MONEY- MAKING MONTHLY THE Monthly Magazine For Sharp Entrepreneurs
H OW TO F E E L
CONFIDENT AT WILL By Dan Sullivan
Volume II Number 12 | December 2014 | $97
THE MAN WITH A STEEL POST IN THE MIDDLE OF
HIS CUBICLE By Perry Marshall
EXPERT INTERVIEW
JIM PALMER
A Love For Helping
ENTREPRENEURS
ABOUT STEVE | DECEMBER 2014
About the Publisher, Steve Sipress
If you want to grow your business slowly – or just maintain it as is, you’ll have to do that all on your own. But if you want dramatic growth in your income and lifestyle, then Steve’s out-of-the-box and time-tested strategies and tactics could be the keys to your dreams. You can benefit from Steve’s coaching experience and expertise to revolutionize your business – yes, even in this challenging economy – at one of the many in-person entrepreneur events he hosts, OR from the comfort of your own home anywhere in the world. You can also learn basic and advanced direct response marketing strategies and tactics from 150+ hours of video instruction, plus use any or all of Steve’s multi-million-dollar, proven “done-for-you” marketing materials at SSSMarketingUniversity.com. That website has been called The Single Most Powerful Client Attraction Program Available Anywhere, and you could be using it to skyrocket your income anytime you want, 24/7, along with hundreds of other sharp, successful business leaders. If you’re just starting up your new business, you’ll want to take advantage of all of Steve’s training, guidance and resources at NewBusinessAcademy. org. Steve is a successful and award-winning serial entrepreneur, who has created and built nearly a dozen successful companies of his own, and he can help you do the same – more quickly and easily than you’ve ever imagined. In fact, you can immediately use plenty of his simple and powerful strategies and tactics that work especially well in this current frustrating economy. You can discover the basics of Steve’s powerful “The WOW! Strategy™: How To Solve All Of Your Marketing Problems” by watching a short video at www.SteveSipress.com. Steve is a celebrated author, speaker and business coach who has established profitable businesses and helped thousands of ambitious and aggressive business owners, entrepreneurs, executives and sales professionals all around the world. He has written numerous newsletters and articles on sales and marketing for a wide range of publications and has appeared on radio and television, helping millions of people along the way. For over five years, Steve was the #1 “Dan Kennedy Certified No B.S. Business Advisor,” and was Runner-Up out of 25,000 members for 2010 GKIC Marketer Of The Year. If you want the very best, hard-hitting, no-nonsense, caring advice and help you can get, then “Straight-Talk Steve” could be exactly what you and your business need most. Whether you’re a current or future business superstar, Steve can help you get exactly where you want to go as quickly, easily and powerfully as YOU want – with massive results both short-term and long-term.
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www.SteveSipress.com www.SSSMarketingUniversity.com
www.NewBusinessAcademy.org
www.Facebook .com/SmallBizHelp
www.Twitter.com/SteveSipress
“An Incredible Experience!” "When we first started, I was terribly in debt and we were just a few months away from bankruptcy. We started seeing a boost right away in our business, we took what Steve's given me and we just started implementing and implementing, and it's just totally transformed my business. Steve has helped me with my laser focus, he helps me implement, he's taken my business to a whole new level. We went from a half a million dollars to a million dollars in two years. It's just an incredible experience to know that where you think you're just dead and things are horrible, to now anything is possible. I can see taking this to a whole new three or four types of businesses -- it's going to be huge. Steve is all business, he is an unbelievably smart, brilliant man. I can't say enough about him. Everything he's told me, I've made so much money it doesn't matter what it costs. They don't make enough money in this world that somebody could pay me so I would stop listening to Steve. Steve is the exact reason why I have a retirement fund now. It's probably illegal how much fun I'm having!"
Jon Bockman
Owner, Bockman's Auto Care Sycamore, Illinois
MANNY’S BLOG | DECEMBER 2014
Manny’s Blog
Felix Navidad
This is your old pal Manny. I know you’re all waiting to hear my holiday plans; but in the name of Christmas cheer, I’m turning this month’s blog over to Felix, the cat from the end of the street. Thanks, Manny, ol’ Dog From The OTHER End of the Street. I appreciate the chance to discuss a few of my favorite things about this festive season. I realize I’m no expert on Christmas. I’ve never DECKED THE HALLS – although I did scratch the dickens out of the Halls’ neighbors the SMITHS when they mashed my tail with a rocking chair. No, I just know what I like. I especially like that animated TV special “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town,” with the song “Put One Foot In Front of The Other.” That’s sort of an anthem for my species. We just keep putting one foot in front of the other, and Christmas visitors soon have a masterpiece on their car hoods. No thanks necessary.
Poor guys. Guess they couldn’t afford a good laser pointer to follow.
Oh, mounds of visitors’ nice, soft, expensive winter coats on the spare bed! (What? Me shedding? Just doing my part to try to prove that global warming actually exists, my man.) I’m quite the connoisseur of bedding. You know, I’m very particular about where I …zzzzzzzzz… I like seeing those old movies with Bob Cratchit’s boss trying to do a Grumpy Cat impression. (“Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”) It amuses me to see the kids in my master’s family going ga-ga over curling irons, cosmetic kits and makeup mirrors. Hello! Have you forgotten you have a tongue and a (weirdly shaped) paw? You’re welcome. I love seeing my Uncle Max get a little too much catnip and wind up stuck in the top of a tree. Doesn’t matter if it’s an artificial Christmas tree. Still in the box. Lying on its side. He’s all cat.
Hmmm…what would that song “Santa Claus Is Coming To Town” be like if Santa was a cat? “Santa Claus is coming to town/No, he’s leaving town/No he’s coming to town/No, he’s leaving town…” Sort of reminds me of that song I wrote once: “The Little Drummer Cat.” (“Come, they told me/Yeah, good luck with that.”) Let’s not forget that other Christmas carol: “What Size 12 Is This?” The gang and I wail that one every time some Philistine interferes with our back alley caroling.
“The Year Without A Santa Claus” is another of those classic animated shows. Maybe I’m distantly related to the Miser brothers. (“They call me Lap Miser/Whatever I touch/ Starts to sneeze in my clutch/I’m too much! Too much!”) “Too much” is right, Felix. We’ve used up our monthly space. Merry Christmas to you and all my readers. Especially the Smiths! Can I buy a gift certificate for cosmetic surgery?
What else warms the cockles of my heart? I like seeing pageants with the Wise Men following the Star in the East.
Manny (full name “Emanuel” or “Dog With Us”) is Steve and Michele Sipress’ crazy, rambunctious cocker spaniel. He has a weak leg (despite a mostly-successful back surgery), grey hair, is totally deaf and partially blind. But he still enjoys barking at the mailman and landscapers, pulling dead frogs out of nearby ponds and chasing after his beloved squeaker toy. He loves everyone (even the mailman and landscapers), and everyone loves him.
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HOW TO FEEL CONFIDENT AT WILL | DECEMBER 2014
HOW to Feel CONFIDENT at WILL
By Dan Sullivan
Entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies grow by taking risks, so confidence is an important foundation to entrepreneurial success. What is confidence? Confidence is the ability to transform fear into focused and relaxed thinking, communication, and action — turning dangers into opportunities, obstacles into innovations, weaknesses into advantages, and setbacks into breakthroughs. Here are strategies to get you started: Strategy One: Do a Positive Focus.
confidence-boosting tool? We’ve developed an app called WinStreak that you can use track your “wins” each day. It’s a great way to build the habit of measuring, appreciating, celebrating, and building on your progress in a conscious way on an ongoing basis. A virtuous cycle. Confidence is self-perpetuating: the more you have, the more you get. Simply thinking of all the things you gain confidence from will remind you of what it feels like to have confidence and why it’s so important to continually develop and reinforce this ability.
Take a moment each day to do a Positive Focus: Make a list of five specific achievements — areas in which you’ve made progress, either large or small — and write down why this is important to you, and what you can do next to build on that achievement. Do this for 21 consecutive days, and you’ll make reinforcing and protecting your confidence a habit. Strategy Two: The Confidence System. The Confidence System is a simple approach that draws on your own knowledge of what makes you feel confident and packages it as a custom-designed tool you can use to maintain your confidence on a daily basis. To design your Confidence System, ask yourself, “What gives me confidence?”Your answer can include activities, relationships, actions, and achievements — big or small. Maybe it’s eating well, exercising, having a plan, working on projects with a big future, or spending time with family and friends. Write your ten best confidence habits on a piece of paper. This list is the basis of your Confidence System. Because this system is created for you, by you, it’s easy to follow and build habits around. If you want to make maintaining your confidence a habit, look at your list every day and try to incorporate the ten habits on it into your routine. As you look at your Confidence System regularly, you’ll begin to see small improvements you can make that will have a bigger impact. If you look at it when you’re not feeling confident, you’ll see how to get back on track. Strategy Three: WinStreak. There’s an app for that! If you’ve got a smartphone, chances are it’s with you day and night, so why not turn it into a
About Dan Sullivan Dan Sullivan is founder and president of The Strategic Coach Inc. A visionary, an innovator, and a gifted conceptual thinker, Dan has over 35 years’ experience as a highly regarded speaker, consultant, strategic planner, and coach to entrepreneurial individuals and groups. Dan’s strong belief in and commitment to the power of the entrepreneur is evident in all areas of Strategic Coach® and its successful coaching program, which works to help entrepreneurs reach their full potential in both their business and personal lives. He is author of over 30 publications, including The Great Crossover, The 21st Century Agent, Creative Destruction, and How The Best Get Better®. He is co-author of The Laws of Lifetime Growth and The Advisor Century. To download your free copy of The 80% Approach digital book and audio, and to watch Dan’s presentation of The 80% Progression, go to: www.StrategicCoachFreeGift.com
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HOW TO SIMPLIFY YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY INTO THREE STEPS | DECEMBER 2014
HOW TO SIMPLIFY YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY INTO THREE STEPS By Kim Walsh-Phillips While only 30% of businesses receive an ROI from their social media marketing, getting a return on your time, money and energy doesn’t have to be complicated. (Source: IOC Survey 2014)
c. Send emails to build trust and ultimately make an offer to buy something
First, ignore fluff metrics like Impression, Reach, Clicks and Return on Engagement. While they can help you see “behind the scenes” of your marketing, they aren’t tied to any real growth numbers and can be a distraction from real business-building tactics. Second, to be effective while not spending all day on social media, ignore every plugin, shiny object or new network that comes your way. While there are many options of what you can do, if you want to spend less time on social media while getting better results, put blinders on for most of what’s out there.
e. Hold a live consulting call
d. Provide a video series f. Offer a free webinar that gives lots of content and will ultimately make an offer to buy something That’s it…three steps to success on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter. ….With no Likes, Contest, Post Promotion or Fancy Apps needed.
Simple Three-Step Formula I’ve devised a stunningly simple, yet effective way to approach social media: M (Magnet), O (Opt-In), M (Monetize). M: Magnet. Turn your social media profile into a magnet for your perfect prospects so you can attract them to you where they are, pick them up, and take them out of the network into your own channel. Your goal should be to get them out of the social media channel as quickly as possible so you aren’t competing with all that’s on the network. A magnet for your perfect prospects, in two ways: 1. Attract your perfect prospects. This means knowing exactly who you are for and who you aren’t for and developing an initial offer of value to draw them in. This can include a free report, white paper, e-book, webinar, discount code, gift certificate, entry in a contest, or ticket to an event. 2. Move them out of Facebook. Send your perfect prospects outside of Facebook to receive their reward and to begin your long-term relationship. O: Opt-In. Here is where you are going to target your PERFECT prospects. Start testing your ads with $5-$10 a day daily spends to see what your cost-per-opt-in is in order to determine your budget. M: Monetize. The big secret to selling through Facebook marketing is that you don’t sell on Facebook. Instead, you are planning ahead of time what is happening to your leads in order to close a sale after your prospect fills out the initial opt-in form. Some options in monetizing your leads after the opt-in:
About Kim J. Walsh-Phillips Kim Walsh-Phillips is the award-winning Speaker, Author, Strategist and CEO of IO Creative Group, a results-driven marketing and PR agency. She is a techie marketing geek with great shoes, a hatred of awareness campaigns and an obsession for marketing with a sharp focus on ROI. Kim has worked with brands such as GKIC, Sandler Training, Harley-Davidson, Chem-Dry and Hilton Hotels to increase revenue through direct response marketing. Kim has been featured by NBC, CBS, FOX and NPR and is the author of the best-selling Stupid Series, including “Awareness Campaigns are Stupid,” “Other Secrets to Stop Being An Advertising Victim and Start Monetizing Your Marketing” and the upcoming book: “Most Social Media is Stupid: Strategies to monetize your online marketing while you ignore everything else”.
a. Invite to an event
Watch her free training video, “How To Turn Facebook Likes Into Customers In Just Three Steps” at:
b. Provide a discount code or gift certificate with a set deadline to redeem
www.Social-Media-Marketing-Success.com
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EXPERT INTERVIEW WITH JIM PALMER | DECEMBER 2014
EXPERT INTERVIEW
JIM PALMER
A LOVE FOR HELPING ENTREPRENEURS Steve Sipress: Jim, you were the first ever outside guest speaker I had at an event that I hosted for entrepreneurs, which I hosted over 200 of these events over about six years. It was a little over five years ago that I invited you, and you graciously accepted to come out, and to teach my people and be my very first guest speaker at one of my local Chicago entrepreneur group meetings. It’s amazing it’s taken this long for me to get you back on here. Jim Palmer: It’s my pleasure. I remember that very fondly. I think there was 60 people there in a very dynamic group. Steve, if my memory is correct, after you introduced me and I started speaking, you like to have a lot of pictures at an event. I turned to pose for you, then I said, “Okay Steve, that’s enough now.” Do you remember that? Steve:
wife Michele would be greeting people at the door, and I’d be making follow-up emails and phone calls. I kept track of everything, and I was the photographer, and I was the caterer. You were back there way in the early stages where maybe a lot of our readers and listeners were, and probably you were, back when it was the solopreneur. You were turning around and posing for the pictures, and I was interrupting your talk. You were like, “Will you sit down already? I’ve got to tell this story without you bothering me behind me.” Jim:
That’s great. So many of the people I’ve met there, I’m still in touch with. I know you’re still in touch with all your meetings and stuff.
Steve:
Hopefully through this interview, I put you in touch with some more people that are listening or reading this, that are going to call you up or email, or hit your websites. Back then, it’s only five years ago, and you were known for one thing, and one thing only. You were THE newsletter guru.
Yeah. Now I will. I don’t remember yours in particular because I did that in all those earlier events. Back then, I would set up the tables, and my beautiful
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A LOVE FOR HELPING ENTREPRENEURS | DECEMBER 2014
own articles, it’s ridiculous. I charge $20 or $30; something like that. It’s less if you’re a member. Custom Article Generator; that’s another program I failed to mention.
That has expanded now. How many done-for-you services in addition to newsletters do you provide for entrepreneurs? Jim:
Let me see if I can go down. No Hassle Newsletter is of course my flagship. From there, I started Concierge Print and Demand. We’d print 4050,000 newsletters a month. I have a done-foryou program called No Hassle Social Media. We have No Hassle Infographic Generator, so we produce some really cool, what I call, eye candy for Pinterest and other social media. Of course, I have a podcast called Stick Like Glue Radio. As you know, I’ve been doing videos, weekly videos, for over five years now, which continues to be the #1 way to connect me with folks. Like you, I run my own mastermind programs. Multiple streams of revenue are good.
Steve:
You’re leading by example. I think I remember back when, maybe you’re not doing it anymore, when you had something that would automatically – people could write articles automatically.
Jim:
I forgot that. That’s my Custom Article Generator. We have six writers now, and we produce articles, 300-word custom articles from scratch for a ridiculously, even if you like to write your
Steve:
I’m sure that as we go through this interview, you’ll come up with about ten more. You mention your weekly videos. I just love the ones where you’re kayaking down the river. What percentage do you think of the weekly ones you’ve been doing for years have you – they’re so interesting if you’ve gotten out of the studio and doing them on location somewhere.
Jim:
I’ll give you a little background on that. When I started doing my videos, like everybody, I bought that flip-cam, which was $120 at the time. You hold it with my right arm up, and I’m looking up, and I’m feeling incredibly awkward, Steve. I think it was around episode 10 or 20, I said, “I’m going to be out in my kayak.” I thought I wanted to make it a little interesting. For the first several, I’m, “Hey, it’s Jim Palmer, the newsletter guru. I want to give you a good tip on blah, blah, blah.” And I’m trying to be Mr. Professional. I was standing on the edge of the lake doing my intro, and I said, “Okay, let me jump in the kayak, and I’ll give you some good information.” When I was getting in there, I slipped on that green mossy stuff, and I fell in the water. It was April, so it was kind of chilly. I’m paddling. I’ve got my little camera on a little tripod in the cup holder, and I’m talking. A little voice in my head Steve, said, “Tell them what just happened.” I shared, even with a straight face, “I just want to let you know I failed, but hey it’s cold, but the show must go on.” That generated probably 10 or 15 emails, which was about 10 or 15 times more than I’ve gotten up to that point. I said, “Okay, just be yourself.” If you’ve seen my videos today, I mess up a word, I goof around with my cat, when she was chewing on my mic cord this morning when I shot the episode for this week. I go everywhere. When people say, “What is your strategy for these videos?” what I do is, I combine information with entertainment. They go, “Entertainment?” No, I don’t go juggle chainsaws or flaming bowling pins, but I do something other than the typical torso-and-head shot sitting at your desk. Here’s the key, Steve. Volume II Number 12 | Pg 5
EXPERT INTERVIEW WITH JIM PALMER | DECEMBER 2014
People want to learn from you, but they also want to connect with you. When you can just let down your guard a little bit, and just be yourself. I’ve had people take me to task a little bit, “You use Toby like a prop.” Toby’s my dog. I find when you look away from the camera, everybody as you know, is willing to give you what they feel is constructive criticism. All I do is, I kind of just dismiss that, and I just be myself. Either you resonate, connect with me and appreciate what I’m doing, or you don’t.
Steve::
You’re making a whole bunch of very important points. One thing is that you know and you teach is, the people that are turned off by that, good. They’re never going to buy from you anyway if they’re that stuck up. When they say you’re using your dog as a prop, that’s nothing. My dog writes a monthly column in my magazine. My dog is always coming up with something for his blog post. Back when I first went on to Facebook about five or six years ago, I put on a photo of myself and my doggie in the photo, and I have never changed my Facebook primary photo. I know people change theirs all the time. I’ve kept mine, and I get plenty of comments of, “What kind of doggie? I love your doggie.” Anyone who would say something like, “Oh, you’re using your doggie.” Number one, they just don’t get
it. Number two, go be upset at somebody else. Life is too short. Either you like me, or go away. There’s plenty of people in the world out there. Here’s a question I have. So many people are capable of doing stuff, like you are, and building businesses, but not many of us love teaching and sharing with other people. Where did you come up with this obvious love you have for helping other entrepreneurs be successful? Jim:
I appreciate that, Steve. Helping other entrepreneurs just goes with who I am as a person, as in my private life, if you can call it that, about being a giver. I know you’re familiar with my back story a little bit. 13 years ago, I had been unemployed for 15 months, heavily in debt, I’m battling cancer for the first time, and it really brought me to a very low point in my life. That’s when I decided to become an entrepreneur. When you face your mortality, and there was about three weeks where I didn’t know if my chance of being alive in five years was 80% or 50%, you get real very fast about what’s important in your life. As a result of going through that, I do three things. I place a much higher priority on the relationships and the important people in my life. Number two, I give back and serve others in both, my private life – I’m talking about my Church and local nonprofits. The third one, by the way, is I laugh more because as you say, life’s too short to be serious all the time. Now, I think the keyword we’re talking about with the videos is just being authentic, and people connect with that. As far as the giving part, when I started getting into internet marketing, I think one of the first products I bought was Corey Rudl’s program, and Yanik Silver, and all those guys back in the day. They talked about giving. You and I kind of came up through the ranks about the same time, I think, at least in the Glazer-Kennedy world. Steve: I think so. That was my first internet marketing toolkit, or whatever. I still have it somewhere. That was my first internet marketing product, too. Jim: At least in my case, being a former corporate guy, when I learned about, “You want to give
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A LOVE FOR HELPING ENTREPRENEURS | DECEMBER 2014
away this information for free.” I’m like, “What?!” as a strategy to have people connect with you, get them on your list, and things like that. I started doing that, and it was because of my transformation after going through what I went through, it’s like the more you give, the more you get. I think that’s a big disconnect where people feel, “I’m going to give them a little bit. If they want the good stuff, they’ve got to pay me.” I got to tell you, when I do these videos, the articles, I’m writing my sixth book now, I don’t self-edit at all. There’s such an education out there, either for free, or for a very low cost. Let me put a bow on this whole conversation, Steve. The reason I do that, number one, is because of my lifestyle. But number two, because it’s fricking worked like crazy for building a business. When you share, and when you give, it just comes back to you. I think it comes back to you in spades. Steve:
That was pretty much a synopsis. If I remember, it’s been maybe five years ago, but you had a book titled Stick Like Glue. I remember that, and it was all about how to, it was customer retention; how to get people to stick.
Jim:
Yep. Stick Like Glue came out of – I spent a lot of years in retail. I was 21. I managed my first bike shop at the bicycle business. We went through, in 1980, we now call it the Carter Recession. I’ve been through a few recessions. Our business was really off. The number of people coming in, dropping $300 per bike was really getting quite small. What I decided to do, I said, “Listen. The few customers we have coming in the door, we’re going to love them like crazy, and with all due respect, we’re going to show them all the things that we’re normally too busy to show them.” In other words, we’re going to maximize the profitability of each and every client. So when someone buys a bike, we’re also going to show them, “By the way, you want these padded shorts, you want the gloves, you want the lock, the backpack, the computer; you want all this stuff.”
Don’t be afraid to sell it. It’s going to really make their cycling experience more enjoyable. On fewer customers, we actually maintained a good level of profit in that business, but because we were loving our customer so much, and really putting them first, they started referring people. We started growing. Of course, when the economy turned around in the mid 80’s, we really took off like a rocket ship. But I never forgot that, Steve. It’s so much a part of my
DNA, that everybody that’s on my support team, I have nine people that help me run the various businesses. They know for a fact that each and every client relationship that we have or newsletter member or whatever, they are not only important to our business, they’re critical to our survival. When you think of it like that, if you come up with some kind of a situation, or a customer’s got either a problem, complaint, or just a suggestion, when you look at them, every single person, whether you have hundreds of clients or 10, that they’re critical to the survival of your business, it really clarifies how you’re going to handle that situation.
About Jim Palmer Jim Palmer is a marketing and business building expert and host of Newsletter Guru TV and Stick Like Glue Radio. He is known internationally as “The Newsletter Guru”- the go-to resource for maximizing the profitability of customer relationships. He is the founder and President of Custom Newsletters, Inc., parent company of No Hassle Newsletters, No Hassle Social Media, The Newsletter Guru’s Concierge Print and Mail on Demand, Magnetic Attraction and Retention Training Program (MARS), Success Advantage Publishing, Double My Retention, Stick Like Glue Radio, and Newsletter Guru TV. He is also the acclaimed author of five books. Jim is a cancer survivor, has been married for thirtythree years, has four grown children and an awesome grandson. He lives in Chester County, PA with his wife, Stephanie, their cat Serendipity, and Toby the marketing dog. Jim and Stephanie love to kayak, travel, and spend time with their family. Get 5 Free Business-Building Gifts at: www.TheNewsletterGuru.com
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THE MAN WITH A STEEL POST IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS CUBICLE | DECEMBER 2014
THE MAN WITH A STEEL POST IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS CUBICLE When John Paul Mendocha was competing for defense contracts, there was a guy in a V-neck sweater. Many times there would be 30-40 people in a meeting. The man in the V-neck would be at every one. He never said a word, he just quietly sat on the edge. Since John made it a point to know the names of every single person at every meeting, he began to wonder who this guy was. He found out his name was Lester. Lester worked in a vast cubicle farm in building #19. A white steel beam pierced the center of his 6×6 office. All day he worked with back of his chair chafing against that steel post as he faithfully performed his job on a desk the size of a TV tray. John’s boss, Liz, said, “Don’t waste your time with that guy. He has no authority.” John takes Lester to lunch. “Lester, you must talk to a lot of vendors.”
By Perry Marshall
isn’t all that useful. But Lester also has a list of all the program managers and all the players. Lester gives him the names of all the young up-and-comers in the organization. He even gave John copies of the interdepartmental newsletter. Against company policy, I’m sure. But here’s the thing: John was the only man in on earth who acknowledged the importance of Lester’s job. Even though Lester had no official power whatsoever, he knew where all the bones were buried. So when John finally got the $20 million contract to sell 944 computers to Lester’s company, how important did those lunches turn out to be? If you sell complex stuff to complex organizations, there’s a Lester somewhere, with a steel beam piercing the center of his office. There’s even a possibility of having a John in your life who talks to the Lesters – and negotiates with the “Decision Makers.”
“Yes, I do.” “What’s your job here?” “I’m Logistical Support. My job is to keep track of where the equipment is, who’s in charge of it, who owns it, the spending profile, what programs it’s associated with, whose budget it’s under.” “Wow, that’s a big job.” “A few months ago, one of our suppliers shipped a fifty dollar part 72 hours late. I reported it to the purchasing department and it cost them a $4.7 million contract.” “You must know the inner workings of everything.” “Yeah. I’m in charge of taking the printouts off of the VAX mainframe computer and scouring them for inconsistencies. When I find a problem, I notify the departments.” “Wow, that’s an important job,” John says. Lester says, “When we get back to Building 19, I’ll show you how I do it.” They go back to Building 19 and Lester shows him a gleaming new DEC VAX mainframe. Then he walks John around the computer room showing John every VAX, each model, the entire configuration, the peripherals, everything. A few weeks later, Liz fires John for spending time with low-lifes like Lester. She had instructed John to only work with“Decision Makers.” John takes a job at a new supplier, one that also sells to this same Fortune 500 company. John starts taking Lester to lunch every week.
About Perry Marshall Entrepreneur Magazine says: “Perry Marshall is the #1 author and world’s most-quoted consultant on Google Advertising. He has helped over 100,000 advertisers save literally billions of dollars in Adwords stupidity tax.” He is referenced across the Internet and by The New York Times, The Washington Post, USA Today, the Chicago Tribune and Forbes Magazine. Get your free course, “5 Steps To Mastering The Most Powerful, Cost-Effective Way To Attract New Customers And Build Your Company’s Credibility With White Papers! … And How YOU Can Write a White Paper in 1-2 Days, Not Weeks or Months!” by going to: www.PerryMarshallFreeCourse.com
Lester’s information on all the equipment in the office frankly Volume II Number 12 | Pg 9
ARE YOU WASTING YOUR MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE? | DECEMBER 2014
Are You WASTING Your MOST VALUABLE Resource
?
What is your most valuable resource? If you said anything other than time you would be wrong. As a sales professional you are paid in direct proportion to how well you use your time. There are 1,440 minutes in a day. How many of those minutes are you productive? By most accounts people are productive less than 10 percent of those 1,440 minutes each day. Lee Iacocca, one of the most well respected CEOs of our time, admitted that he was productive only about 45 minutes each day. Various studies have shown that salespeople are productive at most about 90 minutes each day. If you think you are more productive I challenge you to do this time productivity activity. Take a legal pad and in the left hand margin write out, in fifteen increments, the hours of the day. Each 15 minutes track and write down what you did. Do this as you go through the day, not at the end of the day when your memory will fail you. Do this for three weeks and then analyze how much of your time is spent doing non productive activities. You will be astounded. Once you come to the honest realization that you are wasting at least 80 percent of your working day, try the following techniques to help you become more productive.
By Steve Clark
4. Make and use written lists. Every successful salesperson I know makes and uses written lists. Daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual lists. Lists engage the subconscious and help keep us focused on what needs to be done. 5. Schedule your time in chunks. When planning your day schedule your time by blocking out important things first on your calendar. After the important chunks are blocked out go back and plug in the less important items. 6. Make use of idle time. Turn off the radio and turn your vehicle into a rolling university by listening to audio programs during commute time and driving to and from sales appointments. Carry reading material with you at all times and make use of the minutes that you now waste when you have to wait. 7. Minimize unplanned time. Learn to discipline yourself by living by a routine and schedule. Leave little to chance and schedule everything including leisure time. The day of accounting will come and you will look back on your life and either be glad you managed your time well or you will regret that you did not.
1. Turn off the cell phone and quit answering in-bound phone calls unless you are the receptionist. People are addicted to the ringing of the phone the way Pavlov’s dogs were addicted to the ringing of the bell. As a result they are constantly interrupted and suffer from poor productivity. 2. Minimize meetings. Most business meetings are a waste of time. They are attended by participants that erroneously think attendance constitutes productivity. They are punctuated by long discussions that seldom solve anything or result in decisions being made. If you must have a meeting have one with no chairs in the room and no food or drink served. This will encourage people to get the business done so they can return to the comfort of their cubicle. 3. Be on time. One of my mentors, Dan Kennedy, says that the single greatest characteristic of successful people is their punctuality. Being punctual is an integrity issue that illustrates whether or not one can be trusted.
About Steve Clark Steve Clark aka, “The Sales Psychologist”, is the founder and CEO of New School Selling, an international business development and marketing consulting firm. He is the author of ‘Profitable Persuasion - Proven Strategies for Sales and Marketing Success’ and the Co-Author of “The Ultimate Success Secret” with marketing Guru Dan Kennedy. To take a FREE Sales Quiz, and receive a customized personal analysis of your sales skills plus a set of 6 FREE Sales Training CDs go to www.SteveClarkFreeOffer.com
Pg 10 | Money-Making Monthly Magazine | www.SteveSipress.com
*FACT: 95% of Small Business Owners work WAY
too hard, have WAY too much stress and make WAY too little money – then go out of business in their first five years.
Steve Sipress The WOW Strategy™ Creator
I help Small Business Owners who want A LOT more out of life systematically attract their ideal customers, clients or patients using The WOW! Strategy™, so they totally transform their income and lifestyle.
To request your personal, 1-on-1 The WOW! Strategy™ Session, go to:
Jon Bockman Sycamore, IL
“Steve is all business. He is an unbelievably smart, brilliant, brilliant man. I can't say enough about him. Steve has put probably more, I would say, thousands, and thousands, and thousands of dollars... I mean, I probably can't even put a true figure on it, because it keeps coming back, and keeps coming back, just more and more money all the time.”
“One suggestion that Steve gave me, well, without question, put $300,000 more in my bank account. And we are going to be using it forever. This is not a one-time deal. We’re going to be using this idea that Steve helped us with... and we’ll be using it until it doesn't keep working like it is. And so, the value over time could literally be way over even the $300,000 number.”
Mary Forte Bensenville, IL
Keith Lee Seattle, WA
“He's helped me learn how to market my business, and today I can say that we're more successful than we've ever been… I needed to learn how to market the business better to create more revenue, and that's what Steve has helped me with. The financial difference is considerable. We've probably close to doubled our revenues. We're on track now to do another close to $500,000 more than we did last year. So that's awesome. I do owe all of that to Steve.” Volume II Number 12 | Pg 11
IRRESISTIBLE OFFERS – HOLIDAY STYLE | DECEMBER 2014
IRRESISTIBLE OFFERS
HOLIDAY STYLE
By Steve Sipress
I’ve helped thousands of small business owners, entrepreneurs and sales professionals implement The WOW! Strategy™ over the past four decades, resulting in many millions of dollars worth of revenue and profits. The most important part of The WOW! Strategy™ is to create an Irresistible OFFER. In my experience, that’s also the toughest part for people to get right. We’re all used to extremely weak, easily-resistible offers from businesses, like “Get 25% Off!” or “Free Estimate!” or “After 9 Sandwiches, Your 10th One is Free!,” so naturally there’s a tendency to offer the same kind of ineffective offers ourselves. Big mistake. None of those causes anyone to think, “Wow! What’s the catch?” or “That just sounds way too good to possibly be true!” And none of them causes anyone to run to do business with the company making the offer. In other words, they are not truly Irresistible Offers. Extending such timid, non-compelling offers causes business owners to get weak or no results from their advertising and/ or marketing, which causes frustration, cash-flow issues and a loss of hope based on the belief that “___ type of advertising/ marketing doesn’t work for my business.” None of that is good for business owners.
And none of it is necessary. One of my specialties is helping business owners and entrepreneurs create Irresistible Offers that attract floods of their ideal customers, clients or patients. I often share examples of Irresistible Offers I have created and used for my own businesses and those of my clients to help business owners understand the concept. And last month we got a treasure trove of them. Thousands of American businesses seized the Veteran’s Day holiday as an opportunity to come up with Irresistible Offers – even if they only extended those offers to people with military experience. Veterans could start their day with a free cup of coffee from Starbucks, Roy Rogers, Einstein Bagels, or Krispy Kreme, grab a free breakfast at Denny’s, Friendly’s, Bob Evans or IHOP, head over to Sport Clips or Great Clips for a free haircut before grabbing a free lunch at Applebee’s, Chili’s, TGI Friday’s, Sizzler, Arby’s, On The Border, California Pizza Kitchen, Max & Erma’s, Shoney’s, Red Robin or Olive Garden. They could then get a free post-lunch massage at Massage Envy or Ideal Massage, take advantage of a free car wash at 7-Eleven, then head to dinner at Famous Dave’s, Tony Roma’s, Claim Jumper or McCormick & Schmick’s before finishing off their day with free ice cream from Handel’s or free frozen yogurt from Orange Leaf or Menchie’s.
Pg 12 | Money-Making Monthly Magazine | www.SteveSipress.com
IRRESISTIBLE OFFERS – HOLIDAY STYLE | DECEMBER 2014
(and even some who added various farless-than-irresistible requirements and restrictions, such as “*Must purchase a meal to get a free appetizer”), Jon gained tremendous goodwill and produced positive feelings about his business not only from all of the veterans who took him up on his gracious offer, but also from the many more non-veterans who weren’t eligible for the free oil change yet felt respect and appreciation for Jon just seeing that he extended that free service to U.S. veterans. Such goodwill and positive feelings will almost undoubtedly lead to tens of thousands of dollars in future revenue for him, just like it has every year he’s done this in the past.
In addition to these national and regional chains, thousands more local businesses got in on the action, offering free services to active and/or retired military personnel. One such local business owner is my client, Jon Bockman, second-generation owner of Bockman’s Auto Care, who raised his business up from the brink of bankruptcy to a million-dollar success by implementing smart marketing based on The WOW! Strategy™. All six bays of Jon’s shop were busy all day long on Veteran’s Day with Veterans taking him up on his “Free Oil Change For Veterans” Irresistible Offer. Just like all the other national, regional and local businesses who extended such no-strings-attached Irresistible Offers
That’s one of the keys to coming up with your Irresistible Offer: Calculating the Lifetime Value of a new customer, client or patient, so you know how much you will be happily willing to invest in order to attract one. And whenever you have the opportunity to tie yourself to a charity or popular cause (in this case, supporting our veterans), that’s an extra boost to the power of your promotion. If you want help creating your own Irresistible Offer to attract a flood of your ideal prospects, I offer readers of this blog a free 1-on-1 Strategy Session. Yes, that’s yours for the taking, whether you’re a U.S. veteran or not, and whether it happens to be a holiday or not. To request your free 1-on-1 Marketing Turnaround Strategy Session with me, go to: www.SteveSipress.com
To find out more about Steve Sipress and how he can help you have more fun and make more money with your business, see the Inside Cover Page. To get new money-making strategies and tips every weekday from Steve and other top business-building experts from around the world, go to: www.RhinoDaily.com
Volume II Number 12 | Pg 13
MONEY-MAKING MONTHLY Volume II Number 12 | December 2014
www.SteveSipress.com/magazine
This Month’s Money-Making Info
1 2
FELIX NAVIDAD Manny’s Blog
HOW TO FEEL CONFIDENT AT WILL By Dan Sullivan
3
HOW TO SIMPLIFY YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY INTO THREE STEPS By Kim Walsh-Phillips
FEATURE ARTICLE
4
9
THE MAN WITH A STEEL POST IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS CUBICLE By Perry Marshall
10
ARE YOU WASTING YOUR MOST VALUABLE RESOURCE? By Steve Clark
12
IRRESISTIBLE OFFERS – HOLIDAY STYLE By Steve Sipress
EXPERT INTERVIEW JIM PALMER: A LOVE FOR HELPING ENTREPRENEURS Publisher Steve Sipress Successful Selling Systems, Inc. 869 E Schaumburg Rd #237 Schaumburg, IL 60194 (p) 773-236-8134 (f ) 847-232-1535 Questions? Comments? Suggestions?
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Editor Jennifer Maks
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