Oct

30

The “professional entrepreneur” masters the skills of entrepreneurship but is never limited to any one particular industry or business i.e. application of those skills.  The professional entrepreneur can start or run companies or both, and is adept at extracting maximum value out of a business and its customers via focused diversification.

Tags: , , ,

Oct

26

The late Fred Herman, one of the “early” sales trainers, coined “KISS” for Keep It Simple, Salesman, and the advice is just as good now as it was in 1950. Too often, we complicate the sales process unnecessarily, for our customers and ourselves.

When putting together a sales “pitch”, I try to get a “straight line list” built; what points must be made and proved, in what order, to arrive at the close…..then I’m careful about wandering off in the weeds, away from that straight line.

Tags: , , , ,

Oct

21

Never get mad, never burn the bridge. End your unsuccessful negotiation with something like: “I’m sorry we can’t do business and that I will have to use all of my ad budget in other publications. If you have a last minute cancellation or remnant…..”  Leave the door open. If not before, as they see your ad appearing repetitively in other magazines, they’ll come back to you.

Tags: , , ,

Oct

18

Buying space at the right price is just as important as presenting the right message. Maybe even more important.

The greatest product, offer and ad copy in the world will not overcome bad economics, and one way to achieve bad economics is over-paying for media (or, for that matter, for printing.)

Many years ago, I made the same dumb mistake many did and do; I “knocked off” what I could see of a business without realizing there were things I couldn’t see. At the time, the opportunity-type magazines were chock full of $10, $12 and $15 get-rich book ads, all modeled after the famous Joe Karbo ad*, and these ads were running month after month. I answered a number of them, and most of these advertisers were not doing much selling of additional products to these book buyers. I concluded that (a) they were making money from the book sales and (b) that I could create a better ad than theirs. I was right in some cases about (a); I was right in all cases about (b), but I still walked away a bit bloodied and bruised. Why? Because I paid the rates the magazines asked, less only frequency and agency discounts - and I had no idea that these other advertisers were buying the same space I was for 15% to 30% less than the “discounted” rate I was paying. (I also didn’t realize the extent to which they relied on their mailing list rental revenue for their real profits.)

I quickly learned the game, and can assure you: you MUST buy right.

And, unlike traditional/brand/image advertisers, we direct-response advertisers (should) know what we can pay per lead/order and, thus, what we can pay for space. If a particular publication will not sell you space for the amount you can afford to pay, then, no matter how badly you want to be in that publication, you must pass.

Tags: , , , ,

Oct

16

Think about the car business: does anybody really concern themselves with the selling price of the car anymore? No, most are only concerned with the monthly payment. That’s why that industry has gradually de-sensitized people to longer terms; from a norm of 24-36 months to a norm of 48-60 months.

America lives by payments, and is largely conditioned to think about the payment amount rather than the purchase amount. Just about anytime you are selling something with a price that is “significant” to your market, you ought to offer installments. Offering and emphasizing payments vs. price can improve response by as much as 50%.

In mainstream consumer marketing, we have discovered an advantage to monthly payments below $50.00. In business to business, the amount is less important. If selling a fairly high-priced item, you may want to “weight” the financing in your favor, to cover all costs with the first installment and only finance profit: Egs. a $1,000.00 purchase - $500.00 down, 5 monthly payments of $100.00 each.

Tags: , , , , ,

Oct

13

Brand Identity

October 13, 2007 | Leave a Comment

 Brand Identity

Most Businesses Have At
Least Brand Identity OR Goodwill;
Many Have Both

Brand identity means that the name, logo, a key product is instantly recognizable and is respected by a marketplace. And sometimes a buyer will foresee opportunity to exploit that brand identity in a new and different way - for example, the Heinz Corporation bought Weight Watchers NOT because they wanted to be in the weight loss center business but because they correctly perceived a lucrative opportunity to put the Weight Watchers name on frozen and pre-packaged foods sold via supermarkets.  Goodwill is less tangible and less exploitable outside of the business’ core customers.

Tags: , , , , ,

Oct

5

Manipulative Selling

“Selling IS psychological manipulation.”
(Message: get over it!)

- THE CLOSERS

In the past 5 years or so, there’s been an incredible proliferation of new approaches to selling and sales training that try to sound warmer, fuzzier, and, well, less like selling….like “non-manipulative selling”, “non-confrontational selling”, “win-win selling”, “stress-free selling” and the like.* This is all horse puckey if you ask me. Selling is manipulation. If you are going to feel guilty about designing and using a presentation and answers to questions and objections engineered to make people do what you want; accept your proposition; buy your product; choose the higher priced options; and so on, no supply of psychobabble-ish buzzwords will turn you into an effective salesperson (in person or in print). The tools of selling include fear, guilt, ego, and greed. Mainstream advertising is largely about association: wear these shoes and you’ll be like Mike, drink this stuff and you’ll be like Shaq, drive this car or drink this beer and attractive members of the opposite sex will think you’re cool. Asking someone any simple yes/yes question: would Tuesday or Thursday be better? - even offering choices of credit cards or payment terms - is by nature manipulative. Just about everything you do in selling has a manipulative effect even if unintended.

I feel fortunate that this never bothered me in the least. I’ve been selling my entire adult life, from the very beginning operating under the “no holds barred” premise: that my job is to make the sale doing and using anything short of lying or fraud.

Tags: , , , , ,

Oct

1

Pander To The Big Boys

 

 This is very important if you happen to be selling a small company to a big company; know that they will view you with disdain and they will be very willing to assume that, given their superior intelligence and superior resources, they will be able to do much better with your business than you have. If you are selling, this is a conceit you will want to pander to. (If buying, beware of your own arrogance.)  This is the kind of arrogance that causes a big company to buy something like Snapple then wind up selling it back to its old owners for a fraction of what they paid for it; Time/Life to buy a thriving mail-order business and then manage it into extinction. It is perfectly okay to be underestimated by people giving you money.

Tags: , , , , , ,

Aug

31

Burning Desire

August 31, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I’ve been around only a few people who have exhibited sustained, burning, overwhelmingly intense desire to accomplish a particular goal or learn a particular skill and it’s my observation that such people rarely waiver from an optimistic, enthusiastic, constructive attitude.  “Fire in the belly” seems to prevent distractions in the mind.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Aug

27

Honor Your Commitments

“To be punctual in all of your appointments is a duty resting upon you no less obligatory that the duty of common honesty. An appointment is a contract and if you do not keep it you are dishonestly using other peoples time and, consequently, their money.”
- S.D. Bremer

This is a big “hang-up” of mine; I detest being late and I detest being inconvenienced by others who cannot get where they’re supposed to get on time. I sometimes go to extreme and extraordinary lengths to honor my commitments, as small as a lunch appointment - and “honor” is a chosen word. I think peoples’ behavior with regard to honoring their littlest commitments very accurately reveals whether or not they can be trusted with bigger and more important things.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul

31

This is one of my favorite “tricks”: selling Item-A for X$, then offering that customer a “bigger” Item-B, for Y$, but giving full credit for the prior purchase as a discount. This puts money in  the customer’s pocket that he loses if he doesn’t make the second purchase.

For example, we ran our SuccessTrak seminar business for three years based on a $25.00 deposit to guarantee attendance at the free seminar, then refunding double the deposit against the product purchase.

I nearly doubled my U.S. Gold client’s business with a $99 “Mini-Kit”, then full credit for the $99 when the full kit is purchased.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Jul

20

Adapt To Your Circumstances And Make Them Work For You

“I am never frightened by revolutionary changes in my life, whether they are voluntary or forced upon me by circumstances for I do at least have control over my reaction to circumstances. And I exercise this privilege not by complaining but by searching for that seed of an equivalent benefit which each experience carries with it.”

- Napoleon Hill

Hill was a master at knitting many important ideas into a single affirmative statement like this one. I think that’s one of the main things that has so strongly attracted me to his works. Anyway, if we dissect this beauty we first get “I am never frightened”. Since fear is one of the paralyzing factors that inhibit most peoples’ performance, a statement of fearlessness is pretty significant. Saying he is not frightened by “revolutionary changes” acknowledges that there are frequently such changes. The flaw in most peoples’ approach to goal-setting is a lack of flexibility toward means of achievement, which causes over-reaction, negative reactions and, often, fearful reaction to unexpected changes. “Control over my reaction” - well, this is the only thing over which we do have total control. “Privilege” - Hill viewed his unique human ability to exercise control over his reactions to changing circumstances as a great privilege. I doubt that most people ever think of it this way. But it is. It is exclusively through this ability that we can control the outcomes of our lives. “Seed of equivalent benefit” represents a key part of Hill’s entire philosophy; that EVERY (apparent) adversity conceals opportunity.

Tags: , , , , , , , ,

Jul

12

Lead in niche markets

Although I’ve rarely found the opportunities to do this personally, because I do not come from any niche, when I have done it and do it, it is always exceptionally profitable, and I’ve evolved into the practice of steering clients in this direction whenever possible as well as choosing clients to work with who possess such opportunities. Personally, I’ve made extraordinary profits in publishing, mail-order and seminar businesses in the niches of chiropractic, dentistry and professional speakers; and exceptional earnings by consulting in information product publishing and marketing, business opportunities, and TV infomercials (although I hasten to add, my total consulting activity is much broader). 

Niche markets offer smaller opportunities than the mainstream, public marketplace, but they also provide a long list of appealing, offsetting benefits, including lower testing costs and investments, more predictable results, ease of message-to-market matching, affordable use of many media, high dollar units of sale, high margins, and so on. There is also this opportunity: to quickly and (relatively) inexpensively establish a visible, recognized leadership position.

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Jul

6

The Successful Business Life

“To be in business is to be assaulted by relentless adversity and crisis; it comes with the territory.”

                        - Carter Henderson.

I’m very happy that I read this book fairly early in my entrepreneurial career, because this statement leaped out at me - everything else I’d read seemed dedicated to the premise that if you did things right, you could do business problem-free. This certainly was not my experience, and I was beginning to wonder if I was hopelessly screwed up when I first encountered this simple statement. With 25 years of entrepreneurial experience and 20/20 hindsight, I appreciate this profound statement even more. You see, it is my experience that even doing everything to the very best of your ability, and even trying to do everything with integrity, you will still deal with “adversity and crisis” constantly. When you are in an aggressive stage; growth, building, creating, then dealing with adversity, opposition, crisis, etc. is an unpreventable, unavoidable part of the game. The important thing to do about that is to make mental peace with it so that you do not overreact, or become so frustrated you can’t function or can’t enjoy what you’re doing, or conclude there’s something wrong with you, or worse, quit altogether. You’ll find throughout my writings about entrepreneurship a philosophical acceptance of the truth of the entrepreneurial experience as stated by Henderson.

How to build an exceptionally successful business life…….

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Jul

3

One of the great truths of finance is: “Money’s expensive when you haven’t got it.”  Multi-million dollar empires have toppled for want of a few thousand dollars. If/when you lack cash, you usually must pay an exorbitant price to get it, will gladly do so at the moment, but will often bitterly regret the terms of the deal later. This begs several ideas:

•           It is better to be the one with money than the one without

•           Be eternally reluctant to do anything that so diminishes your cash position that you might get into trouble

•           The time to get money is before you need it

•           No matter how severe your immediate need, stop to thoroughly consider the long-term ramifications of the terms

Tags: , , , , , ,

Jun

29

Do YOU believe in your proposition? Do you have a “fire in your belly” about putting it across?

 Most of the “great” copywriters, including Ogilvy, Reeves, etc. agree that a pro can and should be able to write copy for any product, but that it is a decided advantage to work at selling that which genuinely interests you. Ogilvy, for example, said he had long been fascinated with Rolls-Royce automobiles before he wrote the now-famous “the loudest noise you’ll hear….” ad for Rolls-Royce.

Just the other day, in rehearsing an author for his infomercial, the producers and I noticed that, when challenged by a skeptical interviewer asking “tough” questions, the author came to life and spoke with fiery passion and firm conviction. His authentic passion is an enormous advantage, and although it will be seen on TV in this case, it can be transferred to print.

Tags: , , , ,

Jun

26

Selling Prevention

“How many people buy medicine to prevent athlete’s foot, compared with those who buy to cure it?”

 

- Clyde Bedell

When facing the need to sell “prevention”, the very first thing to do is look for a way to reposition the product or service as a “cure.” If that turns out to be impossible, I advise finding some other business to be in. Selling “prevention” IS that difficult.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Jun

17

Hit The Sweet Spot

“All politics is local.”

- Tip O’Neil

“Personal self-interest” is the “sweet spot” to hit with a sales pitch.

In my business of speaking/training, many speakers/trainers and consultants selling sales training programs err in talking about the benefits derived by the salespeople instead of the benefits derived by the sales manager approving the purchase. They fail to speak to the “personal self-interest” of the decision-maker.

Those in the business of selling educational materials and services for students err by emphasizing benefits derived by the students instead of the benefits derived by the parents.

When Tip said “all politics is local”, he showed how well he understood the importance of appealing to personal self-interest. Tip knew that, whether you’re running for councilman or President, the pothole on my street is of far greater interest to me than a war in a faraway land or an impending national economic crisis.

Check your marketing to be sure it is focused on the personal self-interest of your customer.

Tags: , , , , , , ,

Jun

10

The newsletter is, I think, the most useful tool in maintaining relationships with customers and keeping them interested in you, your business, your products and services. Since “publications” get better readership than “sales materials”; articles get more readership than ads, it simply makes sense to put your messages into the format of a publication, and into the context of articles.

Sadly, many marketers are terribly lazy about this, and can never get their act together, to put out a good, interesting newsletter every month. 

Content Tips

  1. Information/education directly linked to your products and services
  2. Information/education linked to the customer-type (egs.  homeowner; CEO; parent)
  3. Customer recognition and appreciation
  4. Promotion of new/selected products, services
  5. Stimulate

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

Jun

8

The Power Of Results

“DON’T TELL ME ABOUT THE LABOR PAINS -
JUST SHOW ME THE BABY.”

Ordinary people are process focused and task focused, but exceptional success comes from being results focused. People who are obsessed with the telling and retelling of all the details and minutiae they went through to get to a particular result waste your time and slow down the entire organization.

People around you have to be taught, conditioned and constantly reminded how to communicate with you. Here are two examples of employees, same situation:

“Bill, we had a problem this morning. All the phone and FAX lines were out and we couldn’t get any calls or orders. I went across the street to the pay phone and called the phone company. I was on hold forever. Then the first person told me they’d look into the problem as soon as possible and get back to me by tomorrow. I got to a supervisor and pushed. Finally, somebody agreed to put a repair crew on it immediately. They were here an hour ago. The head guy said we’ll be up and running by noon at the latest.”

****

“Bill, we had a problem this morning. All the phone and FAX lines were out. I already got a repair crew out here and the head guy says we’ll be up and running by noon at the latest.”

Which do you prefer?

By the way, the biggest Negative Power anybody has is in usurping your valuable time. If you have somebody around you who is “high maintenance”, you need to get rid of them.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Comments

Business Essentials

Seminars

Internet Marketing

Information Marketing

Special Packages

Categories

Admin