The Power of Mastery

I am about to tell you how to add $25,000.00, $50,000.00, maybe $100,00.00 a year to your yearly income - without spending even a penny more on advertising or marketing.
But first a little background. Years ago, Michael was one of about 100 folks who attended a seminar. He participated as an expert panelist, of course, but also as a ‘student’ - proving that “school is never out for the pro.”

Anyway, one of the featured guest speakers was Michael Vance, who worked side-by-side with Walt Disney for a number of years. It reminded me of a great quote that Walt used for marketing and customer service. Walt said:

“Do what you do so well that people can’t resist telling others about you.”

This is so important to our company that we had the quoted penned on 6 walls throughout the office. You can see the quote at least once from every place in the office.

In every field, there are “masters”. People just so darned good at what they do that people are compelled to tell others about them. Mike Vance is that kind of speaker, and there are darned few in that category. Actors like Paul Newman, Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro. There are a couple chiropractors I know who put on such a great “report of findings” (their equivalent of the Printing Audit) that they enjoy 100% conversions and can easily sell large dollar “pre-pays.”

So, here’s a very simple, very practical question to ponder before the next post: after you finish a client’s first job, do they - without any prodding from you - rush to the phone, call an associate, and tell them about the amazing print job they just had done? Are the first words out of their mouth to the next person they see about you? Is your presentation that good?

The Hyper-Responsive List

Last week I left you off with how you can create your own hyper-responsive list with prospects drooling over what you've got to offer. This may seem too simply, but its drastically over-looked and under used by almost all marketers.

ITS YOUR OWN IN-HOUSE LIST!

Yes, that's right. Almost everybody misses the boat when using your own list. People who have previously raised their hands, ID'ed themselves as wanting what you sell, and even parting with their hard-earned dollars at some point.

I want to encourage you to use your own customer list, more often and more effectively. Most business people “miss the boat” by failing to maintain frequent contact with their customers. For one thing, it’s important to remember that someone who has purchased from you once, and been satisfied, is then predisposed to purchase from you again.

Second, you do have competition to be concerned about, so there is a need to stay on the top of your customer’s consciousness - after all, out of sight; out of mind. Third, frequently communicating with customers is an appreciated form of “extra mile service.”

Here are a few ideas for communicating with customers:

For Almost Any Business:

• A News-And-Idea Letter
• Seasonal Greetings
• Thank You Letters

For Retailers:

• New Product Letters
• Preferred Customer Sale Fliers

For Service Professionals:

• Reminder Notices of Service Dates
• Informative Booklets/Reports

The grand Pooh-Bah of staying in touch for any business is a monthly newsletter. I know, I know, you don't have time for it. Well, you either need to make time, or find someone that will do it for you.

I use Jim Palmer out of Philadelphia for a couple of my newsletters. For information on Done-For-You Newsletter program follow this link.

It’s been my experience that most businesses’ repeat sales can be doubled simply by making additional, more frequent contact and offers to established customers!

www.3DMailResults.com

Find the Right List: A Real World Example

Alright, I left you hanging on the last post. I told you I would have a real world example waiting for you when I got back. So with any further ado, here it is.

You might discover that the majority of your customers live within an x-mile radius of your business. Or, you might discover that the majority of your customers drive late-model compact cars...have Mastercards and Visa cards...subscribe to a certain magazine...are between the ages of 25 and 40...are married.

Armed with this information, you can obtain a mailing list, or compile a mailing list, of prospects who closely match the characteristics shared by the majority of your customers.

You might, for example, get a mailing list of all the subscribers to FAMILY CIRCLE MAGAZINE, who are between the ages of 25 and 40 and who live within a 50-mile radius of your business. Is such a list available? You bet!

You might get another list of Mastercard and Visa cardholders, who are married and live within a 50-mile radius of your business. This is generally called LIST SELECTION and many direct mail experts believe it to be the single, most important factor in success or failure with a direct marketing campaign.

I happen to agree, and firmly believe that money spent in obtaining the best possible list is more than recovered via savings on printing quantities (in direct mail) and via improved response.

If you are unfamiliar with the availability of mailing lists and with list selection, you should begin your education with a visit to the main public library in your area, to study a huge directory: Standard Rate And Data Service (SRDS).

This directory provides detailed information on tens of thousands of available mailing lists and list suppliers. In your local Yellow Pages, you’ll also find list brokers under the category “Mailing List.” You should meet with several of these people before choosing to do business with one of them. You may also want to deal with national list brokers. There are a number of long-established, reputable list brokers and many of them publish catalogs of the lists they own and/or represent.

As we discussed, getting the proper list should be your #1 priority when starting a new direct mail campaign. You’re in-house list should be your most profitable one.

But what if you’re ready to move to cold prospects? How should you start? I’ve teamed up with a list company to make that quick and easy for you. Just give me a call at 888-250-1834 and we'll find the right list for you!

Next week I've got a great discussion on how you can create your own hyper-responsive list with prospects drooling over what you've got to offer.

Successful Marketing Strategies For Any Business

Genius is sometimes defined as the ability to make the complex simple. Certainly, “marketing” is a complex subject; so complex it’s very difficult for many business people to ever get a handle on it. Its complexity is intimidating. After years in “marketing”, I’ve finally found a definition of “marketing” that reflects the genius of simplicity. Marketing is simply making the right presentation of the right message to the right people.

With that simple definition as a guide, just about every businessperson can clearly see his past errors, and do a more effective job of marketing in the future.

Let’s talk about the right people first. Many salespeople and business owners have dramatically unsuccessful experiences with direct-mail and with telemarketing for this simple reason: they’re mailing to or calling the wrong people! Who are the right people? Prospects who most closely match the demographics of your good, established customers and/or your desirable customers. “Demographics” refers to statistical, lifestyle and preference information about people.

The best way to explain it is through example, that you'll have to wait for later in the week, until then.

www.3DMailResults.com

Change how you Think of Testing

Let me switch gears and talk briefly about another aspect of “testing”. This is actually how all highly successful entrepreneurs view everything they do...as testing. They do NOT see things in the context of “success” or “failure” like ordinary people do, and as a result they do not become “de-motivated” like most people do. See, most people drain all the vitality, courage, optimism and git-up-n-go out of themselves by focusing on all the things they do that don’t work out well, as a compilation of failures.

But successful people understand the powerful impact of that negative reinforcement on their own self-image (somewhat akin to the impact of pouring a gallon of toxic waste into a pint of clear water, drinking the result, and wondering why the stomach backs up into the esophagus).

Instead, they carefully organize the things they do into a series or sequence of experiments, testing options, and focusing on the ones they find that work. And they fully expect to go through any number of experiments that don’t pan out before walking away from the lab with a winner.

This not only has practical relevance, it has profound psychological ramifications. Just like a little tweak in thinking can make a big difference in the results of say, an ad or a flyer, a little tweak in thinking can make a giant difference in the life results experienced by an individual.

Edison said it perfectly when he was asked about his failings in creating the light bulb, "I did not fail a thousand times, I just found a thousand ways not to build a light bulb.”