NOT ENOUGH PEOPLE TO SELL TO? How to have eager prospects begging for next-day appointments
Dan Kennedy, one of the top marketing experts frequently says that “one” is the worst number any business can have – one client, one source of revenue, one product, one lead source – you get the point. If you have only one way of getting leads, what happens if it dries up?
Let me tell you a story…
Tony, a friend of mine, has always been a hard working guy. He was in the Marine Corps, recon division, not afraid of much. When he got out he didn’t want to work for anyone else, had too much drive, so he went to business school. One day after class he asked the professor what businesses he owned. The professor said he never owned a business. Confused, frustrated and irritated Tony left. That was the last time Tony was ever seen there.
Tony is also a strong minded man so he decided he would learn business the way he learned to fight – in the trenches. He started up a yacht maintenance company and worked his tail off. Toiling day and night he finally landed a big account subcontracting for a bigger yacht maintenance company. Life was great. Big checks, steady year-round work, wife, kids, house, mortgage, car payments.
Then one day it happened… the bomb hit…
He showed up Monday morning to pick up his list of yachts to clean as he did many times before. This time he was told he was no longer needed. 90% of his income gone in the blink of an eye. It’s a hard pill to swallow, especially when you are a hard working man with a wife and kids looking up to you and depending on you.
I won’t bore you with all the details of what happened next but the short version went something like this…. hurt (crushed is a better word), confused, bills, anger, determination, prayer, supportive wife, strong work ethic, lesson learned, focused. Stayed in same business, printed flyers, hand delivered them, got a couple clients, provided un-paralleled value, knew his competitors were lazier, delivered superior service, treated his customers like gold (wow is that missing in businesses today!), got more customers, raised rates, hired workers, increased customer value by adding more services, continued to diversify, started brokering deals buying and selling yachts, bought a bigger house to support his bigger family.
You may be saying, “great story Chris, but how does that relate to me?”
If you don’t have multiple streams of generating leads, then you may want to start. Here’s the problem I see, too many businesses don’t have enough leads and so they start to look for ways to advertise or get their name out. Everything sounds so darn good that they try to do too much without much thought into anything. Nothing gets done.
Here’s the BIG lesson: develop focus. Draw up a marketing plan and focus on one source of leads at a time. (if you have an abundance of funds then outsource to get more done at one time).
Think about this, if you add one source of traffic every two months, then in the next year you will have 6 different sources of leads working for you, or 12 sources in 2 years. What do you think your business would look like if you did this? If you focused your thoughts and efforts and got one source going every two months, do you think you would have more success or would you be worrying about where your next lead was coming from?
Tony got focused and kicked some butt.
Now it’s your turn to kick some butt!
Hope you enjoyed this.
Blessings
The easiest way to lose 1 lb a week! … a completely different twist on marketing…
You have read articles and posts by me saying how you can make significant changes in your business through making small incremental changes. The problem is that it’s not glamorous or sexy having focus and doing small things regularly. It’s much more cool launching a brand new initiative using a brand new bright shiny technology isn’t it?
… unless of course you have tried that a few times and didn’t get the results you were expecting. (see my previous post on the Hype Cycle)
In an attempt to make incremental changes appear more “alluring”, I will show you how to use this to fry fat and look fit and fabulous. (you can come up with some great headlines while reading magazines at the checkout counter at the grocery store!)
Seriously, who wouldn’t want to shed a few pounds?
I will reveal to you the best, easiest, most efficient way to lose weight in the whole wide world. Where you can EASILY lose 1 lb a week (up to 50 lbs/year)! Or lose up to 2 lbs/week or more.
No I’m not selling some weight loss product. No this is not some “magic pill”. They had one of those at the turn of the century. You would take one pill to start losing weight, eat whatever you wanted, then take a second pill when you reached your desired weight.
Pretty cool huh?
How did they do it? … the first pill was actually a tapeworm. It would eat whatever you ate and the pounds would drop faster than a fat boy falling off a cliff. The second pill was poison to kill the tapeworm! … not so cool anymore eh?!!
Instead, here’s the Engineered Marketing approach to weight loss…
- Pick a goal: Say you want to lose 10 lbs.
- Now some basic math: 1 lb is about 3500 calories.
- If you want to lose 1 lb per week. You need to burn off 3500 more calories than you take in on a weekly basis. On a daily basis that’s 500 calories per day (3500/7)
Now there are only 2 things for you to do:
- eat 250 less calories per day
- burn 250 more calories per day
To eat 250 less calories per day, read the label of what you are eating. If you drink pop (soda), cut out 1 can per day. If you eat 4 meals daily, reduce your intake by 60ish calories per meal – take one less forkfull of food. It is super easy to cut 250 calories when you read the labels on the food you’re eating. For me, the easiest way is to cut out my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches before I go to bed. LOVE PB&J!! (I don’t cut it out all the time, just a few times a week)
To burn 250 calories per day, walk for 45 minutes. A 130 lb woman walking for 45 minutes burns about 257 calories. A 170 lb man will burn about 336 calories.
Easy huh?
Don’t like walking, find something else. Here’s a simple calorie counter http://www.healthyweightforum.org/eng/calorie-calculator.asp
Me, I’ve lost 15 lbs in 3 months following this. I put 4 back on from losing sight of my goal so I re-focused on my goal and will lose 8 lbs over the next 2 months. Nothing glamorous. People are surprised when I tell them how old I am, they think I’m at least 10 years younger. Kinda feels good. You will get that too. Your energy will also go up and you might even start doing crazy things like a friend of mine who lost about 50 lbs and is now running half marathons and talking about doing a full marathon.
It’s simple. Anyone can do it. You just “gotta wanna”
No marketing analogies. You can probably find 3 or 4 solid lessons (they are there) from this simple story.
Oh,I still eat double doubles (hamburgers), I just compensate when I do.
Hope you enjoyed this.
Blessings
The Perils of Positive Thinking and a Powerful Dose of Reality
The perils of positive thinking and a powerful dose of reality.
How's that for the use of alliteration eh?! My high school English teacher would be proud.
I recently read an article by Perry Marshall about Admiral James Stockdale. He was Ross Perot's Vice Presidential candidate in 'the US 1992 election. Didn't do well as VP candidate but was quite an impressive military man. He was former president of the Naval War College and was the highest ranking officer in the dreaded "Hanoi Hilton" in Viet Nam.
He spent eight years in Hanoi and was tortured numerous times by his captors.
Mr. Thomas Barnett relates:
"Stockdale tells the story of the optimists who never survived their time in Hanoi, simply because they clung far too much to their dreams of release and in doing so couldn't handle the brutal realities of what it took to survive the day to day.
"So instead of dealing with the here and now realistically, they tended to cling to the hope that they'd be home by whatever the next holiday was, and when that day came and went, their spirit would be diminished by that measure.
"Over time, they died because their spirit was extinguished by reality."
Stockdale explains:
"You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end (which you can never afford to lose) with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be."
The problem with so many people who are positive thinkers is that they lose touch with reality. They have high visions of what they WANT their business and life will look like, but they aren't will to bust their behind to get there.
When I train for Ironmans and endurance events, my workouts vary. My easy days are very easy. My hard days are very HARD. I have a coach, a plan, and a strong work ethic. Many people I've met tell me they would love to do an Ironman. Guess it sounds sexy or something. It's no big deal, anyone can do one. As my dad would always say "You gotta wanna".
So whatever your goal is - you do have one don't you? Have faith in it. Believe. Visualize. Seek wisdom. Plan. Prepare. And work.
For the powerful dose of reality…
… if you truly want to do well, here is what you need to do…
- niche your business
- KNOW your customer
- segment your prospect and customer lists
- up your prices (people will pay more if you can competently make their frustrations, headaches, unknowns and concerns go away AND deliver exceptional value)
- move to more affluent clients
- change your language to match your niche
- craft a powerful USP (Unique Sales Proposition) and UVP (Unique Value Propostion)
Doing those will put you miles ahead of the competition. Many of them are too lazy to do that and will slash prices in an attempt to gain business and complain that times are hard. (they ARE HARD! that's the reality!!)
And while we're at it, let's make some new assumptions.
- assume your clients will take longer to make decisions
- assume it will take longer to get paid
- assume vendors will be slower than they promised
- assume your biggest account will dry up
- assume your biggest source of leads and customers will dry up with no advanced notice
- assume some unforeseen circumstance like a legal challenge or financial setback will pop up
Prepare for these and put things in place to avoid them. And once you've planned for them and determined to push forward. With your vision in front of you. Your faith in tact. Ready to work. THEN you can look forward to great success. Anticipate it.
When you adopt this thinking, you will speed up the pace of accomplishment. You will gain focus and creativity. You will attract the right people into your business.
With the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be, you will make it out of Hanoi and reap rewards that will leave many people wondering "How did they get so lucky?" When that happens, just smile. 
Hope you enjoyed this.
Blessings
