Your ad’s got to have one! Having NO headline is probably the biggest mistake an advertiser could make. And your company name DOES NOT qualify as your headline.

Headline Evaluations

1. What are you trying to communicate, in simple terms?
2. What SA point are you trying to drive home?
3. Can the reader get a good idea from your headline alone what it is you’re selling?
4. Does the headline paint a mental picture? If so, what is the mental picture? If not, why not?
5. Would the reader be interested in taking action based on the headline?
6. Would you be willing to mortgage your home to pay for the ad with the headline?

Example of a poor headline: ABC Construction
OOhhh doesn’t this one just draw you in and make you want to keep reading? (Hardly.)

Sit down and write no fewer than 15 or 20 headlines for your ads before even starting to write the rest of the ad. That’s right, 15 to 20 headlines. I’ve written as many as 180 to 200 headlines for a single project and I routinely write 30 to 50 headlines for any given project.

Why so many? Well…

a. It forces you to gather your ideas and focus them into short, one phrase or one sentence pieces.
b. Once you’ve written the headlines, writing the rest of the ad actually becomes a lot easier. If I gave you a headline that said,

“We Had The Biggest, Fattest Guy We Could Find Jump Up And Down On Our HS-27 Control Panel For 12 Minutes…Just To Make Sure It Could Endure Any Punishment Your Customers Could Dish Out.”

You could probably write the rest of the ad without hardly knowing a thing about HS-27 Control Panels. I’m telling you, you could write the rest of that ad. Do you know why? Because after you’ve written that headline, you’ve already told 90% of the story – in one single headline!

c. If you write 20 headlines, chances are you’re going to have 4 or 5 good ones. 4 or 5 good headlines are usually enough to write a couple of good ads, especially if you use some of them as sub-headlines.

So, how do you write 20 headlines from a project you’re working on? Well, there are three basic ways to come up with good headlines:

1. Simply write straightforward headlines in plain English.

2. Use one of the twelve headline starters:

3. Use Our Headline Bank – which has over 150 headlines.

Remember…say it in plain English.

Joint Ventures: How To Gain $3.4 Million Of Good Will In 30 Days

One of the best ways I know to leverage your time and marketing dollars is to enter into joint ventures with other businesses. If you agree that your customers are your business’ most valuable asset, then you should see the potential profits available if another business will make its customers available to you. Available, that is, in the form of consignment of goods, an endorsement or a more integrated joint venture.

Joint ventures can work in one of two basic ways: first, you let other companies play off your customer base – and then take a percentage of each resulting sale. Or second, you work a deal with other companies to make their customers available to you then pay them a portion of each sale. The underlying principle of why this works is simple. Every business spends some finite amount of time, money, resources, and sweat developing relationships with its customers. These customers will have some level of confidence in that company, which translates into their willingness to respond to offers made by the company.

For instance, a company might spend $50,000 a year in advertising, $80,000 a year on commissioned sales people, and $5,000 a month for prime retail space. These three factors alone – not to mention dozens of other expenses – account for almost $200,000 spent a year to develop customer relationships.

Now, if you work a joint venture with the owner of that store, you can access all of that money spent for the cost of a letter. Let me give you a detailed, concrete example of what I mean.

If True Value Can Do It, So Can You

MYM Founder, Rich Harshaw, shares with us how he engineered a joint venture for Chris, the owner of a True Value Hardware store in a town of about 150,000 people. Chris had spent an enormous amount of money on inventory, advertising, and leased space over the nine years he’d been in business. During that time he developed a list of 1,600 loyal customers – people who knew Chris by name and came to him whenever they had a question about anything related to fixing or improving their homes.

The joint venture involved over 30 companies that offered all types of home improvement and repair products and services. All of the businesses became members of the True Value Service Center – a place where customers could find answers to any question about anything around the house.

Each business that wanted to participate was carefully screened and evaluated to make sure that they would offer True Value’s customers outstanding service and value. Only one business from each industry was permitted to participate. Each business then paid a $50 fee to join, which was used to build the service counter in the store as well as to send promotional materials to the customers.

At $50 apiece, Chris immediately raised $1,500 – more than enough to build the service counter in the store. But the $1,500 was only the tip of the iceberg. Chris negotiated deals with each of the businesses for a percentage of each of the sales that resulted from his customer’s use of the service center. The percentage ranged anywhere from 5% to 30% depending on the business and the kind of margins that the sale would bring.

The next step for True Value was to promote the service center. First, Chris concentrated on his current customers. A huge grand opening sale was planned for a Saturday in November. About half of the member businesses participated by setting up booths in the store to show their stuff and take orders for their products and services – it became the first annual True Value Home Show.

Each of the 1,600 preferred customers was mailed an invitation. They were to enjoy a 20% discount on any merchandise in the store that day, as well as special bonuses for large purchases. Also, each of the Home Show participants donated prizes that were given away – everyone of the preferred customers was guaranteed to be a winner just for showing up.

It turned out to be cold and rainy on that Saturday in November, but True Value still had its highest sales day ever – I mean ever! And it was 48% higher than the next highest day that year. The best part was that everyone who came found out about the service center. Over 30 service requests were tendered, with dozens more that came in the weeks that followed. The service center was an instant success.

The next step was to advertise to the rest of the people in that city. Chris took out an ad in the local newspaper, in the service directory of the classifieds. His ad told readers that instead of picking and choosing through all of the service ads and calling an unfamiliar company, they could make one call to have all of their problems solved. This headline summed up the service center:

“Before You Look In The Yellow Pages For Anything Around The House, Call Us First.”

Then Chris worked the back-end of his customer list. Every two weeks, he sent a 4-page newsletter to everyone on his customer list (which had added a couple hundred people by now). Each issue contained a feature article about one of the businesses that was a participant in the service center. The best part was that the featured business paid for the mailing – and Chris still got his percentage from each resulting sale.

Chris leveraged the entire operations of over 30 businesses. In essence, he became a landscaper, a drywall technician, a carpet cleaner, a fence builder, etc. without having to make an investment in those areas. His customers wanted those products and services and they trusted Chris’ judgment. If Chris said these were the companies to do business with, they were going to listen to his recommendation

The participating companies leveraged Chris’ entire customer list by entering into the joint venture. Basically, they paid $50 plus a percentage to gain over 1,600 customers who would use them in good faith. Now that’s leverage!

There are thousands of ways to construct joint venture deals. You have to be willing to actively pursue and put together deals. When you present another business owner with a proposition, your approach is all-important. Just like all good marketing efforts, you want to preach benefits to him immediately. Don’t just go up to him and say “Will you endorse my product to your customers?” You have to paint the picture first. You have to help him understand how it works. Not everyone understands the dynamics and leverage like you do.

This concept can be applied to almost any kind of business successfully. We’ve used joint ventures with retail, business to business, consultants, professionals, and any other business you can name.

People say it all the time: “This advertising costs too much!” They practically go into cardiac arrest when they see how much the advertising for certain media in certain markets is going to cost them. It is pretty easy to get sticker shock when you see that a 60-second radio commercial on a popular Los Angeles station could cost you a thousand bucks – each. Or when you realize that radio spots on top stations in the San Francisco market cost as much as $2,500 – a MINUTE. Or when you realize that a newspaper ad in your city barely bigger than a Hershey bar will cost a couple thousands dollars. It’s easy to automatically think that’s a lot of money. Now here’s the important question for you, the advertiser: does the ad really cost too much?

So what’s the answer? The savvy advertiser will tell you that the cost of the ad is not the issue. What’s important is the return the ad will bring. If you were charged even as much as $40,000 for a 60-second radio commercial that generated enough sales to make you a profit of $50,000, then would the $40,000 be A LOT? The answer is NO! Of course not! You’d be a fool not to beg, borrow or steal the $40,000 so you could make the $50,000 profit! Try getting that kind of return in the stock market! How do you think that these big companies can afford to spend a two million for a 30-second TV commercial during the Super Bowl? They know that an enormous amount of people will see it – enough to make the return on investment a good deal.

The point is simple: you’ve got to figure out how much money an ad will make you before you draw a conclusion of whether or not it costs too much. So how do you do that? It’s actually pretty easy. Here’s a simple process for determining the Return on Investment, or ROI, of an ad. First, you’ve got to know how much profit you make on each sale. For instance, if you buy it for $50 and sell it for $100, your gross profit is $50. Second, figure out what your closing ratio is. If, on average, you close one sale for every four people who inquire, that’s a 25% closing ratio. If 9 out of 10 end up buying, then your closing ratio would be 90%. This is simple math. Third, figure out what your break even is. Do this by taking cost of the advertisement and divide it by the amount of gross profit per sale. Remember, we already figured out what your gross profit is a second ago. So how much do the ads cost? If the ads cost $1,000 and your average gross profit is $50, that means you’ve got to make 20 sales to make back the $1,000 – that’s your break even point – in this example, it’s 20 sales. Fourth and last, figure out the number of leads you need to generate from the ad if you are to break even. To do this, you’ve got to know your closing ratio, which we just figured out also. Let’s say it’s 25%, or in other words, you close one out of four people who inquire. So if you close 25%, and you need 20 sales to break even, that indicates that your $1,000 worth of advertising needs to generate 80 leads to break even.

Now I know that all sounds kind of complicated, but it’s actually pretty simple. We just calculated in the example that if the $1,000 ads can generate 80 leads you would break even. That’s a return on investment of 0. I’m not saying that your goal is to break even. I realize that you are in business to make a profit. But let’s start with breaking even; that’s the bare minimum you can accept when running an ad. At least you didn’t come up with a NEGATIVE return on investment! So let’s say your goal was to double your money. What would have to happen to your numbers? That’s right, you’d have to double your lead flow, or in this case, generate 160 leads instead of just 80. That means that if you generated 160 leads, you would generate a profit of $1,000 – again, on $1,000 spent. In other words, you’ve doubled your money. Your return on investment is 100%. That’s pretty easy to follow, isn’t it? By way of review, what we’re trying to do is calculate your return on investment for your advertising. Here are the four steps again. Think about your numbers in your business.

1. What’s your gross profit per average sale?

2. What’s your closing ratio?

3. What’s your break even – in terms of number of sales needed? How many leads does your ad need to generate for enough sales to break even?

4. What’s your return on investment on any given number of leads that you generate?

Now realize something important here. What we’ve just done in this exercise is figure out how many leads you need to generate to break even on the cost of the advertisement and then calculate the ROI for how ever many leads your ads end up generating. That’s a good piece of information to have, but now I want to take it a step further. Let’s figure out what’s known as the Lifetime Value of a Customer. What if your average customer brings you a $50 gross profit per sale like in the example we just went through? Is that the only time that customer will ever buy anything from you? How many times does that average customer come back in the course of a month or a year? If your average customer shops with you one time a month and makes you $50 gross profit every time, that customer is now worth $600 a year – in profit. And if you know that your average customer stays with you for 3 years, now that $50 a month client is worth a tidy $1,800. So now how much would you be willing to spend to accrue that client? What if those were your average numbers, $50 a month for 3 years. Then in the example earlier, remember where we broke even with 80 leads and just 20 sales? Now those 20 customers would be worth an astounding $36,000 over the next three years. And it only cost you a thousand dollars worth of advertising. Now your break even looks a lot better, doesn’t it! If you could accrue a $36,000 annuity every time you ran a thousand dollars’ worth of ads, you should mortgage your house and spend as much money as possible on advertising!

Now, a couple of words of advice when figuring your return on investment for advertising. Always estimate your numbers conservatively, or in other words, on the low side. Always figure on getting a lower number of leads than you’re hoping for and expecting. Always count on a lower closing ratio than you’re used to. If you calculate your numbers using conservative figures, then you’ll do fine if your results are actually lower than projections and in the event that you do as well as you had initially hoped, you’ll just make more money than you expected.

Let me give you a real life example to better illustrate ROI. There is a company that was promoting seminars where they would attempt to sell a service that cost $8,000. When they were starting to do advertising to promote these seminars, the question of how much budget should they afford came up. They wanted to start filling seminars with about a week after starting advertising, so they decided that fax broadcasting would be the best way for them to quickly get the message out about the seminars. Faxing can be done for as little as 7 cents per page in some major metropolitan areas, and even with the new laws around “opt-in” and “relationship” faxing it seemed the most effective method to get directly into businesses with a target for the seminar, so they came back and said they wanted to send out about 25,000 faxes a week for the 5 weeks they would be doing seminars. When asked how many sales were they planning on generating, they said because of a unique financing plan that allowed them to sell their package on a low monthly payment basis, they thought they could sell at least 100 packages in that 5 week time period.

Well, 100 packages is a lot and they were told that they would have to do at least 100,000 faxes a week for the 5-week period to get the number of leads required to sell that many packages. The man got his calculator out and did some quick math and realized that he had to spend $35,000! 7 cents times 100,000 faxes times 5 weeks! That number – $35,000 – sounded so huge it caught him off guard. His idea was to spend just under 2 grand a week or a total of less than $9,000. Big difference. That’s called “sticker shock.”

So what he did was figure out the ROI, according to the steps previously explained. Again, first figure out your gross profit per sale. His was about $3,250. Second, figure out the closing ratio. He expected this would be about 20%. So then, how many sales would he need to break even on a $35,000 advertising expenditure? Well, 35 thousand divided by $3,250 gross profit per sale is about 11 sales. Just 11 sales to break even. So if his closing ratio were just 10%, he’d have to generate about 110 leads to break even. 110 leads on 500,000 faxes? Statistically this is easily attainable even with poorly written materials. The last thing to do would be to figure out how many leads he’d have to get to reach his goal. His goal is 100 sales and his closing ratio is 10%. That means he’d have to generate about 1,000 leads. On 500,000 faxes sent out, that’s like a two-one-thousandths of a percent response. That is very reasonable. He’d generate a total gross profit on the deal of $325,000 and if you subtract the $35,000 advertising cost, that’s still a healthy gross profit. His attitude toward the $35,000 changed instantly.

Do you see how this analysis can work for you? Just run through your numbers and you’ll know how much money is a lot of money when it comes to advertising.  If you want to have me help you through this process, just send me and email or call for an appointment and I’ll be happy to help you.

After we published this newsletter the first time, several readers wrote in and commented at how offensive the headline was, I had to simply say to them, “It worked to get your attention, right? We’re in the business of helping you learn how to get more revenues from your marketing, advertising and sales — so if we got your attention with this headline, you can see a perfect example of how the interrupt works. We’re truly sorry if the story or the reference to ‘Fred’ offended you, but the marketing point is valid and salient.” I also want to say that we’re not implying this story necessarily applies to your advertising salesman – there are a lot of good ones out there. Now, on to the point of the story…

How would you react if an ugly, stinky, obnoxious advertising salesman came into your office and tried to pitch you? I’m talking about a guy in his mid 40s with long, stringy, dirty hair – with yellow armpit stains and odor to match. I’m talking about someone who talks so loud that everyone else in your office has to shut their office doors just to hear themselves think. Would you buy advertising space from this man?

If you said yes, you’re in the minority. I honestly don’t know how he even kept his job – besides the fact that he’s a pretty nice guy. But, geez…it was hard for anyone to even want to see the guy to get to know him. You know the old line about first impressions, right? This is an absolutely true story, but for the sake of the stinky guy, we’ll change his name and call him Fred.

The company Fred works for publishes a business magazine, and like most advertising mediums, it relies heavily on salespeople to sell the ad space. But there’s a big problem with the out-dated sales rep way of selling: The marketplace is bombarded with so many advertising opportunities that it’s difficult to even get in the door to make a prospect even consider buying ad space. Even if you’re good looking, fresh smelling, and even tempered.

So when we got together with Bob, the publisher, we immediately suggested that they trash their old way of selling ad space and do things a little differently. The first place to start was finding a marketing message that would stand out in the clutter of ad space. We asked Bob if his advertisers had received good results from the ads they ran in the magazine. Bob assured us that most of the clients they did have were repeat buyers and they were receiving excellent response to their ads. So here’s the 64 million dollar question: “Would you be willing to guarantee the results?”

Bob and his partner agreed that they were interested only in the long-term growth of the magazine – a goal that could only be achieved if the ad space worked for the clients anyway. So Bob consented. We promoted the magazine as the only advertising medium that gives you a “Results Guarantee.” That was the easy part.

The next thing we did was identify a very specific target market. What kind of business would even want to be in this magazine? Why? How can we identify them and market to them in a cost-effective way? So they picked 500 potential advertisers and made a mailing list of those companies. But instead of mailing them anything, they instead hired someone to call every one of the 500 businesses and capture one critical piece of information: the fax number.

Once all the fax numbers were captured, they sent out a nice little 3-page fax that explained who they were and why their magazine was a wise place to spend precious advertising dollars. The results? Over 100 calls within one week asking for more information about the possibility of advertising in the magazine. Some people would call those HOT LEADS. Bob called them a godsend.

So here’s how the ugly, stinky, obnoxious salesman did so well. Bob handed Fred a stack of 25 leads. Fred sent the 25 leads the information they requested and then followed up 2 days later and simply asked what they thought. This, by the way, was the first time they had talked to Fred personally. Eight people bought on the spot the first time Fred called them.

Fred’s sales jumped from a previous high month of $4,000 in sales to over $12,000 in sales in less than 2 weeks! But remember, Fred was a worst-case scenario. Other salesmen at the magazine were having similar successes. Sales went through the roof and extra pages had to be added to the magazine to accommodate.

Bob summed up the experience like this: “With your system in place, our whole business has changed. Little things. Big things. Everything has changed. My salesmen never have to ask for sales now. Prospects always come to them. Therefore, there’s no rejection. We never make cold calls anymore. Everyone returns our phone calls now – we used to never get calls returned from potential clients. My salesmen see twice as many prospects now…and when they see them, they’re picking up checks and signing the paperwork only. The quality of prospects has risen dramatically. We even save gas money. In the last 90 days we have doubled our sales volume and I’ve made an extra $40,000.”

The crowning moment came when a national bank called up and placed a $4,000 ad without ever talking to a salesman. They just said come over and pick up the check. Now that’s work that even an ugly, stinky, obnoxious salesman can do…. and do well!

The great business philosopher, Jim Rohn, said it best in his lecture about communications. He was talking about personal communications – not about advertising – but the principle holds true. He says to be a master communicator all you’ve got to do is follow this simple three-step process: first, have something good to say; second, say it well; third, say it often.

In terms of advertising, here’s what that means: having something good to say means that you’ve innovated your business sufficiently so that you’ve got something unique that’s worth advertising. Saying it well has to do with taking what you do well and saying it in your advertising in such a way that it gets people to notice and take action.

Here’s what you need to know about saying it well: advertising gives you great leverage on your dollars invested. The words you use and the way that you use them in your ads can make all the difference between an ad that works and an ad that fails. An ad that makes you money or an ad that costs you money. Those ads that you’re going to be running will cost you the same amount of money regardless of how well you say it. If you say it well and your ads make you rich, the price of the ads remain constant. If you say it crummy and go broke, the cost of the ads still doesn’t change. That’s why we’re going to spend so much time on the writer’s workshop and teach you how to say it well – so you can take advantage of the upside of the leverage that advertising offers you.

I don’t know if you’re planning on writing your own ads or not. Maybe you just want to learn how to evaluate whether or not your ad agency is doing a good job. Maybe you’d like to make useful suggestions to the people who write your ads. Or maybe you are the one responsible for putting it all together for your company. If you’re responsible for the results of your company’s advertising, you’ll need to know how to effectively write your ads.

Use Words To Create Mental Pictures In People’s Minds: Remember this one tidbit out of this program and it will be worth the time you’ve invested. The mind thinks in pictures. Not words, not ideas, not concepts, not abstracts. In Pictures. Hard to believe? Let me give you an example. For a moment, think of a killer whale. Okay, what came to our mind? The words and letters k-i-l-l-e-r w-h-a-l-e? No, of course not. You had a picture of a killer whale instantly pop into your mind. Now, think of the Eiffel Tower. What happened? Big, tall, pointy tower picture pops into your mind. The reason you mind throws a picture on your mental canvas is because you don’t think in words, you think in pictures.

Okay, you say those weren’t fair examples because they were both objects. It makes sense that you would think of an object by picturing the object, but you’re saying that you probably wouldn’t think of something abstract in a picture. Well, let’s see if that’s true or not. Here’s the next exercise: think of the word FAME. What happened? Did you think of the letters F-A-M-E? Or did your mind paint a mental picture of something instead? Maybe it was a flashback to the old movie Fame. Or maybe you got a picture in your mind of a famous person or even a collage of famous people. If so, who was it? A famous athlete? A movie star? Maybe your mental picture shows the flashbulbs that come from being photographed a thousand times by the media or maybe you saw your picture on the cover of a magazine. It’s different for everybody, but for everybody it’s a picture. Let’s try another: how about the word POLITICS? What picture did you get? What about the word RELIGION? Think for a second. What about the word CHARMING? SWEET? EVIL? FLEXIBLE? Get the picture? Your mind thinks in pictures.

So the next logical question you have is SO WHAT! What does that have to do with advertising? The answer: EVERYTHING. As and advertiser, your job is to create a mental picture in the minds of your prospects that will:

1. get them to pay attention to your ads,
2. become very interested in what you’re selling, and
3. take action. You’ve got to be the artist that paints the picture in the brain.

So you might think, “Hey, great. If the mind uses pictures, then we’ll just stick a bunch of pictures in our ads and that will do the trick. After all, as the saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? We’ll put pictures in our ad that illustrate the points we’re trying to make and everyone will understand and take action.” Well, actually, that’s not exactly true. Here’s the problem with pictures in advertisements, generally speaking. Your interpretation of a picture and my interpretation of a picture might not be the same thing. The picture might be worth a thousand words…the question is: which thousand words?

So now you’re wondering…which is it? Pictures or no pictures? Here’s the key: you can use words to create mental pictures that will get attention and tell your story far more effectively than any illustration or photograph ever could. You’ve got to become a skilled wordsmith that can use words to paint pictures on the mental canvas. Let me give you a few examples.

First, let me tell you about a company that makes video game cabinets. A video game cabinet is basically the wooden box with a TV monitor that those games you see in the arcades are housed in. One of the biggest problems with the cabinets is that they have to endure a lot of abuse. Think about it: they’ve got 13 year old kids pounding on them all day long for months and years on end. The part of the cabinet that is particularly vulnerable to wear and tear is the control panel – the part about waist high on the cabinet where all the buttons, knobs, and joysticks are. Well, this company had engineered a cabinet that had several reinforcements on the control panel that made it very durable, extremely resistant to breaking even under the most abusive conditions. It was called the HS-27. People in the industry all knew what an HS-27 was. Okay, play consultant now: write an ad that extols the merit of the HS-27 video cabinet with its new, improved, reinforced control panel. What would say? Remember, your job is to paint a mental picture for the reader. So what would you write?

If you ask around the factory, you will find out HOW they tested the durability of the control panel: they simulated the worst punishment the control panel could ever possibly face – they had somebody literally stand on top of it and jump up and down repeatedly. And just to make sure that the test was true, they had their service manager – Mike, who weighed in at 272 pounds – be the one who did the jumping. Ah ha! There’s the idea. Are you already starting to get a mental picture built in your mind? The headline was then written in big, bold letters. “We Had The Biggest, Fattest Guy We Could Find Jump Up And Down On Our HS-27 Control Panel For 12 Minutes…Just To Make Sure It Could Endure Any Punishment Your Customers Could Dish Out.”

Did that headline put a mental picture in your mind? Of course it did. You saw this picture in your mind of a big fat guy jumping up and down on a video game cabinet and the cabinet standing up to the test. And here’s the best part: every person who heard or read that headline got to paint the mental picture using images and scenes that were their own; that makes the picture more vivid and more believable. The company was a little concerned about using the “Fat Guy” ad. They thought it wouldn’t be politically correct, you know, to talk about a fat guy. What if people complain? I’m telling you, the words FAT GUY just have the ability to create a certain picture in the mind that no other words can. The results proved that it worked: the ad generated a ton of attention and skyrocketed the sales of the HS-27 video game cabinet.

Here are a few more examples. A company that does pre-employment screening and background checks wanted an ad that emphasized how effective they were at screening out bad employees. They debated about what people really wanted from a pre-employment screening company. “They want the checks done fast, they want the checks done accurately, etc.” But what people want can all be summed up in one headline: “Now You Can Avoid Hiring Weirdos, Losers, and Lunatics.” The sub-headline said there was a secondary benefit of “and get all the information you need in just six hours or less.” That one definitely puts a pretty graphic picture in your mind.

How about this for creating a picture in the mind? “We Go The Extra Mile For Our Clients.” Okay, that was a trick; I hope you caught it! “We go the extra mile for our clients” leaves your brain looking for something concrete to grasp onto. It leaves you visually numb. It does a poor job of creating a mental picture.

How about this one: let’s take the example of a photography studio that specialized in children’s portraits and senior pictures for high school students. For the last several years, they had done what just about every other photographer on the face of the planet did when it came to advertising. They sent out an oversized postcard with a bunch of pictures of beautiful people on the front with some kind of boring headline like, “Only the Best” or “Capture Your Style” or something that was trying to convey the message of “Come get your photo take here and you’ll look beautiful, too.” The only problem with that kind of advertising is that it DOES NOT create any mental pictures. And the actual photos on the postcard don’t mean anything since the person looking at them fully expects that the promotional picture would look good. Even a horrible photographer has a few decent shots that he shows his prospects. So instead, one photographer sent a postcard that contained only the following words: “You’ve Got The Ugliest Kids I’ve Ever Seen In My Life,” with the sub-headline “That’s What They’ll Say If You Get Caught Using The Wrong Photographer.” See how effective that is? See how that creates a vivid picture – a mental impression – in the mind? That’s the power of mental pictures. And you can create them for your product or service too.

Now, I’m not saying that you can’t use actual pictures effectively in an advertisement. You can. It’s been done lots of times…but here’s the key: usually the pictures are used in tandem with words. Why? The words are what create the MENTAL picture that describes the actual picture. Here’s an example: if you do a lot of meetings or seminars, you get a lot of solicitations from meeting facilities. There’s also a magazine called Meeting News. It’s one of those free subscription magazines with a bunch of shallow, token articles that exists solely as an advertising vehicle for resorts and meeting facilities. That being the case, you’d think that the advertisers would be trying really hard to say just the right things to make the phones ring. I mean, it’s a competitive environment in that magazine; almost every ad is selling the exact same thing: meeting space.

There was a full-page ad for Hilton Resorts that was dominated by a huge photograph. It was an aerial view of a big green lawn with a dog that had dug what looked like about a half a dozen holes. The dog was currently situated near the middle of the page and was in the process of digging another hole. Remember I said earlier that while a picture is worth a thousand words, the important thing is which thousand words? So what does the hole-digging dog say to you? What conclusion do you draw? Fortunately, Hilton was good enough to provide a headline to try to clarify. The headline read, “At Hilton Direct, we’ll find the perfect meeting location for you, whether it’s 2,000 miles away or in your own backyard.”

Oh, okay…the doggie’s looking for the perfect location to bury his bone. I mean, to plan his meeting. Does this make sense to you? The picture does a horrible job of getting to the point – which, by the way, still hasn’t been discovered. After a thorough reading of the ad’s text, you can find the point. Buried way down deep in the copy is this tidbit: they have over 500 properties all over the country, which, I guess, ensures that there’s one near you and by making just one call, you could presumably make your meeting plans for anywhere. So here’s the question: why didn’t they just say that? Maybe they should have used the headline “Only One Resort Lets You Compare And Price Out 523 Different Meeting Facilities Nationwide With Just One Easy Phone Call. That’s Hilton Direct.” Yes, there are probably better headlines they could use, but that one is better than the digging dog.

The place to paint the picture is in the mind. Not on the paper. Don’t draw a conclusion from the examples here that you have to use an inflammatory headline like the Fat Guy one or the Ugly Kids one or the Don’t Hire Losers one…although it can certainly help. Those are just examples to prove the point about creating mental pictures. Here’s what you need to know. Your ability to use words to create pictures in the minds of listeners will greatly enhance your chances of success. Most of the ads out there don’t effectively create mental pictures. Instead, they unthinkingly spew out verbal garbage. Instead of mental pictures, they create mental numbness. Why would they do that? Don’t waste your money that way.

If Not, There’s Only A Few Possible Reasons Your Prospects Buy Elsewhere…

The first and most obvious reason you won’t "own your market" is because you have reached full capacity and are happy making the money you’re making today and don’t have any desire to grow your business.  If that’s you, then don’t read the rest of this newsletter because it doesn’t apply to you.

If you aren’t making the money you want to make, and you have plenty of capacity to grow, then read on…

When we talk in our workshops and newsletters about "Monopolizing Your Marketplace," most people initially think we’re just trying to be catchy and cute with the title. On the contrary, we’re dead serious. When we say "separate yourself from the competition…then eliminate them," we mean it literally.

One of our favorite clients was an auto repair shop that regularly put three to four competitors out of business every year for several years in a row. His business operations are run so flawlessly, his marketing is so compelling, and his customer satisfaction is so high…that customers are irresistibly drawn in and drawn back time after time. They are helpless. In their minds (and in reality) they would feel FOOLISH to go anywhere else to get their cars fixed.

Please understand – this client doesn’t go around gloating about driving his competitors out of business. He doesn’t hate them or put big Xs on a map at their location after they quit. He just has a big problem with the idea of anyone taking their car to get fixed anywhere else. And not just because he wants to make the money, but because he knows that if they go anywhere else, there’s a good chance that they’ll pay too much, that their car won’t get fixed right, and that the customer will get mad at ALL auto repair shops including HIS.

Why Don’t YOU Own Virtually 100% Of Your Market?

Most business owners don’t even realize that complete market dominance is an option. They just figure, heck, there’s always going to be competition in business. And they’re right–and wrong. Just ask Bill Gates if he has any competitors in operating software. Or ask our client from the above example if he has any competitors. The answer in both cases is yes. But if you think that anyone else has half a chance at cracking their empires…it’s not going to happen. They MONOPOLIZE their marketplaces. And so can you.

So, why don’t you?

We’ve found that there are really only a few reasons why competition even exists in the first place. You would think that in every category of products and services that there would be one competitor that was so good, that was so aggressive or that was such a behemoth, that they would smother their competition. But it just doesn’t happen very often.

The following is a short explanation of reasons why you might not own your marketplace, along with prescriptions to fix the problem. See if you can identify and remedy your situation. If so, there’s no question that you can get more of the business than your competitors.

"I don’t hate my competitors, I just want people to get the best service possible."

Reason #1: Somebody Else Has A Better Deal: I’m not talking about price here either. I mean that there’s a competitor who is offering more value to your prospects than you are, and the prospects recognize that fact and don’t buy from you. This sounds simple enough but I would contest that if you’re not offering the best deal possible, that you shouldn’t expect to win.

Don’t quit reading because this sounds so simple. This is the first reason (that you won’t own your market) listed because it’s the most basic and most widely ignored. Why do you think traditional sales training exists? It’s designed for companies with sales mentalities that believe that all competitors are equal and your only chance of landing any business is to out-sell, out-trick, out-technique, out-cold call, out-persist, and out-luck all of your competitors. I disagree in a most fundamental way.

Prescription #1: INNOVATE! And don’t say that innovation is too hard. Innovation means simply figuring out a way to offer more value than any of your competitors. There are literally 2,944 ways to do this. We explore these in detail in our workshops. But on a basic level, just ask your self one simple question: If I were a customer of my business, what would compel me to buy from me instead of my competitors?

If you can’t answer that question and aren’t willing to work your guts out figuring out the answer, do everyone a favor and just quit right now. And remember, we’re looking for real, quantifiable, interesting, exciting, and compelling reasons for customers to buy. Not things like we’ve been in business for a zillion years. Not things that are pretty neat, but all of your competitors do also. Not things that your customers have come to expect from you or your industry as status quo. What is it? If you don’t know what it is, YOU MUST INNOVATE. If you’re stuck about how to do it, give us a call.

Reason #2: People Perceive Someone Else Has A Better Deal: Okay, so you’ve innovated and you’re now the best deal. Anyone in your target market would be a fool to buy from your competitors. But they still do. Why? The only possible reason is that your marketing plan doesn’t effectively nurture and coddle prospects through what we call the educational spectrum. You may attempt to communicate your obvious advantages, but your prospects either don’t believe you or don’t think about you in the moment of truth.

Prescription #2: MONOPOLIZE! First, identify all of your prospective clients and gather their information in your database files. Next, create a series of compelling, well-articulated marketing messages that target each of the possible concern areas and build trust over a period of time. Make sure that your marketing materials all are Hot Button – based. Then you need to carefully execute your plan and communicate with your entire prospect base to guide them through your educational process.

If this sounds a bit confusing, it’s because I’ve taken a 10 hour workshop and broken it down into one paragraph. Just realize that the whole key to effective marketing is to let your target market know in a consistent, compelling way that they would be a fool to buy from anyone but you. And to prove your case. If you have truly innovated like we talked about in prescription #1, then it’s just a matter of time before you’ll win all the clients you want.

Reason #3: Your Prospects Don’t Know That You’re An Option: If your target market is very narrow and easy to identify, then this is an unforgivable mistake. For instance, if your market consists of all of the meeting planners for the top 500 businesses in the San Francisco Bay Area, these 500 people should all know who you are. If your market consists many possible customers, like ours does, then you need to constantly add prospects to your files.

Prescription #3: MONOPOLIZE…But Don’t Break Your Budget!: One common approach is to buy a ton of media impressions to get what they call "name recognition." If you’re not a Fortune 1000 company, forget this strategy. Not that you shouldn’t use radio or TV or direct mail, you just have to be a lot more careful and strategic.

You’ll find that if you can follow these three quick prescriptions that you can own your marketplace. Obviously, this isn’t an overnight task, and it won’t be easy. But if you do, you will definitely beat your competition.

An Important Advertising Concept That Ad Agencies & Ad Salespeople Don’t Know…
That Could Easily Quadruple Your Results

Even if you don’t do very much advertising–you will find out how to get literally 10 TIMES more return for your advertising dollars than you spend. It doesn’t matter if you use radio, yellow pages, magazines, newspaper, faxing, internet, billboard or whatever. There are a couple things you need know to dramatically increase your return on investment.

How To Reach ALL Potential Buyers, Not Just NOW Buyers: A now buyer is one that hears/sees an advertisement, needs what is being sold on an immediate basis, and buys it based on that ad. You’re thinking about buying a new computer, you start noticing the ads in the paper, call around, and buy a computer. But what about the other 17,233 people that saw those ads but didn’t have an immediate need? Will they ever be in the market to buy in the future? You bet. But the retailer has done nothing to capture those people.

What The Ad Salesman Wants You To Think: Hey man, you’ve got to get repetition, lots of repetition…so that when the buyer is ready, you’re there. The buyer has an ‘impression’ in his mind with your name on it. Let me ask you a question: If it rained tonight and your roof leaked, who would you call to come fix it? Right now, there are no less than 10 roofing companies that run ads on the radio, and another dozen that have billboards up all over your city. I’ll bet you would still go to the yellow pages to find a roofer.

Make Your Advertising Capture ALL Potential Buyers: This sounds pretty obvious; still, show me one ad agency that knows how to do it. Listen up now, and you’ll get the basics. You need to realize, first of all, that some of the people who don’t buy now will buy in the future. They do have an interest. They want information. They want to be prepared to make an intelligent buying decision. The problem is that 99% of all advertising and marketing contains no useful, case-building, confidence-invoking information. And it doesn’t lead the buyer to the next logical step. An example will illustrate what I mean by ‘the next step’.

Sell The Next Step…And Capture All FUTURE Buyers.

An upscale furniture store in a big city ran radio ads that tried to drive in new business, but failed to produce any measurable results. We took the same ad and changed it just a little. Instead of the announcer, we had Robert, the owner, read the ad. Then, instead of making the listener come into the store, we gave an option to call in to be put on the update list. You see, at this store, because the merchandise is consigned, and since it is sold so quickly, they always have new and different items in the store…

So we let the radio ad listener know that he/she could find out what was in the store without even showing up. The results? Over 10 new walk-in customers a day…and more than 25 new call-ins per day requesting to be mailed the bi-weekly listing. Compare that to the previous ads they were running: no measurable results.

Another client is a rather huge residential roofing company. They ran billboards around the area with this simple phrase "Largest Roofing Company In California." Results? Non-measurable. But when you’re spending a couple thousand bucks each a month, you would kind of like to know if it’s working.

We helped them develop what’s known as a Code of Ethics & Competency for contractors (we teach this strategy at our seminars) and then advertised on the billboard to call in for a copy of the Code of Ethics and a checklist that they can use to judge any roofing contractor by. Results? People call in and get the free stuff…even if they’re not a NOW buyer. They go into a Hopper System, which allows us to market directly to those people from now on.

How about a newsletter? Another client is the world’s largest manufacturer of coin operated air hockey tables, pool tables, and foosball tables. They send a four-page, oversized, full-color newsletter to the subscriber list of the leading industry magazine. The first issue went out to 5,000 people and they received 4 calls from their buddies in the industry telling them how cool the newsletter looked. It only cost them about $13,000 with graphic layout, printing, list rental, and mailing costs. That’s $3,250 per compliment.

We changed the whole concept of the newsletter (even though it looks the same) to giving specific information about the profitability of the tables and gave the readers an opportunity to call, fax or mail in for 5 different free offers. This time we only mailed 3,800 at a cost of $9,200 (there were some non-prospects on the list) and to date, have generated 136 inquiries for free offers. And counting. That’s about a 3½% response or about $67.65 per inquiry – and another lead in the Hopper System. Which would you rather get?

Spend Your Money Where It Will MAKE You More Money.

So here’s why advertising guys really hate this way of marketing: I’d rather spend my money BOMBARDING those 136 people that inquired than the 3,664 that didn’t. Or for the furniture store–I’d rather spend my money BOMBARDING those 10 people that come into the store and 25 that call in every day, than trying to convince the other zillion people that heard but didn’t respond.

But you see, when you advertise to capture leads, you don’t have to run your ads as much. You don’t have to spend so much money on non-measurable results any more. Of course the ad sales rep makes less money, as do the agency execs. They hate that. But what are you in business for? To make some ad guy rich or to make yourself rich?

Spend the money on the people who have raised their hands and said "I’m interested." Let’s take the example of the furniture store: let’s say they generate 200 leads a week for 8 weeks on the radio. That’s 1,600 new leads. These are people that we know have some level of interest in what we’re selling. So what do we do with them? Send them the update list every two weeks. Send them special offers on merchandise. Send the gift certificates for free stuff when they come into the store. Send them testimonial letters from other satisfied shoppers. Send them offers for other stores that sell complimentary (not competitive) things that they might want.

Become "The Fountain From Whence All Knowledge Flows".

You market like this and you’ll soon find that you’ll either have all the loyal customers you can stand… or you’ll have to expand your business and start the process over again. Either way, you’ll spend infinitely less money on media advertising. You’ll spend your money where it counts…selling to qualified prospects.

Who can this apply to? Just retail-based businesses? No, it applies to all businesses. Retail, wholesale, professional, service or whatever – even non-profits. All businesses should generate leads and then market to those people. This is what we call Monopolizing The Marketplace. Think about it: if you do this, and none of your competitors do (trust me, they don’t), you’ll eventually capture a huge percentage of all the possible buyers on your own database. Then you can quietly and consistently market to all these people. For a free demo of our Hopper System Click Here and let me know – I’ll get you scheduled ASAP.

This Four Letter Word Can Make You A Lot Of Money…No Matter What Business You’re In.

We’re going to talk about a marketing technique: how to use the word FREE to generate increased sales and profits. I always hesitate to talk about specific techniques, however, because there are always people out there that try to use the techniques without first gaining the understanding of why it works in the first place. So please, read this article with an open mind and remember: I’m trying to paint with broad strokes so you can understand the general concept and then draw specific applications to your business later.

Now let’s talk about FREE. In case you didn’t know, FREE just happens to be the most powerful word in marketing and advertising. No other word draws as much attention. No other word can generate as much action. On the other hand, no word is as over-used and under-potentialized as the word FREE. Often customers become jaded when they find out that the wonderful FREE (whatever) is really worthless, nonexistent, based on unrealistic conditions, cheesy, stupid or just plain NOT FREE after all.

We’re going to attempt to find ways to use FREE and make a favorable impression with our prospects and customers…and make them want to do more FULL PRICE business with us. After all, any idiot can give stuff away for free or at a discounted price. My mother can give stuff away for free. It takes a skilled marketing practitioner, however, to properly use FREE and still make a full profit.

FREE Isn’t Just For Cheesy Businesses. It’s For Everyone.

To prove to you that FREE isn’t just for cheesy, retail oriented business, let’s start with a couple of examples from past clients: a high-end carpet & rug showroom and a cardiologist group. They’re both using the power of FREE to make more money. Here’s how.

The cardiology group makes money by performing procedures on patients that are referred from other, less specialized physicians. The key then, is to have as many physicians as possible referring patients to their group. We found out that the office manager of the referring physicians often makes the decision on where to send their patients for cardiology. How then do we influence the office manager to choose our client over all the competitors? And how does FREE fit into all of this?

First of all, we have a video that does a nice job of explaining the selling advantages of our client. How about sending a FREE video out to all the office managers of all the doctor’s offices…that might be a good free offer. Only problem is, it won’t work. Almost none of the office managers have a VCR or DVD player at the office and they sure as heck aren’t taking that thing home to waste their valuable personal time. FREE-ologists, press on.

A better way is to take the FREE offer to a much higher level…a level that inspires action. Here’s what we did. We took the same free video that would have very little impact if mailed by itself…then we went to Blockbuster Video and Boston Market and bought gift certificates from both places. Then we sent the video and gift certificates to each of the office managers with a simple, short letter:

Dear Office Manager,

I know that you get solicitations all the time from all types of doctors, pharmaceutical companies, and medical supply vendors. I, too, am trying to gain your interest in doing business with our company. But instead of wasting your time with the usual office visit and literature, I’ve arranged for you to spend a relaxing evening at your home. Please accept these coupons for two free movies and $15 worth of food. When you get a chance to use these coupons, all I ask is that you do me one small favor: either between movies or after the kids have gone to sleep, please pop this short 9 minute video in and see what we’re all about. Thanks for your time.

What do you think is the chance of that video getting watched? Just about 100%. What kind of impact does it have on the prospect? Highly favorable. This approach sure makes follow up easier, too. Instead of the usual follow up call “We sent you a video, did you watch it yet?” they now say “Have you had a chance to use those free coupons yet?” Whether they have or haven’t, the reaction is always favorable. This approach directly leads to more business.

Now, the upscale carpet and rug showroom. Since they rely on interior designers for a large percentage of their business, they wanted to find a way to make themselves “a better deal” for designers. They also wanted to find a way to compete for retail customers with the emerging do-it-yourself carpet places like Home Depot. The FREE strategies for both situations (designers & retail buyers) are good examples of how to maximize FREE-ness without losing profitability.

For the retail buyers, we came up with a program that gives them FREE carpet cleaning for a year with the purchase of carpet or rugs. Wait a second! How can you give away free carpet cleaning and not go broke, you might ask. Simple. We made an arrangement with a carpet cleaning company that already spends a ton of money on advertising in Val-Pak, Yellow Pages, and other expensive media. Their advertising cost to acquire a new customer, we found, was actually pretty high.

So we made a deal with them to give us a discount equal to (actually greater than) the amount they spent on advertising. This was roughly half of the sales price. When the customer buys carpeting, we give them vouchers good for two free carpet cleanings (a year’s worth) that are dated and signed. When they actually redeem the coupons, the carpet cleaning company then bills our client half the face value.

Since their average standard job runs about $70 (special treatments are extra and not included), the out of pocket cost is about $70. But it’s actually less since not all of the customers will take them up on two cleanings. Now look at the math: if a customer buys 200 yards of carpet for $18/yard, that is a $3,600 job. There’s plenty of room in there to cover the measly $70 cost of the program. And by just offering FREE carpet cleaning in the first place, they’re bound to bring in more sales. You tell me–if the price for XXX brand carpet is exactly the same at two different places, but one store says they’ll clean it for you for a year, where are you going to buy?

Now, the FREE offer for the designers: in addition to offering them FREE carpet cleaning that they can pass on to their end users, our client has also created the “Designer Club.” Membership in this club entitles the designer to a myriad of FREE benefits, including FREE office space (including FREE use of copiers, phones, computer, fax machines, etc.), FREE use of the conference room and showroom, FREE drinks, coffee, and snacks at any time, an additional 50% discount not available to non-members, FREE credit union and insurance plan enrollment, MASSIVE DISCOUNTS on travel, couriers, dining, rental cars, health club memberships, and about 17 other things. The designers are also enrolled in and incentive program that allows them to earn points for purchases that they can cash in for expensive prizes.

What does it cost a designer to join this “Designer Club?” About $200 a year. But, if they hurry, they can get one of 100 Charter Memberships for FREE…if they meet certain requirements. This program will cost very little to implement, but will have massive rewards for our client. There is no other showroom that even offers one of the FREE benefits.

As always, space is limited in this newsletter. I have tons of other examples I’d love to share with you. Like how a restaurant had a FREE drawing that increased its business by 22% for four consecutive months. Like how a tuxedo chain gave away a FREE dozen roses to prom-goers, but didn’t have to pay a dime to do it. Or how a well-known piano store packaged $2005 of FREE stuff to give away with every piano.

If you’re not convinced or want help to figure out how the use of FREE in your advertising can work, CLICK HERE to send me a request. I’ll call you back to set an appointment and I’ll show you how it can work in your business.

Develop These Six Critical Traits…And Success Will Surely Follow.

Being marketing consultants allows us the opportunity to encounter almost every business situation imaginable. These businesses vary from start-ups to turn-arounds to already highly profitable businesses.

We deal with people who are sharp as tacks, and with people who couldn’t sell their way out of a paper sack. We’ve designed and implemented marketing programs for print shops, banks, retail stores of all kinds, multi-level marketers, real estate companies, churches, politicians, famous seminar leaders and personal development coaches, and anything else you can think of.

One major conclusion: The marketing function for every single business or organization — plus or minus 5% — is exactly the same.

Which makes us laugh when we get asked the inevitable question: “How can you walk into my business that you’ve never seen before and figure out a detailed strategy in just 9 minutes. How in the world do you do this?”

The answer is simple: We aren’t so smart. We just know how to do a few key things that any one can do with a minimal amount of training. Here now, are the six traits to mastering marketing. (Don’t be disappointed that you’ve heard everything here before. I already told you that we’re not smart. This stuff is really simple.)

Trait #1: Notice Your Own Buying Strategies: Pay closer attention to what everyone else in the world is doing to try to sell you something.

You’ll find that there are already lots of good ideas out there that you don’t have to invent again. I actually watch the commercials. I listen to the ads on the radio. I get on every mailing list I can to see what kind of  “junk” will show up in my mailbox. I interview those jerk-o telemarketers that interrupt my dinner to see how well their pitch is working with other prospects. I love junk fax. I read all billboards. I go shopping just to see how the sales clerks treat me. I read the paper and magazines for advertisements, then if I have time I read the articles I do. I read the yellow pages for fun (even though 99.99% of the ads stink). I respond to every “free” offer under the sun. Then I check to see how well the company follows up.

So you say, “But you’re a marketing consultant! I would expect you to behave this way! I just run a (fill in whatever you do here)…what does all that have to do with me?” Our business is making money. Period. What’s yours? If you ask me, it too is making money. I don’t care what you do. You are in the business of marketing something in an effort to make money.

If you will constantly monitor what turns you on; what ads keep appearing week after week; what makes you like something or hate something — you will start to find things that you can incorporate into your business. Then we can talk about Trait #2….

Trait #2: The Ability To Cross-Pollinate Ideas: This isn’t a botany lesson. All it means is to take an idea that works well in one industry and use it in another.

Borrow ideas from everywhere.

We helped a piano dealer learn how to sell grand pianos the way most car dealers sell cars….by giving away a huge package of free stuff with every purchase. We helped a foundation repair and plumbing company sell the way a realtor sells houses…with a metal sign in a yard with a “take one” tube on top. Get yourself out of your paradigm of

“what you do”

and realize that, as long as it’s legal, moral, and ethical–if a given idea makes money, it’s worth pursuing.

Trait #3: Be Specific: I don’t want to go into my entire discourse about how people in general are lazy communicators. Just suffice it to say that 95% of what’s said in marketing and advertising is useless, non-compelling, non-specific, non-definitive, amorphous FLUFF. They say things like tastes best, highest quality, biggest selection, best service, and lowest price. But think about the impact of these types of statements have on your prospects.

Your prospects fully expect you to claim that you’re great. Who ever heard of a promotion that said ” Our prices are high, our service is terrible, and our quality is marginal at best!” To set yourself apart from the competition, you must quantify all claims made into specific, compelling terms.

Instead of saying largest selection, say “15,400 square feet divided into 5 showrooms, with over 5,220 items from 327 manufacturers, in 2,022 styles and 460 colors, in price ranges from $.99 to $27,000.” Which do you believe? Instead of saying qualified mechanics, say “Most auto repair facilities have one or two certified mechanics. We have 11 ASE certified mechanics on staff with an average of 16 years experience…including 4 mechanics who have passed the coveted “L-1″ test, and two who are double master certified.” Where would you rather take your car?

Trait #4: Ability To See From The Customer’s Perspective: If you’ve ever bought a diamond, you know how confusing that process can be. The problem is that most people rarely buy a diamond, therefore most people have no clue how to judge a diamond’s worth. They have to rely on that guy at the jewelry store to tell them. Don’t worry that he’ll say anything to make a sale because he’s going to starve if you don’t buy. He’ll probably be perfectly honest with you.

I met a man that sold diamonds out of his huge, beautiful home at wholesale prices straight to the public. He understood his customers’ perspective…that was “HELP! We know nothing and we’re afraid we’re going to get screwed!” He would sit prospective customers down in a nice, leather chair and explain to them the history of diamonds, from volcanoes, to mines, to cutting, to polishing, to wholesale buying and selling. He used a myriad of books, charts, and pictures. He explained exactly what someone needed to know about diamonds before making a decision. And oh, by the way, if they wanted to look at some diamonds, he had some of those, too.

His process was so disarming, and so educational, that he sold 80% of the people that sat in that nice, leather chair. Compare that to the usual jewelry store: they shove 63 rings on you finger in 12 minutes and try to pressure you into buying the big, ugly, yellow one that has a huge commission because its been in their inventory for so long. The average jewelry store will sell less than 10% of the people that sit in their cheesy, velvety chairs. (Bonus question: How could you cross-pollinate this sales method to other businesses? Hint: it has nothing to do with the nice, leather chair.)

Traits #5: Innovation: Unfortunately, we’re almost out of space. But we’ll touch briefly on the last two before we quit. Innovation is simply creating a business that offers the customer “THE BEST DEAL.” It’s about creating a business so perfect that the customer knows he’d be a fool if he shopped anywhere else. Our 10CD Audio Course goes into more detail about HOW to make this happen.

Traits #6: Systemization: Systemization is the process of making decisions about your marketing in advance so that you are always doing what you need to be doing. As opposed to trying to create everything as you go. Or flying by the seat of your pants.  Ask for our Hopper System demo if you want to learn how to make this happen for your business. Schedule A Hopper Demo.