7 'Profit Turnaround' initiatives to make 2012 a success for your business...

It's that time of year again when we look at our lifestyle and businesses, and resolve to improve on the previous year. Here are some suggested New Year 'resolutions' for your business in 2012, along with some links to HOW to make them happen.

1.) I will map out my strategies and drive my plan proactively, instead of reacting

Before you look at anything else for your business in 2012, step back and take a look at the big picture. What do you want to achieve? Where are the areas of growth for your business? [Marketing? Where do you start? How does a 72.8% lift in sales sound?]

Then map out the journey a prospect will go through [Creating a Marketing Machine], from first contact to conversion to repeat purchase. Make sure all the elements of your marketing fit together cohesively, and look to increase the conversion rate at EVERY stage of the sales process.

2.) I will track ALL my marketing, from lead to conversion to future sales

There is nothing more true in marketing than the old adage: "If you do not measure, you cannot manage." The problem is, everyone pays lip service to this truism, but the importance of measuring and testing your marketing is often overlooked. [Are you looking for sales in all the wrong places?]

The biggest excuse business owners use is that they are too busy to measure. However, if that's YOU ... think of it this way. You may be "busy" with procedures that are leaking business to your competitors, or at the very least, not achieving the profit margins you deserve.

The bottomline is - if you constantly test the effectiveness of everything you do, while at the same time constantly trying to improve performance, you will ultimately succeed in optimising your profits.

3.) When I am selling, I will do more "ASKING" than I do "telling"

Unquestionably THE most powerful approach in selling is by asking questions [A powerful lesson in asking questions]: questions about your prospect, their situation, their needs, and what they're looking for. 

Again, this seems SO patently OBVIOUS! But listen to yourself. Listen to your sales people. Are enough of the right questions being asked to truly diagnose the problem or need? There’s a real temptation most especially with a salesperson with lots of product knowledge, to revert to TELL MODE.

Be like an investigative doctor, probing deeply about the symptoms in order to diagnose the problem before prescribing the treatment. Doing it any other way would be professional malpractice. The great thing about asking questions and listening to the prospect’s answers is that you can then ‘prescribe’ the solution exactly for their needs, using their language.

Getting to know what your prospects are looking for is the quickest way of increasing your conversion rates, the effectiveness of your ads, and ultimately, bottomline. [Improve your conversion rates]

4.) I will follow-up my old leads

Many years ago, a switched on client of ours, Mark Hartley of The Tree Doctor in Rooty Hill in Sydney (yes, Rooty Hill) purchased another tree surgeon business. He came across their old ‘quote book’, but was told all those leads were dead. Not daunted, he got his team to follow up every 'dead' lead, until they told him not to. He simply DIDN'T give up.

Result? He converted 32% of the old leads on the first follow up! And a further 10% in subsequent approaches. He estimated that one idea was worth around $80,000 in additional sales to him, and more than funded the purchase of the business he’d taken over!

So what should you do? Ensure you squeeze every possible sale, (as long as you do it nurturously and ethically) with a Multiple Contact Strategy. [Hidden Profits in Multiple Contact Strategies]

5.) I will only create 'educative' marketing material

Businesses across the country pour money down the drain with 'branding' ads. Ads with catchy slogans and lots of white space. Ads that quite simply do not work. [Why would a salesperson be vauge and walk away?]

Sure, a punchy headline [the 20x multiplier - headline] and a compelling offer [Multiply your success up to 300%] are important, but if you do not educate as to the REASONS WHY a prospect should act [Truth About Advertising] (whether that is contacting you, requesting a free report, or buying from you), they won't. You wouldn't expect gimmicky, punchy lines from a salesperson, and selling in the written word is no different.

Make a point this coming year to only create brochures, advertisements, sales letters, etc., that EDUCATE.

6.) I will get my quotes paid on time

When I first started out in consulting over 27 years ago, I used to invoice my clients and wait to be paid. It only took ONE client to fail to pay, leaving leave me with thousands of dollars of bills to pay my suppliers on his behalf, to teach me the folly of that.

So from that point on, my ‘terms’ have been 50% up front, and 50% on delivery of the creative. It works for me. Or in the case of monthly installments, they are paid up front on day ONE of each month.

You ARE no different, UNLESS you choose to be. It’s all about positioning. [Are your invoices inviting bad debts?]

It’s your choice as to whether you stand meekly in line, waiting to be paid, and being someone else’s ‘rich uncle’. Or whether you establish the ground rules, and be proud that you deliver such an amazing service, and that you expect to be paid.

One more tip. Consider re-writing your quotes to reflect this new mindset. [Are your quotes losing you business?]

7.) I will create a white paper (or another white paper)

One of the best ways to increase the number of prospects who contact you is by creating a white paper [Could this get you a truckload of quality leads?]. It is a great way to find prospects at all stages of the buyer cycle, from the ready-to-buy to those who are interested but perhaps months or years off buying.

But more than that, having a ‘white paper’ also positions you as the 'expert' in the industry, and gives you an opportunity to pre-educate your prospects before selling to them.

So it has a two-fold effect: it increases leads, and it increases conversions.

That’s it for 2011. My team and I wish you every success and great prosperity in the year ahead …

Chris Newton

Results Corporation

If you know anyone who would find value in reading this article, please forward (or tweet) this link on to them.

12 Golden Rules to Effectively Handling Enquiries

The more I show clients how to handle enquiries from new prospects over the phone, the more I find myself coming back to the same dozen 'sobering' truths … truths that help you understand the mindset of the caller.

These truths may at first appear negative.  They’re not.  They are simply a realisation that everybody – including your prospect - sees life through their own ‘eyes’.  And having an insight into how they ‘see’ (and feel) can help us to better relate to their needs.  So let’s consider the following:

1. The enquirer, regardless of what they say, isn’t just after ‘information’.  They HAVE a problem or a need.  Often a problem/s so complex they don’t fully understand it themselves. They crave to have it solved, and they’re looking for a solution.

2. Just making the phone call can sometimes be a big thing for them, because they have their own uncertainties and insecurities to contend with.  You need to be empathetic and make the process painless.

3. They’ve probably been disappointed by past efforts to find a solution.  So expect them to be distrusting until they know you are ‘real’.

4. They ARE going to buy.  Whether it’s from you, or a competitor, whether it’s today or in six months’ time, they WILL ‘buy’ something. Your task is to educate them to why your solution is best for them  (That is of course, IF your solution is indeed the best one for their particular circumstances.  Otherwise, you should guide them ethically to an alternative.)

5. They will have pre-conceived ideas of what’s ‘expensive’.  BUT on the other hand, when they find their ‘answer’, they will pay whatever it takes.  So it’s your ‘duty of care’ to ensure you ethically educate them to your solution, AND to show that your solution isn’t expensive, but is good VALUE.

6. They will initially have little or no concept of what your business does, and will tend to pigeonhole you with other firms who appear to deliver what you do.

7. They may nod in agreement at things you say in the initial discussion, but in truth, they’ll understand and absorb only a tiny fraction of what you have said.  Which means you need to go slowly, never assume.  And most importantly, through questions, do a regular ‘temperature check’ on their understanding.  CRITICALLY important.

8. When it comes to the Information Pack, brochure, or perhaps even DVD you send them, remember they have no basis for appreciating the VALUE, or of the decades of research and development behind this information. So unless positioned correctly, there is a very real risk it will simply sit unopened for weeks, until they’ve lost interest.   And when you try to follow up after their interest has waned, you become a ‘pushy’ salesperson, not a professional with the answers to their perhaps years of frustration.  What’s the solution?  You must position the value of the pack correctly UP FRONT before you send it.  Again, they won’t give any priority to the pack unless you position it correctly on the phone.

9. Remember that the person who has the information IS IN CONTROL of the transaction.  If you give it (the Pack) over to the prospect prematurely, without first gaining a firm commitment that they’ll review it, you lose the control.

10. Getting that firm commitment means getting their undertaking that they will go through it in a pre-agreed timeframe, in preparation for a follow up discussion.

11. Even after all the above, they’ll often say ‘yes’, but then nothing will happen.  In 95% of cases, you WILL have to follow up.  When you follow up, even after all the great positioning, there’s a chance they’ll say they can’t go ahead ‘just now’, for any number of reasons.  Often these reasons are NOT the real reasons.  You need to get as many of these potential issues on the table and out of the way as possible, before you hand over the information.

12. Remember that none of this is ‘manipulative’ or unethical.  It is simply acknowledging the foibles of human nature, and helping (ethically leading) people to come to an informed outcome.
 
Some of these 'golden rules' may not apply to your transactions with new prospects.  However, that said, I’d be very surprised if you didn’t get some real distinctions out of these 12 points for you and your own frontline people.

Let me know your thoughts …
Chris Newton

If you know anyone who would find value in reading this article, please forward (or tweet) this link on to them.

Do your profit cogs have teeth missing?

I sat across the desk from a business owner who has a great business concept.  His business should have been doing a whole lot better than it is.  

I could see this wasn’t because of any ‘financial meltdown’.   It was because some of the ‘cogs’ in his business that should have been producing profit, weren’t ‘meshing’.  And faulty cogs in a business chew relentlessly through profits that should be in the bank.

Now, I love bringing things down to their lowest common denominator.  So I pulled out my pen and asked him for a piece of blank paper ... And found him an extra 240% net profit.

I’ve been doing this for 28 years, so finding that additional profit was fairly straightforward.  It’s something I’ve done with hundreds of businesses. 

In this case …

I looked at his lead generation, and clearly it wasn’t working effectively.  In fact, it wasn’t working at all.  His ads had weak headlines. There was no call to action.  The ads did little to tell his ‘magic story’.  And they did even less for his image.


I showed him that by re-writing his ads, and by making some basic changes to his website, and by proposing a way to double his referrals … he would conservatively increase his sales leads by 85% … with very little effort.


Then I focused on his current conversion of enquiries to sales.  His gut had been telling him this was a weak ‘cog’.  In fact, his people were way worse at converting sales than he, especially over the phone.  They’d take names, send brochures with a form letter, and THINK they were selling.


A simple role play of what NOT TO DO, and an explanation of some supporting sales collateral, and we agreed he would, at the very LEAST, improve his sales hit rate from the present 3 out of ten to 4.  That was ultra conservative.


And while that doesn’t sound much, that small improvement represents a 33% increase in sales.  I believe we can lift it to 6 out of ten personally.


Then I looked at his pricing. He had been way too wary of putting his prices up, but with the new presentation and sales collateral I described, agreed it’d be a snap. I reminded him too that sellers will often have more problem with price than the buyer ever will.


At this point, I stopped the exercise.  I knew that if we continued to add in more ‘profit factors’, his profit potential would look unbelievably huge.  But even that little exercise took his sales from $2,850 a week to some $6,500 a week. And his profits from $950 to over $4,000 … a week.


Here’s the really interesting part in all this...


He’d been holding back from taking his ‘hot business concept’ to other parts of the country, because the profits were too thin.  Now, he could see a whole new profit ‘engine room’ that will allow him to expand gradually, but with absolute confidence.


You know, it’s this pencil and a blank sheet of paper exercise that has kept me buzzing all these years.  In some cases, I see such huge potential, I may well get involved in a JV with the client.  And in this may well be the case here.  


Not every venture qualifies to that level.  But there are some amazing ‘sleepers’ out there with profits waiting to be unlocked.  


In a similar exercise several weeks prior...

By phone this time, I identified the missing ‘cogs’ for an importer of industrial equipment. 

Fixing his processes will take his business from under $2 million to over $6 million in the next twelve to eighteen months.  With an 800% increase in his NET profit line.

Look, before I go on, I've got to say something...

As I write this, I get the sense that it sounds like gratuitous trumpet blowing.  But in truth I'm only stating the facts.  And if I don't tell you the sort of things that I do, it won't get your attention, and that will serve neither of us.


Frankly I see all too many business people missing these opportunities.  They don’t measure the key performance indicators that flag these problems, so they don’t know it’s happening.  Or if they do, they haven’t been able to find ‘marketing’ people who understand that their business IS a piece of machinery, let alone who have the skills to fix it.


I’ve worked with literally hundreds of businesses, doing this.  I’ve owned retail businesses, had equity in a national trade service franchise, worked with professional firms … and I’ve done it over and over again. 


In my seminars, I’ve worked through my examples … such as a lead generation ‘information based’ strategy for a retirement village client that produced a 3,000% increase in enquiry. 

And wrote an ad that produced a 280% increase in sales for an automotive aftermarket company.  And I developed a sales training video program for a national tyre group that DOUBLED their forecourt sales.


For the trade service national franchise group, I developed a selling presentation script which increased the success in conversions to sales by better than 80% for some of the operators, and increased their revenue performance by an average 120%.


My case studies fill my manuals, e-books and online resource library.


Why am I telling you this?

I’d like to offer you an opportunity to have me (and my team) do it for you.
Normally, unless it’s on a profit share basis, I don’t consult one-on-one anymore … but this is different.


First up, I’ve been really taken aback by the overwhelming response we’ve had to this blog. 

One blog entry a few weeks back was featured in the New York Times business blog and a U.S. Chamber of Commerce blog...

But more than that, I've been impressed by the comments coming back from my subscribers and readers. 

There’s clearly a lot of pain out there, and a lot of businesses looking for help.  And for a small window of time, I can provide it.


Second, I’m doing it as an advanced training exercise for my team over the ‘down time’ between now and the end of January. 

So I am looking to do a number of small projects.  For those four to five weeks, we’ll roll our sleeves up and work on the ‘cogs’ for clients’ businesses … helping individual businesses get geared up for a blockbuster 2012.


Third, my experience tells me that in one or more of the projects we’ll review, there will be another ‘sleeper’ … a business 'super success story' waiting to happen.  


If that turns out to be your business, there might be a JV opportunity, ramping up your business to a whole new level, in return for an agreed profit share.


Either way, this is a once a year opportunity.  If you want to take it, you can simply contact us, briefly outline your business and tell us what ‘cogs’ you feel are missing that hold you back from making it a goldmine.


And if we agree it has potential, we’ll roll our sleeves up and get down to the nuts and bolts of how we’d work with you.


How much will having us work on your project cost you?   As a ballpark, it could be in the region of $2,000 to $12,000 … depending on what is entailed.  


But let’s be very clear on something. 

If we do take a project on, we will have VERY clearly mapped out in advance what the potential outcomes will be for you … at best and worst case.  And if it doesn’t show potential to rapidly return you your investment in multiples of net profit increases, we’ll politely decline.


Importantly too, I’ll be personally involved … at every stage.  Including the creation of ‘marketing collateral’, scripting of sales presentations, redesign of websites, providing of sales training tools.  Whatever it takes to make success happen.

As well as identifying those ‘cogs’ that are going to get the ‘business machine’ running at its peak, and that produce the quickest and biggest impact on profits.


And importantly, we will do the actual ‘where the rubber hits the road’ stuff that’s required to IMPLEMENT …


So there you have it … if you’re interested in having us work on your business in our down time between now and the end of January, use the contact button below and we’ll be in touch.


Don’t procrastinate however.  This isn’t a contrived ‘while stocks last … free set of steak knives’ offer.  It’s an honest and straightforward fact that we can ONLY take on a small handful of projects.  We’ll give our all to those projects … but those who aren’t quick to respond will simply miss out.


And without sounding too cute about it, 2012 is going to be a year where businesses will struggle and flounder if they try to operate profitably with ‘inefficient cogs’ … or they can take affirmative action and get solid marketing strategies in place, to guarantee they’ll roar into life in 2012 and produce windfall profits, while others are battening down and pulling back and wondering what hit them.


Again, to flag your interest in this opportunity, use the contact button below and we’ll be in touch.


Either way, my kindest regards.  All the best to you and your business, now and 2012 …


Chris Newton

"To say the meeting got off to a slow start would be an understatement..."

Many years back, I had travelled to Munroe, Wisconsin in the US, to visit the headquarters of The Swiss Colony.  This company is one of the legends of mail order and online catalogue marketing, and still mails tens of millions of catalogues every year.  After some perseverance, I had secured an appointment with the head of marketing and his team to learn how they do what they do, explaining I was researching for a business venture back home.

To say the meeting got off to a slow start would be an understatement.  Perhaps they wondered WHO this guy from the antipodes was, and why they should even give up their valuable time to tell ME their secrets.  And I don’t blame them.

But just when they were glancing at their watches, something changed the whole dynamic of the meeting.  It was a tide-turning ‘event’.

I asked them why they’d dropped a certain feature out of the inside front page of their catalogue.

It’s as if they all froze.  Then the head of marketing turned to me and said, “You know, that has been a subject of heated debate around here.  Some of us battled to keep it, some insisted it had had its day.  But you know, you’re the first person who has picked up on that.  What do YOU think?”

From that point on, they leaned in and asked if I’d mind going through other pages with them. They confided with me on their strategy.  And I was invited to tour closed off areas of their operation. I walked away with far more than I’d ever expected.

The instant change in mood was SO profound, it has stayed with me all these years since.

As far as I can see it, the meeting which they had agreed to, was initially an imposition on their time.  A PR exercise perhaps.  But when I asked a question that got right inside their heads, the walls came crumbling down.  And the more questions I asked, the more we became collaborators with a common purpose.

I fervently believe that business people just don’t ASK enough questions.  Or more to the point, they don’t ask the RIGHT questions.

Asking the right questions might seem simple.  But there’s a trick to it. It’s...

PREPARATION

You see, before I travelled to The Swiss Colony, I had studied their current and back issue catalogues like an archaeologist deciphering the Rosetta Stone.  I had studied what I thought was great about their marketing, and where I felt their weaknesses were.

Which meant, when I got in the room with them, I suspect I knew a lot more about their business than a lot of people they meet who are trying to SELL to them. And they responded positively.

Most businesses just don’t teach their people the awesome power of preparation and of asking questions.  It’s that simple.

How many times have you had someone trying to sell something to you and you know in the back of your mind that they know nothing about your needs? 

Their interest in YOU is superficial.  Their true agenda is to SELL something to you.  Often they don’t ask you questions at all.  Or if they do, they’re not listening, but rather just thinking about what they’re going to say next.

Selling … in ANY form … has to be about asking the right questions, which means diligent preparation before the interaction.

True professional selling is about ‘helping people make informed decisions to buy’.

And that can ONLY occur when you know what they want … and you’ve figured out how you’re going to give it to them.

Sounds ‘motherhood and apple pie’ … but it IS the key to earning more business, at better margins, and building long term business relationships.  Let me say it again …

Most businesses just don’t teach their people the awesome power of preparation and of asking questions. Those who do enjoy the fruits flowing in abundance from the 'cornucopia' of business-waiting-to-be-had.  Yes, especially in the toughest times.

Unitl next time...

Chris Newton

The Power of Expectation... Miraculous?

I remember reading an article in Inc. Magazine about General Schwarzkopf.  When taking over a new command, Schwarzkopf questioned what proportion of the helicopter fleet was ‘battle ready’ on any given day.  “75% Sir!” was the answer.

Wondering why it was 75%, and not 74% or 76%, he put out an edict that, forthwith, the new fleet readiness was to be 85%.  And no doubt there were rumblings within the ranks that it could never be done.



But sure enough, operability MIRACULOUSLY rose to 85%. And stayed there.

The message in this little story? NEVER underestimate the Power of Expectation.

Another of my favourite anecdotes is of a new manager in a factory.  On his first inspection, he enquired of the day shift supervisor what their production totals had been for the day. 

Without any further comment, he took a piece of chalk and wrote that number on the concrete floor and moved on.

You can guess what happened when the night shift came on duty, can’t you?

Yep, they asked what the number was.  Next morning, when the day shift arrived, the number had been rubbed out, and a BIGGER total had been written on the floor!  And so it went each shift, exceeding the previous ‘norm’. 

Interesting isn’t it?  Set expectations low, and that is what you’ll get.  Set them high, and MEASURE the performance standards, and again - that’s what you’ll get.

Benchmarking is the key.  Just verbalising expectations won’t cut it.  Expectations need to be very specific, easily broken down into their components, and attributable back to those involved. 

And as the saying goes, “If you don’t INSPECT, don’t expect!”.

Until next time,

Chris Newton

How to Make Sure Your Invoices Get Paid

As the economy continues to splutter, more of your clients are going to struggle to pay your invoices.  No surprise there.

In fact, those who’ve long been in the habit of using YOUR money to run their businesses (or their lifestyle) will stretch things even more now.  Some will default.

This begs the question... 


How do you make sure you get paid in full, on time?

The best solution of course, is to get paid UP FRONT.  And more on that in a moment.

Regardless though of what your payment terms are now, getting to the front of the payment line is a function of how well you’ve set up the expectation of getting paid. ‘Laying the ground rules’ on being paid.

If, at the beginning of the business transaction, your client senses a casual approach to being paid, that’s what you’ll get.  In contrast, by firmly but nurturously explaining your terms BEFORE providing the service, and then following up immediately if the client misses a due date, you have a far higher likelihood of being paid.

‘Laying the ground rules’ on being paid is something many businesses are uncomfortable with.  And they pay the price later in tardy collections, which then create their own cash flow crises.


Why not get paid up front?

Our own invoicing policy is an agreed first monthly instalment paid before we begin a project, and further instalments at the start of each month.  If it’s a ‘lump sum’ project, we require 50% of the funds upfront.

Of course, to be paid up front, clients need to trust your capabilities to ‘deliver’.  And trust that you’ll go all out to give them an amazing result. 


But the key point is this. 

Create the expectation of being paid up front, educate your clients to the value you’ll deliver, and most will accept this graciously.

On the other hand, if you present your product or service merely as a ‘commodity’, something your clients can get anywhere, you’ll simply invite them to shop around for another supplier who will give them 90 days … or 120 days.


Bottom line?

Be passionate about what you ‘deliver’, and about the value you bring to the table … communicating your ‘value package’, your legendary service, your responsive support, your problem solving strengths and so on … and you’ll create the right expectation in your client.  They simply won’t go anywhere else. 

The alternative is to be a commodity.  And that means, getting to the back of the line!

4 things to do immediately when sales start drying up

FOUR things to do immediately when sales start drying up (and a personal invitation from Chris Newton at the end of this email) ...

The current economic conditions are a fact of life.  But it’s no time to curl up in a corner in the foetal position.  

Now is the perfect time to be actively looking at new (or old) ways to turn things around.  Smart players boom in these times.

Let me give you four basic action steps to get sales pumping through your business again.

1. Tighten up your sales processes.

OK, I rant about this regularly.  But I get to look inside lots of businesses, and I have to tell you ... SALES are being lost every day for the want of some simple changes. 

• What about when the phone rings with a request for information?  Realise it’s NOT a request for information!!  It’s someone wanting to BUY.  Organisations are so laid back, they accept sending of a brochure and bland form-letter as handling the ‘sale’.  It’s NOT.  You need an elite team of trained ‘green berets’ hungry for sales, who make sure every possible (ethical) avenue has been covered, systematically and consistently, to get the sale.  And you need to track what’s happening ...

• What’s going on in the business?  In the ‘good times’, it’s so damn easy to ignore things that make you cringe, and be too busy to do anything about it.  Times aren’t ‘good’ right now.  FIX these things internally that eat away at your market share.  What sort of things?  Customer enquiries sitting for days unattended to.  Poorly worded letters going out, often with grammatical or spelling errors.  That square peg in a round hole person who should never be handling sales enquiries, who is still there.  I could go on.

• Sales skills.  Presenting at a conference recently, I invited a gentleman up on the stage.  Like most of the people in the room, he thought he was pretty good at selling.  But about 45 seconds into our role play (with me as the customer), he was stumbling, uncomfortable and disoriented as to how to handle my basic questions on price and why I should buy from him and not his competitor.  To relieve him of his discomfort, I switched roles.  With limited knowledge of his products, I showed him and several hundred other business owners how easy it is to keep control of the sale.  The whole room agreed this change in approach would work for them.  But up until then, almost NONE of them did these things.  Bottom line, if your ‘green berets’ aren’t seriously honed in the skills to handle a prospect’s enquiries, you are losing market share.  And with the “shrinking pie”, that’s a luxury you simply can’t afford.

2. Mass Marketing vs Boutique. 

I’ve talked a great deal in the past about ‘mass marketing’ strategies.  It’s time to think about ‘Boutique Marketing’.  This is awesomely powerful. 

There’s a wonderful story about how David Ogilvy arrived in New York, from the UK as an unknown, and went on to build one of the largest and most successful ad agencies on the planet.  How?  He focused in on exactly which companies he WANTED on his client list. 

He wrote a list of the FIVE ‘blue chip’ companies he wanted to get.  We’re talking Shell, Lever & Kitchen, Rolls Royce.  The big guys. 

He stuck his list of these five giant corporations on his bathroom mirror.  And every day, would not leave that bathroom until he had at least one initiative to get one of those companies one step closer to being a client.  The rest is history.  

He ultimately got all five. 

You see, when you break your market down into small ‘boutique’ numbers of prospects, you can bring enormous focus and energy to bear, just on them!   You can ‘afford’ to stand out and be noticed.

Fed Ex a package to the 5 decision makers, find ways to add value to them, create a dialog with them.

In tough times and in the ‘good times’, almost no one goes to this effort.  If you can be a bright star on the horizon for your prospect list, odds are you will ultimately win the prize.

3. How many ‘dead leads’ do you have? 

Just like some ancient reptile in Jurassic Park waiting to be reawakened, many of your dead leads may not be dead at all.  Chances are, they’re just waiting for someone to come along and poke them into action. 

One business owner said to me the other day that he has 50,000 unconverted leads in his database!  It’s taken the tight times for him to think about re-approaching these people. 

What if he can stir even 2% of them into life and they buy from him?  For his business, the recession would be over!  Do you have leads and past client names that are really just dormant, waiting to get a great offer from you?

4. Remember ‘Shoe Leather’? 

I love this story.  One of our clients is a very successful chiropractor. 
We’ve been writing his ads, supporting collateral and client referral and reactivation pieces on and off for years.  But he has just pulled off a coup of his own.  With ‘shoe leather’ marketing. 

No, he didn’t go door to door in desperation.  He leveraged himself.  He secured an invitation to go to the local gym, and for a nominal fee, offered to give the members a spinal check. 

The result?  Out of ONE visit, he’s gained 25 new clients.  A good morning’s work?  You bet!  His ‘lifetime value’ of a client is worth some $4,000 to him over the next four years. 

That’s $100K in new future business in a morning.  Now that’s inspiring.

What’s the bottom line on all of this?

Tough times are not for sitting in an ivory tower and worrying.  They’re times when different strategies, including well thought through ‘shoe leather’ marketing, can pay massive dividends.  May you boom in the ‘tight times’.  

Personal Invitation from Chris Newton:

Okay, this next bit is an invitation to work with us on your marketing ... if it's appropriate for you right now.  Go to the link below to hear:

www.resultscorporation.com.au/offer.mp3

(If you have trouble with the link above, you can also listen to the offer on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2agQgmvuGiM&feature=channel_video_title)

Chris Newton

Proof that you CAN boost your profits in 'recessionary' times

Some weeks back I wrote to you about our classic Breakthrough Marketing Strategies program just re-released from our archives.

I'd like to share excerpts from two of the emails I’ve received since. Not just because they're energizing to read, but also because they highlight how the Breakthrough Marketing Strategies still produce phenomenal results today. Perhaps even more so today.  The first excerpt is from Neil Cavill, a restaurateur.

Hearing both yourself and Paul Dunn in the sample audio track gave me a ‘rush’ … A rush to go back and re-visit my roots in marketing, and to re-visit my original BREAKTHROUGH MARKETING STRATEGIES program I had purchased in the early 90’s.

Back then, after being ‘guided’ (seriously misguided?) by a few marketing companies to double my turnover, I realised their strategies also doubled my overheads and halved my profit.

Getting BREAKTHROUGH MARKETING STRATEGIES re-focused me.

Implementing the strategies meant our restaurant quickly became busier. Even more, we were making more than 5 times more profit than ever before. I worked only the busy shifts and continually ‘marketed’ my business from the outside and more importantly, from within the business.

Chris, I sold my share in the business (after 6 years) for OVER 15 times what I had paid for it!

I’m now back in the restaurant trade and I need my ‘tools’. I tend to follow successful programs, and BMS is the very best I’ve seen. I pulled out my old tapes and two were worn out/ broken, three were missing….presumably in the car that I’d sold in the 90’s!

I contacted the RESULTS CORPORATION and immediately joined the mentoring program. (And thank you too for replacing my old tapes with your new CD program!)

Already, I have put in place a few strategies that have increased turnover by 20-30%.... More will come …WOW!.

Anyone serious about bringing back the ‘love’ of being in business should take advantage of purchasing the BREAKTHROUGH MARKETING STRATEGIES PROGRAM. It has real life examples that are life and business changing.

Again, thank you Chris Newton for helping me out with the CD version and Grand Compendium…It will be worth its weight in GOLD!

Neil Cavill

 
And here's another... from the CEO of one of Australia's most successful Retirement Villages...

In 1993 I was in at the deep end, having just been appointed the manager of The Village Glen in Rosebud on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne.

As a land surveyor who knew nothing about selling retirement units, I was daunted by our list of vacant units (50) after “the recession we had to have”.

Just by good fortune I came across The Results Corporation audio cassette program, “Breakthrough Marketing Strategies”. The investment required back then was $2,500.

This program, which I still use, turned our business around. Our management and sales and marketing “Results” mindset continue to deliver for The Village Glen. We now serve 900 residents in 615 units. And we have 800 active potential clients and a waiting list of cash buyers.

I have no hesitation in recommending this program. Your business will soar if you who are prepared to invest the time to listen and implement the ideas.

Peter Nilsson

Two widely different businesses. Both producing extraordinary profits with Breakthrough Marketing Strategies.
 
Especially NOW, having access to these strategies can be your secret weapon for huge profit growth.
 
The Breakthrough Marketing Strategies program includes an 18 track CD set, workbook and business self-audit questionnaire …
 
PLUS a bonus (electronic version) 942 page information packed Grand Compendium full of worked examples, marketing case studies, before-and-after re-writes of ads, sales letters and sales scripts, and much more.
Collectively they used to sell for $3,500.
 
Now you can get BOTH for just $484. We have just four left from the original print run, so getting in quick would be wise.
 
Incidentally, if you didn’t get to hear the sample ‘snippets’ last time, or want to revisit them, here’s the link: http://www.chrisnewtonblog.blogspot.com/
 
(By the way, some people have difficulty accessing the audio link online.  If that's you, give us a call on +617 3300 6909 and we'll burn a copy for you and mail it out to you.)

Short business development Video from our UK colleagues

 Our colleagues in our UK office of Results Corporation have put together an excellent video that really encapsulates the basics on how we create a solid plan for optimising sales and client acquisitions.

To watch it, just click here. It may take a little while to load, but it is well worth it.

Or copy the URL below and paste it into your browser's URL address:

http://www.resultscorporation.co.uk/MARKETINGSALESMACHINE.asp?S=1

Enjoy,

Chris Newton

If you know anyone who would find value in receiving the recession proofing white paper or indeed to receive Strategy Briefs, feel free to email Daniel at: daniel@resultscorporation.com.au, and he'll organise to include them.

Are your quotes losing you business?

You may have heard me say before: ‘tear up your quote forms!’

Now, that's a fairly provocative statement.  And for many businesses, doing quotes is the only way they get business.  Or that’s what they think.

There is a better way.  Not only that, it will earn better margins, win MORE business, and serve your customers better.  A different positioning in fact, that will leave your lower priced competitors scratching their heads as to how you're winning the business.

First, what does the word quote mean to your prospects?

It means: "Check my competitors. Shop against me. Find the best price."

Think about it.  If that's how you're positioning your business, solely focusing on price, then your business will forever be fighting an uphill battle.  Now more than ever, given the increasing influence of the Internet and the 'global village' market.

Let's re-think the way you position your 'quote'. 

Start by not seeing it as a quote.

See your quote as a job specification, an action plan, a specification sheet...  Call it what you will, but don't call it a quote.  Get that word out of your vocabulary, and the vocabulary of your team.

Second, where do you put the price on your quote now?

Right at the bottom, at the very end?

Hmmm, what does the prospect do when they receive the quote?  They go straight to the very bottom and take a look at the price before they read the details.

So how might you address that?

Think about putting it right up the top.  Thank them for the opportunity to work with you on this project, state that their investment will be x, and then take them through the value they'll receive - list out the benefits.  Like this:

"Based on our discussions and your specifications, your investment will be x dollars.  Let me spell out exactly what you will get for your investment..."

Guess what your prospect is focusing on now?  Suddenly you've turned the whole focus around.  They're focused on the value they'll be receiving.  And the price is out of the way.

And importantly, when you write your proposal, assume that you've got the job.

Now I don't mean you don't have to try.  Instead, have the mindset, the 'belief system' that your solution IS the right one.  And that your prospect would be crazy to go anywhere else.

And in truth, if you've done your fact finding and set up expectations correctly with the client, there's no reason you CAN'T be confident you've got the best price/value solution.

One final point...

Even in a struggling economy, buyers are more concerned with the value of what they're getting than the cost.  There's a bit of wisdom here:

The seller often has more problem with price than the buyer ever will.

Hard to accept but true.

Until next time,

Chris Newton

P.S. If you'd like more help on re-working your 'proposals' or 'job specifications', take a look at this article on our Results Corporation website:

http://www.resultscorporation.com.au/Articles2.html