www.BusinessBlueprint.com.au
December 2010
SELLING YOUR WAY TO SUCCESS … e r u t a e f l ia c e p S
HOW TO TAKE THE PAIN OUT OF SELLING AND TURN INTEREST INTO CASH
Tony Gattari Former General Manager of Harvey Norman Computers
PLUS+
Breakthrough Marketing Strategies EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEWS Latest Business News Photo Gallery Success Stories And More
Ari Galper
CEO of Unlock The Game
FAST-TRACKING YOUR BUSINESS SUCCESS TODAY
e r e h e n o y r e v From e t n i r p e u l B s s e n i at Bus u o y h s i w o t we want a y l i m a f r u o y and s a m t s i r h C l u f wonder r a e Y w e N y p p and a Ha
From The Editor Welcome to our Magazine! Dear Reader, is month I would like to use this opportunity to thank some people that have helped us this year. To Mikey and Anna, thank you for your continued support and all the laughs - you have been a massive help to us and we really appreciate it. To our coach Pete - thanks for your help with our Blueprint Members, I know they love chatting to you on a Friday and it’s been great having you in the office. And to Dale and Katherine, thank you for your continued support. is magazine was a real dream of mine and you have helped me to achieve it. I’m really looking forward to a big year next year filled with fantastic events. Lastly, thank you to everyone that has taken the time to read the Business Blueprint Magazine this year. It’s been a pleasure organising it for you (even those late nights when I was behind deadlines) and I look forward to bringing you more great stories next year. From everyone here at Business Blueprint, we would like to wish you a very Merry Christmas and here’s to a successful 2011.
In this month’s magazine … Check out our latest news and business briefs... Page 4 Feature Article: Take the Pain Out of Selling and Discover the new Sales Mindset... Page 6 Find out from the experts how to create FREE media exposure for your business... Page 8 Andrew Smith Sharon Tieman Taki Moore Read about what Dale has been up to recently... Page 10 Check out the photos from our latest Business Blueprint event in Sydney... Page 11/12 We speak with Shelley Barrett from ModelCo... Page 13 Read about Dr John Gray who wrote ‘Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus’... Page 14
Until next year, have a wonderful month.
Claim your free audio, ebook and video... Page 15 Article: Three Breakthrough Marketing Strategies to Skyrocket Your Sales... Page 16
Contact Us For any enquires please call 1300 782 734 or email editor@BusinessBlueprint.com.au
NEWS IN BRIEF
S S E N I BUS S F E I R B The Big O As we send this today, Oprah is currently filming one of her two shows at the Sydney Opera House. It reportedly cost Tourism Australia $3 million dollars to get Oprah here, but it was definitely worth every cent. Oprah is filming two live shows, with 6000 audience members at each. en she will also be doing two other shows that document her time in Australia. She has certainly made the most of her trip, visiting Hamilton Island, Uluru, Melbourne and Sydney. Her 300 American audience members have also been all over the country including Byron Bay and Perth. Over 300,000 Australians entered an online ballot to win tickets to the shows, and 12,000 lucky winners from all over the country will be taking their seats at the ‘Oprah House’.
Facebook founders pledge to give half their cash to charity Another 17 of America's richest people, including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, junk bond pioneer Michael Milken and AOL co-founder Steve Case, have promised to give away most of their wealth. At 26, Zuckerberg has put himself on the map not only as one of the world's youngest billionaires, but also as a prominent newcomer to the world of philanthropy. Earlier this year, he pledged $100 million over five years to the Newark, New Jersey, school system. Now, he's in the company of media titans Carl Icahn, 74, Barry Diller, 68, and others who have joined Giving Pledge, an effort led by Microso founder Bill Gates and investor Warren Buffett to commit the country's wealthiest people to step up their charitable donations. e group has signed up 57 people and their families since launching the campaign in June. e list also includes New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, CNN founder Ted Turner and film director George Lucas. But Zuckerberg and Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskowitz, 26, are the two youngest. "People wait until late in their career to give back. But why wait when there is so much to be done?" Zuckerberg said in a statement. "With a generation of younger folks who have thrived on the success of their companies, there is a big opportunity for many of us to give back earlier in our lifetime and see the impact of our philanthropic efforts." ough the pledge is not a formal contract, those who make it are committing to give away at least half of their wealth to philanthropic causes either in their lifetime or aer they die. Zuckerberg's commitment to the Newark school system was through his Startup: Education foundation, which he established as part of the donation. e $100 million will be given in the form of Facebook shares, which the foundation will be responsible for selling to raise cash.
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NEWS IN BRIEF
CEO of Twitter Steps Down
Founder rejects $6b bid from Google
Facebook now has 10 million active users in Australia, confirming the country's status as one of the company's most important markets around the world, where it has more than 500 million users.
You might think anyone would jump at a $6 billion offer from Google, but Andrew Mason, founder of Groupon, amazingly rejected such a bid from the search giant to buy his online coupon business.
e social networking site released the figures as it announced that early next year advertisers would be able to target users by location as they check in to stores or restaurants.
e 30-year-old founder and chief executive officer of Groupon, a Chicago-based internet-coupon service with more than 35 million users, walked away from an acquisition offer from Google, said a person with knowledge of the matter.
e number of users who access the site, post comments or pass on content at least once a month has doubled since May 2009. Paul Borrud, Facebook's regional vice-president of Australia and New Zealand, said the take-up of Facebook on mobile phones and devices was one reason for the growth, which he said was showing no sign of slowing. Globally, two-fihs of Facebook users are accessing the site through their mobile devices and those that do are twice as active as non-mobile users. Australians spend longer on the site than anyone else. However, Mr Borrud said size was not everything as advertisers were looking for greater levels of engagement as well as a large audience. ''You can have lots of people who are active, but if they are not doing things on a regular basis then they don't have much of a platform,'' he said. ''It [size] is one of the things they [advertisers] should measure but they should also measure the amount of engagement and sharing and who is influencing their friends.'' Mr Borrud said the introduction of Deals ''early next year'' would drive those levels of engagement higher. Last month in the US, Facebook turned on a service to allow retailers and other businesses to offer coupons and special deals through its mobile application, Places, its geo-location service that allows people to alert their friends of their whereabouts. Mr Borrud said he was confident that brands would sign up for the service as the likes of Gap and McDonald's took to the service. e service would be free but companies could advertise on Facebook to promote their deals.
e proposed acquisition fell through amid hesitation by Groupon's founding team, said the person, who requested anonymity because the talks are private. Advertisement: Story continues below e start-up will decide next year whether to sell shares in an initial public offering instead, the person said. e discussions could resume if both sides overcome their differences. It prompted CNNMoney.com to publish a video interview recorded two months ago with Mason that was cut from the final version. In it, Mason was asked if the company had ever had any buy-out offers. "I'm hoping that McDonald's or Exxon tries to buy us – like someone totally weird," he responded. Asked if he would sell to Google, he said: "No, I want to be part of someone like GE or something." Google had offered $US6 billion, including incentives that would be paid to Groupon's managers if performance targets were met, people familiar with the matter had said. Groupon would have helped its new owner expand in the $US133 billion local-ad market and lessen its reliance on internet-search advertising. "Clearly Google wants to get into the local space and Groupon was one way," said Aaron Kessler, an analyst at inkEquity in San Francisco, who has a "buy" rating on Google and does not own shares in it.
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How To Take The Pain Out of Selling The “NEW” Mindset for Selling In The New Economy If you are new to selling or you’re a seasoned business owner or sales professional, then you know firsthand that selling in this new economy can be painful – if you’re doing it the old way. Sales rejection, playing the numbers game and chasing prospects are still prevalent ideas handed down to us from the old traditional sales gurus. If you flick through the pages of business magazines and sales training material, you will find a constant flow of messages like, 'Focus on closing the sale'; 'Overcome objections'; 'Be relentless'; 'Accept rejection as a normal part of selling'; 'Use persuasion to get useful information about your prospects'; and 'Chase the sale'. In short, get the sale at the expense of the human relationship. For the customer, this approach is transparent and all too familiar. Crossing social boundaries and adding pressure to the sales process makes it a gut-wrenching and painful process. ere is a much better way to succeed in selling - move away from
the hidden agenda of focusing on making the sale. When you do this, a new world opens up for you. In other words, when you stop "selling" and start building authentic relationships based on trust, authenticity and integrity, the possibilities are endless.
No Trust, No Sale When there’s no common ground between you and the person you are selling to, when there’s no connection, trust simply can’t be created. And this is why people don’t trust those who are selling something. Even putting aside from the experience of rejection, selling can be painful for another reason … when you use old school selling techniques you can feel your integrity being compromised. You can feel the lack of respect from the people you’re talking to and you may even think they’re right to include you in the negative “salesperson” stereotype.
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Your intentions may be genuine, but the language you are using, the questions you’re asking, and the entire approach you’re taking is inadvertently triggering a lack of trust that makes it almost impossible to recover from because you’re only focused on you and your goals.
Creating Authentic Relationships, Selling Without Fear Here’s the good news: there is a new way to sell that allows you to be your authentic self without having to compromise your personal integrity. is new way of selling allows you to truly connect with people by being your natural self. And you can do it completely without fear of rejection. And the person on the other end of the phone (or across the table) will naturally trust you and actually want to tell you the truth. It all starts with shiing your sales mindset.
FEATURE ARTICLE | TAKE THE PAIN OUT OF SELLING
Getting to the Truth is What Brings You More Sales You’ll need to be open to a new mindset that allows you to focus on creating trust first, before focusing on the sale. e first thing you’ll need to do to “unlock the game” of selling and break the cycle of distrust is to stop focusing on making the sale. Huh? How can that be you ask? Key mindset shi: Focusing on the truth instead ironically creates more sales because you’ve created real trust with your prospective clients or customers. Stated again even more clearly: Your NEW GOAL is to find the truth (as to whether or not there is a potential for a sale between you and your prospect). Finding out if there is a fit between you and them is the prerequisite to creating an open and trusting two-way dialogue.
Principles Of The NEW Selling Mindset ere are three principles behind what I call the Unlock e Game® Mindset.
1. Diffuse The Pressure Always be diffusing sales pressure. at’s what you’ll need to be thinking about in every conversation you have in your daily selling activities, whether it’s on the phone, face to face, or even in email. Traditional sales methods teach us to always be moving the sales process forward, which puts pressure on people, you and them. For example, at the end of a call with a potential client, or at the end of a meeting, you’ve been probably been taught you should either close the sale right there and then or schedule the follow up meeting to keep the ball moving forward. Doing this puts pressure on the other person to respond, especially if you don’t know the truth of what they are really thinking.
Where to begin with this is “letting go” of trying to move the sales process forward and instead, taking out the pressure and giving your prospect the control by saying: “Where do you think we should go from here?” ey will immediately view you as someone who genuinely respects what they are thinking and that will be the beginning of the trust-building process. Amazing things will start to happen to you when you start creating trust instead of driving toward the sale.
2. Get To The Truth Getting to the truth instead of just focusing on the sale is key. When I say “truth”, I mean discovering the truth of exactly what the other person is thinking. e language you use is very important because it has to contain words and phrases that create a deep connection. For example, when someone calls you and tells you that they’ve heard or read about what your offer and they’d like you to send them some information, there is very specific language that you can use to immediately build trust and get to the truth of what the other person really wants. First, of course, you’ll want to begin with the pressure-diffusing phrase: “at’s not a problem.” en you can say, “Would it make sense if we first figured out what specific problems you are wanting to solve, that way I can know exactly what to send you?” at language re-engages the conversation into a two-way dialogue. So instead of delaying, waiting for the person to receive a “packet” from you, and then “following up” (which is an old school sales phrase you want to banish from your vocabulary immediately), you can immediately begin to reach your goal of getting to the truth by getting the other person to open to you because they can see you really care about helping them.
3. Become a Problem Solver and Trusted Advisor In The Eyes of Your Prospects One of the key strategies to helping our clients make the shi to becoming a trusted advisor is helping them convert their features and benefits into what we call “Problem Statements”. Problem Statements are key phrases that describe your prospects problems so clearly, that by stating them to your potential clients or customers is the trigger that connects them to you. You’ll immediately become a trusted advisor when your conversation is focused on solving their problem rather than pitching the future benefits of your solution. Feeling understood by others is what opens the door to creating authentic trust.
Ari Galper is the World’s #1 TrustBased Sales Expert and the creator of Unlock The Game®, a new sales mindset that overturns the notion of selling as we know it today. Unlock The Game has been available for over 10 years and has made sales breakthroughs for business owners and entrepreneurs in over 38 countries. You can take a Free Test Drive of Unlock The Game by downloading Ari’s free audio seminar “7 Sales Secrets Even The Sales Gurus Don’t Know!” at www.UnlockTheGame.com.au
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MONTHLY MENTORS | WHICH CRM IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
FIND THE RIGHT
Andrew Smith
Sharon Tieman
Immediate control, improved time efficiency and hence increased profits - that was the result of implementing CRM (customer relationship management) software ServiceCEO at Dr.DRiP Pty Ltd almost 4years ago. At the time we were shuffling work cards (jobs) under post-it notes on a glass panel labelled Monday, Tuesday, etc with the corresponding vehicle DRIP1, DRIP2 through to DRIP8. The sharp imagery, and lost paperwork, I recall from just thinking about life pre-CRM makes me anxious!
The most effective strategy I ever did for managing my database on line was creating a drop down hover box on a website. It offered a discount coupon if the customer subscribed. The software collected my customer's details and automated the whole process by sending out autoresponders, and managing customers un-subscribing. It rapidly grew my database and gave me statistics on 'open rates' and 'click through rates' to measure my marketing performance.
CRM
SYSTEM FOR YOUR BUSINESS Without customers, you simply don’t have a business. Understanding this, its rital that you are proactive about attracting, servicing and retaining customers. Unfortunately, far too many business owners have a short term approach to their customers and operate a business more like a revolving door at one of those five star hotels. Immediately aer someone buys, they are already searching for that next customer. However marketing experts tell us that it’s 7-10 times easier to sell something to an existing customer than to go out and find a new one. erefore, if you want to build a business that is profitable, sustainable and ultimately saleable, then you need to have a good Customer Relationship Management Program (CRM). Here are a few tips to get a CRM system working in your business...
ServiceCEO is designed for small – medium service businesses, and hence was a perfect fit for our business. A favourite feature is the dispatch board which allows us to manage the fleet of vehicles - schedule work for any given day and at a glance, see where our vehicles are at any given time. For more info call 1800 704 822 www.TradesmanInnerCircle.com.au
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My favourite email marketing software programmes are Web Chameleon and Constant Contact. For under $100 a month, they are a cost effective and useful resource for business. For more info call 1800 247 835 www.MadameMarketing.com
MONTHLY MENTORS | WHICH CRM IS RIGHT FOR YOU?
Taki Moore - How To Choose The Right CRM For Your Business able to use a system to communicate with my clients. 2. I also want to use it to look after individual clients. I need to be able to send an individual person an email and keep notes on whenever I speak to them or they get in contact with me.
Out of all the decisions you make in terms of running your business or the type of software you need, the most important one I've found is choosing the right database. If you get it right, it makes so many things easy. You can use it to convert new leads, get a visitor to an opt-in, follow up sales and even manage your back end customer fulfilment. But there is so much confusion out there because there are 50 million products available and most are either missing really important features or are way to hard and clunky to use. So I've put together a quick checklist of how I choose a great CRM system for my business: 1. I need to be able to automate my follow up. I don't want to be able to just collect peoples details or keep them on a file somewhere, I want to be
3. I want to be able to do some funky stuff on the web so I need a CRM system that can help me build landing pages to collect peoples details, to set up blogs, whole websites and even sales pages and membership websites. 4. I want something that could help me manage not just sales processes but marketing processes as well. A lot of CRM systems are either built to help you manage one on one sales relationships or built to help you market out to the masses, but very few can help you keep track of both in one place. 5. I want to be able to track everything - deliver rates, opening rates and clicked on rates and how much people have spent over time on my sites etc. 6. I want a system that can look after my affiliates - so I can make sure they are taken care of and also take care of my affiliates
7. I want to be able to send out multi-step, complicated multi-media campaigns without it being tricky. Specifically I want to be able to send campaigns that are a mixture of email, links to websites with videos, postcards, SMS's, voice broadcasts and even faxes. 8. I want a system that is super easy to use - I don't want it to get complicated and I don't want to get stuck. But if I ever do get stuck or need some help, I want the customer service to be awesome. I need to be able to pick up the phone and talk to a real life person. So I looked at every system I could when trying to find the right CRM for me. Most of them were too basic or missed important things. Others, and a few of the really big names that were promoted a lot were just too complicated. So for me, when I looked at Office Auto Pilot it hit all the right spots. They can manage all of the things I have noted above and I have had really great experiences with them so far. I know they have a two week free trial so I would recommend that you go and check it out. http:// www.BusinessBlueprint.com.au/ SendPepper For more info visit: www.MoreClients.com.au
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Diary Dates Power Hour Class Wednesday 15th December The Annual Business Blueprint Overseas Conference will be held in Fiji from Friday 4th February - Sunday 6th February Hot Seat Interview Thursday 3rd March Power Hour Class Thursday 17th March The Business Blueprint Autumn Conference is being held from Friday 8th April - Sunday 10th April Power Hour Class Thursday 21st April Hot Seat Interview Thursday 5th May Power Hour Class Thursday 19th May The Business Blueprint Winter Conference is being held from Thursday 14th July - Sunday 17th July
Business Blueprint Members Area Well Christmas is well and truly upon us now and it’s time to look back and reflect on the year that’s been. It’s worth while carving out some time before your brain goes to sleep and answer these three simple questions: 1. What were my biggest successes/breakthroughs this year? No matter how big or small, it’s worth while writing them down because one of the things I have discovered is, success breathes success. In other words, whatever you focus on is what you will attract more of. 2. At what times did I loose momentum and focus throughout the year? It’s important to discover what specific things take you away from achievement. In the future, if you can recognise these faster, you won’t let them get to you and slow you down. 3.What are my five top goals for 2011? Make sure you write them down and have them close to you at all times. Try not to have more than five because what will normally happen is it will dilute your focus because oen, in the effort to do more, you end up achieving less. For us here at Business Blueprint, 2011 represents a year of exciting growth where we’ll be getting out and meeting lots more business owners right across the country. Look out for emails early in the new year with details of a new tour that I will be doing. ank you for your support throughout this year. I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday season.
great ideas, then seminars and got some r he ot of lot a ne do do it and I have “I have WHAT to do, not HOW to me ld to d ha ey th like that, and discovered siness Blueprint is not Bu lf. se my r fo t ou is nal had to work th videos and the additio ng ini tra e th of l al d knowing that I ha .” coaching was fantastic Designer Lisa Ginns - Landscape
MEMBERS AREA | FROM THE GALLERY
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SEE MORE PICS AT
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HOT SEAT | SHELLEY BARRETT
HOT SEAT
Shelley Barrett
Shelley Barrett started ModelCo in 2002 and in the first two years, it turned over an impressive $5 million dollars and had an astonishing 200 per cent growth in turnover. In the beginning,what were some of the business skills you were lacking and what did you do about it?
The beauty industry is highly competitive,how have you been able to stand out from the crowd?
I wanted to know more about business management in the beginning so I invested in a management course, which taught me how to better deal with people, how to empower employees and how to delegate effectively. I also completed a Diploma in Psychology, which has been invaluable in developing my people skills and learning how to communicate effectively.
Much of our success is due to the fact that we consistently produce premium beauty products that are innovative in either their packaging or formulation – or both. Another important factor in ModelCo’s ongoing success is being able to maintain our speed to market. is is something that larger beauty brands can’t always achieve, but being able to respond quickly to rapidly changing markets and increasing customer expectations is crucial. In addition, because my background is in fashion, rather than beauty, it allows me to look into the world of fashion and anticipate beauty trends. ModelCo’s products also stand out from the crowd because they are loved and endorsed by celebrities, stylists and models. A growing group of devoted ModelCo celebrity users includes Elle Macpherson, Kylie Minogue, Lily Cole and Sophie Dahl.We have also leveraged our relationships with models and the fashion and beauty media for endorsements and promotion.
What made you decide to start your current business? As demanding and challenging as Shelley’s Management Group was, I craved something new.Having worked behind the scenes in the fashion world with models and hair and makeup artists, I identified a niche for innovative, quick-fix,multipurpose beauty solutions, which is how my beauty product company, ModelCo, was born in 2002. ModelCo creates premium beauty products that combine cutting-edge creativity and technical innovation. I formed a team of five people focusing on research and development, PR and marketing, importing and exporting and brand management. We developed a fiveyear strategic plan and brand architecture with an essence of ‘wow’. We defined our target market as ‘innovation insatiates’: those who are always scouring magazines for the next new thing.
What are the most important things you have learnt about succeeding in business? e most important thing I’ve learnt is that you must work hard.You need to be committed and passionate, and prepared to put in the hard yards. You must also be prepared to take risks. e way to deal with risk is by researching your product. It also helps
to have a good support network around you. Surround yourself with a talented team of people who share your vision. Another thing I’ve learnt is the need to be persistent. I never take no for an answer – or at least not 99 per cent of the time. I know the saying is so cliché but it’s absolutely true – where there is a will there is a way! e final thing I have learnt is to do things differently and creatively. is can be seen in the process I used to pitch my initial product idea to David Jones and Myer. I had an interactive presentation that had the buyer using the product so they could experience it first-hand. Boring diagrams and paper do not have impact, and buyers see so many presentations – so make yours exciting and creative! What do you love most about business? I love the ability to create innovative beauty products and being able to follow my passion and vision. I also love the sense of satisfaction that comes when our products outperform our predictions and truly make women feel happy and positive about themselves and the way they look. To find out more about Shelley and ModelCo visit: http://www.modelco.com.au/
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HOT SEAT
Dr John Gray
Dr John Gray is the author of the best selling book ‘Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus’ which has sold over 40 million copies. What inspired you to write your world famous book Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus? As a marriage counsellor I gradually developed an understanding of the differences between men and women that was incredibly helpful to couples and individuals. Progressively, this became the subject matter of my personal growth seminars and the groups loved it. People wanted me to put it in a book and gradually I did. I knew it would be successful because the ideas had helped so many people in my seminars and private practice, but I had no idea that it would become the best-selling book of the decade.
Do you believe that there is such a thing as the ‘perfect relationship’? I think the perfect relationship is different for different people. In my case, my wife gives me a tremendous amount of support but is also a source of frustration. We have similar values but we are very different. When I want to go fast she wants to go slow. I think working together to find a balance has made me a much better person and the challenge of meeting her needs as well helps us both to grow in love.
What has been one of the biggest challenges you’ve had to face in your own life and how did you overcome it? ere was a time when I didn’t know what I wanted and felt very isolated in the world. I was homeless and jobless. It was a low-point in my life. I realised that before I could help the world in some meaningful manner I needed to support myself first. By getting a job I gradually saved enough money so that I could pursue one of my
dreams – to teach seminars on personal growth. At first I did it part-time, but eventually it was enough to support me and I was making money from what I truly wanted to do.
In your experience, what is the biggest pressure in relationships and how is it best dealt with? e biggest pressure in relationships is trying to live up to unrealistic expectations. Most of us expect our partner to read our minds and automatically do what we want them to do. is would happen if we were the same, and thought the same, but we aren’t and we don’t. By taking time to reflect on and understand the validity of our differences we can begin to let go of blame in our relationships and replace it with acceptance and appreciation. What can people do to stay on track, especially when times get tough? ere are many things that people can do to stay on track. I think the most important of these is identifying where you are trying to get to. How can we possibly stay on track if we don’t know where the track is leading? To keep moving toward your goals you must be very clear about what your goals are. e first thing that I would recommend for people to do is to write down your goals. Just thinking about them is not enough. By writing them down and looking at them every day you will set your intention to achieve them. Make some of your goals long term and some of them short term. ey should be measurable, time-specific and realistic. Don’t make them too easy so they present no challenge, but don’t make them unrealistic for the time you have given yourself to achieve them in. And keep updating your goals. If times have gotten
tough and you feel like you’re making no progress toward the goals you identified earlier, sit down and write a new set of goals. You always need to be revising and updating your goals to keep yourself on track. It is during the tough times that a good coach can make the most difference to your life. If things have gone off course and you are struggling to get them back on track, then the investment in a coach will pale in comparison to the rewards you will reap in the long term.
What does success mean to you and how does one achieve it? Success is the process of getting what we want and wanting what we have. Many people are happy with what they have, but they do not have the confidence to step out and achieve more. On the other hand, those who do step out to achieve more are not happy with what they have. True success is recognising that you are not only in the process of achieving new goals but also being grateful and appreciative of what you currently have.
What is the single biggest question you get asked and what is your answer to it? Do you have a perfect relationship? My answer is that my wife and I have been together for 27 years and we have grown together in love. As my wife puts it, ‘You have seen the best of me and the worst, and you still adore me. at is real love’.
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FREE STUFF | AUDIO, READING, VIDEO
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The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People
Dan Gilbert Explores Happiness
In this book summary, author Richard J. Schonberger, world renowned scholar, theoretician and guru of production and manufacturing, explains how you can transform your business. You will gain key distinctions in the areas of factory layouts to why mass production is not dead. By examining Schonberger's 16 key customer focussed principles, you will be able to create true excellence in your own area of business, department or company.
How effective are you as a person? Are you a successful parent and partner, and an asset to your company? Do you exceed expectations and create opportunities or do you struggle to get on top of the millions of things you must do each day? We could all benefit from being more effective in our lives. In this highly successful book summary, Stephen Covey gives you the keys to success through an integrated, ethical approach to resolving personal and business issues.
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Dan Gilbert presents research and data from his exploration of happiness -- sharing some surprising tests and experiments that you can also try on yourself. Watch through to the end for a sparkling Q&A with some familiar TED faces. Dan Gilbert believes that, in our ardent, lifelong pursuit of happiness, most of us have the wrong map. In the same way that optical illusions fool our eyes -- and fool everyone's eyes in the same way -- Gilbert argues that our brains systematically misjudge what will make us happy. And these quirks in our cognition make humans very poor predictors of our own bliss. e premise of his current research -- that our assumptions about what will make us happy are oen wrong -- is supported with clinical research drawn from psychology and neuroscience. But his delivery is what sets him apart. His engaging -- and oen hilarious -- style pokes fun at typical human behavior and invokes pop-culture references everyone can relate to.
•How real change comes from the inside out
is winning style translates also to Gilbert's writing, which is lucid, approachable and laugh-out-loud funny. e immensely readable Stumbling on Happiness, published in 2006, became aNew York Times bestseller and has been translated into 20 languages.
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www.BusinessBlueprint.com.au/Mag Business Blueprint Magazine December 2010 15
ARTICLE | SKYROCKET YOUR SALES
Three
Breakthrough
Marketing Strategies
to Skyrocket Your Sales My friend and teacher Gary Bencivenga is a direct response copywriter acknowledged by leading A-list copywriters and direct marketing companies as “the best in the world”.
advertising inserts in the weekend papers. ey delete carefully craed emails with a trigger happy finger. And hang up on telemarketers almost as soon as they start their pitch.
‘Sally” wanted more leads for her professional services company. So she created a free info booklet full of valuable tips of interest to her target market. She included a strong call to action at the end.
Don’t you do this too? is is because he’s consistently produced more sales than any other copywriter he’s ever been tested against. Here’s what he says about the state of marketing today: “Almost all copywriters and marketers today are using the same oldfashioned techniques. But the world has changed, and the consumers you’re trying to influence have grown increasingly immune to these conventional headlines and approaches. is is why most direct marketers are seeing their response rates decline every year”.
The Blizzard Economy… Another way of putting this is to say that we live in a ‘Blizzard Economy’. Our potential customers are lost in the ‘blizzard’ of the 3000 or more marketing messages they see every day. For this reason they’re almost forced to ‘defend themselves’ from being overwhelmed. ey shake out the
So the big question for us business owners is: “How can we be a beacon of light shining through the blizzard to attract people to our business?” Here are 3 strategies which Billions of Dollars of Direct Response Split testing show consistently produce breakthrough results. 1. Use “Chameleon Marketing” to engage your target audience Chameleon marketing is marketing which don’t look like advertising. Your marketing message is presented in such a way that the predominant ‘look and feel’ is that of valuable content. Practicing Chameleon Marketing boosts readership - and therefore sales- by up to 400% or more. Here’s an example: How a Business Owner Attracted 75 New Leads rough Chameleon Marketing …
Sally then put an ad in the trade magazine of the profession she was targeting offering readers a free copy of the booklet. e Result: She got 75 new leads and generated $1.2 Million dollars in new business. Here are some more practical examples: • A “space ad” disguised as a magazine editorial will get up to 4 times the response of one which just looks like another ‘me too’ ad. For example, an editorial-style ad for Merrill Lynch editorial got a whopping 10,000 responses. • When marketing online design sales pages to look like “special reports” or “video presentations”. Scientific direct response split tests show this approach can increase sales by as much 300%. • You can take this approach a stage further and create a whole ‘magalog’ – a cross between a magazine and a catalogue. In a Magalog you combine
16 Business Blueprint Magazine December 2010 www.BusinessBlueprint.com.au/Mag
ARTICLE | SKYROCKET YOUR SALES
valuable educational content with your sales message. Magalogs typically get double or triple the response of a conventional direct mail sales letter. 2. Lead with Hot Content to Engage People in your Marketing Your marketing should not only look valuable, but actually offer real value. is means you tips and solutions to your prospects’ burning issues should be incorporated into all your marketing.
such as the French army crumbled in its path. Unleash the Unified Multiple Strategy in Your Business Similarly, in marketing, the combined effect of coordinated email, direct mail and telemarketing is awesome. Your response soars. Why? Because the combined effect of all of your messages is greater than the sum of each of them individually. You stand out and get noticed.
Why? Because this ensures your marketing will actually get read – not chucked out. And in the fragmented ‘blizzard economy’ this is half the battle!
is is so important because we live in a fragmented, noisy market place...and it’s absolutely essential to break through the blizzard which surrounds your prospect
For example, in Sally’s example above her free booklet truly offered real value to her clients whether or not they were actively looking to buy at that moment. is was key to its success.
at’s why while my company Conversion Masters specialises in online marketing –we also do offline marketing such as telemarketing scripts, direct mail pieces and even full magalogs.
3. Choose the most effective medium to reach your target audience.
We know from experience the compounding effect of each element in the marketing mix, and how you can use them all together for breakthrough financial results.
Offline…Online…Social Media… Email….Direct Mail...Telemarketing…
To Summarise, Here are the 3 steps to Breakthrough Marketing Results. 1. Don’t make your advertising look like advertising. Be a ‘Chameleon Marketer’ and disguise you’re marketing as valuable content. 2. Make sure people read you’re advertising by leading with valuable content that’s almost irresistible to your target market. 3. Don’t limit yourself to one marketing medium. Experience the compounded sales results of using multiple media- all at once!
John Anderson is the Director of Marketing Strategy with Conversion Masters one of Australia’s leading Direct Response Marketing Agencies. They’re responsible for online campaigns bringing in as much as $650,000 in a few short weeks. www.ConversionMasters.com.au
ere are a lot of ways to reach your prospect – but which way works best? I’ve found that using a combination of all of the above in a multi-faceted campaign works best. Consider the awe-inspiring (and horrific) example of Blitzkrieg during the Second World War. e German military was able to storm through Europe overcoming all opposition by using a “unified multiple” strategy. Troops on the ground were accompanied by tanks with aircra above. is focussed attack by multiple forces meant bigger forces
www.BusinessBlueprint.com.au/Mag Business Blueprint Magazine December 2010
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