Aug

27

Honor Your Commitments

August 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment

“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: dan kennedy, dan kennedy marketing, Dan Kennedys, Dan s Kennedy, direct mail, direct marketing, Gary Halbert, mailing list, small business, small business marketing, small business marketing ideas

Jun

8

The Power Of Results

June 8, 2007 | Leave a Comment

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.

May

20

Develop And Trust Your Inner Voice

May 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment

“You may depend on the inner-mind absolutely. Everything you need to know will come to you when you need to know it.”

- Dr. Edward Kramer

Decisiveness is one of the most prized and valuable of all personal characteristics, but it is also often misunderstood; many books written equate being more decisive with learning better processes for making decisions, but this is not the way super-decisive individuals operate. Instead, individuals in this category have a hyper-active “inner voice” and they listen to it and act on it confidently, unhesitatingly. Some call this “intuition”, although that term has been tainted over the years with gender issues. And this is not “hunch betting”; but the environment of wagering is a place where the distinction can be explained. At the track a “hunch bet” is picking a horse because it’s name is the same as your cousin’s. An “inner voice bet” occurs, for example, when you are suddenly reminded by your subconscious that a certain jockey has only one mount all day in a late race, which is very unusual for him, and it is unlikely he would take the trouble to come out to the track just for that one mount unless it had a legitimate chance of winning. In that instance, “stored information” rises up out of the recesses of your subconscious. The trick of course, is developing the ability to recognize this and the confidence to act on it.

Kramer goes beyond this. The essence of Kramer’s ideas is that each individual’s mind (sic. subconscious) is directly connected to all intelligence (”universal intelligence”) and therefore all the knowledge of the universe, past and present, is stored in your mind and accessible for the asking. This follows demonstrations by a Harvard prof, Dr. Sidis, in which very young children were able to do complex math problems or recite poetry, etc. without it being taught to them, but by it being stimulated from them. Sidis/Kramer argued that formal education errs in “stuffing in” information as opposed to helping individuals develop the powers of the mind. It’s conceivable that many things little children do that, in observing them, we pass off as “instinctive” is actually know-how. Just for example, little children are often able to calm and befriend a scared or violent horse when adults fail - is it possible the child is using know-how that is later “un-learned” as adults?

Even if the Sidis/Kramer idea of essentially unlimited innate intelligence and knowledge existing in each person isn’t totally valid, it certainly is true that the subconscious mind stores every little bit of information it is ever exposed to and has it all available for lightning speed recall, but we find all sorts of ways to jam up that machinery. Learning to get out of our own way consciously and let the subconscious mind do more of the heavy lifting is a path to much greater, less stressful achievement.

May

18

Carefully Select Environments

May 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment

“You are subject to your environment. Therefore, select the environment that will best develop you toward your desired objective.”

- W. Clement Stone

The reason that conditions of parole typically prohibit associating with known felons, past criminal associates and, in many cases, frequenting certain previously frequented establishments or even sections of town is simple: there’s abundant evidence that doing so dramatically increases, in fact, virtually guarantees recidivism.

It is hard enough converting from criminal to citizen without trying to keep one leg knee deep in a criminal environment. When I decided to end my heavy drinking, I found it very helpful to stay out of bars. Yes, I can sit in a bar or lounge and not indulge. These days I can have one, enjoy it and stop. But I still do not make a practice of frequenting bars. Why subject myself to such an environment, unrelated to achievement of my goals and potentially distracting or destructive?

People can and do escape their environments, as we see that in people who grew up in ghettos or received nominal education or were raised by abusive parents, etc., who become stellar citizens and successful individuals. However, there’s also a great deal of “you can take the boy out of the _________, but you can’t take the __________ out of the boy” to be observed as well. It is very clear that environment has enormous impact, and I doubt you’ll find a dissenting psychologist or sociologist.

In recognition of this, I began selecting my environments fairly early. I sure didn’t do a perfect job of it, but I did a better job than most. And I’m very conscious of it as an adult.

May

12

‘A Pile’ vs. ‘B Pile’

May 12, 2007 | Leave a Comment

“What would you do if you HAD to make your next mailing work? What if you could only mail ONE letter and if you didn’t get a response you would, quite literally, be beheaded?”

- Gary Halbert

This is the prelude to Gary’s discussion of “A-pile vs. B-pile mail”, based on the correct insistence that America sorts its mail over a wastebasket. (In biz-to-biz mail, the gatekeeper sorts it first over her/his wastebasket, then the intended recipient sorts again over her/his wastebasket.) And, of course, this is the argument against envelopes with “teaser copy”. It is this thinking that has led me to favor “a-pile look” in 90% of all situations - except when mailing to established, responsive customers who welcome mail from the mailer.

However, here’s an interesting FACT: direct mail covered with teaser copy is used more than “a-pile mail” by about a 100-to-1 ratio, and thus, far more goods and services are sold via the “junk mail look” than with the “a-pile look”. Some of this can be chalked up to more mailers using bulk mail than any other class and thus losing the opportunity to use a pure a-pile look, some to stupidity, but, still, this fact also suggests the wisdom of testing the one approach against the other in just about every situation.

The most important point I would make is that if or when you violate pure a-pile - such as having a corporate name or logo in the return address or mailing bulk - once you’ve crossed that line, you are best advised to go way over the line……to use every available inch of both sides of the envelope as billboard space.

My preference remains a-pile.

May

9

The Power Of The First Sentence

May 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment

“The opening sentence of a letter IS the letter. If these words do not say anything, there is no conception of philanthropy that could reasonably urge any man to read more.”

-J. George Frederick

Here’s a very simple copywriting test: put only your first sentence on a page. Looking at that and that only, would you go onto the next page to find the next sentence? Or try this one: if you received the letter with nothing but the first sentence* and all the other pages apparently, accidentally omitted from your letter, would you chase down the sender to get the rest? (*Same tests for first paragraph. For first page.)

I spend a lot of time working in environments where all circumstances conspire against grabbing the attention of the prospects. All my speaking at the Success events is at the very end of a ten hour day, after 8 to 10 speakers, after the last celebrity, with a crowd leaving. In my work in the infomercial industry, we battle the “clicker” with every word, the “ugh, it’s an infomercial” reaction at the start of every program. I think; I hope these kinds of situations sensitize me to the importance of the first sentence, the first paragraph, the first page.

May

3

Recognition To Good Payers

May 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Recognition creates repetitive behavior (just as non-recognition does!). Again, with the manufacturing business, we started a formalized “thank you” program aimed at those who paid as agreed, and we very quickly turned good payers into great payers.

Apr

25

The Only Person That Counts…

April 25, 2007 | Leave a Comment

I just spent the last weekend with Dan Kennedy. I was at the Super Conference in Chicago listening to some fantastic speakers including recently injured, Dan Kennedy. I have spent the last three days just trying to sort through all my notes and put the advice into action as soon as possible.

He said a lot of memorable things, but the one that really stuck with me is this:

“The only person that counts is the one that gives you money” - Dan Kennedy

This is a major point for me as in my other business ventures I seem to give a lot of info away, which leads to lots of questions from the prospects. It seems the more I give away the more they want for free, which I am very much done with!

Apr

24

Turning Mailing Lists Into Money (part 5)

April 24, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Considerations In Choosing And Using Lists (finished)

Do Not Be Intimidated

DO take a little time “out of the shop” to learn about mailing lists. DO get into SRDS and open your eyes to all the possibilities and opportunities–I promise you’ll be amazed, fascinated and, undoubtedly, stimulated with new ideas for promoting your business. Contact both local and out-of-town Brokers, explain your objectives, discuss the characteristics of the people you want to reach, discuss lists you’ve identified that might work, ask for and consider their suggestions. Do NOT hesitate to ask “dumb questions”. There really are no dumb questions except the unasked ones. There’s no reason to be intimidated by this process.

Why Not Direct All Your Resources At “Grade A”Prospects?

If I can motivate you to make this philosophical and practical shift; to choose to direct your resources at Grade- A prospects, I will have done you a great service! Big step ahead of the competition today.

Apr

18

Turning Mailing Lists Into Money (part 4)

April 18, 2007 | Leave a Comment

Considerations In Choosing And Using Lists (continued)

Selections

Each list will have different “options”. You may be able to order only homeowners and exclude renters or vice versa, only men or women, only those of a certain age, etc. The information in SRDS will show you what “selects” are offered with each list.

There is also “merge/purge” possible with many lists. For example, the HOME REMODELING MAGAZINE subscribers from your state could be “merged/purged” against a list of credit card holders. An interior decorator might want only those subscribers with credit cards. A furniture store owner offering his own financing, even for people with credit problems, might want only those subscribers without credit cards.

Minimums

Most lists have 3,000 to 5,000 minimum orders. You can whine and cry and try to negotiate a smaller test, but more often than not, you’ll have to rent 3,000 to 5,000 names from a given list. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to mail them all. In fact, for local, small business purposes, a test of 500 names usually tells a lot.

Apr

10

Turning Mailing Lists Into Money (part 1)

April 10, 2007 | Leave a Comment

A recent study (by Pitney-Bowes) revealed that 60 percent of small business owners do not use direct mail; but, of the 40 percent who do, 90 percent say it is the most productive means of marketing they employ. This shows you how using direct mail effectively gives you an instant, significant advantage over all your competitors. The much-maligned USPS, deserving of much of its criticism, is still a bargain as a marketing force.

LISTS are an integral part of direct mail use. In fact, even pro copywriters like myself will admit the list accounts for more than half the success (or failure) of each campaign or project. This means that list selection is one of the most important things you can do. It deserves whatever time and attention is needed to get the job done right. Most people fail at list selection and acquisition simply because they do not understand the basics and do not do their homework. This Report provides a crash-course in the vocabulary of the list business and process of renting and using lists.

Mailing Lists Basics

The mailing list is the most important part of a direct-mail program. Basically, there are three ways to get a list:

1. Your own client and prospect lists. Yes, you SHOULD compile a mailing list of your own clients. The business owner with a list of all his past and active clients has a very important, valuable asset.

2. Build a list through lead-generation advertising. For example, let’s say you own a pet store. You might run a classified ad, continually, in certain sections of your newspaper that reads something like this:

BEFORE YOU BUY A PET, GET THE FREE REPORT: “21 MONEYSAVING TIPS FOR NEW PET OWNERS” CALL 000-0000 OR WRITE: BOX 2, XYZ CITY, 00000

Everyone who responds goes on a mailing list of key, qualified prospects for your pet store.

3. Rent a commercially available list or lists. This Report discusses the basics of renting lists.

First, understand you will be RENTING these lists for one-time use. The list owners will often want to see and approve the material you will be mailing. And the lists will be “seeded” with false names and addresses that deliver your mail to the list owners, so they can police the use of their lists.

Second, you’ll probably wind up working with a List Broker, hopefully located in your own city, but not necessarily. A good List Broker can be of great help to you and is paid by the list owners, not by you. You’ll find the List Brokers in your own area in your Yellow Pages, under MAILING LISTS and LIST BROKERS or similar categories. Brokers are, unfortunately, reluctant to work with very small mailers, so you may have to talk with a number of them before finding one you can work with. You can also deal with Brokers or Lists Managers/Owners anywhere in the country, by phone and FAX. You are NOT limited to Brokers who reside in your town.

Third, you will need to educate yourself about available lists, in order to clarify your ideas about what you want BEFORE meeting with or talking with List Brokers. You can start at your nearest major city, main public library, where you’ll find a current or one-year-old copy of a huge directory called “SRDS”, for ‘Standard Rate And Data Service’. While at the library, you should also read some back issues of trade magazines like Direct Marketing, DM News, and Target and Zip. In a couple of hours, you can become conversant in the terminology, the language of the list business, so you can ask smart questions and deal with List Brokers.

If you are a real “novice” in this area, I suggest getting a copy of the book: A SMALL BUSINESS GUIDE TO DIRECT MAIL by Lin Grensing, published by Self-Counsel Press, available in bookstores.