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.

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.

Featured Report: 40 Hot Tips for Improving Your Marketing

Inside this free report are 40 hot ideas for increasing the effectiveness of your marketing. These ideas have been drawn from a multitude of sources over time. They are the results of campaigns conducted by various leading advertising agencies and marketing companies.

How were the comparative results obtained in some of these examples? 

By using split run tests. Only ONE element (e.g. offer, headline, photo) is changed in the campaign in any one test. By isolating a feature like this, marketers can accurately track which version worked better and by how much.

A note of caution...

These results should be taken as indicators only of what might occur if re-done right now, today. Human nature doesn’t change, but lots of other variables do. And the test results apply to a multitude of different campaigns and products. So, take the results more as guidelines as to how you might trial changes to your own marketing, to lift response. That said, I'm sure you will find great value in reading about these 40 elements that have been tested, and how they have increased response rate time and time again.

Use the contact form below to request this free special report.  Ensure that you enter into the contact form the name of the special report so we know which one to send you.

Marketing and the Pareto Principle

The Pareto Principle, or 80/20 Rule is not new.  In 1941, Joseph Juran named it after Italian, Vilfredo Pareto, who’d observed that 80% of the country’s income went to 20% of the population.

In 1979, American Airlines identified that just 80,000 of their 25 MILLION travellers (3.2%) were generating 65% of their business!  This revelation saved them millions on wasted advertising.  

In fact, that revelation changed the face of marketing for airlines and many other industries with “frequent buyer” clubs.  

Savvy businesses reap huge profits by focusing on their ‘A’ clients who spend the most.  Hard to believe with this knowledge, the vast majority of businesses still don’t even segment their clients into A/B/Cs, let alone tailor communications to the ‘goldmine’ 20%.

The Concept of ‘Soft Dollar’

The concept of ‘soft dollar’ is a simple concept. But hardly any businesses harness it effectively. 

It allows you to value add to existing clients. It allows you to develop strategic alliance relationships that get you endorsed into other client databases ... and it gives you the tools to take away the focus from price and minimise the need to discount. 

So what IS ‘soft dollar’? 

In a nutshell, ‘soft dollar’ is something you have, or can create, that has a HIGH PERCEIVED VALUE, but costs little to produce or source. 

Take a pizza store. That’s an obvious one we’re all familiar with. 

The first pizza they sell a customer is encumbered with all the overheads ... wages, rent, power, insurance, advertising, etc. 

However, if they were to offer a SECOND Pizza FREE ... what’s the ‘hard cost’ to provide that second pizza? Some flour, water, cheese and a few extra ingredients. Maybe $3. Yet the perceived value is the same as the first ... Let’s say $12.

This is a classic example. That $3 pizza, positioned as a $12 bonus, can be (and has been) harnessed as a potent marketing tool.

In a similar vein, a beauty salon may offer a $20 hair styling as a gift. Perceived value, $20. Yet, the delivery cost of that service may be $2.

We’ve helped countless clients ... in beauty salons, fitness centres, health care, retail, automotive, financial services, real estate, design and construction, travel ... to rapidly acquire new customers through this concept. It is a concept you must constantly seek to apply. Because it IS so powerful.

Let’s have a look at a few more examples. Take the situation of a professional services provider.

Virtually any professional may use this same strategy. Naturally it has to be ‘packaged’ in a professional and appropriate way, depending on the profession. But the concept is equally as potent.

Take an interior designer. This person may charge out their time at say $150 an hour. It’s VALUED at $150. But it doesn’t cost $150.

The positioning of this offer is critical. If the consultant is seen to be promiscuously giving their time away freely without positioning it correctly, then it loses much of its value.

On the other hand, if this professional ...

• positions the hour as an exploratory consultation, valued at $150 and ...
• dimensionalises the value to the prospect of what they’ll be doing in that hour to analyse, advise and recommend, AND they ...
• give reasons WHY they’re prepared to invest that time with the prospective client, an ‘investment’ in the prospect to that the prospect can fully understand the depth and breadth of the designers services and expertise ...

THEN ... this becomes a classic harnessing of ‘soft dollar’ strategy.   The consultant could launch a whole campaign around this strategy, aimed at highly targeted prospective clients.

Every business can harness this very powerful strategy. Apart from positioning an hour of your time in this way, your ‘soft dollar’ could be: 

•  one of your own low cost high perceived value products that is related to, or enhances your main product offering in some way. An extended warranty perhaps.
• a complementary product you source from someone else. You supply fitness memberships, you ‘package in’ a $55 voucher from a local massage therapist or beauty salon.
• information you ‘package’ into a special report. This one is SO powerful, and so few businesses really harnesses it effectively. (For more great tips, grab a copy of our e-book '21 Tips to Creating an Effective White Paper' ... you'll need to put "21 Tips E-Book" in the comments field)
• an audio tape of a seminar you’ve presented to prospects an interview you’ve scripted to give solutions to hot issues of the moment

The possibilities for ‘soft dollar’ are endless. If you don’t feel you’ve got the expertise to do the packaging, don’t let that be a reason NOT to do it! Find someone who can record a seminar, or a marketing professional who CAN put together a report of packaged information. 

 

Offering packaged information has been recorded to produce up to a 3,000% increase in leads. So it is worth doing.

We'll be really delving into white papers soon, so sign up to this blog to make sure you don't miss that series of blog entries.

Can you communicate with your customers TOO often?

Most people would give a resounding YES to that. To be honest, we too are very protective of the frequency of mailings we do to OUR clients.

It's interesting to note that one of America's most successful stationary mail order companies used to mail its customers 50 TIMES a year.

The guiding rule must be... only mail someone when you genuinely believe you're offering something they'll appreciate receiving. It's RELEVANCE that matters more than frequency

If you'd like more strategies for business success in this global recession request our free Recession Proofing white paper here.

Why you should consistently seek PR...

You may be amazed at how receptive the media is to your story. If you have been performing ‘awesome’ feats for clients, and your clients love you for it, TELL your story to the business magazines and the daily press. Of course, they won't be interested in something that is a straight plug for you. But if it is tied to a theme ... like small business making a success ... winning against the odds ... helping others to succeed ... adding value to others in creative ways ... then that IS news.

When you DO succeed in getting a write-up, you'll get a boost to your profile and to your credibility. ‘If it’s editorial, it must be true!’ But the potential doesn't stop there. With the publisher’s permission and acknowledgement, reproduce the article and use it in every way you can... mail it to your clients, to your prospects, or add it to your testimonial sheet. In short, one simple article can work for you for YEARS.

If you'd like more strategies to bring your business success in these unstable times go to: www.resultscorporation.com.au ... for a free report.

Let me offer you an idea that multiplies your success up to 300%

What idea can I offer you that’ll do that? In a word, it’s your OFFER. Tests have proven time and time again that a compelling offer can generate MORE responses by up to 300%. What constitutes an offer?

Take ‘Buy one, get one free’ and another, ‘50% discount’. Same intrinsic value, but human nature being what it is, the buy-one-get-one-free offer almost consistently outpulls the 50% discount offer by 300%.

Of course, an offer can be a myriad of things… a price reduction, a free sample, a discount coupon, a free information kit, an extra strong guarantee, a free survey or consultation, free seminar, easy payment, free trial, small gift. One swimming pool company offered ‘An extra 5ft of pool FREE if you buy in the off season’. It reportedly worked gangbusters for them.

Just finally, what separates a ‘good’ offer from a poor one is often in the PERCEIVED VALUE built around it. ‘Dimensionalising’ the value. Telling its ‘magic story’.

In some instances, I advocate devoting almost as much space to describing the benefits of the OFFER – (say a free information kit or special report) - as I devote to selling the product itself.

If you'd like more great ideas for maximising your marketing, download our free "Recession Proofing" white paper at ResultsCorporation.com.au

“Please don't hesitate to throw me in the bin”

So you've written an awesome sales letter. Spent hours sweating over every sentence. But does it go out to the prospect with a closing line that says, “Please don't hesitate to throw me in the bin”?

Of course you won't have used those words, but if it says “Please don't hesitate to call me if you have any further questions, or for more information” ... or words to that effect, you may as well have said “throw me in the bin”!

Wherever possible, say something PRO-active like: “Because this is so important for your business and I know you’ll have some questions, I’ll call you in the next four days ...” Then call. Will this make you more sales? You bet!

For more great small business strategies, ideas and tips go to MarketingHelpOnline.com