Simple Plan for a Powerful 2008

Succeeding in Business helps performance and commission-dependent individuals and leaders of organizations that are seriously committed to enhancing their ability to make more money, while working less.

A simple request; please pass this edition around to folks you care about. If appropriate, ask them to sign-up for the newsletter at www.succeedinginbusiness.com.

Just a few days left

2007 has just a handful of days left in it. I want to encourage you to take a few minutes to examine the past 12 months and get ready for the year ahead. I am going to share with you an outline of a process I use with my clients. We’ll use it to build on the lessons of 2007 to make 2008 a powerful year.

Consider a quick look in the rearview mirror

I’ll hold onto the steering wheel while you look back. I am confident that each of you did the best possible under the circumstances that your life, your industry, and your business threw your way this year. But consider taking a look back to count up your blessings, think about the lessons you learned, and your new insights. Then, think about the things that you don’t believe will serve your purposes in 2008.

Three minutes worth of notes that could be worth thousands to you

Consider the power of writing these items down today, and looking at them a couple of times over the next few days. If you are like me and my clients, you will likely add and subtract, with each quick review. For many, this little exercise is worth thousands.

Now, look down the road with X-ray vision

Next, I want to ask you to consider an unusual process for setting some goals for next year:
First outline your values; bullet points will do. By values I mean things like:

1. Power is the desire to influence others.
2. Independence is the desire for self-reliance.
3. Curiosity is the desire for knowledge.
4. Acceptance is the desire for inclusion.
5. Order is the desire for organization.
6. Saving is the desire to collect things.
7. Honor is the desire to be loyal to one's parents and heritage.
8. Idealism is the desire for social justice.
9. Social contact is the desire for companionship.
10. Family is the desire to raise one's own children.
11. Status is the desire for social standing.
12. Being Competitive, aka Vengeance is the desire to get even.
13. Romance is the desire for sex and beauty.
14. Eating is the desire to consume food.
15. Physical Activity is the desire for exercise of muscles.
16. Tranquility is the desire for emotional calm

(Taken in whole from Steven Reiss's book, Who Am I? The 16 Basic Desires that Motivate Our Actions and Define Our Personalities. Berkley Press 2002.)

Court of law?

If you had to prove what you were committed to in 2007, would there be enough evidence to convict you? One way to really tell is to simply look at your calendar and your checkbook. That is where action meets reality. No evidence means you might be dealing with wishful thinking. Just check it out; at least tell yourself the truth.

Relationships: the gold before and after the money

Next, outline the relationships you have, and the one’s you are committed to keeping and developing further in 2008. For me, this is simple and goes something like this:
· My maker
· My wife
· My two sons; Alexander (age 15) and Zachary (age 9)
· My 78 year old mother, Pat Albertson
· My in-laws
· A couple of dozen close friends
· My current clients
· The readers of this newsletter and my other newsletter (www.performanceleadershipgroup.com)

Consider letting some relationships gently drift into the sunset

I am also going to make a conscious decision to let some relationships, which no longer align with my values, go. I have kept them alive for historical reasons but I find that I can no longer be true to my values and other commitments by continuing to invest in these relationships.

Three times seven equals 21 bullet points that can change your life

Finally, I will outline just 3 goals that I want to accomplish in 2008, in each of the following buckets:

· Family
· Finance
· Fitness
· Friends
· Future
· Faith
· Fun

The simple long and short of it

In each of these, I will simply have a short term goal (30 days), a mid- term goal (90 – 120 days), and a long-term goal (180 days to 360).

Simple, but it needs action now

Nothing fancy. The key is to do it. Write it all down, by this Friday, if you can.

Two five-minute previews of your new reality

From there, the key is to look at this list twice a day for the next 12 months. This is the second most important part of this email: Look at the goals twice a day, every day, for the next 12 months.

The most important part is a two-part beasty

First, make sure that the things you write down are things you really feel passionately about, and can visualize in detail, like they are already fully accomplished.

Part two of the beasty

Second, and this is very unusual in my experience: Just tell yourself that these things would be very nice to have happen, but are simply a choice that you and your subconscious mind have the option of bringing into reality. It is nothing that you must do.

Leverage your super-computer while you sleep

Now, each night before you hit the sack, review the list (I keep mine next to my bed in a plastic sleeve) and ask your brain to work on one thing standing between you and one of your objectives.

All of the above are about setting up for new action

The key to a 2008 that exceeds 2007 is simply taking new actions. I like to ask myself, “What action can I take right now to move toward my goals and dreams”?

Name any hero you have

The only difference, in most cases, between your hero and you, is the actions they take and have taken so far in life. If you can dream, write, and take actions, you can have a powerful reality in 2008.

That’s it. Simple & sweet. Best of all, it works.

Cheers,

Eric

PS: If one of your goals for 2008 is producing more revenue, consider taking my Marketing Fast Track course. Many of my past clients boosted their incomes by 10 percent, with a few getting well past 100 percent, last year. Your mileage will vary. For more information on the Marketing Fast Track program, you can go here. To sign up directly, go here.

PPS: Alternatively, if you want to get more margin/profit out of your current flow of business, consider taking our Margin Boost course, starting January 17th. For more information on the groundbreaking Margin Boost program, go here. To register for this powerful and profitable program, go here.

PPPS: Last week, I mentioned that I had sent 100+ letters per week and that it had worked very well for getting people to call me and asking me to tell them more. I also related that it only worked for a while, and then quit working.

The rest of the story

At the time, I didn’t know why it quit working. It was to be years before I could accurately diagnose the problem. The years between then and now, left me with lots of scar tissue. With luck, I can help you avoid that result.

Direct marketers know this story

Essentially I had committed many of the basic sins in direct marketing but didn’t know it. Here are the sins:

1. Once I ran out of targets like people who had already purchased from me, I just started sending my letters to any name and address that looked like possibilities. Spray and pray. I had not taken the time to build a good list.

2. I didn’t take the time to validate the list. After the initial blast, I used a purchased list of targets from a local company. The list was old and largely inaccurate. Essentially, the person I wanted was no longer at the address and the mail was either tossed or “returned to sender.”

3. I treated everyone the same. I didn’t really understand why people were buying what I sold. My letters addressed only one problem. I didn’t mention the other problems my offering would address. I just thought that they would figure it out. Now, I know that they never do.

4. I had a poor call to action. I asked folks to call me. Most people don’t want to talk to a salesman right off the bat, unless the need is pressing. I needed to offer a low-risk way for them to get more information without talking to me, the sales guy.

5. I didn’t follow-up with a phone call in a reasonable amount of time. If they didn’t call me, I didn’t call them. Pretty stupid.

The fix is simple. Just not easy:

A. Build a list of targets. Break it into groups of sub-targets that look similar to each other. For example, you can segment by revenue, age, income, title, industry and so on. Whatever makes sense in your business.

B. Have somebody call through the list and just verify the business name, address, target name and role (if it is a business-to-business situation). Most lists that you can purchase are at least 50 percent bad. According to Dunn and Bradstreet (one of the largest sources of market data in the world), lists go bad at a two percent to five percent per month from the time of initial creation. Old lists are usually bad lists.

C. Tune your message for each segment of your list. Lawyers likely care about different aspects of your offer than doctors or retail establishments might. Think about the problem the target group has, and talk about how your offer makes that problem go away.

D. Create a low-risk call to action. Build a “no cost” report telling your prospects about how to make a good decision when buying what you sell. You can also list a phone number that they can call to get free information. You can include a postcard that they can return to get more no-obligation information. You can suggest that they call a customer service rep for more information. You are only limited by your imagination.

E. Build a plan to follow up with each target at least three times via the phone. Some targets are worth up to five attempts via phone. Most are not. Let your experience be your guide.

F. Record, on your list, what they tell you, so you can leverage what you learn the next time you reach out to that specific target.

Is all of this worth it?

I regularly meet with sales managers and senior sales executives from a wide variety of industries. These executives tell me that most of the top performers do one of two things:

· They have a methodical system of some kind
· They have, and maintain, a great network

These executives tell me that the folks who don’t have one or both of the two approaches above, quit, get fired, work too much, and make less than is possible.

Reprint Permission: If you like this article, feel free to share it with your own list, post it on your site, post it on your blog, or add it to your autoresponder. As long as you leave it intact and do not alter it in anyway. All links must remain in the article. Just include:

"Reprinted with permission from Eric Albertson's SucceedingInBusiness.com Newsletter.(Copyright, 1998-2007, Eric Albertson, SucceedingInBusiness.com.)"

12/03/07 - Why multiplication is critical to the size of your bank account

Word Count: 1,657
Time to Read: 5 minutes

Who else thinks selling can be tiring?

After selling for 10 years I started to get really tired. I had made lots of money, lots of friends and had lots of fun. I could almost predict what every client would do before they did it. But I was still getting very, very tired. And I wasn’t making all that much money, really, for the toll the selling was taking on me, my family and my life.

There had to be a better way.

Kissing Frogs – Lots of them

Making real money always seemed to mean that I had to kiss lots of frogs to find the prince or princess with the money who wanted to buy now.

There had to be a better way.

You call this help?

I had worked for some wonderful companies. Sometimes the services and products were good, sometimes they stunk. Whatever the service or product was that year, the company, at best, would rent a hotel room, tell us all about it in one breath, and “assign” our quota in the next breath and then put us on the street to sell.

God helps him who helps himself, so they say

At worst, they had a conference call and mailed a brochure. And then they said, “Get busy.” I soon realized that these lame meetings and sponsorships of events is what my company thought of as “marketing.” That wasn’t the marketing I needed. The only marketing that was going on was being done by me (if I wanted to make any sales.

There had to be a better way.

At first, it was a dead end

I went into sales management. But I quickly figured out that my being in sales management just gave me the average of what my sales team could do. That was not the answer I was looking for. Sales management did not give me the leverage I was seeking.

There had to be a better way.

Higher math

One day I read in a book by David Ogilvy (Ogilvy on Advertising) that advertising (also known as marketing) is nothing more than salesmanship, multiplied. My first thought was, “I can do this.” Since I already knew how to sell, I just had to figure out a way to add the multiplication.

Paper multiplication

While nothing is perfect, this little insight allowed me to put on paper what I was doing in my most successful sales efforts. At first it was not pretty. but it worked. The time I put into cold-calling started to drop, and my sales volume started to climb. Yipee.

Just hit copy on the old Xerox machine

All I was doing was writing a personal letter to the prospect about something that I thought they cared about. This was more than 20 years ago, and my writing stunk. I wrote one letter and copied it on the Xerox machine. I used a pen to write in the target’s first name.

Perfection not required

While I was doing many things wrong, I was also doing a couple of things right. I was hitting on a pain, problem or aspiration that many of the targets had. I was letting them know about others like them who were using the service and product I had, and I was building their confidence that I could get the same results for them that I had gotten for the others.

This was a better way…kinda.

Write once, send many times

The better way is that I simply sent 100+ of these letters each week. Nothing fancy. After I dropped the letters in the mailbox, I went on about my business of doing my job the regular way.

Making the phone ring

Pretty soon the phone started to ring. At first it rang a little. Then it rang a little more. In a few weeks, it seemed to ring all the time. Everyone essentially said, “Tell me more.”

Qualified and interested is a beautiful thing

Many of the people who called were a relative snap to close. I made lots of money and thought I was brilliant.

Nothing worse than a quiet phone

Pretty soon, however, the phone almost quit ringing. I was still sending the 100+ letters every week. Despite that, my sales slowed to a trickle. What went wrong in my effort to multiply my sales effort? I’ll tell you next week, December 10th, why this letter quit working and what I could have done about it then, had I known)

There is a much better way…really.

What I didn’t know was hurting me

Back then, I didn’t know. Now I do. Once I figured it out, I started helping companies of all sizes multiply salesmanship so that their actual sales people would only invest time with people who were ready, willing and able to buy what was being sold.

You are about to get something very few know about

What I was trying to do was called marketing. In this case, a very special kind of marketing that 99.99 percent of all professional marketers don’t seem to understand. If you doubt me, just read the ads in most newspapers and magazines.

Prospects into Clients

Marketing is just doing what a good salesperson does by adding multiplication via some form of media such as print. The outcome of good direct marketing is a lead that, depending on the skill of the salesperson, can often be closed successfully.

Are you game?

Are you a good salesperson or business owner who wants to put some multiplication into your sales results in 2008? Are you getting good results now? And would you like to benefit from some multiplication? Then read on.

Your ticket is in this newsletter

The recipe I am about to share with you is very, very powerful. You could study this recipe for years and get something new out of it every month of every year. You can use right now, and get great benefits by doing nothing more active than taking what’s here, and putting it into action now.

The prize inside the Cracker Jack box…er newsletter

The recipe is called marketing syntax and it was formalized by a fellow named Robert Middleton. Print this the following and keep it handy; it is your road map to connecting with prospects, clients, and anyone in your world that you want to bring around to your way of thinking.

Marketing syntax
1. Target: - Who is your ideal client?
2. Problem: What is your prospect’s issue or challenge?
3. Outcome: What result or outcome would they prefer?
4. Story (Proof): Stories or case studies that tell about moving from problem to outcome.
5. Benefits: What’s everything clients get when they work with you?
6. Credibility: What qualifies you to do what you do?
7. Process: What do you actually offer and how does it work?
8. Call-to-Action: What do you want them to do next?

Seems simple until you look closely

When I introduce this to new corporate clients, I warn them not to be put off by its simplicity. What you see above is the tip of the iceberg; an iceberg well beyond the size of the one that sank the Titanic.

Application is the key

In some of my corporate workshops we will spend two full days going over the various aspects of marketing syntax, and then applying it to their situation. Once they have applied this recipe, sales almost always climb. No application equals no results.

Looking back will make you ill

As they begin to grasp the power of this outline, my clients almost always tell me how will they are about the dopey messages they have created in the past (usually a bunch of nonsense full of Me! Me! Me!), and how excited they are about a new future using marketing syntax.
Are you ready to put marketing syntax into action?

Sit down with the recipe above. Map out an ideal client (size, industry, etc.). Jot down the most pressing problem this ideal client group typically has, and then write down the outcome that you, your service or product provide.

A brief story

Follow that with a very concise story about how another client with the same problem has achieved a similar outcome.

A few benefits

Next, jot down three to 10 incremental benefits that the ideal client might get in addition to the main one.

Now, jot down a sentence or two about what makes you or your company qualified to deliver this solution. Follow that with a couple of points about how the process of getting the outcome works, from the clients perspective.

Finally, write down what you want the client to do next. That may be to buy, go to lunch with you, or join you on a phone call. You decide.

This won’t be pretty at first.

Read it out loud. Adjust it. Read it aloud again. Make your adjustments in writing.
When it is in reasonable shape, take it to a couple of friendly current customers and get their feedback. Again, make the adjustments your clients have suggested.

If you build it (with marketing syntax) they will likely come

If you have done all this, you are now on your way to multiplying your ability to sell, and your ability to generate a better income in 2008.

The guided tour starts January 7th

If you want to take the guesswork out of this process, you can enroll in my next Marketing Fast Track program that starts January 7th. Each Monday for 8 weeks, we will offer the class twice (once at 7:00 A.M. and once at 4:00 P.M. Pacific Time. This dual presentation will allow people in Europe, Australia and New Zealand to participate at times of the day that are reasonable for them. The class will cover the full process of gaining salesmanship multiplication (also known as marketing). You can sit in on either occurrence of the class (or both, if you want to).
If you do the work, you may find that you have a dramatic new capability to connect with your market; to convert it to revenue and commissions that exceeds anything you have ever seen before.

An MP3 for later listening

All sessions are recorded for later listening. If you have to miss a class, you can still listen to the MP3 at your convenience.

Just remember…

On your own, or in the class, marketing syntax is your key to salesmanship multiplied.

All the best,

Eric
eric@succeedinginbusiness.com
503-635-2319

PPS: What does ART have in common with RAT and TAR? You got it right. They all have the very same letters. Marketing syntax puts your message in the right order to be heard. If you don’t use the order above, you might get stuck in the TAR with a RAT, instead of producing some fine ART. Check out the Marketing Fast Track program, starting January 7th if you aren’t fond of TAR and RAT in your business.

11/26/07 - The top performaers deal in proof

Word count: 942
Time to read: 3 minutes

How do the top performers win more often than everyone else?

(A simple change you can make immediately that will enhance your results for the rest of your life.)

How to tell?

The world is full of hype, exaggeration, and other nonsense. Put yourself in the prospect’s shoes, how would you decide?

A matched set is the key

This is so simple and so rare. You address the “what’s in it for me” (WIIFM) from the client’s point of view and then you prove it in no uncertain terms. Like the furniture in a 1960’s living room, you deliver a matched set; a promise and a proof.

Marketing Syntax

If you are a frequent reader of this newsletter, you know that I frequently discuss marketing syntax. This is the order of things in a communication that gets and holds clients’ attention and helps them believe. And it gets them into action.

A key to survival in modern life

Being able to persuade and influence is a key to successful living in modern times. To get anywhere, we must be able (reliably) to get another peoples’ attention, hold that attention until we can make our case, and then get them to take action on our behalf. Getting this done starts with understanding what the other person wants (WIIFM).

Me-me-me-meeeeee

Talk about me-me-me all day long and ignore the WIIFM and you are, to most folks, irrelevant.

Only a good start

In our rough and tumble world, talking to the WIIFM is only enough to get a very brief listen. To hold the attention long enough to get somewhere, you need one more little thing…

Matched set redux

Becoming a master of the WIIFM in your client’s world and the associated proof that you can reliably deliver the WIIFM is a key to both financial success and life success. Talk to the WIIFM and prove you can deliver: Life is very good. Can’t prove you can deliver? Life is tough.

The story

14 years ago my wife and I sat in our living room listening to yet another remodeling company blather on about the materials they used, their years in the business, and the beauty of the finished product. All this capped by the high pressure close.

At the time, I traveled three to four weeks out of every month. My wife, Caroline, stayed home with our six-month old son, who had yet to sleep through the night. Caroline had some other health issues that made her very tired (as if a traveling husband and baby were not already enough).

Both of us were bleary-eyed and sick of hearing the same old stuff from each of these contractors. Every contractor sounded the same. Finally a young lady from one of the contractors came in, took one look at us and said, “I bet you folks would like to just go to bed tonight and wake up and have this project all done wouldn’t you?”

In unison we said, “Yes.” Next, she whipped out a string of quotes and photos of families. Each quote basically said how easy it had been, how fast it had been and how smooth it had been. We were sold.

The sales person also gave us a long list of folks we could call to confirm her points, and then told us that we would hear from her every Friday on the phone, or at the house, so she could make sure everything was going according to plan.

She listened

The first key was that she listened and asked questions. She didn’t make us feel like idiots.

She observed

We must have looked like a couple of wrecks. Our son was wiggly. The dishes weren’t done.

She turned it into a sale using proof

She gave us piles of proof; testimonials, quotes, pictures of happy families, notes from customers, and a list of people we could call. Finally, she simply guaranteed, in writing, that we would get what we had asked for at a specific price and within a specific time.

Easy to do?

Probably not. I found out later that she was the number one salesperson in her company by a very large margin.

Worth doing?

Ten years later I ran into her and asked her what her secret had been. She said she just treated everyone the way she wanted to be treated. I also asked her what she was doing now. She told me she was retired. She had just turned 40.

Anything else?

When I heard her say that she had just retired, I had to ask again about her secret. She said that there was one other thing: Because she had always looked young in a man’s business, she felt that she had to use lots of proof that she could perform, so folks would take her seriously.

Story is the easiest, and often, most compelling proof

In the Marketing Fast Track program, we show you many different ways you can build proof elements for any product or service. Perhaps the most important is the proper construction of a concise story. If done correctly, and in the proper place, a good story is all the proof many need.

A shot of high proof

No matter what service, product, or combination you might sell, proof that it will work, and work well, in the client’s situation is the key to the sale. Start with client’s WIIFM, and then add the proof. In no time you will be on your way to far more results — in business and in life.

Cheers,

Eric

PS: I help clients in all sorts of businesses (insurance, consulting, law, manufacturers reps, printers, landscapers, software, technology services, engineering, real estate, commercial real estate, builders, financial planners, CPA’s, remodeling and designers). Here is a little “Thanksgiving” proof I got this past week from a happy graduate of the Marketing Fast Track program:


The Marketing Fast Track program provided a systematic way to develop marketing methods and messages that focused on what the CLIENT gets, versus the standard me-me-me marketing done by most. We've totally changed our marketing messages and the changes have resulted in higher sales and lower marketing costs.

The best testimonial on the MFT system was received recently from a new client of ours that responded to one of our new ads created with the MFT formula and methods. She said, "Your ad just spoke to me. I thought you were talking directly to me. That is EXACTLY how I felt. My husband said to tear out the ad and call those folks." She and her husband have since become very good customers.

Our new ads using the MFT methods and formula have been working so well that even in the current housing recession (some say depression) we have been able to increase sales while spending less advertising dollars.

— Jeff Jones, President
Interior Expressions Design Showroom
(520) 275-9368
(520) 275-9368
Jeff@InteriorExpressionsAZ.com
1171 E. Rancho Vistoso Blvd Suite 131
Oro Valley, AZ 85755

11/20/07 - Tit-for-tat aka reciprocity; it makes the world go round

Word Count: 876
Time to Read: 2-3 minutes

A good trade

“Tit for tat” is also known as reciprocity. I give you something, and you give me something back. A willing mutual exchange.

A key to getting ahead at all levels

Dale Carnegie’s How to Win Friends and Influence People and Napoleon Hill’s Think and Grow Rich, both rely on the power of reciprocity in their advice on how to get ahead.

Good question

This is for a very good reason: tit-for-tat (or reciprocity) works. So why is it so infrequently used?

Rinse and repeat

Who knows why tit-for-tat isn’t used as often as it could be. The key is for you to remember it and use it whenever you feel it is appropriate. For most of us, reciprocity may be reasonably used practically every day. Like shampoo.

Tit for tat example: Bob Hanley (http://bobhanley.com/) is an outstanding ACT! consultant who can help almost anyone get more done in less time. He has the patience of Job. Bob wanted five minutes out of my very busy schedule. After a couple of call attempts, he sent me a greeting card with a $10 Starbucks card. I called him back the next day.

Makes the world go around

Human beings have survived through all time by playing tit-for-tat with each other. At some very basic level, we know that things will not go well for us if we don’t play it at some point. Some would even say that tit-for-tat is what keeps our society civil.

One of the laws of persuasion

As soon as someone does something for us that seems even remotely reasonable, we are on the hook. If they keep doing nice things, sooner or later, most of us must respond. Maybe this is why Robert Cialdini covers it in his wonderful book on persuasion: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

Like gravity, it applies to everyone

If the tit-for-tat is done reasonably, responsibly, and with some grace, you can connect with almost anyone, get along with almost anyone, and sell almost anyone. If done well, everyone smiles the whole way.

Tit for tat example: Tom Lambert from a large and rapidly growing janitorial services company named Service Point (http://www.srvcpoint.com/), has his telemarketers call their target market to do a “green maintenance” survey, with the offer to trade the survey result totals for taking the survey.

The relevance hook

The trick is to be relevant. In the example above, Tom Lambert knows that being “green” is rapidly becoming an issue that building managers must deal with. He also knows that they will be curious about what their peers are doing. This function of surveys will work for almost anyone in any industry, if you are relevant.

Losing it in the rough

People like to have fun. Most executives who play golf don’t do as well as they would like. But, give them the latest golf book and a couple of sleeves of balls to hit into the rough, and you can connect:

Tit for tat example: A computer services company calls senior executives and offers to exchange a few sleeves of Nike golf balls and the latest golf advice book in exchange for completion of a 15-minute survey. The bulk of the targets reached directly, or through their assistants, agree to take the survey. The company that does this, does not want me to publish its name.

Dial it in and leverage it for years to come

Another trick is to get the balance right. Too much, and it seems like a bribe. Too little, and it’s easy to ignore. You have to be willing to experiment. Once you get it right, it should work for years with very little adjustment.

A little something between friends

In most of corporate America, a “gift” of $25 or less, can go unreported. Things costing $50 might be safe, while gifts costing north of $100 are likely to be seen as bribes. Who wants to teeter-totter with an elephant?

Irritating & stupid

For quite some time, people would send a remote control car, without the remote, to a target. The target was told that, to get the remote, they would have to meet with a salesperson. In my experience, this program was expensive and usually bombed. It didn’t pass the tests listed above.

Tell me more

The final key is to design the tit for tat so that it simply moves you into a place where you can get your message heard. A place in which the target says, “Tell me more,” or is otherwise willing to take part in a conversation.

Marketing currency

The tit-for-tat exchange that yields a sale is usually at the end of a series of interactions, and rarely at the beginning. In our “Marketing Fast Track Program,” we show you how to build marketing currency: information that you can use to buy the time, attention, and tit-for-tat, with a target, successfully.

Only at the baseball park

Never expect a home run; it usually happens only in baseball parks and in the movies.
Are you ready to go pro?

Are you ready to find out how anyone, in any business, can systematically get more business in 2008 and beyond? Sign up, today, for the next Marketing Fast Track Program, which starts on January 7th. Learn how to boost your pay check in 2008.

Have a great Thanksgiving,

Eric

11/05/07 - The magic of an opportunity gap

Word Count: 717
Time to Read: 3 minutes

Beyond the solution

Mike Bosworth’s Solution Selling was, and remains, a wildly popular book. I loved it. I had hundreds of people who worked for me trained in it. It helped sell hundreds of millions in products and services. Despite all that, it doesn’t hold a candle to the power of the phrase, “What does that make possible?”

The man behind the curtain

When someone brings you a solution to a problem, consider using the magic phrase, “What does that make possible.” What you will get is the real driver behind the desire for the solution, product or service.

Instant differentiation

First, be aware that it is highly unlikely that any competitor will ever ask this question. By asking it, you will immediately be set apart from all of your competitors.

Hallowed ground

When you do ask it, be prepared to listen, and listen well. You have just been given a peek into what is really driving this prospect to act.

Are you ready to serve?

I have heard that the word, “sales,” essentially comes from the words meaning, “to serve.” When people tell you what a solution makes possible in their lives, you must ask yourself a question: Can you really serve them? Can you deliver what is needed, in whole or in part, to move them toward that which they want to make possible in their lives?

If you can serve, do it. If you can’t, walk away and live to play another day.

The surprising answer

Consider this story: I was meeting with Ross about helping his company penetrate a market niche for his software company. I asked him what penetrating that niche would make possible. Ross laid out the impact he saw, and the returns he anticipated his company enjoying for the next 10 years.

Not what I would have guessed

I hadn’t seen this possibility until Ross answered my question. I had been thinking of giving Ross a similar, but substantially different, possibility. What I was going to propose would have been all wrong.

Fast close once I understood

Given this new insight, I proceeded to ask Ross some additional questions, and we signed the agreement to work together later that week.

The win went way beyond the initial sale

I gave Ross what he wanted, and he is still a client today. I suspect he will be a client for many years to come.

Understanding is often the key factor

Recently, I asked him why he chose to do business with me, and why he was so loyal. After all, he has had options and alternatives to what I provided him. Ross told me that there were lots of alternatives for what I provided, with one exception: I understood his situation through the questions I asked, and through a willingness to listen.

Get your copy of Closing More Sales by Asking Better Questions, and begin to differentiate yourself, no matter what you sell. There is no risk. It either works for you, or we insist on refunding 100 percent of your investment in the book.

Clarity

Ross told me that when I asked, “What does that make possible,” that it was the first time anyone had ever asked him that. It took him a couple of minutes before he could choke out an answer. When he gave me the answer, he also gave himself the answer. He hadn’t really had clarity until I asked the question.

Realize the vision

Ross knew he could quit worrying about what I was selling, because now he knew that I was working to help him realize his vision. I wasn’t just selling him a product.

Sell or walk?


Clients usually know if your intent is to sell them something, or to serve them. Most clients are best-served when you ask the right questions and truly listen to the answers, and then do something that makes sense. Sometimes this means to sell, and other times it means to walk away.

How can we get started? magic words?

Ask the right questions and listen to the answers. I suspect you will begin to hear things like, “How can we get started,” on a more frequent basis. I almost never have to close, since I learned the magic of the phrase, “What does that make possible?”

Do you want to hear, “How can we get started?” more often? Don’t delay, get your copy of Closing More Sales by Asking Better Questions, and begin to differentiate yourself, no matter what you sell. There is no risk. It either works for you, or we insist on refunding 100 percent of your investment in the book.

All the best,

Eric

10/29/07 - 75 percent plus proposal close rate formula

Word count: 542

Time to read: 2 minutes

Proposals that don’t close
If I had invested as much time in the stock market as I have in writing proposals I would be retired by now. Ever feel that way?

All I want for Christmas…
Is a proposal that will close. I don’t need perfection, 75% + would just be dandy.

Dang things these proposals
Janet couldn’t give it away. Here she was a young 35, dressed to the nines, great education, loved her customers and she couldn’t get more than about 25% of her proposals to close. Her husband was fed up with her devoting weekends to writing the dang things and her boss was beginning to think she was an airhead.

Proposal 911
Janet called and asked for help. If I couldn’t help her, she was going to quit; the frustration wasn’t worth it.

Better pay through a few simple distinctions
We helped Janet discover a few simple distinctions that changed everything. Practically overnight she was closing more and more of her proposals until she was north of that magic 75% close rate.

First, Janet started asking why; “why her company?, why this product and service, why hadn’t they done this earlier, why do it now?” If she didn’t get a good answer to one or more, she didn’t propose. Lesson one: if you don’t understand the why’s, you are probably going to lose.

Second, Janet started asking about the impact; “what will this mean to the buyer, the company, the sponsor, the team, etc.” Not only that, she asked what the specific impact in dollars were likely to be. Usually the target didn’t really know. Janet helped them work it out using their numbers until they got to an impact number that they agreed was real. Lesson two; buyers usually have not thought through the true impact of buying what you are selling and will need your help to do so.

Third, Janet quit trying to use the proposal to sell but rather to put in writing an agreement that had already been reached. We gave Janet a proposal format that she had to get filled out from discussions with the person at the target account who could get ink on the check (that was another little innovation – Janet was surprised to realize that at least of third of the time she actually hadn’t been dealing with a person who was responsible for solving the problem the proposal was intended to address).

No more proposal weekends
The rule was that Janet couldn’t submit a proposal until she had gotten all the details the proposal format required. If she couldn’t get the details down and in agreement with the real buyer at the target account, Janet couldn’t waste her weekend submitting a proposal.

Everyone seems to fight
Janet fought initially. Pretty soon the proposal rate started to go up. As Janet got better at following the process her close rate climbed. Now Janet closes about 90%.

Just three Ma’m
Yes, there were a few more details we covered with Janet… but if you just do the one’s in this newsletter, you should see a big improvement. Let clarity and agreement be your primary guide… and give up the wishful thinking. How many of your proposals do you really close?

Margin Boost Tune-Up
If you want to master the dynamics of building a great proposal, you have two options. The most comprehensive approach is to take our Margin Boost Class starting November 8th and running for 7 weeks. Go HERE for more detail or HERE to register. The class in $995 and is 100% guaranteed.

Mini proposal tune-up
Your alternative is to send me a blank email to eric@succeedinginbusiness.com and just put PROPOSAL in the subject line. I am putting together a two session class on building proposals that will cover the bulk of the critical components of successful proposal writing. An option for that class will be to get a proposal review for an additional charge.

Your personal ROI is the key
The key to both the Margin Boost class and the proposal mini class is that spending a little time on getting better at proposals should cut your investment in proposal writing time while giving you the tools to make a life long improvement in your ability to make more money while working less.

Cheers,

Eric

10 /18/07 - Too little time; too many tasks

Succeeding in Business seems to have us always in a position of having limited time and resources, yet hundreds of tasks, to-do’s and opportunities.

The weakness that kills income

I don't know about you, but this seems to be the Achilles’ heel of most of us who are dependent on actual results to get paid.

A fast and easy fix

I recently came across a combination that is in the process of changing my life:

Here’s the process

First: Take your list of tasks and to-do's and get them all down on a single piece of paper.

Second: Rate each of them as being an A, B or C.

A = High leverage with the highest turn-around time to implementation.
B = Mid-sized projects that take planning
and thought, and could be considered
mini-projects.
C = Long-term projects that can take a long time before you see results.

Third: take only your "A" level tasks and re-rate them as A1, A2 and A3, based on the criteria you use to estimate how each one will impact your bottom line financially.

Fourth: Do this one more time, but this time, take only your A1 tasks and rate them in terms of A+, A or A-.

Fifth: Give this a hard look and get started! You can now move forward in your day and your business, knowing you are going to make the largest impact, with the most financial gain, in the shortest time.

Red-faced Caroline

Caroline tried this out and was shocked to find how few of the things she was doing in her day were actually directly impacting her financial situation. She felt sick.

A little help for the bottom-line

With the facts from the process above, in hand, Caroline got busy and hired a VA (virtual assistant). It was a stretch to afford this person, initially. Caroline showed her husband how his time was being spent versus how it should be spent, and her husband agreed (wise man). Even though it was initially a tight budget fit, they decided to hire the VA.

Love and hate affair

After a brief shake-out period, Caroline’s productivity began to soar. Not long after that, her income began, slowly, to take off. Today, things are really cooking for Caroline. The new VA not only loves doing the things Caroline hated, she is lightning-fast at it, as well.

Give me $6,000 and I’ll give you $1,200: DEAL

Caroline is now worth about $150 per hour. The VA costs about $40 per hour. Caroline’s monthly bill is only $1,200.00, while Caroline’s income is up about $6,000.00. Everybody is happy.

Call-to-Action

If you are really committed to making more, while working less, the recipe above may have a place in your life. You may also want to invest in my book, Making More While Working Less. It’s a kind of a “gimme- $97-, and-I’ll-give-you-another-$5K-or-more-every-year-for-the-next-five-years-IF-you-can-execute,” sorta deal.

All the best until next time.

Eric