birthrate of new businesses finally out-paced the number of babies born in North America - 4.76 versus 4.57 million. (US Census and Statistics Canada)
• Internet- the advent of the web means buyers are now exposed to thousands of potential providers across the U.S. and the world. They have gained the ability to gather more information than ever before to help them make better decisions.
• Media- the continued diversification of media caused a proliferation of ways to advertise. Putting this into perspective, the average person in 1971 was exposed to 560 advertising messages daily (Media Kitchen research). Today, the number is over 3,500. (Ad Age Magazine)

There is now a deafening "noise" in the marketplace.

The result of all these trends is that products and services have become "commoditized," where multitudes of providers offer essentially the same thing. Worse yet, the overwhelming clutter from so many businesses shouting their message numbs and confuses buyers, who tune out most of what they see and hear.

Even when they do pay attention, buyers disbelieve the general, institutional statements most businesses use in their advertising. Everyone's claims sound alike. Do you believe statements like those below when you hear them? More importantly, do these claims differentiate companies, or does it just sound like the noise everyone else is making? You decide.

       "We're the professionals"
       "Our prices are lower"
       "We're number one"
       "The best selection"
       "Quality customer service"
       Yadda yadda yadda…

These events have created a "Confidence Gap" among buyers.

The raw number of businesses, the overwhelming volume of commercial messages plus business's over reliance on generalities in marketing has driven a wedge between buyers and sellers. We call this the "Confidence Gap." Strictly defined, it is the buyer's inability to determine whether any of the providers are any better or any worse than any of the others.

Faced with more choices and mostly non-differentiated information, buyers stall, gather more information and offer stiffer resistance to sellers. The confidence gap results in longer decision cycles and significantly greater price competition.

In short, the power has now shifted to the buyer. Sellers who want to succeed must learn to narrow their prospects' confidence gap. The problem is that most businesses still don't realize this. They continue to waste their marketing dollars on the same old approach, even though the returns are worse than ever.

Here's how to fix the problem.