Archive for Marketing
New Free Report on Fast Growth Released Today!
Posted by: | CommentsWant to Know How You Can Immediately Begin to Grow Your Business Faster Than You Ever Have Before—While Increasing Your Ability to Lead It More Effectively?
If so, you’ll want to immediately get your hands on the new free report I just released today entitled, “The Seven Secrets of Fast Growth Companies.”
Inside it you’ll discover,
• The number one differentiator between slow and fast growth companies
• The two key elements you need to use to create a fast growth culture
• A simple practice that can radically reduce the time it takes to implement anything
• A lesson from a Harvard professor that can change the way you think forever about your products and services
• A top team practice that can change any meeting you run—and make it more effective.
• The one metric you need to use before choosing any growth idea if you want to be an accelerated growth company
• How you can create a business that’ll scale fast
• How to avoid letting your market think you’re just like “everyone else.”
• How you can create a business that works 24/7, especially when you’re not around.
• And the number one mistake that most CEOs of small and medium-sized make
To get your copy immediately, just fill in the form in the right hand column entitled, “Interested in the 7 Secrets of Fast Growth Companies?” and then click the submit button, “Send it to me now!”
Then after you read it, post your comments below!
Give Away Your Best Ideas
Posted by: | CommentsIf you want to succeed quickly, especially in the information/ professional services arena, you’ll want to practice this idea. However, you can also apply this principle to your leadership or parenting or networking, etc.
Again, just like yesterday, I want to acknowledge Eben Pagan for sharing this concept. The metaphor he uses to explain it is perfect. Let’s say you decide to cut a CD and you want to release a song to radio stations across the US to drive sales of your album. Which conversation are you going to have with your team.
2. “Which of these twelve tracks is our best?”
Obviously the second. You always release the song (or in our case, idea), which you think has the greatest likelihood of becoming a hit. Your goal is that they’ll love the song so much that they’ll want to buy the CD. It’s not the worst song that you want to release for free but the best.
Now, if you’re like most people, you’re probably thinking, “But if I give them my best ideas for free, why would they want to buy my product/service?” Answer, the same reason why you buy the CD. The song entices you/teases you to buy the whole. And when you buy your CD, are you ticked off that the musician includes the song you hear for free on the radio? Of course not. You’d be disappointed if they didn’t!
The reality is that most people don’t get what we say the first time we say it. They may think they do, but they don’t. And even if they do, they forget. I may tell a leader,
“As a leader, you need to cast vision every day in every communication you send out–that means every conversation, every letter, every memo, every message. You need to constantly tell your people, ‘This is who we are. This is where we’re going. This is what we’re becoming. This is why we do what we do. Etc’ As a leader, one of your primary responsibilities is to cast vision and you virtually can’t overdo it. So just cast vision every day in every way and your leadership capacity will rise.”
That is a rock solid idea. Most leaders will acknowledge it. Some will actually do it . . . for a couple of days. But virtually every leader I’ve ever worked with needs to be reminded of that idea over and over again.
In other words, if you’re afraid of giving away your best ideas for free, don’t be. Give them away. Demonstrate your value. Allow people to see your expertise. And you’ll start attracting more and more
people to you.
So, what are your best ideas? Take your area of expertise and make a list of your best ideas for doing something or solving something? Think through the most pressing needs of the people you’re trying to
help. Then take your best idea for solving their most pressing problem and bingo–you’ve got a hit!!!
Don’t wait until tomorrow to do this. Take out a piece of paper right now and make two columns. On the left side, list your best ideas. On the right, list your prospects and/or customers’ most pressing needs/ problems. Then link the best ideas with their most pressing problems and start giving those best ideas away!
To your accelerated success!
How to Connect and Motivate More People to Listen
Posted by: | CommentsDo you ever feel, when writing a letter or giving a speech, that you’re just not connecting well to most of the people in your audience? Or ever feel stuck when trying to write copy for a sales letter? If you have, I’ve got some great advice that will make any of those situations infinitely better.
I was listening to a free audio segment by Eben Pagan as he was promoting his new product launch. During that interview, another internet marketer, Frank Kern, asked him to share one of the best ideas from his new product. To which Eben said something like, “Sure, it’s the idea of using frameworks when structuring a letter or having a conversation.”
He then went on to say that he got this first framework from David Kolb of Harvard and it’s related to the four different learning styles people have. However, before he shared the four styles, he made two comments that I think are incredibly valuable and worth remembering.
2. Which means that most people aren’t effectively communicating with the majority of people when they teach (or write or communicate) since they’re not using all four styles.
Both of those insights are dead on! He then went on to share the four different learning styles
2. The What learning style – This kind of person likes to hear
content, theories, systems, history, etc.
3. The How learning style – This kind of person wants to hear the
practical steps of how to actually do the thing.
4. The What If learning style – This kind of person needs to know how to make this happen RICHT NOW and what the implications of that will be.
That’s brilliant! It’s such a simple outline and easy framework to use. For example, using this very subject, you’ve already seen the “WHY”. The intro asked you a couple of questions, plus the two points about communicating in your own style means that you’re not connecting with most people if you don’t use these four styles.
The WHAT, was the content related to David Kolb and the four learning styles. I’m a WHAT learner and you can see that clearly, for example, after relating the four styles I said, “That’s brilliant.”
However, we haven’t gotten to the HOW yet so some of you aren’t happy yet. The solution is to offer some practical how to’s. For example, I could say, “If you want to increase your ability to connect with all four styles, before you write a single word of your letter, speech or sales copy, write out these four words at the top of your paper, ‘Why? What? How? and What if?’ Then, answer them. Never ever communicate with a group of people without answering all four questions.”
Finally, for the WHAT IF people, I might say, “What I want you to do RIGHT NOW, before you move on to the next thing on your to do list is to make a list of the people you work with and what you think their primary learning style is. Then, the next time you talk with them today, communicate in that style and see what happens. Don’t wait until you have to write a letter or give a speech. Do it right now! And watch the difference.”
In other words, by covering all four styles, you’ll automatically increase the percentage of people who will actually hear what you’re saying in the way that they want to hear it. What a radical idea! So go do it NOW!
To your accelerated growth!
Don’t Make an Omni Mistake!
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever set out to create a system in your business that deliberately irritated or disappointed your customers? Probably not. But if I asked, “Have you ever done so?” The answer would probably be, “Yes!”
I had one of those experiences the other week. I was speaking at a convention in Orlando that was held at the beautiful Omni Hotel Resort at Champions Gate. It was around 9:00 a.m., on the morning of my presentation on “The Four Keys of Accelerated Growth,” when it dawned on me that my talk went from 10:15 a.m. until noon, which was also check out time.
So, I thought, “Why don’t I just call and request a late check out time so I don’t have to pack up right now.” At that moment I went over to the phone next to the bed and saw the following button entitled, “Prompt Response.” Note: It’s the first button on the second row from the bottom (you can click on the image for a larger image)
When I saw that, I thought, “What a great name for a button to call down to the front desk or operator,” and promptly pushed the button. Unfortunately, what happened next was anything but prompt.
It took 15, yes 15 rings before the operator picked up the call. She asked, “How may I help you?” I said, “I’d like to get a late check out for my room.” She said, “Let me transfer you to the front desk.” After which I then waited, catch this, for 60 rings BEFORE I hung up (i.e. no one at the front desk ever picked up the call).
Forget how terrible that was (systems mistakes at every level) and instead think back to the expectation that was set by the button, “Prompt response.” When you hear the phrase, “Prompt response”, how many rings do you expect before someone picks up the line? I’m guessing that while your normal assumption is probably three or four rings, when you hear the word, “Prompt,” it probably means, “On the first or second ring.”
In other words, when the Omni Hotel made a decision to change the normal first button on a hotel phone from “Front Desk” to “Prompt Response,” they created a whole new set of expectations. This wasn’t just a cute marketing phrase, it was a whole new level of expectations they created that needed a whole new level of systems to ensure that it would always be executed perfectly–24 hours a day.
It’s irrelevant if they pick up on the first or second ring 80 percent of the time. For the 20 percent of us who don’t get the standard level of service, it’s even worse than if they hadn’t used the phrase, “Prompt response.” And I’m pretty sure than in anyone’s book, 75 rings doesn’t meet the standard expectation that Omni management set with their cool new first button.
So, as you look at your business, what are the standard expectations that your customers and potential customers have of you? What expectations have you set with your marketing and materials? How often do you meet those expectations? If the answer is anything less than 100%, I’d encourage you to start there.
Why? Because the first step to creating WOW, is to eliminate all unWOW. And the place to start eliminating unWOW is wherever you’re not meeting the standard expectations your customers have of you (like getting a prompt response).
Toward accelerating your success!
Note: This is a great exercise to do with your staff or with a customer advisory board.
What are Your Needle Movers?
Posted by: | CommentsEver wonder what you ought to focus your time and attention on? With so many things on your plate, don’t you often wonder, “Where should I start?” But more importantly, as the point person for your company, it’s even more critical that you focus your attention on those activities that have the highest probability of moving your company forward. So how do you decide what those are?
Well, one way is to use, “Needle Movers,” (a phrase I love) from Christine Comaford. Christine defines a needle mover as a tangible result that if accomplished would change everything for your business. In other words, a needle mover is a game changer. It’s not a simple task. And it’s not necessarily a strategic initiative.
I think of strategic initiatives as key initiatives that the majority of executives (or business units) in a business can be involved in. For example, “To raise the level of excellence,” or “To develop the next generation of leaders.” The idea of a strategic initiative is to get as many people as possible involved in helping move a company or organization forward. If an initiative is something that only one small part of a company might be involved in, the ownership and excitement over that initiative will be minimal.
However, a needle mover could be something that is very specific to a specific area. For example, a needle mover could be, “To land two major accounts with Fortune 500 companies in the next 90 days.” HR and Finance (et. al.) probably won’t be involved in landing those accounts, but landing those two accounts could be a game changer.
Other examples of needle movers might be
• To generate 1,000 new leads this month
• To hire three new pay-for-performance sales reps
• To ink five new joint venture projects over the next quarter
• To create one new product over the next 30 days.
• To outsource all of xyz (so you can focus more time on profitable activities)
• To generate an additional $________ of revenue in the next 30 days
• To add two new sales channels
You get the idea. Based on your size and your market, what would be a game changer for you? What needle movers will radically change everything for you and your business?
Narrow those ideas down to the top three (no more than five) needle moving results you want for the next month (or quarter, or year). Then create a plan for how you plan to accomplish those needle movers. And then finally focus your attention, every day, for the next 30 (or 60 or 90) days on those three (to five) needle movers.
Every morning you need to ask, “What progress will I (or we) make on our needle movers today?” And then, at the end of every day, you need to ask, ”What progress did I (or we) make on our needle movers today?“
If you want to make progress fast, make sure you focus on your needle movers . . . every day!
To your accelerated success!
How Often Do You Communicate Your Marketing Messages?
Posted by: | CommentsI was working out at the gym this afternoon, watching “Pirates of the Caribbean,” on USA (yes, it is difficult to workout on the elliptical these days :-) when I noticed, down at the bottom left hand corner of the screen, the following words,
As I saw that I thought, “Isn’t that amazing. I’ve been watching ads for this show on USA for the past several weeks. Now, they’re even promoting the show during the main content part of other shows–and we’re still SIX WEEKS AWAY!”
Think about that. When was the last time you promoted anything like that?
Most of us send out one or two messages–and when no one or a couple of people respond, we think, “I guess this doesn’t work!”
But maybe it’s not what we’re saying. Maybe it’s that we simply haven’t communicated it often enough.
The old adage is that it you have to communicate a marketing message seven times before a prospect will buy.
However, what the marketing rule-makers don’t tell is that your prospects don’t hear your message, two out of every three times you send it out. In other words, the Rule of 7 is really the Rule of 21.
So as you look at the marketing messages that your firm or business is sending out, how frequently do you communicate your messages? Are you sending them out at least 21 times? If not, you may want to take a lead from USA–who at least knows that if you want to create a hit, you’ve got to send out a whole lot of marketing messages–even if you’re two months out from your launch date.
To your accelerated success!




