Never Ever Cold Call Again to Get New Clients!

Something I learned over 6 years ago from “the Millionaire Maker” Dan Kennedy is that in order for you not to do cold calls, and to not be stressing out where your money will come from each month— you need to create a “lead generation funnel.”

I not only learned it from him, I shared the stage with him where he asked me to share the strategies I used to help grow my business and here are a few if them below,,,

What you need to pay real attention to is that After I did that, created and implemented those strategies… I never had to worry about getting any new clients or cold calling again.  I basically created a system of how to get new leads… Here’s a sample of what I did—

1. Create a  1 page printed newsletter- I sent it out for free once a month to anyone who signed up for it online. I also gave it to folks I met in my travels to events.
2. Wrote a weekly blog and sent an email to my list
3. Sent at least one email a week to my list in addition to my blog email
4. Attended the same 3 conferences every year for 6 years (GKIC Info Summit, Superconference and Yanik Silver’s Underground)
5. Joined 2 mastermind where we met 3 – 4 times a year- got a bunch of business from there J

This is only 5 things, and there are so many more things you can do to keep your pipeline of new clients filled.  I actually create a free report which you can download here-”The 7 Ways You Can Get New Clients in ANY Economy” no optin/email address needed- you get it here compliments of me.

The real key here is that whatever you decide to do you need to do it consistently, and don’t stop doing it, be committed to growing your list and putting your marketing on auto pilot by using an email auto responder, getting a VA to do a printed monthly newsletter for you and on an on… Stop making excuses and go get on the stick and create some systems to communicate with your list , grow it and never have to make another cold call again!

AND– Here’s a BONUS for you– Dan Kennedy just launched some great free training– check it out here– he shows you EXACTLY how to create your OWN “lead generation machine” funnel.

5 Steps to Daring Greatly and Living Authentically

I was totally shocked when I realized I hadn’t written in my blog since July—yikes! I thought for sure I had written something in August— nope!  So I thought this post would be PERFECT to get me back on track.  It’s interesting how life throws these curve balls at you and even more interesting how you respond.  One thing I know for sure is that life is ALL about CHANGE—you have to simply just expect it and realize you absolutely have NO CONTROL What we need to do is simply prepare ourselves well with riding the waves… And that’s how this post came to be… the 5 Steps to Daring Greatly and Living Authentically…

It’s funny how things happen—because I certainly don’t believe in coincidences…  The whole month of July I was away traveling— only home for 5 days, and they weren’t even consecutive days!  And on my last trip working a very stressful 8 day event a friend showed me a TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) video by Brene Brown—  it was so PERFECT—I laughed out loud and even dare I say—cried too…  And that’s where this title of  my article came from—Brene Brown who just wrote another book called Daring Greatly, How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

I was lucky enough to be in the audience to see Brene on the new Katie Couric Show which is premiering this week.  Her focus is on how we can be vulnerable and how this will transform us.  Her background is a researcher and she’s a professor at the University of Houston Graduate College for  Social Work School.  She’s spent years studying, shame, and vulnerability.  She tells her story in the TED video, so check it out I won’t bore you with it here… She also did a follow-up TED talk which was equally inspiring and funny too. Her video is in the top 10 most watched video on TED.

What was even cooler is I was there because a good friend works on the show and surprised me by bringing me backstage to meet her. She was so gracious and as wonderful in person as on the show. They gave us all a copy of her new book, which I had her sign for me and I took a photo with her as well…  This was an inspiring experience for me, one that I will always treasure. I connected with her because she’s so left brained like me- we just want strategies and tools, we don’t want to have to deal with emotions, feelings and being vulnerable- yikes… As an aside—If you catch the episode of Brene, you will see yours truly for my 15 seconds of fame in the show- They did a man on the street and asked me a question—I had to answer the question- I feel vulnerable when…. So check out the show to see more…

Well guess what, this is the key to living a full and joyful life, not numbing or stuffing my feelings, but giving them space.  In fact I started rereading some terrific books by Pema Chodron, Start Where You Are, The Places that Scare You and When Things Fall Apart. All of her books are about being present, meditating and feeling and being with your emotions, but not letting them run your life…

So here in lies the real core message— these are the 5 things I learned from Brene on Daring Greatly and these are the things I’m striving for in my life so I can live it more fully, not matter what challenges I’m facing or going through…

1)    Overcoming Self-doubt

2)    Being more Authentic

3)    Practicing Self-Compassion

4)    Finding More Gratitude and Joy everyday

5)    Nurturing creativity, play and rest

If you can work on mastering one or two of these, you will live a much more joyful and full life. Of course mastering more than one, would be ideal. But you don’t have to be that ambitious, just take one step forward and tackle one of these today and let me know how you do!

Five Strategies to Make Your Products Stick

Having worked with lots of entrepreneurs to help them create their information products, I’ve discovered this easy way to increase your stick rate.  If you don’t know what that means, it’s how to have someone who bought your product keep it so they don’t return it.

Here are 5 proven ways that you can use one or more of them to increase your products stick rate and get more of your customers hanging onto the product they bought.

Strategy #1-  Create a Quick Start Video—This is huge— create a video and walk them through step-by-step exactly what’s in the product and HOW to use it.  What do they do first, second, etc.  This really works and will get them to understand the product and to consume it more easily.

Strategy #2- Create a Quick Start Guide—This is a printed guide that you create. The way I did this was I created the video script first, then I created the PDF guide.  Again, walk them through the product, all the pieces they have.  Next, tell them where to start.  I sometimes create two tracks- one for beginners and one for advanced.   I tell them how to consume and go through the product depending upon if they’re a beginner or advanced.  Then you can also give them some additional resources to help them, like links to software, tools, or websites.

Strategy #3- Create a Checklist–  This is a terrific tool that can either be a stand alone, or include it in your Quick Start Video or Guide.  An example would be for my survey product, I give them a checklist of all the things they need to do in order to create a survey.

Strategy #4- Create a Mindmap—If you don’t know what a mindmap is- check out this website– www.mindjet.com  I LOVE mindmaps and use them for product creation and for product launch’s. Again, I put this in my Quick start Video and Guide.

Strategy #5- Create a Flow Chart- These are along the same lines as a mindmap, people love flow charts and love to see how everything fits together.  Here’s an example of a flowchart- (Again, I put this in my Quick start Video and Guide.)

Take one or two or use all of them like I have in my product and all these will go a long way in helping you increase your stick rate AND help your customers use your product as well!

The Real “How” to Create Your Own Info Products

One of the things I’ve discovered is that there’s tons and I mean tons of information out there on how to create products and how to market them… Yet, the one thing I saw that was missing was something that was really clear and simple about “how” to do it…

So I came up with some basic principles that will help folks on how to do it—

1. You have to survey your audience and find out what they want and how to they want it delivered and howto ot price it, which you can get that info from this blog— http://marketingimplementer.wordpress.com/2012/06/14/first-steps-you-must-take-to-creating-your-information-products
2. Once you know which product to create- then you need to do research and find out about your competition- you can search on Google or go on Amazon.com and look up books with similar information and research their table of contents.
3. Create your course outline with all the information you want to include in its, at this point you could do another survey, or send one out with this info to get some answers from the folks who will buy from you
4. Decide how you will publish it—will it be an online course or a printed course, or will you create one from a webinar or teleseminar- lots of decisions here.  Don’t forget to ask questions about this to your list.
5. Add Bonuses- don’t forget bonuses are good and often times sell your product for you
6. Increase your stick rate—do this by adding a quick start guide to all your products

This gives you a quick and easy way to start you off on creating your next product.  Follow these steps and I know you will be incredibly successful. Don’t forget to ask some questions to your list- because you always want to give them EXACTLY what they want.

First Steps You MUST Take to Creating Your Information Products

One of the many services I offer is working with clients to help them create their products and then launch these products for them.  The question I always get over and over and over again is—“How do I know what product to create?”  This is an incredibly important questions and often hard to figure out and most of my clients before they worked with me used all sorts of Google algorithms and some even used the pasta method, which I wouldn’t recommend.  The important note here is most guessed and did many other things. The funny thing is THE best thing they could have done to find this out was right under their nose and I was the one that pointed it out to them…

Want to know what it is?  It’s doing a quick survey to your list and ASK THEM what they want. Alex Mandossian calls this an Ask Campaign.  Why note go out there and ask the very people who will buy from you what they want.  And even if you don’t have a list, you can still use social media and post your survey online and drive some traffic there or you could find a JV partner who would be willing to mail the survey to their list for you.

Here are some terrific questions to ask:

What’s the one must have product you would buy from me if I was smart enough to create and sell it to you?

What format should we offer this product to you so you can consume and learn from it effortlessly and easily?

• Online course- videos, audios and transcripts viewable and downloadable
• Printed Physical course that’s mailed out to you
• Live webinar that was a 6 week course
• Live teleseminar that was a 6 week course
• Combined online course and live Q&A coaching calls
• Other- (Please specify)

What price point would be you be willing to invest in this product? (Choose one)

• $0 – $100
• $100 – $250
• $251 – $500
• $501 – $1,000
• $1,001 – $2,500
• $2,501 – $5000
• $5,001 – $10,000
• $10,001+

This is THE best way to figure out what next product you ought to create for your list. And again if you don’t have a list, you could use social media and simply as one question—“What’s the one big challenge you’re facing today in your business?” and you’ll get some cool answers that will help spin you in the right direction to creating your next product.

If you liked this article, please leave me a comment. And if you want to discover more about surveys, check out this page– http://www.createamazingsurveys.com/gkic/

What Do Your Customers Really Desire?

I wanted to continue my blog from last week where I discussed “What Your Customers Want to Buy,” followed up by this week where the focus is on “What Do Your Customers Desire.”  This questions are incredibly similar because a lot of the focus is out the outcome, not exactly a product or service. Remember people buy on emotion and then they rationalize with logic AFTER they purchase.

That’s why what I’m about to tell you is REALLY cool and important. If you’re a student of Direct Response Marketing or a copywriter, or student of marketing, you’ve probably heard of Victor Schwab. If you haven’t, shame on you- get on Amazon now and buy this book— How To Write A Good Advertisement

In the book he has a ton of terrific stuff on how to write copy and ads that convert. The one thing that caught my eye and made a huge impact on my was on page 47 where he talks about what showing people an advantage, yet it helps when you know what those advantages are.  So here’s his list of people’s desires and what they want to gain, be, do and save:

1) People want to GAIN:

-      Health

-      Time

-      Money

-      Popularity

-      Improved Appearance

-      Security in old age

-      Praise from others

-      Comfort

-      Leisure

-      Proof of Accomplishment

-      Advancement- business, social

-      Increased enjoyment

-      Self-confidence

-      Personal prestige

2) People want to BE:

-      Good Parents

-      Social able and Hospitable

-      Up-to-date

-      Creative

-      Proud of their Possessions

-      Influential over others

-      Gregarious

-      Efficient

-      First in things

-      Recognized as authorities

3) People want to DO:

-      Express their personalities

-      Resist domination over others

-      Satisfy their curiosity

-      Emulate the admirable

-      Appreciate beauty

-      Acquire or collect things

-      Win others affections

-      Improve themselves generally

4) People want to SAVE:

-      Time

-      Money

-      Work

-      Discomfort

-      Worry

-      Doubts

-      Risks

-      Personal Embarrassment

My recommendation of what to do with these lists, is in your marketing promotion and copy, ensure that you tie into these advantages and focus on one or more things of what people want to gain, be, do and save.  And if you can do that, they will buy from you.

I’ll leave you with this terrific quote from Napoleon Hill (and if you don’t know who he is- buy his book here—Think and Grow Rich. It was originally published in 1937) “There are no motives to action: Self-interest and fear.” So to me he’s saying that people buy out of self interest- to gain, be, do and save and out of fear. Hence so much copy is fear driven and focusing on our problems and that’s why everyone has the perfect solution for us because that’s how most of us think.  When asked what we want, it’s easier to know what we don’t want which then gets us to what we want… Happy thinking, discovering and figuring out your customers desires!

What Do Your Customers Want to Buy?

I’ve been asked this question over 1,000 times— what do my customers want to buy? And another questions I get is– how can I figure out what product or service to create so that they will buy it from me?  And I get a gillion more.  Here’s the real scoop on what people want to buy and I want to give you as much information as I can so you can be incredibly successful with creating the best products and services for your clients and customers.

I stumbled upon this book years ago—7 Steps to Freedom II: How to Escape the American Rat Race, by Benjamin Suarez. It’s a rather dated book, published in 1994, and a very BIG hard back book, so I wouldn’t travel with it.  This book is awesome if you’re considering doing direct mail and if you want some real insides on how people buy, and what to sell, how to make money formulas to be profitable, it’s a really good step by step- albeit dated.

What I want to share with you was the ONE thing that I got out of this book and it was his whole discussion and presentation of “Why people buy.”  So here are some key takeaways for your business:

Generally speaking people buy to spend money, be affluent, feel good and to avoid and solve the problems they’re having.  They don’t want to buy things that are hard work, cause risk or that are time consuming. I’m talking about the majority of people, not the 5% of entrepreneurs like you and me. The key is people want “Quick and Easy” solutions.

Here’s a list according to Benjamin Suarez of what people want to buy for:

1. Immortality and Survival
2. Power
3. Love
4. Money
5. Recognition
6. Acceptance
7. Parental Success
8. Career Success
9. Marital Success
10. Health
11. Success in Competitive Games
12. Avoidance of Hardships
13. Recreational Fun
14. Avoidance of Unpleasantness

Knowing this list above is hugely important. This gets into the psyche of the REASONS people buy and the “things” they buy for.  After I read this list, it made so much sense to me.  So the next time you’re gearing up to sell or promote a new product or service, take note of these things above and in your promotion and copy address one or some of these that fit.

Also, take a look at this list and it might also help you figure out which product or service to create. We already know the popular markets like Health and wellness, weigh loss and physical fitness, and of course love.  But don’t forget about recognition, immortality, acceptance, fun, and making money!

AND if you need any help with trying to figure out what next product or service to create or offer, check out my latest presentation on the 17 Ways to give your customers exactly what they want—Never Guess Again what your next product or service will be.