Get More Clients

How To Get More Clients In A Month Than You Now Get All Year 105 Money Making Marketing Strategies By Joe Polish

Š2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc.

Š2004 Piranha Marketing Inc. ALL RIGHTS ARE RESERVED. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any informational storage or retrieval system without express written permission from the publisher.

Published by: Piranha Marketing, Inc. 2318 S. McClintock Drive Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008 Phone 480-858-0004 Fax

DISCLAIMER AND/OR LEGAL NOTICES: While all attempts have been made to verify information provided in this book, neither the Authors nor the Publisher assumes any responsibility for errors, inaccuracies or omissions. Any slights of people or organizations are unintentional. If advice concerning legal or related matters is needed, the services of a qualified professional should be sought. This book is not intended for use as a source of legal or accounting advice. Also, some suggestions made in this book concerning marketing, product sales, or referral fees, etc., may have inadvertently introduced practices deemed unlawful in certain states and municipalities. You should be aware of the various laws governing business transactions or other business practices in your particular geographic location.

Any references to any persons or businesses, whether living or dead, existing or defunct, is purely coincidental.

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Acknowledgments We would like to thank all of you, the readers of this powerful money making manual. We wrote it for you so that you could use these strategies to join us in the top 1% of this industry. See you there!

Important Note: Portions of the material on pages 8, 27, 28, 29, 55, 179 and 180 are based on or were inspired by speeches, seminar presentations and published materials by Dan S. Kennedy, an internationally recognized direct marketing expert, consultant, author and speaker. Dan has been of great help to us in our own businesses and in preparing this Course. Elsewhere in this Course, we recommend some of Dan’s materials we believe you need and should have.

Š 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Forward This book was written to provide you with ways to get more clients and make more money. Period.

We wrote this to teach you, not impress you. We were relatively unconcerned with appearances. You invested in this system for the information. That’s it. We hope you were not expecting some leatherbound, boring manual. Please judge it by the information, not its looks. You’ll be happy you did. And by the way, the strategies in this manual have made millions of dollars for the cleaners that implement what we, at Piranha Marketing Inc., teach.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Introduction This book is chock-full of moneymaking strategies. You bought this program for a reason. That reason is most likely that you want to make more money. Read this book through carefully. Pick 5 strategies to start using right away. Track your results. Read this book again and pick 5 more strategies to start. Keep repeating this.

To get the most out of this manual, you will have to read it over at least 7 times. You don’t have to do it right away but within the first 12 months of owning this, you should read it at least 7 times. This will insure that you are getting the absolute most out of it.

If you follow these guides, you will easily double, triple or even increase your business tenfold.

These strategies are proven. If you have trouble with any of them, call our office and we’ll help you.

Good Luck!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Table Of Contents Strategies #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7 #8 #9 #10 #11 #12 #13 #14 #15 #16 #17 #18 #19 #20 #21 #22 #23 #24 #25 #26 #27 #28 #29

Marketing Plan.........................................................................................Pg-1 Clients Not Customers .............................................................................Pg-4 Learn Direct Response Marketing ...........................................................Pg-5 Unique Selling Point (USP) .....................................................................Pg-8 A Cash Flow Surge ..................................................................................Pg-11 Always Make Your Client Feel Important ..............................................Pg-15 Up sell Your Clients ................................................................................Pg-16 Model Marketing Ideas............................................................................Pg-25 Direct Mail ...............................................................................................Pg-26 WOW Your Client ...................................................................................Pg-29 Be a Professional .....................................................................................Pg-31 Constantly Learn Marketing ....................................................................Pg-32 Do Something ..........................................................................................Pg-33 Never Use Bait and Switch Advertising ..................................................Pg-34 Marketing System ....................................................................................Pg-35 Hold Yourself Accountable .....................................................................Pg-36 Stay On Top Of Things............................................................................Pg-37 Raise Your Prices.....................................................................................Pg-38 Live By Price, Die By Price.....................................................................Pg-40 Have A Big, Bold, Solid Guarantee.........................................................Pg-42 A Wealth Of Knowledge In Your Mailbox .............................................Pg-44 Get In The Newspaper .............................................................................Pg-45 Stop Giving Estimates & Start Giving Carpet Audits™ .........................Pg-47 Track Your Results ..................................................................................Pg-54 Consistency - The Key To Success..........................................................Pg-57 Use Letters Not Brochures.......................................................................Pg-58 3 Step Letter.............................................................................................Pg-60 The Longer The Better.............................................................................Pg-74 Form Letters.............................................................................................Pg-76

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#30 #31 #32 #33 #34 #35 #36 #37 #38 #39 #40 #41 #42 #43 #44 #45 #46 #47 #48 #49 #50 #51 #52 #53 #54 #55 #56 #57 #58 #59 #60 #61 #62

Don’t Be Boring.......................................................................................Pg-78 A New Client Kit .....................................................................................Pg-79 Thank-you letters .....................................................................................Pg-80 Test, Test, Test.........................................................................................Pg-82 Confirm All Appointments ......................................................................Pg-84 Be Down To Earth ...................................................................................Pg-88 Educate Employees..................................................................................Pg-89 Respond To Complaints Fast ...................................................................Pg-90 Lifetime Value Of A Client .....................................................................Pg-92 Let Them Choose Between You, You And You .....................................Pg-94 Networking ..............................................................................................Pg-97 Learn Everything For Yourself................................................................Pg-98 Target Farming.........................................................................................Pg-100 Voice Mail ...............................................................................................Pg-103 Front End .................................................................................................Pg-105 Back End..................................................................................................Pg-106 Marketing To Businesses.........................................................................Pg-107 Get Rid Of Bad Apples ............................................................................Pg-110 Never Leave Them Empty Handed..........................................................Pg-111 How To Get A Flood Of Clients With Yellow Pages..............................Pg-113 Don’t Waste Time In Truck/Car ..............................................................Pg-117 Know Your Numbers...............................................................................Pg-118 Learn To Be Happy Being A Sales Superstar..........................................Pg-119 You are not your own client. ...................................................................Pg-121 Diversify Your Marketing .......................................................................Pg-122 Referral Program......................................................................................Pg-124 Reward Referral Program ........................................................................Pg-129 Recognition Referral Program .................................................................Pg-131 Track Source And Get Referrals..............................................................Pg-134 Telemarketing ..........................................................................................Pg-136 Ethics .......................................................................................................Pg-158 Constantly Educate Your Clients.............................................................Pg-160 Tape Record Yourself ..............................................................................Pg-162

#63

Follow-up Calls........................................................................................Pg-163

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#64 #65 #66 #67 #68 #69 #70 #71 #72 #73 #74 #75

#80 #81 #82 #83 #84 #85 #86 #87 #88 #89 #90 #91 #92 #93 #94 #95 #96

Reschedule Next Appointment ................................................................Pg-166 How To At Least Double Your Response In Val-Pak.............................Pg-169 How To Drag Yourself Out Of A Slump.................................................Pg-171 Attend Carpet Cleaners Meetings ............................................................Pg-173 Monthly Newsletter .................................................................................Pg-174 Testimonials.............................................................................................Pg-176 How To Get Testimonials........................................................................Pg-178 What Should Your Testimonials Say.......................................................Pg-180 Keep Book Of Testimonials.....................................................................Pg-181 How To Write Copy That Sells ...............................................................Pg-182 Add More Services ..................................................................................Pg-184 Five Biggest Reasons People Fail #75 - #79 Don’t Do Anything ................................................................Pg-185 Do Everything Half-Way.......................................................Pg-186 Aren’t Consistent ...................................................................Pg-187 Have No Plan .........................................................................Pg-188 Procrastinate...........................................................................Pg-189 How To Remove Mental Garbage ...........................................................Pg-190 Bulletin Board For Employees ................................................................Pg-192 Write A Book Or Report..........................................................................Pg-193 Read Trade Journals.................................................................................Pg-195 Add Extra Services Without Doing Extra Work......................................Pg-196 How To Beat The ‘Slow Season’.............................................................Pg-198 Workshops ...............................................................................................Pg-201 Charity Program.......................................................................................Pg-205 Weekly Meetings .....................................................................................Pg-208 How To Get Many Jobs From Realtors ...................................................Pg-209 How To Make Even More Money From Realtor Referrals.....................Pg-211 Host & Beneficiary ..................................................................................Pg-213 Maintenance Program ..............................................................................Pg-219 Client Appreciation..................................................................................Pg-221 Lending Library .......................................................................................Pg-224 Advertise ..................................................................................................Pg-226 Stop Being Advertising Victim................................................................Pg-227

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#97 #98 #99 #100 #101 #102 #103 #104 #105

Client Dinner............................................................................................Pg-229 Videos ......................................................................................................Pg-232 TV Advertising ........................................................................................Pg-235 Business Cards .........................................................................................Pg-237 Newspaper Advertising............................................................................Pg-239 Create Your Own Sales Letters ...............................................................Pg-242 Newspaper Column..................................................................................Pg-244 Celebrity Endorsement ............................................................................Pg-246 Work On Your Business, Not in Your Business......................................Pg-249

List Of Examples “I Miss You Letter” ...........................................................................................Pg 12 Gift Certificates..................................................................................................Pg 14 Vacuum Letter ...................................................................................................Pg 19 Carpet Audit Forms............................................................................................Pg 50 Post Card............................................................................................................Pg 55 Tracking Sheet 1 ................................................................................................Pg 56 Three Letter sequence ........................................................................................Pg 63 Thank You Letter...............................................................................................Pg 81 Tracking Chart 2 ................................................................................................Pg 83 Confirmation Answering Machine Script ..........................................................Pg 86 Confirmation Letter ...........................................................................................Pg 87 Complaint Response Letter................................................................................Pg 91 Lifetime Value Of A Client Worksheet .............................................................Pg 93 Yellow Page Examples .....................................................................................Pg 116 Tracking/Referral Form .....................................................................................Pg 135 Employee Contract.............................................................................................Pg 142 Embarrassed By Your Carpets letter..................................................................Pg 144 Call Script 1 .......................................................................................................Pg 151 Call Script 2 .......................................................................................................Pg 152 Telemarketing Call Sheet...................................................................................Pg 155 Script For Answering Machines (or Voice Mail) ..............................................Pg 164 Letter If Couldn’t Reach For Follow-up Call ....................................................Pg 165 Reschedule Next Appt Letter.............................................................................Pg 166 Val Pak...............................................................................................................Pg 170 Testimonial Forms .............................................................................................Pg 179 Such A Great Client! Letter ...............................................................................Pg 214 Dollar Bill Letter................................................................................................Pg 215 Evaluation Form ................................................................................................Pg 231 Business Cards ...................................................................................................Pg 238 Newspaper Ad....................................................................................................Pg 241

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Before you get started, take a moment to read this letter, it will show you what kinds of results are possible when you use this system.

A Personal Letter To Joe Polish and Piranha Marketing Joe:

I had to write to tell you how your marketing system has changed my life. I was a marketing communications major in college, so I thought I knew it all, and that made it difficult for you to convert me, from prospect to client. I was very skeptical that anyone knew more than I did about marketing. Lucky for me, your system is so good, that I finally realized after 10 letters and a live seminar over 8 months, THIS GUY KNOWS MORE THAN ME! I was so impressed by the way you marketed to me to become a Piranha Client that I know you could help me market my carpet services.

Once I received your package, I was so excited about the things you teach, I immediately changed all my advertising to direct response marketing, I took immediate “action” to put your tools to work for me. I was just listening to your interview with Ken Kerr where you talked about following through and not doing things halfway and I have to say this: Fifty percent of one of your marketing tools is a heck of a lot more effective than the one tenth of one percent effectiveness many cleaners struggle with now. I do a lot of your strategies half way, and they still have doubled my income. Just your suggestion to sell vacuums paid for the cost of the membership many times over. I got the dust mite letters all put together and ready to be sent out for when my business got slow, but it never got slow.

I don’t mean to suggest that these strategies are easy, it takes work. When I set up my recorded message it took me a long time to get 10 minutes of information recorded, because I kept slipping up. I felt uncomfortable about it, because I sound more like Ross Perot than Larry King. Then I got all these jobs from people that listened to my message and I found zero price resistance. If I suggested something that I honestly believed would benefit my client, their reaction was not “how much” but, “if you say so”. What a difference. It was tough to put together some of these strategies but it beats pushing a wand for fifteen cents a foot. Cleaning carpet is tough, sweaty work, it’s like doing aerobics in a steam room. I have to say I did not sweat a drop while recording that message. Tough as it was, it works for me continuously over and over again.

I would also like to reiterate to your clients that it takes the entire Piranha concept to make it work. I referred a friend of mine to Piranha and he said the only thing he got out of it was the idea of raising his price. So he raised his prices but kept his old institutional, image type, name-rank-and serial number advertising. His numbers are falling! My numbers on the other hand, have doubled while dropping my advertising budget from $1200 per month to $200 a month. Just $200 a month in advertising and I’ve gone from being booked two to three days in advance to being booked two © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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weeks in advance. I’ve had to “Fire” annoying, cheap clients that want me to move every piece of furniture in the house, because I have too many open pocket clients that move the furniture before I get there.

I felt uncomfortable about a money back guarantee, but I knew I had to have some sort of guarantee, so I use George Zimmers guarantee from the Men’s Warehouse, “I guarantee it”. Guarantee what? It! I also put the term in my Unique Selling Proposition (USP) - “No One is better trained, or better equipped to handle your cleaning and restoration needs than Machell Carpet, Guaranteed.” I back up my USP by showing that I’m a Master Cleaner, Master Restorer, and Senior Carpet Inspector. Some of the bait and switch type guys in my area offer new carpet sales and installation, which is against the law because they’re not Licensed Contractors. So, to combat that, I offer my Free booklet, Five Important Considerations When Buying New Carpet. I’m so busy in my business now that I don’t have time for price shoppers, so I put in the copy, “we’re not cheap, but we are the best, if you are looking for cheap then I invite you to call my competitors (from Joe’s business card), but if you’re looking for honesty, integrity, and the highest level of expertise, then you’ll be happy* you called Machell Carpet, I guarantee it” and I back it up with a testimonial from one of my clients.

I’m a Piranha Marketer, and I intend to “eat my competition alive!”

Thanks Joe! Randee Machell PS. Many years ago like everybody else I changed my title from carpet cleaner to carpet technician, but now I refer to myself as an Environmental Technician, specializing in Indoor Air Quality.

PPS. Like Dan Kennedy says, “every customer should get a customer,” it’s important to have a referral program. This referral program has been the single biggest boost to our business. I’ve had a number of clients refer seven or eight new clients to us with this program. Using this strategy, we went from getting a referral every couple of months to three or four a week.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #1 The very first marketing secret is first because it is the most important. It may seem obvious but less than 1% of all carpet cleaners actually do it. Even though it’s very simple, don’t underestimate its power!

The most important thing about marketing is to have a:

Marketing Plan More carpet cleaning businesses fail because they don’t have a plan or goals. You should have a detailed marketing plan of what you want to accomplish and how you are going to accomplish it.

Don’t be vague either. Things like ‘I want to make more money than I can ever spend’ and ‘I want to be rich’ and ‘I want to make $10,000.00 a month’ - these are not plans. They’re too vague and they won’t help you get there.

Be specific. As you go through this book pick at least 5 ideas to start with. Write them down.

Write how much you are going to make from each idea this week and this month. Then do a 3month plan and a 6-month plan.

Once you start using the first 5 ideas then add another 5. Then another. Soon you should be using almost all of the money making marketing strategies in this book. (I say most because there might be one or two that just aren’t you. That’s OK. Use the ones that you are most excited about to begin with then branch out.)

Your plan should include money goals. Try to put your money goals in net to you, not gross.

I know gross is what you are used to thinking in but net is obviously more important. I know one carpet cleaner owner who does $500,000.00 in gross. It sounds impressive and that’s why he does it. He only nets $35,000.00 - yeah that’s right, not very impressive at all.

First examine your current numbers. More than 80% of all carpet cleaners don’t know how many clients they get a month. That’s a deadly sin. You must know how you are currently doing.

You should know how many new clients you get each month, how much you make from each client and how much it costs you to acquire a new client. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Here’s an example: John is a fictitious cleaner. John owns a carpet cleaning business. He’s been in business for 2 years. He gets his clients from low price, coupon advertising and a few here and there from his yellow page’s ad.

He grosses $2,916.67 a month. His average job is $65.00.

Therefore he does 11 jobs a week.

His net is 50% of gross or $357.50 a week.

John wants to double his net income in 2 months, triple in 4 months. (I don’t blame him.)

Considering that John doesn’t know any of my marketing secrets, he will have to get twice as many jobs to double his business.

Goal: 22 jobs a week.

He currently gets 8-9 jobs from his coupon advertising and 2-3 from his yellow pages ads.

But he gets 18 calls a week from his coupon advertising and 5 from his yellow pages. So he currently ‘closes’ 50% of his prospects.

If he doesn’t learn any of my methods to improve his 50% close ratio, then he’ll have to get 44 prospects to do 22 jobs.

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His plan to get 44 prospects: * (Indicates you’ll learn more about these strategies later in this manual) 15 Consumer Line * 5 Yellow Pages 5 Seminar * 19 3-Step Letter * 3 Referral Program * 47 Prospects Wow that’s 3 more than his goal!

You should have a weekly plan. Schedule 15 min. out of one day to make up your weekly plan and to see how you did the last week. Schedule this time and keep to it. Don’t do any appointments during this time, keep it strictly for planning. If you do this and not one other of my secrets, you will easily double your income in 12 months.

Of course, John didn’t know any of my secrets to double the profit from all his jobs. If he did both - double his profits from each job and double the amount of jobs, he’d quadruple his business in less than 2 months.

Your weekly plan should include the following: 1. Goal for total net income.

2. Goal for number of new clients.

3. Goal for number of repeat clients.

4. Goal for number of referrals.

5. Average net income from each client.

6. The number of prospects you’ll have to generate to reach your goal.

7. A detailed plan to generate the number of prospects you need.

Your plan doesn’t need to be typed or put into a computer. It can be handwritten on paper.

The important part is that you do a plan every single week and keep on top of things.

Remember as we get started, that measurement improves everything.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #2 Clients Not Customers.

This is a subtle point that can make a big difference. Stop using the word ‘customer’ and start using ‘client’.

Why? Because the word customer implies that they buy things from you. But the word ‘client’ implies a close relationship in which you help the ‘client’.

It changes the way you see your clients. You will respect them more. After all, your clients are your most valuable assets in business. Without them, you’d be up a creek.

Start calling them clients to your employees, to them, in all your letters. Make your employees start using the word client. Clients are people you care about, that you help.

Customers are just people who buy from you, who may or may not ever buy from you again.

Why Did I Put This Strategy At The Beginning?

I put it at the beginning so you would understand why I always use the term clients throughout this manual. Knowing this strategy at the beginning will help you through the whole manual.

I’ve noticed that business people tend to think of ‘customers’ as nuisances. But ‘clients’ are important and treated that way.

Start using the term ‘clients’. You’ll see that your ‘clients’ will like this too.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #3 Learn Direct Response Marketing.

What is a direct response ad?

It’s an ad that contains all of the following: 1. A headline 2. Creates interest in the service or product 3. Creates desire in the prospect 4. Has a specific offer 5. Has a deadline or cut off date Most advertising in magazines, newspapers, on radio and TV are not direct response. They are institutional advertising (also called “image” advertising). There is no way of accurately tracking the response since there is no specific offer.

Why Do Advertising Agencies Like Institutional Advertising?

They can’t be held responsible for zero results. If an ad campaign doesn’t increase sales they blame it on one of the following: A. The economy B. They tell you that you need to run these ads that didn’t work over again and suddenly they will work.

Out of the two, the second is by far the worst. Advertising agencies are notorious for saying ‘well the public just needs to see your ads more often and then you’ll start to get more sales’.

Many people then waste a lot more money and still don’t get results.

This theory is flawed. If an ad doesn’t work at all once, it’s not suddenly going to bring in lots of money. It doesn’t work that way. There is a tiny bit of truth to it. A very, very small © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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percentage of your response will come from people who have seen the ad before. This is the frosting on the cake. There certainly isn’t enough of it to substantiate wasting more money.

Advertising agencies are interested in being creative and ‘cutesy’. That’s what wins advertising awards. I think this is absolutely ridiculous. The advertising field gives awards based on creativity not results. Many ads that have won top awards didn’t produce any substantial increase in sales. They have forgotten that advertising is meant to do one thing and one thing only:

To Get More Clients That’s the only reason I advertise. I don’t care about name recognition - I just want more clients.

Building name recognition is only possible with a huge, huge advertising budget. There is a lot of waste in that type of advertising but some really big businesses can survive with that waste. Businesses like McDonalds, Dominoes, and Budweiser - they can afford this massive waste. Of course if they used savvy direct response techniques they’d cut the waste out of their advertising and their sales and profits would dramatically improve.

Small, local businesses do not have that option. We can’t afford to waste marketing dollars on ads that don’t pull in immediate cash.

Direct response is results oriented. You know exactly how much money you made from jobs that come from each direct response method.

Emotional direct response marketing gives your prospects something they want and tells them exactly what to do to get it. It gives them compelling reasons to use you. It gets response.

And response means $$$.

Here are some rules when marketing: •Never do anything that you can’t directly track the results. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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•Never run an ad a second time that didn’t work the first time.

•Never fall in love with your ad.

This is a common mistake for people first starting out with direct marketing. An ad is only good if it gets results. Period. Don’t fall in love with any ad until you have tested it and know that it pulls.

Become a student of direct marketing. Learn everything you can about it. The more you learn about marketing, the more money you’ll make. If you’d like to know about other books and tapes that can teach you more about direct marketing, give us a call at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800275-2643. And if you are not currently a subscriber to my Interview of The Month Series (called The Genius Network) then call my office or visit my website at www.joepolish.com.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #4 Unique Selling Point (USP).

Your unique selling point is a precise statement of why your company is special.

It should answer the question: ‘Why should I do business with you versus any or all of your competitors?’

Don’t worry if you can’t answer that question now. We’ll go over how to formulate your Unique Selling Point.

First I want to tell you how powerful a USP can be.

In 1960 there was a college student named Tom. He and his brother Jim had to pay their way through college somehow. So they decided to borrow $900 to buy a pizzeria named Dominick’s in Ypsilanti, Michigan.

Brother 1 would run the place during the day and go to school at night. Brother 2 would go to school during the day and run the place at night.

After a year, they were losing more money than they were making and Brother 2, Jim, wanted to get out. In exchange for an old beat-up Volkswagen Beetle, Brother 1, Tom, owned the entire business.

Not long after, Tom developed a USP that turned his company into a multi-billion dollar company in a very short time.

This was his USP: Fresh, hot pizza delivered in 30 minutes or less. Guaranteed.

Of course, that’s the story of the Dominoes and that’s how Tom Monaghan’s fortune was made.

And now they don’t even guarantee the 30 minutes but that’s irrelevant. They’re so huge now © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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and everyone knows them that its not hurting them. But the USP Made them BIG! The important point is that this USP is not complicated; it’s simple.

It doesn’t promise all things to all people. It never mentions a homemade sauce from the ‘old country’ or even good taste!

What it did was hit an opportunity gap in the pizza delivery business. No one was quick. It used to take at least an hour or longer.

If you see an opportunity gap in your area, go for it.

One of the biggest opportunity gaps is giving a small time window.

Most people hate to wait around all day or even 4 hours. They are annoyed but no one is offering them a different alternative.

You can dominate your market if you hit an opportunity gap.

How To Decide On Your USP? You should think this over for a while. Don’t rush it.

Your USP is very important. You should mention it in all your marketing materials, even your business card. My business card is my expanded USP (Strategy #100).

Talk to your clients. See what they really like about you. Why they chose you. What else they want from you? What they hate most about doing business with you?

Analyze all these answers from many different clients.

Out of all that, decide which points are most important.

Then narrow your USP down to 1 - 3 sentences. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Start using it. Use it in all your marketing materials but also in your every day life.

When you meet someone new, they almost always ask ‘What do you do?’

Stop saying ‘I’m a carpet cleaner.’ The conversation usually ends there. They never ask ‘Oh, how do you do that?’ This is what you want them to ask so then you can start ‘selling’.

Your USP should convey one or two major benefits and create interest.

For example Dan Kennedy’s USP is: I cut all the fat and waste out of businesses’ advertising and marketing and make them 10 times more profitable without spending another dollar!

I’ve heard him tell people this at all sorts of places - at conferences, at dinner parties, even on the street. Everyone always asks more questions after that. He’s gotten so much business from this; it’s hard to believe.

So create your USP and start using it!

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Marketing Strategy #5 A Cash Flow Surge.

This is used for an immediate cash flow surge.

It targets existing clients. You should mail this letter to all your clients who you haven’t done any work for in the past 12 months.

Since the mailing is to your current clients, you don’t need to stick to the direct mail rules for prospects. (You’ll learn the rules later in this manual).

You can use labels, your letterhead and your envelopes.

This is a real money maker. I get at least a 20% response from this letter - that’s 20 out of every 100 I mail. This is incredible and always gives me more work than I can handle!

On the next pages follows the letter and the coupon.

And keep in mind, this letter works for almost every Piranha Member that uses it. This letter alone is responsible for compelling thousands of consumers to have their carpets cleaned again by the cleaner that did it last time. (In this case that will be you). As long as you have good rapport with the client and they were happy with the quality of your work, then this letter will work like gangbusters.

Don’t question what I say. Put it to the test and just mail this letter. If you do, I’m sure you’ll make many times more then what you invested in my marketing materials.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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You’ve Won One Room Of FREE Carpet Cleaning Dear Friend, This is [your name], owner of [company name]. You’ve won one room up to 200 SF of carpet cleaning absolutely free. No strings attached. No teeny, tiny little print. One room FREE. A coupon is enclosed for you to redeem.

I Miss You! You’ve gotten your carpets cleaned by my company before but you haven’t in a while. I miss you.

Don’t you remember how your carpet looked when we cleaned it last time?

It looked practically brand-new! Clean. Fresh-smelling. Crisp. It was fantastic.

It’s been quite a while since you’ve gotten your carpet cleaned. Too long. You know you should but...

I know, you’ve been meaning to get your carpet cleaned but you just haven’t gotten the time. I’m sure there are plenty of good reasons why you haven’t done it.

You are busy. Preoccupied with work and the kids. You’re being pulled in 63 different directions at once. Tired. Who has time or the energy to even think about the “carpet”. By the time you get the crisis of the day fixed, you just want to relax. Just a moment of peace. You deserve it. And weekends, well they go by so fast it seems

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like Monday morning is there only moments after Friday night left.

Why Am I Giving You One Free Room Of Carpet Cleaning?

My busy season is just around the corner, then I’ll have to turn business away, BUT it’s not quite here yet.

So I chose a few ‘select clients’ to receive one room of carpet cleaning up to 200 SF for free. That’s up to $46.00 of free cleaning.

No strings attached. You don’t have to buy anything else. Not one thing. This is a free gift.

How Can I Afford To Do This?

Thank you for being so concerned about me. The truth is that some of my clients will choose to have all of their carpets cleaned. Not all, but some. Enough so that I can afford to give this away to a few select clients.

Like I said my busy season is coming up, so this offer won’t last long. After [date not more than 45 days away] it’s all over. The coupon enclosed will be expired after that.

Call me now at [your number] to schedule your free carpet cleaning Sincerely,

[Your name] [Company name] P.S. Don’t miss out - you’ve won one room of carpet cleaning up to

200 SF. No strings attached. That’s up to a $46.00 value. You must claim your prize by [date]!

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GIFT CERTIFICATE

Good for one FREE room of carpet Cleaning up to 200 sq. ft.

This certificate is good for up to $46.00 worth of cleaning!

Absolutely no cost or obligation to buy additional services

Cleaning Provided by

YOUR NAME HERE Professional Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning To Schedule your free cleaning Call (Your Phone Number) To hear more about this offer call (Your Company’s) Consumer Awareness Message at 111-2222 This is a free recording that will teach you 6 costly misconceptions about carpet cleaning Call anytime – 24 hours a day

Compliments of: Company Name & Phone

GIFT CERTIFICATE

Good for one FREE room of carpet Cleaning up to 200 sq. ft.

This certificate is good for up to $46.00 worth of cleaning!

Absolutely no cost or obligation to buy additional services

Cleaning Provided by

YOUR NAME HERE Professional Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning To Schedule your free cleaning Call (Your Phone Number) To hear more about this offer call (Your Company’s) Consumer Awareness Message at 111-2222 This is a free recording that will teach you 6 costly misconceptions about carpet cleaning Call anytime – 24 hours a day

Compliments of: Company Name & Phone

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Marketing Strategy #6 Always make your client feel important.

This is very, very important. You should always, always, make every one of your clients feel like they are your most important client. It doesn’t matter how big or small the job, make every client feel like they are number 1.

A client who feels important will be a super, great client.

She will: 1. Keep using you over and over again.

2. She’ll never look for a different carpet cleaner.

3. She’ll refer you to lots of new clients.

4. She’ll rarely complain about anything. If clients are thrilled with you, they’ll let the little mistakes pass. They realize that no matter how good you are there are always some mess-ups.

Clients who feel important are much less likely to hold anything against you.

How do you make a client feel important?

1. Respond to their calls, questions, whatever immediately. Don’t make people wait, answer their questions that day or at the latest the next day.

2. Always treat your clients with respect.

3. Always help them with their problem, even if its something they should do themselves.

They’ll appreciate it very much and pay you back ten fold.

Never underestimate your client. If you treat every client like your most important client, you’ll have more business than you can handle.

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Marketing Strategy #7 Upsell Your Clients.

By this I don’t mean ‘bait and switch’ advertising - telling them a low price and then hitting with a much higher price when you get there.

By upselling I mean selling your clients more stuff. The first upsell you should go after is carpet protection. This practically doubles your profit for not that much more work.

I used to think carpet protection was just an up sell; a way to squeeze more money out of clients. I was wrong.

I’ve seen too much evidence that carpet protection really works. I’ve seen virtually the same carpet with and without carpet protection. The one with carpet protection always wears better and looks better - even when that family has more children and pets. Carpet protection is a good value to your clients. (But I don’t have to convince you!)

How to sell carpet protection: I’ve learned that most carpet cleaners hate selling. Don’t think of it as selling; think of it as educating. Educate your clients so that they can decide for themselves what is best.

Give them a preponderance of proof - tons and tons of proof. It’s always better to have too much than not enough. Overwhelm them with the benefits of using carpet protection. If you do, most will buy.

Don’t rely on your techs to sell. Most people hate selling. They’re afraid of it. Unless you put in a lot of time and effort to properly train your employees, they will do a poor job of it.

Make a video. Once you’ve mastered the art of selling carpet protection, make a video.

Record yourself telling all the great benefits of it - just like you were actually talking to a client.

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Then have your techs give this video to all prospects. Ask them to watch it while your tech measures the carpet.

If you aren’t comfortable with making a video yourself, use the one we have made available.

(If you have invested in the Gold package or above you already have this video). This video convinces prospects that they need to get their carpets cleaned every 12 months and that carpet protection is a must. This closes the sale for you. Just ask the prospect if she has a VCR and to watch it while you measure the carpet. Always make sure she shows you around first and tells you the areas she wants cleaned and tells you of any problem areas. Then have her watch the video. This works like a charm. Call our office at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 for details.

You can sell many other things besides carpet protection.

Tell Your Clients About Your Other Services If you have any other services at all, make sure to tell your clients about them.

For example if you do emergency fire and water damage, tell your client. You also need to leave them information to file in case of an emergency. Refrigerator or phone magnets are great for this. That way if there ever is an emergency they can find your number fast. It will also insure that you get the business.

If you have a service that your client can use right away, like blind cleaning, air duct cleaning, etc., make an offer when you’re there. Offer them a special deal if they get their carpets and blinds cleaned all at once.

If they don’t want to, give them something telling them more information about your services. Make sure its direct response. Don’t do a boring brochure or pamphlet. It should be a sales letter about your service.

What Else Can You Sell Your Clients?

Plenty. However they should be somewhat related to carpet cleaning. I’ve sold my clients tons of other things, including vacuum cleaners.

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Following this section is an example of a letter I did selling vacuum cleaners. As you probably know selling vacuums is a very, very tough sell. By the way, I’m not endorsing this brand or any other. Decide which brands to offer by asking your Clients (Strategy #53).

Preferably, mail a letter like the one that follows with something you are already mailing to your Clients. This way your postage is minimal to none and all the sales are profits.

This letter sold quite a few vacuums. Plus, after receiving it many people called to get their carpets re-cleaned. I made as much money from the re-cleans as I did from the vacuums.

Note: Piranha Marketing Inc. no longer endorses or has any type of incentive for members with Powerflite. The following letter is to be used as a model. You can choose any vacuum that you personally believe in or have found to be of exceptional quality.

Call our office if you need suggestions.

480-858-0008

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How To Relieve Allergies in 14 Days.

Guaranteed.

What Else Is Lurking In Your Carpet?

Dear Friend and Valued Client, Hi, I’m [your name] and if you’ll give me just a few moments of your time I’ll tell you how you can relieve irritating allergies that cause itchy eyes, endlessly runny noses and basically ruin perfectly good days.

As you probably know I am the owner of [Your Company] Carpet and Upholstery Cleaning so I know carpets - it’s my life! However you may not know that I’m also kind of obsessed with carpet cleaning quality.

That may not sound very exciting to you but it means that I study all different kinds of carpet cleaning and carpet care. I do this to insure that my Clients get the best there is.

Recently I came across an amazing discovery...

My friend in the picture up there is a dust-mite. What’s a dustmite you ask? Besides ugly he is a major cause of allergies in over 22 million households in the US. You can’t see him, he’s too small but you definitely feel his presence - itchy, red eyes, stuffy nose, scratchy throat. Dust-mites leave a residue in your carpet that causes many allergic reactions. No, he’s not responsible for all allergies.

For instance there are other residues in your carpet, which also produce allergic reactions like pollens, animal dander, mold and tobacco residue. These other allergy-causing agents produce many other allergic reactions.

Does this sound familiar? You get home from work and you’re in a hurry to make dinner. Then it starts up. Sneeze after sneeze after sneeze. Your nose starts running. And itching. A tissue is nowhere to be found! (They never are when you really need one!) Your eyes start

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watering. They become itchy too. You go to the bathroom frantically looking for one lousy tissue. And then ... Horror! You see yourself in the mirror. Red, puffy eyes; runny, red nose - you’re a mess. Your kid hollers, “Mom, What’s for dinner? I’m hungry!”

You thought you were safe in your own home. You thought out there with all the pollen and other stuff, your allergies might act up but not in your own home. The truth is that your own home may have more allergy causing things than outside. Especially lurking in your carpet.

The Key To Relieving Allergy Symptoms Is To Remove These Allergy Causing Agents From Your Carpet So, how do you get all these things out of your carpet?

Unfortunately more frequent vacuuming is not the answer since most vacuums do NOT pick up these allergy-causing agents. Dust-mites and the others are too small. Even some expensive vacuums aren’t equipped with high velocity air movement and the proper filtration systems required for capturing them.

Your Vacuum May Make Your Carpet Look Clean But It Sure Isn’t Doing Anything To Protect Your Health!

You can’t see the things that cause allergies - they’re way too small. Your vacuum doesn’t see them either and leaves them in your carpet to cause you countless sneezes and other irritations. In fact not only does your vacuum leave these agents behind, it distributes them into the air. Instead of capturing them, your vacuum stirs up these bad things and they linger in the air. That’s why some extreme allergy suffers can’t vacuum.

How To Remove These Agents So You Can Breathe Freely First of all it’s important to have your carpets cleaned

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regularly - about every 6 months. But that won’t stop your allergies.

You could have your carpets cleaned once a week but that’s not practical. (Of course if you’d like to, I’d be more than happy!) Until now I didn’t think there was much to be done about removing these allergens but I was wrong.

A Powerful New Vacuum That Will Have You Allergy Free In 14 Days The Powr-Flite Vacuum captures and contains these harmful allergy-causing agents like dust-mites, dust-mite residue, pollens, animal dander, mold and tobacco residue. All the stuff that makes you and your family suffer. It has high velocity air movement, which enables it to pick up even the smallest of allergens. Even extreme allergy sufferers can vacuum with Powr-Flite since it removes 99% of these terrible allergens.

Say Good-Bye To Itchy, Red Eyes, Runny Noses and Red, Irritated Throats The Powr-Flite is specially made to pick up these allergy-causing elements and secure them in their exceptionally designed bags. This is the most environmentally safe vacuum cleaner there is and the only one that picks up all the allergy causing agents.

You can’t buy one of these at your local vacuum cleaner store.

No, only certified technicians can sell them. I found out about these amazing vacuum cleaners a few months ago. But I was skeptical. I surely wasn’t going to rush out and put my reputation at stake if I wasn’t completely, 100% sure that these vacuums did everything they said they did and more. So I got one.

I used it so much; I thought I was going to wear it out. Then I found out that the Powr-Flite was designed for commercial use. They made it so you can vacuum 8 to 10 hours a day and it will last and last. (I wouldn’t wish that on anyone! - But its good to know.) After four days my skepticism vanished. This darn thing worked so well. I don’t even have many allergies and I noticed a difference! I’m a tough cookie and I’m impressed.

But there’s more. Do you find that your vacuum is heavy - a nuisance to move across the carpet and around your furniture? You’ll © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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find that the Powr-Flite is very light and moves effortlessly across your carpet, even if your carpet has a high pile. In fact the Powr-

Flite has 8 different pile positions so that you can set it at the absolute best height. Plus it only weighs 14 lbs. It’s light and easy to handle.

Do you find it hard to vacuum under your bed because your vacuum is too big and bulky? I’ve found that the Powr-Flite easily glides under mine. It lays flat, down to a 4 1/2” clearance. This makes it a breeze to get under furniture instead of moving it around and breaking your back.

Of course, it’s an upright. Only an upright vacuum can create a high velocity air movement capable of removing those nasty allergycausing agents lurking in your carpet. It has three handle settings including the really convenient one that lays perfectly flat. It’s even easy to change handle positions with just a touch of the foot on the foot pedal.

This vacuum was designed for convenience. It has a full width profile headlamp so you can see what you’re doing even in dark spots.

And if you should happen to bump your cherished furniture, there’s no fear. The Powr-Flite has an extra wide heavy-duty furniture guard that will protect your furniture in the event of a mishap. These things do happen to all of us, it’s nice to have this kind of insurance. (Now you don’t have to worry when you ask your child to do the vacuuming!)

The Powr-Flite is just loaded with great features like the soft handle grip and the convenient on/off switch right at your fingertips.

The cord has a quick release so you don’t have to unwrap it - just flip the hook down. Flip it back when you’re done. The 17” vacuum has a Quadro-Brush Agitator. That’s a four brush and beater strip that gets out even the deepest embedded dirt, pollen, dust-mites and other allergy causing things.

I was so thrilled with this darn vacuum that I decided to get certified to sell them. Before I used the Powr-Flite I hated vacuums.

I thought they were all big and bulky and never even picked up all the dirt. I’d have to go back and forth several times to get them to pick up what stuff I could see. There’s no doubt in my mind that those conventional vacuums don’t pick up any of the really bad stuff we can’t see.Powr-Flite changed my attitude. I love it. You will too. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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How You Can Get One Of These Amazing Machines

You can’t get one at any retail store. In fact you can only get one from me. There are two models to choose from: 1.The 13-inch. It has a 13” cleaning path with all the features I’ve described: the headlamp, the soft grip handle, the easy on/off switch, the 8 position pile adjuster, 3 handy handle positions including laying perfectly flat, and the furniture guard that will save your furniture from those bumps and bruises. It comes with a 35 ft. cord for a 70 ft. cleaning diameter. Its perfect for a smaller house.

2.The 17-inch. It has a 17” cleaning path with a bigger front and built-in corners so you can easily vacuum those hard-to-get corners.

It has all the great features that the 13” has plus the Quadro-Brush agitator for even the deepest of the grime-ies! It comes with 50 feet of cord for a 100 foot cleaning diameter. It’s ideal for a moderate to large house.

Your carpet will look better and feel better but more importantly you can say good-bye to those terrible allergy symptoms. Be safe in your own home and breathe easy.

So How Much Is This Miracle Machine, Anyway?

Many conventional vacuum cleaners that don’t do half the job of Powr-Flite cost $600.00 or more. The Powr-Flite would be a steal at $900.00 BUT it’s not even near that price. You see since certified technicians only sell it, you don’t have to pay inflated prices. More expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better, it just means more expensive. The smaller 13” is only $199.00 and the bigger 17” is only $299.00.

3 Months. Risk Free.

But I don’t want you to get one and be unhappy so I’ve designed a completely safe offer. Call me up today and schedule a time for me (or one of my staff) to bring out one and demonstrate it to you. Then you can use it for a FULL 3 months with no risk whatsoever. If after 3 months of use, you aren’t as thrilled with this amazing machine as I am, you can return it for a full refund. No questions asked. No note from your mother needed. And no hard feelings. No other vacuum cleaner gives you a three-month period to test it out! You’ll be breathing © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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easier in 14 days. I’m just giving you 3 full months for those skeptics out there.

Order Now And Get 2 Terrific Bonuses Order within 3 days and I’ll throw in a year’s supply of vacuum bags for your Powr-Flite. Plus, as an added bonus if you already have a vacuum cleaner I’ll pay for the cost of running a classified ad to sell it. After using the Powr-Flite you won’t ever go back to that clunky old thing again!

Call [your number] today to order one and schedule your demonstration. Don’t breathe those allergy-causing agents for another day!

Your Friendly Carpet Guy, [Your name] P.S. Call [your number] within 3 days to get your 2 free bonuses!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #8 Model Marketing Ideas.

I don’t mean literally steal or even plagiarize. (Only losers do that).

What I do mean is learn from others. Take their good ideas and put them to use in your own business.

This doesn’t necessarily mean from different carpet cleaners. It can though. Especially when you attend industry meetings (Strategy #67). Use the ideas that are working for others. There isn’t any reason they won’t work for you too. (Unless they are lying, but testing something out inexpensively doesn’t hurt anything.)

But don’t limit yourself to modeling ideas from carpet cleaners.

Model good ideas from other successful businesses; most ideas can be applied in some way to your business.

For example, do you think the fast food industry invented the drive-thru window?

Nope. They stole the idea from banks.

You can imagine how this happened: One day a guy from McDonalds was sitting at the bank drive-thru and it occurred to him. He said ‘I’m not sure how the drinks will fit but otherwise its perfect!’ And the course of fast food was changed forever!

So you see you can get great ideas from any kind of business. Keep your eyes peeled and always think ‘Now how can I apply this to my business?’

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Marketing Strategy #9 Direct Mail.

Direct mail is one of the most powerful ways to market your company that there is. Here are some figures that demonstrate how powerful direct mail is.

•

Direct mail advertising was $44.6 billion in 2000 -- or 23.3 percent of total direct marketing expenditures.

•

Direct response television is ranked next with $21.9 billion being spent in 2000 (11.4 percent of total "dm" expenditures.) Next, is newspaper spending at $18.4 billion, or 9.6 percent of all 2000 direct marketing spending.

•

The "other" media category, which includes interactive marketing, (Internet) is next ranked with $16 billion spent in 2000. Other media represent 8.4 percent of all direct marketing media spending.

•

The two media ranked at the bottom are magazine direct response advertising at $9.8 billion and radio at $7.7 billion. Combined, they make up 9.1 percent of total direct marketing spending.

The DMA's economic model reports data on interactive/online marketing. In 2000, $2.8 billion is forecast in expenditures for interactive marketing. That number is expected to grow by 38.0 percent annually to reach $13.8 billion in 2005.

There wouldn’t be that much money spent on direct mail if it didn’t work.

So why do most small businesses, especially carpet cleaners, think of direct mail as a waste?

1. They don’t know how to use it. They’ve never had any instruction on how to use it.

2. They send a flier - as you know by now, fliers don’t cut it. (I’ll cover more on this later in this manual).

3. They send it to a ‘bad’ list. The list, the people who you send your letter to, is just as important as the letter itself.

Many people overlook this. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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One carpet cleaner had written a sales letter. It was pretty good, not great but pretty good.

He was getting zero response, not low, not one but zero. Zilch. Nada.

Who was he sending his letters to?

He didn’t know. He had bought a zip code zone.

Finally he went to look at the houses in the zip code he purchased.

Let me describe it for you: A good two-word description would be: “Run-down”. They were tiny houses with broken porches-at least one plank of wood was missing. Junk strewn across the front yard. In the driveway there was a car on cement blocks with half the engine removed. Both the husband and the wife were wearing stained t-shirts.

Are these the types of people most likely to buy your services?

If they ever clean their carpet (which is highly doubtful), they’ll rent a cheap machine.

These people are not good prospects for you.

The list is very important.

To recap, here is why most carpet cleaners fail at direct mail: 1. No direct mail expertise.

2. Bad sales letter.

3. Bad list.

How To Do Successful Direct Mail 1. Have an irresistible offer. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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The more enticing your offer the better you will sell.

2. Attention getting headline.

Your headline is really an ad for your sales letters.

3. Interest- create interest. The first paragraph should emphasize the benefit to the reader, this gets your prospect interested enough to read the rest of the letter.

4. Desire- make your prospect really want what you’re offering.

5. Action - must have an irresistible offer.

6. Must have a deadline. If you don’t have an expiration date you don’t have direct response.

I’ve provided you with lots of ready to use direct mail letters. Use them as-is or modify them.

Learn from them and start writing your own!

And remember to never underestimate the power of a well-written sales letter. For many carpet cleaners the difference between being rich and being broke could be one good sales letter.

And I’ve provided you with many proven sales letters that have made many cleaners a lot of money.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #10 WOW Your Client.

You want your client to be in ‘awe’ after doing business with you.

Does this sound hard?

It may. But it’s really easy.

It’s easy because most businesses do a lousy job. They don’t even do what they are supposed to do. Of course they don’t do anything ‘extra’. So it’s easy for you to stand out!

What do you do to WOW your clients?

One carpet cleaner gives all his clients a free bottle of spotter with unlimited refills forever!

Before you think he is crazy, let’s analyze this: He gives this to his clients after their first job. Let’s say it costs him $2.55 per bottle. He puts a label on it with his company information. He tells them this is the only spotter that they’ll ever need and to throw every other spotter they have away.

Then he says if they ever run out to give him a call and he’ll come back and refill it for free forever!

Rarely does any one ever call for the free refill. So it costs him $2.55 to give his client an extraordinary feeling. That’s pretty cheap!

He doesn’t stop there.

He also gives his client a free MEMO board to go on her refrigerator. It has his company name and number on it. On the back there is carpet maintenance information.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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His clients feel special. The memo board costs him about $1.65.

For a total of $4.50 he WOWS his client.

Do you think they ever go anywhere else to get their carpets cleaned?

Not on your life!

They are loyal as can be.

38.4% of his business is repeat business. That means he spent $4.50 to get a client and each time they come back its cheaper and cheaper. This is brilliant.

Not only does he get nearly 40% repeat business but he gets 18.3% of his business from referrals!

If you keep splitting that $4.50 by all the clients it generates, you’ll realize why this is so powerful.

Why Don’t More Companies Do This?

Most companies look at it as an expense. This is stupid. It is the cheapest and easiest way to get repeat business and lots of referrals.

But most don’t look at the whole picture. They just look at the cost. This is ridiculous but you and I can really benefit from their shortsightedness!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #11 Be a professional.

What I mean by this is: 1. Have a clean truck.

2. Have everyone wear uniforms - black pants or shorts with a clean logo t-shirt is fine.

3. Everyone should be well groomed. No 2-day stubble or straggly hair.

The public is skeptical about carpet cleaners. Let’s face it we don’t have a very good reputation. The reason is because there are a lot of sleazy carpet cleaners out there who rip people off. We must overcompensate for their bad reputation. Granted this is unfair, but it’s the way it is.

I’ve seen many carpet cleaners go to homes with dirty trucks. I’ve even seen a technician who didn’t have on a uniform at all. He had on dirty jeans and an old ripped t-shirt. His hair was a mess and he hadn’t shaved in about a week.

You must look clean, neat and be organized. This earns people’s trust and respect. It probably is no surprise to you that the carpet cleaner above only closed about 10% of his prospects. No one wants someone looking like that to come in to their house for anything.

Clean trucks are important. I get quite a few calls from people who saw my truck in their neighborhood and need their carpets cleaned. Do you think they’d call if the truck had been dirty? Absolutely not.

I’m not saying you have to have a brand new truck but I am saying that your company needs to look good.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #12 Constantly Learn Marketing.

People forget. You forget. I forget. It’s a fact of life.

So how can we overcome this?

The trick is spaced, repetitive learning. That’s to say go over things many times with a certain amount of time in between.

Have you ever listened or watched something for the second time and realized you missed a major point the first time? We all have. The way to beat this is to constantly learn.

To get the most out of this powerful manual, you are going to have to read it over 5 to 7 times. Not at once but over a period of about 12 months. Each time you read it you’ll get more and more out of it. More and more moneymaking strategies.

Repetition is the key to learning. That’s why we have a series of newsletters, a monthly interview series of the month called The Genius Network, (which is available on audiotape and CD), and a Coaching and Mentoring Program. So every month you can learn more and more about marketing and how to make money. Call us at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 for information or visit my website at www.joepolish.com Learn all you can about marketing. Get books, tapes, newsletters, and videos - everything you can get your hands on. You are in the marketing business. We all are, whether you own an appliance store or are a carpet cleaner. The truth is that we all need new clients so whether we like it or not, we are in the marketing business.

Once you know great marketing strategies that make gobs of money (which you now own), marketing is great fun.

But don’t stop with this manual; keep learning more and more about marketing.

Unless of course you don’t want to make any more money! © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #13 Do Something.

The number one reason people fail in direct response marketing is because they never do a darn thing. They learn all these money making marketing strategies and then they don’t use them.

It is better to do something, which isn’t quite perfect then to not do anything at all.

Don’t worry if you don’t have every little thing you need. For instance, if you do a letter giving away free spotter kits, don’t worry if you only have 2 in stock. Test the method, if you get a huge response just tell your clients that you were overwhelmed with the response and are currently out of spotting kits. As soon as you get them in, you’ll get it to them. This is much, much better than not doing anything at all.

Once you try something then you have a place to go from. Even if your method didn’t work as well as you’d like, you’ll be able to improve it and get more response.

The only reason that an owner of a carpet cleaning company will not dramatically improve their business with my marketing strategies is because they don’t do something!

Stop worrying about all the little details and just do something!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #14 Never Use Bait and Switch Advertising.

The same old stuff that everyone is using, which is advertising price, just doesn’t work.

Bait And Switch Doesn’t Cut It The old bait and switch method of advertising a low, low price is ridiculous. It does get people to call sometimes but it backfires. When you try to ‘up-sell’ these Clients they get mad.

You can’t blame them, they were told one price and now if they want a good job they’ll have to pay more. As you probably know, a high percentage of these people decide against anything at all. The ones that do go ahead and have the service performed, feel cheated. Rarely do they ever have you clean their carpets again. And they NEVER refer any business to you.

You CAN’T build up a $125,000.00+ per truck business (that you can someday sell ethically) with this type of advertising. You burn too many bridges. In the long run this is the worst type of advertising you can do!

Bait and switch advertising is unethical. It’s not down to earth (Strategy #35). It’s not building a good relationship with clients. You can’t successfully implement a referral program (Strategy #55) if you use it. You certainly can’t have the WOW effect (Strategy #10).

It’s simply not worth it.

It costs you in the long run. No building up your business. No thrilled clients. No long-term success. If you use it, you’ll most likely be at the same place in 5 years as you are now. Stop and join us in the top 1% of carpet cleaners.

And if you want more information on this subject I have an Attack On Bait & Switch Publicity Kit that features press releases that you can use in your area and a video of 3 different news stories I’ve appeared on (including ABC’s 20/20) exposing these unethical cleaning companies. Call 480-858-0008 for more information.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #15 Marketing System.

A marketing system is a system used to get new clients.

All of these strategies in this manual are systems. They are strategic ways of getting new clients.

But they are systems.

You can’t just do part of one and expect to get results. It just doesn’t happen that way. You have to do all parts of the system to get it to work.

For example if you do the 3-letter sequence (Strategy #27) that goes to cold prospects, you can’t just give out the first letter. You have to do all 3. And they need to be 15 days apart.

Then it’ll work.

You will get results.

But you have to do every part of the system, not just the first step. This is true of any system.

Think of making coffee. The first step is to put in a new filter and add coffee. But if you stop there, you’ll never get coffee. You need to follow the rest of the steps in the system to get coffee.

That is you have to add water, turn it on and put the pot under the drip. Then you’ll have coffee.

Stopping after the first few steps in a marketing strategy will give you the same results as with your coffee maker. NONE. So follow through on everything.

Complete the system and you’ll soon be making $10,000.00 a month and more!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #16 Hold Yourself Accountable.

No excuses. No lies.

You have to hold yourself accountable for everything - the good and the bad.

Luck - that’s nonsense.

Everything that happens in your business is the result of your work or lack thereof.

Everything.

Stop blaming the economy or the season or whatever. With this manual you have all the tools you need to be hugely successful.

Start counting on yourself. Make plans and stick to them.

You will be the reason your company succeeds or fails.

If you want to become part of a program that I promise will allow you to be held accountable for results in your business, then call my office at 480-858-0008 or 800-275-2643 and request an application to become part of The Piranha Mastermind Coaching Program.

This is set up for cleaners that want an on-going super intensive coaching and mentoring program that gives them access to group participation with successful cleaners from all over the world via live workshops and monthly conference calls and teleseminars. These are programs that are only available to active Piranha Members.

Š 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #17 Stay On Top Of Things.

You can easily stay on top of things if you schedule a specific time each week to see how you are doing and make new goals.

Monday morning between 8 and 8:30 works very well. Keep this meeting; don’t schedule a cleaning or anything else during this time. Keep this appointment with yourself every week.

Look over your marketing goals for last week. How did you do? If you didn’t do as well as you wanted to do, then change some things so you’ll do better this week.

If you did better than you had expected then keep on doing what you are doing.

It is very important to keep track of how you are doing. Know your numbers (Strategy #51).

During this time you should decide what new strategies you are going to implement over the next week.

One of my favorite places to just focus, plan and think is the public library. It’s free, it’s quiet, it’s got thousands of books and knowledge resources and it’s very conducive to Executive Thinking™! So try it.

If you do these things, you will stay on top of things.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #18 Raise Your Prices.

Don’t be afraid. Everyone wants to raise their prices but is afraid to.

Any person only buys on price when they think all other aspects are equal or nearly equal.

What I mean by this is that no one would ever buy a Mercedes if they thought the only difference between a Yugo and a Mercedes was the price.

To overcome price shopping, you have to educate your prospect so that they realize what they are getting.

To most people, carpet cleaning is carpet cleaning. They think it’s all the same. They think every method and every company does the same thing. That’s why they price shop.

Why would anyone want to pay more for the same thing?

Your job is to convince them that all carpet cleaners are not the same. You know this; you just have to convince them.

Once you do this, your worries are over.

Let me explain the difference between price and value.

Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

Everyone wants a good value. They don’t want a low price if they get crummy service. They want value.

Give them value. And charge them for it.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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The company that I’m currently part owner of is one of the most expensive cleaners in all of Phoenix, maybe even the most expensive. But we still get tons of clients because we convince them that they are getting a great value. And they are!

Don’t wait for your client to say that you are expensive or out of their budget. It’s almost always too late at this point.

You should educate them right from the beginning. Your clients are not accustomed to buying the cheapest products. They live in nice houses. They have nice cars. They wear nice clothes. Why? Because they know the difference between price and value. You just have to make them look at carpet cleaning the same way that they look at other things. This is easy when you have middle class and above clients.

Raise your prices. Get paid for what you do. You deserve it.

Think how much more you do than your competitors: 1. You offer a solid guarantee (Strategy #20) 2. You live up to your promises 3. You do great work 4. You strive for quality 5. You educate your clients You are superior so you should get paid for it.

If you are convinced you are worth it, your clients will be too.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #19 Live By Price, Die By Price.

Everyone is so caught up with price. This is ridiculous.

People aren’t price shoppers if you educate them (Strategy #61).

You can charge anything you want as long as you can convince people you are worth it.

That’s not that hard to do.

But if you live by price, you’ll die by price.

What I mean by this is that if you are the cheapest in town, you will probably go out of business.

Being the cheapest is terrifying to me. I would never want to be the cheapest.

I’d much rather explain price once then apologize for inferior service forever.

I’d much rather do three jobs and make $1,000.00 than 10 jobs and make the same amount!

It’s the same work.

Quality. Not quantity.

There are a few big national stores that live on low prices by having a huge turn-over.

You are not huge. You can’t make up in quantity - its just too much work cleaning carpets and there are only so many hours in a day!

Cheap prices lead to inferior work.

Inferior work leads to unhappy clients. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Unhappy clients lead to no repeat business and no referrals.

It’s only a matter of time before the cheapest company goes out of business.

Of course there will always be another company to replace the one that went out of business.

Just don’t let it be you!

Do you want to know what the formula is for how much you charge for your services?

Ok…here it is…This is something that 99% of all business owners do not understand.

The formula for how much to charge is simply your ability to sell it!

This is why marketing is the most important focus and study you can ever invest your time in. And the exact reason you are reading my marketing course at the moment.

For more information on this subject listen to my Genius Network Interview with one of the world’s leading pricing experts Larry Steinmetz (he wrote the book How To Sell At Prices Higher Then Your Competitors) call my office at 480-858-0008 or 800-275-2643.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #20 Have A Big, Bold, Solid Guarantee.

You should guarantee every job you do. Your first reaction might be: I can’t afford to do that. I’ll get people calling me all the time to do retouches or they’ll want their money back and rip me off.

This is a natural reaction but it’s completely untrue.

Competence in business starts with guaranteeing your work. If you cannot guarantee your work then you shouldn’t be in this business. This will make more sense to you as you learn more of my philosophies on business.

This is my guarantee:

100% No-Risk Guarantee As the owner, I want you to be super-pleased — in fact, absolutely delighted — with every carpet and upholstery job we do. So every job comes with our ironclad, risk-free guarantee.

What does that mean? Simply this: If you aren’t happy with our work, we’ll reclean the area for free. Or you can have your money back. It’s your choice. Many companies don’t guarantee their work. But I do, nothing is more important than your complete and total satisfaction. We stand behind every job 100%. If you ever have any questions or concerns about our work, please call me right away.

Is this bold? Yes. Is this strong? Yes. Is this risky? Not at all. Think about it this way: I only get 2 calls per year that want me to come back and redo their carpet. That’s not very many and no one has ever asked me for their money back. BUT do you know how many people who were hesitant went ahead with me because of it? Tons.

Because I have such a strong guarantee, people think I am completely confident in my work © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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(which I am) and they develop trust.

I don’t think anyone should be in business if they don’t guarantee their work. If you aren’t confident in what you do, do something you can be confident about.

The numbers work in your favor to offer a guarantee. Its very rare that anyone will take you up on it BUT lots of people will be convinced to use you if you have one.

Your Guarantee Can Make Or Break You! This is a pretty simple idea but far too underused. You have to eliminate the risk to the prospect if you want to sell more.

Frankly, if you can’t offer some type of guarantee on your product or service you probably ought to rethink your role as a businessperson.

How important is the guarantee?

When all else is equal, he who has the strongest guarantee wins!

How do you write your guarantee?

To begin with you must decide what you are willing to do for the customer or client if they are not happy. You could replace the product, substitute another product or service, give their money back etc.

What ever you decide to do, the most crucial element is to reverse the risk. Once you take the fear out of doing business with you, you’ve eliminated a major stumbling block from a person’s ability to buy from you.

Once you develop a guarantee, use it. Use it in all your marketing and advertising. Tell all your clients. If you’ve got it, flaunt it!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #21 A Wealth Of Knowledge In Your Mailbox.

To learn how to write direct mail that gets lots of new clients, you need to see a lot of it that is successful.

Just like anything else you learn from good examples.

You have a wealth of information that you probably throw away every day. You think of it as ‘junk mail’. But this junk mail can give you a wealth of knowledge. Don’t underestimate it.

More money is spent on direct mail advertising than on any other medium. That’s right more businesses spend money on direct mail than on TV or Internet advertising. Why? Because it works.

And you don’t have to spend a fortune to find out if your piece works or not. In other media, you have to spend a lot of money just to find out if it works. That’s another reason why direct mail is so great.

Stop throwing away that junk mail and start reading it. Separate your junk mail into two piles. Ones that you think are good and ones that you think are bad.

Try rewriting the bad ones to get some practice. Think of things that can improve the good ones. Pretty soon you’ll be a marketing maniac.

If you are not currently a subscriber to our newsletter ‘The Piranha Marketing Letter’, you should definitely subscribe now. Call the office at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 and we’ll set you up.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #22 Get In The Newspaper.

Whenever you make a change in your business or do a charity function (Strategy #87) or have a Client Dinner (Strategy #97), you should try to get an article in one of the local papers about it.

The purpose of this is not to create a flood of prospects. This won’t happen, believe me.

But what it does do is build your credibility. Then when you send out any sales information to a prospect, you include reprints of these articles in the paper.

When a prospect sees an article about you that was printed in the paper, they automatically think you are for real; that your company is a good company and trustworthy. This is very important.

Once a prospect thinks that you are ‘legitimate’, they will be much more likely to obtain your services.

Remember people are skeptical these days. They are afraid of getting ripped off or getting poor service. Anything that you do to prove to them that you are trustworthy will definitely pay off.

How Do I Get Anything In The Newspaper?

Most newspaper editors call them ‘press releases’. Press releases rarely get in the newspaper.

You can send them in but the newspaper gets tons and tons of press releases. If you want to get something in the newspaper you need to do more than send a press release.

Here’s how you do that: 1. Call the newspaper and find out who is in charge of press releases. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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2. Call back and ask for that person. You may have to call back several times before you get to talk to the right person.

3. Tell that person that you are sending them some very exciting information. Tell them who you are and what you do. Tell them why they’ll benefit and/or how their readers will benefit.

(Here is a great way to offer your Free Carpet Audit™.)

4. Send the information. Make sure you spell out that you talked to him/her on the phone and told them you were sending this. Also make it crystal clear what they’ll gets out of this. (That probably will be something valuable to give to their readers like a Free Carpet Audit™.)

5. Follow-up. Call them back and see if he received your information. Ask them when is him/her going to put it in. If they won’t give you a direct answer, ask them when they’ll know for sure. Then call them back then.

6. Be persistent.

This strategy takes quite a bit of effort but it’s worth it. If you really want to get in the paper you’ll have to do this.

Be very enthusiastic on the phone. Be friendly and cheerful. This will help you out a lot.

Always expect that the newspaper will run your information. If you expect it, they will!

For more information on free publicity get my Attack On Bait and Switch Publicity Kit by calling 480-858-0008 or 800-275-2643.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #23 Stop Giving Estimates & Start Giving Carpet Audits™.

When someone calls up and asks me for an estimate I say we don’t give estimates we give Free Carpet Audit™ s. Then I explain exactly what a Free Carpet Audit™ entails.

This works beautifully. Prospects become much more interested and they place much more value on a Carpet Audit™ than they do on an ‘estimate’.

I personally don’t like the word ‘estimate’. Estimate implies that you aren’t exactly sure how much it is going to be. It may be higher, it may be lower. A ‘quote’ however is precise. This is exactly how much it will be for these services.

Of course a quote to clean carpets comes with the Free Carpet Audit™ but the prospect gets a lot more.

Prospects that you give Free Carpet Audits™ to are much more likely first to become clients.

And then they are much more likely to become repeat clients. After the audit they understand the importance of cleaning their carpets on a regular basis.

A Carpet Audit™ is a simple procedure. You go in and analyze someone’s carpet. Here’s exactly what to do: 1. First cover all the problems your prospect’s carpet has. Check for ‘unwanted’ stains. Tell her whether or not they can be removed and how. This includes pet stains and other difficult stains.

2. Calculate the wear age™ of your prospect’s carpet. Her carpet may be 10 years old but only have a wear age™ of 2 years. However her carpet may be 2 years old but have a wear age™ of 10 years. Explain how long it will be before she will need to get new carpet and give her a ‘prescription’ to make her carpet last as long as possible.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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This is not as hard as it sounds. You know carpet. You can tell how the carpet gets treated by looking at it and by the information she fills out. Give her your best professional guesstimate as to how long it will last if she takes care of it the same way she has always been taking care of it.

3. Determine if her carpet is in good health. Healthy carpets are great for healthy wallets and for healthy people.

Explain that her carpet’s health can affect her and her family’s health. Just like she tracks in dirt from the outside, she also tracks in car exhaust, cigarette smoke, asphalt, chemicals, dust, germs, pollens, tar, soot and many others. These pollutants get lodged into her carpet just like dirt.

Clean Carpets Reduce Indoor Air Pollution You’ve heard the hype about indoor air being more polluted than outdoor air. Well, it’s true.

The main reason is because indoor air is trapped. Rarely does it get completely replaced.

Outdoor air on the other hand gets blown away and new cleaner air replaces it.

Trapped indoor air gets pollutants in it from her carpet. She drags them in and they get lodged in her carpet. Then when someone walks over them, they get re-dispersed into her air and she and her family breathe them. Over and over. That’s why indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air.

There is a way out of this vicious cycle. Getting her carpets cleaned thoroughly and regularly gets rid of these pollutants in her carpet.

(Of course you knew that but explain it to your prospect!)

4. You’ll also test her traffic areas. Explain that traffic areas are the main spots that get walked on constantly. They usually visibly look more worn and dirtier. Tell her how you can make her traffic areas look as good as the rest of her carpet (or close).

5. After analyzing her carpet, give her a complete written report of the condition of her carpet. Tell her what her carpets needs are. If her carpet needs any of the services you provide, if © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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she chooses give her a quotation of how much it would cost and how long it would take to do it.

Normally you should give her this right at her house, don’t have her wait days or weeks.

Following this section is the form to fill out when doing a Free Carpet Audit™.

As you can see by the trademark symbol the Carpet Audit™ is a process of presenting yourself and your cleaning services. It is a process that I have spent tens of thousands of dollars testing, retesting, creating, using and continually improving. This process works and has been proven by hundreds of Piranha Members to be the most effective way to educate and present cleaning services to consumers in the most ethical and compelling way. If you start using it to the point where you become very skilled at it you will reap huge rewards. I promise you without a doubt the implementation of this process alone will pay for your investment in my marketing strategies many times over.

I’ve also gone to great measures to legally protect this very powerful selling process. As a Piranha Member you have the rights to use this process and profit from it as long as you stay a current Piranha Member. The more you use this process, the more money you will make. You’ll also find that your conversion rate will go up, your client satisfaction rate will improve. The understanding of the value of your services will increase; your complaints of your service and of your techs will go down. Your average sale will increase as much as 25% - 50% even 200% almost instantly and your repeat and referral business will improve. Not bad for implement my Carpet Audit™ process.

I have videos and forms available for continued training and understanding of this process.

Visit my website at www.joepolish.com or call 800-275-2643.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Carpet Audit™ Client Information Sheet Date___________

Today’s

Client Name________________________________________________________ Address______________________________________________________ City_____________________State______________Zip_______________ Phone (Home)______________________(Work)____________________ Source________________________________________________________________________ ______ Referred By_________________________________________________________________________ Directions_____________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ____________

Client Needs: Carpet Cleaning______________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ _____ Furniture Cleaning ____________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______ Fabric Protection_____________________________________________________________________ _ Vacuum & Spotting Products____________________________________________________________ Notes_________________________________________________________________________ ______

Wear Age Age___________________________Color_________________________ Type of Fiber (Check one) Synthetic_____________________Natural________________________ Condition of Carpet (Check one) © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Poor__________Fair_________Good___________Excellent__________ Are the traffic areas visibly worn?______YES ______NO If yes, is the problem caused by Soil________ Wear________ Both________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ____________ Level of Traffic (occupants in the home) Adults____________ Children__________ Pets______________ Does anyone smoke? _______YES _______NO Is the carpet matted? _______YES _______NO ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ____________ Are there any noticeable installation problems ?____Yes ___No ______________________________________________________________________________ ___ Level of Soiling: _________High ________Medium _________Low

Maintenance Are walk off mats being used? _______YES _______NO ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ____________ Vacuum (check type)___________Upright _____________Canister _____________Central How often is the carpet vacuumed?_______________________________________________________ Does the vacuum use environmental filtration? ___YES ___NO Additional Notes: ____________________________________________________________________ Cleaning Has the carpet been cleaned before? ________YES _______NO What methods have been used and how many times? ______Dry Foam Š 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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_________Bonnet Cleaning _____________Absorbent Compound _________Hot Water Extraction _______Do It Yourself Cleaning How many time has the carpet been cleaned total?_________________________________________________________________________ ______ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______ How often is the carpet cleaned on average?______________________________________________________________________ ______ When was it last cleaned and what method was used? ______________________________________________________________________________ ______ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______ Was Protection applied? _______YES _______NO If yes, what type:_____________________________________________________________________ Is the carpet a Stainmaster or other 5th Generation? _______Yes _______No Existent problems (list all problems including unwanted spots & stains) Pet Stains ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ____________ Dye or Bleach ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ____________ Food & Drink ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ____________ Make-up & oils ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ____________ Š 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Others ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ __________________ On a scale of 1 to 10 how likely is it that these stains will be permanent. (Circle one) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Wear Age ______________________________________________________________________________ ______ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ____________ Prescription ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________________________ __________________________________________ Your prescription might read something like this: After completing your carpet audit I’ve discovered a few key things that will help you keep your carpet lasting as long as possible. The carpet is ten years old as you told me, the wear age is different in the living room and the hallway then it is for the rest of the house. Because of your husbands wear areas in front of the recliner in the living room and the cats’ running back and forth to the guest bathroom litter box, you have a wear age in the living room and hallway of 4 years. The rest of the house has a wear age of 6-8 years. The spots in your couch will be able to be removed but the red stains on the carpet are permanent unless we use a dye transfer process. To maintain your carpets from here on in, I suggest you do three things. First get more walk off matting near your entrances so more of the particulate soil is removed from the feet of anyone coming into the house, invest in a high filtration vacuum, I can suggest one for you if you’d like, and have your carpets cleaned two to three times a year. Two through cleanings and one maintenance cleaning each year is best. Apply protection to the hallway and traffic areas in the living room each time. Whether you protect the rest of the rooms is up to you. If you’d like me to book the first cleaning for you today it’ll will be …

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #24 Track Your Results.

Why you must track your results: 1. If you don’t know what’s working and what’s not, you’ll have no way to increase your business.

Things aren’t always as they seem. You can’t guess whether something is working or not.

You must keep track of the numbers and let them tell you.

Let me give you a few examples: Example A

Ad A: This is a Val-Pak type ad. For our example lets say it costs about $350.00 to run it. It goes to 10,000 prospects. You get 12 clients from it.

Ad B: This is a direct mail piece. It costs about $120.00 to send it to 400 prospects. You get 3 new clients.

Which is better? At first it may seem that A is better, but look at the rest of the numbers. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Example B Ad A: The 12 clients generated, had an average job of $67.00. Two of them had you come out and redo an area. 7 out of 12 complained that your prices were too high. One of them rescheduled in 12 months.

Ad B: The 3 clients generated had an average job of $311.00. Zero of them complained about the price. One of them rescheduled in 10 months and 1 of them rescheduled in 3 months. One of them referred 2 clients to you within 2 months of doing their job.

As you can see, you made $804.00 ($67.00 x 12) off the front end of A. A cost you $350.00. That’s $454.00 left. The backend isn’t very big, one job in 12 months another $67.00 if they keep the appointment.

Ad B on the other hand generated $933.00 on the front end. The back end is even bigger!

The cost of Ad B was $120.00, so that’s $813.00 left - that’s more than Ad A generated all together!

I hope now you can see why you must keep close track of your numbers. Some methods may be misleading where you think you are doing great but really you aren’t. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Don’t have an ‘idea’ whether something is working well. Know your numbers and know for sure! Below I have added a simple tracking sheet to help you. The first row includes a sample Strategy Tracker/Project Date

1/24

#

200

Media

Sales

Project

R.O.I.

If

Compariso

Cost

Return

Successfu

n Testing

$128

Anomalies

Changes to make

On

l How

before

investmen

Can I

repeatin

t

automate

g

$750

Hire a

Try it on

It rained

mailing

postcards

the day

Letters

service

none

after

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #25 Consistency - The Key To Success.

On again off again, it’s a bad habit. And a very costly one for businesses. If you truly want to succeed and make 125K+ per truck every year, you will have to be consistent.

I know one carpet cleaner who has OK marketing strategies, OK letters and OK ads. He does not have exceptional marketing strategies or ads. In fact you are way ahead of him in that category with this manual. But he consistently makes $100,000 a year. He is consistent with his marketing strategies and his follow up. Yes it could be better, a lot better, but consistency is extremely important.

I also know another carpet cleaner who has some sensational ads, and some sensational letters. He barely makes $45,000 a year.

Why? Simply because he is inconsistent. He doesn’t track his results (Strategy #24) so he doesn’t really know what is working and what isn’t.

A lot people will tell you this is working for me and then when you analyze the numbers, you find out its not. The same is true for things people don’t think are working. Unless you know your numbers, you don’t know what’s working and what’s not.

Every time I talk to this carpet cleaner, he tells me how he is too busy to send “thank you’s”.

And every time I say to myself “well, he won’t be too busy in a few months.” Then the next time I talk to him, it’s the same old story - ‘It’s dead, I don’t have any customers’.

He can’t figure out why that happens. It’s quite simple but he won’t take the time and effort to be consistent.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #26 Use Letters Not Brochures.

Fancy, 4- color brochures are very expensive. You have to get at least 1,000 printed at once.

Then you have your money tied up in inventory.

Why Brochures Don’t Work Very Well: 1. They immediately yell out ‘This is a sales message’. Once someone thinks you are trying to sell them something, they are much less receptive.

Have you seen the cartoon with General Patton?

Patton is in the middle of a huge battle and a man comes up to him with a box full of guns.

Patton says ‘I don’t have time for a salesman right now, I’m in the middle of a war.’

You see, even if you have exactly what a prospect needs if they think you are a salesman it will be difficult to get through to them.

It’s the same thing with your sales message. A brochure is immediately recognized as a sales message. It’s fancy but boring.

2. With brochures, you can’t cheaply and easily change your message. Things can change quickly. Maybe you decide to offer or worse discontinue a particular service, like water damage.

You can’t change your brochure so you either have inaccurate information or you have to spend a ton of money all over again to get it redone.

3. You can’t cheaply test it. You should always test, test, test (Strategy #33). With brochures you have to get a lot printed at once then if it doesn’t work, you have wasted a lot of money.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Why Letters Always Get Better Response: 1. Letters look and feel personal. People think of letters as personal and brochures as sales.

2. Letters are very inexpensive. You can get as few done at a time, as you need. Your money won’t be tied up in ‘inventory’. All of your marketing dollars will be out there working for you.

3. Letters are easily changed. If something about your business changes you can quickly, easily and inexpensively change your sales message.

4. If your letter didn’t work as well as you’d like, you can easily improve it. Letters have no waste.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #27 3-Step Letter.

Most carpet cleaners that even attempt direct mail make a huge mistake (among others).

They get a list and then mail them information once. You need to send out your message at least three times.

Sending your message out three times will generally double your response. For example if you get a 5% response on your first mailing, you’ll get a 10% response from all 3 letters. If you don’t mail your second and third letters, you are leaving half of your profits behind - just walking away from them.

Sometimes it can even be worse. I know of one business owner who gets 80% of his response from his third mailing. If he didn’t mail 3 times, he’d barely be making any money at all. Since he does, he makes over $100,000 every year.

Start off with at least a three-letter sequence. Later you should test to see if it’s profitable to do a four, five or six letter sequence. To see if it’s profitable: 1. Calculate the cost of the mailing including printing, postage, etc.

2. Calculate how much you profited from the mailing.

When you profit less than it costs to mail, that’s when you stop mailing.

Here’s a graph that explains this:

Profit From Mailing

Cost Of Mailing 1

2

3

4

5

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Letter # In this example, you would mail four times. The fifth letter is losing money. Some people think that you should stop at three not four but that’s incorrect. The fourth letter breaks even the cost of the mailing equals the profit you make from the mailing. Anytime you have a marketing method that breaks even, keep doing it.

The reason is because it isn’t costing you anything to acquire that client. It’s free. That is on the front-end. The front end is any sales that immediately result from a marketing method. The back end is subsequent sales, like a client getting their carpets cleaned again in 11 months that’s backend.

If you break even on the front end then every time that client has you do their carpets again, or uses your other services or refers someone to you - this is all pure profit. Use the lifetime value of a client (Strategy #38) to see just how much you are making.

Following this strategy is a 3-letter sequence that is ready for you to use. You can use it as-is or modify it. This is also included in your ‘Quick Start-Up Guide To Fast Cash’.

This 3-letter sequence was designed to be distributed to up-scale neighborhoods. Put the first letter in a white envelope with nothing on the cover. Seal the envelope and place them on the doorstep or wedged in the door. This will insure that your letter gets opened because people will think that this is from a friend or neighbor.

Then the headline will catch their attention and force them to read it. Deliver at least 100 at a time and keep track of which houses you delivered them to. Since using this method since 1994 our average response is five calls from the first 100. From these five calls you should make five appointments for Free Carpet Audit™ s. Out of those five, you should get at least three jobs. The jobs should be about $250.00 - $350.00 each (if you use my Strategy #7 and Strategy #98).

That’s $750.00 to $1,050.00 from a $30.00 investment and about an hour’s worth of time to deliver it.

But don’t stop there. You’d be leaving 50% of your profits behind.

15 days after you delivered the first letter, deliver the second letter to everyone who did NOT © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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respond to the first letter. Then 15 days later deliver the third letter to everyone who did not respond to the first and second letters.

From these two letters (the second and third) you will receive another five calls, which will lead to another 5 appointments, which will lead to another three jobs. That’s another $750.00 to $1,050.00 from a $60.00 investment (the investment is doubled because you have to get twice as much printing done) and 2 hours worth of work!

That’s a total of $1,500.00 to $2,100.00 from a $90.00 investment and three hours! Not bad at all.

You will have to have a current client in that neighborhood. Ask her if she wouldn’t mind helping you out.

Then tell her about the letters. Let her read them and make sure she’s ‘OK’ with it.

Tell her it’s just your silly personality coming through.

When She says ‘OK’ plug in her name and you’re ready to go!

And before you question the validity of what I say and talk yourself out of using this proven strategy – or worse you let someone else talk you out of it, just know that these three letters alone have built some of the most successful cleaning companies throughout the world.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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You’ve Won One Room Of Free Carpet Cleaning Dear Friend,

Your neighbor, [ ], who lives on [ St.] just had us clean her carpets.

Her comments: “Absolutely stunning! I didn’t know my carpet could look so clean - it’s like new, again.

Thank you, thank you!”

Hi, I’m [ ] and this is a typical reaction of my clients.

So anyway, __________ was so delighted that she wanted to give all her neighbors in ________________ a free gift!

Congratulations, You’ve Won! I don’t give free carpet cleaning away to just anybody - I’d be out of business if I did that.

But since you’re a neighbor of [ ], I knew you were worth it!

Since I don’t know you yet, I’d like to get to know you by giving you another Free Gift.

A Free 15-Minute Carpet Audit™!

I will come to your house and audit your carpet for free.

That’s right there’s no cost and no obligation of any kind.

Here’s exactly what I’ll do: 1. First I’ll cover all the problems your carpet has. I’ll check for ‘unwanted’ stains. I’ll tell you whether or not they © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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can be removed and how. This includes pet stains and other difficult stains.

2. I’ll calculate the wear age of your carpet. Your carpet may be 10 years old but only have a wear age of 2 years. However your carpet may be 2 years old but have a wear age of 10 years. I’ll explain how long it will be before you will need to get new carpet and I’ll give you a ‘prescription’ to make your carpet last as long as possible.

3. I’ll determine if your carpet is in good health.

Oh, you’ve never thought of your carpet as having good or bad health. Well just like people, if a carpet is in bad health it will not live long. Healthy carpets are great for healthy wallets and for healthy people.

Yes, your carpet’s health can affect your and your family’s health. Just like you track in dirt from the outside, you also track in car exhaust, cigarette smoke, asphalt, chemicals, dust, germs, pollens, tar, soot and many others. These pollutants get lodged into your carpet just like dirt.

Clean Carpets Reduce Indoor Air Pollution You’ve heard the hype about indoor air being more polluted than outdoor air. Well, it’s true. The main reason is because indoor air is trapped. Rarely does it get completely replaced.

Outdoor air on the other hand gets blown away and new cleaner air replaces it. Trapped indoor air gets pollutants in it from your carpet. You drag them in; they get lodged in your carpet. Then when someone walks over them, they get re-dispersed into your air and you and your family breathe them. Over and over. That’s why indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air.

There is a way out of this vicious cycle. Getting your carpets cleaned thoroughly and regularly gets rid of these pollutants in your carpet. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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4. I’ll also test your traffic areas. Traffic areas are the main spots that get walked on constantly. They usually visibly look more worn and dirtier. I’ll tell you how you can make your traffic areas look as good as the rest of your carpet.

5. After analyzing your carpet, I’ll give you a complete written report of the condition of your carpet. I’ll tell you what your carpets needs are.

After your Free Carpet Audit™, I’ll give you your prize:

One Room Of Free Carpet Cleaning Up To 200 Square Feet There is absolutely No cost and No obligation. No teeny, tiny print. No strings attached.

This will just give both you and me a way to get to know each other. You’ll get to see how we turn tired, old carpet into plush, new-looking, luxurious carpet - the kind you bought!

If you totally fall in love with your one clean room, I’ll give you a written quote of how much it’d be to make your whole house look that good! But only if you choose.

You see, my company is going to be here for a long, long time.

If I were ‘pushy’ or rude, I just wouldn’t make it. Plus that’s just not me! I make friends not enemies.

And if you ever use my services, I’ll be thrilled (and so will you). But if you don’t, that’s fine. There won’t be any hard feelings.

So take advantage of your prize and free gift -

One Room Of Free Carpet Cleaning and

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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A Free Carpet Audit™ You better hurry though. I can only hold your prize until [date]. After that I’ll have to give it to someone else.

So call me at [your #] and schedule your Free Carpet Audit™ plus your one room of cleaning today!

Sincerely,

[Your name] [Company name]

P.S. You’ve Won! There is NO catch! Call today to claim your prize!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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2nd Notice

You Must Claim Your Prize By [date] Or I’ll Give It To Someone Else Dear Friend, Hi, its me, [your name], again. About 2 weeks ago I dropped off a letter to you telling you that you had won.

You’ve Won One Room Of Free Carpet Cleaning Your neighbor,__________, was so kind to convince me to give this to you. You see, she was so amazed at how I made her carpet look like new again that she wanted you to have that same wonderful feeling too.

I can hardly believe I haven’t heard from you!

In fact, I’m shocked.

But you’ve probably been super busy. Being pulled in 63 different directions at once. You barely have time to eat, let alone think about your ‘carpet’.

I know I feel that way too BUT ....

Your Prize Expires On ___________ I can’t reserve your free room of carpet cleaning forever. You need to call me today at [number].

Because on _________ I’m going to have to give your prize to someone else. I don’t want to do this but you’re forcing me to.

But it’s not too late yet. If you call me today, I still have reserved for you:

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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One Room Of Free Carpet Cleaning and A Free 15 Min. Carpet Audit™ To get to know each about your carpet, I’m come to your house and there’s no cost and no what I’ll do:

other and to give you valuable information giving you a Free Carpet Audit™. I will audit your carpet for free. That’s right obligation of any kind. Here’s exactly

1. First I’ll cover all the problems your carpet has. I’ll check for ‘unwanted’ stains. I’ll tell you whether or not they can be removed and how. This includes pet stains and other difficult stains.

2. I’ll calculate the wear age of your carpet. Your carpet may be 10 years old but only have a wear age of 2 years. However your carpet may be 2 years old but have a wear age of 10 years. I’ll explain how long it will be before you will need to get new carpet and I’ll give you a ‘prescription’ to make your carpet last as long as possible.

3. I’ll determine if your carpet is in good health.

Oh, you’ve never thought of your carpet as having good or bad health. Well just like people, if a carpet is in bad health it will not live long. Healthy carpets are great for healthy wallets and for healthy people.

Yes, your carpet’s health can affect your and your family’s health. Just like you track in dirt from the outside, you also track in car exhaust, cigarette smoke, asphalt, chemicals, dust, germs, pollens, tar, soot and many others. These pollutants get lodged into your carpet just like dirt.

Clean Carpets Reduce Indoor Air Pollution You’ve heard the hype about indoor air being more polluted than outdoor air. Well, it’s true. The main reason is because indoor air is trapped. Rarely does it get completely replaced. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Outdoor air on the other hand gets blown away and new cleaner air replaces it. Trapped indoor air gets pollutants in it from your carpet. You drag them in; they get lodged in your carpet. Then when someone walks over them, they get re-dispersed into your air and you and your family breathe them. Over and over. That’s why indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air.

There is a way out of this vicious cycle. Getting your carpets cleaned thoroughly and regularly gets rid of these pollutants in your carpet.

4. I’ll also test your traffic areas. Traffic areas are the main spots that get walked on constantly. They usually visibly look more worn and dirtier. I’ll tell you how you can make your traffic areas look as good as the rest of your carpet.

5. After analyzing your carpet, I’ll give you a complete written report of the condition of your carpet. I’ll tell you what your carpets needs are.

After your Free Carpet Audit™, I’ll give you your prize:

One Room Of Free Carpet Cleaning Up To 200 SF There is absolutely No cost and No obligation. No teeny, tiny print. No strings attached.

This will just give both you and me a way to get to know each other. You’ll get to see how we turn tired, old carpet into plush, new-looking, luxurious carpet - the kind you bought!

If you totally fall in love with your one clean room, I’ll give you a written quote of how much it’d be to make your whole house look that good! But only if you choose.

You see, my company is going to be here for a long, long time.

If I were ‘pushy’ or rude, I just wouldn’t make it. Plus that’s just not me! I make friends not enemies. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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And if you ever use my services, I’ll be thrilled (and so will you). But if you don’t, that’s fine. There won’t be any hard feelings. So take advantage of your prize and free gift -

One Room Of Free Carpet Cleaning and A Free Carpet Audit™ You better hurry though. I can only hold your prize until [date], after that I’ll have to give it to someone else.

So call me at [your #] and schedule your Free Carpet Audit™ plus your one room of cleaning today!

Sincerely,

[Your name] [Company name] P.S. You’ve Won! There is NO catch! Call today to claim your prize!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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3rd Notice

Walked On. Stomped On. Run Over.

Your Carpet Needs Your Help!

Dear Friend, This is [your name]. Disappointed.

I’ve dropped off 2 letter for you telling you about the prize you’ve won -

One Room Of Free Carpet Cleaning and A Free 15 Min. Carpet Audit™ I’m truly saddened I haven’t heard from you.

Your Carpet Needs Your Help!

If you’ll take just 15 minutes of your time, your carpet will be forever grateful! And it won’t cost you a cent!

You have until [date] to call to claim your one room of free carpet cleaning and get a Free 15 Min. Carpet Audit™.

I will come to your house and audit your carpet for free.

That’s right there’s no cost and no obligation of any kind.

Here’s exactly what I’ll do: 1. First I’ll cover all the problems your carpet has. I’ll check for ‘unwanted’ stains. I’ll tell you whether or not they can be removed and how. This includes pet stains and other difficult stains. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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2. I’ll calculate the wear age of your carpet. Your carpet may be 10 years old but only have a wear age of 2 years. However your carpet may be 2 years old but have a wear age of 10 years. I’ll explain how long it will be before you will need to get new carpet and I’ll give you a ‘prescription’ to make your carpet last as long as possible.

3. I’ll determine if your carpet is in good health.

Oh, you’ve never thought of your carpet as having good or bad health. Well, just like people, if a carpet is in bad health it will not live long. Healthy carpets are great for healthy wallets and for healthy people.

Yes, your carpet’s health can affect your and your family’s health. Just like you track in dirt from the outside, you also track in car exhaust, cigarette smoke, asphalt, chemicals, dust, germs, pollens, tar, soot and many others. These pollutants get lodged into your carpet just like dirt.

Clean Carpets Reduce Indoor Air Pollution You’ve heard the hype about indoor air being more polluted than outdoor air. Well, it’s true. The main reason is because indoor air is trapped. Rarely does it get completely replaced.

Outdoor air on the other hand gets blown away and new cleaner air replaces it. Trapped indoor air gets pollutants in it from your carpet. You drag them in; they get lodged in your carpet. Then when someone walks over them, they get re-dispersed into your air and you and your family breathe them. Over and over. That’s why indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air.

There is a way out of this vicious cycle. Getting your carpets cleaned thoroughly and regularly gets rid of these pollutants in your carpet.

4. I’ll also test your traffic areas. Traffic areas are the main spots that get walked on constantly. They usually visibly look more worn and dirtier. I’ll tell you how you can make your traffic areas look as good as the rest of your carpet.

5. After analyzing your carpet, I’ll give you a complete written report of the condition of your carpet. I’ll tell you © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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what your carpets needs are.

After your Free Carpet Audit™, I’ll give you your prize:

One Room Of Free Carpet Cleaning Up To 200 SF There is absolutely No cost and No obligation. No teeny, tiny print. No strings attached.

This will just give both you and me a way to get to know each other. You’ll get to see how we turn tired, old carpet into plush, new-looking, luxurious carpet - the kind you bought!

If you totally fall in love with your one clean room, I’ll give you a written quote of how much it’d be to make your whole house look that good! But only if you choose.

You see, my company is going to be here for a long, long time.

If I were ‘pushy’ or rude, I just wouldn’t make it. Plus, that’s just not me! I make friends not enemies.

And if you ever use my services, I’ll be thrilled (and so will you). But if you don’t, that’s fine. There won’t be any hard feelings. So take advantage of your prize and free gift -

One Room Of Free Carpet Cleaning and A Free Carpet Audit™ You better hurry though. I can only hold your prize until [date]. After that I’ll have to give it to someone else.

So call me at [your #] and schedule your Free Carpet Audit™ plus your one room of cleaning today!

Hoping I might still hear from you!

Sincerely, [Your name] [Company name] P.S. You’ve Won! There is NO catch! Call today to claim your prize! © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

2318 S. McClintock Drive, Tempe, AZ 85282 480-858-0008, 800-275-2643 Fax 480-858-0004 www.joepolish.com E-Mail support@joepolish.com

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Marketing Strategy #28 The Longer The Better.

Initially almost everyone thinks the opposite is true. You may think ‘but that’s too long, who will read all that?’

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Think of it this way: If someone is truly interested in something, they want as much information as they can get so they can make a good decision. If someone isn’t interested, it doesn’t matter how short or long your letter, voice mail, etc. is - they still won’t be interested.

For example, if Jane Brown just had her carpets cleaned last Thursday and she receives a letter from you on Monday - she probably won’t be interested. It wouldn’t matter if your sales message were 2 words, she still wouldn’t be interested.

Don’t worry about the ones that aren’t interested. Worry about the ones who are!

The ones who are interested aren’t going to be convinced in 2 words or 2 paragraphs. You need to give them tons of reasons how they’ll benefit from using you. You should answer every objection that they might have. If you do all this, you’ll get lots of response.

The more you tell ‘em, the more you sell ‘em!

Would you send one of your techs (or you) out to give a quote and say ‘We really need this job, but whatever you do DON’T say more than 250 words.’ That would be ridiculous and wouldn’t work. Its the same thing with letters.

Long Letters Always Out Pull Short Ones © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Every time I’ve conducted a test against 2 letters, the longer letter has had more response than the shorter one. I’ve made more profit from the longer letters to easily cover the extra postage and printing.

I’ve talked to many other direct response experts around the country and they all say the same thing. The longer, the better.

The only thing you can do to make this untrue is:

To be boring.

See Strategy #30 - Don’t Be Boring!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #29 Form Letters.

Form letters make follow-up a ‘cinch’.

To be effective you must have procedures.

I’ve heard many; many people tell me that they were good at follow-up. When I inquired what procedures they had to follow up, this is what I found out: They didn’t have any.

They considered following up, calling someone when they owed them money. This is not follow up, anyone can do that. Even a rank amateur!

Follow-up is a group of procedures that you do consistently. Consistency is the key to making these marketing strategies work (Strategy #25).

You should have procedures for the following: 1. Thank you letters (Strategy #32) 2. Confirmation calls, emails and letters (Strategy #34) 3. Thanking someone for referring someone to you 4. Reminder when they need their carpets cleaned again (for example letter in Strategy #5) 5. New client kits (Strategy #31) 6. Complaint responses (Strategy #37)

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7. Reminders of other services that you offer (Strategy #7) 8. Reminders that a particular offer is expiring soon Form letters make many of these strategies very easy. Because many of the things you contact one client about will be the same thing you need to contact another about.

I’ve given you many, many form letters in this kit. All you need to do is plug them into your computer once and they’re all set. When you need to use one, plug in the client’s name and print.

It’s that easy.

What if you don’t have a computer?

It makes it much, much tougher but it can be done. You’ll have to type the letters up when you need them. You’ll also have to keep very close track of when you need to contact a particular client again.

You’ll need to make many ‘tickler’ files to remind a client 2 weeks before an appointment, for example (Strategy #34).

If you still don’t have a computer, get one. They’ll save you that money. Computers make it so much easier to be a money machine.

If you can’t afford a computer, use my marketing strategies until you can. Then buy one.

I use the best program on the market for carpet cleaners. It keeps track of everything. If you’d like more information about it, call our office at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 or fax us at 480-858-0004.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #30 Don’t Be Boring.

Boring. This is the cardinal sin in marketing. Longer copy always out-pulls shorter copy as long as it is not boring.

How to find out if your copy is boring or not?

Of course, you could mail out a couple hundred letters and see what kind of response you get but that can be expensive, especially if it is boring.

When you’re done with your letter or ad or whatever, let 10 people that you know (who aren’t your clients) read your letter.

If they say ‘Yeah, that was good.’ It’s back to the drawing board.

When it’s really good they’ll start asking you more questions about how they can get what you are offering.

If 5 people out of 10 ask you more questions, then it’s good enough to mail. If more do…great. If less do - back to the drawing board.

For more strategies on how to write good copy see Strategy #73.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #31 A New Client Kit. What’s a new client kit? A new client kit is a package of information you send to every new client. This package includes your thank you letter, information about your other services (Strategy #32), any of your client programs (Strategy #93 and Strategy #97) and your referral program (Strategy #55).

This new client kit does many things for you: 1. It reinforces that your company is extraordinary.

2. It makes your client think that she is getting a lot more than just a carpet cleaner.

3. It helps create the WOW effect (Strategy #10).

4. It enables you to get more referrals (Strategy #55).

5. It enables you to get that client to use your other services.

Here is an example of what to include in your new client kit: • Thank you letter (Strategy #32) • Client Dinner (Strategy #97) • Referral Program (Strategy #55) • Lending Library (Strategy #94) • Information and offer on any other services your company offers The new client kit is a cheap and easy way to get more business from each client and to get more referrals. This is a moneymaker.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #32 Thank-you letters.

Thank you letters are very important and often overlooked by carpet cleaners. Thank you letters create a positive feeling about your company.

When was the last time you received a thank-you from anyone you did business with? Most businesses just don’t bother.

For the cost of a first class stamp you create a good feeling for your company. This is one of the cheapest ways that you can build loyalty, trust and a chance to get more referrals.

You should use a form ‘thank-you’ and send it out the day after the cleaning. This is very easy. You just put the form into your computer and then add the persons name and print. Simple.

Cheap. Easy. And very effective.

Although a good idea…A thank-you card left at the home when you finish the job just doesn’t cut it. It doesn’t look or feel as personal as a thank-you letter. In order for it to have any impact, the client must feel special.

You’ll find a form ‘thank-you’ letter that you can use as is or modify on the next page of this section. This thank you reinforces that you are a wonderful company and that your clients need to get their carpets cleaned regularly.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Day, date, Dear [client name], I just wanted to take a moment to thank you. We, [company name], cleaned your carpets a few days ago. As you probably know, cleaning your carpets every 6 to 12 months greatly extends the life of your carpet. That means that you save a lot of money because you don’t have to buy new expensive carpet as often.

Plus, cleaning your carpet greatly reduces indoor air pollution. You know you track in dirt from the outside. Well, you also track in cigarette smoke, car exhaust, tar, chemicals and all other outdoor pollutants. These pollutants get lodged in your carpet and then when you walk on it, they get redistributed into the air. You and your family breathe these pollutants over and over again. That’s why indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air. (I’m sure you’ve heard about this on TV.) Cleaning your carpets regularly cleans your air!

Now you have great looking carpets and cleaner air! I sincerely appreciate your business.

Thank you.

If for some reason, you have any questions or are not happy in any way with our work, please, please call me immediately. I’ll take care of it right away.

Thank you very much,

[Owner]

[Optional] P.S. I’ve also enclosed some information about our client dinner, referral program and other services.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #33 Test, Test, Test.

Always, always test your marketing methods small. Then if they work and only if they work, test a little bigger. Keep getting bigger and bigger if it works.

I’ve known many people to lose their shirts by not following this rule.

No matter how wonderful you think your idea or plan is, test small. Let the response tell you if it’s good or not.

One guy I know bought 500 names from a mailing list broker. He mailed the 500 names and got a tremendous response. It was unbelievable. Then he did it.

He made a huge mistake. He decided to mail to the rest of the list - which was 125,000 names. He spent $12,500.00 to buy the list (10¢ a name) and spent $36,250.00 on postage. That was when stamps were only 29¢ each (remember those days?). Guess what his results were? $2,158.00 in sales.

Mailing brokers always give you the best part of the list first. The most responsive buyers.

This guy lost $46,592.00. This is a common mistake. Many, many people have made it.

Remember test, test, test. Test small, get bigger slowly.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Day Month

List

# Maile d

What Response Sales Sent

Cost

Return

Oct/1

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Marketing Strategy #34 Confirm All Appointments.

Confirming all your appointments is very important. Let me tell you why.

Does this sound familiar? _______ You have four jobs scheduled for the day. You think today is going to be a good day. You need one after last week. You or your tech does the first job and it’s a teeny, tiny house. Not what you expected but that’s OK, you think to yourself. You still have three jobs left. And then you get to the second job and no one is there. You (or your tech) call back to the office but the person can’t be located. You’ve been stood up.

You (or worse your tech) take a nice long lunch and goes to the third job. Its only an $80.00 job and the woman complains about the price. So it’s not a good day after all. Then to top it all off, the fourth job isn’t there either. You call her at work and she says ‘Oh sorry I completely forgot. I’m not sure when I’ll have time, I’ll get back with you.’ Now you’re really fed-up. Who does she think she is? She has no respect for your time. You wonder if she’ll ever call back.

Probably not.

That good day just went down the drain. Maybe things will turn around tomorrow. _______ I had that happen so many times I became sick. I’m sure you realize how much money this costs you. Between wasted hours (I still have to pay my tech) and wasted gas (some jobs are 45 minutes away), I figured out that when days like the above occur you lose more money than you make.

No More No Shows © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Out of my frustration I developed a strategy to eliminate no-shows. Since I’ve implemented this system, I’ve only had one no show and that was because she was in a car accident.

This strategy may be obvious but less than 3% of all carpet cleaners actually do it. It’s easy: You call your appointment two to three days before your scheduled day. You just tell them you’re calling to make sure that they remembered and that you would be there at whatever time.

You will hear over and over again ‘Gee I completely forgot, thanks for calling.’ If you implement this strategy, you will virtually eliminate no shows.

I also suggest having the caller check the directions with the client to make sure they are clear. Getting lost and not finding the house is another big money waster. This kills two birds with one stone.

What to do if you can’t reach the clients: First call in the afternoon. If she can’t be reached then call in the evening between 5:30 and 7:30. If you still can’t reach her, leave a voicemail message and/or send a letter or email if you have the clients email address. Samples are after this section.

Remember to give yourself enough time to send a letter if you can’t reach the client by phone.

Confirming appointments also helps build trust and confidence in your clients. Since very few companies bother to confirm appointments, when one does people perceive that company as very efficient. Clients want to do business with successful companies that have got it together.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Confirmation Answering Machine Script Hi [client name] this is [caller name] with [company name]. I’ve tried to reach you but I’ve been unsuccessful. I was just calling to remind you that you scheduled an appointment for us to come clean your carpets on [day] at [time]. If for any reason you can’t keep your scheduled appointment please call our office right away at [office number]. We look forward to cleaning your carpets. I’ll also be sending you a letter with the appointment information. Thanks.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Confirmation Letter Dear [client], Hi, this is [caller name] from [company name]. I’ve tried to reach you a couple of times on the phone but I’ve been unsuccessful. I was just reminding you of the appointment you made to have your carpets cleaned on: [Day] at [Time] If for any reason you can’t make your scheduled appointment please call our office at [your number] right away.

Thanks. See you soon.

Sincerely,

[Caller name] [Company name] PS I’ve included some useful information about our cleaning services so you’ll know what to expect when we show up.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #35 Be Down To Earth.

The down to earth strategy greatly increases sales. People want to do business with other people. They don’t want to do business with a big, huge business.

Tell it like it is. Don’t ever ‘exaggerate’ how good something is because sooner or later your client is going to find out the truth. Never promise more than you can deliver.

Being down to earth lets people get to know you. When people get to know you, they develop trust. When they develop trust they are much more likely to keep using your services and refer others to you.

You should always be down to earth. Be honest when you are face to face with your clients and in your sales letters. When someone uses your services, they should get to know you. Let them in on your personal side.

When someone reads one of your sales letters, they should feel like they know you too. This is all part of the down to earth approach.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #36 Educate Employees.

Employees can be a wonderful source of referrals. In order for a business to be extremely successful, the employees have to believe in it too. Employee education is the key.

Once you educate your employees why you deliver such a great service, you’ll be surprised at the rewards.

This is what will happen: 1. Your employees will start upselling a lot more. If they don’t know why carpet protection for example is necessary or how it helps then they won’t sell it. But if you educate your employees they’ll know and be much more likely to try to sell it.

2. Your employees can be a wealth of referrals. If they don’t think your company is exceptional, they won’t refer anyone. But if you’ve taught them why and they truly believe it, they will tell lots and lots of people.

3. An educated employee is much better suited to help or answer questions from a client.

Clients get annoyed when employees don’t know anything.

Educate your employees on a regular basis. Get them excited about working for such a wonderful company. Education and motivation are the keys to super great employees.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #37 Respond To Complaints Fast.

The key to keeping and even enhancing client relations is to respond to complaints quickly and efficiently. Never leave a client unhappy. Even if they are a "bad apple" and you want to get rid of them (Strategy #47), give them their money back.

If you give them their money back, they can’t say bad things about you. If you don’t, they’ll go to all ends to tell everyone they know what a terrible company you are. Think of it as money well spent to save you from bad publicity.

For clients who are good clients and something just went wrong, correct it in a hurry.

A complaint response letter to use as a form-letter (Strategy #29) follows.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Complaint Response Letter Dear [client].

Thank you for your recent telephone call telling us about the problem with your recent carpet cleaning service. I am committed to providing exceptional service to you. Unfortunately, I fell short of my goal this time. I’m glad that you brought this matter to my attention, so I can get it corrected right away.

I spoke with the technician that performed the service and he will be more than happy to redo the problem area. If you are not completely satisfied, I definitely want to know. Tell me how we are doing and what else we might do to be of service to you.

I truly value you as a client and thank you for taking the time to help us continually improve our service.

Sincerely, [You] [Your company]

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Marketing Strategy #38 Lifetime Value Of A Client.

The name gives the concept away, and its so simple that I remain dumbfounded that so many people in business never consider it.

Here’s what its all about. By definition the LVC is the total profit produced by an average client over his or her lifetime association with you.

Once you know your average client’s lifetime value you are then in a position to make a judgment on how much you can afford to spend to convert a prospect into a client.

For example, let’s say that the first time your average new client does business with you she spends $250.00. She has you clean every 12 months and is going to be your client for 4 years. In 4 years, she will have spent a minimum of $1,000.00 with you.

Now you have to figure out how much of that is profit to you. Let’s say its 50%. So you (theoretically) will make $500.00 profit on your average client over the next 4 years.

How much are you willing to pay to get a client? You could spend up to $500.00 and still break even in 4 years. I don’t suggest that. But up to $50.00 seems reasonable. Wouldn’t you invest $50.00 to get $500.00 back in 4 years? But you don’t even have to wait the full 4 years to start getting it back. On the first sale you make money, more than enough to recover the $50.00.

Let’s say that your average client refers at least one other client to you. Now your profit from that client is $1,000.00. $500.00 from the client, and $500.00 from the referral. Referrals are even more profitable than clients gotten through advertising (Strategy #55).

Start calculating the lifetime value of your average client. One of your goals should be to increase this value by getting your clients to refer more often, increasing the average sale; making repeat cleans more often, and selling them more products (Strategy #7).

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Lifetime Value of a Happy Customer…

Let’s look at a typical loyal customer A. Average sale on carpet cleaning

____

B. Number of years customer buys

____

C. Number of sales per year

____

D. Number of referrals per customer

____

E. Percentage of referrals that become customers

____

F. Gross sales per year (A x C)

____

G. Gross sales over life of customer (F x B)

____

H. Number of referrals that become customers (D x E)

____

I. Gross sales for total referrals (G x H)

____

J. Total value of satisfied customer (G + I)

____

K. Total Value of 10 satisfied customers (J x 10)

____

L. Total value of 25 satisfied customers (J x 25)

____

M. Total value of 100 satisfied customers (J x 100)

____

N. Total value of 1000 satisfied customers (J x 1000)

____

That $_________(A) customer is actually worth $________(J) in sales to your cleaning business over the next_______years.©

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Marketing Strategy #39 Let Them Choose Between You, You And You. When you are selling, it is a big mistake to only have one offer.

When you only have one offer, it often makes the consumer choose between you and your competition. You don’t want this.

How do you make them choose you?

The first trick is to get them to choose between you, you and you. Not between you and your competition.

Can you see how this is more attractive?

Of course they’re going to choose you between you, you and you. The only question left is which option.

I suggest having three options. You have to have at least two.

What are the options?

1. Carpet cleaning. No moving furniture. No carpet protection.

2. Carpet cleaning and carpet protection. No moving furniture.

3. Carpet cleaning. Carpet protection. Move furniture.

You should have 3 different forms to fill out. Fill in the price for all 3 then lay them out in front of the prospect.

Once the prospect sees all 3 different options, most likely (90% of the time) she’ll choose © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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one of them.

Make sure you mention that #2 is your most popular one. Most people will choose #2 - about 70%. The others will probably be split equally between 1 and 3.

I prefer 2 to 3. As you probably know sometimes moving furniture isn’t worth it. It takes too long and eats up your profits. You can’t charge enough to make it worthwhile in some cases. So I usually encourage my clients to save money and do it themselves.

On your quote sheet you should have a lengthy description of the services included in that package. So they can see they are getting a lot for their money.

Don’t limit yourself to these 3 basic options. If you have other services, you can easily add them in. For instance if you have upholstery cleaning you might make #3 carpet cleaning, carpet protection and upholstery cleaning (no moving furniture).

Three options are great. More than 5 will only confuse your prospect. I think 3 is the perfect number of choices. Of course if they want part of one and part of another, you can easily do that ‘special’ one for them.

This is also a great way to increase your profits. A carpet cleaner in rural Alabama offers 3 choices and averages .33 per square foot! Not bad for his area.

If you aren’t making this much per square foot, implement this strategy right away and see your average skyrocket. Also see Strategy #7 and Strategy # 92 and #98.

On the next page, I have listed three samples of how you might package your services. This is just a sample, be creative and think of what you might add or do differently.

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Option #1

Option #2

Budget Package Carpet Cleaning

Value Package Carpet Cleaning

Pre Treat Heavily Soiled Areas (as needed)

Pre Vacuum Carpet

Hot Water Extraction Cleaning

Pre Treat Heavily Soiled Areas (as needed)

Brush and Groom Carpet

Hot Water Extraction Cleaning

No Furniture Moving

Application Of Advanced Carpet Protector Brush and Groom Carpet

Option #3

Premium Package Carpet Cleaning Pre Vacuum Carpet Pre-treat Heavily Soiled Areas (as needed) Move Furniture Hot Water Extraction Cleaning Application Of Advanced Carpet Protector Application of Deodorizer Brush and Groom Carpet Free Bottle of Carpet Spotter 1Y

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Marketing Strategy #40 Networking.

Do it right or don’t do it.

What I mean by this is: Some people are better at networking than others. When they go to meetings, parties, etc. they interact. They talk to strangers and get to know them. They make contacts and many of the contacts become clients.

Others go to these same things and only talk to people they already know. They don’t interact with strangers. They’re shy. Timid. Whatever you want to call it.

If you are in group-one then network all you can.

If you are in group-two then don’t. Don’t feel bad about it. That’s just the way you are. Don’t fight it and don’t waste your time trying to network.

Can Someone Learn To Network?

Of course. But it takes work. And frankly with all these great strategies you now have, you don’t need to network.

Learning how to network takes time and effort. The rewards are great. You can get a lot of business by networking but it takes effort.

If you are interested in learning more about networking, call our office and we’ll direct you in the right direction. The number is 1-800-275-2643 or visit my website at www.joepolish.com.

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Marketing Strategy #41 Learn Everything For Yourself.

What I mean by this is learn marketing for you. Getting this manual was the best thing you ever did for your business.

Unfortunately you have to learn it all for yourself. You can’t trust yellow page reps, or any other advertising reps.

You can’t even trust advertising agencies.

I listened to all of them at one time. I tried everything. The only thing I learned was: None of them have a clue about how to get new clients.

I Hired An Ad Agency The Biggest Mistake Of My Life I even decided to hire an advertising agency. I thought that was going to be the end of my troubles. I couldn’t really afford it but I thought I ‘d get a ton of business.

The advertising agency was great - Great at making pretty looking ads and building my ‘image’. After 3 months I was losing so much money I thought about getting out of this business.

I realized advertising agencies don’t have any idea about how to actually get new clients. I learned one very important lesson:

If An Ad Doesn’t Work Once, It Won’t Work The Second Or Third Time Either!

I fell for the old ‘if you just run it again, this time people will respond’. The theory behind it is that people need to see ads more than once before they’ll respond. There is some minor truth © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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in this. However if an ad loses money the first time, its not suddenly going to make a ton of money the second or third time.

Finally, I starting using emotional direct response marketing. What an exciting thing in my life and business. Soon I had 5 good jobs a day.

So you have to do it yourself. You’ve made a great start with this manual, but keep on learning for yourself. Don’t trust any of those ‘image’ building types.

When you do try something new, track your numbers carefully so you know whether its working or not (Strategy #24).

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Marketing Strategy #42 Target Farming.

Target farming is niche marketing.

Niche marketing is targeting a specific group, like certain neighborhoods or doctors. The group has to have something in common with each other.

It’s much easier to target certain niches than it is to target everyone. You’ll get more response.

People feel important if you specialize in them. This is very true. Think about it. Which would you be more likely to use a regular printer or a printer who specializes in servicing carpet cleaners. Would you have bought this program if it were just a generic marketing program for any business? Probably not.

Specializing is good.

Pick 2 to 3 niche markets that you’d like to get in to. These could be any of the following: * A wealthy neighborhood * Lawyers * Doctors * Country Club members * Golfers * Mercedes owners The options are limitless.

Pick 2 to 3 and start really targeting them. For instance if its a particular neighborhood, do a 3 letter sequence to them (Strategy #27). Then do a Val-Pak type ad (Strategy #65) that goes to that neighborhood. Then do your telemarketing (Strategy #59) to the same people. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Contacting them lots of times over 4 to 6 months is very important for success. Once you get a few of them, start using testimonials from them in all your promotions. You can dominate this niche in a very short time.

Then pick another niche market and do the same thing.

You can specialize in a million different niches. Being the carpet cleaner for doctors doesn’t not mean you can’t be the carpet cleaner for printers too!

A Good Way To Get In To A Profession Niche If you want to target a professional, any profession, an easy way to do that is with a champion letter.

Say you want to target doctors and you have one doctor as a client. This doctor really likes you. She thinks you are the greatest carpet cleaner on earth.

You ask her if she would be willing to endorse you. She will.

Here’s how you do this: You write a letter from her to all the other doctors in your area. This letter should tell how wonderful she thinks you are and that since “we, doctors are so busy - we don’t have any spare time to waste” and that’s why she’s telling them about you - so they don’t waste their time with any of those terrible cleaners.

Also enclose a sales letter of yours, offering a free Carpet Audit™ (Strategy #23).

Send this letter from the doctor on her letterhead and her envelopes. Also staple to her letter her business card. Pay for all of the letterhead, envelopes and business cards and of course the postage. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Then give the doctor an extra box of her business cards or letterhead as a thank-you.

What this will do is insure that your letter gets opened and read. All doctors read mail from other doctors. Just like if you got a letter from another carpet cleaner you’d read it. You’d be curious as to why another carpet cleaner was writing to you.

Don’t forget to follow up with a second and third letter from just you, not the doctor.

This type of niche marketing is very powerful.

It’s also a lot easier to get referrals when you niche market because all your clients will know others in their same niche. And they think you specialize in their niche so they know others will want to use you too.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #43 Voice Mail.

Voice mail is a way you can save time and let you sell more.

Every day you repeat the same information over and over to prospects. About how they should get their carpets cleaned regularly and the consequences if they don’t. Information on indoor air quality. The services you offer. You explain carpet protection.

Over and over.

One day I counted every minute that I spent with prospects or clients selling them on something. It added up to over 2 hours! That’s 2 hours every single day.

I realized that 90% of this information was the same for everybody.

So I decided to save 2 hours every day.

I created a voice mail message.

It covers why my cleaning method is best, how to choose a good carpet cleaner, why a certified cleaner is best - all the things I use to ‘sell’ my company.

I call it my ‘Consumer Awareness Message’. Anyone can call in 24 hours a day and hear my sales pitch. See my Consumer Awareness Package that came with this manual.

It not only saves me two hours a day but it also gets people to call who otherwise wouldn’t have.

The voice mail message is non-threatening. When someone calls it, they know they don’t have to talk to anyone. They don’t have to be afraid of being ‘pressured’ into anything. It’s riskfree so anyone who is even slightly interested will call. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Plus, it qualifies prospects for you. Would you rather talk to 20 really interested prospects or 100 prospects? Out of the 100 only 20 are interested but you’ll have to talk to all of them to figure it out. That’s a waste of time.

I’d much rather spend my time and my tech’s time with qualified, interested leads. It is much more productive.

So the voice mail screens out the bad leads.

You can use voice mail for all sorts of things. All your different services. It’s cheap. Plus, it’s a selling tool that sells 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can’t beat it.

It also eliminates those bad days. You just have to do the voice mail good once and you can use it forever. There aren’t any bad days.

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Marketing Strategy #44 Front End. The front end is what most of us think about. It’s making the first sale with a prospect. That’s it the first sale. The subsequent sales are the back end.

Why are we so engrossed in the front end?

We all think we need more clients and that’s what we concentrate on. Obviously getting new clients is very important but there is another very important profit center - the back end (Strategy #45).

The front end has to carry all of our advertising costs. For example, if you run a Val-Pak ad and it costs $300.00 and you get 3 new clients from it. It cost you $100.00 to get each of those clients.

If your average job for those three clients was $275.00 then you probably made out OK. But if your average job was $47.00, you lost money.

Some companies lose money on the first sale. This may sound ridiculous but it’s not. They know they can afford to ‘buy’ a customer. That means they are willing to lose money on the first sale just to get that person as a customer. They know that most of their new customers go on to buy more products from them. It’s not until the second or third sale that a customer is profitable.

They know this and market this way. That’s fine and it works.

We don’t have to go that far. We can make money on the front end and make even more money on the back end.

The whole point of spending advertising dollars is to obtain a new client. But not a one time only client, a client who is going to use your services over and over again. That’s the purpose of the front end.

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Marketing Strategy #45 Back End. This is where the real profits are. The back end is any sale after the first sale. It’s a repeat sale.

So, in other words, there aren’t any advertising dollars spent in getting these repeat sales.

That means that all the profit is really profit.

It is much, much easier to get a client to buy a second time than it is to get a non-client to buy the first time. People are skeptical. They’re afraid you are going to rip them off or do a poor job.

Once they’ve used your services once, that fear is gone. They know of you and trust you (hopefully).

I don’t want a client who only gets their carpets cleaned once. I want a client who gets their carpets cleaned by me at least once a year.

I even have quite a few clients who get their carpets cleaned every three months. I love these clients. I aim my marketing at trying to get more of them.

The more a client buys from me, the more likely she will be to buy from me. That means that a client who gets her carpets cleaned every three months will be much more likely to buy a vacuum cleaner from me than one who only gets their carpets cleaned once a year.

Never underestimate the back end. It is a real profit center.

Always create more things to sell to your current clients (Strategy #7).

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Marketing Strategy #46 Marketing To Businesses.

Business contracts.

You may have some contracts for businesses already. If you do, I’ll teach you how to make more money from them.

What Are The Advantages Of Business Contracts?

1. They are mainly at night. So your van isn’t making any money during this time anyway.

2. They are steady cash flow.

What Are The Disadvantages?

1. They are mainly at night. Some people hate to work after hours.

2. You don’t make as much money for the work.

Unless you really hate the idea of having someone work after hours in your business, you should consider getting business contracts.

You don’t need to buy any more equipment. You have it sitting around doing nothing all night long so you might as well make some money from it.

Although you don’t make as much money from businesses as you do from consumers, it is a steady cash flow. You can depend on it. When you get business contracts, you know exactly how much you’ll make for the next year. There are some major benefits of stability.

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How To Get Business Contracts These are a little bit harder to get than homeowners. But if you work at it, you can make a steady cash flow.

Getting to the right person is half the battle. With secretaries and receptionists screening calls, it’s harder to get to the decision maker.

There are many ways to overcome this: First pick five businesses that you would really like to have as clients. Call them and find out who would be in charge of this decision. Make sure that the building owner doesn’t have the carpets cleaned for the tenants. If they are cleaned for the tenant (which is the business you were thinking of), go after the building owner. Find out their exact address.

Then have a courier hand deliver a package from you to the decision maker. The courier must give the package to the decision maker not the secretary.

The package includes: 1. One of your shoes.

2. A letter from you explaining that you just wanted to get your foot in the door. Then go on to explain who you are. Offer to clean their carpets for free the first time. Then if the decision maker is happy, you can put together a contract. You should have many, many testimonials especially ones from business owners.

3. An exact day and time when you are going to call. Let the decision maker have the choice of having the secretary reschedule the call.

Make sure you call the decision maker at the exact time and date you specified. 9 times out of 10 you will get an immediate appointment to see the decision maker. The appointment should only take 10 minutes. Then schedule a time to do the trial, free cleaning. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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For the few who don’t respond to your package and don’t set up a meeting, send letter #2.

This letter should refer to the package. The headline ‘I Want My Shoe Back’ works very well. This system will get you business contracts. Once you have a business contract you have a whole new list of prospects - the employees.

Most all of the employees will own homes. They are perfect prospects.

The day you clean the carpets for the first time is the day you want your sales letter to arrive at all the employee homes.

Tell the business owner that you will offer a discount to all carpet cleaning for the employees. You should get a list of names and addresses then.

Your letter should have the headline “Didn’t The Office Carpet Look Amazing Today”. Then go on to explain that you were the amazing carpet cleaner and that you worked a deal with the business owner to give all the employees a discount.

Tell them the exact discount if they use your services. Tell them how they’ll benefit - i.e. superbly clean carpets, reduced allergies, cleaner air, etc.. Then offer a Free Carpet Audit™.

This works very well. Everyone will be shocked to get a letter at home that mentions that the office had clean carpets. They’ll read your letter and respond. You’ll make sure of that by sending a 3-letter sequence of course!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #47 Get Rid Of Bad Apples.

There is a very well, well known business theory called the “80/20 theory”. What this theory says is that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients. Another little sidekick to this theory is that 80% of your problems come from 20% of your clients. Hopefully that’s not the same 20%!

Seriously, clients who are problems all the time should be fired. That’s right - fire your bad clients.

What do you mean, you are saying to fire bad clients, you keep preaching about client service and client satisfaction.

I truly believe in excellent client service but only to good clients.

If a client is not satisfied with anything and always complains, she isn’t worth the headache no matter how much business she gives you.

Long ago, I decided I wouldn’t give superior service and cleaning to the bad apples. Bad apples can ruin the whole lot and you. They aren’t worth it. If I feel I’ve done more than what is expected and have done a great job, if someone complains I just fire him or her. I’ll even give them their money back just to get rid of them. If you don’t, these bad apples have very big mouths. Even though they are being completely unreasonable, others won’t perceive it that way.

So I gladly give them their money back and get rid of them.

Life is too short and there are too many good people out there to waste your time on bad apples.

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Marketing Strategy #48 Never Leave Them Empty Handed.

You should never leave a client empty handed. Your techs shouldn’t ever leave a client empty handed either.

If you do you are wasting an opportunity to make more money. You can easily give them information on your other services that they aren’t using.

Here is a partial list of things you can leave with your client: 1. Referral Program 2. Why she should get her carpets cleaned at least every 12 months 3. Your maintenance plan 4. Indoor Air Quality 5. Your other services including but not limited to: * Blind Cleaning * Maid Service * Upholstery Cleaning * Oriental Rug Cleaning * Flood and Fire Damage Service * Duct Cleaning No matter what else you give your client, you should always give her your referral program information. You always want your clients to refer so you should encourage them to do so.

If you do this you will get many more referrals.

Ever heard of the saying:

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Well, it’s true.

Ask and you shall receive.

Nothing just happens, you have to make it happen.

Since you don’t get to see your clients very often, don’t waste an opportunity to educate and sell.

Leave them with plenty of goodies to read (or listen to or watch).

This is a golden opportunity that 99% of carpet cleaners miss.

Join us in that 1%!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #49 How To Get A Flood Of Clients With Yellow Pages.

Carpet cleaners tell me all the time that yellow pages don’t work. This is absurd.

Yellow pages work.

If they aren’t working for you now, I’ll teach you how to make yellow pages very, very profitable.

Why Do So Many Carpet Cleaners Fail With Yellow Pages?

Have you ever taken a good look at the yellow page ads in your city? Do it now. Pull out your yellow pages and look at all the carpet cleaner ads.

Try to be objective. Don’t fall in love with your ad unless it is pulling in tons of new clients!

Do you notice something?

They all look pretty much alike and say the same things. You could easily change the business names on all of them. None of them stand out.

They all look like blown up business cards.

None of them give any compelling reasons why you should use a certain company.

Yellow pages reps don’t know anything about getting new clients. Stop listening to your yellow pages rep. He sells everyone else their yellow pages and gives them the same advice.

That’s why all the ads look the same.

After I teach you how to get a yellow pages ad that really works, the last thing you want to © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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do is tell your yellow pages rep. If you do, he’ll tell all of your competitors.

Tell him that they are doing ‘OK’. Don’t sound excited at all! Then hopefully none of your competitors will do the same thing you are doing.

Yellow pages advertising isn’t any different than any other type of advertising. You need all the same things: 1. Attention getting headline 2. Interest the prospect 3. Make the prospect want what you are offering 4. Tell them the offer and exactly what to do 5. You can even put in an expiration date but it can’t be a specific date. Something like expires in 15 days is OK but doesn’t have as much effect because most people realize you have no idea when they first saw the ad.

The number one mistake that all carpet cleaners make is using their company name as a headline.

6 out of 10 people who look up a carpet cleaner in the phone book have no company in mind.

And out of the remaining 4, half of them are willing to be swayed to a different company. That’s 8 out of 10!

Practically no one is looking for your name! It is a huge waste of space to make your name the biggest thing!

Instead create an attention getting headline. Anything would be better than your company name that no one is looking for or will recognize.

Here are other mistakes everyone makes: A. Certified Technicians - only we carpet cleaners know what this is. If you want to use this you must explain what kind of certification and how this benefits the client © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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B. Free Estimates - every one does this. People expect it. It isn’t anything special.

C. Hot Water Extraction (or any other kind of method) - only carpet cleaners have any idea what this means. You must explain it and tell them why it’s the best method (which should be how the client benefits from it).

Remember why should any one do business with you versus any or all of your competitors?

Answer this question in your yellow pages ad and you will get tons of calls!

How Powerful Are Yellow Pages?

Extremely.

And not just for me.

One carpet cleaner that purchased my program gets 242 calls a month! No exaggeration.

Some months are a little higher, some a little lower. That’s the average!

How do you think he’s doing?

Extraordinary!

From this alone, he has made an extra $62,537.00 a year!

He uses an ad I created. It’s at the end of this strategy. You can use it as is or create one of your own. It’s the warning ad.

His ad drives people to his voice mail message, which is the ‘Consumer Awareness Line’.

You received the script with this kit. It’s in the Consumer Awareness Manual. I’ve also included an ad, which I re-did. The first one is a typical ad. The second version is how I re-vamped it. I’ll let you guess which one out pulls the other!

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Marketing Strategy #50 Make The Most Out Of Your Time In The Truck/Car. How much time do you spend in a vehicle everyday?

Probably at least an hour…even up to 3 hours.

What do you normally do while you drive?

Hum. Listen to music.

Nothing productive.

Stop wasting time in your car and start learning more about marketing and other things.

There are many marketing programs on tape to listen to while you drive. Turn your unproductive time into super productive learning time. This works very well.

I always listen to educational tapes when I drive. Giving up listening to music is a small price to pay to learn valuable information that you can make millions with.

If you are at a loss as to what tapes are available or what tapes have really good information, give us a call at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 and we’ll point you in the right direction.

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Marketing Strategy #51 Know Your Numbers.

This is crucial to making you tons of money.

If you don’t know your numbers, you have no idea what’s working and what’s not.

If you don’t know what’s working, you can’t possibly do more of what is working.

You can’t just have ‘a good idea’. You need to know for sure.

More carpet cleaners have been wrong about what is working and what isn’t working. They think something is working and it turns out it’s barely breaking even. Or they think it’s doing awful and stop doing it. When in reality it was actually doing 5 to 1 against cost - which is great!

You need to know the following to calculate your numbers: 1. The cost of the ad or mailing 2. The number of leads generated from it 3. How many of the leads turned into clients 4. The average job of clients - dollar amount 5. The average number of referrals per client Once you calculate these numbers you compare it to your average numbers. That way you can see which methods are working better for you.

This is the only way to get ahead. Know your numbers or its not worth doing.

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Marketing Strategy #52 Learn To Be Happy Being A Sales Superstar.

Don’t hate ‘selling’.

We sell every day of our lives. Not just at work but at home.

You sell your spouse on all sorts of things - going out to dinner where you want to go, rubbing your back, etc.

Everyone sells every day of their life.

Maybe you never thought of it that way but it’s true. Your spouse may be harder to sell than any of your clients! But you aren’t ‘afraid’ of doing it. You aren’t shy.

So why would you be with your clients?

You do it with your spouse, friends and employees because you want it your way. It’s the same things with clients. (Of course, you can’t insist with them!)

Don’t confuse selling with pressuring. No one wants to be pressured. They hate it. Never pressure your clients - that’s a good way to lose them!

You sell by educating.

For example don’t say ‘Do you want carpet protection?’

Your response most likely will be ‘How much is it?’ or ‘What is it’ followed by ‘How much is it?’

What you should say is ‘We offer a carpet protector which does...’ and explain exactly what it does and why it’s important. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Then you get ready to close the sale.

Explain the different options (Strategy #39) and ask ‘Which do you want?’

There is a huge difference here.

In the first part the client feels like they are being given something that is totally optional and just costs more money.

In the second part, the client realizes what carpet protection is, why they need it, and then were asked which option they wanted to go with.

Do you see the difference?

I hope so because it means doubling your average job and therefore doubling your profits!

Handle possible objections before they come up. That way you’ve covered all your bases by educating, not by ‘pressuring’.

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Marketing Strategy #53 You are not your own client.

This is a mistake that many, many business owners make, especially carpet cleaners. What this means is that you do not know what your clients will want or how they will react.

I’ve heard lots of carpet cleaners tell me that ‘Well, my clients won’t like that or respond to it’. This is a huge mistake. You are not your client. You don’t know what your client will or won’t do until you try it.

Please don’t call us up and say this will never work with my clients. First of all, that’s very foolish. You don’t know what will or won’t work with your clients. Second of all, these marketing strategies have been tested all over the country. They work. Period.

If you can’t get something to work, call us and we’ll help you get it to work.

I had one carpet cleaner tell me, ‘I tried this and it doesn’t work.’ This would be like questioning the laws of aerodynamics every time a plane crashed. No one does that. They ask what was wrong with the plane or what mistake the pilot made.

What he should have said was, ‘I tried this and I couldn’t get it to work.’ Or even better yet, ‘I tried this, I couldn’t get it to work, do you know how I can get it to work.’ Then I would have explained what he was doing wrong so he could correct it. He ended up losing thousands and thousands of dollars because he was so sure this didn’t work!

If you are trying a new product, like a vacuum cleaner for example, ask your clients if they would be interested in buying one. See what features they want and see what types (like upright) then give them what they want. If you don’t do that, then you need to test small.

For example if you find a vacuum cleaner that you think is fantastic and you think your clients will buy two each - don’t buy 1,000 of these things and then find out that your clients hate them. Buy one or two and see if you can sell them. If you do, then buy 5. Start small and work your way up. Always remember that you aren’t your own client! © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #54 Diversify Your Marketing.

Diversity equals stability.

If you have one marketing strategy, which is pulling in $10,000.00 a month (which is entirely possible), it can be tempting to not do anything else.

This is a mistake.

This makes you very vulnerable.

It is like putting all your eggs in one basket.

If for some reason that strategy starts only pulling in half as much, only $5,000,00, you’re in trouble.

I know, I know, I keep telling you that these strategies are systems that they get consistent results. This is all true but...

There could always be some sort of change in one system. Over time these things are bound to happen.

If you have 10 different strategies to get new clients each month, that’s better than 1. The more reliable systems you have bringing in a steady flow of new clients, the more stable you will be.

For example if you have 10 different strategies bringing in $10,000.00 a month and one stops working, you’ll still be fine.

But if you only have one and it stops working, you have BIG trouble.

I’m telling you this because these strategies are extremely powerful. One strategy could © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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easily bring in $10,000.00 or more a month. It’ll be tempting just to do that one but don’t.

Diversify.

Your company will be bigger, better and much more stable. You might be interested to know that we also have the absolute best marketing programs on the planet, specifically tailored for air duct and window cleaning, as well as a complete program for the janitorial business.

If you already provide any of those services, call our office for more information on any or all of those programs.

Notes:

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Marketing Strategy #55 Referral Program.

Referrals are the fastest, easiest way to double you business. Get all your current clients to refer one person to you.

Is that really difficult?

You may think that this is impossible - you rarely get a referral now.

But believe me, its not that difficult. However, you have to make it happen. It won’t happen by itself.

You should aim all your efforts at getting referrals.

Why?

Referred clients are better clients: 1. They cost less to acquire. This is very important. Anything you can do to get your cost per client down is great.

2. They are much less price resistant. Because someone they trust referred them, they really want your service.

3. They are more likely to refer, since someone else referred them.

4. They are less likely to complain and are easy to please. Even if something does go wrong, referred clients are more understanding. On the whole they are much easier to please.

For all of these reasons, you should make getting referrals your number one priority.

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This won’t just happen. Like anything else, you have to make it happen.

Don’t let any opportunity pass you by to ask for a referral.

When a client calls in to say what a wonderful job you did, thank them and ask for a referral.

It’s easy and you’ll get results.

To maximize your referrals, you must have a referral program in place. It can be the Reward Program (Strategy #56) or the Recognition Program (Strategy #57). You must use one.

To explain this even further, I’ve included a reprint of an article I was recently asked to write for Cleanfax Magazine

Put your clients to work for you How to create a referral system that works. Learn the secrets to a referral program that will send your profits soaring. By Joe Polish One of the quickest ways to double your business and get a better quality clientele is to focus on referrals. If you are not implementing a referral strategy you are choosing to ignore the best and most cost effective business growth strategy. If you have no referral-generating devices in place in your company, you are choosing to “need” more work.

If you currently don’t have a referral system up and running, the information in this article will help you create your own system. If you’re already getting a majority of your business from referrals, you’ll find tips that will allow you to provide a further boost to your referral business.

Are you worth it?

There are many tools and techniques you can use to generate referrals: a referral tracking form, a telephone script, a referral request letter, thank you cards, a refrigerator magnet, a vacuum sticker, or a combination of any of these. But before committing resources to generating referrals, you need to ask yourself, “Do I have a business that is worthy of receiving referrals?”

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If the answer is “no” — you need to fix your business. You can learn strategies, receive expert suggestions, be shown all kinds of marketing tools that other cleaners are doing to get clients to refer them — but if your business isn’t worthy of receiving referrals, no amount of marketing expertise is going to help.

Ask yourself, “Just how good is my service or product? Do I constantly ‘wow’ my clients or is my service just okay?” If you want to have people refer you, you’ve got to really ‘wow’ them.

There are three types of clients you can create in your company: · Unhappy customers got less than they expected · Satisfied customers got exactly what they expected. · Loyal clients got more than they expected. Hint: These are the clients you want!

If you want clients that refer you, you’ve got to make sure you do everything humanly possible to have every client go from just a satisfied customer to a loyal client. Because if they are not impressed enough with your service to where they’d want to use you again, then they certainly aren’t going to want to refer you to other people.

Dan Sullivan, founder of The Strategic Coach Inc., Toronto, has identified four habits he calls the “Refer ability Habits.” He says that in order for you to have a business that generates referrals and for you to be the type of person a client would want to refer, you need to follow these four simple but oft-neglected habits: 1) 2) 3) 4)

Show up on time.

Finish what you start.

Do what you say you’re going to do.

Say ‘please’ and ‘thank you.’

No matter how good your product or service is, no matter how great your technicians are, no matter how honest you are, no matter how highly skilled and trained you are — if you break just one of these refer ability habits you have dropped the ball. When you break one, you’re saying to your clients and to your employees and to everyone you associate with that you don’t respect them and that you’re not dependable.

The bottom line is this: If you don’t show people respect and dependability, they’re not going to refer you.

The referral process Implement a number of simple but effective processes into your daily routine.

For example: 9

Send clients pre-confirmation letters before the job via mail or e-mail.

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9 9 9 9 9

While you’re at the home, educate the client with a complimentary consumer awareness guide or other literature.

Do an inspection and evaluation presentation for the client.

Use a carpet protection video to educate and sell the client on the benefits of carpet protection.

Wear surgical booties when you go into the home to really impress them — they only cost pennies, but they have a big impact.

At the end of the job, after you’ve educated your clients, you’ve provided a great service and they’re happy with the cleaning, it is the perfect time to ask for a referral. This is the point when they are the most happy with the cleaning you just performed.

Educate the client as to why they should give you referrals. If you don’t ask them and let them know the way you build your business is through referrals, don’t expect them to really think about it for you. You’ve got to plant a seed in their mind.

Use a referral tracking form (see “Referral tracking form” page XXX). In my experience, cleaners who use a referral tracking form seem to consistently generate an average of three referrals for every job.

Add a space for an e-mail address to the tracking form. E-mail is a great way for you to contact people and to also ask people to refer you. It makes it easy for clients to forward your message to others (and it doesn’t cost you a dime to send). You can also use email addresses for sending pre-confirmation letters, thank you letters, endorsement letters, offers, tips on cleaning and all kinds of things.

Follow up with the newly referred prospects. Anytime you are given the name and contact information of someone who may be interested in your service, follow up promptly if you expect the referral to turn into a job.

Offer a reward You need to thank and reward those who refer you. If you are receiving referrals and you’re not doing anything at this point to get referrals, they’re just telling people about you because they’re happy with the job!

Imagine what would happen if you not only started going out of your way to thank them for sending you business, but you also started rewarding them with gifts or perks.

(Reward systems works very well with your technicians too, so don’t forget to thank them when they come back with a completed customer referral tracking form.)

One gift to consider is rewarding clients with cash. Cash works. It does not have to be a large amount. Hundreds of cleaners all over the world use small cash rewards as a token of appreciation and to entice people to give them referrals. It’s more cost effective to give small cash rewards for a referral than pay for expensive advertising or other forms of promotions. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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One benefit to rewarding cash versus a “10% off your next cleaning” coupon is it’s non-conditional. It’s instant gratification —the client doesn’t have to buy something from you again in the future.

As an alternative to cash, you could also give a bonus such as a spotting kit, free deodorization, free carpet protection on certain areas in response to a

referral or you could offer them gift certificates towards cleaning, a restaurant, etc. Movie passes are an effective reward.

You are trying to get it in the clients mind to remember you as a spectacular carpet cleaning company. People have busy lives, so if you don’t actively thank them and let them know you appreciate their referrals (and reward them), they’re not going to be thinking about your company for long after the job is completed.

Give clients a reason to remember you. Go out of your way to identify the people in your database that refer you and treat those people like gold.

That’s one of the most important things to understand about building and growing your business. Ω

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Marketing Strategy #56 Reward Referral Program.

The reward referral program is based on monetary compensation or giving away gifts.

Money The monetary one is an easy way to develop a referral program quickly.

For every referral that becomes a client, you pay the client who referred $10.00. You can write a check or drop it off. I even know of one carpet cleaner who sends it in the mail.

To help generate more than one referral from each client, you can have an increasing value for each referral.

For instance for referrals 1 to 3, you pay $10.00. But on referrals 4 on you pay $20.00. I like this because it rewards clients who refer more people, more money.

I know one carpet cleaner who pays $10.00 for referrals one through three and then $20.00 for referral four then he starts all over. So referral five is equal to referral one. He says he is getting amazing results from this.

Rewards that are cash tend to do better than ones that only offer money off on the next purchase.

Gifts The other type of reward referral program is based on giving away items instead of money.

You can offer free movie tickets, free facial, free massage, free month at gym, free manicure.

The list is endless.

Give your clients a choice of at least three different things they can win if one of their referrals becomes a client. Š 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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If you up the ante, for more than one referral, you’ll get more referrals per client.

For instance you can have a choice of three things for one referrals five things for two referrals, seven things for three referrals, etc. Each category should have increasing values of gifts.

If you choose gifts that your clients really want, you’ll get better results with gifts than money.

But on the other hand if you don’t know want your clients would really want, stick to money.

Either way, make sure you recognize your clients who referred you new clients in your newsletter (Strategy #68).

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Marketing Strategy #57 Recognition Referral Program.

The recognition referral program is based on recognizing your clients, not on paying them.

The theory behind this is that people like to be recognized.

One very large multi-level marketing company is built almost solely on recognition. This company is Mary Kay. The majority of the women, who are involved in this company, don’t make big money. In fact, lots of them make very little. Like less than $2,000.00 all year!

So why do they stay with it?

It’s clearly not for the money.

It’s for the recognition.

In our society there is very little recognition. Almost none.

Perhaps a typical woman in Mary Kay got compliments twice 18 years ago when she first got married. Since then her husband hasn’t complimented her at all.

Maybe her boss said she was doing a great job after reading some management book a few years back but hasn’t said anything since.

She wants recognition.

In some companies recognition is more important than pay. You get an award for everything and a round of applause for every other thing. People like this. Not all, of course, but many do.

So you base your referral program around recognition.

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Here is what you do: Once a month (or once a quarter) have a lunch for all your clients who have referred. Plus they can bring any guests that they choose. Its important to have these lunches only for ‘special clients’ (ones that have referred) not all your clients. You can use the same strategy to get others to pay for it as in Strategy #97, Client Dinner.

For the first referral from a client, give them a gold pin.

For the second referral add a pearl to the gold pin.

For the third referral replace the pearl with an emerald.

For the fourth referral replace the emerald with a ruby.

For the fifth referral replace the ruby with a diamond.

After that start stringing diamonds down off the gold pin.

At each lunch is when you give out the gold pins and upgrade the jewels. Call each client up that is getting a pin or jewel, shake their hand and give them their new item.

Then you should talk about one of your services for about 15 minutes. Then have your speakers if you decide to have any.

Make sure you have everyone fill out a form, like the one that follows.

Does this sound expensive?

For the price of a lunch, you get a new client. Not to mention all the prospects that you’ll convert from the lunch that are a guest of your client.

As for the cost of the gold pin and jewels, actually they aren’t that expensive at all. You don’t need to get ‘extravagant’ it should just look nice. The jewels are quite small and very © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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inexpensive.

You have to remember that this money is money well spent. These clients will be more excited to refer after every lunch. Plus you’ll get a whole bunch of new clients from the prospects.

And remember not every client who referred will even come to the lunch.

Always mention this lunch in your newsletter. Mention all your clients who received awards.

Tell exactly which award they received. This will encourage your non-referring clients to refer.

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Marketing Strategy #58 Track Source And Get Referrals.

You should know where every client comes from BEFORE your initial appointment (Carpet Audit™). This is to confirm that the new client actually came from the same source that you thought.

Plus, it gives you an easy way to get referrals right off the bat. All your clients should feel that giving you referrals is natural and expected of them. If they feel this way and you ask them frequently, you’ll get tons of referrals.

This form alone averages 3 referrals per client! WOW! Even when my tech uses it, he averages this!

Here is a form to have your first time client fill out after you finished the job.

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Tracking/Referral Form Name ________________________________________________________ I heard about you from the following: A. B. C. D. E. F.

I am a previous client Saw the ad in the newspaper__________________________________ Was referred by a friend (Name Of Friend)______________________ Saw the ad in the yellow pages________________________________ Received a letter __________________________________________ Other ___________________________________________________

Dear Client, I hope you are fabulously thrilled with our services. (If there is some reason you are not, please notify the technician or call me immediately.)

If you are, I’d like to ask you a simple favor: As you probably know advertising is very expensive. Instead of paying the newspaper or other place to advertise I’d rather pay you. So if you’d take a few minutes to jot down 5 or 6 friends or relatives who would love our service too, I’ll reward you.

For every referral you give me that becomes a client, I’ll give you $10.00 in cash. It’s that simple and frankly I’d much rather pay you than those advertising media.

Remember - your referrals will be offered a free Carpet Audit™. They will learn valuable information about their carpet whether or not they use us at all. And remember - they are not under any obligation to use our services even if they get the Free Carpet Audit™.

Name

Phone/Address/E-Mail

1. __________________________________________________________ 2. __________________________________________________________ 3. __________________________________________________________ 4. __________________________________________________________ 5. __________________________________________________________ 6. __________________________________________________________ Thank you very, very much!

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Marketing Strategy #59 Telemarketing.

Telemarketing can be very profitable if done correctly. I admit it is a lot of work but the benefits are wonderful.

Most people who try telemarketing or cold calling fail. They don’t implement it correctly.

First of all, it is usually a waste of time to try to ‘close’ anyone on the phone. People don’t like it and it is very hard on telemarketers.

Never try to get an appointment on the phone.

What I’ve found to be 10 times more efficient is to just offer to send information. Then only mail to interested prospects. The key to making this successful is to ONLY mail to truly interested prospects.

This does several things for you: 1. It lowers the cost of mailing. It is too expensive to mail to everyone.

2. It makes the telemarketer the rejecter not the rejected. Most telemarketers quit because they get tired of being rejected. But with this system, they get to choose whom they are going to mail to. It is extremely important that they only mail to interested prospects.

Since telephoning is free if you already have a phone, this is a very cost effective way to ‘qualify’ your leads before you mail to them.

This telemarketing program is one of the most powerful ways you can ‘jump-start’ your business.

The main reason this works is that it is non-threatening. There is no pressure or objection © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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handling. There is no price involved, only information.

The question should be how to telemarket not whether to telemarket.

This system is solid. It works. You just have to implement it, as is.

You should start out with one caller. Hire one.

DO NOT DO THIS YOURSELF! Carpet cleaners make lousy telemarketers. You will not be able to keep up with this rigorous schedule. The key to making this work is to do it consistently. You just won’t do it so hire someone to do it.

If you try to do this yourself, you’ll be making up a million and one reasons why you can’t do it. You’re too busy. You’re too tired. You have to get ready for your daughter’s Birthday party. I know I couldn’t do it.

Trust me, it’s too difficult to do yourself.

Hire someone as soon as possible. Each telemarketer will be working part time - three hours, four days a week. This will cost you $500.00 a month for each caller. That includes everything their pay, printing and postage.

You should administer the program only. Eventually you’ll want to have the best telemarketer become the ‘head telemarketer’. When this happens you’ll have forgotten what it was like to worry about money!

Who To Call?

You don’t need to go to a list broker to get a list but you do need to do a little bit of research.

Use a phone book that has a criss-cross directory. This is a phone book organized by streets.

Pick specific areas that you want to target. Break them up into 3 or 4 large groups. The first © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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month target group one, the second month target group two, etc. In the fifth (or fourth) month go back to group one.

The areas you want to target should be middle to upper class homeowners. If you don’t know your city well, a few drives should cure that problem.

This makes sure you don’t ‘burn out’ an area. By hitting them again in 4 to 5 months, you will increase response.

Make sure each telemarketer is calling different people in the group that you are targeting that month.

Here’s the system:

HIRING Place an ad in the help-wanted classifieds under telemarketing. If there isn’t a telemarketing section then add TELEMARKETING to your ad.

NO SELLING Easy, non-threatening Non-sales calls.

Part time, early evenings Earn up to $11.00 per hour With bonuses and no selling.

Call [your number].

You are looking for telemarketers with the following qualities: 1. Enthusiastic.

2. Hard Working.

3. Money Motivated.

4. Positive Attitude. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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5. Pleasant Phone Voice.

Experience is not necessary and sometimes it is a negative. Experienced telemarketers are not always enthusiastic. Make sure all of your telemarketers have all of these qualities. They need to in order to make this work.

PAY 1. Hourly Wage (Must Make Quota) Plus 2. Appointment Bonus Plus 3. Client Bonus

1. Hourly Wage Each telemarketer will make $8-$9/hour. If the telemarketer doesn’t make quota then a written warning is made. If the telemarketer doesn’t make quota two months in a row or gets any 3 warnings, she/he is fired.

QUOTA: Month# Of Appts.

1 Hours divided by 6 2 Hours divided by 4 3+ Hours divided by 2 For example if telemarketer A works 50 hours this month then she/he should have made 25 appointments if she/he has been there 3 months or longer. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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2. Appointment Bonus For every kept appointment a telemarketer makes, she/he gets a $2.00 bonus. Try having competitions every month if you have more than one telemarketer. One for the most appointments per month. The telemarketer who achieves this wins a $10.00 bonus. The other program should be for a certain level of appointments. Since they have to get 25, anything higher will work. 30 is a good goal. Every one who gets 30 appointments receives an extra $10.00.

3. Client Bonus For every appointment that turns into a client, the telemarketer receives a $5.00 bonus.

The bonus program is very important. It keeps the telemarketers motivated.

You can alter the pay schedule to fit your area. Some areas you can’t hire anyone for this amount and in other areas this may seem high. Adjust for your area if necessary.

TRAINING The supervisor or the ‘head caller’ should spend an hour with each new telemarketer to go over everything including the following: A. Pay schedule B. Bonuses C. Quota D. Employment contract E. Company background F. What telemarketing is trying to achieve G. Mailings H. How to get a good mailing I. Call scripts J. Mailing card K. Call sheet. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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A, B and C. Pay Schedule, Bonuses and Quota Go over this with each telemarketer and make sure she/he understands everything. The telemarketer should be excited to obtain the different bonuses!

Make sure the telemarketer initializes two copies of the pay schedule. One for you to keep and one for the telemarketer.

The telemarketer should know exactly what is expected of him or her.

D. Employment Contract Here is a sample employee contract. *Make sure you get yours approved by your attorney.

Make each telemarketer sign two copies, one for you and one for the telemarketer.

The contract should be read aloud to the telemarketer and make sure she/he understands everything.

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Employee Contract* RE: Wages and Bonuses Each telemarketer will be paid an hourly wage. The hours are Monday through Thursday from _______ to _________.

When you are at work, you will be expected to work. Each day you will be allowed a 10minute break, not 15 minutes. Personal calls are prohibited, unless there is an emergency.

If you, the telemarketer, need a day off you must give at least 3 days notice in advance. Only 2 days a month are allowed for sickness or personal days. Your pay schedule is described on the Pay Schedule Sheet.

You, the telemarketer, have a quota each month, which is also described in the Pay Schedule Sheet. If you do not make your quota, termination will result.

Bonuses may take a few months to achieve, such as ones for appointments who become clients. You are only eligible for the bonus if you are still working for _____________________________________ at the time the appointment is kept, when the appointment becomes a client, or when the contest is over.

Signing below indicates that you have read and completely understand and agree to all of the above.

_________________________________________ Signature Date

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E. Company Background Each telemarketer should receive a list of all of the services you provide. For example carpet cleaning, carpet protection, blind cleaning, fire and water damage repair, upholstery cleaning.

F. What telemarketing is trying to achieve It is very important that every telemarketer know that everyone needs their carpets cleaned.

Don’t assume they think this, educate them.

Your telemarketers are very important to your business. You should make them feel this way.

Explain that the key to getting good results is to mail only to interested prospects. Don’t mail to everyone or you’ll fail.

Telemarketing should be fun!

G. Mailings Show the telemarketer the information you mail if someone is truly interested. Make each telemarketer read it over carefully and ask any questions if she/he is unsure about anything.

Here is the mailing. You may also enclose a copy of ‘Consumers Guide To Carpet Cleaning’.

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Are You Embarrassed By Your Carpet?

Dear Carpet Neglecter, This is the information you requested on the phone. It explains what you need to know about your carpet. Plus you’ll receive a free gift!

Are you one of those homeowners ‘guilty’ of neglecting your carpet? Have you just ‘not gotten around’ to getting your carpet cleaned? Does the dirt somehow track into your house - with kids, pets and yes even us adults tend to track in the dirt and other pollutants.

You vacuum your carpet one day and before you know it, it’s completely dirty again. It doesn’t seem to matter what you say (or threaten) to the other members of your family or how much you clean it’s the same old story, a dirty carpet. Do you keep putting off having friends over because you’re embarrassed of your carpet?

Do you say to yourself ‘I really need to do something with this carpet’?

I know, I know you’ve been meaning to get your carpet cleaned but you just haven’t gotten the time. I’m sure there are plenty of good reasons why you haven’t done it. You are busy. Preoccupied with work and the kids. You’re being pulled in 63 different directions at once.

Tired. Who has time or the energy to even think about the “carpet”.

By the time you get the crisis of the day fixed, you just want to relax. Just a moment of peace. You deserve it. And weekends, well they go by so fast it seems like Monday morning is there moments after Friday night left. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Hi, I’m [your name] and for you, my friend, I have got a SOLUTION!

A Free 15-Minute Carpet Audit™ I will come to your house and audit your carpet for free. That’s right - there’s no cost and no obligation of any kind. Here’s exactly what I’ll do: 1. First I’ll cover all the problems your carpet has. I’ll check for ‘unwanted’ stains. I’ll tell you whether or not they can be removed and how. This includes pet stains and other difficult stains.

2. I’ll calculate the wear age of your carpet. Your carpet may be 10 years old but only have a wear age of 2 years. However your carpet may be 2 years old but have a wear age of 10 years. I’ll explain how long it will be before you will need to get new carpet and I’ll give you a ‘prescription’ to make your carpet last as long as possible.

3. I’ll determine if your carpet is in good health.

Oh, you’ve never thought of your carpet as having good or bad health. Well just like people, if a carpet is in bad health it will not live long. Healthy carpets are great for healthy wallets and for healthy people.

Yes, your carpet’s health can affect your and your family’s health. Just like you track in dirt from the outside, you also track in car exhaust, cigarette smoke, asphalt, chemicals, dust, germs, pollens, tar, soot and many others. These pollutants get lodged into your carpet just like dirt.

Clean Carpets Reduce Indoor Air Pollution

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You’ve heard the hype about indoor air being more polluted than outdoor air. Well, it’s true. The main reason is because indoor air is trapped. Rarely does it get completely replaced. Outdoor air on the other hand gets blown away and new cleaner air replaces it.

Trapped indoor air gets pollutants in it from your carpet. You drag them in, they get lodged in your carpet. Then when someone walks over them, they get re-dispersed into your air and you and your family breathe them. Over and over. That’s why indoor air is more polluted than outdoor air.

There is a way out of this vicious cycle. Getting your carpets cleaned thoroughly and regularly gets rid of these pollutants in your carpet.

4. I’ll also test your traffic areas. Traffic areas are the main spots that get walked on constantly. They usually visibly look more worn and dirtier. I’ll tell you how you can make your traffic areas look as good as the rest of your carpet.

5. After analyzing your carpet, I’ll give you a complete written report of the condition of your carpet. I’ll tell you what your carpets needs are. If your carpet needs any of the services I provide, if you choose I’ll give you a quotation of how much it would cost and how long it would take to do it. Normally I can give you this right at your house, you don’t have to wait days or weeks.

Remember all of this is free and there is NO OBLIGATION. Plus I’ll give you a free gift...

One Room Cleaned For FREE No Strings Attached!

Plus you’ll get one room of carpet cleaned for free up to 200 SF. That’s right I’ll clean one room of your choosing up to 200 SF for free. There is no obligation to get another room cleaned at any time. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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You will get a written quote of how much it would be to clean rest of your house. If you want us to - great! If not, that’s You won’t be obligated or pressured. You don’t have to use us time. It’s completely free. However, this is a limited offer, hurry.

the fine. at any so

Why Would A Sane Carpet Cleaner Give All This Away Free?

You may be asking yourself this question. The truth is some of the people who get this free Carpet Audit™ and free cleaning will use my services. Some won’t. But there are enough who will that makes this profitable for me. So take full advantage of it!

You may still have a few concerns so let me address them.

Worried About Cost?

Let me start right out by telling you I am NOT the cheapest cleaner in town. Do you buy your clothes at the cheapest place in town? Of course not. You wouldn’t get quality, good-looking clothes.

It’s the same thing with carpet cleaning. I give the most thorough cleaning your carpet can get.

How does this help you?

1. Your carpet will look its absolute best - almost like new! Your friends will mention how wonderfully clean your carpet is.

2. Your carpet will stay cleaner longer. Some cleaning methods leave a film, which gets dirty very quickly. The method I use doesn’t leave any kind of film and gets your carpet clean way down at the base too. That’s why it stays clean longer.

3. Cleaning your carpet will keep it in better shape so it will last longer! © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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So even though I’m not the cheapest, in the long run I’m the best value.

Plus I back every job I do with a Money Back Guarantee. If you aren’t completely thrilled with my service, I’ll have it redone for free or you can get all your money back. I could only offer this incredible guarantee if I were completely, 100% sure of my service. I am. You will be too.

What To Do Next?

Call me, [your name], at [number] to schedule your FREE 15 Min. Carpet Audit™ today. You’ll also receive one room up to 200 SF cleaned for free!

Just for scheduling your Free Carpet Audit™, I’m going to give you a copy of the ‘Consumer Guide To Carpet Cleaning’. In it you’ll learn 6 costly misconceptions about carpet cleaning, 7 questions to ask a carpet cleaner before you hire one and 4 recommendations about how you can enjoy a fresh, clean, healthy carpet.

This generous offer expires in 15 days! Call [your number] today and schedule your Free Carpet Audit™ plus get a free copy of the ‘Consumer Guide To Carpet Cleaning’ and get one room up to 200 SF cleaned for free! Don’t pass this up!

If I don’t hear from you, someone will be contacting you to see if you have any questions.

Sincerely The Carpet Doctor, [Your name] Owner, [company name] PS

Call [your number] today to get your FREE Carpet Audit™ plus one room cleaned for free plus the free Consumer’s Guide To Carpet Cleaning! This offer expires in 15 days!

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PPS

I’ve enclosed a sheet of what others have had to say about me!

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H. How to get a good mailing The key to a good mailing is only to mail to people who are interested. Not someone who is skeptical or just says ‘OK’ to get off the phone.

Explain in detail how the telemarketer is the rejecter, he needs to reject the prospects so he only mails to interested ones!

I. Call scripts There are two call scripts. One for the initial call and one to schedule an appointment.

You’ll notice that the first script refers to an invitation to a workshop. Having a workshop (Strategy #86) is a great marketing strategy.

Plus referring to this invitation helps get your foot in the door.

They are on the following pages.

You’ll notice that the supervisor makes the appointments. This is very important. Don’t let the telemarketers make the appointments themselves. It would be too inviting to lie even though they don’t get a bonus unless the appointment is kept.

For the second call, the telemarketer must ‘expect’ the prospect to make an appointment. There isn’t any reason why she shouldn’t, so expect it. This will increase the results.

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Call Script 1 Hello, may I please speak with Mr./ Mrs. ____________?

Hi, this is [whole name] from [company name].

I’m calling because we sent you an invitation to attend our carpet care workshop on how to take care of your carpet so that it looks its best and lasts the longest. I noticed you were unable to attend.

The seminar covered information on how to get out unwanted stains, which type of vacuuming is best and on the best method to clean your carpet. It covered information on how to make your carpet last twice as long. If you’re really interested in reading more about this I’d be happy to send you some free information.

If:

NO - Thank you very much.

Prospect says OK buy doesn’t really mean it - If you’re not interested now that’s fine, but please keep us in mind for the future. Thank you.

YES (make sure they mean it) - I’ll send the information tomorrow, and I’ll call you next week to see if you have any questions. Thank you and have a wonderful day.

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Call Script 2 Hello, may I please speak with Mr./ Mrs. ____________?

Hi, this is [whole name] from [company name] in [city]. I’m calling again to see if you received the information I sent you on carpet maintenance.

If ‘NO’ or ‘I haven’t read it yet’: OK, no problem, I’ll give you a call back in a few days.

If ‘YES’: As you probably know our FREE 15 Minute Carpet Audit™ will prescribe the best ways to make your carpet last as long as possible. You’ll find out how to get out the stains in your carpet, how long your carpet will last and how to improve the look and health of your carpet. Would you like to set up your free Carpet Audit™ with one of our professionals?

If prospect says ‘Not Interested’: Your carpet is probably one of your biggest investments. In 15 minutes you can find out valuable information on how to best vacuum it, how to decrease allergic reactions, how to make it last as long as possible and how to make it look like new. You will be under no pressure. There is absolutely no obligation to use our services at any time. Would you like to set up a risk-free appointment at this time?

If ‘Not Interested’:

Thank you and please keep us in mind.

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If ‘Yes’ [at either times]:

Great! If you’ll just hold one minute, I’ll put on my supervisor to make the appointment.

J. Mailing card When the telemarketer has someone who is truly interested in receiving more information he must fill out the following form.

Mailing Card Date _____________ Name of Prospect _______________________________________ Address ________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________ City, State, Zip _______________________________________ Phone (H) _____ - ______________ (W) _____-____________ Telemarketer’s Name ____________________________________

After the telemarketer fills out the card, she places it in the mail bin. You or someone in administration (not a telemarketer) sends out the packet of information.

The date the package was sent out is placed in the upper right hand corner of the card. The card is returned to the telemarketer who made the call. She then ‘tickles’ it so she calls them back in one week.

Each telemarketer is given a plastic box (index card box) with 2 sets of indexes each going from 1 to 31. This covers two months. For example if the package was mailed the 7th. The telemarketer would ‘tickle’ the index card for the 14th. If a telemarketer quits or gets fired, give her leads to another telemarketer. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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K. Call sheet.

Each time the telemarketer works, she must fill in the top of the call sheet.

Every time the telemarketer dials, she should indicate that on her call sheet. A slash (\) through the number indicates a call. An x through the number indicates that the telemarketer spoke with the correct person.

Then if the telemarketer finds a good prospect to mail to, he circles the number.

The telemarketer fills out the totals for each time she/he works. If the totals are not filled in, send it back to the telemarketer.

The second part is for callbacks. This is when the telemarketer calls back the prospect that has received the mail package. The telemarketer must total this part also. An X indicates not interested and a circle indicates made an appointment.

These sheets are placed in the Filled Out Call Sheets box at the end of each telemarketers shift.

The supervisor collects these sheets and uses them to make weekly and monthly totals.

Following is an example of a call sheet.

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Call Sheet Telemarketer _______________ Time Start

________________ ________________________ Time Finish Date and Day

Hour 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 Hour 2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 Hour 3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 CODE: \ = Dialed X = talked to decision maker O = needs to mail TOTAL DIALED ________ TOTAL TALKED TO _______ TOTAL TO MAIL _______

CALL BACKS 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 CODE: \ = Call Back Later X = Not Interested O = Made Appointment TOTAL DIALS ___ TOTAL NOT INTERESTED ____ TOTAL APPTS ___

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APPOINTMENTS A. Making Appointment The telemarketing supervisor makes all the appointments.

When a telemarketer has a person who wants to make an appointment on the line, the telemarketer places the person on hold.

Then the supervisor gets on the line to schedule the appointment. The procedure that the supervisor should use is below. This procedure lets the supervisor schedule quickly and efficiently.

Before each telemarketing shift, the supervisor must go through the schedule and see which trucks have appointment openings. Then she/he should schedule the available times.

All appointments should be made in pencil.

Supervisor Procedure: 1. Schedules an appointment for truck/technician.

2. Asks the following information: A. Name (verify first and last name) B. Address (verify) C. Get directions D. Day time phone E. Evening phone number F. Time of Appointment Also should write down: G. Which telemarketer Š 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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H. Appointment with which truck and/or technician.

At the end of each shift, the supervisor must enter all the scheduled appointments into the schedule book.

B. Confirming Appointment All appointments should be confirmed whether they come from telemarketing or not (Strategy #59).

But ALL telemarketing appointments must be confirmed 2 days in advance.

C. Cancellations If someone cancels: 1. If they cancel when they are called to confirm or if they call to cancel, try to ‘re-schedule’. a. If they reschedule, note it in the schedule book and note it on the telemarketer’s record. It’s important to note it on the telemarketer’s record so that the telemarketer does not receive the ‘kept appointment’ bonus until the appointment was actually kept. b. If they don’t want to reschedule, erase it from the schedule book and from the telemarketer’s record.

(These people can be called back by you to ‘re-schedule’ an appointment.)

It is very helpful to re-confirm the appointment the day of. That’s why it’s important to get both home and work numbers. This only needs to be done with telemarketing appointments.

C. Actual Appointment The actual appointment should be conducted like any other Free Carpet Audit™. See Carpet Audit™ Strategy #23.

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Marketing Strategy #60 Ethics.

You can’t possibly build a big, strong company if you are not ethical.

It’s that simple.

It’s business suicide to be unethical.

Most businesses that are unethical are so because they think it saves them money. This is absolutely ridiculous! Insane.

Maybe in the short run it saves them money but in the long run, it’s a big mistake. Fatal.

Why? First of all, an unhappy client will tell the world how you were unfair and unethical. They will gripe to everyone they know, even to people they don’t know. A few clients who are unhappy can easily destroy a business.

So, make them happy.

If they are truly a ‘jerk’ and you don’t want to do business with them, give them their money back.

I don’t care if you’ve already done the work.

Believe me, it’s much cheaper to give them their money back than to let them tell the world how you ripped them off.

Live Up To Your Promises So many businesses just don’t live up to their promises, its sad and very bad business.

Don’t make promises you can’t keep. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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For the most part a client isn’t going to decide if she is going to do business with you based on one promise.

For instance, if you promise a client that you’ll get out that 3 year old Kool-Aid stain in her carpet and you don’t she’ll be mad. She has a right to be mad.

On the other hand if you tell her that there is a very good chance that it won’t come out and it doesn’t, she won’t be angry with you.

But if you do get it out, you’ll be a hero.

Never promise things you can’t do.

If you can’t arrive at a client’s house within a half hour window then don’t promise that. Or promise if you don’t, she’ll get $50.00 off her bill. But don’t flat out promise something you can’t deliver or something you are not positive you can deliver.

Explain why you can’t deliver something a client would like. Educating your client is a million times better than breaking a promise.

Being ethical won’t just help you sleep better at night; it just makes good business sense.

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Marketing Strategy #61 Constantly Educate Your Clients.

Never assume that your client will remember.

You need to constantly educate them about your company, indoor air quality, carpet protection, maintenance, etc.

After the first time a carpet cleaner does a client’s home, he usually never educates his clients anymore. That’s if he did it at all.

He assumes they know it.

This is a big, big mistake.

It takes time to learn. If you saw a client every 12 months and even if you did a great job at educating them (which is doubtful), they still wouldn’t remember much.

Remember - just because carpets are your life, doesn’t mean it’s everyone else’s.

People forget. It’s natural.

You must constantly educate your clients over and over.

And if by chance one of them says, ‘Yeah, I know that’ and goes on to explain it then say ‘Oh, sorry _________, most of my clients don’t have a great memory like you do.’ This rarely happens but even when it does, people smile. They feel special, smarter. That’s great.

Your goal should be to get all of your clients to say that. Then you’d be doing a good job. And believe me, your bank account would be over-flowing!

Your clients should understand all of the following:

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1. Indoor Air Quality 2. Why she needs her carpet cleaned at least every 12 months 3. How routine cleaning increases the life of the carpet?

4. How often to vacuum 5. What kind of vacuum is best?

6. All the extra things she needs to do if she or someone in her family has allergies or asthma 7. Why the upholstery needs to be cleaned regularly 8. All of your other services You should have information packets explaining all of these. You don’t need to ‘bombard’ your clients with everything at once.

A constant flow of information to them from you is best. How do you accomplish this?

Through your: 1. Monthly Newsletter (Strategy #68) 2. Sales letters (Strategy #27) 3. When you actually are at their homes Every one of your clients should know all the services you offer. It’s silly to get all different clients for each of your services. It’s much cheaper and much more profitable if most of your clients use most of your services. This only happens through constant education.

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Marketing Strategy #62 Tape Record Yourself.

If you think you can’t write emotional direct response copy then begin by tape-recording yourself.

When most people start writing emotional direct response copy, they feel a little overwhelmed.

This is natural.

You have to ‘unlearn’ years and years of learning. What I mean by this is all through school we were taught to write in this terribly boring, grammatically correct method. Although it may have worked to please your teachers, it doesn’t work here.

What I’ve found is most people do a pretty good job of selling their service face to face. You’ve closed many, many sales in homes when you go out for a quote. You know what to say to make people want your service.

Instead of trying to painstakingly write a letter from scratch, tape record yourself in action.

(Remember to get the permission of the person(s) you are tape recording.) Do this several times so you get used to it and forget that it’s even there.

Then write exactly what you have recorded. Leave in all the one-word sentences. That’s fine for writing. Don’t worry about grammar or all those other rules. They don’t make one bit of difference when you’re selling.

That’s what a sales letter is - selling in print.

By tape recording yourself, then putting it on paper you will make the whole process of writing much, much easier.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #63 Follow-up Calls.

Follow-up calls are made one to three days after you’ve cleaned some one’s home. Have someone in your office call and ‘check-up’ on the satisfaction of the client.

This strategy is very effective.

The number one reason businesses lose clients is because the client doesn’t feel wanted. They think the business doesn’t care about them. Sure some clients leave because they move or they die. But many more leave because they are unhappy or they don’t feel important. Out of these two, the latter is by far the larger.

Follow-up calls don’t take much time to make sure your client is happy. I’ve seen many clients that were unhappy over something very minor become happy because of the follow-up call.

It is much cheaper to keep an existing client happy than it is to get a new client. That’s why client service is so important.

For other ways to keep your clients happy see Client Appreciation (Strategy #93), Lending Library (Strategy #94), New Client Kit (Strategy #31) and Client Dinner (Strategy #97) Strategies.

Because it is more and more difficult to catch people at home, here is the sequence to take for follow-up calls: 1. Call in afternoon.

2. If no answer, call in evening.

3. If still no answer, leave a message. [A script is included at the end of this section.]

4. Also send a letter if you left a message.

This strategy can recover a lot of business that otherwise would have been lost. And also makes people happy to see that you really care and they’ll be more likely to refer you to others. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Script For Answering Machines (or Voice Mail) Hello [client name]. This is [caller’s name] from [company name]. Last [day of cleaning] we cleaned your carpets and I’ve tried to reach you but have been unable to do so. I was just checking to see if everything was OK. If for any reason at all you aren’t thrilled, please call us at [your number] right away.

I’ll be sending you a letter also.

Thanks for using our services.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Letter If Couldn’t Reach For Follow-up Call Dear [client name], This is [caller name] from [company name]. Last [day of cleaning], we cleaned your carpets and I’ve tried to reach by phone but I have been able to catch you.

I was just checking to see if everything was OK. If for any reason at all you aren’t thrilled, please call us at [your number] right away. Remember all of our work is backed by our 100%, MONEY BACK GUARANTEE. Thanks for using our services!

Sincerely, [Caller name] [Company name]

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #64 Reschedule Next Appointment.

For every job you do, you should reschedule the next appointment in 3, 6, 8 or 12 months. You leave too much to chance if you expect the client to call you back in 8 months to reschedule.

Some people fight this, but it works if you make it work. I know one carpet cleaner who thinks it is ridiculous to have someone schedule so far in advance. So when he asks them to, they perceive this and say ‘no’.

I also know several carpet cleaners who do this and it works like a charm. You can easily double your business by doing this one technique.

Here’s how you do it: When the job is completed, you (or your tech) take the owner through the house and see if she is happy with it. If she is then explain to her how important it is to have her carpets cleaned regularly.

(We have a video for prospects that convinces them that they need to have their carpets cleaned at least every 12 months and convinces them that carpet protection is a good value. If you are interested in this, please call our office at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643).

If she is happy then explain to her that although you fit her in this time, normally you schedule appointments 8 to 12 months in advance. Tell her that she can reschedule her next appointment in 3 to 12 months now. Explain that you will send a notice 2 weeks before the appointment to remind her. If she needs to reschedule then, that’s fine. Make sure you explain there is no obligation. Tell her that she can cancel the appointment at any time.

This technique is simply amazing. It creates lots of profit for you. You profit from this technique in many ways: 1. You will get a lot more repeat business. Since you don’t leave it up to the client to remember who you are and to call in to schedule an appointment in 3 to 12 months, you get many more clients coming back. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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2. You make more money off the procrastinators. You know, the people who want their carpets recleaned but then take 3 months to call you. Over 5 years, you will have cleaned their carpets 1 to 4 more times than you normally would have. If every client does this, think how much more you’d be making.

This technique is easy. You can start today. You should start seeing the profits roll in within 3 to 12 months.

Don’t forget to send a ‘reminder’ letter letting your client know that you will be coming to clean the carpets. A sample reminder letter is at the end of this section. You can use it as-is or modify it.

I also recommend calling 3 days in advance to remind the client of the appointment (Strategy #34).

If you are using this technique, you need to do this. Even if you have to hire a part timer to get all the calls in, it’s worth it. To have a no-show is very expensive. The amount that a part-timer costs to make these calls is definitely a good investment.

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Dear [client], Hello. This is [your name] with [company name]. I just wanted to remind you of our upcoming appointment. We scheduled this quite a while ago and I just wanted to make sure you remembered.

You scheduled us to come clean your carpets on: [Fill in date and time] If for some reason you cannot make this appointment, please call our office at [your number] to reschedule.

I’m sure you’re looking forward to clean, healthy carpets.

Sincerely,

[Your name]

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Marketing Strategy #65 How To At Least Double Your Response In Val-Pak. Val-Pak or similar mailers to consumers are what most carpet cleaners use to get new business.

Unfortunately most use the ‘bait and switch’ tactic of advertising.

They advertise low, low prices and then try to switch the prospect to a much more expensive service. The problem with this is that even though many consumers haven’t called the ‘bait and switch’ ads, they believe that they can get their carpets cleaned for $6.99 a room. This is a problem but you can overcome it.

First of all only advertise in high-end areas. Know where these ads are being delivered. One carpet cleaner wasn’t getting any response and wondered why. Come to find out he was advertising in the ghetto. The people in those neighborhoods didn’t even think about cleaning their carpets. The few who did rented a cheap machine from the store down the street.

Know which areas you’re advertising in.

Advertising price isn’t enough. It may work for huge companies where everyone in America has heard of them but not for you. These companies have had 10 years of multi-million dollar TV campaigns behind them. So they can advertise 2 cheese pizzas for $9.99 and get response.

You don’t have that behind you so your ad has to be better.

The same rules apply for creating a good Val-Pak ad as does for any direct response ad.

On the following page is an example of a good ad. You’ll notice how this drastically differs from the typical $6.99 a room ad. You’ll also notice how this one will make you money and a typical one won’t.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Good Val Pak Ad

Are You Fed-Up With Your Dirty Carpet?

With your hectic life, it’s impossible to have a super looking carpet.

It doesn’t seem to matter how much you vacuum or what you threaten your family members, its always the same old story- A dirty carpet.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

What condition is your carpet in anyway?

You can find out with a Free Carpet Audit.

This is exactly what we’ll do.

1. I’ll cover all the problems your carper has.

I’ll check for ‘unwanted’ stains. I’ll tell you whether or not they can be removed and how.

2. I’ll calculate the wear age of your carpet. I’ll explain how long it will be before you will need to get new carpet and I’ll give you a ‘prescription’ to make

your carpet last as long as possible.

3. I’ll determine if your carpet is in good health. Yes, your carpet’s health can affect you and your family’s health. You track in all kinds of pollutants which get budged in your carpet, such as car exhaust, cigarette smoke, dust, germs, pollens and much more.

4. I’ll test your high traffic areas. I’ll tell you how to make these areas look as good as the rest of your carpet.

Call and set up an There is no cost and no obligation to even get one appointment before (date) room cleaned. Its absolutely Free!

Call for your Free Carpet Audit today!

123-4567

and receive up to 200 Sq. Ft. Of Carpet cleaning absolutely Free. No Cost No Your Picture Obligation

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Marketing Strategy #66 How To Drag Yourself Out Of A Slump.

The very first thing you’ve got to realize when you’re in a slump is: The reason you’re in a slump is because of you. Period. It’s not your spouse or the economy, Its simply you.

Although that may be disappointing to hear, it is also great news. It means that you and only you can get you out of a slump. You don’t have to wait for the economy to turn around (good thing because who knows when that’ll happen) and you don’t have to wait for your spouse or associates to do something.

You can do it yourself. (You have to do it yourself.)

Why does a slump happen?

It’s usually because you are depressed. You just aren’t excited about your business anymore.

With all the marketing knowledge you now own, you’ll never run out of new, exciting marketing ideas.

How do you get yourself excited again?

1. Hang out with successful people. This is the easiest and fastest way to get back your excitement and motivation. Stop hanging around with losers - people who constantly complain. Attitudes are contagious and you can determine yours by the people you hang out with.

2. Get educated. Get books, tapes. Go to seminars and workshops. Learning is exciting. The more you learn, the more excited you’ll be.

When you are bored and depressed, you can’t possibly get new clients. They see your attitude and don’t want to do business with you. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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You first have to get your excitement and motivation back, and then you’ll get clients.

Start using a new strategy in this manual. One you’ve never used before. Once you start to get over your depression, your slump will be history.

Remember success breed’s success. Its true. If you want to be successful, start hanging around successful people.

Once you get out of your slump, keep doing new things. Keep learning and keep up your excitement.

You can control whether or not you go into another slump.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #67 Attend Carpet Cleaners Meetings.

I have gotten a lot out of the associations I belong to. Granted sometimes they are a drag, but I really meet some interesting carpet cleaners.

I get a lot of new and exciting methods to try from carpet cleaners I meet at these meetings. I learn new methods to try. I learn new and better ways to get certain stains out.

I also get new ideas of different products and services to offer to my clients.

Granted, some of these carpet cleaners aren’t willing to share any of their ideas and some don’t have any worthwhile ones to share, but some do. Those are the ones I form relationships with.

I think carpet cleaning associations keep me on top of things. I come back more inspired than before.

I learn a lot and teach a lot. I strongly suggest trying one out.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #68 Monthly Newsletter.

A monthly newsletter is a very easy, cheap way of keeping in constant contact with your clients.

Every month you don’t contact a client she/he loses 10% of the value of your relationship. So if you don’t contact your client for 10 months, it’s all over. That’s why so many businesses lose clients.

A monthly newsletter is one of the best ways of keeping your relationship with your clients in tact and even strengthening it.

Why is a monthly newsletter so powerful?

1. It develops a relationship between you and your clients.

2. It keeps you and your company at the top of your clients’ consciousness.

3. It gives you a chance to sell some more things. A monthly newsletter is a great way to introduce new products, like a new vacuum cleaner.

4. It gives you a chance to continually educate your clients (Strategy #61).

5. You can recognize clients who have referred others to you. This will increase the number of referrals you get. Since one client sees that others refer you, she will too.

A monthly newsletter is a must. This is an essential ingredient to keeping clients.

I highly recommend that you write your own newsletter. Let your personality shine through.

However, I realize that there are many of you out there who just can’t or won’t find time. So I write a monthly newsletter, which is generic for all carpet cleaners. Its always-on time and you just have to plug in your name and add your client labels. I’ll send this to you each month on disk. It’s ready for you © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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to give to your printer. Print as many copies as you have clients, label them and mail.

Call our office at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 for more details concerning the cost for one year or 12 issues.

Doing your own newsletter is better but if you aren’t going to, get ours. It’s much, much better than doing nothing at all.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #69 Testimonials.

Testimonials are what your current clients have to say about you. Testimonials are very important because:

What Others Say About You Is Infinitely More Believable Than What You Say About You Think about it. Would you be more likely to try a new restaurant if your neighbor told you how wonderful it is or if you saw an ad in the newspaper for it?

Of course you’d be more likely to try it if your neighbor couldn’t stop bragging about it. That’s another marketing strategy to make people so thrilled with your service that they can’t help telling others about you. See WOW Your Client Strategy.

Testimonials add credibility. It makes your company seem more believable.

Question: How many testimonials should you use?

Answer: You can never have too many testimonials.

Sure maybe your prospects won’t read every one but they will read enough to be convinced. They’ll assume that the others are just as good.

To show you the power of testimonials, let me tell you about a public speaker: As you may know, public speaking is a tough business. There are lots and lots of speakers out there.

It’s fierce competition.

One public speaker doesn’t write any letters or any marketing materials to send to prospects. This is all he does: © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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When someone calls in to his office and asks for information about a speaking engagement, he gets their name and address. Then he sends them a box (a big box) full of what past clients have had to say.

That’s all he does. No letter, nothing else. He closes 82% of all his prospects and is booked full.

Testimonials are truly powerful.

Use as many testimonials as you have.

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Marketing Strategy #70 How To Get Testimonials.

What if you don’t have any testimonials?

That’s OK. You can go out and get them. First talks to your clients who you know just love you. The ones that think you are the best thing since sliced bread. Ask them for testimonials but don’t leave it up to them to write it from scratch. Most people don’t like to write and second of all, they don’t write in an emotional compelling style.

Make it easy for them. Give them a sheet to answer questions and make sure it is OK to use them as testimonials in your marketing materials.

Following this section you’ll find an example you can use to get clients to fill out.

Then turn those answers into sentences. Make them compelling. Don’t forget to get their permission to use their name otherwise you could be sued.

I like to offer them a box to check if they aren’t willing to let me use their name in promotional material.

Start taking these forms to every job. Ask every client to please take a few minutes and fill it out.

Ask them after they’ve seen the results (nice, clean carpet) and while you are picking up. Most clients will be more than happy to do this for you.

Just because you don’t have testimonials, don’t put off doing something. Do it. You can always add in testimonials. But if you have them use them.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Testimonial Form Name ______________________________________________________________________________ Address ____________________________________________________________________________ City, State, Zip _______________________________________________________________________ Occupation __________________________________________________________________________ How many times have you used us to clean your carpets? ____________________________________________________________________________________ What is your overall feeling about our carpet cleaning company? ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Describe in detail a specific experience with us that you were happy with. ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Describe the one or two benefits that you have gotten from us that you value the most. Explain specifically what you’ve gotten out of them. ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________ Thank you very much. We really appreciate your honest answers.

I do NOT mind if you use my name in any or all of your promotional material(s). ___________________________________________________________ Signature Date

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Marketing Strategy #71 What Should Your Testimonials Say? Another rule of thumb for testimonials is to have at least one testimonial for each benefit.

For example: if one of your benefits is a charming personality then have one testimonial that says how great you are when you come to the home.

If another point is that the carpet dries in 4 hours then have another person say how convenient it was to have their carpets dry within 4 hours.

So for every benefit, you should have at least one testimonial. Two is better. You can’t have too many testimonials.

How To Sign The Testimonials The purpose of testimonials is to create credibility so prospects believe that what you are saying about you is true. The best way to do that is to give the persons name, occupation, city and state.

For example: Jane Friday Nurse Aurora, Colorado Don’t worry if some of your testimonials are housewives (or whatever you want to call it). That’s fine because if large portions of your clients are housewives then you will want to target more housewives.

This only becomes a problem when you are trying to sell something to janitors and all your testimonials are from upper management employees. The testimonials should be similar to your actual prospects. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #72 Keep Book Of Testimonials.

Every time you get a testimonial put it in your Book Of Testimonials.

This can be a 3-ring notebook or nice leather bound one. It doesn’t matter as long as you have one.

You should take this testimonial book to every job or Carpet Audit™ (Strategy #23) that you do.

Let your prospects look through it. Encourage them to look at it.

When a prospect sees how many clients are thrilled with your services, they will want to do business with you.

What other people say about you is infinitely more believable than what you say about you.

Your prospect may even recognize some of your client’s names. They may know them as neighbors, friends, in the same association, from work, etc. This is very, very powerful.

Having all those testimonials is the equivalent of lots and lots of referrals saying how wonderful you and your company are.

This is very easy to do and you’ll get great results!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #73 How To Write Copy That Sells.

Writing good ads and sales letters isn’t really that complicated.

First of all forget everything that your high school English teacher taught you. If you are like most people, you were taught to write boring, complete sentences. Maybe they are grammatically correct but they sure don’t sell anything.

Write like you talk.

Don’t worry about grammar.

Don’t worry about making complete sentences. Don’t.

One-word sentences are great. They really get the point across.

What you want to concentrate on is connecting with the reader. (The reader of your letter or ad).

Make them feel like you know them.

Write about what they are interested in.

Write about what they want.

If you don’t know what they want, ask your current clients. They’ll tell you. After all, you just want more clients like the ones you already have (the good ones that is). See Strategy #53 - You’re Not Your Own Client.

Write short sentences. Short paragraphs.

Use a headline and lots of subheads.

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These things make your copy easier to read. And the easier it is to read the more people will read it.

Do you ever remember when you had to read something for a class? You opened the book and there were just pages and pages of solid text. Long paragraphs. Boring copy. Discouraging, wasn’t it?

You don’t want your reader to be discouraged or she/he won’t read it. (Just like you didn’t in school!)

Don’t make it more difficult than it is.

Just write.

If you are really having problems see Strategy #62, Tape Record Yourself.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #74 Add More Services.

Adding more services is a way to increase your profits.

There are some down sides to each of them. If you offer water and fire damage restoration then you have to have someone on call 24 hours a day. If you offer blind cleaning, you have to buy more equipment.

All of them have their ups and downs. Think about this before you expand.

Other services can be profitable because you can ‘piggy-back’ them on to your current services. The additional service doesn’t have to advertise to get new clients.

Of course you can advertise it but it could easily live on the clients you get from carpet cleaning.

That means that this extra service gets clients without the expense of advertising. That’s why this can be very profitable.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #75 5 Biggest Reasons People Fail #75-#79.

Don’t Do Anything.

This is the number one reason why people fail -

They Don’t Do Anything!

This is a killer. How can anyone possibly succeed if they don’t do anything?

They can’t.

So why do so many people do nothing?

I think it’s because they are afraid to fail. They think if they try something, they’re going to fail.

Most people are afraid of failure.

Everyone fails. There is nothing to be afraid of.

I failed many, many times before I learned these marketing strategies.

Even now sometimes when I try something new, it fails. It doesn’t bother me. Most of what I do succeeds. I definitely make a lot of money from the successes. But I learn more from the failures.

If I had never failed, I would have never succeeded. It’s that simple.

Don’t be a victim of ‘not doing anything’.Do something!

If you need any help call our office at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 and we’ll be glad to help you out! The main reason Cleaners join our Piranha Mastermind Coaching Program is to help them “Do Something”. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #76 5 Biggest Reasons People Fail #75-#79.

Do Everything Half-Way. This is another big reason people fail.

They get all excited about all the different marketing strategies and start a whole bunch of them at once. They never give enough time to each one. They do all of them half-way.

Then they wonder why nothing works!

If you have your hand in too many things, none of them will be profitable.

Pick 5 strategies to start with. Concentrate on one marketing strategy at a time. Get that one working and then start another. Once you have all 5 of those going, and then pick another 5.

Don’t try to do too much at once.

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Marketing Strategy #77 5 Biggest Reasons People Fail #75-#79.

Aren’t Consistent.

One of the reasons these marketing strategies work so well is that you apply them consistently. They are systems. You need to do every part of the system to get it to run correctly.

People are shocked when they just do the first step and it doesn’t work as well as they wanted.

Would you be surprised if you put a tape in your VCR and nothing happened? Of course not. You know you have to plug it in, hook it up to the TV, put the TV on the correct channel then press play.

Then (usually) it plays. Not before.

Well, it’s the same way with any system, including a marketing system. There are several parts to make the systems work.

They work; you just have to work them.

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Marketing Strategy #78 5 Biggest Reasons People Fail #75-#79.

Have No Plan.

Success never happens by accident. Not once. You have to have a plan.

If you don’t have a plan, any road will take you there. But you’ll never achieve success that’s for sure.

You must plan success. Plan how much you want to make and what strategies you are going to use to make that much. Planning isn’t a big secret; it just takes time and commitment.

I’ve heard people say they didn’t want to plan because they might change their minds.

This is absurd. You can always alter your plan. Make your goals higher or lower. Pick a completely different goal, but if you don’t have a plan, you’ll never get anywhere.

If you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting the results that you’ve always gotten.

PLAN!

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Marketing Strategy #79 5 Biggest Reasons People Fail #75-#79.

Procrastinate.

Procrastination is a common reason people fail.

‘I’ll get around to it tomorrow’ has destroyed more businesses than you can imagine.

And don’t make excuses like: •I don’t have these Carpet Audit™ forms made up so I can’t send out a letter •I don’t know which neighborhoods are good so I’ll just wait •I don’t know exactly how to do this So what if everything isn’t perfect. It’s much more important to do something than to wait for everything to be perfect. It won’t happen.

Do your best. Give it a shot.

Then learn and improve.

Procrastination is deadly.

Don’t wait.

Do it today!

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Marketing Strategy #80 How To Remove Mental Garbage.

Most of us have lots and lots of mental garbage.

Mental garbage is ideas and thoughts that we have been fed since we were born. These thoughts and ideas are wrong. Dead wrong. But we’ve heard them over and over and we believe them.

Thoughts like: 1. If you work hard you will succeed.

This is complete garbage.

Do you ever remember that ‘smart’ kid in school who never studied buy always got A’s? He didn’t work hard. Then there was that kid who studied all the time and only got B’s. Now, he worked hard.

Working hard does not insure success.

Before I started using direct response strategies - when I was broke - I worked hard! Much, much harder than I work now. I didn’t know what to do so I worked on a lot of things that didn’t get me any clients.

Now that I know these powerful strategies, I don’t have to work hard.

I work smarter, not harder.

2. If you’re good at what you do, you’ll have plenty of clients.

Yeah, right! This is bogus. I used to do just as good of a job cleaning carpets as I do now. But I had very little business. I didn’t know what to do to get repeat business or referrals or new clients. I was good but nobody beat a path to my door!

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3. Your sales letters have to be ‘professional’.

This is ridiculous. I don’t care what other carpet cleaners think; I care about what my clients think.

When I use ‘professional’ letters, I don’t get any new clients. It’s boring.

But when I use creative, down to earth, easy to understand language in my letters, I get tons of response.

Uneducated carpet cleaners laugh at my marketing. I don’t care. I’m the one with the big fat bank account, not any of them!

To be successful you have to get rid of this mental garbage. All it is doing is keeping you from success!

Once you unload it, you’ll be free to make as much money as you want!

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Marketing Strategy #81 Bulletin Board For Employees.

This is a way to motivate employees. A way to get them to work harder.

You should have weekly and monthly contests. You can have the same contest every week and then have others that change.

For instance you can have a contest for the technician that gets the most referrals. This is a great one.

Then give the winner a bonus - $25.00 or $50.00. This makes your technicians compete against each other. No longer will they ‘forget’ to ask for referrals. No more days of complaining about it. They’ll be happy to do it.

You also should have a contest where anyone can win. Offer $20.00 to everyone who gets at least 30 referrals a week.

You can also have ‘Employee of the Month’ awards based on referrals, compliments, hard work, etc.

You can have a competition for the greatest number of ‘outside’ jobs. An ‘outside’ job is a job that the employee gets himself. His friends, relatives, associates, etc. Make the award big enough to motivate your employees. Even if it is $200.00, if you get your employees to get 10 jobs that didn’t cost you any advertising money, you did very well.

Put all these contests up on the bulletin board. Track everyone’s results on the board daily if it’s a weekly contest or weekly if it’s a monthly contest.

It’s natural for people to be competitive and motivated by money. Take advantage of this to really get your technicians to work!

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Marketing Strategy #82 Write A Book Or Report.

Sound difficult? It’s really not.

You already know all the information; you just have to put it into words. That’s easy. See Strategy #73, How To Write Copy That Sells.

Why Write A Book Or Report?

When someone writes a book or report on a subject, it puts them in a different light.

And that light is ‘expertise’.

No longer will you be just a carpet cleaner, you’ll be a carpet cleaning ‘expert’.

A carpet cleaner is looked at as a sales person.

A carpet cleaning ‘expert’ is looked at as the person with the solution to a prospect’s problem.

This makes all the difference in the world.

If you are thought of as a sales person, prospects will back away from you. They will take what you say with a ‘grain of salt’. Even if you have the perfect solution to their needs, it’ll be difficult to convince them of that.

But if you’re seen as an ‘expert’, you’re trusted. A prospect is coming to you with a problem and thinks you are the person that can help her. She will take your advice seriously and will do what you tell her to do.

Do you see why this is so powerful?

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What To Write A Book Or Report On? Write on what you know. Here are some possibilities: * How to best clean a carpet * How to avoid carpet cleaning rip-offs * How to choose an honest carpet cleaner * How to reduce or eliminate allergies in the home * The 7 Things To Do To Make Your Carpet Last Twice As Long * The 3 Things To Do To Make Your Carpet Look Like Brand-new These should be what your title is like. Indoor Air Quality doesn’t cut it. The title has to create interest on the part of your prospect. The title is really the headline for the book or report.

Of course at the end of the book or report, you make an offer like a Free Carpet Audit™ (Strategy #23). Tell them exactly what you want them to do.

You can offer this report or book for free in all sorts of places. For example: 1. In your yellow pages ad 2. In your Val-Pak type ads 3. In your newspaper column 4. Through carpet retailers There are many, many places to offer this information.

Become an ‘expert’, write a book or report.

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Marketing Strategy #83 Read Trade Journals.

To stay motivated and interested you have to keep learning new things about your business.

New marketing strategies, new techniques, new equipment, new products, etc.

A good source of information is trade journals. They are an easy way to stay on the cutting edge of the industry.

Always keep learning and improving. That is what makes carpet cleaning fun.

Once you stop, you start to ‘stagnate’. You just sit there. Pretty soon that booming business isn’t booming anymore. Don’t let this happen.

The trade journals are a great source to see what others are doing. To see what new chemicals and products are out there to make your job easier.

Trade journals are an easy and inexpensive way to keep up with the times.

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Marketing Strategy #84 Add Extra Services Without Doing Extra Work.

Wouldn’t it be nice to make money on work you didn’t even do?

You bet.

Well you can. For instance, if you don’t do blind cleaning but one of your clients want her blinds cleaned, you can still make money.

You can ‘sub’ it out to someone who does blinds. You pay them. She pays you. And you keep the difference.

Or you can just refer her to the other company and make a ‘referral fee’. Check to make sure that’s legal in your area.

Here’s how you can promote that you do all these services: - Carpet cleaning - Blind cleaning - Duct cleaning - Fire and water damage - Wood floors - Maid service You can offer all of these things and only actually do the carpet cleaning.

What you have to do is find a good company that does one of the other services you offer. Make sure that company does a good job and is polite to your clients.

You can either collect a ‘referral fee’ or ‘sub’ it out to them. If you choose to collect the ‘referral fee’, you’ll have to stay on top of the other business. Make them send you a weekly report of all the © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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clients they received from you. You should send them a list of all the clients you referred and then they report which ones they did work for. Stay on top of this or you’ll get ripped off.

Remember if you do this, you still have to take responsibility for the other company’s work. It’s your client and you want them to be happy.

If you refer a bad company, the client will hold you responsible. And so should you. Take responsibility. Offer a guarantee even if the other company doesn’t. This is a way to make extra profits with little or no work, but you have to do it right.

It may take some time to find good companies but it’s worth the effort.

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Marketing Strategy #85 How To Beat The ‘Slow Season’.

Every business says they have a slow season. This may be true if you let it happen.

In Phoenix where I have my company, the slow season is summer. This happens to almost every business in Phoenix, not just carpet cleaners.

You see, during the summer, it’s hot. If you’ve heard of what they call ‘dry heat’, don’t fall for it.

Sure its dry heat, like a blowtorch. Believe me when it hits 115°F every day, it doesn’t matter whether it’s dry or not. It’s just hot.

Almost 1/3 of the population of Phoenix (the intelligent part) leaves for the summer. So you see why everyone has their slow season.

For 2 years I had a slow season in the summer. I believed it. I didn’t think I had a choice.

I was wrong.

I hated the slow season. Just because it was blistering hot didn’t mean that I didn’t like to make money. So I started brainstorming.

I found ways to overcome the slow season.

The first thing is - you have to start planning 2 months before your slow season starts. This is critical. You have to start doing things before you are in the middle of the slow time.

WHY? If you wait until you are in the peak of the slow season, you’ve already wasted a lot of time. Plus, all of the strategies you need to use to overcome the slow season take a bit of time. Nothing is instant.

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So start planning 2 months before. I realize that this will probably be in your busy season. That means that you’ll have to take the time to plan during your busy season. Believe me, it’s worth it.

I’ve seen too many people who were too busy to plan. Next thing you know, they have more than enough time to plan and they are in big trouble.

Always, always plan ahead (Strategy #1).

You’re going to have to ‘beef up’ your regular marketing and advertising. This will compensate for the slow season.

I usually find out if my clients leave for the summer or not. If you are in an area where some of your clients leave for a season, you’ll have to do the same. Most of you are probably in an area where people don’t leave. This makes it a bit easier for you.

1. I usually double whatever method is making me the most money that I can double. For instance, if I’m making the most money from yellow pages, there is no way for me to double that so I go to the next one.

If I’m making the most (or next most) money from my 3-letter sequence that I give to cold prospects (Strategy #27) then I double the amount I give out.

For example: If I’m making $1,100.00 from 100 letters per week then I step it up to 200 letters per week.

If I’m making the most money from Val-Pak type ads then I usually put my ad in 2 different zones or 2 different types like Val-Pak and Money Mailer.

2. I emphasize referrals even more. Usually I increase the value if someone sends me a referral. If you normally pay $10.00 for every referral that becomes a client then start offering $20.00 for a limited time.

I send out a letter to all of my clients telling them about the increased value of a referral for a limited time. I explain to them it’s because normally I have a slow season at this time but if they’d help me out, © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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I wouldn’t. And in return I’ll help them out too.

3. I send out a letter to all my clients who haven’t gotten their carpets cleaned in over 12 months (like the letter in Strategy #5). Make sure not to send this to people who have already rescheduled.

This letter really eliminates my slow season. I get a 20% response from it and almost everyone has me clean their entire house or use one of my other services.

When I do all these things, my slow season isn’t slow at all! Of course, my cost per client raises slightly but it is still very, very profitable. And 20 times better than having a slow season.

Remember - start planning 2 months before your slow season starts. Take the proper steps and you can laugh at your slow season!

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Marketing Strategy #86 Workshops.

A workshop is designed to create interest in your services.

You want to have prospects attend. But, the problem is getting prospects to attend. You can NOT advertise in the newspaper for a Free Workshop. This doesn’t work. Its too expensive and barely anyone will show up.

So how do you get prospects to attend?

You go through organizations, clubs and associations. You give a workshop especially designed for them. This gets their members interested in your services and many of the attendees will become clients.

This won’t cost you much. The organization will supply the meeting room. They should tell all their members through meetings and newsletters. Since this doesn’t cost them anything, they shouldn’t mind doing it.

But you should give them the material. For example, if they are going to put an article in their monthly newsletter, you should write it and give it to them. If they are going to announce it at a meeting, you should write the announcement. Don’t count on them to do it.

If you let them do it, you will get little response. People won’t show up. You have to present it in an interesting way so that the members are interested.

You can either have the organization take reservations or you can. Usually the organization is willing to do this but not always. Just ask them. Make sure you have a deadline at least one week in advance for them to sign up. This way you’ll be able to prepare the right amount of handouts, etc.

How to Get Into the Organization Call the organization and ask for the person in charge of educational programs. You must tell them © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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how the organization will benefit or else they won’t be interested at all.

The best way is to donate to the organization a certain percentage of all the work you get because of the workshop, like 5%. Then also offer a discount to all their members, $25.00 off or 10% - something like that. This way the organization can see that they will be making money and be offering something valuable to their members.

Ask the person if you could come over and discuss a workshop with them. On the phone just tell them that you have a way to help them make money for the organization. Most people will be more than happy to give you a few minutes of their time.

Explain the whole thing to them. And tell them what exactly their members will learn even if they don’t use any of your services.

Some of the best organizations to go to are Churches and Synagogues. Other ones that have a high senior citizen membership are good too. Senior citizens usually have to hire someone to clean their carpets and they are more worried about indoor air quality. They usually can afford your services, too.

One extra service that you can offer and even give away to senior citizens is cleaning the baseboards. This is very, very easy if you use a wand. Just spray the baseboards and wipe them clean.

That’s it.

At the actual workshop, you can focus on different things for different organizations - whatever they are most interested in.

A few examples are: * Indoor Air Quality * How To Reduce Allergies * How To Make Carpet Last Twice As Long Obviously your presentation should really emphasize getting their carpets cleaned regularly. If you give them the information they are going to use your services - not someone else’s. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Then offer all of the attendees a Free Carpet Audit™ (Strategy #23) if they sign up that day. Plus, if they do get any services, they’ll get a discount for being a member of the organization.

It’s important that you get everyone to fill out an evaluation form. Ask the same questions as the one for the Client Dinner (Strategy #97) but make them up special for each group. Make sure you get everyone’s name and address.

For just an hour of your time, think how much business you will generate. You should get at least 4 new clients, with an average job of $250.00. That’s $1,000.00 for an hour’s worth of work! Not bad.

Plus, everyone who doesn’t sign up immediately for a Free Carpet Audit™ will be sent a 3-letter sequence (Strategy #27).

And you should average at least 3 referrals per client. That’s 12 referrals! You see why this is so very profitable. Your out of pocket cost is virtually zero!

You can also do workshops for carpet retailers. They have lots of clients who purchased carpet but don’t know how to take care of it. You offer to give the carpet retailer a percentage of the sales from the workshop and offer his clients a discount.

Because this is a valuable gift he is giving his clients, he should be willing to tell them for free. You must convince him that his clients will love him for giving them a valuable workshop and they’ll refer lots of new clients to him. Plus they’ll buy carpet from him again not go to one of his competitors when they want new carpet.

Otherwise you can split the cost of mailing with him. You will still make a lot of money from this workshop so you can afford to do this.

Make sure you write all the information just like any other sales letter. Don’t let the carpet retailer do it.

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Notes:

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Marketing Strategy #87 Charity Program.

There are many things you can do with charities to generate business.

However, only do them if you are truly interested in helping the charity. Do NOT do this solely to get new business. If you do, it will probably backfire. People are very cautious of others who want to use the charity to help their own business out solely. This will be detected and ruin your whole program.

So only do it if you are sincere.

So you really want to do a charity program?

OK. There are many different things you can do for the charity. Including: 1. Workshop (Strategy #86) 2. Event 3. Promotion 1. Workshop You can do a regular workshop, but just with a charity. All of the same concepts apply. The only difference is the organization is a charity.

2. Event You can sponsor a charity event. It doesn’t have to cost you much either.

For example you can sponsor a golf tournament with proceeds going to the charity. You charge each golfer around $50.00 to $100.00 to be in the event. You get the charity to pay to promote it. Make sure that you write the actual ads, letters, announcements, etc.

Then you get other local merchants to buy advertising during the golf event. You put up boards with Š 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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advertisements on each hole or on every other hole.

You may make some money on this but you’ll probably just break even. Your profits will come from getting new clients from this.

Make sure there is plenty of media coverage. Newspaper, TV, radio, etc. Since the proceeds go to the charity the media won’t mind giving out a number to get more information. This is another way you get golfers.

In a short period your business will get a lot of recognition. This is super since it shouldn’t cost you much. You could even make money on it.

Get every golfers name and address and of course they’ll receive a letter in the mail thanking them for golfing, telling them how much you and the golfer raised for the charity, and (most importantly) offering them a Free Carpet Audit™.

Of course to all the people who don’t respond to the first letter, get letter number two. And all those who don’t respond to the first two letters get letter number three.

Then you also send letters to every person that is part of the charity. The charity will have a list you can mail to. You tell them how you sponsored the golf tournament and how much you raised for the charity and what the charity is going to do with that money. Then you tell them you’re going to help them out since they’ve helped out the charity too. Offer them a Free Carpet Audit™ (Strategy #23) and a discount if they use your services.

To do a charity event is a lot of work. But you will make money for the charity and for your business.

3. Promotion A promotion is just sending a sales letter to all the charity members (donators). Of course you use a 3-letter sequence.

You’ll have to call the charity and find the person in charge of promotions. Meet with her. Explain that you want to send a letter to all of the charity members offering them a Free Carpet Audit™. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Tell her that you will donate a certain percentage of all the work you get from the members. Plus you’ll offer the members a discount.

Sometimes you can convince the charity to pay for the postage. Sometimes the charity will split it with you. And once in a while the charity will insist that you pay for all of the postage. If they do, you can take that amount out of the amount being donated to the charity.

Make sure the letters go on the charity’s letterhead and envelopes. It helps to get the coordinator to write a cover letter endorsing your company.

You can even offer to clean the charity offices for free. This definitely helps. That way the charity is confident in your work and they get something out of it right away.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #88 Weekly Meetings.

You must have a weekly meeting to keep on track.

It doesn’t matter if you have lots of employees or are by yourself. You still have to have weekly meetings.

The purpose of these meetings is to see how you are doing. To see how close you are to your goals.

Then after you see how you are doing, you need to plan for the next week.

Schedule an hour a week for this meeting. It has to be the same time every week. Like Tuesdays from 8AM - 9AM. No exceptions. Do not schedule a job during the time you planned for the meeting.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking you will do the meeting some other time. It won’t happen.

Pick a time and stick to it.

Once a week. Not less often and not more often.

These weekly meetings will help you implement more strategies and do more of the ones that are making you tons of money.

This isn’t difficult. You just have to make a commitment and stick to it.

It is very difficult to succeed without having weekly meetings!

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Marketing Strategy #89 How To Get Many Jobs From Realtors.

Realtors can be the key to many jobs from one client, the Realtor. Realtors work with both the buyers and the sellers. Usually at some point in the transaction, the carpets get cleaned.

Often the Realtor suggests to the seller that he should get the carpets cleaned. This puts the Realtor in a perfect position to recommend a good carpet cleaner. If the seller doesn’t get the carpets cleaned then usually the buyer will. The Realtor is in a great position to recommend a carpet cleaner (you) to the buyer.

The best thing about Realtors is that once you get one to recommend you, they’ll give you many, many jobs. You won’t have to wait 3 to 12 months to get a repeat job. A good Realtor should give you 2 jobs a month. If you get 10 or 20 Realtors recommending you - that’s 20 to 40 extra jobs.

How To Get Realtors To Recommend You Getting your first Realtor is the hardest. Once you get one, getting others is much easier. Realtors hang out with other Realtors. So once you get one who is happy with you, you can get her to help you get other Realtors.

If you know a Realtor, start with him. If you don’t you still can get into this niche.

Most Realtors work for a broker, like Century 21 or Re/Max. All of these brokers have weekly meetings. Usually they have some one come in and give a talk for 10-15 minutes. The Realtor that is in charge of these meetings has a very, very difficult time getting enough speakers. It is very easy to get to speak at one of these meetings.

Contact a company; ask for the person in charge of the weekly sales meeting for the Realtors. Call this person and tell them who you are, what you want to do and ask when can he fit you in. These people are usually desperate. You will be an angel to them. They should schedule within 3 or 4 weeks.

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At your speech to Realtors you need to do several things: 1. Explain that Realtors are in the perfect position to recommend a carpet cleaner since usually either the seller or the buyer gets the carpet cleaned anyway.

2. Explain that you are a very good carpet cleaner. Use your USP (Strategy #4).

3. Give the Realtors a reason to use you. You can give them $10.00 for every job, or a certain percentage, or you can say after they’ve given you so many jobs, you’ll clean their house for free.

Whatever you choose, make it crystal clear what they get.

For example, if you use 3% of every job then tell them how much your average job is and tell them how much they’d make from referring you for an average job.

You should have at least twenty Realtors at this meeting. If you follow up by sending them a letter re-explaining your offer then you can expect to get one or two Realtors who continually recommend your services. These one or two gems will refer a lot of business to you.

Explain to them exactly what a referral is. It is not just saying ‘Oh by the way, Mr. and Mrs. Jones, if you get your carpets cleaned use ABC Company.’ This leads too much to chance.

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Marketing Strategy #90 How To Make Even More Money From Realtor Referrals.

After a Realtor has given you a referral and you clean the carpets - this puts you in a perfect position to get another client.

Whether the buyers of the house hired you or not, you should get them as new clients. They’ve seen your work and know you are good.

If the buyer was the one who hired you then it’s easy. Convert him to a repeat client. Set up the next appointment. This is just the same as any first time client.

But if the seller hired you, you still can get a new client or two. First of all, lots of times the sellers are moving but not very far. If this is the case you can get the seller to get the carpets cleaned in his new house. And turn him into a regular client.

If the seller is moving out of town, you can’t do this. Don’t worry about it; you still can get the buyer.

Even though the buyer didn’t actually hire you, you can send him a letter (of course) telling him that you were the one who cleaned his carpets. At the end of this section there is a sample letter that I started for you. See if you can finish it. Be creative!

You’ve already done their carpets. They know your work. This puts you in a great position to get them as a client.

Also don’t forget that the Realtor has carpet too!

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Dear New Home Owner I Have A Free Gift (Name if you have it), For You

Congratulations on buying your new home. As you probably noticed -

Your Carpet Was Fabulously Clean Of course it was, I was the one who cleaned it! Hi, I’m [your name] and I own [company]. As a house-warming gift I’d like to give you a bottle of spotter. This spotter is great for everyday stains like ketchup, blood, animal waste, juice and soda.

You say - How could anyone be so nice, there must be some sort of catch. Well there is one teeny, tiny little catch - all you have to do is schedule an appointment to reclean your carpet any time in the next 12 months.

Now you finish this letter and get some new clients!

To get a few complete promotions for Realtors go to the Members Only section of my website at www.joepolish.com.

Read your Piranha Marketing Letter Monthly for the pass code.

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Marketing Strategy #91 Host & Beneficiary.

The host and beneficiary is an excellent marketing strategy. You are the beneficiary and you get a new client through the host.

Here’s an example of how this works: One of my hosts is a retail carpet store. Whenever they sell carpet, they give their clients a free gift.

This free gift is one room, up to 200 SF, of carpet cleaned by my company. I don’t charge the carpet retailer anything. They are basically giving me a new client.

The client calls and asks for their free room cleaned. We explain that the technician will give him a quote for cleaning the whole house but he is under no obligation to get even one more room cleaned.

What are the chances of me getting this person as a client?

1. First of all, the company that gave him the free gift is a company he knows and trusts. He has already done business with them. They are recommending me.

2. I’ve given the client something for free. He now feels obligated to reciprocate. This is the law of reciprocity. It says that whenever you give someone something, he feels obligated to give something back.

Here are some examples of some host beneficiary letters I’ve done. The first is what you write for the host. The second is a letter that is used to get hosts. This example is decorators but you can change it to practically anybody.

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A Free Gift For You For Being Such A Great Client!

Dear Client, Hi, this is [name] owner of [company]. I just wanted to thank you for being a wonderful client. As a way of thanking you I’ve arranged for a free gift for you.

In today’s society it is really hard to find good companies. So when I came across an exceptional one, I just wanted to tell the whole world.

The company is [your company] and the owner is [you]. His company is outstanding. I had them clean my carpets a few months ago and I was very impressed. They were honest. The total was the exact same price they gave me for a quote. They were clean and professional. They even offer a money-back guarantee on their work! This is unheard of in the carpet cleaning industry.

My carpet looked brand new! It was absolutely amazing! And it stayed that way. It didn’t get dirty again in 3 weeks. I was so impressed with this company I decided to give you, one of my special clients, a free gift:

One Room Up To 200 SF Cleaned For Free I wanted a sensational way to thank you for your business and a way to tell others about how wonderful [your company] is. I’ve accomplished both of these at once: I’m giving you a free valuable gift to thank you for your business and also letting you get to know a great company at the same time!

Enclosed is the free certificate for you to use.

Sincerely, [Owner]

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Dollar goes here, stapled to top.

How You Can Get Your Carpet Cleaned Absolutely Free And Give A Valuable Free Gift To Your Clients Dear Friend, As you can see, I have attached a nice, crisp $1.00 bill to the top of this letter. Why have I done this? Actually for three reasons: 1. I have something very important to tell you and I needed a powerful way to catch your attention.

2. Since my idea can mean enormous profits for both of us, I figured that using the $1.00 bill was a superb idea.

3. I wanted you to make money from my idea immediately. So here’s your first dollar.

Hi! My name is [your name]. I am the owner of [company name]. I’m looking for ways to expand my business and I’ve come up with a way we both can profit.

I need your help.

I’m sorry to admit this but there are many carpet cleaners out here who are less than ethical. These are the ones that run all those © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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ads offering really cheap carpet cleaning like $5.99 per room. This is their bait. When they get to people’s homes they do the switch.

Rarely does anyone get the low advertised price. They get tricked into spending more money on inferior cleaning. You may have had a similar experience with a carpet cleaner. I never, ever use any of these unethical methods to get clients. That’s why I need your help. Please help me beat these ‘bait and switch’ scam artists.

Here’s how you can help me and make money too: I’ve just created carpet bucks. They’re my own private currency.

And I’ll give these dollars to you whenever you refer business to me.

For every $100.00 of carpet cleaning business you send me, I’ll pay you $10.00 in carpet bucks. And every time your carpet bucks total $100.00 or more, I’ll redeem those dollars for CASH. Or, if you prefer, you can use them toward a carpet or upholstery cleaning for a good customer as a gift or for yourself. So you risk nothing — and you have everything to gain! And to get started I’ve enclosed your first $10.00 in carpet bucks on the house!

Naturally you want to know more about me. So here it goes...

I’ve been in the carpet cleaning industry for [number] years. I’m the [Arizona Director of the Carpet and carpet bucks Institute something similar or edit this part out]. [This Institute is designed to improve carpet cleaning standards and to help eliminate unethical carpet cleaning advertisements.] We don’t allow any members to use unethical ‘bait and switch’ advertising. This is also against the law but very few carpet cleaners get prosecuted. That’s why we fight them.

That’s why I need your help.

You may not know this but not all carpet cleaners are the same. Not only because some of them use deplorable advertising but also there is © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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a big difference in how they clean. I only use hot water extraction from a truck-mount unit. This is because only a truck-mount unit is powerful enough to get rid of dirt and other things in carpet. Other types include [add methods] these other options are either too harsh on the carpet or they just don’t clean well. All serious carpet cleaners use truck-mounts.

If you’d like more information about carpet cleaning please call my consumer awareness message. It’s a free recording that I offer to the public so that they can learn more about carpet cleaning. Find out the 6 costly misconceptions about carpet cleaning. The number is 235-2121.

In order for you to see how good we are I’m going to make you an unbelievable offer -

I’ll Clean Your Carpet For Free As a business owner I know I would never endorse another business to my clients if I were not completely 100% sure of their service. I’m sure you’re the same way. The only way I know how to prove to you that I’m a wonderful carpet cleaner, is for me to clean your carpets. It’s free. If you’re happy with the results you will start recommending my services to your clients. If you’re not happy, I’ll leave and won’t bother you again. Either way you’ll get your carpet cleaned for free not a bad deal!

You may be wondering what will happen after I’ve cleaned your carpets. That’s a fair question.

If you are happy with my extraordinary carpet cleaning service this is what I propose: 1.

You’ll be able to give all your clients a free gift. This gift is from you. It is 200 SF of free carpet cleaning. I’ll go to their

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house and clean 200 SF of carpet absolutely free. If they are thrilled with my services I’ll give them a written estimate to clean the rest of their house. If they want us to, we’ll do it right then, but only if they choose. If they don’t want us to, that’s fine. There is no cost and absolutely no obligation. Plus I back all my work with a 100% Money-Back Guarantee! Yes, that’s right, if after cleaning some one’s home they are not completely delighted, I’ll refund every cent. If someone is not happy, they don’t pay.

How Can I Offer Such An Amazing Guarantee?

I could only offer this super-amazing guarantee if I were completely sure of my service. I am. You will be too.

If you ask any other carpet cleaner for a money-back guarantee, they’d laugh at you and tell you how that would be absolutely impossible.

The next thing for you to do is to call me and schedule your free carpet cleaning. I’ll come to your house and clean your entire house just to prove to you that I’m the best carpet cleaner. My number is [your number]. I’ll be expecting your call. If by chance I’m not at my desk, please leave a message and I’ll call you right back.

Your clients are going to love you for giving them a valuable free gift! This alone will create more business for you by making your clients so happy that they refer other business to you.

Every way you look at it - you benefit. Call [your number] now before it’s too late.

Sincerely, [Your name] P.S. This offer expires [date (15 days away)] so hurry up and call me!

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Marketing Strategy #92 Maintenance Program.

The maintenance program is a brilliant idea. It helps generate stability in your business.

Ever have a client rave about how wonderful her carpet is and how she wishes that it could look like that all the time?

That’s when you should tell her about the maintenance program. Tell her that her carpet can look that good all the time.

The maintenance program is: 1 Traffic area cleaning in 3 months 1 Full house cleaning in 6 months 1 Traffic area cleaning in 9 months 1 Full house cleaning in 12 months This is the schedule if she just had all her carpet cleaned.

There are several things you can do to this.

You can charge them in advance - all now. You can charge them monthly. You can charge them 2 weeks before each cleaning. You can charge them the day of cleaning. There are plenty of options.

Obviously the sooner you get your money the better. Anytime you can create a cash float, you will be doing well!

American Express lives on ‘float’. At any point in time they have 15 million in float. That’s with their traveler’s checks. Some of them never get cashed! About 15%! That’s a lot of money. In the summer their float goes up to 1 billion because everyone buys them for their upcoming vacations.

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If you could just make the interest off that float! Any where you see a chance to create ‘float’ in your business, do it.

The maintenance plan has several other options also.

You can add extra services like upholstery cleaning. Just like when you sold the original job with 3 options (Strategy #39 see examples of ideas following strategy #39), you should have 3 options for the maintenance plan.

The one I gave you is the bare bones minimum. Make two other packages with different services added.

Of course you still can customize a package if one of your clients wants something other than the 3 you have.

For instance one of my clients gets all her carpets cleaned every 3 months. Not just the traffic areas.

Everything.

I certainly didn’t turn her away when she asked me if she could do this!

Develop a maintenance plan. Not all of your clients will want it but probably 15 to 20% will. This is a real money maker.

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Marketing Strategy #93 Client Appreciation.

Client appreciation is just what it sounds like. It’s giving your clients something to show that you really appreciate their business. They are the most important thing to your company (you’d be out of business without them) so let them know that.

One easy thing to do is having a Backyard BBQ at your house and invite all your clients and any guests they want to bring. Make sure you tell them that this is not a public thing; only they and their guests are invited.

You should have games and contests and give prizes as awards.

The contests should have something to do with carpet cleaning, a little quiz.

For example: What is a dust mite?

Where is the most common place that dust mites live?

(Answer: On pillows. 3rd most common place on floor alongside bed.)

3 Reasons why carpets need to be cleaned at least every 12 months?

What type of carpet cleaning is best?

(Of course the answer is the type you use) Name 5 Pollutants that get trapped in carpet.

You get the idea. Make it a fun contest but educational. This drives home all the things you’ve been telling them.

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For prizes give away a free dinner for 2 or 4 at a nice restaurant, free movie tickets, free vacuum, free spotting kit, free carpet cleaning, etc. You can get local merchants to donate the gifts in exchange for mentioning them in your promotional material and throughout your event. This is a good way to lower your costs.

You should have your event based on a holiday, like July 4th but not on the exact day. Good ones are July 4th, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving.

You don’t have to have a Backyard BBQ; you can have any kind of party. I personally like Backyard BBQ because they are informal.

How Does This Work?

This works like gangbusters. People love it. They feel like they are getting a lot more than just a carpet cleaner - they are! Think how many of the guests become your clients - almost all of them!

Plus this generates a lot of business! After the party a lot of your clients will just need to get their carpets cleaned sooner than planned!

Your costs are the food, beverages and the gifts (if you don’t get local merchants to donate them). It shouldn’t be too expensive. The amount of money that you’ll make from it will be enormous!

There is an insurance agent in Phoenix. The only marketing he does all year is to hold a big party on his Birthday. He has it catered for all his clients and whoever they want to bring. They all bring him a ‘gag’ gift and he opens them. That’s all he does and he has more clients than he can handle! He’s in the top 5% of all insurance salespeople in the U.S.A. This is very powerful!

When you plan your client appreciation event, tell all your clients. Mention it in your newsletter for several months before. Tell all the clients that you see.

You have to get excited about this or it won’t work. Even tell a few newspaper reporters and invite them. Make sure the word gets out.

Have all your clients RSVP. You need to know how many people there are going to be, so you can prepare. Plan ahead and you’ll get great results! © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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NOTES:

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Marketing Strategy #94 Lending Library.

A lending library is another thing you give to your clients. It’s another way to WOW them (Strategy #10). It is a list of books you have that you are willing to lend to your client. Now these books should relate to carpet and your other services.

Books that will help them choose new carpet, pick a brand of carpet, and decide between extra-plush and standard. Books about carpet cleaning methods. Books about your other services. Books on indoor air quality. Books on cleaning the environmental way (only if you do).

Any information that could be helpful to them. In other words not your running a carpet cleaning business manuals which would have no value to your clients.

You can also stress that you are really into consumer education and offer all sorts of books like: * How to save money on taxes * Any tax information * Home improvement information * How to buy your dream house Anything that is designed to educate consumers. Stick to things that most of your clients have or do.

For example they all have to do taxes.

Inform your clients that you have a lending library in your new client kit (Strategy #31). An example of what to say about your lending library follows, but you’ll have to choose your own books, reports, tapes, etc.

Make sure that all the books in your library agree with the way you do things. For example if you use hot water extraction, you don’t want anything that tells how steam shrinks up carpet! (Of course that’s not true, but there are some books out there that say that!)

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Lending Library The way the lending library works is that you can borrow any of the items for one month free of charge. I’ll either drop off your request or mail it to you. You just have to drop the item off or pay for the postage to send the item back.

The items in the lending library are designed to help educate in consumer awareness for carpet, carpet buying, carpet cleaning and in other services. I’ve expanded my lending library to include other consumer information on taxes, buying a home, etc. Only clients have the privilege of the lending library. Here is a partial list of contents. Call for a specific topic or further details. Call to check one of the items out!

[List]

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Marketing Strategy #95 Advertise.

What is the purpose of advertising?

To get new clients?

NO. The purpose of advertising is to get new clients to give you referrals. Then those referrals will give you referrals.

That’s where the real profits are.

But you need to get clients and to get new clients you need to advertise.

You should advertise consistently. So you are always bringing in new clients that refer others to you.

But you have to keep new ones coming in.

In theory you could eventually just live off referrals. But this is a dreamland. No one ever gets to the point of working only from referrals.

So you have to keep those new clients coming in. If you stop or take a break, you’ll get fewer new clients, you’ll get fewer referrals and pretty soon you won’t have any work!

Trust me on this one, don’t try it.

Keep advertising.

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Marketing Strategy #96 Stop Being An Advertising Victim.

An advertising victim is someone who has no plan and makes advertising decisions based upon whichever advertising rep catches him that day.

Even if you do good direct response ads, not those boring old ‘image’ building or price driven ads.

Even if you do have good ads that get response, you need to have a plan (Strategy #1).

You can’t just wait for the next advertising rep to come sell you advertising. You have to plan and budget.

The other part of being an advertising victim is listening to the advertising reps about how to advertise.

They’ll tell you that you should do what everybody else is doing. That stuff doesn’t work. I’ve done it over and over and it never worked.

Then they get really nervous if you want to use a good direct response ad. It’s different and it makes them nervous. They will try to convince you not to do it. They’ll tell you it won’t work. They’ll tell you its too ‘non-traditional’. They’ll tell you anything so you won’t use it.

Don’t listen to them. This stuff works.

One time I ran an ad in a Val-Pak type mailer. It was full of copy, no white space. You almost had to squint to read it. But it did fantastic. I did this ad for a client. His previous ads were like everyone else’s and it was losing money.

This ad made money, lots of it. But this advertising rep didn’t want me to run it. When he saw my ad he offered to write the ad over for me. He told me time after time that it wouldn’t work in his mailer.

And that he knew the types of people it went out to and that they just wouldn’t respond. He went on and on. I didn’t listen to him - Thank Goodness! And don’t you either. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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This stuff really works but don’t try to convince the advertising rep of that. If you succeed then they’ll tell all of your competitors your secrets. You don’t want this. Plus some places will even raise your advertising price if they know you are doing well. So never act like you just made $2,000.00 (or more) from the $200.00 ad. If they ask, tell them it did OK. If you keep running the ad because it’s doing great, they still won’t figure it out. They’ll assume that you’re crazy and wasting your money. Let ‘em think that!

Let them think you’re crazy, but don’t be an advertising victim.

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Marketing Strategy #97 Client Dinner.

What is a client dinner?

A client dinner is a dinner for all your current clients plus their guests. To your clients this looks like a free gift from you. You get all the guests as prospects. I’ll even teach you how to get someone else to pick up most or all of the tab.

A client dinner accomplishes two things: 1. You get a chance to thank all your current clients. When you give them a free nice dinner just for using your services, how do you think you rank on the scale? You’ll be way up there.

2. All of the guests are your prospects. What are your chances of getting them as new clients when A. they’ve already received a free dinner from you, and B. the person who brought them is already your very happy client?

This dinner makes you a real hero. You will get a lot of the guests as your new clients. When they see a room full of people all talking about how wonderful you are, they are easy closes.

How to get someone else to pick up the tab?

You have a very valuable resource - 50 to 300 upscale consumers. Many business people will pay you to get the chance to talk to these people.

What kind of business people?

I suggest ones that have the same prospect as you and who do not compete with you or the other speaker(s). Some good ones are: * Tax Advisors * Certified Financial Planners * Dentists © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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* Chiropractors * Attorneys You have to explain in detail to these professionals why this will be a good investment for them. Let them talk for 30 minutes just giving information and then let them give a 10 to 15 minute pitch. You can also offer to supply them with everyone’s names and addresses.

You can have 2 to 3 of these speakers at your dinner but not more than 3.

Here is a sample schedule for the evening: 6:00 - 6:30 Arrival and Conversation 6:30 - 7:15 Dinner 7:15 - 7:30 You speak 7:30 - 8:15 Speaker #1 8:15 - 9:00 Speaker #2 If you have 3 speakers you will need to shorten up the length of time you give to each speaker.

You must have everyone fill out an evaluation form. Have them fill it out at the end and then collect them on the way out. A sample evaluation form is at the end of this section.

I like to give away some free gifts at these dinners. It makes things more exciting. I usually get the speakers to donate something or buy inexpensive gifts, which I get the speakers to pay for also.

You should have this dinner in a nice hotel or restaurant. The most you should have client dinners is 4 times a year. But you should have it at least once a year.

After the client dinner, really play it up in your monthly newsletter. Make all your clients who didn’t come, wish that they had. Report all the people who won free gifts.

Of course you follow up with the guests!

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Evaluation Form

Date________________

Name_______________________________________________________________________________ What did you like most about the information presented? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ What did you like least about the information presented ___________________________________________________________________________________________ Clients Only: Are you interested in discussing?

[Topic of speaker #1] Y N [Topic of speaker #2] Y N Do you want to make an appointment to have your carpets cleaned? Y N Would you be interested in a free initial consultation with (Speaker 1)? Y N Would you be interested in a free initial consultation with (Speaker 2)? Y N Comments:__________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ For Guests Only: Would you be interested in a Free, No obligation, in-home Carpet Cleaning Audit? Y N Would you be interested in a free initial consultation with (Speaker 1)? Y N Would you be interested in a free initial consultation with (Speaker 2)? Y N Comments:__________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________ Name_________________________________________________________ Address________________________________________________________ City_________________________________State______Zip_____________ Home Phone______________________Work Phone____________________________

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Marketing Strategy #98 Videos.

Videos can be a powerful selling tool. Even if you are a great salesperson, you can’t rely on your employees to be great salespeople.

Most carpet cleaners are not great salesmen. You may be an exception but most are not.

In fact most hate selling. And some days are worse than others.

That’s why videos can be very, very powerful at selling. You only have to be good once on video.

Then you can have all your clients play it while you or your tech are measuring the client’s carpet.

If your tech uses this video, it doesn’t matter whether he is good at selling or not. You see, the video does all the selling.

And it doesn’t matter if you are having a bad day, the video still works just as well.

How Do I Make A Video?

First of all, write down your best sales presentation. Tell all the reasons why your company is special. Don’t forget to use your USP (Strategy #4).

Tell all the compelling reasons why people need to get their carpets cleaned at least every 12 months: •Indoor Air Quality (IAQ) •Looks •Makes carpet last longer You know all these reasons. Tell them in a compelling way that convinces your client.

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If you aren’t sure which is the best way, practice on new clients. See which way closes more of them. Once you get the method with the best close rate, use that one on video.

Who To Get To Film Your Video?

This does not and shouldn’t be expensive. You should get someone locally to do it for around $500.00.

The only thing your video should do is sell your client on using you, getting their carpets cleaned regularly, and on carpet protection.

The information is important, not the quality of the video.

In fact, the more expensive the video, the less likely it is to ‘sell’ your client on anything. That’s because expensive videos worry about all the wrong things.

Just worry about the information, that’s all that is important.

Want A Video But Don’t Want To Make It? We have a video that convinces the watcher that carpet cleaning is a necessity, that they should have their carpets cleaned every 12 months and that carpet protection is a must.

It’s not fancy but it does the job. Who cares if it doesn’t look like a $10,000.00 production, if it sells the client?

I don’t and you shouldn’t. The client certainly won’t.

You should take this option if you can’t afford to do it yourself or if you are a lousy salesperson.

Our video sells for $297.00 and is well worth it. You and all your techs can use it every time you give a Carpet Audit™ (or a quote if you’re still doing those! - See Strategy #23, Stop Giving Estimates © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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and Start Giving Carpet Audit™ s).

You’ll sell many more jobs and you’ll increase the average amount of each job. That’s because the video sells carpet protection.

In the long run this is great because people are much more willing to get their carpets cleaned again in 12 months or less! Your repeat business will go through the roof!

To order the video call 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643 or if you have any questions.

Which Is Better - To Do Your Own Or Get Ours?

I get this question a lot. There are two sides to it.

One is that you will be able to sell your company better with your own video.

The other side is that an outside ‘expert’ does our video so your clients believe it more. Some feel that someone outside of your company is more believable.

I guess both are true.

My advice: If you are truly great at selling, do it yourself.

If not, get ours.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #99 TV Advertising.

For most of us, TV advertising is not an efficient way to get clients.

But the possibility does exist. It can be worthwhile to some.

You must have the following things: 1. A celebrity who is willing to endorse you This can be a local celebrity but it should be someone who is pretty well known in your area. It’s better if the celebrity has used your services and really likes you. You can pay the celebrity for endorsing you but it’s better if she or he is willing to do it. You can pay them in trade - give them a certain amount of free services.

2. You should be netting at least $175,000.00 a year.

If you aren’t there are many, more cost effective ways to get new clients.

3. You don’t mind being ‘recognized’ Anyone who is on TV becomes a mini-celebrity. People will recognize you. Especially if your TV advertisement is effective, it will run often. For many people they don’t want this. For others they live for it.

If you hit all 3 of these categories then you may be ready to put an ad on TV. There are different lengths of commercials. The most common ones are 30-second spots, 60-second spots and 1/2 hour ‘infomercials’.

All the same rules of a good ad apply. © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Obviously the longer the commercial, the more expensive it is to produce. But you can (and should) do it inexpensively.

You should be able to produce either spot for less than $1,800.00. ‘Infomercials’ are a bit more expensive $15,000.00 to $30,000.00.

To run the commercials on TV, you can pay anywhere from $20.00 to $500.00. You probably don’t want to buy time that is more expensive than that.

You should have an offer and a way for people to respond. A number to call is best for response.

TV can be a good economical way to get new clients.

If you are interested in doing a TV ad, call our office and we’ll give you more information.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #100 Business Cards.

Most business cards say nothing. They don’t do anything to cause someone to call you.

The only reason to spend money is so that you can make more money. Most business cards don’t fall into this category. They are just a waste of money.

If you don’t have a business card, that’s fine. If you ever get one, make it ‘pay’ it’s own way.

If you already have one when you get more, redo it.

Look at mine at the end of this section. Then look at a ‘typical’ business card.

Big difference. Mine says something important. It tells why my company is different. How it’s better than the competition. It gives someone a reason to call. Yours should do the same.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Business Card

Business Card Front

Business Card Back Inside Typical Generic “Boring” Card Company Name PROFESSIONAL CARPET AND UPHOLSTERY CLEANING

“For Those Who Insist On The Best” Cleaners Name PO Box 1234

Call 24 hours

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Marketing Strategy #101 Newspaper Advertising.

Newspaper advertising is one of the hardest mediums to make-work for you. It won’t make you a fortune but it will do this: 1. Get you new clients These new clients will at least cover the cost of the ad. But the real key is to get referrals from these new clients.

Referrals are the whole reason you advertise.

Referrals are much cheaper and where the real profits are (Strategy #55).

So if you don’t have a system for getting referrals from clients, than don’t advertise. Take the time to create a referral system then advertise.

Here are a few rules about newspaper advertising: 1. Make your ad look as close to a real article as possible.

Editorial content is read 500% more than ads are. So it only makes sense that if your ad looks like a genuine article, it will get read more.

2. Tell something newsworthy.

Your content should have a very strong headline or you won’t get any response. The article should address something that people will be interested in.

3. Make a free offer.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Don’t try to ‘sell’ anything in the newspaper. Offer a free report, a free-recorded message or a free Carpet Audit™ but don’t try to sell anything.

Bigger ads pull much better than smaller ads even if they are more expensive.

Alternatives to paying for newspaper advertising are Getting Your Own Column (Strategy #103) and Getting an article in (Strategy #22).

Here is a newspaper ad on the following page. You can use it as-is or modify.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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How To Avoid Being Ripped Off

By A Carpet Cleaner

By Your Name City Don’t faIl for bait and Switch These folks are responding to coupons saying $6.95 a room. They are baited by the low price and make an appointment.

Think everything is fine then when the company gets there, they go for the switch.

These folks find out that this $6.95 a room price is only for single process cleaning. What that means is that it uses only water to clean. No soap. And the carpet doesn’t get ‘clean’ at all.

So they’re pressured in to getting this and that. All these things are needed to do a good job that’s what they hear.

Where was all this in their ad?

Nowhere! In other words they advertise low, low quality cleaning.

Then they pressure people to buy add on after add on. In the end it costs a fortune! These people have been had.

How to Avoid Being Ripped Off. 1. No ethical carpet cleaner can give you a quote on the phone.

The price is based on: -type of carpet

or days not are they be off by their c -amount of soiling Unfortunately manywhether people these beingcan ripped removed and how.

-square footage 2. I’ll calculate the wear age of If a carpet cleaner gives you a your carpet. I’ll explain how long it price on the phone, Beware! will be before you will need to get 2.A1l honest carpet cleaners have a new carpet and I’ll give you a 100% Money-Back Guarantee. If ‘prescription to make you carpet you aren’t happy, you don’t pay. If last as long as possible. a carpet cleaner doesn’t offer a 3. I’ll determine if your carpet is guarantee, Be Careful. in good health. Yes, your carpet’s 2 Reasons carpet cleaning is a health can affect you and your must for your carpet: family’s health. So I’ll let you 1. It makes your carpet last twice s know how to get rid of the long. Dirt lodged in you carpet acts ‘unhealthy’ pollutants that rest in like a knife to cut the carpet fibers. your carpet.

This causes you carpet to wear out 4. I’ll also test your traffic areas. fast.

These spots usually look more 2. A thorough cleaning gets out worn and dirtier. I’ll tell you how dirt and other pollutants. Just like you can make your traffic areas you track in dirt, you also track in look as good as the rest of your car exhaust, pollution, tobacco carpet. smoke, -etc. These get into your 5. After analyzing you carpet, I’ll carpet and you breathe them over give you a ‘prescription of how to and over. Carpet is indoor air get the most out of your carpet. pollution. Cleaning drastically This is absolutely free and there reduces what kind of shape your is no obligation. carpet is in.

Call 234-5678 and schedule The condition your carpet is in your Free Carpet Audit today. can easily be calculated. I use a process called a carpet audit™.

Help me beat these unethical bait Free Carpet Audit. and switch carpet cleaners and get This is exactly what I’ll do: valuable free information.

1. First I’ll cover all the problems you carpet has. I’ll check for ‘unwanted stains. I’ll tell you

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Marketing Strategy #102 Create Your Own Sales Letters.

I’ve given you tons of sales letters that you can use ‘as is’. They work. They are money makers.

That’s fine to use them to start.

But once you ‘get the hang’ of it, develop your own sales letters.

After all, you and your company are special and unique. My company is different from yours.

Maybe your USP (Strategy #4) is aimed at speedy service. Whatever it is, you should create sales letters and copy that reflect you.

It may seem a little hard to start. Start off by ‘modeling’ my letters. Change certain parts that aren’t quite compatible with your company.

Remember you have those valuable ‘critique coupons’ for me to review your sales letter. Believe me, I won’t let you put something out that is horrible.

I’ll guide you. Tell you how you can improve. In no time writing copy will be a ‘cinch’. Remember to keep learning marketing (Strategy #12). If you do, you’ll keep seeing your profits soar!

Experiment. Be creative. And track the results.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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NOTES:

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Marketing Strategy #103 Newspaper Column.

You could have a newspaper column of your own. You’ve seen doctors and mechanics have them, why not a carpet cleaner?

In your column you would answer questions that have been written in. Of course you have tons of time to write a brilliant answer.

How do you benefit from a newspaper column?

First of all when you have your own column, you are considered the ‘expert’ in your area.

For years I’ve seen a mechanic have his own column. He answers ‘tricky’ problems. But everyone thinks he is the brightest and best mechanic there is. He gets tons of business from this.

Whenever someone has a difficult car problem, they immediately think of him.

Wouldn’t it be nice if you were thought of when anyone in your area wanted to get their carpets cleaned?

You bet it would, and you’d have tons of business.

Plus you could use this in all your marketing materials. Do you think this would help you establish credibility? Absolutely.

What about the people who write in for answers? Who do you think they are going to look to for carpet cleaning? You, of course.

How Do I Get A Newspaper Column?

It’s not easy but it’s not all that hard either. First you have to really want one - that’s the important © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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part. Don’t do this if you aren’t completely sure.

You must get in touch with the editor of the newspaper. Call him and tell him your idea. Tell him specifically how his newspaper would benefit; explain how his readers would benefit from your service.

Then send him a powerful sales letter explaining all that. Remember to really establish your credibility. If you’ve done anything with charities or other organizations include that.

Follow-up with him.

Be persistent.

If you’re persistent and don’t give up, you’ll get a column. Let me know when you do!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #104 Celebrity Endorsement.

If you have celebrities as clients, even local celebrities, you can really use this to your advantage.

If you don’t have any, I’ll teach you how to get some. But first, I’ll tell you why they are important: Fame seems to rub off by association. I don’t know why but it does. If you tell someone that Harrison Ford is your best friend, you are seen in a different light.

Fame rubs off.

If you say you clean for a celebrity, people will be drawn to you. They’ll think that you must be great if you work for so-and-so.

People want to be close to celebrities and using the same carpet cleaner is a way to do that.

Do you have any current celebrities as clients, such as: • Local TV Newsperson • Sports players • Movie Stars • TV Stars • Music Stars • Olympic Athletes Any of these people can be very powerful.

A local celebrity that everyone in your area knows can be more powerful than a national celebrity that everyone may or may not know.

If a celebrity is using your services, this is an endorsement. Get a testimonial from the celebrity and © 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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make sure it is ‘OK’ to use it in any or all of your promotional material.

Make sure that you use this. You should use it in everything that you do - sales letters, newsletters, testimonial book, etc. Everything.

How Do You Get A Celebrity?

Celebrities are not that difficult to get.

First of all, they need their carpets cleaned. Second of all, they have enough money to easily afford your services.

You have to target them. You have to let them know who you are. A great way to accomplish this is to send them a series of sales letters. I suggest doing more than 3 in this sequence.

Give them an irresistible offer: Some think it’s worth cleaning their carpets for free. And if the celebrity is well known, I agree. This gives you a way in. Even if you always cleaned their carpets for free, it’d definitely be worth it just so you could say you clean their carpet.

Many companies do similar things. Ever seen a Tylenol commercial?

They always say ‘Tylenol, what hospitals use most.’

True, hospitals use Tylenol most. But why?

Because they give it to hospitals for free!

It’s worth that huge expense just to say that. Because so many people choose Tylenol because they think that’s what hospitals choose!

This works.

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But you don’t have to clean for free. If you entice the celebrity to use you by offering an irresistible offer, you’ll be able to get them to use your services and pay.

Remember, most companies don’t do anything special for their clients. Make all your clients feel special (Strategy #6), especially celebrities.

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Marketing Strategy #105 Work On Your Business, Not in Your Business.

What the heck does this mean?

This means: Working in your business means going out and cleaning carpets, scheduling jobs, managing employees. Any of those things are working in your business.

Working on your business is planning what service you want to expand into, what new niche do you want to target, how many new trucks will you expand into and implementing the many strategies in this manual so you can increase your revenue and profits of your business.

Get the difference?

You probably work in your business now. That’s OK. But you also need to work on your business. If you don’t, no one else will. You need to plan to be successful.

As you grow and get bigger, you should work less and less in your business. You can hire others to do that. You can’t hire anyone to work on your business - you have to do that!

This is a very powerful strategy.

This strategy is what Walt Disney used to create the huge Disney Empire - Disney World, Disney Land, all the Disney characters, Disney movies, etc. Disney is one of the most successful companies in America. One of the reasons for this is that the people at the top work on the business not in the business.

This same strategy will work for you too.

Work less and less in and more and more on your business. You’ll see great results!

© 2004 Piranha Marketing, Inc. Unauthorized copying of these materials is prohibited by law.

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Thanks for reading my manual!

The ideas contained in this manual will only make you more money and get you more clients if you use them!

I suggest you sit down, right now, and make a list of your ideas. Then go back and re-read the manual. Each time you read the manual you will get more ideas. Some of my clients have a lot of success keeping a notepad by their bedside. That way when you are thinking, just before going to sleep or just before waking up, you can write down any new ideas that come to mind.

If you have questions or comments about the material in my manual or any Piranha Marketing materials, please call my office. My number is 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643.

This manual contains quite a few forms and letters. I have a way you can get professionally prepared copies of all my time tested forms and letters. We can even do the printing for you. My friends at our printing service have typeset all of the forms and letters including invoices, business cards, Consumer Guides, and all of the other forms. We can even provide you prices for a full trade show package and many other promotional items. If you would like more information call my office at 1-480-858-0008 or 1-800-275-2643.

Thanks again,

Joe Polish President Piranha Marketing Inc.

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