Know Your Numbers

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What Numbers Should You Measure In Your Business?

One of the keys to growing your business is in knowing your numbers. With a background in engineering, sales and marketing, I love systems, and I love numbers.

Why? Because if you can measure it, you can improve it.

There are very few businesses on the planet that can’t double their sales with little effort. How? By knowing their numbers.

Did you know, that you can take any marketing process, or any sales process, and break it down into steps, and then focus on improving those steps, then you can double your business?

For example, if you list out your process into 5 steps, and then focus on improving each of those 5 steps by only 15%, then you will double your business. . . . I have a spreadsheet that I use to do this with clients. If you want me to do this with you, go here and let’s schedule a time to talk.

So what should you measure?

Obviously you want to measure total sales, expenses and profits.

And then you also want to know total sales per month by product.

Here are the main metrics you should measure – I would measure these on a monthly basis:

Goals
# Leads
# of Opportunities
# Sales
Total sales
Payments
Receivables Due
Sales Forecast
Marketing and advertising costs by channel (ex. costs for ads for Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, YouTube, Direct Mail, Print, etc.)
Ideal is to measure your ROI by marketing source
Expenses
Profits

These will give you an excellent understanding of the state of your business and how you’re doing each month.

If you want a growing, thriving business, then these should automatically appear on a dashboard so you can see the stats live. Knowing your numbers will give you the full picture of what’s going on in your business. If you want help with this, email me or request a consult here: https://www.chrisgoegan.com/Win

I also wrote a full paper on this, that explains the importance of KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) and what to measure. To get this, email me at Chris@ChrisGoegan.com and say “Send me the KPI Report”

If you’re doing any kind of digital marketing, then here’s what you should measure:

For Professional Service Businesses:

# of impressions (this is the number of times your ad was shown)
# of clicks on your ad
Your CTR (click thru rate is a percentage, which is # of clicks divided by # of impressions x 100)
# of people that signed up to get a free report, guide or white paper
# of people that requested a meeting
# of meetings that happened
# of closes
Dollar value of the sales

Or if you’re selling a product online:
# of impressions
# of clicks on your ad
Your CTR
# of people that signed up to get a coupon, or a special offer, or a free report, guide or white paper
# of people that clicked “Add to Cart”
# of completed orders
Dollar value of the sales

If you’re doing a webinar:
# Visited page
# Registered
# Showed Up
# Saw offer
# Completed Orders

If you’re doing sales:
# of calls
# of decision makers talked to
# of meetings set
# of meetings done
# of sales
Dollar value of sales

I could go on and talk about direct mail and the many other forms of marketing and advertising, but I think you get the point.

In any of the scenarios above, if you list out your process for your business, and if you list out 5 areas, and if you focus and improve those 5 areas by only 15% each, then you will double your business.

(Yes, I know, if you multiply 5 x 15%, it comes out to 75%, so how does it double you ask? It’s like compound interest, if you double the leading indicators like impressions or clicks, then it has a compound effect on the end result. I used to be an engineer and I have a love for numbers and the spreadsheet I made shows that the math works.)

So, trust me, the math works. Take 5 steps, improve each one by 15%, and you double your business.

Pretty cool eh?!!

And if you do this with a systems mindset, then you can take those numbers and 2x – 10x them. That gets super exciting!

One last point, when you measure, you also have to identify what level of prospect you are talking to.

There are 3 types of prospects:

  1. Colds
  2. Warms
  3. Hots

I ingeniously call this our CWH Method. (Get it? C for Cold. W for Warm. H for Hot. Clever eh?!)

When you create systems to go after the Colds, and then have a system to warm them and nurture them so they go from Cold to Warm to Hots. When you build systems to handle those 3 levels of prospects, that’s when the remarkable growth happens – like one client who finally hit 7 figures, or another who was already doing several million and grew 10x in under 2-years.

(For more info on how to get CWH Leads, I have a 5-minute video you can watch here: https://www.ChrisGoegan.com/Scale)

Let your numbers talk to you. They will tell you some incredible things. You have incredible opportunities right before you.

Blessings eh!

P.S. If you have a pressing need, and just want to get to growth, let’s talk, it’s on me. Email me or go here to request a conversation – https://www.chrisgoegan.com/Win

Can you see this illusion?

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Look at the picture, can you see it spinning? It’s an illusion.

Much of marketing today is an illusion. It’s a façade.

Recently, in a private discussion, a client said:

“My business has so much potential. I love what I do and what we bring to the market is incredible. But it’s gotten more competitive, it’s harder to get business. I know there’s lots I’m not doing, and should be doing. And I get hammered with so many calls and solicitations from marketing people, and quite frankly, I don’t know what to do. It seems like everyone is doing so well. I’ve done well, but I’m not where I should be, or where I want to be.”

It’s like success is so close you can almost taste it. But the promises sent by all the marketers don’t pan out the way you were led to believe. And after a while, it gets old.

It reminds me of something my good friend and private client Michael Gerber said in his mega best-seller The E-Myth Revisited,

  • See the young woman baking pies
  • See the young woman start a business baking pies
  • See the young woman become an old woman.

Can you relate? Do you ever feel like that?

Set aside all the big money hype garbage that you read on the internet. You know the ones, “How I went from struggling to $500 million in 30 days, and how you can too!!!!” Easy peasy, right? (not sure if you picked up the sarcasm) :)

When you are alone with your thoughts, do you really believe that?

I mean, if it’s that easy, why doesn’t EVERYONE have huge success?

I’ve been fortunate to personally work with many business owners in over 100 different industries in the last 25 years, and all of them were struggling in some way or another. And they all deep down, feel like they’re missing the boat somewhere, like everyone else is sleeping soundly after sipping mai tai’s on the beach, while they’re up at 3am sweating over where the next deal is coming from.

Then they get up, put their happy face on, and tell themselves it’s not that bad.

It’s all a façade.

I know you’re determined to grow, but let me ask you, with all the articles you have read, all the YouTube videos you’ve watched, all the Facebook posts or campaigns, all the LinkedIn connections, all the social media, all the things you’ve done, what have you to show for it?

Is there a new level in your business that you know is out there just waiting for you, and do you have a plan that you have confidence in that will get you there?

If not, then you might want to read this article with the three questions most business owners are unable to answer.

Click here to continue reading: https://www.chrisgoegan.com/the-gap-between-floundering-and-feasting/

Blessings eh!

P.S. If you have a pressing need, and just want to get to growth, let’s talk, it’s on me. Email me or go here to request a conversation – https://www.chrisgoegan.com/Win

Three Questions To Go From “Floundering”, to “Feasting”

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According to the U.S. Census Bureau in 2013, 409,000 businesses were born, and, in the very same year about 400,000 died.

Why? Why do so many fail?

One of the big reasons is that business owners don’t have a grip on their marketing.

There are THREE questions most business owners are unable to answer:

1) What Is Your Goal?
This refers to the amount of money you need to bring in to satisfy your business, and your personal needs.

2) How Are You Going to Reach That Goal?
How many leads and sales do you need on an ongoing basis to hit your goal? Do you know your cost per lead, and your client acquisition costs? Are the traffic sources you’re using scalable to allow you to reach your goal?

3) The final question is about marketing.
Do you have a plan that you have confidence in that will get you to your goal? Do you have a client acquisition system – a lead generation system, lead warming system, and lead closing system? Or are you the magic in your business? If you’re the magic, that will eventually lead to burnout.

Bonus question: Is your system based on a highly engineered methodology that will allow you to go to $1 million, $10 million, and then $100 million?

The first two questions are very personal to you. Don’t copy anyone else. Set the number high enough to make you smile but not ridiculous and out of reach that it will discourage you.

KNOW how many leads and sales you need to make this happen. Get clear. Get focused. Kick some butt!

The third question is our Engineered Marketing solution – it’s the Client Acquisition System.

You busted your tail off building your business to where it is. You deserve to have your marketing working like it should. You’re the best at what you do, so naturally you should get all the business. Not those other people that are inferior and yet they’re raking it in.

How do you grow big? How do you get it working?

Think of your favorite car. Whether it’s Ford, Toyota, Honda, Mercedes, BMW, Porsche, or some other brand, those companies don’t build cars one at a time. They have a manufacturing assembly line. They don’t chase after the latest painting fads, or forging fads, or machining fads. They don’t fly by the seat-of-their-pants. They don’t scramble building each car.

What they do have is a great SYSTEM for making cars. A system that makes millions of high-quality vehicles to delight their customer – you!

What if you had a system like that?!! What if you had a system that makes tens, or hundreds, or thousands, or millions of sales, with each, and every sale delighting your customer? Would that make a difference in your life?

I have built those systems to make millions of cars as an engineer for Ford. I have built those systems to generate leads and sales for hundreds of businesses, and I continue to do so today. I am passionate about building client acquisition systems.

Why?

Because I think you should be spending your time helping people doing what you do best, whatever that may be – whether you are a financial advisor, lawyer, author, doctor, contractor, cat or dog boarding company, marketing manager, roofing company, make almond butter, consultant, coach, or any other professional service company or ecommerce company.

You should be selling a boatload of what you sell.

Do you have a good product or service that helps people? Then you deserve to have all the leads and clients and sales you want so you can help even more people and make even more money. What an exciting cycle that is.

You won’t get there chasing the latest traffic technique, or the latest marketing fad, or the hopped-up pitch-of-the-week.

You will only get there with a system.

Do you want an assembly-line marketing system that can give you a scalable number of leads (or client, or sales), seemingly at will? Do you have a system that will allow you to grow from struggling, to a lifestyle business, to a regional business, or a nationwide or world-wide enterprise – a system that will allow you to grow as big as you want, with the same amount of time you’re working now, or less?

Did you know that when you have this, you can cut back on the time you are working in your business and instead spend more time doing whatever it is you like to do? Traveling, more time with the kids or grandkids, golfing, mountain biking, swaying in a hammock somewhere tropical, or building an astonishing business that you can pass on or sell.

Your answers to these three questions is the gap between where you are, and where you want to be.

  1. What is your goal?
  2. How are you going to reach that goal?
  3. Do you have a client acquisition system to achieve your objectives?

eBook Engineered Marketing Client Acquisition Systems - Chris GoeganGet our FREE Guide on building Client Acquisition Systems here.

If you’re tired of scrambling, chasing leads, and want to make it easy to find prospects who need your service, then get the guide and read it.

Either you’re going to build this in your industry, or one of your competitors will.

Get the guide here.

My desire is to see you have astonishing success in your business.

Blessings,
Chris

P.S. Do you want to talk? You can get a free consultation and we can continue the conversation. Go here to request a consult: https://www.chrisgoegan.com/Win

How AI (Artificial Intelligence) is Changing Marketing

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There is a massive shift in marketing that is going on. Well, several actually – AI, lack of people’s attention span, onslaught of marketers and competition, and the many platforms available to market your business and how they all work together.

These are major changes that need to be understood and embraced if you want to survive.

If you understand these, you will be miles ahead of the curve and you can be the 1000 lb gorilla. If you don’t, then struggles and feeling of helplessness will creep in as the market slowly slips away from you.

And if you know me, I’m a pretty even keeled guy and don’t like doom and gloom or “prosperity gospel” stuff.

I’m still an engineer at heart in many ways.

Back in 1986, as a young engineer I got to witness and take part in a tectonic shift in the manufacturing world. I was working for Ford Motor Company in Windsor Ontario and we had a big ribbon cutting ceremony.

We installed the first robot on the manufacturing line. A robot was now taking over and doing the work of a line worker. One less job.

People were saying it was just a fad, or it wasn’t going to work, or it won’t last, or it will mess up.

It didn’t. It was a massive success. Flawless performance and tremendous costs saved.

Not surprisingly, a short time after this experiment was over, robots were found all over the manufacturing plant.

Lots of jobs were lost. But that’s an inevitable part of business.

Seeing the success we had with our venture into robotics, many other companies followed suit. Soon all our subcontractors had robots. The ones that didn’t, well, it was impossible for them to survive and many went out of business.

Walk into any manufacturing plant today and you will see robotics and automation everywhere, it’s a normal part of life.

But while this change was going on, there were many lost lobs and many owners went out of business.

But some people not only survived this, but thrived.

Who?

The people that embraced technology. The engineers and the business owners that understood that this was the future and if they didn’t take advantage of it, someone else would. And whomever embraced this and made it work, they could own the market.

Fast forward to modern day and we see the same thing taking place in a different industry. But this time instead of robots, we see it with AI (artificial intelligence).

Just like robotics in the 1980’s, AI is beginning to take over today.

It’s already here on many platforms, and yet, it’s still in it’s infancy.

In the Auto Industry in the 1980’s, the Big 3 were Ford, Chrysler and GM. In the marketing world in 2018, the Big 3 are Google, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Google is probably the leader with AI. Then Facebook. And LinkedIn is still in it’s infancy in many ways, and is coming out of the 1800’s. :)

If you embrace this tectonic shift in marketing and AI . . .

. . . if you are the market leader, then you can gain even more ground on the competition and leave them in your dust.

. . . If you are not the market leader, then this could be your chance to sneak up out of nowhere and blow past them.

Depending on the market, 99% of the market can go to 1% of the companies.

We are entering a new season of marketing.

Are you prepared?

Watch for my next email where I’ll tell you about the company Google bought for half a billion dollars (yep, $500 million). This company had no product, no profit, and they sat around playing Atari video games all day. But they had the future.

If you want to jump on opportunity, you’ll want to know about this. It excites the marketer and engineer in me!

Until then.

Blessings eh!

P.S. If you have a challenge in your business, we offer a free no-obligation 15 minute consultation where we will tackle and give you perspective on demolishing the #1 problem affecting your business. You can get more information here… Click Here

P.P.S. There are two options for working with me directly:

Option #1: Done-For-You

This is the crème-de-la-crème. If you are someone who is discerning and is used to getting the best, then this was created for you. You work directly with me and my team. We take you through the entire process and do all the hard work for you. We have an incredibly user-friendly system that will build your client acquisition system faster than you could ever do it on your own. I only work with a limited number of select clients at a time on this and you have to qualify. You can ask me any question you need and we’ll build something remarkable together.  Learn more here: https://www.chrisgoegan.com/Win

 

Option #2: Done-With-You

This is where we work together, either one-on-one, or in a small group setting, where we roll up our sleeves and work together with set objectives that you implement to build your Client Acquisition System. I only accept 10 clients into this program at a time and we have to make sure it’s a good match for both of us. Learn more here.

Imagine if you got focused

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Are you on the verge of doing something spectacular?

I have been thinking about this a lot from conversations I’ve had with several clients.

Imagine for a moment if you got focused. Take whatever it is that you do best – take the product or service you are selling, that you’ve worked so hard for to get to this level of success.

Now imagine if you got focused and sold out to the idea that you could take your success to a whole new level.

What would that look like?

How much could you grow your sales – 2x? 5x? 50x? More? What is your potential? How big is the market?

What changes would that make in your lifestyle?

How many lives could you impact?

Would you sell your business? Most businesses can sell for 2x – 4x their earnings. For some of you that would mean millions, for others tens of millions, for others, hundred million plus.

If you got really focused and went after it, what is the potential?

There are 3 things you need to get you there, and one thing that will prevent you.

3 Things You Need:

  1. Focus – can you focus for a short period of time?
  2. Determination – are you determined to get there and to do the work?
  3. A plan – do you have a marketing plan that you have confidence in that will get you there?

I can’t give you the first two, you have to bring that.

The third one, is where our Engineered Marketing approach comes in.

You need a marketing plan, and I don’t mean a vague plan, but rather a specific plan – do this, then this, then this. Step 1. Step 2. Step 3. A plan that will bring you in all the leads and prospects you need to grow and scale your business.

What is the one thing preventing you from doing the remarkable in your business?

Distraction.

Distraction takes many different forms – spending too much time on social media, chasing the latest bright shiny object, building a secondary product line or business instead of staying focused on the main thing, being distracted by disbelief, or being distracted by the wrong advice.

What price are you paying?

Every business I’ve ever worked with has one thing in common – they all have a marketing plan, either by design or by default. Most businesses have a plan be default. They have become successful through sheer effort and hard work and can’t fathom growing or scaling because there’s no way they can double their work.

Who would want to double the work? It’s too exhausting.

No, I’m talking about having a system do all the hard work. Having a marketing plan that involves a system, using the incredible automation and technology available, to multiply your results while reducing the time you spend in your business.

Building a client acquisition system that will do that.

What is the price tag of your marketing plan?

Imagine what you could do if you got focused?

If you want to learn more about client acquisition systems, I wrote a FREE eBook for you. You can learn more and get it here: https://www.chrisgoegan.com/client-acquisition-systems-ebook/

Don’t let your dreams be dreams. Do something remarkable in your business.

Blessings,

P.S. If you have a challenge in your business, we offer a free no-obligation 15 minute consultation where we will tackle and give you perspective on demolishing the #1 problem affecting your business. You can get more information here… Click Here eh!

Many people are looking for the homerun when it comes to their marketing. Sometimes it happens right away, more often it doesn’t.

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Many people are looking for the homerun when it comes to their marketing. Sometimes it happens right away, more often it doesn’t.

Here’s a case study where something spectacular happened for a client that had no list, no market and no time.

The work involved to do this:

  • Was NOT glamorous
  • Did NOT involve any new technology
  • Had nothing to do with a pretty website (while a pretty website helps, in this situation the site was kind of ugly)
  • Did NOT involve a big list (the client had no list, this was done with C-O-L-D traffic)

So how did he pull in multiple six figures from a tiny adspend?

The client was an industry leader in the real estate industry and wanted to fill seminars to show people how to invest.

He was already somewhat successful and he had already started putting on seminars. He had marketing that was working ok and returning a positive ROI.

His goal was simple: Target better clientele that has cash.

He wasn’t doing any internet marketing and was thinking that he was missing opportunity. He was.

Now this posed a new kind of problem. There really wasn’t much internet traffic available. The city where the seminar was in had a population of less than 1 million people. Not an ideal situation. And there were maybe 100 people searching for real estate seminars in that city, and of those 100, only a few might attend.

If 100% of the people searching for seminars came to his website (they wouldn’t) and if 1% signed up, then that would be 1 person. This math doesn’t work. The client sold seminar tickets and coaching programs and needed waaayyyyyyy more than 1 person to make $300,000.

Quick recap – no list, very small number of people searching, no presence on social media, small geographical location and with a seminar being a week away, not enough time to do a grass-roots program, and needing to get a lot of people to the seminar.

So What Happened?

The client employed our Engineered Marketing approach (plus he allowed us to help him). We focused on his TCP – his Three Circles of Wealth – Traffic, Conversion and Profitability. TCP - The Three Circles of Wealth

Traffic – we came up with some creative ways to drive traffic and visitors to his website to the tune of getting 1000-2000 visitors per day to his site (compare to conventional approaches that would typically yield 20 visitors per day).

Result: the client added $150,000 in revenues

Conversion – this is where one of the big gains happened. He already had a good website that was working. He asked our opinion and we noticed some incongruencies. The message and offer on his webpage was off relative to the content and value people received at the seminar and what was mentioned on his website. It was a subtle yet significant change.

We had also developed and tested numerous different hot buttons on the ads we were running and found some to be “hotter” than others.

I engineered a strategy and sent the client 5 texts and 2 emails outlining the changes that should be made to the headline, to the images on the site and to the copy.

The client took the suggestions and implemented them. It took him 30 minutes.

Result: client doubled his revenue from $150,000 to $300,000

Profitability – the numbers shown above were remarkably profitable. Client acquisition cost was peanuts and ROI was a large multiple of this. (Sorry, for confidentiality reasons I can’t disclose actual numbers :)

Time for the dramatic close to this post… drum roll please….

If you would like to have changes like this in your business, then focus on your TCP (Three Circles of Wealth). There are opportunities that exist in your business right now.

Oh, if you’re a numbers guy (gal) figure out how much the client make when he repeated this monthly (which he did). Now figure out what could happen in your business…

It was NOT a stroke of luck. He had a well engineered client acquisition system.

Blessings eh!

Please Note: This is an actual case study and numbers were provided by the client. Results will vary from person to person based on their unique situation.

This is NOT how it’s supposed to be. Everything was supposed to work out.

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A number of years ago my entire life and business staggered, toppled and then collapsed.

I picked up the phone and called a dear friend whose advice I cherish. “What do I do? I lost my business, my cash reserves are gone and we have to leave our house.”

This is NOT how it’s supposed to be. Everything was supposed to work out.

It didn’t.

What happened?

I built a business up, and then I took my hand off the wheel. I listened to advice from “well-intentioned” people and took my business in a different direction it should never have gone in at the time.

And then I was lied to by the one person I thought I could trust – myself.

I told myself everything was going to be ok. I would pull through this like I pulled through other things.

Everything is going to be alright in business and marketing when you do thisThe picture is of a stuffed animal I was given at the time. It says “EGBAR”, which stands for Everything is Going to Be All Right. Wow, did I ever fool myself. It worked out later, but at the time I was dredged through the mud.

The warning signs were there but I missed them. I didn’t have wisdom. I didn’t want to listen to anyone because I knew best. My ego and pride almost destroyed me.

It caused immense pain.

It could have been avoided IF I had wisdom from someone with a higher perspective.

The worst part is my wife suffered and was dragged through this even though she did nothing wrong. I had let myself down and let her down.

She stayed by my side.

Slowly but surely, I painfully I rebuilt my business and rose up out of the ashes like a phoenix. Life is so much better when you can breathe freely.

If only I had sought advice. I could have been spared from much pain and suffering. If only I had listened to wisdom.

It’s like that old Ernest Hemingway quote, “How did you go bankrupt? Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”

I see many people (and have helped many people) heading in this direction. They may be doing ok now, but their marketing is not working. If they don’t get this worked out now, they will be bankrupt, out of business, and on the street.

This happened to a client that was doing millions in sales. Their marketing gradually stopped working. They kept saying it was going to be Ok.

By the time they came to me they had no sales. I can’t resurrect the dead. They were too far gone. They should have been doing tens, or hundreds of millions of dollars but they sold for less than pennies on the dollar.

If your marketing isn’t working, then if you don’t radically change what you’re doing or who you’re listening to, then you could be next.

How do you know if you’ll be too far gone? How do you know if you’ll be feasting or floundering?

I wrote a separate blog post on that. There are three questions you need to answer. You can learn more by reading the article here: https://www.chrisgoegan.com/the-gap-between-floundering-and-feasting/

My wish is for you to see remarkable gains in your business.

Blessings,
Chris Goegan

How To Be Unstoppable – pure rubbish!!!

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… or is it???

I see so many promotions and topics with the same underlying theme – “How To Be Unstoppable”. I see them in my email inbox, my mailbox, on the web, tv – seems like everywhere I turn there’s some guru promoting this.

I know I’m not the only one that sees this. And a shameless confession, it has a certain appeal to me. The thought of being “the guy” or being able to carve out your own destiny stirs emotions up in me. I see images of being applauded, and revered, and respected, and sought after, oh, and did I say “wealthy, happy and successful?”.

It also stirs something else up in me… pride and ego. And those two monsters have taken many people down, myself included.

So, instead of being “the guy” and being unstoppable, I’d rather be a guy who makes the best use of his gifts and talents, is diligent, seeks wisdom, plans and takes action and God willing, achieves his goals. (interesting observation – the more I do that, the easier everything else seems to be)

Now in my business, would I like it to be unstoppable?

Yes!!

… as long as I don’t have to sacrifice my family, friends (or anything else dear to me) on the alter.

For the record, in my opinion, unless you’re God, I don’t think anything can ever be “unstoppable”. There’s always something seen or unseen that can take you down.

So instead of “unstoppable”….

What If Your Business Could Be Stronger, Rock Solid, Able To Withstand Numerous Blows And Still Keep Producing – Would that relieve some tension or make you grin?

Well the good news here is that it can.

How do you do that?

… you get rid of the silly notion that there is some magic pill to swallow or some silver bullet or your business can be changed in the next 60 seconds or less. That is pure rubbish.

What isn’t, is you can roll up your sleeves and WORK.

Imagine….

  • setting a goal and going after it with focus and determination
  • researching the market and competition to see what’s out there
  • finding a niche you can dominate and crafting out a clear, concise USP (Unique Selling Proposition) that separates you from the competition
  • developing a strategy to attacking the market
  • creating a compelling sales conversion process
  • making an irresistible offer to get your prospect or client to say “yes”
  • Now picture adding 5-10 different lead generation techniques to get your message in front of the exact right people at the exact right time

Seems like a lot of work doesn’t it? Well, it is. That’s why most people won’t do this. That’s why for the few that do, they can reap most of the spoils. Did you know that 95% of the profits in a market will go to less than 5% of the businesses?

Now if you decided to be different and if you did this, how would you feel about your business? How would you feel about it’s ability to weather the storms that are guaranteed to come? Would you be confident in being able to take time off, take trips, plan your retirement, get involved in charity, or how about mentally being there for your family instead of constantly thinking about business?

If you go after something with wisdom, focus and determination and WORK on the right things, it’s amazing what you will be able to accomplish.

Blessings,

P.S. If you have a challenge in your business, we offer a free no-obligation 15 minute consultation where we will tackle and give you perspective on demolishing the #1 problem affecting your business. You can get more information here… Click Here eh!

Three Major Forces Changing Internet Marketing

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Read this if you are in the game and want bigger results, or if you are not yet in the game but want to get in:

The vast majority of people today believe that internet marketing is a piece of cake and it’s so easy to get an abundance of leads. This has led to many business failures and much frustration. But if you start challenging the way people are thinking, then you can start to see the market from a different perspective. A more powerful perspective. The perspective we use.

Let me explain…

Internet marketing, especially with Facebook, LinkedIn, Social Media and the Big G (Google) have been changing over the last several years. A few years ago you could slap up a web page, buy some cheap clicks, send people to your page and you’d have instant business.

It was a gold rush.

Now things have changed significantly due to the three market forces which I explain below.

80-90% of companies are failing or struggling while 95% of the spoils are going to the top 1% of businesses. The rich get richer and the poor struggle.

The good news is, you get to pick what camp you are in – if you understand these forces and act accordingly.

Three market forces that we follow very closely have formed an important window that we can step through – if we time it right. We don’t know how long the window will be open, but if you get into action now, you can make remarkable gains in your business faster using any marketing medium out there.

Here’s our analysis of the way the market is moving:

#1 Competitive Factors – everyone and their brother are jumping into the market. With the insurgence of competition in internet marketing, your prospects have many more choices. Most competitors are marketing wrong and it will take some time for them to figure it out. You have to be wise on how to position yourself.

#2 Economic Factors – With more competitors jumping online, and with all advertising companies (think Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc.) working really hard to get more people to advertise, the cost of getting traffic is increasing. Click costs that were $0.20 a few years ago are now up to $5 and in some highly competitive markets, depending on the media source used, can cost as much as $50 – $100 per click. There is still a window of time to have a feast of business if you deploy a well-engineered strategy and value proposition, to the right audience, at exactly the right time, and have a wise engagement and ascension plan.

#3 Technology Factors – A lot of other media is clamoring for your marketing and advertising dollars – with Facebook, Pinterest, Google, Mobile, Twitter, YouTube, etc., Most of the advertising platforms are weak with a lower proportion of buyers and they are struggling trying to figure out how to gain profits. We know a strategy that will shortcut your success and allow you to climb to the top of the heap of whatever traffic source you choose. How long the window is open, I don’t know.

This may or may not be news to you, but this is what is going on and how the market is moving NOW. All three forces are essential to your online strategy.

There is a formula for marketing success. It goes like this: Success = Engineering + Systems + Salesmanship + Data Feedback Loop.

Again, if you’re not in the market and want to, or if you want to win bigger, then you have a short market window to step through.

If you fight against these forces you will struggle. If you hit it right, though, you’ll be one of the few businesses that gets through this small window with a wide grin on your face.

You get to choose – what will it be?

Blessings,

P.S. If you have questions or want help with your situation,  email me at Chris@ChrisGoegan.com or Click Here to Request a Free Consultation

 

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How Chuck Doubled His Business from $6.8M to $15.2M In Uncertain Times

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I was reading an article that had links to a kazillion different related articles on every internet marketing topic under the sun – 5 Ways to Use Social Media in Your Business, Get Paid to Post on Facebook (yes, people pay people to post on their Facebook pages to make them look more credible – ridiculous eh?! What would be a good sarcastic comment here?), Use LinkedIn SEO PPC and your Magic 8-ball (remember those?!!) to get Quality Leads Faster.

I’m sure the articles had valid content. The point is that I think business owners are too easily seduced by bright shiny objects. Sure you can use many of them to make significant gains but they are NOT, and should never be the focus of any marketing campaign.

Case Study: It’s About The Customer

Chuck hired us to help him. He owned a manufacturing company that made parts for Fortune 100 companies. His sales had been steadily growing for a number of years through his team’s hard work. But then two unexpected things happened: the economy tanked and secondly, his biggest customer decided to discontinue a product and cancel their orders. Ouch.

Tough pill to swallow. Chuck was now faced with hard business decisions – does he lay employees off, slash prices to win some instant cheap business, move to a smaller production facility to cut expenses, or does he do something else? What??

He asked us to help him and here’s what we did….

Fantasy Scenario: we setup a Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest account with lots of bright fancy-schmancy colors and graphics to portray an upbeat happy professional image that would be appealing to the diverse group of potential clients. We brought in Suzie Sunshine to tweet and post about all the happy things going on in the company. Every picture showed everyone smiling and happy. We built a great new website and ranked #1 on highly searched keyword terms and rolled out email blasts showing how wonderful we were. Sales skyrocketed faster than a speeding bullet and everyone was happy, held hands, swayed side to side and sang “kumbaya”. And we did this in 30 days.

… did you pick up the hint of sarcasm there? :)

Reality – What We Did To Stop the Hemorrhaging, Right the State of Ship and DOUBLE His Business: Understanding that not every tactic works for every business, we came in and analyzed the situation. We were looking for where the biggest holes and opportunities were. We looked at his sales and identified his best clients.  Something interesting revealed itself here – we found that all his best clients had almost the same emotional DNA. Their pschyographic makeup (personality, values, attitudes and interests) were almost identical. We dug deeper and thoroughly understood their hot buttons, their emotional buying language and all the B.S. that drove them crazy.

We then came up with a list of high profile potential clients in different verticals that had three characteristics:

  1. They had money
  2. They were NOT interested in the cheapest price and instead were willing to pay more for value-add
  3. They matched the psychographic makeup of their best clients

We did not go after every company. We pulled a very tight list and developed a very clear and succinct marketing message. We crafted a strong value proposition. We had proof out the wazoo to validate all our claims. Then we rolled out the tactics. We used a list, direct mail, email and yep, we even used their sales staff (by the way, good ‘ole fashion sales works wonderfully in this economy when used with proper marketing strategies).

The result?

Sales stopped sliding downhill. We gained footing and started moving uphill. The growth was gradual at first and then gained the momentum of a freight train. Sales went from $6.8 Million per year to $15.2 Million per year. And the sales were spread out over a number of verticals giving them security in case something happened to one of the verticals.

Chuck was happy.

And guess how long this whole process took? …. 30 days? 90 days? 6 months? …. Nope. None of these. It took 2 years to make this happen. When you’re making core level changes, sometimes change doesn’t happen overnight. (The snake-oil salesman of internet marketing and social media hype will get mad at me for saying this, but oh, well, I’ll get over it!)

Key Lessons Here:

#1: Know your customer. Whoever understands the customer best wins.

#2: Develop your strategy around your business’ strengths and objectives. NOT whatever bright shiny object is pitched. Remember fish chase after bright shiny objects. They also end up dead on the dinner plate.

#3: Get your core marketing in place – your unique selling proposition and your value proposition.

#4: Develop the right media mix FOR YOUR BUSINESS. Even though most of our business is internet marketing related, there are usually other opportunities to very quietly make significant gains that your competitors cannot track.

#5: Be patient. It takes work and energy to make BIG gains. Don’t expect to make radical changes and dominate your market in 30 days. Turn “Hype-TV” off and have a 12-24 month (or more) growth plan.

And lastly, go after it with FOCUS and DETERMINATION.

Blessings,


P.S. If you have questions or want help with your situation, email me at Chris@ChrisGoegan.com or Click Here to Request a Free Consultation

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