I am the Steve Irwin of Marketing
Yes that is correct I am the Crocodile Hunter
of the marketing world you see I go for a
juggernaut and do not play around with my
direct marketing campaigns.
Everyone I know who is successful has this
same KILLER entrepreneural spirtit
question is do you?
Pete
Sunday, September 10, 2006
***Unorthodox Door 2 Door Sales Technique***
"Did I forget to mention the shameless plug"
Yes door 2 door sales who would have thought I'd have a KILLER technique for you on this!? Yes I'll admit I have been one of those "annoying" door 2 door sales men and I must also admit it's the best "normal job" I ever had. It is safe to say I have participated in almost every type and facet of direct response type advertising including working doing things in industries that most of you would never even thought existed let alone are making a killing.
First of I apologise too those of my readers who have missed my regular posting, I get busy with my business projects, friends, relationships and various other things that take up my time such as going to the gym. For those of you who have a moral objection to the fact that I'm not actually selling you or plugging you everything I have a special suprise for you but more on that in a little bit.
I hope you like the changes with the site, I was going to go to one of those new funky blogger sites however I like the current Gary Halbert styled site. I also plan on moving my links to a different page [somehow some way] and getting rid of that annoying amazon affliate banner as it takes away from my most perfect site which would otherwise intice you to read each and every article on this site!
So any way back to my unorthodox door 2 door sales technique... Standing on one leg...
I kid you not, I have had numerous ankle problems over my life time and I used to stand on one leg while waiting for the customer often with my eye closed to trying to work on my balance. Guess what a few of these home owners opened door with out me noticing and it soon became a great icebreaker. It literally throws the person of balance and clears their mind which takes any preplanned objections they had planned for you. So basically what came from something to do while waiting for the person to answer turned into a crazy powerful technique...
Some other killer tips
- Always use social proof as coined by Robert Cialdini, create a few fake leads or sales when working of course do not try and turn these into the boss. Doing this makes what you are doing seem a lot more normal and acceptable especially if its other people in there area.
- Make sure you know the area code and phone number code of the area you are in.
- Use a quick icebraker such as a short story or something you've noticed about their home. If they seem annoyed or like they like they don't like being "sold to or one over" then skip this and then just pitch them straight after hello how are you...
- Unless your boss is a complete ditwit he's constructed a pitch that is proven to work effectively. Stick to it and do not try to be and innovator. In fact I only know one guy who has innovated and made it work for him and he was a freak nad holds numerous sales records and earns as much in a day to a day and a half as the other sales consultants he works with do in a week. In fact in the country he's from which is New Zealand the company is actually teaching some elements of his system to all new sales consultants but thats onl ya rare example. Stick to the tried and true pitch for the most part as it will get the hardest thing to get in sales, "consistent results."
NOW for my shameless plug I was talking about... It seems that every man and his blog these days is trying to make money out of there readers so I wanted to do something in that I want to give you something absolutely FREE. Of course I'm not going to give it too you this awesome piece of information absolutely FREE as that would be a crazy thing to do.
You see you are going to help make me filthy rich! You see this piece of information is a FREE ebook from one of the top Internet Marketing gurus Brad Callen. Brad and his brother Matt have made a name for themselves in the marketing community selling the usual stuff that filthy rich marketing gurus typically sell. However they also like to help others out http://www.bradcallen.com and his free site for reciprical links http://www.linkmetro.com.
So more about how you are going to make me filthy rich in a minute I'm going to tell you how to get your hands on this FREE ebook and if you have any interest on an internet marketing genius can teach you step by step how you can massively boost your search engine results using keywords this might be of a slight smidgen of interest to you but then again perhaps maybe it won't if you like being poor.
You see whats going to happen is you are going to make me filthy rich by reading the FREE ebook then clicking on Brads new Website to buy his absolutely kick arse complementary called "Keyword Elite" but first you have to read this kick ass book Google Adwords Made Easy
Signed with Success,
Peter
p.s. P.S's are so 2005!
Friday, August 18, 2006
*Business Branding*
Hey guys, today I have a special treat for all of you or y'all depending where you are reading this from. I'm going to introduce to you in a moment a very unique individual, his name is Robert Kingston. I have had the priviledge of knowing Rob for about the past two and a half years and in this time I have seen him blossom into the internet SEO superfreak and marketing wizard he is today. Without further ado I'll let Rob take virtual keyword off me and continue with his article. I think you guys are going to really enjoy this!
********************************************************
Bolstering Up Your Brand
Everything your company does, and sometimes what it doesn’t do can make or break your brand in the business world today. Now, that sounds pretty intimidating doesn’t it? Well don’t fret – because I’m going to share with you, step by step, secrets which will allow you to develop your brand name into something much more valuable than the product itself. So let’s get the ball rolling shall we?
Step 1. Set Apart your brand form the ‘herd’
With all of the choice consumers have on the market these days, it comes as no surprise that we hear so much talk about operating in a “niche market” or as a ‘Purple Cow’. Now, what about those businesses who have really similar products competing against them – how do they profit? Well, they set themselves apart from the competition. This can be done by having a competitive advantage – or having something of value which is hard for competitors to imitate. So, how can a marketer do this? For starters, you can position it away from your competitors using four different ways:
By Image: If you happen to own a small restaurant in a more lively suburb, you might decide to give your brand the image that it’s an extremely valuable and open place to go – just like Starbucks. This will allow you to attract more people of your targeted audience to your business.
By Category: An example of this might be if you are a personal coach, you might be “THE personal coach to see”, if you are a young entrepreneur. Whilst this may disregard any older entrepreneurs, it will create a much stronger relationship between young entrepreneurs and your brand.
By Features: Say that you own a VoIP telephone company like Engin, Skype or Vonage, you could differentiate your brand by offering a unique feature with your service – like an informational product which tells you the news over the phone. This will give your brand the identity of being an informative, business-like brand which is more likely to attract those sorts of customers.
By Benefits: A good webmaster might differentiate their product by the benefits their visitors receive by going to the website or signing up for their product. Like, how signing up to learn about Real Estate will improve their quality of life. This will target people who would like a job where they can relax and enjoy life.
These basic types of positioning differentiate your brand from rivals and offer a counter-intuitive way for you to increase consumer trust and their perceived value of your brand. I would highly recommend that you sit down and analyse your strengths and weaknesses within your business then identify your opportunities and threats outside of your business for developing this step. Then you will be able to brainstorm a lot of valuable ideas and use those ideas to help position you away from your competition. Once you’ve got this sorted, you can then move on to reap the benefits of communicating more effectively with your target market - or in other words, get more business.
Step 2. Give your brand it’s very own identity.
Think of your brand like it is a person. What characteristics do you want people to associate with your brand? Here are some ideas to get your mind going…
Use Symbolism and imagery to show your product effectively.
Take Google for example, their multi-coloured logo is symbolic of their fun-filled organisation, meanwhile the name Google (derived from googolplex) suggests the calculating and complex nature of the search engine’s job is ultimately to simplify information for its customers’ consumption.
Identify values which your target market share and then incorporate them into your brand.
Coke did a fantastic Job with this when they launched the Coke Zero brand. With their slogan, “Why can’t life have a whole lot more Zero…”, they effectively outlined what the brand’s values were and marketed it to consumers with similar values in a unique and creative way.
If you can get in touch with what your customers value, then you have a good chance of communicating with them on a similar level. Try and develop advertisements and products based around what your consumers value, for more on targeting consumers by their values, check out these Roy Morgan Values Segments.
Get an effective brand name which is simple, distinctive and uses symbolism to help convey meaning about the brand itself. Otherwise stating the brand’s benefits in the name also works well – especially in the case of Email Cash.
The Popular TV Series ‘Big Brother’ is a simple and effective name which implies that there is always someone watching you no matter where you go.
This step is very subjective, and you may want to do some research before putting your foot down. Find out what people associate with your particular industry or niche. If you’re in doubt, look at your competitors to see what else you can do, but be careful trying to imitate them - Although your competitor’s brand attributes may rub off onto your brand, your customers may be confused between your brand and that of your competitor’s.
Step 3. Create and maintain your Brand’s image.
As I said above, EVERYTHING a brand does and doesn’t do can have an effect on what your customers think of you - and this final step is the most crucial step for bolstering your brand in the business world. So by this stage you should have set your brand away from competitors and given it an identity. Now you have to put everything together and give it an image which you will use for everything in your business that your customers come into contact with.
Just think about this for a moment – You’re walking through the city and brands are looking to grab your eye but none of them do… Suddenly there is one which commands your attention. It has everything together, everything matches, it sends the same message in every part of it and it is exactly the type of brand you like. As you keep going to the city, you may even keep seeing the same brands which didn’t get your attention, however when you see that clearly defined brand once again, you recognize it instantly and you begin to trust them more. Just like that old proverb - Familiarity breeds trust.
So if you’re able to coordinate your advertising, your product packaging, your corporate values and anything else a customer might come into contact with, with your brand on it, not only will it be ‘bolstered up’ in their minds, but they will like it more, out of increased trust and similar values to their own. If you haven’t got a powerful brand, then maybe this might be the trick for you…
I hope you find this post insightful and helpful for building up your Brand in business, please feel free to leave comments.
Step 1. Set Apart your brand form the ‘herd’
With all of the choice consumers have on the market these days, it comes as no surprise that we hear so much talk about operating in a “niche market” or as a ‘Purple Cow’. Now, what about those businesses who have really similar products competing against them – how do they profit? Well, they set themselves apart from the competition. This can be done by having a competitive advantage – or having something of value which is hard for competitors to imitate. So, how can a marketer do this? For starters, you can position it away from your competitors using four different ways:
By Image: If you happen to own a small restaurant in a more lively suburb, you might decide to give your brand the image that it’s an extremely valuable and open place to go – just like Starbucks. This will allow you to attract more people of your targeted audience to your business.
By Category: An example of this might be if you are a personal coach, you might be “THE personal coach to see”, if you are a young entrepreneur. Whilst this may disregard any older entrepreneurs, it will create a much stronger relationship between young entrepreneurs and your brand.
By Features: Say that you own a VoIP telephone company like Engin, Skype or Vonage, you could differentiate your brand by offering a unique feature with your service – like an informational product which tells you the news over the phone. This will give your brand the identity of being an informative, business-like brand which is more likely to attract those sorts of customers.
By Benefits: A good webmaster might differentiate their product by the benefits their visitors receive by going to the website or signing up for their product. Like, how signing up to learn about Real Estate will improve their quality of life. This will target people who would like a job where they can relax and enjoy life.
These basic types of positioning differentiate your brand from rivals and offer a counter-intuitive way for you to increase consumer trust and their perceived value of your brand. I would highly recommend that you sit down and analyse your strengths and weaknesses within your business then identify your opportunities and threats outside of your business for developing this step. Then you will be able to brainstorm a lot of valuable ideas and use those ideas to help position you away from your competition. Once you’ve got this sorted, you can then move on to reap the benefits of communicating more effectively with your target market - or in other words, get more business.
Step 2. Give your brand it’s very own identity.
Think of your brand like it is a person. What characteristics do you want people to associate with your brand? Here are some ideas to get your mind going…
Use Symbolism and imagery to show your product effectively.
Take Google for example, their multi-coloured logo is symbolic of their fun-filled organisation, meanwhile the name Google (derived from googolplex) suggests the calculating and complex nature of the search engine’s job is ultimately to simplify information for its customers’ consumption.
Identify values which your target market share and then incorporate them into your brand.
Coke did a fantastic Job with this when they launched the Coke Zero brand. With their slogan, “Why can’t life have a whole lot more Zero…”, they effectively outlined what the brand’s values were and marketed it to consumers with similar values in a unique and creative way.
If you can get in touch with what your customers value, then you have a good chance of communicating with them on a similar level. Try and develop advertisements and products based around what your consumers value, for more on targeting consumers by their values, check out these Roy Morgan Values Segments.
Get an effective brand name which is simple, distinctive and uses symbolism to help convey meaning about the brand itself. Otherwise stating the brand’s benefits in the name also works well – especially in the case of Email Cash.
The Popular TV Series ‘Big Brother’ is a simple and effective name which implies that there is always someone watching you no matter where you go.
This step is very subjective, and you may want to do some research before putting your foot down. Find out what people associate with your particular industry or niche. If you’re in doubt, look at your competitors to see what else you can do, but be careful trying to imitate them - Although your competitor’s brand attributes may rub off onto your brand, your customers may be confused between your brand and that of your competitor’s.
Step 3. Create and maintain your Brand’s image.
As I said above, EVERYTHING a brand does and doesn’t do can have an effect on what your customers think of you - and this final step is the most crucial step for bolstering your brand in the business world. So by this stage you should have set your brand away from competitors and given it an identity. Now you have to put everything together and give it an image which you will use for everything in your business that your customers come into contact with.
Just think about this for a moment – You’re walking through the city and brands are looking to grab your eye but none of them do… Suddenly there is one which commands your attention. It has everything together, everything matches, it sends the same message in every part of it and it is exactly the type of brand you like. As you keep going to the city, you may even keep seeing the same brands which didn’t get your attention, however when you see that clearly defined brand once again, you recognize it instantly and you begin to trust them more. Just like that old proverb - Familiarity breeds trust.
So if you’re able to coordinate your advertising, your product packaging, your corporate values and anything else a customer might come into contact with, with your brand on it, not only will it be ‘bolstered up’ in their minds, but they will like it more, out of increased trust and similar values to their own. If you haven’t got a powerful brand, then maybe this might be the trick for you…
I hope you find this post insightful and helpful for building up your Brand in business, please feel free to leave comments.
Best of Luck,
Robert Kingston.
****************************************************
Thanks Robert for your excellent insight there! For more excellent article from Robert visit Small Business Branding.
See you next time,
Peter Laurent
Wednesday, August 16, 2006
***Internet Marketing & Business***
Welcome back to those of you who are regular readers of my columns and too anyone who is a virgin reader of Marketing Madonna I am glad you have discovered one of the best free marketing resources on the internet. I was pleasantly surprised after my last series of articles to see the traffic roar in to this site after I published two articles in two days of course that was short lived. Such is the nature of the internet these days and I actually found it quiet hilarious to see the results leapfrog just from publishing a an article every day or two. The only problem is that most of us have other better things to do and other activities that will leverage us more profit than writing articles on a site every day. Not to mention most of us have learnt that we need to have 3, 4 or 5 internet ventures going at once to get a steady return. Some of us even have better things to do, people to see, and we simply don’t have time to publish articles every day.
So I’m just letting you know the purpose of this site is too write some quality articles over the next 6 months to a year every week so that in 6 months I have a great site with an enormous database of invaluable information. In my opinion that caters for both regular readers who visit the site every week or two too see what you’ve been up to as well as new readers who have access to an amazing database of content and great information. Patience is a virtue ladies and gentlemen. If you are seeing yourself consistently entering into ventures with passion and confidence before seeing your efforts slowly stale out as you don’t instantaneously get amazing results. If more than often your sites die before you because your motivation to build the site is gone and you leave your brilliant idea die for all eternity only too see an internet marketing guru steal your idea a few months and make millions with then I consider trying this tactic of building your site up over time as this method will most likely build better long term results and may even give you the time to create ten sites instead of five. $$$.
The other day I was reading a book entitled “Internet Marketing in 2003” or something of the like. The irony of the book was most of what was contained with in it was a lot of the up to date core concepts, principals and systems that a lot of the top gurus are teaching and implementing right now in 2006. So much for the razzle dazzle, cut throat ever changing always evolving world that is the internet. Please don’t be readers, the fundamentals of what makes an great business and effective marketing will never really change or evolve much what will change will be the technology available to communicate that message.
One finally word, I have recently had a few people who have blatantly tried to spam my site with messages in the comments section. If you want to post a comment you are more than welcome to. But if you want to post a comment then please add one as I appreciate them. However, if you want to post a comment to promote your site then I will allow that only if you add some valuable discussion or at least attempt to in your post. If I think your website is a bit dubious or a subpar product I will also not allow it. I don’t post spam comment on your sites or any other sites, I only promote my sites by writing articles or adding valuable feedback so I ask you to have some integrity and to do the same. On that not if you have an problems with sites I link to or have affiliate or other ventures with on this or any other site don’t be afraid to contact me here. I will get in contact with those businesses and if they fail to meet my expectations then I will remove their links from my website.
I take a hard stance on this kind of thing because I have a reputation to maintain and improve upon and reputation is one of the most important things to have in business, always work on maintaining and improving it. If you have a great product or a great website do not be afraid to contact me though as I like to reward good business people. Email me here.
Signed with Success
Peter Laurent
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
Offering Freebies vs. People not valuing what they don’t have to work for
Now what I’m going to suggest here doesn’t not conform to what you might here from a lot of the so called gurus in the marketing community which is good because I like controversy, in fact I love it. In fact I’m going to do as far as to say that what a lot of so called marketing gurus do is devalue their actual product by offering so many freebies. What most of these so called marketing gurus do is spam there product everywhere possible for months and months on end using every possible marketing technique they can conjure up until people start to get pissed of at their antics and their sales start to fizzle at which time they go onto the next LATEST product.
They usual offer some KILLER free ebook that promises to teach you everything you need to know about making money. The only problem with this is that even if the ebook did have the secret killer technique to make you a million never few would follow through with it as people don’t value what they don’t have to work for. It’s pure human nature, that’s what makes all great sports people great is that they have to work for it. If it were no work then everyone would be a Michael Jordan or a Donald Trump and of course if there were no risks then everyone would be. Of course Michael Jordan knew that if he never became a great basketballer he’d have to work in a norm job and sure Donald Trump knows that if he makes a bad real estate blunder he could lose his entire portfolio but with every decision there is some level of risk evolved. The bottom line is that the more effort you’ve put into something the more likely you are too take that risk. Think about this for a moment, you take the risk to pay for a Jay Abraham seminar and it costs you a few thousand plus flights and accommodation for a few days are you going to value your time at the seminar more than a FREE seminar with Jay? God yes! People don’t value what they don’t have to work for.
Back to the example of internet marketers and their mailing list. Think about this they may have a list of 10, 000 subscribers but how many of them are really brand loyal? The sad fact is that most of these subscribes will either get annoyed by the large volume of emails or take the person for granted for giving away too much value in FREE gifts. In my opinion it’s better to offer FREE gifts to those on your list who are already customers as a way to reward and thank them and also as a way to encourage the purchase of more of your products. Because when you really take the time to consider what you are going you are actually training bad customers if you give away too much for FREE. They are developing the bad habit of not buying your product and you are continuing to reward them with more FREEBIES. Think about it if your new puppy shits on the floor do you give them a treat, no f#c^ing way! So why would you continue to give them freebies when they don’t buy your products?
Now it’s ok to offer a FREE seminar or make a FREE offer of some sort to create business I tell people to do that all the time. Just make sure you aren’t giving too much away that people start to take you for granted. Just offer enough FREE up front to give those interested in your product all the information needed to purchase your product. If the product is packaged in a way that it offers irresistible value and you have a risk reversal policy you will have no problems selling the product.
Now the fun really starts and FREEBIES really come in handy especially if you have relationships will a business with an adjourning product. You can give your customers a FREE trial of their product in wish you get a percentage of the sale if they buy the product, you can give a free trial or free section of one of your products, to up sell them. You can give them a FREE gift of some sort but most importantly don’t email too often as you want these offers to be valued and you also want them to solidify your relationship with your customer.
Signed with Success,
Peter Laurent
Now what I’m going to suggest here doesn’t not conform to what you might here from a lot of the so called gurus in the marketing community which is good because I like controversy, in fact I love it. In fact I’m going to do as far as to say that what a lot of so called marketing gurus do is devalue their actual product by offering so many freebies. What most of these so called marketing gurus do is spam there product everywhere possible for months and months on end using every possible marketing technique they can conjure up until people start to get pissed of at their antics and their sales start to fizzle at which time they go onto the next LATEST product.
They usual offer some KILLER free ebook that promises to teach you everything you need to know about making money. The only problem with this is that even if the ebook did have the secret killer technique to make you a million never few would follow through with it as people don’t value what they don’t have to work for. It’s pure human nature, that’s what makes all great sports people great is that they have to work for it. If it were no work then everyone would be a Michael Jordan or a Donald Trump and of course if there were no risks then everyone would be. Of course Michael Jordan knew that if he never became a great basketballer he’d have to work in a norm job and sure Donald Trump knows that if he makes a bad real estate blunder he could lose his entire portfolio but with every decision there is some level of risk evolved. The bottom line is that the more effort you’ve put into something the more likely you are too take that risk. Think about this for a moment, you take the risk to pay for a Jay Abraham seminar and it costs you a few thousand plus flights and accommodation for a few days are you going to value your time at the seminar more than a FREE seminar with Jay? God yes! People don’t value what they don’t have to work for.
Back to the example of internet marketers and their mailing list. Think about this they may have a list of 10, 000 subscribers but how many of them are really brand loyal? The sad fact is that most of these subscribes will either get annoyed by the large volume of emails or take the person for granted for giving away too much value in FREE gifts. In my opinion it’s better to offer FREE gifts to those on your list who are already customers as a way to reward and thank them and also as a way to encourage the purchase of more of your products. Because when you really take the time to consider what you are going you are actually training bad customers if you give away too much for FREE. They are developing the bad habit of not buying your product and you are continuing to reward them with more FREEBIES. Think about it if your new puppy shits on the floor do you give them a treat, no f#c^ing way! So why would you continue to give them freebies when they don’t buy your products?
Now it’s ok to offer a FREE seminar or make a FREE offer of some sort to create business I tell people to do that all the time. Just make sure you aren’t giving too much away that people start to take you for granted. Just offer enough FREE up front to give those interested in your product all the information needed to purchase your product. If the product is packaged in a way that it offers irresistible value and you have a risk reversal policy you will have no problems selling the product.
Now the fun really starts and FREEBIES really come in handy especially if you have relationships will a business with an adjourning product. You can give your customers a FREE trial of their product in wish you get a percentage of the sale if they buy the product, you can give a free trial or free section of one of your products, to up sell them. You can give them a FREE gift of some sort but most importantly don’t email too often as you want these offers to be valued and you also want them to solidify your relationship with your customer.
Signed with Success,
Peter Laurent
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
The Secret which has made more people Millionaires than anything else:
Up selling and Cross- Selling Customers
Yes it’s true, most people make their million on the 2nd and 3rd sales. Now I’m under a bit of a time constraint so I’ll lay it out as simply as possible. If you were to crunch the numbers and figure out that on average 60% of your customers buy three products from you for a total value of $300. Then wouldn’t that mean you could afford to offer a discount on your initial product in order to make more sales to increase your back end. When you figure out what you average customer is really worth over a life time in enables you to fully appreciate the importance of offering your customers value.
Now what you have to remember is that price is not always the number deal maker which determines whether or not you make the sale. Value is an important deal maker and value can only lie in the eye of the buyer and will differ from buyer to buyer and will also depend on value offered by other products in the market place. A good way to add additional value to your initial product is to give them a trial or component of one of your 2nd phase products which you are trying to up sell them to. Whether it be a part of a dvd, audio CD, book, software, wine it’s easy to give your buyer additional value whilst at the same time enticing them to buy your 2nd phase product. The advantage of this method is that there is only minimum expense to you.
Talk soon
Pete Laurent
Wednesday, August 02, 2006
How much is your customer really worth?
Here we are again at Marketing Madonna, it’s time for another insightful foray into the world that is marketing. First let me gloat a little, it’s Wednesday and I’ve already doubled the amount of business I’ve created in all of last week, hurray! Now today we are going to talk about one of my favourite concepts, the concept on the lifetime value of your customer.
Here are the statistics for you to give you a little background on what I’m about to say. It is ten times harder to create a new customer than it is to retain an old one. In most industries 80% of your business is created by 20% of your customers, this is often referred to as the top 20%. 96% of unhappy customers never complain. Every unhappy customer tells 15-30 other people compared to a happy customer who tells around six people. 95% of customers who make a complaint and have it handled efficiently and promptly become more brand loyal. Now if all these statistics were true and market research provides us evidence that they are, wouldn’t the way we approach our customers be drastically different?
Now I don’t want to get too industry specific but a restaurant or a café is the perfect example of this. Now remember the last time you went to a really bad restaurant for the first time, I bet after you had that really bad experience you told everyone you talked to about it. However, how about the last time you went to a really good restaurant, I bet you probably told a few good friends about how good it was but you really did tell to many other people right? Word of mouth is a power thing, as social proof as it was termed by Robert Cialdini in “Influence Science and Practice” plays an important role in peoples decision making process. There is only one real problem most business owners or even a lot of guru consultants don’t take into account. People on the whole in our society today aren’t very good communicators and they are even worse listeners. Did you even play that game Chinese whispers when you were in school and it would start of with “The cat sat on the mat” and as the people past the message around the circle it soon became “Magnus has a big butt.” Well sorry to break it too you but even since those days we really haven’t been taught to be better listeners, it’s not like there are University classes on how to be a better listener or anything. So we still have our sixth grade listening skills. Now what does this have to do with happy customers and word of mouth. Well everything, even if someone tells someone how amazingly wonderful your product is once the message has been passed on from person to person it can become somewhat dilute or even quiet skewed. Movies are a perfect example of this I mean how many people tell you what a movie is supposed to be like when they’ve never even seen it, talk about false advertising.
So back to the restaurant example, one think you might have noticed if you go out too the same place a few times you might start to see the same people there quiet consistently. That’s what you might call the top 10 or 20% of your clients depending on your industry. Now the sad thing is that a lot of businesses treat their top 20% of customers exactly the same as they treat their other customers or even worse they treat they regular customer worse than their other customers because they think they have their business indefinitely. Well let me tell you in the competitive business world today with the even increase amount of competition that is not a very intelligent idea. Now I’m not saying you treat you’re top 20% better than your other customers, I’m just suggesting you treat you customers differently based on whether they are first timers, industry shop arounds, semi regular or regular clients. Does that not make sense! Now if you don’t know whether they are a regular client or not why not train you’re staff to ask the simple question “have you been here before?”
Now there are many different strategies we can put in place to make the most of your top 20% of customers but that requires you to do one thing. You have to figure out which customers are your top 10 or 20% and then figure out how to resell, upsell or cross sell them. We’ll talk more about that in the next article and we’ll talk more about the life time value of our customer in future articles as well. The most important thing with targeting your top 20% for these kind of deals is that if you pick the wrong people to make these offers to you get people who take advantage of your generous who are not really your regular long term customers. This of course can lead to losses if you are offering special deals to customers when you do not already have their brand loyalty.
The importance of realising that the value of your customers goes much past the first sale and that look at their lifetime value to your business can not be understated.
Until next time I bid thee farewell
Peter Laurent
Monday, July 31, 2006
“A SECRET ALMOST EVERYONE READING THIS KNOWS BUT NEVER TAKES ADVANTAGE OF”
Hey there friend,
Today I stumbled on something that I’d hate to admit but I’m going to spill the beans to you guys first, so here it is- I really like Mondays! Yes imagine the irony, the years and years of struggle I’ve been putting myself through to get through the to glitz and glamour that is the end of the week only to realise I’m a fan of the first day. Now I never said I wasn’t crazy, so bare with me for a little bit on this one. Now those of you who go to the gym will be able to relate to me on this one, I go to the gym about five times a week and like most things I do I take it pretty seriously as I want to be the best I can be. Now I follow a periodised cycle which basically means you start lifting a wait that is comfortable for you at a certain number of reps and you keep doing that amount of repetitions each week but you increase the weight until you reach you maximum. So eventually you get the business end of the cycle where you grid it out pound for pound, kilometre by kilometre to get every last ounce of strength gain possible.
Now the weirdest thing about all this is you train all week five days a week, Monday to Friday in my case but in my opinion the only day that really counts is Monday. On Monday I do my chest which is always the hardest because you have to get back into the swing of things after two days of not training but the great thing about each Monday is it’s the only day you can really gauge your improvement from the previous week. When you think about it, it’s due, you train every day but the only time you can really gauge your improvement is the next week when you put more weight on. Now I’ve spent two paragraphs on this now and some of you are probably wondering what the hell I’m on about and what this has to do with business and marketing. Well let me tell you who better brace yourself for this one because when you realise this is true you will either jump for joy now that you’ve found the asker or kick yourself in the foot. Now don’t thank me for this one thank Marc Dussault as he was the first person to put this in front of my eyes so clearly.
Now this secret will most likely equally apply to you whether you are an employee, self employed or a business owner and if you really want to take your finances up a notch I’d it’s worth taking some time to think about it. Now like me who is working in the gym Monday to Friday most of you are in an office or the equalivent working in your business Monday through Friday. Now there is only one problem with working in your business, your not working on your business!!!
“There is only one problem with working in your business, it’s that you’re not working on your business”
Now if it hasn’t already clicked what I’m talking about it here then I’m elaborate what I mean. Most of us whether it be employers, employees, or business owners spend all our time working in our business, whether it be in the printing industry, a café, a mechanic, an IT business whatever, we mainly are focused on building, creating and selling those particular products and services and doing the necessary business paper work and transactions and paperwork to stay in business and hopeful make a profit. What most of us aren’t doing is working on our business, we are always looking from the inside out rather than the outside in.
Now the thing is once you get stuff IN your business it can often be quiet hard to stick your head OUT of your business even for a moment in time to get an accurate snapshot of your business which can provide you with the feedback you need to improve and growth your business. Perhaps as our day to day lives get busier and busier with an overload of cores and activities this is why now in the past five years more than ever we have seen such high demand for consulting services. People want to have more spare time to travel and spent with friends and family they still want a great financially rewarding career which often means going into business. What they fail to understand is that being a business owner really means you are just that a business owner. Your job is to marketing the business, be the figurehead, promote it, build in up and grow it exponentially first and foremost and secondly if it’s a small business and you need to be involved in producing your product or service [i.e. a Doctor or mechanic or similar business] then it’s producing that good or service. Most business owner’s do things the other what around, so they would be a great doctor rather than a great business owner of a surgery.
That’s all for now
Signed with success,
Peter Laurent
Today I stumbled on something that I’d hate to admit but I’m going to spill the beans to you guys first, so here it is- I really like Mondays! Yes imagine the irony, the years and years of struggle I’ve been putting myself through to get through the to glitz and glamour that is the end of the week only to realise I’m a fan of the first day. Now I never said I wasn’t crazy, so bare with me for a little bit on this one. Now those of you who go to the gym will be able to relate to me on this one, I go to the gym about five times a week and like most things I do I take it pretty seriously as I want to be the best I can be. Now I follow a periodised cycle which basically means you start lifting a wait that is comfortable for you at a certain number of reps and you keep doing that amount of repetitions each week but you increase the weight until you reach you maximum. So eventually you get the business end of the cycle where you grid it out pound for pound, kilometre by kilometre to get every last ounce of strength gain possible.
Now the weirdest thing about all this is you train all week five days a week, Monday to Friday in my case but in my opinion the only day that really counts is Monday. On Monday I do my chest which is always the hardest because you have to get back into the swing of things after two days of not training but the great thing about each Monday is it’s the only day you can really gauge your improvement from the previous week. When you think about it, it’s due, you train every day but the only time you can really gauge your improvement is the next week when you put more weight on. Now I’ve spent two paragraphs on this now and some of you are probably wondering what the hell I’m on about and what this has to do with business and marketing. Well let me tell you who better brace yourself for this one because when you realise this is true you will either jump for joy now that you’ve found the asker or kick yourself in the foot. Now don’t thank me for this one thank Marc Dussault as he was the first person to put this in front of my eyes so clearly.
Now this secret will most likely equally apply to you whether you are an employee, self employed or a business owner and if you really want to take your finances up a notch I’d it’s worth taking some time to think about it. Now like me who is working in the gym Monday to Friday most of you are in an office or the equalivent working in your business Monday through Friday. Now there is only one problem with working in your business, your not working on your business!!!
“There is only one problem with working in your business, it’s that you’re not working on your business”
Now if it hasn’t already clicked what I’m talking about it here then I’m elaborate what I mean. Most of us whether it be employers, employees, or business owners spend all our time working in our business, whether it be in the printing industry, a café, a mechanic, an IT business whatever, we mainly are focused on building, creating and selling those particular products and services and doing the necessary business paper work and transactions and paperwork to stay in business and hopeful make a profit. What most of us aren’t doing is working on our business, we are always looking from the inside out rather than the outside in.
Now the thing is once you get stuff IN your business it can often be quiet hard to stick your head OUT of your business even for a moment in time to get an accurate snapshot of your business which can provide you with the feedback you need to improve and growth your business. Perhaps as our day to day lives get busier and busier with an overload of cores and activities this is why now in the past five years more than ever we have seen such high demand for consulting services. People want to have more spare time to travel and spent with friends and family they still want a great financially rewarding career which often means going into business. What they fail to understand is that being a business owner really means you are just that a business owner. Your job is to marketing the business, be the figurehead, promote it, build in up and grow it exponentially first and foremost and secondly if it’s a small business and you need to be involved in producing your product or service [i.e. a Doctor or mechanic or similar business] then it’s producing that good or service. Most business owner’s do things the other what around, so they would be a great doctor rather than a great business owner of a surgery.
That’s all for now
Signed with success,
Peter Laurent
Friday, July 28, 2006
*** Young Marketer Caught With His Pants down***
So there I was Wednesday night at the Sydney airport it's late in the night and I'm waiting for the last flight out of Sydney to Brisbane. I decide to pay a little visit to the mens room as my flight seemed to be an eternity away from boarding. So there I am enjoying my privacy when I here the fateful call, last call for Mr Peter Laurent your plane is boarding from gate number 40. I am suddenly flustered and a sudden sense of emerging panick came over me as I wasn't planning on playing a cameo role as Tom Hanks in The Terminal. As I am rushing out the bathroom door belt still out done the flight attend is making her final call for me and they are preparing to close those big glass doors you walk through before you board the plane, but alas I made it just in the nick of time.
Now after a few days I think back on it and of course laugh about it but the reality is for a lot of people and more importantly for us in the business world a lot of businesses it's not that uncommon to be caught metaphorically with our pants down. Of course all of us in the online marketing world know the importance of having both a business and marketing plan. Most of us know the importance of using an industry proven business strategy and the importance of integrating your marketing efforts as a way of accentuating your unique selling point. However, what I've realised after spending four hours with Marc Dussaults and the Jay Abraham Asia Pacific guys in Sydney is the importance of putting own vast knowledge into action. Most of us in the marketing community have all the knowledge needed to capapult as and our employers, clients and business partners towards massive growth and vast wealth the only kicker is only a select few are reaping the rewards for their efforts.
Through out this blog I will endeavour to share with you so of the ins and outs of my business ventures and some of the successes and shortcomings. Some of the stuff I share will most likely be pretty candid as well as extremely powerful. I will try and dispell some of myths spread by others in the marketing community to make sure that you never get caught with your pants down like I did.
Signed with success,
Peter Laurent
Now after a few days I think back on it and of course laugh about it but the reality is for a lot of people and more importantly for us in the business world a lot of businesses it's not that uncommon to be caught metaphorically with our pants down. Of course all of us in the online marketing world know the importance of having both a business and marketing plan. Most of us know the importance of using an industry proven business strategy and the importance of integrating your marketing efforts as a way of accentuating your unique selling point. However, what I've realised after spending four hours with Marc Dussaults and the Jay Abraham Asia Pacific guys in Sydney is the importance of putting own vast knowledge into action. Most of us in the marketing community have all the knowledge needed to capapult as and our employers, clients and business partners towards massive growth and vast wealth the only kicker is only a select few are reaping the rewards for their efforts.
Through out this blog I will endeavour to share with you so of the ins and outs of my business ventures and some of the successes and shortcomings. Some of the stuff I share will most likely be pretty candid as well as extremely powerful. I will try and dispell some of myths spread by others in the marketing community to make sure that you never get caught with your pants down like I did.
Signed with success,
Peter Laurent
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