Category: car dealer

Only Immediate Response Marketing

If you are not creating Immediate Response marketing, you are wasting your money.

Most brick & mortar, mom & pop owned and operated businesses advertise and market like the Big Brand boys.   Their marketing is full of platitudes pushing the wrong agenda of Image, Brand and Presence.

 

Dan Kennedy, marketing guru, shared these sad facts that coincidently follow the 80/20 Principle:

1% of Small Business Owners create tremendous income and wealth for themselves.  They DOMINATE their market within their industry.

4% do quite well. They are prosperous and have created a very nice lifestyle for themselves and their families.

15% make a good living.

80% struggle day-to-day or fail altogether.

 

When I owned my new car franchised dealership I fought a continual battle.

The factory charged me several hundred dollars per car/truck that they designated as “co-op advertising funds”.

They would give that money back to me IF I advertised to promote their Image, Brand and Presence.

I can’t adequately communicate how much this irked me and how short-sighted I viewed this.

Like all “Policies & Regulations” there were loopholes, but what a waste of time and energy to have to run my business that way.

Those small businesses in the 20% tiers don’t blindly follow the crowd. They adhere to a different way of doing business and that especially applies to their marketing.

According to Dan Kennedy:  Your Marketing Strategy needs to be and can be much SIMPLER.

  1. Every $1.00 spent on marketing has to provide you an IMMEDIATE Return-on-Investment (ROI) – FAST! Like TODAY preferably.
  2. That ROI must able to be accurately tracked back to that $1.00 spent.
  3. DO NOT spend a $1.00 that does not IMMEDIATELY return more than it costs you.

We will not take on a client where we do not feel confident we can bring them a return 3 to 5x’s what they spend for our advice, strategies and plans.

As a small business owner with limited resources, your sole agenda has to be to SELL SOMETHING TODAY!

You cannot afford any other way of thinking.

Every marketing communication you create from now on must be created with these 7 Rules at the forefront of your thinking:

  1. It must be created with the intent to get a sale TODAY!
  2. Every marketing/advertising communication will have an Intriguing and near Impossible-to-Refuse Offer in it.
  3. Always, always have a reason for the prospect or customer to RESPOND – Immediately.
  4. It must have very clear instructions on What you want them to do, When and How.  Always make it easy to do business with you AND to say YES!
  5. Every marketing/advertising communication will be trackable. “You can’t manage what you don’t or can’t measure.”
  6. Brand-building will only be done using NO-COST methods. Absolutely no platitudes.
  7. Follow-up will be built right into every marketing communication.

 

If you are spending money with agencies, radio stations, television ads, newspaper ads, online advertising, websites, postcards, brochures, etc. and they are not adhering to these rules. Fire them! NOW!   You are on the path to joining or remaining in that 80% that just survive.

Our Desired End Results for every owner we work with is to get them to that 1%.

Only Immediate Response Marketing will get you there.

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Why Businesses Fail

Reason One why businesses fail or at best remain average:

They don’t fully understand their 100% Financial Capacity so they don’t fully realize how much they are actually “leaving on the table” as additional profit to invest in growth.

Let’s look at a simple example of a Restaurant: If you have 30 tables and average 1 hour to turn the table and you are open 10 hours per day, 6 days a week and average ticket is $25 and average table is 2 people.

30 tables x 10 hours x $50 (2x $25) = $15,000 in sales per day would be 100% Capacity….$90,000 per week.

If you are currently averaging $23,000 per week you are 25% of Capacity.

Now I’m not saying it is going to be easy to get to $90,000 in revenue per week, but at least now the owner fully realizes what his full potential is at this very moment.

When I conducted this exercise with my Service Director of my auto dealership, it suddenly took off his blinders as to the full potential of our fixed operations and suddenly there was innovation born of confidence.

It turned out there were a lot of what I call “low-hanging” fruit solutions to dramatically improve our back-end.

Most of us, unless we receive some sort of external stimulation, just see the world based on past experiences and it taints our possibility thinking.

We get stuck in a certain paradigm and unless we are nudged out by some external force, we accept things the way they have always been.

Here is a story to illustrate.

“At a recent family gathering my wife was helping her mom make dinner. As they were about to put the beef roast into the pan, grandma cut the ends off. My wife asked her why she always cut the ends off; was it to somehow let the juices flow more freely? Her mom said no, I’ve always just done it that way, because my mom always did it that way.
As it happened great-grandma was in the living room, so my wife and her mother went and asked her why she always cut the end of the roast off.
‘I cut the ends off because my pot was too small to hold a full roast!”

This is just one of the advantages to having a consultant, coach or adviser on your team.

We’ll take you to a different level of thinking.

Stephen Covey, author of The 7 habits of Highly Effective People said:

If you want to make minor, incremental changes and improvements, work on practices, behavior or attitudes.  But if you want to make significant, quantum improvement, work on paradigms.   

Learn more at my video: 100% Financial Capacity

 

Second Reason: They don’t have a clear understanding of who their Ideal Target Audience is and/or what they want.

I’m sure you are somewhat familiar with the 80/20 Principle.

This principle states that 20% of your customers are generating 80% of your revenue.

These are your champions. And these are the people you want to reward and retain, get referrals from and just as importantly, duplicate.

You can actually take this even a step further and identify the 20% of the 20% (4%) that is generating 64% of your revenue.

It is uncanny how accurate this is.

Remember, the single easiest and cost-effective way to double your business is to have each client bring you another client…preferably just like them (assuming they are a 20% ‘er)

To market and sell your business, product or service properly, the very first thing you must do is get clear on WHO your ideal customer is, where they are hanging out, what their challenges are, etc…Every marketing piece must know what your clients and potential clients “hot buttons” are, where they get their information and what’s important or relevant to them.

Customers only care what’s important to them, not what’s important to you.

Cardinal Rule: Always remember that the customer is thinking What’s In It For Me? (WIIFM)

Once you find who the target truly is then you can know how to create your most intriguing message.

The more you know about this Ideal Target Audience the easier it is to duplicate them.  We have found Facebook’s marketing tool to be one of the most effective ways to accomplish this.

There are 5 major components to help identify  your Ideal Target Audience.

In some cases, you’ll need to survey or have conversations with existing customers to accurately flesh out your target audience.

  1. What are their Goals and Values
  2. Where Does Your Target Client Get His or Her information?
  3. Demographic Information
  4. Challenges and Pain Points
  5. Psychographic information

All we need is an email or phone number of your Ideal customers and with Facebook marketing we can find potential new customers who have similar traits. (think birds of a feather, flock together)

 

That brings us to the third Reason:  Not knowing the Lifetime Value of your Customer.

Just like knowing what your 100% Financial Capacity is, knowing what the average Lifetime Value of each customer gives you the advantage over your competition of knowing  exactly how much you can spend or ethically bribe someone to be your client.

And by incorporating our 80/20 Analysis we can help you identify the value of each level of your customers which will allow you to reward each level according to their value to your business.

You won’t believe what an eye-opening experience it is to see in black and white, the difference in values.

I had lunch a few weeks back with the president of a local bank. They inadvertently discovered that approximately 600 of their 12,000 customers were earning them enough to break-even.

Interestingly, this 600 accounted for around 5% of their total clients.

They created 4 categories or quadrants of clients based on their value.

Another interesting thing they found was that in the 4th quadrant, or about 80% of their customers, they were actually losing money on them.

This knowledge allowed them to create different levels of service for each quadrant.

They have pulled out all the stops to learn everything they can about these 600, in terms of the 5 major components to help identify  your Ideal Target Audience.

And they stay in constant and consistent communication with things these 600 individually value.

He told me that within 120 days, they almost doubled the business from these 600.

I then opened his eyes to how we can now help him “duplicate” these 600 and take his business to a whole ‘nother level.

Here’s another thing, don’t think of reward as only free stuff, but what extra services can you invest in to reward your clients.

Let me give you an example…
Let’s say that your average client brings an average profit of $75 on the 1st sale. He or she repurchases three more times a year, with an average order amount of $300 and on each $300 reorder you make $150 gross profit.
With the average life of a customer’s patronage being 2 years, every new client is worth $975.
(Note: You need to determine how many years your average customer stays with you; it may be 10 years)

Theoretically you could spend $975 to bring in new clients and still break even.

If you KNOW you can afford to spend up to $975 in acquiring a new customer then you can create advertising, special offers and deals with that key number in mind…

or, here is an example as an auto dealer:

Let’s say that you make a gross profit of $1400 on the sale of a used car.
This customer then typically spends another $100 in that first year of ownership on normal maintenance of which $70 is gross profit.

The first year Value of your average customer then is $1470.

However, let’s also say that your average customer stays with you 3 years and spends an average of $400 a year on service work at $210 gross profit for each visit.

Now you have a Lifetime Value (LTV) of $1470 first year + $210 GP x 3 years = $630, for a total LTV of $2100.

This does not include the number of people he refers to you over that 3 year period that you really didn’t have to spend any money chasing and convincing to buy from you and they have the same $2100 value. 

Now, think of what you might learn if we were to go thru an 80/20 Analysis on these customers and help you discover who the 4% are that are generating 64% of your revenue.

Do you begin to see the why it really is not that hard to DOMINATE your market?

Your competitors who don’t know these Essential Elements will either lose their nerve or lose serious money trying to compete with you because the key metrics for every business are different.

 

The fourth element that most business owners fail at is not knowing your Unique Message.

Every business and business owner is unique and has a unique story to tell.

It is thinking about and articulating, in every advertising, marketing and sales presentation a consistent message of what makes you and/or what you sell UNIQUE and it’s commonly called your USP.
Learn more here:  USP! What is Your Unique Selling proposition? 

The more clearly you communicate what makes you the better choice (benefits, advantages, guarantee, etc) the more often people will choose you over your competition and see you as more valuable.

You can easily tell people why they should choose you in your marketing and have them come in presold.

All your marketing should be built around explaining and reinforcing your USP to your prospects and current customers.

Here is a great example: An Educated Customer is the Best Customer. The Schlitz Brewery story 

 

Fifth, is failing to Make it Easy for your customers or clients to do business with you.

Having a Risk Free Guarantee gives you a clear and compelling advantage over your competition.

A Risk Free Guarantee makes it Easier for your clients to say YES than NO.

Look at every aspect of your business from the products or services you provide to your clients and even your employees and make a list of all the obstacles to your clients or employees that could prevent any of them from purchasing from you, dealing with you or choosing you over your competition.

We have a whole series of questions that lead you thru discovering and creating your Risk Free Guarantee.

Learn more here: Always Make It Easy To Do Business With You

 

Finally, the sixth element, is the failure to realize It’s all about relationships.

Principles, Consistency and Innovation are usually lacking.

Two huge mistakes almost all businesses do that are essential to creating trusting relationships because without these two low-hanging fruit activities, you can’t know enough about who your customers or clients are to build meaningful long-term relationships.

  1. Failure to capture contact information of everyone, and I mean everyone, that visits your web site or your brick & mortar part of your business.
    (You need: name, address, phone# and/or email)
  2. Failure to create a consistent Marketing strategy and system for follow-up.

Building trusting relationships takes constant and consistent communication with information of value to each particular customer.

This is a lot easier than you may think, especially once we’ve helped you create SIMPLE, SIMPLE systems and processes for each of the 6 Essential Elements that are unique to our Principle Centered Marketing, Selling and Business Practices advisory and consulting business.

Not having a trusted adviser or coach on your team certainly isn’t the death knell of your business. But, not having someone on your team who can constantly challenge you and hold you accountable is definitely going to hold you back from ever DOMINATING your market within your industry.

 

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Crap…I’m Paralyzed!

In my 30+ years of leading, managing and training people, I have helped hundreds create a personal “Vision Map” for their own Desired End Results.

The biggest stumbling block is always their being PARALYZED with fear of the unknown or unknowable.

One…they either can’t visualize an end result they think they can achieve.
(This is where I have to convince them that they want what they want  and
for the time-being just forget about whether they think it’s possible or not.)

OR

Two…they can visualize what they want BUT can’t see themselves going
from where they are to where they want to be.
The GAP is just too wide….so they get PARALYZED  and do nothing.

 

Think: The Six Days of Creation
(ideas paraphrased from “Principle Centered Leadership” by Stephen Covey)

“A little bit at a time all the time has the greatest possibility of success.”

“Persist without exception.”

Aesop’s fable: “The Tortoise and the Hare.”

K.I.S.S.  – Keep It Simple Stupid

These are all maxims that demonstrate the Principle of The Law of the Farm
(sequential development process) that is the key to success.

As recorded in Genesis, God created the earth in six days.
Each day was important and each in its own time:
First day:  light
Second day: sky and water
Third day: land and seas
Fourth day: sun, moon and stars
Fifth day: fish and birds
Sixth day: animals and man

  • As children, we learn to turn over then sit up, then crawl, then walk
    and then run. Each step is important and critical. No step can be skipped.
  • In school we study basic math before algebra, algebra before calculus.
    We simply cannot do calculus until we understand algebra.
  • In construction we build a strong foundation before doing any framing
    and finishing work.

The notion here is that there is a natural sequence to succeeding.

Progress in any endeavor means you have to accept that you may be at Day 2 in knowledge or experience and it would be foolish to try expect Day 6 results.

To conquer this “paralysis” that prevents most people from even starting much less “finishing” –  think about and understand these six “implications” of this “six-day” principle.

Growth is a natural process – You reap what you sow; algebra before calculus; crawling before walking.

Comparisons are Dangerous – compare yourself only to yourself.
The Principle of Constant Improvement is: Be better today than yesterday
and be better tomorrow that today.

Remember “there is no wrong way; there is Good – there is Better – and then there is Best.”

We are all at different “days” in our creation process – I may be at day
one in one area of my personal growth development and someone else may
be at day 5 in that area; whereas, I may be at day six in one area and that
same person is only at day one.

Your day four may be my day two.                     .

There is no short cut – If I am at day two and desire to move to day six
I must go thru the sequence of day three, four and five in order.
This where being HONEST is critical.

If you are not honest and authentic you will lose – PERIOD.

To improve we must start from where we are – By doing “one more push-up” than I did the day before, I can more easily get to 30 in a month’s time.
Just start from where you’re at and keep moving forward and improving as you go.

Be a Student of your business.

Be honest about Current Reality – we need to understand our strengths and
weaknesses and be honest about them. Know what motivates us and what
de-motivates us. Almost everyone I have ever worked with in this process
just simply did not know where to start so they developed paralysis.

The key to not being paralyzed is always begin where you are, at your day one.

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Creating the Life You Want

One of the most substantial elements to Creating the Life You Want are the people you surround yourself with.

There is a saying:  “Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future.”

Every responsible parent knows how important the relationships our kids have is to their future.

Robert Fritz was a mentor I had hired years ago to help me create the success I desired for my auto dealership.

In his book “Your Life as Art”,  he has a Rule of Thumb on this issue:

“Surround yourself with people who support you, support what you are doing, and root for your success. Avoid people who do not support you, do not understand you, do not like you, do not wish you well, and would like nothing better than to watch you fall on your ass.”

Life is all about relationships.

And as with everything else in life – Principles Rule.

Two very powerful and foundational habits, as taught by Stephen Covey, for cultivating and maintaining relationships that are positive rather than negative:   Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood and Think Win-Win…OR No Deal

 The truth is each and every one of us would be better off having no friends than the wrong friends.

Sometimes you just need to take a stand for yourself.

How do you pick who to let into your Creative Circle of Influence:

They must be truthful and integrity based.

They must know you well enough to have valuable insight into who you really are – what motivates you, what your strengths and weaknesses are.

They must actually like you…just the way you are.

They care about your success….they care enough to be TRUTHFUL.

The Wisest (and Richest) man who ever lived – Solomon – has words on this as well:   “The righteous choose their friends carefully,  but the way of the wicked leads them astray.” – Proverbs 12:26 (NIV)

In the end, it all comes down to our freedom to choose and our freedom to act.

We can choose to allow ourselves to achieve success or not by the choices we make.

I love the old story of a man who believes in God with undying faith.

One day a flood comes and water begins to rise and rise and he is forced to climb out onto the roof of his house.

Civil defense sends a boat to rescue him. He refuses to go and tells his would-be saviors that he has faith in God and that everything will be all right.

He then refuses help from a helicopter that attempts to rescue him.

The water keeps rising until the roof is now underwater, and he is havingtrouble keeping his head above water.

In a last ditch effort, the Coast Guard sends in a small submarine to save the drowning man. He waves them off and says, “Don’t worry, I believe in God.”

As his last words are uttered, more bubbles than sound, he drowns.

He wakes up at the Pearly Gates.

When he realizes where he is and what happened, he is really mad!

“I had faith in God, and what does he do? Drowns me!!”

Saint Peter shakes his head, smiles and says, “God sent you a boat, a helicopter and a submarine. What more do you want!”

Surround yourself only with people who really support you and your cause; and eliminate from your Circle of Influence those who do not.

My challenge to you: How do these Principles and Rules apply to your business life?

Where you see the word “Friends” substitute “customers” or “Target Audience” when appropriate   Learn More at Who Should You be Selling to? 

Life/Circle of Influence = Business

Creating the Life You Want requires that you have a clear understanding of WHO should be in your life in the first place.   Begin with the End In Mind.

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Be a Big Fish in a Small Pond Principle

Our country was founded on the Principles of God and Two Common Laws

1. Honor all Commitments; Do what you said you would do.

2. Do not covet; Never encroach upon another’s person or property.

There are NOW tens of thousands of man-made laws and regulations in this country derived from man’s belief he can supersede Gods Natural Laws (Principles) and somehow fair better.

When you understand the Principles it is easier to spot the laws and regulations that no longer serve justice but rather simply serve the political system that is now in control.

My point is:  A foolish person memorizes formulas. A wise person understands principles.

Wisdom doesn’t live by a set of rules, but in the understanding and applying the principles behind them

You can recognize a Principle because they are:

Universal – They work everywhere

Timeless – They work all the time; past, present and future

Self-evident – You can’t argue against them.

Especially as you start out in life, always look for the opportunity to dominate a small pond or market; and then keep either adding “ponds” that you dominate or move to slightly larger ponds and dominate them.

Find your niche; find your audience and become the “expert” that others flock to, to ask you to help them solve their problems.

This is about finding or creating ways to differentiate yourself and make yourself stand above the crowd.

When I first started to sell cars, I became the product knowledge expert in our dealership. When anyone had a product knowledge question, even management or other departments, they came to me first.

By becoming an expert in this niche, it gave me a lot of latitude, respect and eventually a management position…which eventually helped me to my purchase my own dealership.

When you are the Big Fish in a small pond it is easier to create lasting relationships, it is easier to demonstrate your worth and it is easier to stand out.

A critical Rule of this Principle is Constant Improvement.

Be a Big Fish in a Small Pond…and always be looking to seek or make a bigger pond.

This could be a geographic pond; psychographic, product, pricing, expertise, etc.
1. Pick a certain type of consumer.  Example:  Death Wish coffee has decided to market their coffee to the consumer who wants extra caffeine.
2.  Create a different kind of experience when the customer visits you.
3.  Constantly change what you offer – like TJ Maxx
4.  Focus on Price and/or Value.

The possibilities are endless.

Principle of Big Fish in a Small Pond can be articulated in marketing like this: It is better to reach 10% of the market and persuade them 100% of the way than to reach 100% of the market and only persuade them 10% of the way. 

There are three things we focus on when we help our clients and all of our plans are based on them.

Market – Who is your Target Audience and what is their “language”.

Message – What is your USP (Unique Selling Proposition; your story)

Media – Which media(s) are best suited for you at this time to give you the highest ROI

We believe in and understand Facebook marketing, email marketing and utilizing video in both to enhance your persuasion.

But, there are times media like newspaper, direct mail, radio and/or television are appropriate.

You can even utilize this principle when purchasing space and/or time on these different media platforms.

As a small business, you don’t have a huge budget to spend like BIG business so you need to spend wisely.

Always think ROI (Return on Investment) and how QUICKLY am I realizing this ROI in terms of profit and cash flow.  Money I can put into my bank account TODAY!  If you want immediate improvement to your bottom line, you have to implement Immediate Response Marketing regardless of the media you choose to use.

I learned marketing principles from Jay Abraham and hired him as my mentor for about a year when I first purchased my dealership.

His favorite saying to me was: It is better to talk to 10 people who want to hear what you have to say, than 100 tire-kickers.

Here’s the Principle to remember and burn into your mind:
It is better to reach 10% of the market and persuade them 100% of the way than to reach 100% of the market and only persuade them 10% of the way.

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Always Make it Easy to Do Business With You

One of the biggest business advantages you will ever have over your competition is to always make it easier for your customers and clients to say YES than it is to say NO.

Principle Centered Marketing, Selling & Business practices is holistic and encompasses not just your marketing but also your selling and business practices and systems.

It never ceases to amaze me how many businesses that I visit in person, on the phone or the internet, seem to have never looked at their business and practices from their customers perspective.

Every day, look at a different part of your business from your businesses practices to your signage and everything in between and ask yourself these questions:

How easy is it for someone to find your store or your website?
Once they arrive, how easy is it for them navigate and find what they want?

How diligently do you follow-up on inquiries, sales requests or orders?

How diligently do you keep your customers informed on the progress of their order with you?

How knowledgeable and friendly are all your employees?

Jay Abraham says we need to remember these 6 Things about our business:

1. You cannot serve too much.
2. You cannot educate too much.
3. You cannot inform too much.
4. You cannot offer to much follow-up and follow-thru.
5. You cannot make placing an order with you too easy.
6. You cannot make calling, visiting your website or coming in to your place of business too desirable.

 

There are two absolutely Essential Elements you need to have and tell the world about if you want to make it easy for your customers to say Yes!

One: You must have a UPS (Unique Selling Proposition) – see my article on that subject right here;    USP! What is Your Unique Selling Proposition?

The more clearly you communicate what makes you the better choice (benefits, advantages, guarantee, etc) the more often people will choose you over your competition and see you as more valuable.

You can easily tell people why they should choose you in your marketing.

All your marketing should be built around explaining and reinforcing your new USP to your prospects.

Every business, every business owner and/or every product or service they sell is Unique.

You have a story to tell. Tell it to the world.

What makes you Unique is that distinct and appealing idea that sets you apart from all of your competitors.

Here’s a Key thought: Always realize that your clients and prospective clients are asking…WIIFM (What’s In It For Me).

How does what you offer Benefit me? How does it solve a problem I have?

If you can’t articulate your USP in 60 seconds or less, neither can your clients and prospective clients.

Some of the things that make you Unique are because of:
The buyer you serve
What you sell
An unusual angle
What your product or service does not do
The time frame you offer
Your Risk Free Guarantee

And that brings us to the second Essential Element: you need to provide a Risk Free Guarantee

Look at every aspect of your business from the products or services you provide to your clients and even your employees and make a list of all the obstacles that could prevent any of them from purchasing from you, dealing with you or choosing you over your competition.

Here are the categories to pay attention to:

Financial reasons – What could it cost you if the relationship or transaction didn’t work out?

Emotional Reasons – What emotional withdrawals could occur if the relationship or transaction didn’t work out?

Measurable reasons – Can it be measured so your clients can see the actual impact on their personal, business or financial life?

I know a car dealer in Canada that dramatically increased his business by offering a two week, 100% money back guarantee on any new or used vehicle purchased.

Now, in the state of Wisconsin, offering that on a new vehicle is tough because the very minute the customer drives away from the car lot, that vehicle now must be sold as a used vehicle, BUT…put your thinking cap on.

Bottom Line: The biggest secret to success in your business is to always maintain an edge in everything you do.

And the best “edge” you can have is to make it easier for your customers to say YES than it is to say NO!

 

We help small business owners Work less and Make More money by helping you to:
1. Leverage your time
2. Increase your cash flow & profits
3. Attract and keep the Right clients, employees & products/services

How: By implementing the 80/20 Principles of Marketing, Selling & Business practices

  • Essential Elements Discovery Process
  • Automated Email marketing
  • FB marketing
  • FB retargeting
  • Video marketing
  • 1-on-1 “Do It For Me”   coaching, consulting, mentoring

 

Contact me here

Larry Carey
Principle Centered Marketing, Selling & Business practices

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6 Ways to Disqualify Tire Kickers

These are based on the Marketing Principle: It is better to talk to 10 people who want what you have to offer than 100 tire kickers.

In marketing, we teach our clients that it is better to Reach 10% of the Market and persuade them 100% of the way than to Reach 100% of the market and persuade them 10% of the way.

When you are in the business of selling, you better be good at figuring out as quickly as you can, these 6 things.

Here are 6 Ways to disqualify the tire kickers.

1. Are they the decision-maker? Do they have the ability to say yes?
Don’t waste your time making a presentation to an audience that can’t make the final decision.

2. Are they a member of your target audience? Every business has customers or clients that can be broken out according to the 80/20 Principle.
20% of your customers are generating 80% of your profits.

By the way, this principle holds true for your employees and your products/services you offer.

If you want to be more effective, you have to separate these and start focusing on the 20%.

Let’s say you have 3,000 active customers.
This Principle or Natural Law will show you that 600 of those are generating 80% of your profits. And ultimately, you will want to know who the 4% are that are generating 64% of your profits.

Helping you discover this 20% is the 6th element of our Essential Elements Discovery process.

See my article on this subject here: “Who should you be selling to?”

3. Do they have the money?
My two main businesses have been the automotive retail industry and real estate.
Two big ticket items. You better be good at qualifying whether your prospect can afford what you have to offer.

In the auto industry, there are “tire kickers” and there are “buyers”.

When you are strictly on commission, you better learn how to quickly and respectfully qualify your audience.

4. Is there a sense of urgency? Do they have an immediate problem that they need a solution to?

Twenty or so years ago I spent a year having Jay Abraham teach me his marketing principles. One of his pieces of advice that really stuck was “It is better to talk to 10 people who want what you have to offer than a 100 tire kickers.”

Jim Rohn had a similar approach when he said “the best advice I can offer is for you to realize that you have permission to ‘talk about what matters’ only to people who care.”

5. Do they want what you have to offer? Does your USP (Unique Selling Proposition) match what they want?
A unique selling proposition (USP) is your unique answer to these questions:
• What does your product or service do that your competitors doesn’t?
• Why should I buy from you instead of anybody else?
• What guarantee can you make that nobody else can make?

These are the things that make it easier for them to say Yes rather than No!

Effective marketing/selling gets people to raise their hand and say “I want what you have to offer.”

It’s the difference between chasing leads versus having them chasing you.

Which one sounds like more fun, easier and more lucrative?

Read my blog on this issue here: USP! What Is Your Unique Selling Proposition? 

6. Do you have a solution for their problem?
Whatever you sell needs to be in harmony with the natural and existing forces in their life right now.

The sooner you learn how to disqualify the 80%, the faster you will dominate your market.

 

Two huge mistakes almost every business makes

1. They don’t capture the contact information on everyone they come in contact with, name, address, phone number, email address are the basics.

But if you want to excel at this, learn as much as possible about them as you can so that in your future communications, you can share things that are of interest to them.

I used to find out all of the demographic and psychographic information I could.

2. Businesses have no consistent marketing strategy for follow-up.

Follow-up, follow-up, follow-up with things that add value to their lives.
That is why, over the course of time, the more you know about who you know, the better and more trusting your relationship with them will be.

Effective marketing/selling is all about creating trusting relationships.

How badly do you want to not only DOMINATE your market within your industry but do it with less time, effort and money invested?

How badly do you want to have more personal time and more consistent cash flow and higher profits?

Remember this: It is better to reach 10% of the market and persuade them 100% of the way than to reach 100% of the market and only persuade them 10% of the way. 

Stated another way: Ten sales are better than 100 “be-backs.”

 

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7 Reasons to practice Principle Centered Marketing:

Here are 7 straight forward Reasons that Principle Centered Marketing works.

1. Constantly chasing down NEW clients no longer has to be your main priority. The question you need to ask yourself is would you rather be always chasing down new clients or have them chase you?
Jay Abraham taught me that getting customers and clients to “raise their hand” and ask for me was what good marketing was all about.

2. Your share of the market increases.
Customers or clients no longer shop around, even temporarily. They trust you so your competition doesn’t get ANY of their business.

3. Your sales increase.
When your marketing is building strong, trusting relationships, your current clients turn into raving fans and become your own private sales force.
When I was selling cars and the subject of cars came up, I wanted everyone I came in contact with, prospects and clients, to talk about and refer me.
Because I had treated them with respect and honesty, and educated them not just on my product but on how to purchase an automobile, when the subject of automobiles came up, they automatically thought of me, even the ones who ended up not buying from me.
I created my own army of salespeople.

4. The Lifetime Value of your clients increase because they remain loyal to you.
– They purchase from you more often
– They refer others to you
– Over time, as trust builds, they are less likely to place price at the top of their list.

5. Your Cost of Doing Business Decreases.
Because customers and clients are now “raising their hand” asking you to help them, it costs you less in time, effort and money. Now you can focus that time, effort and money on your business.

6. Profits increase.
Same reason as above.

7. It’s more fun.

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8 Things Every Website needs to Include

There are 8 things every website needs to have in order to be effective at generating leads and sales.

1. Video – more and more important, although in my experience a lot of business owners just won’t do it. But if you can get over your nervousness, and get on camera saying who you are, what you do, and why you do it – that’s personal & powerful.

Example: As a car dealer, I would use my smart phone to take a short video at delivery showing my client walking around his or her new vehicle and driving away and then sharing that video via email with my client and posting it as a testimonial on my website.

You could use the same method in any other brick & mortar business.
The possibilities are endless.

2. Phone Number – Make sure your phone number is at the upper right side of every website page – It should also be obvious & prominent on your mobile site version too. Principle of Marketing: Always Make It Easy for your Customers to do Business With You.

3. Call To Action – You have about 3 seconds to convey who you are, what you do, and why the site visitor should care. If the home page is full of text about how great you are instead of what problems you solve, site visitors aren’t going to stick around.

4. Opt-in form – or some way to capture information so that you can market to them again. Offer something of value to your client as a way to capture their information.
Just saying “Sign Up for our updates” or “get our newsletter” will not cut it. Give people a compelling REASON to give you their information.

This underscores the importance of knowing your Lifetime Value of your customers or clients.

Once you know their value, it is a lot easier for you to calculate how much you are willing to invest or reward them with an “ethical bribe”.

5. Mobile Compatibility – It’s critically important that your website works properly with mobile devices (like iPads and Smart phones) Not just a tiny rendering of your entire site, but basic info like phone number, address, maybe a menu – depends on the business. Right now over 60% of local searches are done on a mobile phone and that’s only going to increase

6. Testimonials and Proof – If people love your service and you’re the best in your industry, say so! I believe the best way is to collect video testimonials of your customers saying that in person.

7. An effective “About” page – Typically your “About” page is the second-most visited page on your website. People want to know who they’re dealing with. Don’t hide behind vague reassurances or terminology, especially if you’re local. Videos of you and your staff are highly effective.

8. Social Media Connection – Now, more than ever, it is very important to have a connection between your website and social media.
Have you ever searched for something on Amazon and the next time you went to your Facebook page, you saw an ad for that very same product? That’s re-targeting.

Think about this: You spent thousands of dollars to create a website with the sole purpose of generating leads and ultimately sales. Don’t waste that investment by treating it like a digital yellow page ad.
That is just a waste of you money, time and effort.

The only goal of marketing for a brick & mortar business is to drive traffic either to your place of business or to your website and then you have to convert that traffic to sales.

With this simple tool of Facebook re-targeting, you make sure that everyone that visits your website, continues to be exposed to your message, product or services.

It requires a minimum of 5 “touches” before people begin to “hear” you message, and several more exposures (touches) before their action is initiated.

These simple 8 website principles are your key to having an effective web site that generate additional sales.

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Sell Anything, Anywhere, Anytime

If I’d of had this technology, information and paradigm 10 years ago, I’d
be sending this from my own private island somewhere in the South Pacific. :)

Watch this video I made on the “spur-of-the-moment” and with just a little
imagination on your part, I’m sure you’ll be able to see what I see and relate
to you in this video I shot while walking my dog in the country.

I could have put another quarter million dollars in my pocket with this technique of being able to sell anything, anywhere, anytime.

I don’t care what kind of business you have, I can show you how to increase traffic
and increase your income with this simple tool and way of thinking.

 

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