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The Profit Tipping Point
Are You Chasing Too Many Opportunities?
If you are STRUGGLING to make money money on the Internet then it is probably because you are chasing the next big opportunity all the time. It's what most people do and is why Rich Schefren's ideas have proven to be so powerful.
Take a tip from me and watch this free webinar - it is a BIG EYE-OPENER on what holds people back from the success they want.
Because I am reading an NLP book at the book, I thought I would return to Dr Harlan Kilstein's series of videos - 30 Days To Communications Excellence.
Today I bring you video 7 so if you missed the earlier videos you can catch them here:
Postcard marketing is a popular way to increase the number of contacts with your customers, hot leads and target market.
The attraction lies in the power of the postcard to attract attention with a picture and headline and to get your marketing message and offer read immediately.
I don't know what it is but I read postcards in their entirety when I receive them. Perhaps it is the promise of brevity and the knowledge that the marketer must get to the point.
The worst marketing is bland, meaningless and boring which is why you need to develop one or more customer avatars or customer personas to represent your typical customers.
The more personal your marketing message, the more your prospective customer believes that it has been written directly to them, the more powerful and persuasive the message will be.
Today I want to bring some neuroscience into the issue of emotional marketing and in particular a series of videos on the neuroscience of emotions.
Common Thoughts Linking Sales & Marketing To Emotions "People buy on emotions and justify with logic"
"Selling is the transfer of emotions"
Many of the best known sales methodologies focus on finding the pain - Sandler Sales, SPIN, Tony Robbins, Peter Thomson etc - because pain creates an urgency, even a compulsion to solve the problem and make the pain go away.
My mentor Mitch Axelrod has a saying - the world has changed from caveat emptor to caveat venditor - so if you are not a grade A student of Latin, that means the world has changed from "let the buyer beware" to "let the seller beware".
I can't find the exact statistics but it was something like - the average number of people told by someone who had a great experience is 8 and the average number of people told about bad service is 15.
But developments in social media have made it worse...much, much worse.
I use the phrase "search marketing" to describe the process where your prospective customers are looking to buy a solution and you take the necessary steps to be found - but when you are found - why don't customers buy or even contact you?
Your Prospect Discovered Your Competitors
The first reason why customers don't buy is that in their search they didn't just find you but they found your competitors as well.
Asking "will your advertising copy move a somnambulant sloth" is a question I picked up from copywriting master John Carlton.
I don't like using unfamiliar words so let me just explain that somnambulant means "resembling the habits of a sleepwalker" and a sloth is an animal with the reputation for being lazy and sleeping about 15 hours per day.
So John Carlton tells his copywriting students to think of their prospects as somnambulant sloth like creatures lazing on a coach in front of the TV after a hard days work, full after a meal and feeling sleepy while browsing your sales letter.
I like word pictures and especially word pictures that relate to making more money so I was pleased to discover "The Profitabiliy Vice".
It's not my phrase but that of Lynda Roth of LJR Consulting Services, a firm that specialises in information technology, saving money etc - to be honest I'm not entirely sure because as is common in big company consultancy, I don't seem to understand the words used when put together in sentences.
But I love the idea of the Profitability Vice and wish I'd thought of it myself because many businesses are being squeezed by the pressures of:
I came into contact with Tom through Strategic Profits and I remember he taught me how to change my mood by using a pencil to force my mouth into a smile.
I am sure that you are familiar with the concept of value for money since it is a fundamental part of buying anything but what about your exchange for a commodity worth even more than money?
It's the same with Return on Investment?
Do you think in terms of value for time? Or return on time?
Not value of time i.e how much your time is worth but value for time i.e. how much you get back from investing your time in anything.
How To Get Attention
I tend to think about attention as the first step in marketing, thanks to the famous AIDA acronym used in advertising - attention, interest, desire and action or the less well known ATR - attention, trial, reinforcement (or repurchase) for impulse buys.
If you are wondering why your marketing doesn't work and you are struggling to work out what to do about it, I have found a great video which makes the point very forcefully.
This is an update to an old McGraw Hill advert featuring the grumpy old man in the chair. (see original old man advertisement) and was put together to promote the Business Marketing Association conference in June 2009.
Twitter is fun and it is certainly the 2009 hot thing on the Internet (see Twitter names & brands) but ever since I have been on Twitter I have struggled with a dilemma.
Should you follow the people who decide to follow you?
You don't know them and while they have decided that you talk about something they are interested in, it isn't necessarily the case that they talk about what you are interested in.
Every time I hear the news I hear more about the swine flu epidemic that could be another over-hyped scare story or it could be a huge threat to both businesses and the population.
I am sure that it is making people more aware of coughs and sniffles and could be creating a tsunami of hypochondria.
Having written about USP (Unique Selling Proposition or Unique Selling Point), Customer Valuation Proposition, Emotional Value Proposition, Customer Value Proposition, Irresistible Offers and advertising slogans recently, I thought it would be useful to put together a list of famous USPs and great advertising slogans.
There Are Different Definitions Of USP
Depending on what definition for USP you use, these will fit into different categories and some will cross definitions and some won't.
Rather than being precious about what I think is a Unique Selling Proposition and what I think is more of an advertising slogan, I thought I would just list the famous USPs, slogans etc and let you see which forms a basis for you to model and adapt.
I was introduced to Tom through Rich Schefren and Strategic Profits as he was the compère and speaker at two of the big events in 2007 and 2008.
Tom McCarthy is what I think of as a success coach - he helps people to become much more successful. He worked with Tony Robbins as head of sales and marketing before he branched out on his own to coach top CEOs, Fortune 500 executives, Olympic gold medallists and even the special ops unit for the US Marines.
Is the customer value proposition (CVP) just a new (and posher) way of saying unique selling proposition (USP) or is it something different?
There does seem some confusion on the Internet but for me they are different but connected concepts but before I explain how I see the customer value proposition and the USP fit together let's have a quick look at definitions.
There has been some uncertainty about just where Formula Five fits in the market as Paul Lemberg is an internal renowned business coach and I understand that StomperNet are the world's largest Internet marketing training company.
I want to introduce you to an absolutely essential business and personal improvement tool - the Stop, Start, More, Less Grid.
You are probably one of the business owners that works too hard.
For me or any business coach or advisor to come along and say "if you want more profit you need to do X, Y and Z", you can immediately feel overloaded and more closer to the point where you do find the "straw that breaks the camel's back".
And this is where the Stop Start More Less Grid comes in.
Twitter is continuing to grow and it is definitely the phenomenon of 2009 as these latest figures from Alexa.com show - it currently has an Alexa ranking of 29 (Amazon.com is 34 to put it in perspective and Google.co.uk is number 20).
It is both fun to do as you just have to type 140 characters, choose people to follow and hope that people will follow you.
If you have a great business idea but you need to raise money to invest in it, the traditional banks are often too risk averse so you have to turn to the strange world of venture capital finance and that means dealing with people who make the Dragons Den entrepreneurs look nice, kind and generous!
f you are going to get involved in venture capital, you should take professional advice. Advice now could a) get you the money and b) save you a fortune in the future.
Over the last six months Simpleology and Mark Joyner have issued a wide range of Cashmaps and rather than tell you about each cashmap as it is launched - which was probably a mistake - I decided to collect the details on one big list.
We have the Pay per Click Cashmap, the Outsource Cashmap, the Small Business Startup Cashmap, the Productivity Cashmap and many more.
Ever since I started my Business Book Reviews Blog I have tended to forget to put summary postings on this blog so here is an update for the books I've reviewed since November 2008.
Sorry that it has been so long but I am sure there are some business books there that you will enjoy.
As a business coach I help small business owners profit from differentiating their businesses so they improve their competitive edge, stand out in a crowded marketplace and win customers.
I guarantee a 500% return on investment on my coaching.
A commitment to excellence creates a wonderful, virtuous circle of customers who buy more, more often and recommend you.
I am a chartered accountant, MBA and a certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach and have been an independent consultant / coach since 1995.
My profit coaching is a combination of marketing, business strategy and finance using the Eight Pillars of Business Prosperity.
I only work with coaching clients in the UK and can be contacted at paul@plancs.co.uk or call 0121 554 4057.
Beauty and the Beast
The beauty is my Italian spinone Gina, the not so hairy one is me...
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The beauty is my Italian spinone Gina, the not so hairy one is me...
