Getting everything you can out of all you’ve got

Chapter 1: Your Flight Plan

• Ice cream was invented in 2000 BC. It was 3900 years later before someone figures out the ice cream cone.
• And the modern flush toilet was invented in 1775, but it wasn’t until 1857 that somebody thought of toilet paper.
• An endless number of these unmade connections exist to this day, especially in the business world. You are surrounded by simple, obvious solutions that can dramatically increase your income, power, influence and success. The problem is, you just don’t see them.
• I have good news – there are only three ways to increase your business: increase the number of clients, increase the average size of sales per client, increase the number of times clients return and buy again.
• For instance, a man who goes to a hardware store to buy a power drill doesn’t really need a drill, he needs holes. He has financial, emotional, logical or intellectual need for holes. He might think he wants to drill. But it’s your responsibility to determine the real truth and his real need. Your responsibility and opportunity is not just to sell him a drill. You must figure out how to satisfy his financial, emotional, logical or intellectual need for holes and make sure the drill he buys from you will solve his problem and give him the exact holes he needs. Or maybe he thinks he wants holes, but when you find out that he needs to insert rods in these holes, you realize that fasteners would work better than holes. So you sell the clients and fasteners. You have now truly solve the problem.
• You must determine the most powerful benefit or advantage you can possibly offer to an existing or future client so it will be totally irrational for them to choose to do business with anyone but you or your company.
• Whenever two parties come together to transact business of any kind, one side is always asking the other, consciously or otherwise, to some more or all of the risk. If you ask someone to take on all the risk, their first inclination is not to buy.
• You want a promotion. You go to your supervisor and offer to work in the higher position for 60 to 90 days at your current salary. You can guarantee either that the company will be completely satisfied or guarantee a specific level of performance or result. At the end of the trial period, they can make the promotion and raise official or you’ll return to your previous position.
• Every time someone makes a purchase from you or your organization, you have an opportunity to increase the size of that purchase.
• One st. Louis sales rep, looking for a way to unload his allotment of the stuff, added individual packages of the cheese powder into boxes of macaroni. He then offered groceries the opportunity to sell them as one item.
• Increased income is a byproduct of management’s perception of your work. Find something that no one else in your company is doing, or doing well, and voluntarily added on to your responsibilities.
• Before Henry Ford would hire anyone for important position, he would have lunch with them. If the potential employee with salt the food before tasting it, mr. Ford would not hire the person. The reason? Salting the food before tasting it indicates the person would implement a plan before testing.

Chapter 2: great expectations.

• Frank Houser designs and construct displays and booths for trade shows. A few years ago, two young guys ask Frank if he could design something for their little startup company so they would look flashy at a trade show. They couldn’t pay him cash, but they offered to give him stock of the startup business. Frank decline the offer. The two men were Macintosh founders.
• A young 16 year old entrepreneur saw a one time opportunity and bought a 5000 suddenly obsolete McGovern Eagleton buttons and bumper stickers. He paid about $0.05 each for them. He then resold them as historic and where political memorabilia for as much as $25 per item. This is an excellent example of an ethical opportunistic mindset. True, the young man’s one-time windfall profit did not result in a major industry breakthrough, but what’s important is that he had the opportunity focused attitude that was needed to see an opportunity when no one else did.

Chapter 3: how can you go forward if you don’t know which way you’re facing.

• The first step in navigating any journey through treacherous business waters is to know exactly what your strengths and weaknesses are.

Chapter 4: your business soul, the strategy of preeminence.

• The strategy of preeminence is quite simply the ability to put your clients needs way ahead of your own.
• In this case it means that you don’t sell them a product or service just so you can make the latest one time profit possible. Must understand and appreciate exactly what they need when they do business with you, even if they are unable to articulate that exact result themselves. Once you know the final outcome they need, you lead them to that outcome, you become a trusted advisor who protects him. And when they have reason to remain your client, they will do so for a lifetime.
• If you think you don’t have a client who you sell to, think again. You have a department head you report to, employees who report to you, a company, and various leadership personnel. These are your clients. And when you realize the value you can bring them you’ll be rewarded not with sales, but with greater recognition, stature and power within your company. You’ll be rewarded with a larger office, a higher title and the raise.
• A successful business starts not with just a great idea or product. Rather, it starts with the desire to provide a solution to another problem.
• You must first identify what your client really needs, even if your client doesn’t recognize what he or she needs.

Chapter 5: break even today, break the bank tomorrow.

• Acquiring clients at a break even or slight loss and making substantial profits on the back end repurchasing is one of the most overlooked and under utilized methods of client growth and generation available to you.
• If you lower or totally eliminate the hurdle in starting a relationship, far more people will begin one with you.
• Ambitious employees volunteer to take on additional responsibilities or fill in as an interim supervisor or manager on their own time and that no additional pay. As a result they are in a position to get a promotion or raise in the near future.
• Remember the goal isn’t just to cut the price of the first purchase. The goal is to make that first purchase so much more appealing that people find it harder to say no then yes.

Chapter 6 viva la difference

• In order to stand above the crowded marketplace, you or your company must offer your prospect or client a unique and distinctive benefit or advantage above and beyond that of your competitor.
• Your entire marketing and operational success should be built upon your unique selling position. Your USP may touch any part of the market gamut, price, service, quality, exclusivity or any other aspect of your business.
• How do you pick ups? You must first identify which needs are going on for filled with in your industry.
• Are you starting to see a trend, the more measurable, comparable, demonstrate the bull, or quantifiable your advantage, the more power it is.

Chapter 7: make them an offer they can’t refuse.

• And it will be no contest for you against your competition if you incorporate strong risk reversal into your business operation.
• As I mentioned earlier, whenever any two parties come together to transact business of any kind, one side is always asking the other, to assume most or all of the risk. When you take away the risk to your prospect or client, you lower the barrier to Action, thus eliminating the primary obstacle to buying.
• Because this approach is probably a bit foreign to you, let’s walk through a few ways you might use a better than risk free guarantee.
  • If you sell products or services, consider offering the clients something else in addition, a bonus, when they agree to purchase. Offer them and exceptional money back guarantee, but allow the client to keep the bonus if he or she asks for a refund.
• Another client of mine is a broker of investment properties. His high risk reversal to his clients is powerful. He guarantees that if any property he sells isn’t rented within 120 days of closing, he’ll pay the fair market rent for up to 2 years.
• A car dealer I worked with doubled his business by offering no questions asked 2 week, hundred percent money back guarantee on any new or used car purchase. No car dealer has ever offered that, he threw out a very favorably offer against any other dealers in his area.

Chapter 9: how to never fall off a cliff.

• You can’t maximize your performance or make the most money unless you know how to make the best use of your time, opportunities, effort and investments.
• Make specific offers and analyze the number of responses, traffic, prospects and resulting sales for each specific add. Then compute the cost per prospect, the cost per sale, the average sale / prospect, the average conversion / prospect, and the average profit per sale against your control.
• Most headlines people use don’t communicate, what’s in it for me, results at the prospect, client, reader or listener can expect to receive.

• Keep tabs on all of your data such as:
• Which had brought in the sales, how many orders a given ad produces, how much money is given ad generates or losses, how much the average order is worth, how much the client order cost.

Chapter 10: with a little help from my friends.

• There is no stream to create powerfully profitable host beneficiary relationships. This is all you have to do: step 1, ask yourself, who already has a strong relationship with the people whom I might be able to sell a non-competitive related product or service.
  • Step 2: once you’ve got the names on paper, contact those non-competitive businesses and ask them to introduce your product or service to their audience. Supply them with plenty of information on what you sell, and some testimonials attesting to its high quality. You should be able to locate companies that have clients logically disposed to your product or service.

• Moreover, if you don’t have a business but you like to start one without any overhead, there’s a great way to do it. All you have to do is be the middleman between the host and the beneficiary and tie up the right to both. You go to as many businesses as possible and say, I want to market your product for you by having other businesses in related field sell it for you. All I want is 25% of the profit. And then you go to the other business in this case the host, and say, I want to bring products to you that can put yourself into business immediately.
• And don’t lose track of the fact that if I gave you $100,000 for no effort on your part, would you give me back $90,000? Well, in theory everyone would say yes. But in reality, most people get offended for having to pay you so much. Just because you can’t get exactly what you want doesn’t mean it’s not good a good deal. If you get something and it doesn’t cost you any time or resources, you’re a fool not to take the deal. But most people don’t see that.
• So if your idea can be replicated, meaning you can do with more than one company in more than one area, you should go for almost any deal you can get when you’re trying to validate your concept.
• When you get an endorsement, you eliminate all the steps of trust development that are necessary for business in the marketplace. It is immediate and efficient, and the cost of accessing client is a fraction of what it would be in the outside market. But do this many times more than it would be otherwise.
• A Landscaping firm persuaded a real estate firm to introduce its shrub, and tree planting service to recent home buying clients. The landscaper orders exploded as a result. Sales rose 40%.
• Start by making a list of products and services that are compliment, precede or follow your product or service. Then make a list of businesses that sell those products or services. If you are employed in a career, your list should be of people or organizations that are, or have access to, the key decision-makers in your life.

Chapter 11: someone you should meet.

• A psychiatrist I’ve advised made his business boom by following just one piece of advice: he told the people who referred patients to him, the bulk of his business, to tell anyone they prefer that they wouldn’t have to pay for the first session. The psychiatrist ate that cost himself, but more than made it up in new business because so many patients aged friends and family to try him out.

• The lesson here is that when people are asked for referrals, they don’t always know who you want. If you give them a list of qualified prospects and they know somebody on the list, they are much more likely to give you a high quality referral. Or if you don’t have a list, explain to your client the details of the type of referral you want.
• A car dealer gains referrals through helium filled balloons. Balloon packages are delivered to clients who buy a new car. People ask about the balloons because there is no advertising on them. Declined then volunteers a great buying experience, generating referrals. Within nine months, business from referred clients increased 58%.

Chapter 12: the prodigal client

• Out of sight, out of mind. Trite phrase, but very true. Once you stop dealing regularly with a company, or professional, no matter how good or valuable the product or service was to you, you tend to forget about the product or service.

8

• 80% of clients believe you don’t leave for a reason that can’t be rectified. And you can regain the vast majority of these clients at a fraction of the cost of acquiring new clients. And much like referral clients, they tend to be one of your best, most frequent and most loyal customer groups.

Chapter 13: your 10000 person sales department.

• At a price of approximately $0.40 a letter, it cost about $400 to mail out 1000 letters. If only 2%, 20 people, respond with an average sale of $100, the gross is $2,000 for the $400 spent. Deduct 50% of gross for selling expenses and the $400 for mailing and advertising, then subtract 10% of the remaining for general and administrative expenses. At least a 2% response can still that almost $600 share profit for every 1000 letters mailed out.
• First and foremost, identify the most probable audience for the most appealing an attractive single product or service you offer. When you have identified the audience, go out and rent 5000 or 1000, or the smallest meaningful quantity of names from the list that you can afford and can access. See chapter 14 for detailed information.
• Write the sales letter. Understand always: a sales letter is nothing more than a conversation between two friends. One person gaining knowledge from another, transferring understanding and information. The sales letter or email is the sales presentation that interest and convinces the prospect to buy, call, write or come in. Its objective is the same as your sales persons to convey your product or service image through examples, promises and benefits.
• It must get the reader’s attention with a powerful headline. The letter must show clear and distinct advantages in the body copy. The letter has to prove or validate your claim of benefits or advantages through factual examples, comparisons, analysis, testimonials or credentials. The letter must persuade the reader to reach out and seize the advantage you promise. The letter must motivate the reader to act, respond, order, right, coming or sent back the coupon.

• The shortcut to save space. Edit ruthlessly for the waste or boring content, but never jettison facts, for some reasons, or specific information that adds to your compelling story. If you have a sales person calling on the client, would you tell that person to stop the presentation after 30 seconds to save time? Of course not. You want that sales person to take as much time as necessary to make a compelling case.
• Your sales letter should be warm, human, sincere, honest personal and one on one. Your brochure or your company product or service report should be technical. It showcases the attractions, components, advantages or positive benefits of the product or service. Your brochure should be written in terse one sentence or one paragraph statements that list important facts and benefits. Reprint or exert your best testimonials, endorsements and recommendations.

• Whatever the offer is, take the risk out of it for the client. Always focus on specifying, demonstrating, performing attributes and credibility at the highest level.
• Accordingly, there are a multitude of decisions to be made about the carrier envelope, size, color, postage, paper stock and color, whether it should include a teaser, and so on.
• A mortgage broker went from making $90,000 a year and spending 90% of his time driving all over LA to the point where she was able to stay in his office 95% of his day and just send out highly-placed letters, every day of the week, every month of the year. These letters went to targeted homeowners who are in the perfect position to refinance, and he was able to generate a $250,000 a year income without ever knocking on any doors. However cold calling on any prospects.
• A realtor sent out 2500 pieces every month to sellers who are on the fence. The free piece isn’t information newsletter. He also sells his database to Allied companies who could benefit business wise from people who move. For example, home insurance companies and moving companies.

Chapter 14: fish where the big fish are.

• You can’t afford to waste time and money on people who aren’t sincerely interested.
• For example, a bank should never run ads just saying how wonderful it is. The bank should run Dad offering a booklet that says, how to finance a new home or refinance an existing one and save $15,000 or more over the life of your mortgage. That example only appeals to people who are seriously interested in either making a financing or refinancing decision with a bank. They are quality prospects. When you send letters, don’t make them general. Always make them refer to some product, service, or process recipient of that letter can take advantage and would have a very strong interest in acquiring.
• A List broker can provide you with list of predisposed buyers, or you can consult such publications as the Thomas register, or the standard rate and data service directory SRDs.
• So I suggest that the very first thing you do is get your hands on the standard rate and data service directory. They’re not inexpensive. Your subscription cost about $400.

Chapter 15: Watson, come here, I need you.

• Telemarketing works best when you prepare the way for it with a letter or advertisement that causes prospects to write to you for more information, or perhaps for a free report that you’re offering.
• Don’t jump into telemarketing with both feet until you’ve tested it on a small scale and determined that you stand at least a fair chance of turning a good profit.
• The item or service you sell to the market should be priced high enough to pay your telemarketers wages or commissions and to cover all of your other related costs. A good working ratio is 1/3 to telemarketers, 1/3 for any other expenses and 1/3 to your minimum or you don’t have it any margin for error.
• Also, don’t address the people you call by first name, and don’t try and gimmicks like saying you’re returning the prospect call, or saying that one of the prospect friends asked you to call them, a friend whose name you couldn’t produce if your life depended on it. In telemarketing, as in any other phase of business or professional practice, complete honesty and candor is always the best policy. When selling by phone, you have approximately 30 seconds to convince the prospect to listen to you.

Chapter 16: big profits.com

• 95% of all websites use the company or product name or logo as the headline, or they say: welcome to the homepage of XYZ. Wrong. Product and company names are not headlines. They don’t provide any benefit to your visitors. This is a big mistake.
• A powerful headline can dramatically improve the results of a website. A headline is responsible for 90% of the success of a space ad or direct mail letter. Although I don’t know of a comprehensive research on headlines on the web, I have personally seen that an effective headline, rather than company name, can increase sales by over 500%.
• Take what you currently have as your headline and turn it into a sub head. Put it below the replacement headline. Then, develop a compelling, powerful headlines that target your market and provides a statement of specific benefit to your visitors just for visiting. Think about why they should stay and explore your website and tell them, what’s in it for them. Do this just for a week or two. Will soon feel better headlines that produce better results.

Chapter 17: Manhattan for $29 worth of beads.

• Charles Dickens didn’t sell the first story he wrote for money. He bartered it for a bag of marbles. Or you can barter from small to large.
• The owner of a small radio station in Florida was having difficulty making payroll. So I traded advertising to a local hardware store for 1400 electric can openers, which he easily cash converted over the air to generate enough income to save the stations.
• Sensing she was on to something good, he began training for goods and services, then auctioning them off over the radio to the listening audience. It in 60 days the small station was in the black. The seller on the air concept was further tested on the local cable television channel. When this also proved successful, investors back to concepts into a satellite uplink and what national. The company sells not exceed more than 1 billion a year. And it all started with 1400 can openers. By the way, the company is now called Home Shopping Network.

Chapter 19: somewhere over the rainbow.

• When you go on vacation, do you pack, drive to the airport, then take the next departing flight out no matter where it’s going? Of course not. But often that’s exactly how people approach their business lives. 90% of all business people don’t have the most basic thing they need, or goal. The few that do have a goal have the wrong goal, or one that can’t possibly get them to where they want to be.

Chapter 21: you are richer than you think.

• I had Stan answer these three simple questions:
• • Have you identified and valued your true expertise and inventory or negotiable personal assets.
  • What performance skills have you demonstrated in the past that have not only abstract but intrinsic value and importance to a business, or a specific type of business?
  • What have you accomplished that people would not only respect, but also desire to learn and utilize to gain the same benefits as the company.
• Who would give their right arm to acquire the valuable expertise stand now recognized that he possessed.