Tag: marketing principles

7 Habits of Highly Effective People

7 Habits of Highly Effective People are broken down into two categories and are sequential.

Private Victories which always precedes Public Victories.

Private Victory Habits:

  1. Be Proactive – the Principle of Self-Awareness, Personal Vision, and Responsibility.    Being proactive is more than just taking initiative. It is recognizing that you are responsible for your own choices and have the freedom to choose based on principles and values rather than moods and conditions.

2. Begin with the End in Mind – the Principle of Leadership, Vision, Purpose, and Mission. We first create a mental VISION for the finished project. We always have a clear PURPOSE in mind. Identify and commit to the principles, relationships, and purposes that matter most.

3. Put 1st Things 1st – the Principle of Managing Time and Priorities Around Roles and Goals. This habit is about organizing and executing around our most important priorities not by the urgent agendas and forces surrounding us.  This teaches you how and what to FOCUS on and Fix Next. You will KNOW what to say ‘Yes’ to and what to say ‘No’ to with confidence.

Public Victory Habits:

4. Think Win-Win (or No Deal) – the Principle of Seeking Mutual Benefit. Thinking win-win is a frame of mind and heart that seeks mutual benefit and mutual respect in all interactions. It’s thinking in terms of abundance and opportunity rather than scarcity and adversarial competition.  SERVITUDE HEART

5. Seek First to Understand then to Be Understood – the Principle of Empathetic Communication. When we listen with the intent to understand, rather than simply to reply, we begin true communication and relationship building.   Opportunities to speak openly and be understood come much more naturally and easily. Seeking to understand takes consideration; seeking to be understood takes courage. Effectiveness lies in the balancing or blending of the two.

6. Synergize – the Principle of Creative Cooperation. This is the 3rd Alternative – not my way, not your way, but a third way that is better than either of us would come up with on our own. It’s the fruit of respecting, valuing and even celebrating the differences. It’s the creative cooperation of 1 + 1 = 3, 11, 111…

7. Sharpen the Saw – the Principle of Continuous Improvement. Sharpening the saw is about constantly renewing ourselves in the four basic areas of life: physical, social/emotional, mental and spiritual.

The first three Habits can be summarized in a very simple four-word expression: Make and keep promises. (Note: it isn’t just about honoring a commitment, it’s also about having the courage of character to make a commitment because you know you’ll honor it). 

The next three habits can be summarized: Involve people in the problem and work out the solution together. 

You will never master these habits, but by simply working on them on a daily basis, you will set yourself up for the success highly effective people enjoy.

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Be The Best Employer In Town: Hire Eagles

Be The Best Employer In Town:   To find, hire and keep only the best there is a five step process to follow. [similar to the pattern we follow to help you find, get and keep only the best customers]

  1. Be the kind of person/business top performers want to be associated with.
  2. Know your Market– Know who your target audience is. What do the best people look like?
  3. Create your Message– What is your unique story? What makes you appealing to the best people?
  4. Choose your Media– Where do these top performers hang out? Where is the best place to reach them?
  5. Keep them.

First: Be the kind of person that others want to follow and associate with.

  • Be likable
  • Be trustworthy
  • Be competent

Second: Who is your target audience? What do your best people look like right now? Where do they come from? Where do they get their information from? What is their worldview? – our decision-making, and theirs, is influenced by the way we think. What are their goals and values and how can we contribute? What are some objections to working with you? Why would someone choose NOT to work for you? [Note: this is not an exhaustive list]

Third: Once you have a good picture or profile of what your best people look like, then create the message. What makes you unique? What are the benefits, for this target audience, of working with you? What do they want to hear that is true of you?

Fourth: Once you know these things, Where do they hang out? Where do they go to get their information? You can now determine the best media to use to reach them.

To market and sell your business as the place they want to be employed, the very first thing you must do is get clear on who your ideal employee is, where they are hanging out, what their challenges are, etc…Every marketing piece must know what your ideal employees and potential employees “hot buttons” are-what’s important and/or relevant to them. Once you find who your target audience truly is then you can know what those hot buttons are.

Never forget the following marketing principle:                                        You are better off running a weak ad to the right audience than you are running a strong ad to the wrong audience.

Fifth: Keep them.

  • Be more like a coach than a manager.
  • Provide them with opportunities to be rewarded appropriately.
  • Lead by principles not rules. Every rule has an exception, principles do not.
  • Be an effective communicator.

Cultivate and model these 9 Habits of Emotional Bank Account deposits as taught by Stephen Covey to build strong meaningful relationships and set the example of the way you want your staff to treat others:

  1. Seek 1st to Understand…listen with the intent to understand rather than simply to respond.
  2. Keep your Promises.
  3. Act with Kindness & Courtesy.
  4. Clarify Expectations (make sure everyone fully understands including yourself). Almost all conflicts are a result of “violated expectations.”
  5. Be Loyal to the Absent (never talk badly about anyone behind their back)
  6. Apologize when Wrong (it takes a Big person to admit when wrong)
  7. Accept Responsibility (don’t blame anyone else)
  8. Be Open to Feedback (be willing to listen to criticism; Correction does not mean rejection)
  9. Take time between the Stimulus and the Response so that you can Exercise your Freedom to Choose Responsibly.

Good results come from good people.  To gain more influence, identify the similarities within your target audience and work from there.

If you want to be able to attract, hire and keep Eagles, the best people, then be the best employer in town and ALWAYS BE RECRUITING – 365 days a year!

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2/3 of Small Business Owners Don’t Know How to Ask the Right Questions and It’s Costing Them Money

Ask the right questions and you’ll get the right answers. 

A recent survey of 2600 small business owners, conducted in January 2017 by “Small Business Trends” revealed that 62% of them believe Facebook advertising is ineffective.

First, we believe the reason for this is the same reason too many small business marketing strategies don’t work – they don’t ask the right questions.

Our Essential Elements discovery process is designed to help you discover the six elements every small business owner needs to know. The very first element is designed to determine who your ideal target audience is.

There are 6 elements to knowing who your Target Audience is.
In some cases, you’ll need to survey or have conversations with existing customers to accurately flesh out your target audience.

One, Demographic Information: Where do your clients come from specifically?

  • Geographic location
  • Income
  • Gender
  • Education
  • Marital status
  • Occupation
  • Religion
  • Age

Two, Psychographics:

  • Spending habits-where do they shop?
  • Hobbies
  • Values
  • Concerns
  • Desires
  • Lifestyles
  • Associations they might be affiliated with

Three, Sources of Information: Where Does Your Target Client [ideal customer] Get His or Her Information?
Who are the thought leaders they follow like authors, bloggers, magazines, websites, podcasters?
What Facebook pages are liked by your Target Audience?
What Facebook groups do your Target Audience belong to?
What are the most popular online discussion forums in your niche?
What are the most popular LinkedIn groups in your niche?

Four, Pain Point or Challenges: What is their major problem they have that you have a solution to?

Five, Objections In Their Purchase Process: What are the reasons your customer might choose NOT to buy from you or your product or service?

Six, What are their goals and values?
Second, they don’t understand the importance of testing.  One of the great advantages to Facebook advertising is how easy, fast and relatively inexpensive it is to test not only the answers to the  6 elements to knowing who your Target Audience but also the message including the attention grabbing headline.

Testing budgets as small as $5 or $10 a day, focusing on different mixes, can tell you what you need to know before you begin to invest larger amounts in your campaign.

Our Essential Elements discovery process helps you discover these six things which are critical regardless of what media or technology you use.

  • Who is your Target Audience. Your ideal customer. The 20% that generate 80% of your revenue, cash flow and ultimately your profits.
  • The Lifetime Value of your customers. You know exactly how much you can spend or ethically reward someone to become your client or remain a loyal fan.
  • Your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). This is what sets you apart from everyone else.  What makes you, your products or services unique?
  • Risk Free Guarantee. This is what makes it easier for your clients to say YES vs
  • 100% Financial Capacity. This clarifies how much money you are potentially leaving on the table and gives you the insight and courage to move forward.
  • 80/20 Principle. Also originally known as the Pareto Principle.
    The vast minority of your customers, employees, products/services, efforts, time, money, resources are generating the vast majority of your results. This process helps you identify them.

The question is always the answer.

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Quantum Results come from Paradigm Shifts

Paradigm comes from the Greek. In a general sense it means the way we “see” the world – not in a visual sense but in terms of understanding, perceiving or interpreting.

A simple way to understand paradigms is to see them as maps – mental maps. Our paradigms are the source of our attitudes and behaviors.

A paradigm shift is actually a break from traditional thinking.  All major breakthroughs almost always occur due to a paradigm shift.

Ptolemy convinced everyone that the earth was the center of our universe; then Copernicus came along and “broke the traditional way of thinking” by showing that actually the earth revolved around the sun instead.  Suddenly the map was different and everything took on a different interpretation.

As soon as germ theory was developed, a lot of needless deaths were averted. Up until that paradigm shift we had more men dying from small wounds and diseases than were dying on the battle field.

The United States is another example of the fruits of a paradigm shift. Up until our Founding Fathers created us as a republic, the traditional form of government was a monarchy. The 200 years after creating our Constitution saw the unleashing of the greatest nation the earth has ever witnessed.

“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.”    – Stephen Covey

If you start with a wrong assumption you will come to a wrong conclusion.

People are motivated by two things:
Pain – Fear of Loss or the Valley of Despair
Gain – Deep, Deep Desire

Learn more

Sell Anything Anywhere Anytime
All breakthrough, quantum improvements come about only after a major paradigm shift.

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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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Principles of Creating Your Path of Least Resistance

Creating the life you want involves understanding the Principles of Creating.

Once you understand Principles, there are “101” different tactics you can take.

Just remember this MAIN Principle: “Never Break the Laws of God or man.”

Energy moves where it is easiest to go – the Path of Least Resistance.

You are exactly where you are right now by following that Path of Least Resistance.

Just after I purchased my dealership, I hired two coach/mentors.  One was Jay Abraham to help me develop my marketing skills and the other was Robert Fritz.

Robert Fritz had written a book called “The Path of Least Resistance” and created a system called Structural Thinking.

From this thinking I created 4 Principles of Creating:

  • Begin with the End in Mind
  • Honestly evaluate Current Reality
  • Take Action
  • Evaluate your progress & Adjust Actions and/or Clarify the End in Mind.

 

Robert Fritz taught me Three Important Insights:
1. You go thru life taking the path of least resistance.
We all do – all humans and all of nature.

You may try from time to time to change the direction of your life – your eating habits, the way you relate to others, your attitudes, etc. You may even succeed for a while, but eventually, you probably find yourself right back at the old habits and behaviors.

This is because your life – all of life for that matter – is determined by God’s  Laws of Nature to take the path of least resistance.

2.The underlying structure of your life determines the path of least resistance. 97% of us are following old entrenched patterns.

3. You can change the fundamental underlying structures of your life.
Just as engineers can change the path of a river by changing the structure of the riverbanks so that the river flows where they want it to go, you can change your basic structure of your life (your business, relationships, etc) so that you can create the life you want.

How to Create the Results you want

Step 1.  Begin With The End in Mind.  Be very clear about WHAT you want.  What does the Desired End Result look like? Ask why five times until you’re real clear and will recognize it when you see it.

Sometimes the idea is general and sometimes it’s specific.

Sometimes it’s like knowing you have to move in the direction of the mountain range you see 100 miles away and sometimes, you see the exact spot on the mountain where you want to End up.

Right now, you can only see the mountain range; the peaks of the mountains in this range are covered in clouds and fog.

But, you know where the mountain peak (GOAL) that you want is in that mountain range so you start moving toward it. As you get closer, you can see more detail; you can see the mountain you want so you move toward the base.

With each step, you can see more and more clearly. You adjust your course accordingly and start climbing the mountain and again as you climb higher, you see more details and eventually you come out of the fog and cloud cover and can clearly see the peak (GOAL).

The most powerful question you can ask yourself is WHAT DO I WANT?

It’s a question about results. What is the result or results I want?

If you focus on the “how” question before the “what” question all you can ever hope to create is a variation of what you already have.

Step 2.  Honestly Evaluate Current Reality. Be very honest about Current Reality or the Actual State of things as they really are.
Honesty and Objectivity are critical. Good, bad, or indifferent, you need to develop the skill of viewing reality objectively.
It is critical you know what is going on with accuracy and clarity.

  • SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats)
  • Paradigm Analysis: What is your worldview that affects the way you see/perceive things?  REMEMBER: If you start with the wrong assumptions, you’ll come to the wrong conclusions.
  • Circle of Influence analysis. Who do you surround yourself with that influences the way you think?  Remember this axiom?  Garbage in/Garbage Out.  Surround yourself only with people who really support you and your cause; and eliminate from your Circle of Influence those who do not.

Essentially you are asking yourself what Strengths do I have personally or in my life right now that will help me attain this goal?

What weaknesses might I have to be aware of or overcome?

What opportunities and what threats are there that might help me or prevent me from achieving this goal?

This is where you ask yourself Why? Why am I in the position I’m in? What have I done in the past that has stopped me from attaining goals.

What, in my environment or cast of friends has prevented me from attaining what I want?

What do I have to learn? Or unlearn? What associations do I have to stop?or start?

Who is accomplishing what I want to accomplish and how might I model them?    This is not an exhaustive list of questions but a starter.

Step 3.  Take Action. Create ACTIONS to achieve Desired End Result.   Creating is about innovation, invention, and learning; as opposed to following convention. Some actions will help move you to WHAT you want, but some won’t, in fact maybe most won’t….and that’s ok.

  • Discipline yourself to Put 1st Things 1st
  • Test & Evaluate are keys: Test small; test often: sometimes the action works and sometimes it doesn’t.  Failure is ok BUT learn to Fail Fast.
  • Learn to ask Smart Questions:
    • What’s working?
    • What’s not?
    • What can I do better?
    • What’s the Next Action required?

 A good question to ask after you write out an intermediate DER/Goal or action step is “What is the next step required? “

EXAMPLE: One of your actions might be to take a class at your local technical college.

By asking yourself “What is the next step required?”  you might answer “Call the school.”  Again “What is the next step required?”

Answer:  look up the phone number.

I have found this simple question to be tremendously beneficial.

It forces me to think “one step at a time”

You know the old saying “What is the best way to eat an elephant?”

Answer: One bite at a time.

Step 4.  Evaluate your progress & Adjust Actions and/or Clarify the End in Mind.    Plan – Do – Check – Adjust (Adjust the direction before you adjust your DER/Goal).

Here is the life-cycle of problem solving as taught by Robert Fritz and why it doesn’t work.

The Problem
Leads to action to solve the problem

Leads to
Less intensity of the problem

Leads to
Less action to solve the problem

Leads to
The problem remaining

What usually drives the problem is the intensity of the pain felt from the problem.

Once the intensity of the pain is lessened, 97% of us have less motivation to continue to act.

I run into this version of thinking all the time when I am helping people set and achieve goals.

The hardest part is getting them to admit to what they want, regardless of whether they think it is possible or not.

If I am dealing with someone who has never set goals, and I ask them what is the Desired End Result they want 5 years from now, or one year from now or next week, inevitably the answer is based on what they think is possible.

This limits your thinking. You want what you want. Go for it. Create a plan to achieve it.

9 Specific Steps to Attaining your Desired End Result or Goal:

  1. Make a Commitment that you are going to reach your DER/GOAL.
  2. Commit to daily accountability – You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Track EVERYTHING.
    Every DER/GOAL has to be broken down into small daily actions.
    Commit to no more than 6 BOULDERS a day.
  3. Work on strengthening your strengths. We are all born with God-given talents and abilities. Some of these talents are a 2 or 3 on a 10 point scale; but every one of us has “NATURAL” talents of a 6 or 7;
    Focus your lifetime on improving at least one of these talents/strengths to where you attain a 9 or better ranking.
    It takes about 10,000 hours of practice to do that but the rewards are phenomenal.
    A Talent of a ‘9” is worth about $1,000,000 a year.
  4. Change direction before you change decisions.
  5. Get all the help you can. I have never been without a coach, mentor or advisor in all my adult life.
  6. Every day, think about your DER. Picture it; feel it; smell it. Make it as real-feeling as possible.
    Whatever you want to Create, you must see yourself as already HAVING it, or BEING it or DOING
    Always focus on what you DO WANT not on what you think is possible OR what you don’t want.
  7. NEVER start your day without a clear list of PRIORITIES. Your To Do list. No more than 6 BOULDERS every day. Put 1st Things 1st.
  8. Learn to be DIFFICULT when it counts. This means being Assertive; standing up for yourself in an honest, positive, appropriate way…Your rights, feelings, thoughts and opinions.
    How to be assertive:
    A. Think Win-Win…or No Deal. Understand that you have the right to walk away from a situation or relationship if it isn’t mutually beneficial.
    B. You must have Self-respect before there can be mutual respect
    C. Listen with the Intent to Understand, rather than simply listening with the intent to reply and Expect The Same in Return.
    D. Think ‘C’ mode: controlled, calm, centered, charming, composed, collected, and coolheaded.
  9. 80/20 Rule: Identify the actions that contribute the GREATEST value. DO THEM.  Eliminate or delegate all others.

For every minute spent in planning, you save 10 minutes in Implementing.   That’s a 1000% Return on Investment.

 The good news is that there is no rush to completing this Creating process.

There is actually tremendous benefit just in the process.

Make this a lifetime project.

I studied Qi Gong from a Master Chun Yi Lin. I once asked what the consequences were of doing a step incorrectly and he wisely said  “There is no wrong way. There is good, there is better and there is best.”

If you are ready to take your life and your business to another level, contact me. I know of no way to do this without a coach.

History is filled with examples of individuals creating results that were previously thought impossible.

Our society  puts a high premium on reasons and excuses.

Most people learn that if they have a good reason for not succeeding, they can sometimes avoid negative consequences.

Once you have learned the Principles of Creating thru Structural Thinking, you will naturally always follow the Path of Least Resistance.

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Knowing Where to Put the ‘X’

Principle: “Knowing where to put the ‘X’ in each part of your life is a critical determinant of everything you accomplish.”

There’s a story about a nuclear power plant had a malfunction that their own engineer’s couldn’t solve.

The plant management finally called in one of the nation’s top consultants on nuclear power plants.

For two days, the consultant walked around the plant, studying hundreds of dials and gauges, taking notes and running calculations.

At the end of the second day, he took a marker out of his pocket, climbed up a ladder, and put a large black “X” on one of the gauges.

“This is your problem,” he explained. “Repair and replace the apparatus connected to this meter, and the problem will be solved.”
He then left.

The plant engineers did as he suggested and sure enough, this fixed the problem.

About a week later, the plant manager received a bill from this consultant for $10,000…for “services rendered”.

The plant manager was surprised at the size of the bill.

After all, he reasoned, the consultant had only spent two days, walked around a little bit, placed a “X” and left. $10,000 seemed like a lot of money for such a simple job.

He wrote back to the consultant, “We have received your bill. Please give us a break down and itemize your charges.

It seems all you did was to write a big ole “X” on a single gauge. Ten thousand dollars seems excessive.”

A few days later, the plant manager received a new invoice from the consultant. It said, “For placing an “X” on gauge: $1.00. For knowing WHERE to put the “X”: $9,999.”

Having a clear and honest understanding of who you are, and what’s important to you is what separates the superior from the average.

It requires Honesty to step back and look at ourselves objectively to see what Current Reality really is in regards to these talents AND then be comfortable enough to be AUTHENTIC in our thoughts, actions and words.

Brian Tracy, in his book – “Focal Point” – says there are Two Steps you need to do to double your income.

First – Identify the things (the 20%) you do that contribute the greatest value to your earning potential.

Apply the 80/20 Rule or Principle – which states 20% of your actions contribute 80% of the value.

Then resolve to spend MORE time on those 20% activities.

Stephen Covey called them “Boulders” or First Things.
It’s learning to do The Hard Things First.

Second– Identify the 80% of your activities, customers, employees, products or services that provide low to no value and resolve to spend less time, effort and resources on them or better yet, eliminate them altogether.

Success is a choice.

There is an Abundance of Opportunities for everyone but only a small percent will ever find them – Why?

Because of CHOICE.

Those who become DOMINATE their market are Proactive.
They take Personal Responsibility.

Accepting Personal Responsibility means you refuse to make excuse or blame others for anything in your life that you’re not happy about.

Accepting Personal Responsibility is the very foundation of high self-esteem, self-respect and personal pride.

When you make excuses, blame others, complain or criticize, you essentially give away all your power to someone or something else.

These are all Principles or Natural Laws of God.

Here is the best definition of a Principle I’ve seen:

Principles are:
UNIVERSAL: They work everywhere.
TIMELESS: They work all the time. Past, Present and Future.
SELF-EVIDENT: You can’t argue against them.

Know what’s important. Know where to place your ‘X’.

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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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Double Your Business in the Next 12 to 24 Months

Referrals are one of the easiest and cost-effective ways to double your business in the next 12 to 24 months!

The best way to double your business is to have every customer bring a new customer.

And the very Best way is to have every Ideal client (the 20% of your clientele that generates 80% of your revenue and profits. The 80/20 Rule) bring you a new client, just like them.

What would it be like where prospective customers call or walk in pre-sold and ready to buy?
How would your business and your personal life be different?
What would happen to your stress levels?
What would be the impact on your financial security?
How would it feel to have a stable income and cash flow?
How would it affect your family life?

What if you could cheerfully outspend your competition by 2-to-1 or 3-to-1 or even 4-to-1 to bring in your IDEAL customer?

You would destroy some of your weaker competitors.

Almost every business owner I’ve ever spoken to says they get most of their business from referrals…and yet, while they may not exactly be living paycheck-to-paycheck, they do not Dominate their market.

In fact, they pretty much have good months and bad months; just like their competition.

Their income, cash flow and their personal time is not stable and consistent.
Why?

They don’t make it easy for their clients to refer.
They put all the risk on the customer.
They rely on tactics and practices instead of Principles.
They forget that selling is all about relationships.
They have systems based on policies & rules instead of Principles.

They are reluctant to ask for a referral because they think their customer believes it is only for the money!

If you want your ideal clients to refer other ideal clients, you have to make it easy for them to do it when it’s natural for them to do it.

Not just because you are paying them by offering a chance to win a new iPad or even if you are offering them a free iPad IF they refer.

When the subject of whatever your business is about comes up in conversation, you want your ideal customers to talk about you.

You want them to refer you.
You want them to be your outside sales force.

Referrals come pre-sold or at least mostly pre-sold.
They tend to spend more and stay longer.

And, the original customer that did the referring, now has even more emotional commitment to you so consequently, their Lifetime Value increases.

Four things almost every business owner seems to have in common:
1. Not enough time – personal and business
2. Uncertainty of income and cash flow
3. Not enough clients or more accurately, not enough of the “right” clients
4. Not enough of the “right’ employees

What would it feel like to have all of these things?
• More time – both business and personal
• Less unanticipated problems which will mean less headaches and less stress
• Consistently improving results which will mean consistently improving income and cash flow
• Relationships of trust with every employee, vendor and client.
• Customized Solutions that work for you. Every business and owner is unique.
• Personal 1-on-1 mentoring where you can rely on someone with competence and character to help you to ask the right questions, come up with the right solutions, help you anticipate problems before they arise.

What would your life be like a year from now if you were achieving one of the following:
1. The same results you are now getting but with less time, effort and/or money invested on your part.
Or

2. Better results with the same amount of time, effort and/or money invested on your part.
Or…Best of all

3. Better results with less time, effort and/or money invested on your part

Or…you might choose to spend more in time, effort and/or money and absolutely CRUSH your competition.

Principle Centered Marketing Selling & Business Practices is holistic in that it encompasses your employees, your clients and your systems.

Because we focus on principles and because you, your business and your challenges are unique, the solutions we create for you will be implemented in a different order than they would be for a different business with its own unique circumstances.

What works for another business may not need to be implemented in your business.

Thru our Smart Questioning process, we help you discover: What you want and need, Who your perfect employee and client is and How to best connect all the dots.

Principle Centered Marketing, Selling & Business Practices involves every aspect of your business from the message(s) in your marketing, to teaching and making sure every employee from the sales rep to the receptionist always know that the client is asking WIIFM (What’s In It For Me): To think benefits NOT features and that it’s all about providing Value.

We help you generate a business based on creating, growing and retaining your most productive clients and employees.

We help you create an environment based on trusting relationships.

Double your business in the next 12 to 24 months.

 

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What Are Your Clients really worth?

What are your clients really worth?…their Lifetime Value

If you don’t know your Key Performance Indicators are,  like the ‘lifetime value of your customers’, your ‘average margins’ and the ‘cost of acquiring a new customer’ you are flying blind.

How do you know what’s working and what’s not?
You can’t improve what you don’t measure.

Why is it so important to know the average profits you make from a new customer, the average profits you’ll make from a customer in their “lifetime” of dealing with you, and a few other key “metrics” of your business?

The reason is simple. Those key pieces of information can guide you in creating effective marketing and advertising strategies that make you real profits and help you DOMINATE your market.

Let me give you two examples…
Let’s say that your average client brings an average profit of $75 on every sale. And they purchase from you an average of four times a year and they stay your customer an average of 5 years.

The Lifetime Value or your customer is $75 x 4 times a year x 5 years = $1,500

Theoretically you could spend $1500 to bring in a new customer and still break even.

But this doesn’t even account for the number of referrals that client will send with the same Lifetime Value.

The point is if you’re spending less than $1,500 you know you’re making a profit.

If you KNOW you can afford to spend up to $1,500 in acquiring a new customers or retaining current ones, then you can create advertising, special offers and deals with that key number in mind…

Here is why big ticket retailers, like auto dealers really benefit.

According to NADA, the average new vehicle gross profit margin is $1088 and the average used vehicle gross profit margin is $1534.

Plus the average customer visits your service/parts department an average 2.5 times per year to the tune of approximately $700 in revenue or $350 of gross profit.

As an auto dealer let’s say that you make a gross profit of $1500 on the sale of a used car/truck. This customer then typically visits your service/parts department an average of 2.5 times per year at an average of $350 additional gross profit each year.

The first year value of this used car customer is $1500 plus $350 per year in service/parts gross or a first year value of $1850.
Consider then, a conservative 5 year lifespan with you and you have a conservative lifetime value of $3250.

If you are also a new car dealer, the first year value is approximately $1450.
The 5 year lifetime value of a new car customer is then approximately $2800.

Here is a different perspective:

Jeffrey  Gitomer in his book “Customer Satisfaction is Worthless, Customer Loyalty is Priceless”  says: The Value of a Customer is 20 Times his Annual Sale Volume

I’m going to take a more conservative approach and state that the value of a customer is 20 times his annual gross profit:

$1450 x 20 = $29,000 Lifetime Value (LTV) for a new car customer and
$1850 x 20 = $37,000 Lifetime Value (LTV) for a used car customer.

Your competitors who don’t know this Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) will either lose their nerve or lose serious money trying to compete with you.


None of these calculations include the number of people she/he refers to you over their lifetime that you didn’t have to spend any money on attracting and convincing. These No-cost referrals have the same lifetime time values. 

 

When you begin to understand the magnitude of this way of thinking, you can easily grasp just how plausible it is to double your business in 12 short months.

I’ve just given you a tiny snapshot of the value of Key Performance Indicators. Knowing these metrics can make the difference between getting rich and going broke and, with your Key Performance Indicators in hand, you might discover that a certain kind of customer is far more valuable and profitable to you.

Go Back to the 80/20 Principle we discussed yesterday.

So you can gear your marketing efforts toward capturing those high value, high profit clients.

With the right information you can massively increase the profits in your business and multiply the power of all your business and marketing efforts.

Calculating the Key Performance Indicators of your business is not that difficult. For the motivated business owner who wants to DOMINATE his or her market, it is critical to know what they are to track consistently.

Imagine being able to make decisions in your business on advertising, marketing, promotion, merchandising, displays etc…with the hard-core data you need right at your fingertips.

The bad news is if you don’t have that data it IS costing you real money every day.

The good news is you can have access to the information you need simply and easily.

Principle Centered Marketing encompasses your whole business from the Inside-Out.

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