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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ChAPTER 1
How Do Marketing Miracles REALLY Occur?
By Dan S. Kennedy.................................................................................. 11
ChAPTER 2
Are you Boring and Bugging your prospects
with YOUR follow-up?
How to be Fun and Entertaining Instead
By David Linton...................................................................................... 23
ChAPTER 3
No Test Drive Needed:
Get Customers Ready to Buy Today Through

Educational Marketing
By Greg Rollett..................................................................................... 35
ChAPTER 4
THE MIRACLE SALES POWER OF YOUR
IRRESTIBLE OFFER!
By JW Dicks, Esq. and Nick Nanton, Esq................................. 43
ChAPTER 5
Use Your Voice and Body Language to
Create Trust in Business
By Tom A. Puentes and Juan Carlos Vazquez..................... 57
ChAPTER 6
The Ultimate Market Offer
The Mafia Offer
By Dr. Lisa Lang................................................................................... 67

ChAPTER 7
Using Effective Sales Choreography to
Create a WOW! Customer Experience
By Sydney Biddle Barrows ............................................................ 79
ChAPTER 8
Its a Miracle!
By David White......................................................................................... 89
ChAPTER 9
4 Keys to A Successful Social Media
Optimization Plan
By Tom Bukacek...................................................................................... 99
ChAPTER 10
YOU DONT NEED A MARKETING MIRACLE:
PREDICT SUCCESS WITH YOUR SALES
By Richard Seppala............................................................................. 109

ChAPTER 11
Earn Your Way into the Hearts
& Minds of Your Customers
By Luba Winter...................................................................................... 119
ChAPTER 12
The Power Of A Price
By Mikkel Pitzner................................................................................. 129
ChAPTER 13
Embracing Online Marketing
By Lindsay Dicks................................................................................... 139
ChAPTER 14
Making a Real Estate Marketing Miracle:
16 Secret Ninja Techniques for Success
By Jason Cianflone........................................................................... 147

ChAPTER 15
Marketing Miracle Formula:
5 Principles to Success
By Lamont Stephens.......................................................................... 157

ChAPTER 16
How to Turn Website Visitors into Paying
Customers in 7 Steps
By Lloyd Irvin......................................................................................... 165
ChAPTER 17
Market Smarter, Not Harder
by Gus Kaloti......................................................................................... 175
ChAPTER 18
LEVERAGING TIME AND RESOURCES:
How farming the right leads will change your business
By Gordon Dey..................................................................................... 183

ChAPTER 19
How To Build A Mobile Website That
Converts Visitors To Clients...
The Top 9 Strategies Revealed
By Gus Skarlis......................................................................................... 191

ChAPTER 20
21st Century Marketing and Analytics:
The Science behind Marketing Miracles
by James Walker.................................................................................... 203

ChAPTER 21
The $20 Million Dollar Marketing
Miracle Formula
By DC Gilman.......................................................................................... 213
ChAPTER 22
CREATING ONLINE MARKETING MIRACLES:
3 FOOLPROOF MAGNETIC MARKETING METHODS
By Darrin Mish....................................................................................... 221

ChAPTER 23
Five Miracles to Help You Transform and
Continuously Improve Your Marketing and
Your Business
By Dale Gibbons.................................................................................... 229
ChAPTER 1
How Do Marketing
Miracles REALLY
Occur?
By Dan S. Kennedy
ets start with my disagreements with some of the contributing

authors in this book. We have differences. But, if we were in
complete agreement all but one of us would be unnecessary.
Marketing is not religion. There is no one right book, nor even a good
argument between warring factions over which is the right book.
Marketing is situational and fungible and flexible, its treasured absolutes
often successfully violated. What makes it interesting enough to be a
life of work as it has been for me, and what lets it produce so many
amazing opportunities, is that there is more than one way to be right,
especially by application, but even by principle. This is why those of
us who create wealth for ourselves and others through marketing test,
test, test and test some more and even test things we personally wager
against and believe will fail. When Einstein was asked how he came
to his discoveries, he replied: I grope. That is exactly how we get
to what is called a control in print, direct-mail, broadcast or on the
11
Marketing Miracles
web: we grope. We test a matrix of possibilities in theme, copy appeals,

offer, formats, etc., etc. and etc. until we get to something that works
sufficiently well to continue its use, then we usually keep testing one
variable at a time against the control. We do as much initial and ongoing testing as the size and scope of the opportunity will allow. This
is not good news for the person looking for just ten commandments (or
fewer). Or for the means of miracles.
Which brings me to my second preface remark: Im not in love with the
Miracles in this books title. When you see an advertiser or marketer
walking on water, he has placed stones beneath the surface. When you
see one of us successfully defy the laws of economic gravity, there is a
rope you cant see. Creating an advertising or marketing success of epic
proportions or an on-going foundation of strong marketing supporting
a small business, professional practice or sales career does involve
some creativity, but is mostly diligent, often mundane hard work.
Theres nothing miraculous about it. As Edison described invention:
1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.
If groping and hard work werent what you had in mind, its very
likely a marketing miracle will stay beyond your grasp, your entire
life. I have many clients who have been with me for 10, 20, even
30 years, and, through marketing, have metamorphosed from poor
to rich, from unknown to famous, even from ignominious repute to
respect and prestige; who have built businesses from zero to $1-billion,
from 4 local clinics to a 360 clinic national chain, or who have more
quietly created high 6-figure to multi-7-figure incomes in a variety of
ordinary businesses. They groped, together we groped. They worked
like few work. On their projects, I worked like few will work. They
and we still grope. They and we still work. Putting it on auto-pilot is
a fools fantasy.
In this chapter written exclusively for this book, I will give you a few
micro directions to categories of market-driven and marketing-driven
opportunity, and refer you to additional information about whichever
intrigue you. But I want to first and foremost more broadly tell you the
truth behind all great marketing successes regardless of what you might
observe from the outside. I have just explained two truths. The third is
more specific: multi-media, multi-step integration. Bluntly, anybody
12
who advises focus on one media to the neglect or exclusion of others

is either selling that media or ignorant, nave or stupid, or both, and to
you, they are dangerous. Beware. The worst number in business is One.
One anything. And just for the record, the internet offers a collection of
online media. Media. Confusing a web site with a business is common
insanity. Insanity is harmful enough, but engaging in common insanity
is especially harmful. You wont find a sustained, sustainable business
living on any one media, or these days, living entirely offline or living
entirely online. Not one. Even Google must use direct-mail to sell its
online advertising services to business, and is steadily increasing its
investment in snail-mail year to year. J. Crew Co. mails 40-million paper
n ink catalogs a year. My client Guthy-Renkers flagship brand, Proactiv,
an acne treatment, generates over $800-million a year not thanks to the
TV infomercials that fueled it as infant, but thanks to a mix of TV, radio,
magazine, local newspaper FSIs (free standing inserts), even Yellow
Pages ads, and more media, and thanks to an offline-online integration
strategy supporting it in maturity.
One last caution. There is a delusional tendency to think that much is
new. A worse tendency is to ignore history in toto as well as history
of the industry or profession one is in, thinking it of no useful current
purpose; at best a curiosity certainly not a valid source of business
plans, strategy, format. The term for this is: willful ignorance. Were I
having to hire (thank the stars, Im not) people to fill skill positions, say
copywriter or salesperson, etc., I would give them a relevant history
test, and pass on the ignorant.
Someone young with an absent background and historical knowledge
thinks he is seeing many things for the first time when, in actuality, they
are re-treads of things done many times before by many predecessors,
and in many instances, done better. He then copycats the already well
diluted, many times copied copy, creating derivative weakness when he
might have traced to earlier and earlier sources and from those built a
much more powerful and profitable asset of his own.
If, for example, you have studied contemporary copywriters but ignored
Bernays or Collier, you are at disadvantage.
Nearly all my successes in authorship, speaking, speaking to sell,
publishing and business have been brought about by circumventing
13
Marketing Miracles
the contemporary and reaching back, often way back, to draw on the
past. A lot of people are fooled by the existence of new technology,
from it getting the idea there are new rules, that somehow the reasons
why money moves about in the marketplace are also altered and new.
In America, we are imperiled as a society by at least two generations
taught so little truthful history and so disinterested in it, that they cannot
even recognize the thoroughly discredited premises of socialism being
aggressively advanced. They remind me of the woman in the TV
commercial, with very poor eyesight, coaching a raccoon in through
her sliding glass door, to join her in bed thinking its Mommas cat.
Similarly, many think my cautions about online and social media that of
a fuddy-duddy, but if asked to describe the rise and fall of other media
once heralded as panacean or as replacement, they are ignorant. Some
are even ignorant of MySpace that, to them, is ancient, irrelevant
history. Many think my constant caution against over-dependence on
any one media is blathering, but they forget, discount or, often, are
ignorant of the sudden disappearance by government decree of, in
regressive order, voice broadcast marketing, cold tele-marketing,
broadcast fax, certain direct-mail formats, TV infomercials the latter
outlawed for many years until Reagans de-regulation.
Part of the work required for great marketing and of rich marketers is
thorough study of, even fascination with the history of their industry, the
history of advertising, marketing and direct marketing, and historical
framework for understanding human psychology and behavior as well
as the movement of money. In advertising, we used to say that giving a
typewriter to a monkey did not make him a copywriter. The same can
be said about more modern technology and media.
With all that said as preliminary remarks, Ill deliver something you
may find more to your liking: specific GPS instructions, pointing to
marketing applications that frequently produce giant breakthroughs in
varied businesses:
PLACE STRATEGY
Many seeming marketing miracles occur by moving a product,
service or business from its traditional, customary or common place(s)
to another place and by place I dont necessarily mean geography;
I mean media or distribution channel. Proactiv: movement from the
14
drugstore shelf first to the TV infomercial, then to virtually all directresponse media. Amazon and Zappos (acquired by Amazon) began by
moving books and shoes from physical stores where people browse
and shop to web stores, where people conveniently buy. The marketer
behind the now iconic Charles Atlas exercise products took its ads to
the pages of comic books.
Often, there is movement from the B2B place to the consumer place
or vice versa. My friend, the late Joe Cossman made one of his many
million dollar fortunes moving a product originally conceived as a
teaching tool to be sold to schools for their biology and earth-science
classrooms to the toy store shelf for consumers: The Ant Farm. A client
of mine took an industrial chemical that dissolves adhesives to QVC,
as a household miracle product that gets gum out of kids hair, easily
removes sticky labels from gifts and has 101 other uses. In reverse,
both the microwave and the computer were invented for commercial
use and everyone involved with both at their births and infancy
could not imagine anybody having them in their homes for personal
use. The pricey massage recliners now sold in all sorts of catalogs,
at Brookstone stores in malls, and at other retailers contain a rolling
massage device built for and used in professional massage tables for
chiropractic offices.
One of the most interesting Place Strategies is out of category advertising.
My clients at Gardners Mattress, a very high-end mattress store in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania, do very well advertising in the Yellow Pages
in the Chiropractic category. Guthy-Renker places ads for Proactiv in
the Dermatologist category in Yellow Pages nationwide. I suppose its
cheating, but its definitely effective. I own racehorses, and at every
horse auction I attend, a jewelry store has set up shop if he can have
another $10,000 horse, I can have a $10,000 diamond bracelet.
PROCESS STRATEGY
From one to one to one to many selling has changed countless
businesses and made countless fortunes. I have a client who books
between $250,000.00 and $1-million of dentistry in a single 2 hour
time block via his in-office Implant Seminars. Do you have any idea
how many one to one appointments youd have to run, each at least an
hour in length, on average getting one out of three, four or five potential
15
Marketing Miracles
patients to accept treatment, in order to book $1-million in dentistry?

I have developed a very sophisticated process for deliberately delaying
a sale, and delivering what I have termed a shock n awe package
before a prospective client or patient is met with, to create profound
preference, pre-determination and price elasticity and we have very
successfully implemented this strategy in financial services, health
care, weight-loss, home remodeling and other fields. (A small caution:
many have copy-catted, a few have outright ripped off my shock-nawe package formats without any real understanding of the psychology
behind it.)
I am also widely respected as king of continuity, using membership
concept to get consumers as well as businesspeople to agree to having
their credit cards automatically charged for a pre-set amount each
month, for bundled goods and services, typically in advance of delivery
or use of those goods and services, thus creating stable and predictable
income, blocking seduction by competitors, and increasing average
retained customer value. Weve done this with hair-cuts: a chain I
helped launch, Kennedys (KennedysBarberClubs.com) has, at this
writing, over 4,000 members paying by the month, not by the haircut.
Dianas Gourmet Pizzeria has done it with a pizza restaurant, per my
model. The GKIC business that publishes my No B.S. Marketing Letter,
other publications, and delivers online and seminar training to hundreds
of thousands of entrepreneurs is entirely based on a membership/
continuity model (DanKennedy.com).
For the life of me, I cant understand the paucity of upsells. This is
one of the most easily understood Processes would you like fries
with that? yet most businesses omit it from their Process Portfolio. I
recently arrived at, checked in at the Omni at CNN Center in Atlanta,
where a nice Jr. Suite had been reserved for me. And it was fine. But
they werent busy. Why not pitch me on upgrade to Luxury Suite if
available, or a massage at the spa or in-room, or the CNN backstage
tour or something? We KNOW FOR A FACT that no less than 5%
to 20% of buyers of just about anything will say yes to an upsell, if
made appealing, and especially if its marginal increase in price. Same
with tiered pricing. The last personal selling environment I was in, as
a speaker, I offered three packages: 55% took the highest price, 35%
16
the middle, 10% the lowest. The amount of money that would have
been left behind if there were only the two, my middle and low, scary.
Further, the more affluent the consumer the more susceptible to tiers or
upsells, especially if limited, because they respond well to exclusivity,
they habitually buy the best options, and they have the ability to buy.
A few weeks back, we were out with friends at a high-end steakhouse,
one in a chain. We all declined dessert. We were not invited to select a
dessert to be nicely packaged to take home with us. Why on earth not?
And what about pre-booking another evening, with some incentive to
do so? When I placed my room service order for dinner at the Omni, no
attempt was made to add a dessert or secure a breakfast order.
Ill tell you what it is. It is ignorance. Sloth. Often, the tactical procedure
has been created, but theres no enforcement to speak of, so it gets done
only by some employees, some of the time. And theres just no hustle.
Years back, I was in a hotel, and got my boots shined at the lobby
shoeshine stand. Guy asked how many nights I was staying. I said:
two. He said: why dont you drop your other boots or shoes off anytime
before I close today, Ill shine em up, and have room service bring
em up to you in a bag first thing in the morning you tell me the time.
See, hustle. I asked him how that worked. He said he did about 30 to
40 pair of shoes that way, all assembly line in the back room when he
closed up shop, gave the room service guys $1 a pair, plus most got
tips when they delivered; he made an extra $150 to $200 a day. About
$40,000.00 a year more than he would have otherwise. Said it put his
kid through college. Hustle. Its unimaginable how much money all
sorts of business let slip away, because they dont offer tiers of service,
upsells, add-ons. If a shoe shine guy found $40,000.00 a year, how
much might you find?
OFFER STRATEGY
Direct-response marketing is much about the offer and one of the
most common of all advertising and marketing mistakes is the utter
absence of offer or a plain vanilla, ordinary offer.
Heres a terrific example from one of my newsletters, the No B.S.
Marketing to the Affluent Letter:
17
Marketing Miracles
Youve seen this mansion on the HBO series ENTOURAGE, as home

of its star, Vincent Chase and his hangers-on. It actually belonged to
Sam Nazarian, CEO of the upscale hotel, resort and nightclub company
SBE. It has 3 bedrooms, 5 baths, panoramic ocean views, a resort-style
pool and spa area, a Hollywood Hills location. It was first put on the
market for $18.5-million in 2009, and languished there, with no takers.
Then a major marketing re-boot.
This time around, the $18-million mansion was bundled with a
collection of exclusive premiums, including VIP guest privileges at
all Nazarian hotels and clubs, catered house parties, hotel services
and concierge services even including an on-call personal assistant
essentially making the house your personal resort. This is an Offer
Strategy usually called Gift-With-Purchase. Estee Lauder is generally
credited with inventing it for the department store cosmetic counter,
where it is still the #1 control cream after all these years. But here its
not being used to sell a pile of wrinkle creams with free leopard tote
back its driving the sale of an $18-million piece of real estate.
This listing/offer was NOT publicly advertised as luxury real estate
instead made known only to a select pool of privileged buyers given a
personal access card with secret pass-codes to the listings details and
an online presentation. The property was sold for $17.9-million in the
first week, breaking a local record for price per square foot.
What occurs to me: the real estate industry is horribly unimaginative.
They ALL think price and reducing price (discounting) when
even with the most affluent consumers, the right bonus gifts can be
much more persuasive. In this case, instead of reducing, reducing and
reducing the price, to $15-million, $13-million, maybe less, the seller
put in bonuses that wont cost more than that; will probably cost less;
and create something truly unique that no one else can have or replicate,
providing unique experience, bragging rights, exclusivity. Once a truly
unique product/offer replaced just another hunk of exorbitantly priced
luxury real estate, the way was cleared for a direct, targeted, efficient
marketing campaign. The outcome: desired price and speed. This is a
business model worth slowing down and thinking about, long and hard.
18
CELEBRITY STRATEGY
Some weeks, the Kardashians seem to own the entire newsstand rack.
But celebrity has moved out of movie magazines long, long ago,
to invade sports, business, finance and investment, and virtually every
other category of commerce. A secret I teach is that the higher ones
income, the more they are being paid for who they are not what they do.
The right who-ing strategy for the right market may incorporate and
differently weight authority, credibility, expert status, key associations
and other factors, but it will always incorporate celebrity in at least one
if not two ways: (1) presenting yourself as a celebrity; (2) connecting
yourself and your business, products or services with a celebrity or
celebrities. Of course, the publishers of this book, Nick Nanton, Jack
Dicks, and their agency, publishing enterprises and coaching are all
about transforming you into a celebrity. They should be listened to on
this subject. I have had 30 years of extensive experience assisting small
business and big corporate clients with obtaining affordable, effective
celebrities for their advertising, marketing, seminars and conferences
and even store and spa grand openings, and the list of entertainment,
sports, business and political celebrities Ive hired, booked and rented,
obtained for clients, brought to the stage of our own GKIC events, and
spoken on programs with repeatedly would fill a book from Donald
Trump (obtained for a client and appeared with myself) to Gene
Simmons (KISS), Ivanka Trump, Adam West (Batman) and George
Foreman (for GKIC events), and the list goes on and on.
If you study marketing miracles you find them celebrity driven far
more often than not.
PRICE STRATEGY & PRICE ELASTICITY STRATEGY

I strongly recommend getting a copy of my book No B.S. Price Strategy.
It summarizes and demonstrates many of the price strategies Ive used
personally and often use to dramatically and instantly multiply a clients
income. Most people under-price and most improperly structure and
present price vs. what would be most persuasive and effective with their
clientele. I have probably created more wealth for more business owners
by influencing their price strategy than by any other single means.
Underestimating the amount of price elasticity and the height of the price
19
Marketing Miracles
pyramid in a category is common failing. Gardners Mattress thrives

selling mattresses priced from $4,000.00 to $35,000.00, surrounded
by over 100 stores selling at the national average of $600.00. Diana
sells pizza at $22.00 to $38.00 despite a 2 for $10 shop a few steps
away. I am routinely paid upwards from $100,000.00 plus royalties
for ad copywriting projects and theres a whole directory full of
credentialed, experienced copywriters who will work for pennies or
dimes on my dollars. There is, obviously, both Dennys and Starbucks,
Kia and Lexus and Rolls-Royce, Motel 6 and Ritz-Carlton.
Most people handicap themselves with regard to price in four ways:
one, their own self-sabotage and poor attitudes about price and
misunderstanding of why and how money moves which I explore
in my book No B.S. Wealth Attraction in the New Economy. Two,
their own poor selection of prospects, customers clients or patients,
something explored in my book No B.S. Marketing to the Affluent.
Three, weak price and price elasticity strategy. Four, sometimes,
ineffective price architecture. As example of the latter, my client, VIE
Partners, prices its expense reduction consulting services to major
hospitals as a percentage of over-payment recapture and expense
reduction rather than fee for service or hourly billing norms in
consulting. Another example, already referenced here, is continuity
in place of cafeteria pricing and pay as you use.
NOT IN CONCLUSION
There is a harmful tendency to confuse ones deliverables with ones
business. This is a root cause of the poor question I get from so many,
with increasing frequency: how can I get all this done for me?....
and the whining complaint I hear as well: I dont have the time for
all this this marketing work, this study. Well, suck your thumb
and settle for ordinary income. Those who get near the top of both the
Income Pyramid and the Wealth Pyramid make a giant mental shift and
have it govern their behavior: they decide their business IS marketing.
It doesnt matter if the deliverable is pizza, dentistry, financial planning
and investments, acne glop, consulting and copywriting, auto repair or
zoo cleaning: those things are not the business. They are not the source
of money. And no miracles will come from the doing of them.
Therefore, this is NOT in conclusion, nor can any chapter in any book
20
about marketing be a conclusion. Marketing is not something you learn

it is something you do. It shouldnt be something you delegate or
outsource, unless you like working at the short end of the money stick.
Each and every day, those rich by marketing, report to school and to
work in their marketing department.
21
Marketing Miracles
About Dan
Dan S. Kennedy is a multi-millionaire, serial entrepreneur, a sought
after and exceptionally well-compensated marketing advisor and direct-response copywriter, popular speaker, and author of more than
20 business books including those in his popular No B.S. series, the
most recent: No B.S. Grassroots Marketing for Local Businesses, No B.S. Trust-Based
Marketing, and No B.S. Marketing to Leading-Edge Boomers and Seniors. His books
are easily found at amazon.com or BN.com and available at all booksellers, and information is at NoBSBooks.com. Information about his newsletters and other resources at
WeRecommendDan.com. Direct inquiries regarding his availability for speaking engagements, consulting or copywriting should be sent by fax to 602-269-3113.
22
Are you Boring and Bugging your prospects with YOUR follow-up?
ChAPTER 2
Are you Boring
and Bugging your
prospects with
YOUR follow-up?
How to be Fun and
Entertaining Instead
By David Linton
ts Monday morning, and you are going thru a pile of papers,

hoping to find potential sales. On these papers are your notes and
the contact information of an assortment of leads. All these folks
contacted you sometime in the past, interested in what you sell. A
couple of them called or emailed you just last week, and there are a
bunch of good onesleads that you have been working on for a
while now that you just know will be deciding on something SOON.
So you want to be sure to get thru them all this week so a big sale
doesnt fall through the cracks.
23
Marketing Miracles
In addition to the stack of papers with notes on them, you have a few
folders in your outlook with the conversations of your most probable
prospects. Oh, and dont forget the referral that some guy gave you
last weekhe told you his friend was in the market and was probably
going to buy this week, so you need to call him right away or it could
be too late. He gave you his card. Where did you put it? Is it lost?
Well after spending all morning looking for that card, you decide to call
the guy that gave you the lead and see if he can give you the contact
information again cause youve lost the card.
He wasnt in, so you left a message for him to return your call. You
have an hour before your afternoon appointment so youre going to see
what you can do with the rest of your pending leadsbefore the week
slips away and you dont get around to calling all of themagain.
So first on your list is Bob Garland. He has been on top of your list
for a while because you need to call him at just the right time. You left
him a voicemail last week just to check in with him and see if he needs
anything else from you before he makes his final decision. This is going
to be a BIG sale and you dont want to bug him again just yet, so put it
24
to the side and lets start with #2.

#2 you dont feel like its the right time to call just yet.
You call #3 and have a good chat. You write on your notes Hes still
deciding, and has my card, will call me when he makes a decision.
(Call him in 2 weeks because hell be buying soon).
You manage to get thru the first 12 in your pile before its time to head
out for your appointment. Most of the rest of them were still deciding.
(Note to self: Next weekstart at the bottom of the pile and work up.)
Still Deciding
Have you ever wondered, of all the people that you talk to, how many
actually buy somethingfrom you or anyone? When they tell you they
are still deciding, do they ever decide? The reality is that many of
them are not only deciding what and from whom to buy, but they are
also deciding if they are going to buy at all, and if so, when. They may
have a problem to solve and a need for what you offer, but they have
no idea what their options are or what the cost will be. The reason
they contacted you was to find out the price and what is involved, to
help them decide when to buy at all. Many times, the first visit is the
beginning of the buying cycle, and it could be 9 months before they
actually do anything.
Most salespeople treat everyone like a NOW customer, when, in
reality, that only accounts for 10% of the people they interact with. The
other 90% are still deciding what to buy and still deciding where to
buy it and still deciding when to buy. For these, its so very early in
the buying cycle that most salespeople give up on them, thinking they
never will buy.
So you probably spent half of all last week talking to people who
were never going to buy right away anyway. Many will buy someday
though, so the time spent last week was still worthwhile as long as
they choose you when they are finally ready to buy. This is a HUGE
opportunity for you because all your competitors are going to give up
on these people waaaay to soon. Warning: be careful not to bug and
bore them with your follow-up communications or you will lose them
forever. In this chapter Im going to teach you how to follow-up in a
25
Marketing Miracles
fun and entertaining way so they like hearing from you instead of just
pushing that unsubscribe.
The Shopping Process

When a prospect talks to a salesperson, they usually tell him what they
think they want. It doesnt matter if their budget is $100 or $100,000,
the process is the same. They want to compare what you have to what
they are looking for; sometimes they even have a sample proposal to
compare yours with.
After visiting with you, they jot down the prices you quoted, ask for
brochures (or that business card they say they will keep); then tell you
theyll think about it. This is the part of the process you see every day.
Heres what you DONT see. They repeat the same process over and
over with your competitors. Then they take all their newly collected
brochures and prices to go home and forget everything all the salespeople
told them and compare their notes and prices.
Then they conclude they can get the same quality thing, at a certain
price, from any one of you.
So how to decide on who to buy from? Of course, YOURE the sales
guy who told them youd match or even beat any other quoted price,
within the same quality range, and should they find something they like
elsewhere, to bring you a sample proposal and you could certainly get
them a comparable or a better price on the same quality thing or better.
So, you are sure you have the deal in the bagright? They will be
talking to you again so youll have an opportunity to close the deal
before it is too late. Ask yourself this: do you sell to much more than
12-20% of the prospects you talk to? Does everyone call you before
they buy from your competitor to at least give you another opportunity
to get their business?
Well, let me let you in on a little secret I learned from one of my
prospects. I used to own a flooring store, Casa Bella Home Solutions.
When people would tell me they were shopping around I would tell
them if they found something they liked elsewhere to bring in a sample,
and I would find a comparable product and match or beat their price.
26
One day, a customer gave me some news I needed to hear (but I didnt
like to hear). She told me that Tom at Brown-Vann Carpet One told
her that he could get her something similar to mine, only at a better
price, if only shed bring him a sample. Then she visited Floor & Dcor
and Caroline told her the same thing, so did Wayne at Waynes Carpet
Plus. Even the kid at Lowes said that. (Although he had to read it out
of the How To Sell Flooring manual they gave him last week when
they moved him out of the plumbing section into flooring). Know that
your competitors are also telling your prospect to call them before
decidingas they may be able to match your quote.
So, what about the all the time spent listening to their plans and
wants, recommending a particular solution, going through all the steps
necessary to figure out a quote for them and presenting it to them in a
manner conducive to making the sale? Do you think that 3 months from
now, when they are getting closer to the purchase, they will remember
all the time you spent with them? Theyll likely remember spending a
day looking around but it is doubtful they will remember much, if any,
of yours or any other conversation. They will have a few notes they
took, but they wont remember you. They will be spending another day
shopping, so all of that time you spent was essentially wasted. To put
it differently YOU WASTED HALF OF LAST WEEK, THIS WEEK,
AND EVERY WEEK. And there is nothing that can be done about it
because you never know which half you are wasting.
Actually there is one thing that can be done about it: You can send
your prospects frequent emails pointing out all the different reasons
that choosing you will benefit them. And mix it up with some nonemail communications so they are getting it from different media and
therefore, pay more attention to it. If they visit 5 people today, and 9
months later they are ready to buy, and everybody forgets about them
except you, they will forget everybody except you. I assure you that no
one else even sent them a thank-you note after their visit and then kept
in touch with them for the past 9 monthsexcept for a few annoying
phone calls they quickly disconnect from because they are too busy
to talk, and your prospect hasnt even thought further about making a
decision anyway.
Your business will increase significantly if you put a follow-up system
in place to nurture potential buyers who are not yet ready to buy. Think
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Marketing Miracles
about how much time is wasted and money lost with all the prospects
who end up buying somewhere else? Think of all the sales you almost
had in the bag, but the prospect wasnt ready to buy just then, and
then when they were ready to buy they forgot about you and called
somebody else.
How much do you make from an average sale? What if you could attach
a dollar amount to the time you spent with people who ultimately forget
about you and bought elsewhere? What if you could start selling to
even just 20% of the prospects you talked to but then bought from your
competition? How much money have you been losingmoney that
would have been yours had you effectively followed-up?
A study done by the Association of Sales Executives revealed that 81%
of all sales happen on or after the fifth contact. So implementing a
good follow-up system could easily double your sales within a year.
Dont be boring and bugging

One of the biggest mistakes people make when creating a follow-up
sequence of emails is being boring. Think about it. How many boring
emails do you delete every day without even reading them?
The other HUGE mistake many salespeople make is bugging their
prospects with messages like:
Have you had a chance to review my proposal?
Did I answer all your questions, or is there anything I could provide
that would help with your decision?
Are you ready to move ahead with?
Did you get my last email?
As marketing director for Everlast Epoxy Flooring Company, I had to
figure out a solution to this problem. We manufacture a commercial
epoxy flooring so you can imagine how boring our follow-up emails
could be. It often takes a long time for someone to buy after they first
call us because people like to research building materials while their
project is still in the planning stages, and they usually havent even
started building yet. So I had to come up with a follow-up sequence to
28
keep them interested all the way through the building process until they
were finally ready to buy the floors.
I needed to find a way to effectively send frequent emails about our
flooring without boring our prospects to delete. I had to think like my
customer. What if I got an email that read: David, Everlast Floor
provides a bonding and strength greater than the cohesive strength of
concrete in tension and shear. The durability and abrasion resistance
far surpasses that of dense concrete so Everlast Floor will maintain its
original beauty for years to come. And Everlast Floor is a monolithic,
resin-rich, troweled-on system that forms a physical bond between the
material and the surface it is being applied to and vulcanizes them
together. The compound made is so tightly bonded together that corrosive
materials cannot penetrate to begin the deterioration process. Everlast
Floor is not adhered to the floor, rather it is the adhesive. Under stress
conditions, the concrete will break instead of your epoxy floors bond.
So call us at (800) 708-9870 when you are ready to purchase your
flooring. Sincerely Everlast Epoxy
Boy, how many times do you have to mash that delete button just to
wake yourself up after reading that? Im not a big fan of boring my
prospects, so I decided to send them cartoons instead. I put together
a sequence of cartoons that each point out a different benefit of our
floor in a fun way. Those emails are waaay more fun to see, and the
chance of them getting opened and read is 10 times better. Plus when
my prospects get their next email from me, they will open it because
they will expect another fun cartoon!
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Marketing Miracles
So after 9 months of getting a different cartoon about Everlast Floor every

3 weeks, which floor do you think they will think of? Do you think they
will remember ANY of the others? Sure, that doesnt guarantee the sale,
but is sure does guarantee another shot! If the cartoons are done right, they
drip on your prospects repeatedly, each time instilling in their minds
another reason to do business with youin a fun and entertaining way.
The cartoons were so much fun and work so well, I decided to make them
30
for other businesses too. So I got involved with CartoonMarketing.com

and EmailDripCRM.
EmailDripCRM is a software that keeps track of all your prospects
contact information, keeps them segmented as needed, stores your notes
about each prospect, and automatically sends out your cartoon emails at
scheduled intervals. Because it is cloud based, you can view your contacts
information anywhere, even on your mobileandso you wont lose
track of your referral next time. You can even add contacts while on the go!
CartoonMarketing.com has a huge gallery of business cartoons. Youre sure
to find some that will work for you, or we can design a custom campaign
just for your business.
So now you can break up your sales message into a series of emails, each
pointing out a different benefit of doing business with you, and set them
up to be sent out 1-3 weeks apart over a period of 3-9 months. AND your
prospects will enjoy getting our emails because they know there will be a
cartoon inside.
See the software at www.EmailDrip.com. As a special bonus for getting
this book, I will give you a FREE Cartoon you can use for your business.
Get your FREE cartoon at www.CartoonMarketing.com/MarketingBook.
Lowest Bidder
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Marketing Miracles
About David
David Linton lives with his wife and three children in Lake City,
Floridahome of Mountaintop Ministries Worldwide, a Holy Ghost
filled Christian non-denominational outreach ministry they are proud
supporters of. (Visit www.mtmww.com for more info and to watch
services online ALWAYS FOR FREE.)
David is a leading authority on business sales and marketing. His specialty is creating
fun and entertaining marketing campaigns that keep people interested all through the
buying phase and compels them to buy.
David Linton is the founder of EmailDrip.com Inc., whose two key products are:
EmailDripCRM and CartoonMarketing.com. He also creates the proprietary cartoon
email campaigns for EmailDripCRM users.
David is author of Quit Bidding, Start Selling - How to take your subcontract construction business from zero to two million in two years.
David Linton is also currently the marketing director for Everlast Epoxy Flooring
Company (www.EverlastEpoxy.com). Davids marketing has landed them contracts
for projects in facilities such as Kesselring Site (Atomic Power Lab) operated by the
USA Navy, NavConBrig Military prison in Charleston SC, the Hoover Dam, the Grand
Canyon National Park, Augusta National Golf Club (hosts the Masters Tournament),
the Baltimore Orioles, United States military hospital in Afghanistan, Elgin Air Force
Base, Peterson Air Force Base, Auburn University, University of Maryland, Utah Valley
State College, Washington State University, Sony Pictures in Hollywood CA, Maryland
Correctional Institute, Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and South Carolina
Department of Corrections.
Davids marketing has also generated direct response from Sandals Resorts in Jamaica, Norwegian Cruise Line, Halliburton, the Afghan National Army, the Cleveland
Cavaliers and NASA.
Davids Everlast Floor has been featured on the DIY Network.
www.EmailDripCRM.com
A degree in Computer Geek University is not needed to use EmailDripCRMs userfriendly web-based system. With a few clicks of the mouse you can easily add contacts, segment lists, send emails, browse through the massive newsletter template
gallery, and create opt-in forms for your website. Its easy as 1-2-3 to plug your leads
into an 18-email automated follow-up sequence, a 5-email lost customer reactivation
sequencewhatever sequence you need!
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EmailDripCRM is home of the One Click Direct Response. The caption of your
cartoon or the additional text underneath can have a click here that will take your
reader directly to your website or order page.
EmailDripCRMs easy to view and use calendar will show you monthly, weekly, and
daily views. Making appointments is simple; they can even sync with the contact record. Make and change appointments with easy-to-use drag and drop functionality.
www.CartoonMarketing.com
Implementing an email cartoon campaign is easy because weve done the work for
you. Weve created effective cartoons for practically every business and industry. CartoonMarketing.com has a huge gallery of cartoons to choose from for the perfect
email campaign. Drawn exclusively for EmailDripCRM users, designed to motivate
your customers to buy from you.
Special offer just for reading my book: Ill give you a FREE cartoon for
YOUR business. AND the cartoon is YOURS TO KEEP forever. Get it at
www.CartoonMarketing.com/MarketingBook.
33
No Test Drive Needed
ChAPTER 3
No Test Drive Needed:
Get Customers Ready to Buy
Today Through Educational
Marketing
By Greg Rollett
f you are like most entrepreneurs, experts, authors or business

owners, the concept of hard selling is not an attractive one. In fact,
you probably find ways to spend your time doing anything but cold
calling, direct selling or getting on the phone to try and close a prospect.
I know I have had my share of working distractionsfrom checking
Facebook posts to looking at website statistics to checking my email for
the umpteenth time. And no matter how many times we perform these
activities, no money is going to be deposited into our back accounts.
And that is not good for business.
The good thing is that with the tools and information available to you
today, you dont need to spend every minute of every day selling. Im
not saying you do not have to sell at all, because you do. But using a
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Marketing Miracles
concept called Educational Marketing allows you to begin to attract

and position the right type of client or customer into your business;
this ultimately makes the selling part easy because they already sold
themselves on your products or services through educational pieces
(created to paint a picture of what you do and how it helps individuals
like them).
What Is Educational Marketing?

Educational Marketing is the process of creating educational pieces of
content that move a prospect into a position of realizing you are the
ultimate expert who can help solve their problem.
Think about your best clients or customers. Who are they? Where
did they come from? How did they make the decision to purchase
from you?
Most likely it was because they were educated that you were the best
solution. They had information on who you were, what you did and
how you can help them.
Imagine that you were a car dealer and had 2 potential customers on
your lot. The first customer was a first-time car buyer and wants to test
drive 10 or more cars before talking it over, asking more questions and
then price checking with your competition.
The second customer comes into your lot, already educated that you
have a red pickup truck, 2 doors, with power windows, 6-disc CD
changer, 4-wheel drive and all the other bells and whistles. They also
know the price, have been pre-approved by their bank for a loan and are
ready to walk out with the keys in a matter of minutes.
Which customer do you wish you had more of, walking into your
business every day, attracted to your business and your products
and services?
I hope you said customer number 2.
In this scenario, your educational and informational pieces, from the
web, print, direct mail, or your phone sales team has educated your
customer so they can easily make an informed decision. They have
already sold themselves as to which product they want. The customer
36
had a problem and educated themselves on a solution. The education

they found through the above sources led them to create their own
opinions and come to the conclusion that you were the solution to
their problem.
This empowers the customer and makes them feel important, comforted
and confident in their decision. They were not sold to; they made their
own informed, educated decision.
When done correctly, this is a very powerful distinction and has a
profound impact on your business.
Using Education In Your Marketing

Many experts and entrepreneurs think they are using educational
marketing, especially online. They have created a website that is
supposed to attract and educate individuals coming to their website. It
is filled with features and benefits, services offered and potentially even
some testimonials and case studies of work they have done.
But most do not truly educate and help the individual move closer to
finding a solution to their problem, and most of all, it does not move
them closer to knowing that their real solution to their problem is you!
If you know the importance of educational marketing you might have
special reports, white papers, eZines and newsletters, videos or other
forms of media that were designed to give valuable information to
someone that is unfamiliar with you and what you do.
Where these media pieces fail to become truly effective pieces of
consumer education is in their ability for the reader to draw the
conclusion that they are now more educated about the problem they are
having, the opportunity to find a solution and that you are indeed the
right expert or business they must do business with in order to get the
solution they desire.
Thus the only three things you want your marketing resources to do are:
1. To attract your exact target market and reveal the problem they
are having in such a way that they feel, deep down, that you
know their problem better than they do.
37
Marketing Miracles
2. To reveal an opportunity to stop the problem they are currently

having and then teach them how to do so,
3. To educate the reader on how you are the only solution,
the ultimate expert, that can truly help them get the results
they desire.
Lets take a look at how successful businesses are using these strategies
today to educate their clients on how they are the clear choice of a
solution to their problems.
The Online Marketer

Today you cannot look anywhere online without seeing educational
marketing at work. A select few are much better than others at truly
educating their marketplace, making them aware of the problems they
are having and educating them on the solution they are presenting to
fix that problem.
One of the leaders in this space is Rich Schefren from Strategic
Profits. Rich has been a successful entrepreneur in the mens retail and
hypnosis center business and upon selling his hypnosis centers, found
his way into online marketing. When he launched his coaching and
consulting company, Strategic Profits, Rich created a manifesto called
The Internet Business Manifesto which was read almost overnight by
millions of struggling online marketers who all shared the problem of
opportunity seeking and were not business building.
This manifesto served as a textbook for many online marketers, while
educating and identifying with the readers Rich identified with them by
sharing his story of opportunity seeking online. Then he shared the
opportunity, which was to overcome the shiny object syndrome by
going from tactic to tactic. Next he revealed the benefits of becoming a
strategic entrepreneur. Finally through the manifesto, Rich positioned
himself as the ultimate expert in this arena, by virtue that no one else was
talking about these ideas, these problems and offering a clear solution,
backed by proof, case studies and his own success. After reading you
were certain that Rich was the clear choice, the clear expert and had the
solution to help you alleviate your online business problems.
Today Rich has taken his manifesto and now uses the same principles
38
in an online webinar. The entire 2-hour presentation is filled with

education, strategically positioned to attract the right kind of client,
revealing the problem that this right kind of client is having and then
using proof, experience and marketing to reveal he is the ultimate
expert and solution.
In your marketing, you want to model a system like this. Create free
reports or webinars that are educational marketing pieces and not just
a report to have a report, or have a webinar to have a webinar. Always
use these marketing pieces to educate your prospects using the 3-step
approach.
The PR Agency
The Dicks + Nanton Celebrity Branding Agency is a shiny example of
using educational marketing to build their client base and attract the
right kind of client into their business. When they began the business,
Nick Nanton and JW Dicks wrote a very educational and informational
Best-Selling Book, Celebrity Branding You. To this day, the book
is used as a tool to educate their market about their 5-step branding
process to help you become a celebrity in their marketplace.
Each of the 5 steps relate to a service they offer, from helping authors
become Best-Sellers to getting experts and entrepreneurs featured on
major TV and print outlets to using media like branded films. All of
these are presented as problems and then opportunities throughout the
book to help teach authors, experts and entrepreneurs to grow their
brand. They knew that by educating their clients on the benefits and
effects of celebrity branding, they would be positioning themselves as
the experts and authorities on the subject. And it was all done through
a well-written and better positioned book.
Today, along with the book, Nick and JW are using white papers
and reports that relate to each segment of their business that go right
through the 3-steps in the educational marketing process. For their
book publishing business they have created a report on the 7 Myths
of Publishing. This report overcomes the 7 biggest objections people
have in joining their publishing company. The report magnetically
attracts the right kind of author, talks about some of their fears and
doubts about the publishing process and offers a clear, expert solution,
39
Marketing Miracles
with proof and examples of others just like them that have benefited
from co-authoring a Best-Selling book.
Another report on Branded Films has helped to develop an entirely
new brand, Celebrity Films. This report again fulfills the same three
requirements of great educational marketing and those who read the
report and then contact the agency are already sold on the process
they need the solution in order to grow their business. That is very
powerful and makes the job of selling much, much easier.
The Financial Advisor

The financial services industry is very competitive and people are more
skeptical than ever on whom to select to manage their money. This
brings a big problem to those in this industry to build trust and grow
their clientele. The best financial planners know the power of educational
marketing: to position them as the go-to expert, someone that can be
trusted and someone that you truly would like to do business with.
Stephen Lomsdalen from Scottsdale, AZ, is one such advisor doing this
successfully in his market. Stephen has created a book of his own, The
3 Wall Street Myths That Could Destroy Your Retirement Dreams. Just
from the title of the book he is attracting a certain type of market, those
about to retire and who are worried about the current state of Wall Street.
On the inside of the book, Stephen talks about the challenges and fears
his market is currently having. He relates to them in a very intimate way,
painting a picture of their feelings and insecurities about the future of
their life after retirement. He also shares the 3 strategies that this ageclass has been taught and told over the years that are not accurate and
relevant to their retirement plans today.
By the end of the book, the only thing you want to do is pick up the
phone and call Stephen for a consultation. This is very powerful
marketing, and was all created through an educational piece, which
taught his market about their problems and presented solutions so they
can come up with their own logical conclusions on how to proceed.
Your Educational Marketing Roadmap

Now that you have seen some examples and have an idea of how to
40
use educational marketing in your business, its time to create your own
educational pieces. This begins by identifying who the ideal person it
is that you want to attract. Who is most likely to buy your products and
services? Who do you want coming in to buy your products and services?
Once youve identified the who, you need to look at the deep-down
problem the market is having. What keeps them up at night? What
would make their life better? The best place to find this information
is to ask your current customer base. Why did they buy your products
or services? What solution were they really looking for? Why did they
choose you and not someone else?
Now we have our market and we know their problems. Our next step
is to map out that problem. What feelings are associated with their
problem? What is going on in their mind? How is it affecting their dayto-day decisions? How is it affecting their income? Their relationships?
Their family? Start writing these answers down, as they will become the
beginning of your educational marketing piece. Talk with the market;
make them understand that you know what they are going through, and
that they are not alone.
Next you need to start presenting the solution. How can their life
improve? Paint the picture of what life can look like once they take
action on a solution. Begin to educate them about the solution. Teach
them what can happen with the right solution. Present the solution
using logical steps, in a do-this and then do-that fashion.
All along you want to integrate proof, case studies and reasons why you
are the expert they need in their life. At the end, offer your solution.
Give them a place to take the next step.
This entire process can be done in any kind of mediait happens on
infomercials selling blenders and Ginsu knives and on webinars, in
newsletters, online product launches, books and even through email
sequences. Just remember to create a purpose with your marketing
pieces. No more free reports to have a report. Give your marketing
purpose so your prospects are educated and one step away from doing
business with you.
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Marketing Miracles
About Greg
Greg Rollett, the ProductPro, is a best-selling author and online
marketing expert who works with authors, experts, entertainers, entrepreneurs and business owners all over the world to help them
share their knowledge and change the lives and businesses of others. After creating a successful string of his own educational products, Greg began
helping others in the production and marketing of their own products.
Greg is a front-runner in utilizing the power of social media, direct response marketing
and customer education to drive new leads and convert those leads into long-standing
customers and advocates.
Previous clients include Coca-Cola, Miller Lite, Warner Bros and Cash Money
Records, as well as hundreds of entrepreneurs and small-business owners. Gregs
work has been featured on FOX News, ABC, and the Daily Buzz. Greg has written for
Mashable, the Huffington Post, AOL, AMEXs Open Forum and more.
Greg loves to challenge the current business environments that constrain people to
working 12-hour days during the best portions of their lives. By teaching them to leverage technology and the power of information, Greg loves helping others create freedom businesses that allow them to generate income, make the world a better place
and live a radically ambitious lifestyle in the process.
A former touring musician, Greg is highly sought after as a speaker, having appeared
on stages with former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, best-selling authors Chris Brogan
and Nick Nanton, as well as at events such as Affiliate Summit.
If you would like to learn more about Greg and how he can help your business,
please contact him directly at [email protected] or by calling his office
at 877.897.4611.
You can also download a free report on how to create your own educational products
at www.productprosystems.com.
42
THE MIRACLE SALES POWER OF YOUR IRRESTIBLE OFFER!
ChAPTER 4
THE MIRACLE SALES
POWER OF YOUR
IRRESTIBLE OFFER!
By JW Dicks and Nick Nanton
You have three seconds!

Just three seconds. Can your marketing sales piece deliver in that
amount of time?
Your problem isit has to.
Just as the door-to-door salesman of days gone by had to shove his foot
in the door to stop the homeowner from slamming the door in his face,
you need to find the exact right device to stop your potential prospect
from slamming his mind shut to what you have to say.
That device is your Irresistible Offer. Its the secret to enticing people
into listening to your marketing message. And if its crafted in the right
way, youll find you dont have to shove your foot in anyones mental
door potential buyers will gladly open their minds to hear more about
43
Marketing Miracles
what youre selling.
DEFINING THE IRRESISTIBLE OFFER

An Irresistible Offer, simply put, is a way of defining your product or
service with an offer that clearly creates an impactful and credible
return on investment which is almost impossible to turn down.
The truth is, it all comes down to I will give you thisin return for
that. No matter what your product or service is, it all starts with an
offerand if the offer isnt compelling, it ends there. If the offer is
irresistible, you can build an entire business on the back of that offer.
Without the irresistible offer, youre left with meaningless marketing
that cant make a sale.
Remember: nothing happens in any business or profession without an
offer. Many business and professional practices forget that basic fact,
which is why they fail miserably. Too many advertising campaigns
try to be overly clever, way too subtle or just lazily piggyback on
something more successful. In the process, they forget to actually sell
their product or service, hard as that is to believe. Ask for the order
is the old sales mantra that still reverberates to this day no matter what
your business or profession is.
Now, if nothing happens without an offer, a whole lot happens with an
Irresistible Offer. Its the offer on steroidsit powers it up and knocks
it out of the park.
DEFINING YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE

The first step to creating your Irresistible Offer is to ask three important
questions about what youre selling. This is the place to be completely
honest, because, if youre not, youre only fooling yourself and thats
going to be a very costly deception. Your Irresistible Offer will be
flawed and its impact will be blunted.
Question #1: What are you selling and whats
your price?
This is obviously the foundation of your Irresistible Offer, so its of
critical importance. Do you know the value exchange price for whatever
44
youre providing the buyer with? Is what youre providing something

theyll feel good about buying at that price, or will they feel suckered?
The knowledge of understanding value exchange when setting price is
very important.
Because price is part of the foundation for your irresistible offer, you
need to make sure you have set the price for an amount that will be
acceptable to the customer and will stand up to the prospect for the
value of what he is getting. Here is where your basic believability lies.
You dont charge a hundred dollars for a cheeseburger and another fifty
bucks for the French fries, unless inflation has taken a real ugly turn by
the time you read this. So review this basic part of the Irresistible Offer,
make sure youre offering appropriate quality and quantity for the price
and, if youre not, rethink either product or price. If the two dont tilt to
the favor of the buyer you wont make the sale.
Question #2: Why should they listen to you?
Weve already touched on the idea of credibilitynow lets go further
into the subject. A crucial component of making any sale is creating a
bond of trust. Simply put, people have to believe what youre saying is
the truth. Raising suspicions is the last thing you want to do. So think
about whether what youre offering appears too good to be true. Does
it seem ridiculous at face value that you can deliver what youre saying
you can deliver?
If so, people will think theres a catch to your dealand, worse, you
might be trying to trick them in some way. And remember, it doesnt
even matter if you can deliver what youre promising; if people think
you cant, its going to hurt your offer.
Youre especially vulnerable to this kind of doubt if you have little to
no track record as of yet and people just dont know who you are or
what your capabilities are. For instance, if Coke or Pepsi comes out and
says their soft drinks can now cure cancer, many people might actually
believe the claim, because they assume Coke or Pepsi couldnt make
that kind of claim if it wasnt true.
If some outfit called Acme Cola, however, made that claim, nobody
would buy it. Not only would nobody believe it cured cancertheyd
be afraid of the stuff eating through the lining of their stomachs, just
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Marketing Miracles
because they never heard of the company.

When Burger King told consumers Have It Your Way, it was an
easily verifiable (and, at the time, irresistible!) offer. Same thing with
Dominos 30-minutes-or-less pizza delivery promise, especially since
it was backed with a discount if the pizza came late. Make sure your
offer also has back-up that builds believability.
Question #3: Wheres the beef?
One of the great fast food ad campaigns of all time was for the Wendys
chain. In the commercial, a little old lady stood at the counter of a
rival burger joint, eyeing her microscopic hamburger patty, and yelled,
WHERES THE BEEF?
In terms of your Irresistible Offer, Wheres the beef? translates into
Wheres the benefit for your buyer? One of the biggest secrets of
successful marketing is to clearly understand that people arent really
buying the product or service that youre selling. No, theyre buying
the benefit of that product or service.
Why do you buy an Infiniti instead of a Honda Civic? Theyre both cars
and theyll both get you to where you want to go. The reason you pay
a lot more for the Infiniti is that it provides a lot more benefitsmore
prestige, more features, a smoother drive, etc. And, if youll notice,
thats what their marketing zeroes in on. The Civic, on the other hand,
will advertise the fact that its economical and reliable, because those
are its main benefits to the consumer.
Another big marketing secret comes into play herepeople buy based
more on emotions than logic, even though most of them will deny it
after the fact. Thats why most of the car commercials youll see focus
on making the vehicle look as cool as possible with big budget effects
that have nothing to do with the actual product theyre selling.
And thats why this third question is the most important. The first two
require logic-based questions, but this is the question that drills deeper
into the real appeal of your product or service. Remember, though, you
still need the logic-based answers to the first two questions to balance
your Irresistible Offerbecause you always need a combination of
both heart and head to effectively sell anything.
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Nowlets find out how to bring that combination to life.
THE THREE INGREDIENTS

OF YOUR IRRESISTIBLE OFFER
Just as there are three questions you must answer before formulating
your Irresistible Offer, there are three ingredients you must put into it.
Before we explain those ingredients, a little more about what The
Irresistible Offer is all about.
It should be THE STARTING POINT of all your marketing.
Everything will spring from your Irresistible Offer. It wont
be used as an afterthought on your marketing materials. It will
lead the charge, not bring up the rear.
An Irresistible Offer goes beyond a New and Improved, Big
Sale, Special Offer mentality. These are well-worn gimmicks
slapped on top of marketing to try and get more people in the
door, kind of like a new coat of paint thats quickly applied to
make a shabby apartment look instantly better. These gimmicks
come and go, while the Irresistible Offer remains at the center
of how you market.
The Irresistible Offer also usually differs from a USP (Unique
Selling Proposition). For example, Avis Rent-A-Cars famous
line, We Try Harder, is a USP, not an Irresistible Offer. We
Try Harder indicates how Avis differs from the competition,
but its certainly nothing that makes you want to buy from Avis
at that moment. Sometimes the USP can be the same as the
Irresistible Offerin Dominos case, the 30-minutes-Or-Less
promises provides both functionsbut, in many cases, its not.
However, the USP is a vital part of the Irresistible Offer.
Now, keeping all that in mind, here are the three ingredients that must
be a part of every Irresistible Offer:
INGREDIENT #1: OFFER A UNIQUE DEAL THAT IS

CLEAR, CREDIBLE AND ANSWERS WHY
Form and function work hand-in-hand to create the biggest impact.
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Marketing Miracles
That means you must work to craft your Irresistible Offer into the best
possible and powerful statement. That statement should include the
following facts:
What youre selling
Whats the benefit to the buyer
Why the offer is credible, i.e. why people should trust you
As you might remember, all of the needed information springs from
those three questions we had you answer in the previous section.
Now, just stringing that information together isnt really going to do the
job. If Federal Express said, Were going to deliver your package by
the next day at an affordable price so you can make sure it gets to where
it needs to go in time, and if it doesnt, well refund your money,
theres really not much of a chance anybody wouldve taken the time
to read all that, let alone absorb the message.
Which is why they came up with, When it absolutely, positively has to
be there overnight instead, one of the all-time great ad slogans.
Here are the elements they used to craft that slogan, which you should
use to craft yours:
Be Clear
There is no room for ambiguity or interpretation in an Irresistible Offer.
Again, people have to muddle through millions of marketing messages
a year; if you make them work too hard to figure something out, theyre
just going to go on with their lives. Clarity is all-importantit cuts
through the clutter and tells the prospect exactly what he or she needs
to know.
Be Simple
This goes hand-in-hand with the clear directive. Keep your language
simple and easy-to-understand. You dont need to send someone to
the dictionary to figure out what youre trying to say. Although if you
actually get someone to go find one, thats a pretty impressive feat!
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Be Brief
Compare the two Federal Express slogan examples used earlier. One
took 9 words to make its point and the other took 37. Guess which
ones a whole lot better?
Be Direct
Cut right to the chase and say what you have to say. Theres no need for
embellishment or symbolismusing those kinds of things flies right in
the face of the preceding three pieces of advice.
And also spend some time studying effective advertising slogans to see
how they use a minimum of language to achieve maximum impactin
some cases, without even using real words.
For example, everybody remember what Campbells Soup is? Yep, its
Mmm, mmm, Good. Now, try finding Mmm in the dictionary. All
youll find is that its an abbreviation of Member of the Order of the
Military Merit (as you can tell, we sent ourselves to the dictionary!).
INGREDIENT #2: MAKE IT BELIEVABLE

One semi-famous marketer once put an ad in the newspaper with
a headline that read, What if I offered you $1000 for every dollar
you gave me? No one responded. Why? Because it was completely
unbelievable!
Grandiose claims without proof wont get you the sales you want. So
how do you demonstrate to your potential customer that you can be
trusted, and that your Irresistible Offer is for real?
Every offer has its own ways to establish credibility. But there are
basically three main methods to bring believability to your sales pitch:
Use Testimonials
Valid, verifiable third-party testimonials go a long way towards
demonstrating that people use your product or service and are happy
with it. Its why companies hire celebrities to both appear in and do
voiceovers for their commercialsthe public already knows them and
presumably, likes them. In your case, real consumers of what youre
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Marketing Miracles
selling are probably the best testimonials youll get, unless you can
corral an expert in the field youre selling in.
There are other abstract ways to use testimonials directly in your
Irresistible Offer. Remember the old commercials that would say 9
out of 10 doctors prefer? Of course, when you are using that kind
of language, you should make sure you have the research available to
back it up. And speaking of research
Use Research
Do you have scientific studies or tests that prove your product or service
is superior to the rest? Does it effectively do what its supposed to do
100% of the time and are there facts you can cite to prove it? Technical
research thats credible and backs up your claims in a compelling
manner can make a huge difference in establishing trust.
Think of the car commercials that state that one model has the best
safety track record - or another model gets the most miles to the gallon.
They base these statements on independent studies they can cite in the
very small print in their marketing.
And of course, you can create your own research-based proof. Pepsi
almost finally overtook Coke in the cola wars a while back, simply by
doing The Pepsi Challenge. They would go to a mall or other public
place, have someone drink an unlabeled cup of Coke and an unlabeled
cup of Pepsi and reveal which one they liked better. The proof was right
there on cameramost people liked Pepsi better. The impact was huge.
And it can be huge for you, if the numbers are on your side and you
have a compelling way to present them.
Use the Facts
Lets say youre selling gold. If gold prices are on the upswing, you just
have to reference that trend. Lets say youre selling a non-stock marketbased investment product. If the Dow Jones is on the downswing, use
that fact to your advantage.
Even more instructive is watching any sort of political advertisement
youll see a whole lot of facts. They may be used in a misleading way
(which is why most of these ads dont have a lot of credibility going for
50
them), but theyre still facts.

If your offer is based in facts or a reality that almost everyone is aware
of, this can be a potent form of proof indeed. For example, back
in 1974, the MGM movie studio put out a compilation film of all the
greatest moments from its musicals of the 30s, 40s and 50s.
Nobody thought anyone would actually go see itthe original movies
had already been played on TV over and over for twenty-plus years.
However, since it was released on the heels of Watergate and Vietnam,
the tagline for Thats Entertainment was simply, Boy. Do We Need
It Now. The film was a huge smash and spawned two sequels.
INGREDIENT #3: CREATE A GREAT DEAL

Your Irresistible Offer must signal that the customer is going to get a
high Return On Investment for their purchase. In other words, he or
she must think youre giving a lot of bang for their buck. The ROI does
not have to be cash but it must be a return that people understand has
value to them and it has to be more than the value they are paying to
make it irresistible.
And this means a genuinely good value. When we discussed the Big
Sale and New and Improved types of marketing gimmicks, theyre
usually used to disguise the fact that the ROI isnt really all that great on
the product or service. Cheesy attention-grabbers only work in the very
short-term and often leave customers with a bad taste in their mouths.
If you actually are offering a great value, you dont have to resort to
gimmicks. If the value is real, youve placed yourself in a good position
for repeat sales from the same buyers. If it isnt, youll have a big
problem with your next marketing moves.
PUTTING YOUR Irresistible OFFER INTO ACTION

Now its time to put our three ingredients together. You should tackle
them in the order weve discussed:
Ingredient #1 - c reate the language that makes your unique
deal clear, credible and answers why
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Marketing Miracles
Ingredient #2 - p ut in the elements of believability that will

seal that great deal of yours with your prospects
Ingredient #3 - c reate your high-ROI deal that offers
maximum benefits
If youve done your work well, you will cut through the clutter and
pique your potential customers interest. If you structured your deal
so that it contains enough value for that customer, youve made a sale.
Lets revisit the film, Thats Entertainment, to see just how they
made all this happen with a film that was, again, composed entirely of
old movie clips. First of all, they made it a high value deal by putting
together the greatest song-and-dance sequences from the greatest
musicals and filmed new introductions to them with giant stars like
Fred Astaire, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.
Second of all, they came up with that great message, Boy. Do We
Need It Now, which hit the American public where they lived at that
moment in history. And finally, their believability factor was easily off
the charts since everyone was already familiar with these classic films
and knew they were great.
But how did audiences connect with the film? Well, first they saw that
tagline and liked the fact that someone was offering them some relief
from the horrible headlines of the day. Second, they saw that a big
famous movie studio, MGM, was behind the projectthat provided
the credibility. And third, they checked out the valuewhich stars and
classic movies were represented in Thats Entertainment? Pretty
much all of theman amazing value for audiences of the time.
Which is why there were two sequels; MGM continued to put their
Irresistible Offer to work and so can you! Just follow these proven
Steps to Success with your Irresistible Offer:
Step One: Create your Irresistible Offer
Step Two: Present that offer to an Interested Target Market
Step Three: Continue to keep their interest with more targeted
Irresistible Offers
52
Weve already covered Step One in detail; Step Two will be obvious
to anyone who understands niche marketing. You dont try to sell antiwrinkle cream to teenagers and you dont try to sell acne medicine
to senior citizens. Whatever youre selling, you should find the crowd
who will be the most responsive to your Irresistible Offer and find the
best way to reach them.
Finally, Step Three is where you can make the most money. Its much
easier to market to existing customers than to create new onesand
also a lot more affordable. Just as popular movies spawn sequels
and popular TV shows spawn spin-offs, you can keep your current
customers interest by selling more stuff to them. It could be a new
product for the same market or it could be a more premium version of
the one youre already selling. The skys the limit.
As we noted, your Irresistible Offer should be your foot in the door
of anyone youre selling to. It should be something that should register
immediately with your potential customer and make them consider
buying from you in a serious manner. Make it a believable, high-value
and carefully crafted message, and your Irresistible Offer will be just
the beginning of many profitable years of business.
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Marketing Miracles
About JW
JW Dicks, Esq., is Americas foremost authority on using personal
branding for business development. He has created some of the
most successful brand and marketing campaigns for business and
professional clients to make them the Credible Celebrity Expert in
their field and build multi-million-dollar businesses using their recognized status.
JW Dicks has started, bought, built, and sold a large number of businesses over his
39-year career and developed a loyal international following as a business attorney,
author, speaker, consultant, and business experts coach. He not only practices
what he preaches by using his strategies to build his own businesses, he also applies those same concepts to help clients grow their business or professional practice the way he does.
JW has been extensively quoted in such national media as USA Today, Wall Street
Journal, Newsweek, Inc. magazine, Forbes.com, CNBC.Com, and Fortune Small
business. His television appearances include ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX affiliate stations around the country. He is the resident branding expert for Fast Companys internationally syndicated blog and is the publisher of Celebrity Expert Insider, a monthly
newsletter targeting business- and brand-building strategies.
JW has written over 22 books, including numerous best-sellers, and has been inducted into the National Academy of Best Selling Authors. JW is married to Linda, his
wife of 39 years, and they have two daughters, two granddaughters and two Yorkies.
JW is a 6th generation Floridian and splits time between his home in Orlando and his
beach house on the Florida west coast.
54
About Nick
An Emmy Award-Winning Director and Producer, Nick Nanton, Esq.,
is known as the Top Agent to Celebrity Experts around the world for
his role in developing and marketing business and professional experts, through personal branding, media, marketing and PR to help
them gain credibility and recognition for their accomplishments. Nick is recognized as
the nations leading expert on personal branding as Fast Company magazines Expert
Blogger on the subject and lectures regularly on the topic at at major universities around
the world. His bookCelebrity Branding You has also been used as the textbook on
personal branding for University students.
The CEO of The Dicks + Nanton Celebrity Branding Agency, an international agency
with more than 1,000 clients in 26 countries, Nick is an award-winning director, producer
and songwriter who has worked on everything from large scale events to television
shows with the likes of Bill Cosby, President George H.W. Bush, Brian Tracy, Michael
Gerber and many more.
Nick is recognized as one of the top thought-leaders in the business world and has co-authored 16 best-selling books alongside Brian Tracy, Jack Canfield (creator of the Chicken
Soup for the Soul Series), Dan Kennedy, Robert Allen, Dr. Ivan Misner (Founder of BNI),
Jay Conrad Levinson (Author of the Guerilla Marketing Series), Leigh Steinberg and many
others, including the breakthrough hitCelebrity Branding You!.
Nick has published books by Brian Tracy, Mari Smith, Jack Canfield, Dan Kennedy
and many other celebrity experts, and Nick has led the marketing and PR campaigns
that have driven more than 600 authors to Best-Seller status. Nick has been seen in
USA Today, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Inc. magazine, The New York Times,
Entrepreneurmagazine and,FastCompany.com, and has appeared on ABC, NBC,
CBS, and FOX television affiliates around the country, as well as CNN, FOX News,
CNBC, and MSNBC from coast to coast, speaking on subjects ranging from branding,
marketing and law to American Idol.
Nick is a member of the Florida Bar, holds a JD from the University of FloridaLevin
College of Law, as well as a BSBA in Finance from the University of Floridas
Warrington College of Business. Nick is a voting member of The National Academy
of Recording Arts & Sciences (NARAS, Home to The GRAMMYs), a member of The
National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Home to the Emmy Awards), cofounder of the National Academy of Best-Selling Authors, an 11-time Telly Award winner, and spends his spare time working with Young Life and Downtown Credo Orlando
and rooting for the Florida Gators with his wife, Kristina, and their three children,
Brock, Bowen and Addison.
55
Use Your Voice and Body Language to Create Trust in Business
ChAPTER 5
Use Your Voice and
Body Language to
Create Trust in
Business
By Tom A. Puentes and Juan Carlos Vazquez
es, we are about to give you the secrets on how to use your body
language and voice to create trust in business. First, we need
to make sure you understand that these principles will work as
intended when you use them to achieve the ultimate goal: to create
trust for long lasting relationships in business.
If you choose to build mutually beneficial relationships, based on trust
(which we suggest is the proper mindset) we think you will find that
what we have to say is powerful, practical and downright useful!
I have a story to share, but first let me introduce you to Donald Trump!
Let us imagine you have been given the opportunity to do business
with Donald Trump, himself. Whatever your business with Mr. Trump
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Marketing Miracles
may be, you will need all the help you can get. Of course, you have
prepared like mad and have done all you know how to do to have your
presentation sharp and ready. You are also aware (because I am about to
tell you) of this very important piece of information from The Definitive
Book of Body Language by Alan Pease:
Body language is an outward reflection of a persons emotional condition.
And in this same book, he gives us the following observations that
cannot be ignored:
Our analysis of thousands of recorded sales interviews and
negotiations during the 1970s and 1980s showed that, in
business encounters, body language accounts for between 60
and 80% of the impact made around a negotiating table and
that people form 60 to 80% of their initial opinion about a new
person in less than four minutes.
Okay, so you really do not want to ruin your chances since your proposal
is really good and the last thing you want to do is to act like a chump.
I will now give you a crash course on the effective body language you
must use when creating trust in business. In this case, what you need
to know before you walk into the beautiful and luxurious office of Mr.
Donald Trump.
THE S.L.A.N.T. METHOD

This is where the S.L.A.N.T. method comes in. Before I begin, allow me
to say that it would be wonderful to be able to talk about the language
of clothes and how you should be dressed to go meet with Mr. Trump.
However, for the purposes of this chapter I will assume that you are
dressed the part, otherwise, we know that you will be hearing the
famous words youre fired.
Imagine yourself there, in that glorious office. He is personally going to
interview you, as this is obviously very important for him too.
The S.L.A.N.T. method is the quickest way to communicate confidence
and create trust in business, lets understand why.
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S.L.A.N.T.
S: STAND OR SIT STRAIGHT
The S signifies Standing or Sitting straight. When you stand or sit
straight, you are consciously communicating to the other person he or
she is important. If you can picture it in your mind, any time anyone is
in front of a company president, a respected leader, or an honored figure
of any type, the person is always standing at attention. You must
therefore stand straight and/or sit straight whenever you are facing Mr.
Trump. This will immediately allow your own physiology to change,
making you feel more confident and alert. This action tells Mr. Trump
This person is professional, and gives me the respect that I deserve.
This is the first step in quickly creating trust.
You are about to sit down: make sure you UNBUTTON and open your
suit jacket before you sit down.
L: LEANING TOWARDS THE PERSON YOU ARE TRYING

TO CONNECT WITH
The L stands in this case, for you leaning towards Mr. Trump
regardless of whether you are in a standing or seated position. As you
lean towards him, you always maintain eye contact. I will even tell you
which eye is better to focus on: the right Eye.
Before today, you really did not know which eye to focus on when
you speak to someone face-to-face in business. Its a great piece of
information, since The Donald tends to be a very logical thinker, it
will mean he is primarily using the left side of his brain. Look at his
right eye to activate the left side of his brain. This will create a faster
rapport with someone like him.
As you lean forward, whether standing or seated, you want to smile
OPENLY. An open smile means that you show your teeth and the eyes
are also engaged. Look at yourself in the mirror and practice a genuine
open smile. As you do this, think of your favorite person, waving hello
to you. Smile genuinely and pay attention at how your eyes immediately
engage in the task without effort. If your eyes are not engaging, you
are not showing a true open smile. Dont force it. Just practice until
becomes natural.
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Marketing Miracles
Now, show both palms frequently. This palm up gesture is used as a

sign of submission, openness and honesty. All of these gestures convey
trust and are highly priced by anyone, especially Mr. Trump.
Continue to focus and imagine you are still in that glorious office.
(Love the rich wood insidedont you?)
While you lean, make sure both of your feet are pointing directly at him
and that both soles of the feet are flat on the ground
A: ACTIVELY AND ATTENTIVELY LISTEN

There is a big difference between hearing someone and actively
listening. Have you noticed that when you need a friend (a true friend)
you sit next to him and he will literally lend an ear? Yes, picture how
he will usually rotate his head and tilt it in order to have his ear towards
you to hear you out, especially, if you are giving them all the juicy
details of your story. It is a good idea then, to assume the same posture
when Mr. Trump is speaking to you and asking questions. You actively
listen and slightly turn your head to lend an ear.
N: NOD WHEN IN AGREEMENT OR WHEN MAKING AN

AFFIRMATIVE STATEMENT OR POINT.
The N stands for nodding. It is very important that nodding be done
very carefully and authentically. If you are not being authentic, this
could quickly change the mood in your meeting and make Mr. Trump
believe you are a Yes Man. Nodding can be compared to jewelry a
woman wears. If done tastefully, it will greatly enhance any outfit that
is appropriate for the occasion. If overdone or inappropriately used, it
will ruin the outfit regardless of how expensive it may be. So how does
this relate to nodding?
Nodding is a very powerful tool that should be used when what you
are hearing from the other person agrees with your personal values,
core beliefs or deep thoughts on the subject. Try not to nod more than
three times in a row. It not only loses its effect, but it draws too much
attention to it.
T: TRACK YOUR CLIENT FOR BODY LANGUAGE SIGNALS

Tracking is basically following a line of non-verbal action or thought.
60
You are looking at Mr. Trump to see if there are any other gestures or
body language signals that you can use similarly to establish further
rapport and therefore enhance trust.
As you become more experienced, and depending on the circumstances,
it is important to keep an eye on two essential things while tracking
Mr. Trump:
1. The speed and tone of the voice. If he is speaking slowly (if
you see him slowly enunciate and mark his words) emulate the
same pace and rhythm of talking. If he asks a question quickly,
let your answer be at that same pace.
2. It is also important to match the speed and rhythm of his
breathing. This creates a deep almost hypnotic effect that will
facilitate trust. Mr. Trump will not know why he is starting to
really like you.
Bonus Note: Should there be any objects between you and Mr. Trump,
for example a glass of water or a cup of coffee, do your best to reposition
the object so that is never between you and Mr. Trump. Just move it to
one side or the other.
Alright: you are ready for your meeting with The Donald.
Uh, oh, Mr. Trump just phoned. He cant have that meeting face to face,
but he will talk to you on the phone!
Okay so you just wasted $3K on that Armani suit you bought only to
shake his hand. I want you to focus your thoughts on how you are going
to use your voice to create trust. I have spent the past 25 years primarily
speaking with clients over the phone, building trust and long lasting
relationships (which I am blessed to have).
In all those years I have learned you must pay attention not only to
your words and language but also your speed, tone and delivery. Most
important, you must learn to listen well, while being in the right state of
mind. Your only goal is to establish a deeper relationship, building trust
with the person, helping them without any hidden agenda.
The phone rings
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Marketing Miracles
You are comfortably sitting at your desk looking dapper in that

awesome suit (after all you decided to wear it while you talk to him,
because it makes you feel ready and at the top of your game). You turn
your computer monitor towards you and read to yourself the words
SLOW DOWN which you wrote to remind yourself to pause and
speak slowly. You take a deep breath and his secretary puts him on the
phone He greets you in a quick formal manner (typical of a busy
tycoon), and he states he has read your proposal but tells you what he
really wants to know is whats on your mind.
With a warm and nice greeting (avoiding the Speedy Gonzalez overly
excited salesperson schpeel), you remind him of the highlights of your
plan but as you finish, you tell him that you feel really interested in
knowing how can you fit his current needs. Notice how his tone
becomes more friendly and relaxed. You get him talking.
Now is your time to listen. Remember, he cant see you so instead of
nodding as to affirm his statements and confirm that you are actively
listening, interject an I understand or I agree when appropriate. The
conversation goes on and he continues to talk. He tells you he is very
inclined to accept most of your terms; he has had a great conversation
with you. You are thrilled! You must have done something right and
connected with Mr. Trump. You hang up the phone ( after picking up
your jaw from the floor in amazement of what just happened) and jot
down some notes on how you have just used your voice to help you
establish trust with Mr. Trump:
1. SPEED. You watched the speed of your voice and practiced
pausing and slowing down.
2. TONE. You watched your tonality. Once he changed his tone
of voice from formal and hurried to more friendly and relaxed,
you did the same. You were aware of your voice delivery. You
let him set the pace. You carefully listened to his breathing,
speed and tone.
3. LISTEN. You actually let him talk. You realize that your
pausing allowed for him to be more open towards you and got
him talking. You conveyed humility. Phrases such as I feel, I
understand or I agree were interjected when sincerely meant.
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4. THE ACTUAL WORDS YOU USED. You avoided the typical

sales profile. You did not use phrases or words known to trigger
negative feelings such as Im calling to follow up, You need
this, you need me, you need us or Im calling to see if you are
willing to explore the blah, blah, blah. Instead, you asked for
more information, questions such as Where do you think we
should go from here? Does this make sense? or Would you be
open to worked well. And yes, thankfully you refrained from
asking him what he uses on his famous hair. Aaah. All good.
Butwhat if he says NO?!
Since its Mr. Trump we are talking about here, you are probably very
disappointed and are thinking of banging your head against the wall but
of course you want to save your brain cells for future use, therefore you
will calmly say: Thats not a problem.
You practiced saying it out loud and noticed how it calmed you down
and brought you a sense of peace. It also helps you not to get defensive
and ruin your chances from ever working with Mr. Trump again.
Responding in this way helps reflects confidence in your service or
product and that you would not sell it to anyone who does not fully
appreciate it. Mr. Trump may even change his mind; after all he really
liked you!
In any case, any time you get a no for an answer, think about it this
way: The deal was not a good match for you; it was not a good fit for
either of you. This is a positive outcome. Focus your efforts on creating
trust with people whom you can help, and who in turn, will help your
business grow as well.
In conclusion, your voice and your body language are truly fantastic
tools and assets to help you build strong and successful relationships.
Fine tune them and let them be tools for your business success. Use
these principles to eliminate any bad habits that may reflect a lack of
confidence or disbelief in yourself or what you sell or do.
It is our sincere wish that you go into all future meetings with your best
foot forward. May you always do well in business and in life, and may
your body and voice always speak SUCCESS.
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Marketing Miracles
about TOM
Tom A. Puentes has been in the financial services industry since
1985. He is a Senior Vice President and Financial Advisor with
Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, working in Seattle, WA, and Ventura, CA. His clients include family foundations, labor unions, health
professionals, executives, Internet entrepreneurs, and business owners across the
entire U.S. From 1989 to 2000, Tom hosted a weekly financial show called Your
Money Matters, on The Business Channel, station KWHY, Los Angeles. He was
also the financial correspondent for KADY-TV in Ventura, CA.
Tom actively supports many local and national charitable organizations including
Pacific Northwest Ballet and PNB School, Seattle Union Gospel Mission, Everett
Gospel Mission, Good Cheer food bank in Langley, WA, Starlight Foundation, Beit
Tikvah, American Red Cross (Board of Directors-Ventura CA), Seattle Symphony,
Haitian Health Foundation, Hope to Haiti, Metropolitan Opera, Joseph Project, and
Seattle Opera. Tom is committed to financially supporting philanthropic causes and
has traveled in recent years to support such outreaches in Sri Lanka, Israel, and, most
recently, Haiti.
Tom is an avid fan of the opera and attends as many operas as possible averaging 1215 operas each year in New York, London, and Verona, as well as Seattle. He loves
exploring new restaurants, taking in a Seattle Mariners baseball games, attending
the ballet, symphony and jazz concerts, sailing, scuba diving, and exploring tropical
beaches. Tom finds his greatest pleasure spending time with his grandchildren in the
Seattle area and his wife Gretchen, with whom he has been love with since 1986.
Tom can be reached at [email protected] or (360) 221-2021.
64
About Juan
JuanCarlosVazquez D.C.
Personally trained by the famous Speech and Image
Consultant, Ms. Dorothy Sarnoff in Speech Dynamics,
Body Language and Clothing Selection for Success.

Personally trained in History of Lie Detection, Forensic Truth

Verification, Computer Voice Stress Analysis, Advanced Kinesics (Body
Language), and Interviewing and Interrogation by Dr. Charles Humble
of the National Institute for Truth Verification.
Completed the World Renowned program by Dr. Chester L. Karass on

Effective Negotiating
Honored member, National Directory of Whos Who in Executives and

Professionals
Past Qualified Medical Examiner for the State of California
In 2005, named Man of the Year by the American Biographical Institute
In 2008, the American Biographical Institute awarded Dr. Vazquez the

Title of Outstanding Professional for Dedicated Achievements in the
Field of Chiropractic Spinography
In 2009, listed among Top 100 Health professionals by the International

Biographical Center in Cambridge, England
Dr. Vazquez has had the honor of co-authoring this chapter with his lifelong best
friend, Mr. Tom Puentes. Dr. Vazquez has a passion for God, family and friends. He
has been a practicing Doctor of Chiropractic for 22 years. His profession has taught
him to observe body language for clinical purposes. He is married to his soul mate and
love of his life, Mali. He has a wonderful daughter, Rachelle, who is attending a top
University. Dr. Vazquez greatly enjoys spending time with his father, Tino, also his best
friend and supporter. He would also like to thank his brother, Carlos Alberto Vazquez,
a psychologist, for his unique insights into the human mind.
He can be reached at: [email protected].
65
ChAPTER 6
The Ultimate
Market Offer
The Mafia Offer
By Dr. Lisa Lang
What Is a Mafia Offer?
A Mafia Offer sounds like something out of a movie, not something
that could seriously help you make more money in your business
by increasing and controlling your sales. When done correctly,
its a marketing miraclea Mafia Offer is An offer so good that
your customers cant refuse it and your competition cant or wont offer
the same. I will refer to the operational improvements required
for a Mafia Offer as a competitive advantage.
A Mafia Offer is simply the offer you make to your marketyour
prospects and customersto make them desire your products
or services and something that your competition cannot quickly
match. And, of course, the offer you make is a combination of
your products, services, and how you deliver them. Moreover,
67
Marketing Miracles
for your offerthe solution youre sellingto be unrefusable,

you are most likely offering something of equal or greater value
than the price you are charging.
Many people confuse a Mafia Offer with a unique selling proposition
(USP), customer value proposition (CVP), or a sustainable competitive
advantage (SCA). USPs, CVPs, and SCAs take what you already
do and state it succinctly and with more specificity aimed at one
or a few of their customers problems or gaps in current market
offerings. These alternatives can be Mafia Offers, but most of
the time they are not. Furthermore, a SCA is an operational or
technological advantage and not an offer per se.
Most companies offer solutions that solve their customers various
problems or symptoms. With a Mafia Offer, we are addressing
our customers core problem as it relates to doing business with
our industry.
A Mafia Offer typically requires that you do something different
(make operational improvements to establish a competitive
advantage) to address your prospects core problem. These
operational improvements allow you to actually deliver
something unrefusable to your customers and something your
competition cant (or wont) do because they are not willing to
or dont know how to make the same improvements. In other
words, you have to establish an operational advantage.
In this way, a Mafia Offer is a sustainable market offer built on
this advantage. Mafia Offers are not a positioning or a tag line.
They can only be created by satisfying a significant need of the
market to the extent that no significant competitor can. A Mafia
Offer is where we start if you have a market constraint.
Do You Have a Market Constraint?

Lets do a quick check. How would you answer this question? If
I could increase your sales tomorrow by 20%, could you handle
the increase while:
being 100% on-time, to your very first commitment;
68
without going into firefighting mode; and

still maintain a competitive lead-time?
If the only way that you could handle the increase is to increase
your lead-times, work overtime, or miss due dates, then you
have an internal operational constraint. You dont have a market
constraint. On the other hand, if you can answer yes and you
could take a 20% increase in sales and not have any negative
effects, then you likely have a market constraint.
Developing a Mafia Offer

To develop a Mafia Offer, there are three things that we need
to consider.
1. Your Capabilities: Both What They Are and What They
Could Be, Compared to Your Competition.
Your capabilities are how you deliver your product or
service. For example, whats your lead-time? Your due date
performance? Your quality? Your answers to these questions
are your capabilities. Typically, when we first start working
with a company, their capabilities are similar to those of their
competitors. If they were much better or much worse, they
would know.
From the figure of typical Theory of Constraints (TOC)
results, if you were quoting a 6-week lead-time, we can
expect a 70% reduction or a lead-time of less than 2 weeks
after applying the TOC solutions to your operations. This
gives us an idea of the competitive advantage that we can
establish and capitalize on in our offer.
69
could actually deliver better.

To determine what your capabilities could be, we rely on experience with the TOC
logistical solutions. To give you an idea of possible results, see Fig. 22-1.
Marketing Miracles
Summary of an Independent Study Sampling of

Companies Using TOC
Revenue / Throughput:
Mean increase
Due date performance
(on-time delivery):
Mean improvement
Combined financial
variable:
Mean increase
73%
63%
44%
49%
65%
70%
Lead times:
Mean reduction
Inventory levels:
Mean reduction
Cycle times:
Mean reduction
a. Combined financial variable is either revenue or throughput increase.
FIGURE 22-1 Typical results with Theory of Constraints. (Source: Mabin and Balderstone, 2000.)
2. Your Industry How You and Your Competitors Sell

Whatever You Sell.
22_Cox_ch22_p603-628.indd 606
5/14/10 11:05:04 AM
The second thing we look at to develop your Mafia Offer is

how your industry sells whatever it is that you sell.
The key is to understand how your industry interacts, in the
selling and delivering of your products/services, with your
typical prospects and customers.
3. Your Specific Customers and How They are Impacted by
Typical Capabilities and How Your Industry Sells.
Since your customers are the only judge of your Mafia Offer, we
also need to understand how your current capabilities and those
of your competitors affect the companies in your target market,
and how they are affected by the way you all sell to them.
It is in these interactions and interfaces that we may be causing
negative effects for our customers and prospects. Understanding
these negative effects leads us to uncover our customers core
problem relative to doing business with our industry.
70
The easiest way to understand what a Mafia Offer is, what makes
it good, and how to create one is to go through an example. Most
likely, this example wont apply to you because an offer is specific
to a company and its particular customers. Nevertheless, you can
gain by understanding how to apply the three considerations to a
specific situation.
Custom Label PrinterAn Example

Lets consider a custom label printer. The labels this printer makes
for one customer cant be sold to anyone else. However, the same
customer may reorder a label for a number of years. Moreover,
this label companys customers buy about 100 different labels
for their various products. Many of their customers are regionalsized food and beverage companies. They produce food products
in multiple flavors and put them in a variety of packaging, causing
them to need 100 different labels.
The analysis started by evaluating the internal capabilities of this
printer and those of their competitors. We found that this printer
and their competitors generally quoted a 2-week lead-time. We
also learned that the due date performance (DDP) was about
90% for this type of custom label printer.
To determine if this label companys performance was typical for
their competitors as well, we simply talked to the salespeople. If
a companys performance is much better or much worse than the
competition, their salespeople will have heard about it. In this
case, the salespeople indicated that the 2-week lead-time and the
90% DDP was neither praised nor a problem.
From our experience of working with printers in the past, we
expected to get the time through the shop down to just a few
days and to improve DDP to 99%. A quick tour through the shop
verified that this should be possible. On the tour, we noticed a
large amount of work-in-progress (WIP) and ganging of jobs to
make the best use of setups.
With this information and knowing that the actual touch time
of a job was measured in minutes, we were confident that the
cycle time through the shop should go from the 2 weeks or more
71
percent DDP and the time it takes an order to flow through the shop should be draally reduced. Our estimate was two to three days.11
ext, we turned our attention to the industry and how the industry sells custom labels.
if youve ever bought anything printed you know that Marketing
the lower theMiracles
price per piece
ou want, then the more you will need to buy. If you only want one or a few pieces, then
price per piece will be very high. The printing industry uses a price per quantity curve
he one shown in Fig. 22-2.
addition to a price per quantity curve, it was also standard practice for this label printer and
mpetitors to allow customers to spread the quantity across all their different labels. Therea customer needed 100 different labels they could spread the volume across all 100.
ext, we looked at the impact that the 2-week lead time with 90 percent DDP along with
dustry practices have on the label companys customers. In other words, what negative
s for our customers are we causing because of our capabilities and how we sell?
the case of this custom label printer, we selected a representative customer to underthe cause-and-effect relationship between how we sell and the impact it has on our
mers. We selected a coffee roaster that purchased about 100 different labels and who,
they looked at that price per quantity curve, decided to purchase 6 months worth of
25
0,
0.
..
10
0,
0.
..
10
,0
00
5,
00
0
Next, we turned our attention to the industry and how the industry
sells custom labels. Now, if youve ever bought anything printed
you know that the lower the price
per piece that you want, then the
Price-quantity curve
more you will need to buy. If you
6
5
only want one or a few pieces, then
4
3
your price per piece will be very
2
high. The printing industry uses a
1
0
price-quantity curve like the one
shown here.
1,
00
0
22-2
uantity curve.
now to just a few days. We anticipated that we should be able

to improve this shop to 99% DDP and the time it takes an order
to flow through the shop should be dramatically reduced. Our
estimate was two to three days.
In addition to a price-quantity curve,

it was also standard practice to allow customers to spread the quantity
across all their different labels. Therefore, if a customer needed 100
different labels they could spread the volume across all 100.
e refer to the logistics chapters (7 through 12) of this Handbook for further guidance on establishing
ional improvements.
Next, we looked at the impact that the 2-week lead-time with 90%
DDP along with the industry practices have on the label companys
customers. In other words, what negative effects are we causing
our customers because of our capabilities and how we sell?
5/14/10 11:05:04 AM
In the case of this custom label printer, we selected a

representative customer to under
stand the cause-and-effect
relationship between how we sell and the impact it has on our
customers. We selected a coffee roaster that purchased about
100 different labels and who, when they looked at that pricequantity curve, decided to purchase 6 months worth of labels at
a time. Labels are relatively small and inexpensive, so holding
6 months of inventory was common.
To finalize the order of six months worth of labels, the coffee
roaster needs to determine how to spread the quantity across
the 100 labels. How many French Roast, Columbian Roast, and
French Vanillas were going to sell in each size bag? To do that
they had to forecast out 6 months how many of each label they
72
were going to need, which meant they had to guess:

how much coffee all of us were going to buy;
in what flavor; and
in which size bag.
Now, if you only know one thing about a forecast, what do you
know? That its wrong! The only question is just how much is it
wrong and in which direction.
Our practices force our customers to forecast. The forecast ends
up being wrong in one direction or the other. If the forecast is
low, their lines go down, causing them to lose productivity and to
work overtime when they do finally get the labels in. Their costs
also increase because, in addition to the overtime, they have to
pay expedited shipping charges. And, the buyers are frantically
working to get the labels in house and the line back up.
If the forecast is high, they end up with too much inventory
of some labels. High inventory levels increase the likelihood
of damage or obsolescence. High inventory results in higher
carrying costs and cash tied up in unneeded inventory, and causes
the company to hesitate before making any label changes.
Therefore, our analysis lead to the following Mafia Offer:
Mr. Customer, dont give me orders. Your orders are based on your
best guess of how many labels you think you might need. Thats
because label printers put that price-quantity curve in front of you and
force you to have to guess out six months. The forecast ends up being
wrong, and how can it possibly be right? Instead, tell us every day how
many labels you use and we can guarantee, on the one hand, that you
wont have to hold more than two weeks worth of labels. And you
know how your marketing department was complaining that they cant
make the changes they want because you have six months worth of
inventory? Well, now you will only have two weeks. At the same time,
we will guarantee that we never stock you out. We will guarantee that
youll never go to the shelf and not have the label you need. And if we
ever do stock you out, we will pay you $500 per day per label. We offer
73
Marketing Miracles
all this at the same competitive price you pay today and of course you
will have a lot less of your cash tied up.
The Test Is It a Mafia Offer?

Lets test that offer against our definition. Is the offer so good our
customers cant refuse it? Well, that depends on the customer.
If we have done a good job with our analysis, it should be
unrefusable to 80% of the target market. Realize that no offer will
be 100% accepted by any market. There will just be some people,
for whatever reason, that wont find your offer compelling.
When we develop a Mafia Offer, we start by asking to whom will
the offer be made? We select a target marketa type of customer.
The key is that our analysis is done with this target market in
mind. In our example, most of the label companys customers
were regional-sized food and beverage manufacturers. The offer
was developed for those customers and prospects.
Equipment manufacturers also purchase labels. However, this
offer would not work for them. They typically know that they
are going to produce 100 machines this year and they know they
will need 500 labels for those 100 machines. They do not have
a forecasting problem to the same extent that food and beverage
manufacturers do. They would not likely be moved by our offer,
so our prospecting attention would be better spent on food and
beverage manufacturers who struggle to keep the correct mix of
label inventory while still having a mountain of inventory.
Therefore, we can conclude that this offer is unrefusable to our
target market, but can our competition match it? We are asking
our customers to hold 2 weeks worth of inventory, down from
about 6 months. Whats the competitions lead-time? 2 weeks
with 90% DDP. Therefore, there is no way our competitors
could match the offer and not have to pay penalties or to hold a
substantial amount of inventory at their risk.
As it turned out, we improved our flow from over 2 weeks to just
2 days (while sales and staffing remained constant), establishing
the basis for a nice competitive advantage. Therefore, we should
never have to pay a penalty as long as we are paying attention
74
The interest in your products/services is much higher than before the offer, so
The Ultimate
Market Offer
Some leads are starting
to slip through
the cracks
Your customer service starts to decline
Thehow
first step
your process,
for new customers
and we know
to of
react
to thewhich
dailyis required
consumption
data. (like
So,design
this
or engineering), has become a bottleneck
offer does meet the two requirements for a Mafia Offer. It is an
If you continue to measure and pay attention, you should be able to avoid these probofferlems.
the
customer cant refuse and the competition cant offer
They are certainly predictable and if you pay attention to your load versus your capacity (in all parts of your operations and sales processes), then you can make the necessary
the same.
preparations and responses.
Benefits to the Label Company
We previously discussed why the Mafia Offer was unrefusable for the label company customers. But what are the benefits for the label company?
They stop the blah, blah, blah and sounding like their competitors. They can answer,
Why should I buy from you?
Sales increase (and so do profits if the TOC logistics solutions are used to improve
operations).
Time wasted producing labels that are not needed is eliminated.
They gain 100 percent supply for label stock-keeping units (SKUs) included in the program.
They substantially reduce the risk of losing a customer to a competitor over a small
price reduction. Customers taking advantage of the Mafia Offer ask for long-term
contracts.
They became better at doing setups, and can easily run small batches, increasing their
flexibility and responsiveness to the market.
They became very good at adding new customers.
Cash flow improves due to smaller batches and more frequent billing based on
replenishment that is more frequent.
Its a Business Deal
What
It Take
todeals,
Make
Offer?
ManyDid
Mafia Offers
are business
and asthe
such, are
sold differently. The label company
is no longer selling labels; they are selling the guaranteed availability of labels based on their
customers actual use or consumption. For that offer to work, the label company will need to
In addition
to of
improving
operations
using Inthe
Theory
of
supply 100 percent
the labels that are
included in the program.
addition,
the customer
will
need
to
supply
daily
consumption
data
for
those
labels.
This
transfer
of
data
sounds
Constraints, the label company had to change their thinking in
much scarier than it actually is. Typically, an electronic transfer can be set up to occur autoa number
First, their offer would require that they do
matically of
eachareas.
day.
However, the point is that the supplier (the label company) and the customer are more
moreclosely
setups.
Ask
any
label printer how much it costs to do a
integrating. Both sides stand to benefit from this business collaboration. The offer
to be
presented
way you
that gets
customer
engaged,
interactive, and
ready
to buy.
setupneeds
and
they
willin atell
tothethe
penny.
However,
how
much
The way to do this is very different from what salespeople do today in a typical sales call.
does it The
really
cost?
biggest issue we see after someone already has a good Mafia Offer is in how it is
delivered. So lets talk about that. How should a Mafia Offer be presented? We need to get
this rightYou
because
a good pay
offer, delivered
poorly, wont increase
sales.setup, and you
Nothing!
dont
your employees
by the
dont pay your machine by the setup. The only real cost is a
little paper and ink to get everything lined up. However, the label
companys competition thinks that there is a real cost (due to
2_Cox_ch22_p603-628.indd 614
allocations) and even if they could match the offer, they dont
want to! They think the label companys costs will increase and
they will go out of business.
The label company NOW understood that the true cost to do

more setups was practically nothing and saving time on a non75
5/14/10 11:05:0
Marketing Miracles
constraint would save nothing. Setups do take more time, but an

interesting thing happens when you start to do something more
oftenyou get better at it! The label company freed up capacity
by not wasting production time making labels that were not
needed. So despite the additional setups, flow through the label
company stayed at about 2 days.
So there you have it, an offer that is so good our customers cant
refuse it and something the competition cant and wont match!
The competition will not match this offer for some period of time
and maybe never. Therefore, weve built and capitalized on a
very sustainable competitive advantage.
Mafia Offers also work in service industries, project based
industries, for non-profits and in many other situations. In
addition to making a Mafia Offer to your customer you can also
make a Mafia Offer to your vendors, your employees, your bank,
your partners or affiliates, or for whomever you choose to target.
76
About Dr. Lisa

Dr. Lisa Lang is a renown Theory of Constraints expert and is
the foremost expert in the world for applying TOC to marketing. Dr.
Lisa is regularly sought out for her expertise on developing market
offers that increase sales. She has been named a 2012 Trendsetter
in USA Today for her work helping highly custom job shops and machine shops to
become more productive, more competitive and to bring manufacturing back to the
U.S. She has appeared in CNBC, CBS, The Wall Street Journal, and Yahoo! Finance
to name a few.
As the President of Science of Business, she invented the Mafia Offer Boot Camp
developing over 100 Mafia Offers for Fortune 100 companies, as well as, for small
job shops. Dr. Lisas Mafia Offers: Dealing with a Market Constraint book reached
the #1 spot on the Amazon best-seller list. Dr. Lisa worked with Dr Goldratt, father
of the Theory of Constraints, serving as the Global Marketing Director for Goldratt
Consulting. During her tenure Goldratt Consulting was the fastest growing consulting
company in the world. She has a PhD in Engineering and is a TOCICO certified expert.
She is currently an officer on the TOCICO Board of Directors. Before becoming a
consultant, Dr. Lisa worked for Clorox, Anheuser-Busch, and Coors Brewing.
Dr. Lisa is known for developing Mafia Offers offers so good that your
customers cant refuse them and your competition can not or will not match
them. Mafia Offers are NOT unique selling propositions, value propositions or a
competitive advantage. They are not price reductions or based on innovations.
To learn more about Mafia Offers and how you can create your offer in a 2.5
day Mafia Offer Boot Camp visit www.MafiaOffers.com and check out Dr. Lisas
bestselling book Mafia Offers: Dealing with a Market Constraint. Email Dr. Lisa
at [email protected].
www.MafiaOffers.com
77
Using Effective Sales Choreography to Create a WOW! Customer Experience
ChAPTER 7
Using Effective
Sales Choreography
to Create a WOW!
Customer Experience
By Sydney Biddle Barrows
hen people ask me what I do and I tell them Im a business

consultant and my area of expertise is Sales Choreography
and the Customer Experience, sometimes I get a few snickers.
Usually from men, whose minds tend go directly into the gutteroh,
excuse me, bedroom. Yes, there certainly was bedroom action that went
on in my former business, but it played a much more minor role than
you might imagine.
Bedroom action?!!? What kind of business were you in, lady?
Well, I was in the Madam business, to put it bluntly. Back in the day,
I had a very elite escort service in New York City, and we catered to
diplomats, international businessmen, Wall Street multimillionaires
79
Marketing Miracles
and Arab sheiks, as well as sports stars and musicians whose names
youd recognize immediately.
You can read the entire story in my first book, Mayflower Madam,
which was a #1 New York Times Best Seller. It was translated into seven
languages, reprinted 28 times in the U.S. alone, Fortune Magazine
named it one of the Top Ten Best Business Books of the Year, and
business schools across the country, including Harvard, used it in
courses on Entrepreneurship, Starting Your Own Business, and the like.
Once that book hit #1, invitations started pouring in to give presentations
to all kinds of groups (in particular, one extremely prestigious
international business group that doesnt like to see their name in print,
and I honor that request). After the presentation, titled Marketing a
High Cost Service was over, I found the heads of these multi-million
dollar companies asking me if I did consulting. I had absolutely no
idea what that was, so I blew them off, telling them I was just too busy
to do any consulting right now.
But after this happened a few times, I thought to myself, Y know,
maybe I ought to find out more about this consulting thing, especially
since it sounds like theyd pay me good money to do it. So I started to
ask what they thought I might be able to help them with, and just listened.
Strategy #1 Ask a lot of questions and then shut up and
listen. Everyones favorite subject is themselves or something
thats important to them. Not only will people appreciate that
youre genuinely interested in them, theyll tell you everything
you need to know about what they want, why they want it,
what hasnt worked in the past, and loads of other important
information. And at the same time, theyre talking themselves into
why they need what you do, so all you have to do is encourage
them to keep talking by occasionally asking leading questions and
acting like this is the most fascinating conversation youve had all
week. And it should be!
The terms Sales Choreography and the Customer Experience were
completely unknown to me way back then. It had been my experience
that the Client Experience, and the Sales Choreography that created
and maintained it, was our primary business and the deliverables, the
80
young ladies, were the secondary part of the business.

It turned out that these extremely successful businessmen caught on
to this immediately, and wanted to engage my services because of the
phenomenal success Id had attracting clients, our consistently high
conversion rates, the record-level of repeat business we did, and our
ability to charge higher fees than anyone else, in spite of the fact that
every one of our competitors was charging less, and we were also
competing with free.
Strategy #2 Is your primary business the Experience your
Client has with you while purchasing The Thing, or is The Thing
itself so unique that people can only get it from you? If you have
competition that offers what appears to the untrained eye to be the
same thing you offer, appealing and effective Sales Choreography
is the only differentiating factor that will land you that customer
and enable you to keep them. And if it produces an Experience
that is unique, compelling, and really resonates with them, you
can charge premium prices, too, which theyll gladly pay.
Remember, we choreographed the Experience from the second we
landed on their radar screen, and this carefully crafted Experience
continued throughout the entire sales process. It was meticulous Sales
Choreography that:
easily yielded a phenomenally high conversion rate (100% on
many nights)
consistently increased the original transaction size
prompted them to call us far more frequently than they would
have otherwise
engendered tremendous loyalty Ill never forget the night
a client told me hed never demean (him)self by calling
another agency
enabled us to charge higher fees than everyone else, in spite
of the fact that all our competitors was charging less, and we
were competing with free!
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Marketing Miracles
Strategy #3 When you give your customers an Experience

that resonates with them, youre giving more than just the product
or service youre selling. Youre giving them more value, and its
that value that motivates them to choose you, its that value that
influences them to return to you, and its that value that inspires
them to give you even more of their business. Its also that value
theyll pay higher prices for: they feel theyre getting more, so
theyre willing to pay more.
One of the first misapprehensions Id like to dispel is that effective
Sales Choreography has to cost money. There are instances where you
do need to spend money, but only one of the unique and memorable
Client Experiences we delivered cost the business an extra penny.
Strategy #4 If funds are an issue, spend them on your best
customers. Its more cost effective to spend money to keep them
happy than to go out and look for new ones. Thats how we did it,
with very impressive results.
It could be successfully argued that I paid my phone girls more than
the gum chewin broads from Brooklyn who answered the phones at
the other agencies, and that this cost extra money, but my phone girls
were such a critical component of our Sales Choreography, that we
couldnt possibly have been nearly as successful without them.
Strategy #5 The people who are the first point of contact
with your prospects and customers, and the sales people and
customer service people who interact with them too, are your
most valuable assets. If theyre not first-rate, youll have lower
conversion rates, lower transaction sizes, less repeat business,
and spotty referrals. It doesnt matter how terrific your product or
service is if your prospects and customers arent real thrilled with
the way theyre treated.
Solution: pay those people good money and treat them like
the gold they are, because if they genuinely like working for you,
it will come across every time they interact with your customers.
Happy employees are nicer, friendlier and more caring employees,
more helpful employees, more loyal to the business, and more
invested in its success. Theyll stay with you longer, if not forever,
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and that continuity plays a major role in customer loyalty and

retention, additional business, willingness to pay higher prices,
and the level of referrals.
The most effective Sales Choreography involves nothing more than to
make doing business with you inviting, inspiring, refreshing, fun even
something as simple as easy! Consumers today, more than ever, are
looking for something different, something authentic, and something
that feels good to them. They might not be able to articulate it, but what
theyre really looking for is a buying Experience thats:
1.
2.
3.
4.
Relevant to and resonates with them

Puts a smile on their face and in their hearts
Is interesting or enjoyable to take part in
Makes them feel really pleased, if not relieved,
theyve found you
5. Causes them to feel good about making the purchase, and
6. Makes them feel good about making the purchase from YOU
Not every business or every transaction will be able to incorporate all of
these, but your customers need to experience at least four: particularly
the last one.
Strategy #6 Determine what kind of Experience your ideal
customers are hoping to find and reverse engineer everything
you do in order to create that reality. Design and integrate Sales
Choreography that will engage and delight them, that will cause
them to talk about you, and will influence them to look forward to
returning.
Theres no way of getting around it, persuasive and effective Sales
Choreography does takes preparation and planning; you cant just
wing it and expect to see results. There are several pieces that go into
designing appropriate Sales Choreography, theyre all interrelated, and
each step has to be done in the correct order. Not knowing what the
pieces are and the proper way to fit them together is why most people
dont get it right.
Now before you can even think about designing Sales Choreography
that delivers the desired Experience, you absolutely must have one
thing very clear in your mindactually, it should really be written
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Marketing Miracles
down on paper. And that critical starting point is your story, or more
accurately, your business story.
The reason your business needs to have a story is because in order to
create the appropriate Sales Choreography thats going to attract attention,
stimulate interest and maintain that interest, you need a foundation to
build it on, and the story of your business is that foundation.
The story of your business is made up of these three ingredients:
1. The business youre really in: What are the benefits, solutions,
and outcomes your customers are hoping or expecting to get

by owning your product or receiving your service? This is the
business you are really in. Remember, these are very often not
what they appear to be on the surface, but are all about reinforcing
how they want to see themselves, be seen by others, or in some
way fulfill other subconscious needs, wants or desires.
2. Your USP (Unique Selling Proposition): This could be the
unique nature of your product or service, the unique form in

which it comes or the manner in which its delivered, or it could
be the uniqueness of the person or persons who are associated
with it. It could also be the unique Experience prospects and
clients receive before, during and/or after the purchase, or your
USP could be you!
3. The business your customers want you to be in: This last
ingredient is about the products and services you sell, and the
manner in which you sell it and they buy it. It seems self evident
to say you should offer a selection of products or services thats
chosen specifically with the needs, wants and desires of your
Ideal Customer in mind, but its all too common for a business
to offer a product or service because it reflects the owners taste,
he or she enjoys selling or providing it, or its something they
believe their customers should want. Its not enough to provide
a particular product or service; you have to sell the appropriate
version of it, the version your clients are looking for.
Strategy #8 These are questions I ask every client at the

beginning of every consulting engagement. How would you
answer them?
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1. What is it your customers are really paying you for?

2. What do they really hope or expect to get out of owning the
product or receiving the service?
3. What differentiates your business from everyone else that
does or sells what you do?
4. Why would someone choose to do business with you as
opposed to your competitors?
5. What does your product or service offer thats unique
only to you?
6. What are your best-selling products or services? Why?
7. Do you keep track of the questions prospects and clients
ask about what you offer, particularly what it does or does
not include?
8. Do you keep track of why people dont buy?
9. What do your closest competitors offer that you do not?
10. How does their Sales Choreography and the Experience that
produces differ from yours?
If you attempt to design the most appropriate and relevant Sales
Choreography for your Ideal Customers, so that they will have an
Experience that really knocks their socks off without knowing what the
Story of your business is:
How are you going to position your product or service to
appeal to your target market, what media will you use to reach
them, and what will you say to get their attention and inspire a
desire to find out more?
How will you know which selling points to make, what
benefits to emphasize?
How will you know what information they need to hear or
read that will make it more likely theyll book an appointment
or make a purchase?
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Marketing Miracles
How will you know exactly which words to use that will
resonate with your prospects and trigger a desire to have what
it is youre selling?
How will you know precisely which products to carry or
services to offer?
There are so many ways to interact with people. Should you be
doing that primarily over the internet, the phone, or in person?
How do you manage that interaction? Do you want people
to have easy access, make them qualify in some way, send
them information first, make an appointment in order to get
any more information, or simply stop by?
The Story of your business even governs the choices you should make
regarding:
the style of your website
the location of your business
the dcor and ambience of your office or store
the way you and your employees dress
In some cases, the Story of your business even makes a difference in
the age, the sex, and the physical appearance of your employees.
If you follow these eight strategies, youll have the information you
need so that you, too, can create a level of Sales Choreography that
will deliver the kind of Experience that will make your business stand
head and shoulders above your competition, enable you to charge loyal
customers premium prices, and build a strong, stable business that will
more easily withstand any future economic turbulence.
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ABOUT SYDNEY
Perhaps better known to millions as the Mayflower Madam,
Sydney Biddle Barrows found herself moonlighting as a phone girl
at an escort service to supplement her unemployment check after
having been fired for refusing to participate in a kickback scheme. It
may have been the Worlds Oldest Profession but it certainly was not being run very
professionally, and less than a year later she decided to open up her own agency.
Relatively small but very upscale, Cachet prospered for five and a half years until New
Yorks Finest closed it down, only to later publicly concede that it was the most honest
and professionally run business of its kind ever operated in New York City.
Her first book, Mayflower Madam, went right to the top of the New York Times bestseller
list; Fortune Magazine named it one of The Ten Best Business Books of the Year and
business schools across the country, including Harvard, used it in their curriculum.
Her fourth book, Uncensored Sales Strategies, co-authored with the legendary Dan
Kennedy, was published in January of 2009.
Sydney Biddle Barrows is a recognized authority on using compelling Sales
Choreography to create a meaningful and irresistible Customer Experience. She
consults with entrepreneurs, businesspeople and professional practices to identify
and analyze the Experiences their customers are currently encountering with them,
their staff and their business in general. She then puts together a Sales Choreography
Renovation Plan and works with her clients execute that plan.
Sydney also has an extensive speaking career and presents to a wide range of
business groups, as well as guest lecturing at colleges and universities across the
country, on The Secrets to Creating a Unique and Compelling Customer Experience.
In addition, she writes articles on the Customer Experience, puts out a newsletter
called The Experience Factor, and contributes to entrepreneur.com (Entrepreneur
magazines online site) on the Customer Experience.
As an adjunct to her coaching and consulting business, Sydney does Roadblock
Removal work, eradicating those roadblocks that sabotage people with the best
intentions from organizing and using their time productively; from accomplishing the
things they genuinely want to do; and that hold them back from being the kind of
person they truly want to be.
Sydney lives in New York City on the Upper West Side, and has no pets, no plants,
no children, and no regrets.
Visit www.sydneybarrows.com for more information on her products and services, and
www.roadblockremoval.com to find out more about how you can get out of your own
way and live your life as the person youve always wanted to be.
www.sydneybarrows.com
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Its a Miracle!
ChAPTER 8
Its a Miracle!
By David White
etting into business, or growing your business, is so tough. I have

been lucky and hope to share with you how I had various shots
at actually blowing myself up in the process. Everyone I have
met has war stories to tell! Most war stories are better to hear than
actually live through.
I have put myself in harms way, I have become fearless. I have learned
hard lessons.
I have learned from the best too, which includes Dan Kennedy. Probably
like you I am nothing special, an ordinary chap born and brought up in
the UK. My father was pretty good at his job and got promoted often,
so I moved with the family north and south many times. I saw a lot
of life, a lot of people, often stuck in their ways. Even now, I spend a
quarter of my lifea week at least in the U.S. and if not there, in
Asia, South America or Finland. Im not sure I totally recommend that,
as it will not be agreeable to everyone. The more people I meet, the
more stories I hear, the more I continue to learn. Continuous learning
is a great interest, it keeps you on top and gives you opportunities to
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Marketing Miracles
reach out to new and different people and ask for help. And generally,
they do.
My story here is about interest and ambition. Growing up, I wanted to
get into the electronics industry because I was interested in radios and
TV, but also interested in fireworks and music. Then I started to become
interested in young women. As I could not sing or play guitar (I had
learned Tenor Horn) it meant I could not join a band. No one would
have me. So that route to the women was, naturally, denied. I decided
to make electronic instruments. I found the line Would you like to play
with my organ? broke the ice. After a while I had to change to Would
you like to play with my bongos?
I discovered at a young age that having the right story was important to
getting what you wanted. Although I will not go into detail, the direct
approach, (coming right out with what you wanted) was crass, and,
as I quickly discovered worked a lot less, or not at all! Women are a
fascinating subject, but not one we shall dwell on here.
To business. Unknowingly, I discovered one of the key secrets to sales.
Storytelling. So, what better place to tell a story than in a chapter of a
book? Although as you will discover, you can tell, retell and live through
a story again and again anywhere. The neat thing about stories is they
tend to be personal, about you, about human natureand everybody
has one. I discovered this was true in my electronics career too.
I was lucky enough to get the job I wanted and got paid to go to
college as an apprentice to study electronics. This meant that in the
summer months I had to actually go to work, which was a shock (until
I discovered that work involved running down to the South Coast and
installing / commissioning radar systems on war ships). I can tell you
as a young man in your 20s, there is nothing better than working on big
ships with missiles on board. That was where I rediscovered the power
of Theatre.
As a young engineer, older folk, engineers and seamen would send me
on missions for left-handed elbow grease and the like. Generally I did
not have the gumption to say no, it was as much a game to them as
me, although it had become tiresome. One day during commissioning, as
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Its a Miracle!
usual, warning lights blinked red, and this time it was from up top. I was
summoned to the deck. It could be cold outside so I put on my lab coat to
keep warm, and anyway it made me look like a scientist. As I climbed to
the top of ladder I could see across the deck a huddle of hot sweaty men
in navel uniform and a small crane pulling out the munitions from one of
the batteries. As I walked across, one particular missile was laid to rest on
the deck and the men looked around to see me, a young boy with a tool
box walking toward them. Of course I had seen this missile before many
times, each was numbered and apart from that they were the real, heavy
duty, fully armed, real thing. Live munitions.
I looked at the men, I looked behind me. I knew no one else was coming.
They were hoping it was not this kid with his toy box and dentist outfit.
Geeze, this missile could go off at any minute.
I nodded to the men and knelt down over the device. With speed and
noise I unscrewed the panel and slammed it onto the deck. The men
around me jumped. That was their first jump. Sensing their sensitivity,
and wishing to make a meal of events I continued to clatter around,
occasionally looking up. As I did I could see their anxiety. I saw beads
of sweat roll down the side of more than one face. They clearly were
not men used to dealing with live munitions, on a hot summers day.
The last thing they wanted was their lives in my hands.
I took out my pliers and hovered for a second over the blue wire.
Talking to myself I muttered, cant be and looked up as I took my
clipper off the blue wire and settled on the yellow. After a terrifying
minute (for them) I tutted and looked up, saying nope. By now, the
guys had bulging eyes, red faces, and there were pools on the floor by
their feet. They could not believe what was playing out. Was this thing
going to blow?
Taking advantage I slammed my pliers down on the deck, I felt the men
jump around me once more and I violently yanked a circuit board out
of the missile innards and sent it spinning on the deck behind me. The
men did not know whether to run, laugh or cry. I looked up once more
and could see them saying their prayers. I deftly placed a replacement
card inside, jammed it in by force and resealed the unit. Reran the test
to Green and we were done.
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Marketing Miracles
Soon I was the sailors hero, clearly the first Rocket Scientist they had
met. I had rediscovered theatre and found myself King of the hour. I got
sent on a lot fewer errands after that.
I knew the same amount as when I was running errands, but now with a
little staging, I found myself getting a lot more respect. Important lessons.
Years later I attended an X factor event in L.A. It was run by the Guru
Jay Abraham. I heard his story on business transformation through
optimization. Interesting. I met some very important people and heard
some wonderful, emotional stories. Imagine 500 men crying with emotion
hearing the founder of Fedex speak about how his company eventually
made it. Rock Stars! It all made sense, but perhaps to bigger businesses,
it did not seem like it was right for me (even though I was happy and full
of emotional admiration for all I had met, and with all I had learned).
I slept on it, and on coming home, in the plane, I had an epiphany. I
realized I should set up Weboptimiser. Another lesson learned!
This was in 1996 at the beginning of the dot com age. Since,
Weboptimiser has become the Worlds most well-known Internet
Marketing business. Weboptimiser outlived its competition and has
traded for nearly 17 years, millions per year, delivering billions to clients.
Our experience has ranged from helping IBM to Solo Practitioners
with ideas and experience to share with all kinds of business owners
and managers. From big names to one-man bands.
A few years ago, still connecting with Jay Abraham, I was introduced
to Dan Kennedy. Dan one day explained that Jay certainly has all the
theory, but he [Dan] puts it into practiceand Dan shares! Dan shares
it in droves with thousands of business owners and managers small
and large, through his newsletters, live events, mastermind groups and
consulting. It was through Dan that I was invited to contribute to this
book, because I am in his Titanium Mastermind Group. Through the
power of story Dan shows how to communicate with a wider audience
and he has taught me and my company, Weboptimiser how to share too.
Weboptimiser as a business focuses on delivering done for you
services and as a result, it is not appropriate to provide and share a
lot of information on the specifics of the website, as we can talk more
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Its a Miracle!
about the opportunities that the technology can lead you too, as I will
cover later.
We created another business called Tribal Ideas which is a site we are
continuously building, working on and adding to, where we reveal
more about what we do in practice and we share there, too. At Tribal
Ideas you too can learn about insider, real business developing tips and
techniques you and your business can employ to get more out of Search
and Social Media. We also include information on public speaking and
presenting, as it is our objective to give you enough information for you
to not just master the technology, but also to master the management of
the people that you will need to work with whether they are colleagues
or clients. It is our expectation you will get to such a size that DIY
online marketing will be the furthest thing from your mind, at which
time it would be useful for Weboptimiser to do it for you.
One important, vital observation I would like to share is that there is
what I call Internet Speed and Human speed. My home broadband now
operates at 20m /s, a tad faster than 16k dial up modem that I started
with. Compared to that is human speed, which I believe to generally be
considerably slower than even the slowest of slow 16k dial up. Gone
are the times when you can just sell, sell, sell. Nowadays, to sell,
you need to cut through everyone elses promotions, communicate
effectively, tell some deep routed stories and inspire. Your ideas have
to become your customers idea. It becomes your job to make sure that
you are the person to supply it. Let me attempt to provide an example
on how Internet Marketing can be the glue to your sales campaign and
how important story is to making the sale.
This example will not suit everyones position, but as I learned from
the Jay Abraham X factor event, unrelated ideas can lead to whole
new businesses.
Many people know that they want to sell someone elses product.
They do not have the resources to manufacture, design or invent, as
most usually dont have the time or resources available. Most people
usually need to earn an income efficiently and fast. So lets say you see
an opportunity to sell some cream to dentists, a cream that helps reduce
patient tension and fear. I choose dentists in this fictional example, only
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Marketing Miracles
because everyone reading this should know what a dentist is. You know
what a cream is right? All good so far.
Ok, although you know I am a rocket scientist you should be starting
to realize that this is not rocket science. Reducing patient tension and
fear could be of big importance to certain patients. But Dentists might
not realize this is a problem, or could even be in denial. How do you
solve this? The first thing to do is to let the dentists try it. Give them a
sample and let them put a drop of the cream on the patients forehead
to help create a calm and soothing environment. There are a couple
of human psychological things going on here. The dentist will giving
something to the patient and the patient will know that the dentist is
not only thinking of the patient but doing something for the patient. So
this is a very good procedure for the dentist. Afterwards the patient will
in many cases be relieved that there was less pain and difficulty than
expected and may like to buy some of the cream to take home. We have
given the dentist something that makes him look good and provided an
income stream.
There are several problems we want to overcome to make this a success.
1) Getting it to the dentist in the first place, with cost and time issues.
2) Making the sale. 3) Ensuring that sales occur again and again so that
volume rises. 4) Locking out the competition.
Two scenarios present themselves, for the first imagine that what you
have becomes a well known brand, what name would you use (working
backwards)? You could choose Best Dentist, or Happy Patient. Both
domain names are unused and for sale! Now when you market the
product you have a name that is related to one of the key benefits, you
could market both names, but thats another story. The Best Dentist
is known by Happy Patients could become the strap line. In this way
you are making both the sales pitch and potentially locking out the
competition. In this case, as you established the name, pay per click
will be low cost and SEO and Social Media Marketing both easy
opportunities.
The second scenario is a new product with its new name, you need to
get it into the hands of dentists. You have the option of sending samples
to doctors, to patients and outright sale. You could visit householders
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Its a Miracle!
or dentists, an expensive and difficult option when the world is such

a big place. You will probably find that Direct Mail is best used when
targeting Dentists and what better way than to put product in their hands
then to post it to them. You could try telephoning them first (skype
makes every call a local call) and then recording their level of interest
in a database. Immediately following a call with a sample would work
well and, knowing the names of the individual you could send them
a personalized URL such as david.white.bestdentist.com where you
could offer a sales letter providing the opportunity to log in or set up a
personalized private account. There you could offer stock for sale and
show videos of happy patients and their best dentist.
This scenario, albeit simplified shows how online can be integrated
with offline marketing and real world people. Go visit TribalIdeas.com
and set up your free account where I can show and share more. Youll
find its not rocket science. TribalIdeas.com
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Marketing Miracles
About David
My first technology venture was the founding of Saga Systems
in 1981. Based in London, I started off as an engineer in Missile
Guidance, so you could refer to me as abona fideRocket Scientist.
While there I designed a keyboard to work on home computers and
went on to earn my first millions at a young age (Saga Systems). I drove a Porsche,
bought a house, got married and had a son.
All good? Not so much.
Just a couple of years later computers updated, I could not sell any more keyboards,
I had lost my house, smashed up my car and was divorced. I was also penniless and
my former wife was not allowing access to my new-born son.
My life had been reset.
I had lost everything in life that I had ever cherished. I struggled to make ends meet
with less than 1000 to my name. No job, no business, everything lost and with
maintenance (alimony) to pay, I was in trouble. I had no alternative but to take shelter
at my parents house and there I had to suffer my mother hounding me out of bed
every day to go to work, to go to find work, to do something. Of course, I thank her
now, but at the time, it was unbearable.
From here the only way was up! I WAS getting things done. I got a job at KFC and
I sold sandwiches at the industrial park. I tried to get a real job in the afternoons. I
was soon selling computer networks in those same industrial parks. There was more
money in that!
Nevertheless, it was a tough life. Something HAD to change.
I was still basically broke, but I had something; I received an invitation to attend an
event in Los Angeles. It was a MAD thing to do but I cashed everything and paid
for the flight. Ienjoyed the Californian sunshine and the company, I heard inspiring
stories,and I set about changing my life. On the plane home I determined, back in
1996, to set up and register Weboptimiser.com.
**************
Davidserved as the Chairman of the Search Task Force for the Internet Advertising
Bureau for over two years.During that time, his best-practice standards were adopted
by all good providers in the Search Engine Marketing industry. He is still chair and
speaks at industry events around the world.
In 2010 he was a guest, as the Online Marketing Expert,on The Brian Tracy Show,
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Its a Miracle!
which was aired in the US.The program featured on NBC and was syndicated out to
many other channels. He has also appeared on Sky News and LBC radio.
The appearance on the The Brian Tracy Show was partly the result of co-authoring
The Relationship Age in which The worlds leading experts teach you PROVEN
strategies for creating profitable relationships in the world of Social Media along with
Mari Smith, who is known as the pied piper of Social Media, and others.
The Relationship Age quickly became an Amazon Best Seller, and, due to the books
success,Davidwas awarded a Best-Sellers Quill Award by the National Academy of
Best-Selling Authors in New York in December 2010.
More recently,Davidco-authored The New Masters of Online Marketing: Leading
experts from around the world reveal proven secrets to grow your business through
OnlineMarketing Strategies. That too became an Amazon best seller.
He has been behind the scenes, kept busy developing campaigns for major retailers
and hotel groups across the World, working most notably with Ford, Marriot and most
recently Virgin Money. He works with major brands to one man bands. AsDavidsays,
Its not the size thats important; its the challenge.
Today he continues to work on client accounts.He has become increasingly involved
in the world of Social Media, particularly with the development of iMA profiling systems
and video. His experience has grown from search to all aspects of traffic generation
to lead-capture techniques, membership sites, video and mobile optimisation to real
world business development for client companies.
He is a fully-fledged and paid up member of Dan Kennedys herd and is currently part
of the Titanium Mastermind Group.
You can learn more aboutDavids business atWeboptimiser.comby clicking on site
audit on the sites top menu where you will find a free offer for him to analyse your
web site and get back to you with optimisation ideas; ways that you can make your
business work better on and off line.
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4 Keys to A Successful Social Media Optimization Plan
ChAPTER 9
4 Keys to A Successful
Social Media
Optimization Plan
By Tom Bukacek
remember how frustrated I felt on that hot August afternoon, driving

30 miles from my house to meet a potential home buyer in Manor,
Texas, only to have the him stand me up. I still remember how much
I hated waking up at 3am every Saturday to travel throughout Austin,
Texas, so I could hammer in my We Buy Houses bandit signs into the
dry, hard ground in order to try to attract home sellers. I also recall what
it was like placing my We Buy Houses business cards on car windows
in parking lots, getting dirty looks from customers and being chased off
by business owners who wanted me out of their parking lot.
There had to be better ways of generating leads, right?
Sure, direct mail got me the occasional lead. I was printing out and
sending 50 handwritten yellow letters every day to houses on the preforeclosure list. I was advertising in the Greensheet and had an ad in
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the Yellow Pages. I was doing all the traditional marketing stuff I was
taught in every marketing class Id ever taken.
Unfortunately, so were a couple thousand other real estate professionals
in Austin. The traditional methods of advertising were very costly and
were also not very effective.
But what really frustrated me the most in the summer of 2010 was how
my friends, Curt Maly and Nick Bridges, who were also real estate
investors, seemed to be able to attract leads without all the hassle. What
marketing miracle had they uncovered?
How did they transform their real estate business from hours of mind
numbing labor to getting their phone to ring without leaving their house?
Fed up with high marketing costs and low results, I was open for a new
idea. I decided to call them and take them out to lunch so I could find
the answer.
Intelligent Online Marketing System

Curt and Nick were able to relate with my frustration as they had dealt
with the same challenges I had. However, things had changed for them.
They were able to find as many leads as they needed without having to
leave their houses.
They had created an intelligent online marketing system that produced
leads for them 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, regardless of if they were
awake or sleeping; in town or on vacation.
The only part of their system that was missing was a writer, and given
my love and experience for writing, a new partnership was formed. It
was at this moment that I began my journey on discovering the power
of Social Media Optimization.
First Customer
I wasnt the only one who had noticed that Curt and Nick were having
success online. A local real estate guru named Phill Grove also wanted
assistance bringing in customers. Phill was getting ready to launch
his new real estate education product and wanted our assistance
in promoting his brand online. We implemented our social media
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optimization processes for him and we were able to surpass his goals.
A month later, Internet marketing guru Mike Dillard was releasing his
new product and invited us, along with 100 other Internet marketers,
to sell his products. Unlike the competition we were facing, we had no
mailing list to pitch. We were starting this competition from scratch,
in need of a miracle if we were going to have any success. Rather
than focus on what we didnt have, we simply implemented our social
media optimization process that we had used to attract customers in
real estate.
At the end of the contest, we were one of the top earners. This
accomplishment was exciting for us because it meant that what we
were doing worked for industries other than real estate. In fact, when
Mike Dillard heard that we had promoted his launch promoting only
through social media, he wanted to meet us to find out exactly what we
were doing.
We had coffee with Mike and explained our social media optimization
process. While a genius at traditional and Internet marketing, Mike
hadnt yet dipped into social media. He was blown away by what we
had shared with him.
Look, said Mike. If you dont form a company and apply what you
do for others, then I will and Im going to become rich doing it instead
of you.
When a guy who just made millions tells you that, its time to get
serious about creating a company.
Shortly thereafter, Curt, Nick, and I shut down our real estate businesses
forever and created Black Box Social Media, a company that was
dedicated to utilizing Web 2.0 marketing techniques to help people of
all industries brand themselves online.
Now Black Box Social Media provides services to many different types
of clients including Physicians, Best-Selling Authors, Motivational
Speakers, Reality TV Stars, Professional Sports Teams and more.
Regardless of who we work for, our social media optimization processes
pretty much stay the same.
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So what is our secret? What strategies did we develop and what

processes did we create that had multimillionaires seeking us out for
our services?
Here are the 4 keys that we use in every social optimization plan we
create for our clients.
The 4 Keys to A Successful Social Media

Optimization Plan
Key 1: Social Networking Sites
When most people who arent familiar with the power of social media
marketing think about using Facebook and Twitter, they imagine their
kids using it to post funny pictures or send out irrelevant messages to
their friends. However, social media optimization is not your 16 years
olds Facebook!
There is an actual science for using Facebook, Twitter, Google+,
Pinterest, YouTube and other sites for branding yourself and your
business. The best form of marketing has always been word-of-mouth
marketing, and when you think of it, social media is simply word of
mouth marketing that happens online.
People are in the habit of visiting social networking sites every day,
however, theyre not going to be in the habit of visiting your specific
Facebook site unless you are interesting and provide a reward for doing
so. Here are three very important keys to having success on social
networking sites:
1. Post pictures of your product in action. People love looking
at pictures. Its a fantastic way to demonstrate the experience

that your product or service offers. If you have a business
where customers come in to interact, then take pictures of
them in action. For example, if you have a restaurant and a
group of people come in to celebrate a birthday, take photos
of the group, let them know that it will be on your Facebook
Page, and give them a card with instructions encouraging them
to Like your Page and how to share these photos. This little
tip will allow you to quickly increase the number of Likes
on your Facebook Page. In this scenario, posting these photos
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provides social proof that your establishment is a fun place

to come into and celebrate birthdays and other events. Plus,
the average Facebook user has 214 friends, so if they share
your photo on their site, you will have more people becoming
aware of your business and seeing exactly how much fun they
can have there.
2. Run contests. As the old axiom goes, you get what you
reward, so if you want to have people continuously visiting

your social site, posting, commenting, and overall engaging,
then you should create contests that will reward this behavior
and create a habit. There is software available that will
track engagements among multiple social media sites, like
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Create a fun prize and youd
be surprised how many people will be incredibly motivated to
promote your site to their friends.
3. Engage with others. Always acknowledge or respond to
people who post on your site. People love recognition, and

a Like or comment or response to their engagement is a
reward. Rewarding people on your site will condition them to
come back to your site and participate again.
Once youve followed the above steps to incentivize your visitors

to habitually check your Page, you can then use the site to subtly
promote your product, services, or upcoming events. The Facebook
Timeline Page for Brands and Twitter Brand Pages both allow you a
banner for advertising that visitors will see each time they visit your
site. For example, one of my clients is a Realtor. Every time she sells
a house to a new couple, she takes a photo of them smiling with their
house in the background and her Realty sign in the front. She then
formats the photo to match the dimensions of the Facebook Timeline
Cover Page requirements and sends it to new homeowners as a gift.
The new homeowners love the photo and use it as their cover, which
allows them to advertise not only their new house, but also the agents
information as well.
There are many other creative ways to use social sites to promote your
brand. When seeking ideas, dont just limit yourself to text; include
pictures and videos as well.
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Marketing Miracles
Key 2: Video Marketing

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a video is worth a million.
Video marketing is the biggest trend in online marketing because its a
great way to deliver your unique message in a seemingly personal manner.
People are tired of nameless and faceless companies and want to see
the man behind the curtain. Video allows you to deliver a personal
message, demonstrate how to use a product or how a service works,
answer questions, and make people more comfortable with their buying
decisions. Theyre also the best medium for testimonials!
I unknowingly fell for the power of video marketing when searching for
a Chiropractor after a car accident a couple of years ago. Id searched
online had visited a few sites, but the one that grabbed me was the
one with a personal message. The Doctor had created a welcome video
where he discussed his history, introduced his staff, and took you on a
virtual tour of the office. By the time I arrived at the clinic for the first
time, I already knew everyone who worked there, had seen the waiting
room, knew exactly what to expect on the first visit and had already
made the decision to become a patient. You cannot accomplish this
type of personalized marketing through any other type of medium.
Key 3: Pay Per Click Marketing
Social networking sites, like Facebook, will reward you for receiving
engagements and punish you posting low quality messages by not
having your posts show up as frequently. On average, only about 17%
of your fans will see your message. This statistic means that if you
have 1,000 fans, only 170 people are seeing your message and 830
people who were interested enough to Like your page no longer hear
from you. So how do you reach the other 83% who arent seeing your
updates in their newsfeeds?
Many people familiar with pay per click marketing on social networking
sites will tell you that it is a great way to drive new traffic to your
social media pages, but did you know that pay per click (PPC) offers a
tremendous, cost effective way to also reengage those 83% who have
fallen off the radar?
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With PPC marketing, you can target very specific online demographics
of your potential customers by zip code, sex, age, marital status, interests,
education level, and even place of employment. With Facebook PPC,
you can even target those who are currently fans or not fans of your Page.
The simplest form of Facebook PPC marketing is to promote an ad
from a Page post. This strategy will allow you to promote a specific
post that will show the picture associated with the post and highlight
the first couple of sentences of the message. Your fans will see this ad
on the right hand side of their Page, click it, and become reengaged with
you once again. Even if they dont click on it, they will still see your
message and have a reason to reengage with your Page again. These
types of campaigns can be run for as little as $15 for a day and still have
a tremendous effect. If this type of service seems intimidating, dont
stress as PPC management can easily be outsourced to other companies.
Key 4: Local Online Search.
I have a client who is a doctor that ranks on page 1 of Google whenever
anyone in her city searches for a dentist. Whats remarkable about this
feat is that she doesnt even have a website. In fact, shes yet to pay a
single penny and she is still able to rank on page 1 of Google and has
her phone ringing off the hook with customers. How is this possible?
She has her business listed on all of the relevant local online search
directories.
Over 90% of people go online to look for specific businesses close to
them, yet surprisingly, only about one third of all businesses are listed
online. Isnt the whole idea of marketing to be located in places where
your potential customers are looking?
Those companies, like my dentist client list above, who are listed,
optimized, and consistently updating their information on multiple
local online search directories will put themselves in a great position
to be found by potential customers seeking their services. Sites like
Yelp, Manta, Google+ Local, Yahoo! Local Business, Bing Business
Portal, and AOL Yellow Pages will show on page 1 of the search engine
rankings when people search for a business. And most of these sites
wont cost you anything!
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Marketing Miracles
Therefore, if you are a restaurant, a professional of any type, or have

a local business, it is an absolute must that you become listed in the
above business directories or else you run the risk your customers
finding your competition instead.
One final tip: in addition to listing herself in multiple directories, she also
encourages reviews and comments on these sites. The most interaction
you have on local search directories, the higher up the search engine
rankings your business will climb.
Summary
In conclusion, our company has had a great deal of success following
the same type of steps for ourselves and our clients. By creating multiple
social networking sites, using photos, utilizing videos for marketing,
creating pay per click campaigns, and getting listed on multiple local
online search directories, we have been able to drive traffic to our
own and our customers websites. The great news is that the social
optimization tips described above is no miracle; it is simply a process
that anyone with the right knowledge can replicate and have the same
success as us.
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About Tom
Unlocking the Black Box secrets of online marketing
Tom Bukacek is an author and social media marketing expert sought
out by professionals seeking to brand themselves online. Tom utilizes the latest web 2.0 marketing strategies, such as social networking sites, video
marketing, local online search, pay per click, article marketing, web design, and more.
His clients include real estate professionals, doctors, bestselling authors, motivational
speakers, Reality TV stars, professional sports teams, and more.
Tom recently spoke at the NBA owners meetings in Chicago about how they can
improve their online presence.
Along with business partners Curt Maly and Nick Bridges, Tom is the owner of Black
Box Social Media and co-creator of Social Media In 7 Minutes, an online training and
implementation program designed for small businesses to learn how to utilize Facebook, Google+, Twitter, YouTube, and other social media sites for marketing.
This highly acclaimed program will show anyone how to create and implement their
own online marketing plan without having to spend hours researching by utilizing their
video training programs. In addition, Social Media In 7 Minutes also provides users
with their very own all-in-one social dashboard, which will allow you to post on all of
your social sites from one location in less than 7 minutes a day.
For more information on Tom, his company, his services, and to receive a free copy
of his ebook Social Media Domination, please visit www.BlackBoxSocialMedia.com
or call (512) 501-6414.
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YOU DONT NEED A MARKETING MIRACLE
ChAPTER 10
YOU DON'T NEED A
MARKETING MIRACLE:
PREDICT SUCCESS WITH YOUR SALES
By Richard Seppala
veryones looking for a marketing miracle. Thats why this book

has that titleits guaranteed to bring in readers.
And to be sure, there are a lot of great business experts in this

book who will give you a lot of awesome ways to achieve marketing
miracles. But you know what the dictionary definition of a miracle is?
An extraordinary event. A wonder. A marvel.
What does that indicate? That miracles are extremely rareand awfully
hard to come by. Wise men (and women, for that matter!) have sat around
expecting miracles for thousands of years, only to be disappointed.
Today, businesses continue to wish and pray for marketing miracles.
They might begin an online campaign or send out a direct mail offer
they desperately hope will reach the right people with the right message.
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Marketing Miracles
But, if its based on strictly on guesswork and hunches, theyre not

likely to experience that miracle.
Theyre more likely to lose money on those campaigns.
Dont get me wrong, you may be the lucky one to make a marketing
miracle happen. As for me, I dont want my clients to have to wait for
a miracle. Id rather see them make money now.
Thats why I help my clients create marketing systems based on
a predictive approach that helps them buck the odds and achieve
profitable results. And Ill let you in on the secrets behind that approach
in this chapter.
MY ROI GUY MISSION

In my guise as The ROI Guy, Im not exactly a superhero like SpiderMan, Batman or Iron Man. I cant fly through the air or zap super
villains. I dont drive an indestructible slick car with special weapons
hidden in the bumpers. No, I drive a Nissan (which does get pretty
good mileage...).
What I can doand what Ive devoted my professional life tois
radically improve my clients bottom line.
As I always tell people, I left the big corporate world to help the small
guy. I learned all the high-level marketing strategies that the big boys
employand I worked on ways to make them easy and affordable for
small and medium-sized businesses that otherwise would never be able
to benefit from them.
The biggest thing that multinational corporations can do that smaller
companies cant is tracking and research. You think Coca-Cola or
McDonalds goes out there with a giant campaign that costs millions
and millions of dollars expecting a marketing miracle? I dont think
their stockholders would exactly embrace that approach.
No, those kinds of major players put millions into researching their
markets and generating numbers so they know exactly what to expect
when they actually pull the trigger on an advertising effort.
So, if you have a dental practice, a legal practice or even an online or
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brick-and-mortar store, why cant you do the same?

Well, thats a miracle that is achievableif you put the right systems
to work for you.
THE SECRET TO BUSINESS GROWTH

Theres only one way to grow a business, no matter what kind of
business it is. And thats to get new customers or clients in the door.
You can only up sell your current customer base to a certain extent,
and youll always have retention problems no matter how good your
operation happens to be. People move and people change to another
provider for various reasons.
The cold hard fact is that the pool of people who at this moment pay
you for your products and services will only shrinkwhich is why its
essential to find reliable and consistent ways to find new customers.
Unfortunately, its incredibly expensive, using conventional methods, to
actually get those new customers. Its the most costly kind of marketing
there issix to seven times more costly than marketing to your current
customers, according to Frederick F. Reichheld of the Bain Company.
Most businesses end up taking an old-school Spray and Pray approach
(selling to everyone in an attempt to attract a couple new big spenders).
Its a huge waste, but most businesses dont see another choice.
Thats because theres no way around this harsh fact of reality. You
need new customers.
And ideally, those new customers would be like your best current
customers. You know, the people who spend the most with you without
blinking an eye; the 20% of your customers who generate 80% of your
revenues. You want more like that 20%.
Well, believe it or not, that current 20% can actually help you get
a whole lot more just like themand boost your revenues like
nobodys business.
Except were not talking about nobodys business improving their
bottom line. Were talking about your business.
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Marketing Miracles
DIGGING INTO YOUR DATABASE

Your database is a goldmine.
How many times have you heard that old marketing stand-by, only to
be left with the feeling that it was more bull than bullion?
If youre like most businesses today, you use your customer database to
market to your list of past and present customers. You might be offering
additional products or services, upselling them on current ones or trying
to get them back in to buy if theyve been away for while.
But, as I mentioned, that list can only take you so far in terms of improving
your profit picture. Rather than being a goldmine, that database is more
of a bedrockproviding the foundation of your current business. You
obviously have to make sure that foundation has to stay solid. But
you also obviously must have a plan in place to continue to grow your
business beyond them or you wont have a viable future.
Beyond your database, who do you market to? How do you know
where to spend your marketing dollars so that you reach the customers
most likely to buy from you? Anyone else is, to be honest, a waste of
advertising dollars.
Unfortunately, that waste is the norm for most businesses. They dont
know who to market to, so, instead they target everyone that happens
to be on a generic marketing list thats grouped by income or zip code
or some other arbitrary criteriaeven though 99.9% of those people
will not become a new customer (let alone a lucrative new customer).
There is another way, though. Because, it turns out, your database is a
goldmine. You just have to know how to mine that gold.
DISCOVERING DATABASE DNA

For years, Ive been creating marketing tracking systems for my clients,
culminating in the creation of my ROI Matrix. The ROI Matrix
took the marketing tracking process to a whole new level. Its able to
compute, down to the penny, how much in profit each of my clients
marketing campaigns generated. It also features automated followup marketing and lead contact information collection. This made it
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incredibly easy for my clients who dont have the time or staff to do
these kinds of vital marketing functions.
With The ROI Matrix, a business was able to see which campaigns were
most effective, so they could focus on those messages and campaigns.
Big problem solved. But there was still one big problem unsolved that
continued to bug me and that was what I just talked about. The right
marketing system could show you what the best message was, what the
best way to deliver that message was...but it still couldnt reveal who
were the best people to deliver that message to.
I was driving around in my car one day, thinking about all this, when I
realized the answer to this dilemma. It was pretty simple, really.
I wanted to find the best possible new customers for my clients. Well...
shouldnt we look at their current best customers and see what they
had in common? For example, were they married or single? Did they
have kids? How heavily did they use their credit cards? What levels of
discretionary spending did they do? What was their average age range?
Now, once we correlated all that data, shouldnt we be able to then
target other new leads that share those traits?
The question was, would this actually predict who would be the next
generation of best customers for a business? Could we convert these
leads to create a new wave of growth and revenue?
Fortunately, I had the perfect test market to try this theory out on.
PUTTING IT INTO PRACTICE

Not many marketing experts have the advantage I have: a spouse whos
a successful dentist and also willing to let me use her practice as my
marketing lab. Ive been able to perfect many new and innovative
techniques thanks to her (and shes a pretty good wife too, by the way!).
It was the perfect place to try out Database DNA. The first step was
obviouswe had to determine who her best customers were. Once we
did that, I put my ROI Guy expertise to work on their data. We have
over 61 million email addresses in our database that we can extract
demographics from which meant we could examine in detail the
DNA of my wifes best customers and create a profile that contained
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Marketing Miracles
the traits they had in common.

And by the way, if you think you already know what kind of people
your best customers are, you might want to wait until you actually
know what your specific Database DNA is. In my wifes case, I asked
her to guess what her best customers were like in all the important
categories. She made what she thought was a good appraisal.
Then I sprung the real facts on herand she was shocked to find she
was completely wrong; her best customers were actually the opposite
from what she thought! It was another case of demonstrating to me
that, if you market on the basis of assumptions, you may be completely
off-trackand also another rock-solid validation of the necessity of
digging into the Database DNA of a business.
We took this composite profile of her best customers and then crossreferenced it against the profiles of many non-customer leads to see who
matched upand, in the process, we found thousands of other people
out there who were strikingly similar to that best customer profile.
Once we created this list of potential best customer leads, we then
uncovered their physical street addresses, so we could target them with
a special direct mail campaign from my wifes dental practice. We split
that campaign into three different categories, depending on the specific
demographics involved: Empty Nesters (older couples whose kids had
grown up and moved out), Married Couples who were successful but
didnt have children, and Very Successful Families, where the couple
had kids and were doing well financially.
This was really exciting because, according to our figures, we were
targeting people who spend 120 times more than the average customer.
Thats a pretty good basis for a marketing campaign, wouldnt you
think? Not only that, but through Database DNA, we were also
eliminating 90% of the traditional marketing list, creating the ultimate
waste management when it comes to the cost of a campaign.
The more I thought about it, the cooler it seemed to be. Just as The ROI
Matrix tracking system had eliminated the cost of marketing campaigns
that dont work, now my Database DNA system could eliminate the
cost of marketing to leads that dont buy.
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So we went ahead and implemented that direct mail campaign to our

special targeted best customer profile list. And the results were
astounding. Traditional response rates for dental direct mailings were
anywhere from .05 to 2%, 2% being outstanding. These were considered
to be successful results.
Well, the response rate on our best customer profile list was over
three times that top numberan awesome 7%!
And I didnt even mention another great bonus of this process. Because
my ROI Guy crew had already done their demographic due diligence
on these leads, we already had the access to critical information about
them. That meant, when someone would call my wifes dental office in
response to the direct mailing, we would instantly be able to dig further
into their Database DNA to determine just how much in dental
products and services they would qualify to buy.
THE ONGOING VALUE

Finding a lucrative potential lead is like finding a needle in a haystack,
or so most businesses think. So they market to the entire haystack,
hoping theyll come across that sought-after needle along the way
(which is why response rates do commonly come as low as below 1%).
The Database DNA system is designed to find those needles in
advanceonly to me, theyre not just needles. I like to call them
Diamond-Encrusted Needles, because theyre so rich in possibilities.
As more and more information becomes available on leads thanks to
advances in technology, its silly not to uncover and leverage that data
to your advantageespecially when it can be used in such an affordable
and effective way. Thats why I put my ROI brain to work on how to
identify the best possible leads from that data and why I was so pleased
with the results.
Theres no question that one-size-fits-all marketing is just a waste of
time and money for most of us. Let Coke and McDonalds do the huge
multi-million dollar image adssmall and medium-sized businesses
dont have that kind of marketing budget to throw around. Nor should
they have to.
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Marketing Miracles
When you target the top-paying customers with this kind of precision,
youre engaging in granular marketing on a whole new level. There
may be only one person on a particular street in your area that might
be the right person to sell your products and services to. With Database
DNA, we can find that person for you.
And that, to me, sounds like a real Marketing Miracle!
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About Richard
Richard Seppala, also known as The ROI Guy, is a marketing
expert, business consultant and best-selling author who helps companies maximize their profits by accurately measuring the ROI (Return on Investment) of their marketing efforts. His latest revolutionary tracking system, The ROI Matrix, measures to the penny just how much revenue
each specific marketing placement generates for a client.
Richard founded his ROI Guy company in 2005. In addition to his acclaimed marketing tracking systems, called The Holy Grail of Marketing, he also supplies businesses and medical practices with cutting-edge sales solutions designed to facilitate
the conversion of generated leads to cash-paying customers.
By identifying marketing strengths and weakness, The ROI Guy is able to substantially boost his clients bottom lines by eliminating wasteful spending on ineffective
marketing, as well as leveraging advertising campaigns that prove the most profitable.
By providing all-in-one automated systems that allow for the real-time tracking of
each generated lead, a business can easily access valuable marketing data with just
a few keystrokes.
Richards marketing expertise is regularly sought out by the media, which hes shared
on NBC, CBS, ABC and FOX affiliates, as well as in The Wall Street Journal, USA
Today and Newsweek. Hes also launched his own television show, ROI TV, which
features interviews with other top marketing specialists.
To learn more about Richard Seppala, The ROI Guy, and how you can receive free
special reports and other invaluable marketing information from one of the countrys
leading experts, visit www.YourROIGuy.com or call Toll-Free 1-800-647-1909.
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Earn Your Way into the Hearts & Minds of Your Customers
ChAPTER 11
Earn Your Way into
the Hearts & Minds of
Your Customers
By Luba Winter

He who has a thing to sell

And goes and whispers down a well

Is not so apt to get the dollars

As he who climbs a tree and hollers
Author Unknown

he point is, you may have the greatest product or service in

the world, but if no one knows about it, who cares? In order to
succeed, you simply must market yourself, your product or your
service, especially these days. The challenge is how to win the hearts
and minds of the vast masses and persuade them that they should buy
whatever it is you are selling.
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Marketing Miracles
Getting Their Attention

I grew up in the Ukraine, where rich farmland is as abundant as the
many folk tales having to do with the rural life. The story is told of
a farmer who wanted to buy a mule from his neighbor. The price
seemed fair so he asked his neighbor if the mule was obedient and
could plow well.
This mule will do anything you ask, the neighbor said. All you have
to do is speak to him gently.
The farmer bought the mule, intending to put him to work the next day
plowing a field. When the mule had been hitched up, the farmer flicked
the reins across the big animals back and said xa!, which is
Ukrainian for Go! But the mule didnt move. The farmer tried talking
softly and kindly to the mule, as he had been instructed, giving him
all kinds of commands, all of which meant, Please plow now, but to
no avail. Finally he called his neighbor, who came over immediately.
When he heard the problem, the neighbor picked up a nearby sturdy
tree limb and hit the mule in the head. Then he whispered a command
in the mules ear, and the mule began to plow, making deep, straight
furrows in the dark, rich soil. When the field was finished, the farmer
went back to his neighbor for an explanation.
You said that all I had to do was speak gently to the mule,
said the farmer.
Well, answered the neighbor, You just have to get his attention first.
The key to successful marketing in the 21st century is getting the attention
of the consumer. That is no easy task. The attention-grabbing efforts of
the modern media remind me of a swarm of reporters and photographers
clamoring for the attention of celebrities entering a movie premiere.
Over here! Over here! they seem to shout, waving urgently at their
prey. Advertisers have bombarded the airwaves and flooded the pages
of magazines with every kind of approach imaginable. The assault on
the eyes and ears of the consumer has resulted in a smug aloofness that
is becoming more and more difficult to penetrate. The buying public
has insulated itself against the cacophony of jingles and slogans with
a cool indifference, as if to say, Go ahead (yawn)give it your best
shot. But Im pretty hard to impress.
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Why Clever Works and Yelling Doesnt

One recent poll asked television viewers which commercials they liked
and disliked the most. Ranking high on the list of the most disliked were
those put on the tube by local automobile dealerships. Why? Because
they yell. They start the commercial screaming about how they have
the best deals and how they have slashed prices to the bone in
order to beat the competition. Who do they think they are kidding?
They cant all have the best deals. And who is the competition? We
immediately smell a rat when the claim is made that prices are so low
that the reduction in cost will somehow leave the dealership little or
profit. When these commercials air, most people tune them outeither
literally with the volume knob, or psychologically. Either way, they are
simply not effective. And finally, when someone is yelling at you, do
you stop and say to yourself, Wow! They are really making a good
point here, or do you just wish they would stop yelling?
Clever, on the other hand, works like a charm. Its not pushy; its just
very pully. It draws the consumer in through humor, irony, or a catchy
phrase. Sam Leith, in his book Words Are Like Loaded Pistols, calls
rhetoric an art form and makes the observation that a carefully crafted
phrase can move the masses. Some advertising phrases roll off the
tongue in just such a way as to become instant and enduring classics.
An excellent example of this is the classic line, Wheres the beef?
advertising campaign put out by Wendys chain of hamburger restaurants
in the 1984. At first, the commercial aired with a middle-aged bald man
saying, Thanks, but wheres the beef? That didnt make hamburgers
and fries fly off the shelves, but the marketing wizards thought the idea
still had legs. They were right. The next series of commercials used
the grandmotherly actress Clara Peller, who receives a burger with a
massive bun from a fictional competitor which uses the slogan Home
of the Big Bun. The small hamburger patty prompts Peller to angrily
exlaim, Wheres the beef? That one caught the fancy of an American
public in startling fashion. The catchphrase began to be repeated on
television shows, magazines and films. The most memorable use of the
catchphrase was during the Democratic presidential primary debate of
March 11, 1984, when former Vice President Walter Mondale attacked
his rival, Sen. Gary Hart, by saying, When I hear your new ideas, Im
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Marketing Miracles
reminded of that ad, Wheres the beef?
Inbound Marketing
As the term suggests, inbound marketing is the antithesis of outbound
marketing. Outbound marketing is when you take it to the people.
Inbound marketing is when the people come to you. Outbound
marketing is when you are begging and bugging your way in, either
through telemarketing, paid advertisements or paying sales people a
commission to hawk your wares. Inbound marketing, on the other hand,
is based on the idea of earning the attention of your would-be buyers by
making yourself easy to be found. Inbound marketing draws potential
clients and customers to your product or service. Inbound marketing
requires that you make yourself easy to be found through websites,
blogs, videos, and podcasts that produce content that consumers value.
Inbound marketing is earning your way in, letting yourself be found,
welcoming those who wish to visit or browse and then converting them
to customers through quality offerings. Inbound marketing also places
emphasis on allowing your existing customer base to lead you to other
clients or customers through referrals or word-of-mouth advertising.
High importance is placed on customer satisfaction for this reason.
Since the invention of devices that allow television viewers to skip
commercials, guess what? Most do. One poll showed that 86% of
viewers skip commercials and 44% of direct mail recipients never open
the envelopes. On the other hand, companies that blog and produce
useful, interesting content have twice as many website visitors as
those who dont. An entire industry has been created that focuses on
techniques to attract potential customers to your website.
It Starts With An Idea

For marketing to be effective these days, it has to touch. There has to
be that certain spark that emotionally connects you with the mind of
the customer. It may be an effort to define exactly what that spark is,
just like it is difficult to define what light is. But you know it when you
feel it, and it is unmistakable. It is the Idea that, that once in motion,
collects speed on its own momentum and takes on its own form and
space. Most importantly, it can change a companys fortune overnight.
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The world of social networking has given us the term going viral,
which is applied to any thing, most often a You Tube video, but could
be applied to the rapid proliferation of a joke, a rumor or a catchphrase.
For your marketing idea to go viral is the best thing that could happen,
if you are in the business of selling something or offering a service. It
is the Tsunami of marketing. You stand out in the crowd. You no longer
have to take it to the people. The people come to you.
Before you can even begin, however, you have to be crystal clear on
exactly what value you bring to the table for our anticipated client base.
Sometimes just answering this question can put you in soul searching
mode. Myself, I am in cosmetology. What I do is manage a chain
of beauty salons across the country. In addition to that I market the
Revolution 4G, a device that trims years off the users appearance by
removing wrinkles and smoothing skin. But I was once asked What is
your mission? I spent the next three days answering that question for
myself, because it got to the roots of why I am in business to begin with.
Why should people want to know me or what I do if I am incapable of
explaining something so basic as why I do it?
I called the individual up who had asked the question and thanked them.
I explained how much self examination had gone into the answer, and
then I told them my mission was simply to make others feel better
about themselves and thereby reach their full potential in life.
What is your mission? Why do you do what you do? Why should people
come to you? What makes you, your product or your service unique?
Its Not About Me, Its About Thee

The screaming automobile dealership pitchman yell, Come on down
to Haversham and Third where the deals are smoking and were not
joking, adding that they are overstocked and they have to move out
the old inventory to make way for the new, blah, blah, blah. Oh yes,
they are giving away free hot dogs and free balloons. Thanks for the hot
dogs and the balloons, but I cant say that I have ever bought anything
because I got a free hot dog.
At the roots of whatever it is you are marketing has to come the mantra,
Its not about me, its all about thee. A brand can be a powerful thing
if it is about the customer, not the company. Nike has a logo that is
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called the Swoosh. It looks like a fat check mark. Nothing about
the logo says shoes or any other piece of athletic equipment. They
have distinguished themselves in the marketplace by touting how their
products enhance the performance of those who use them. No one
cares about the type of leather or cloth or rubber used in the making of
the product itself. So Nike doesnt concentrate its marketing on those
mundane things. Instead, they focus on how the use of their product
makes the user better, often tossing into the mix some lofty profundity
about personal achievement that puts the marketing on a much higher
plane than mere merchandising.
Most recently, McDonalds has introduced into its marketing program
scenes of ordinary people meeting at their favorite McDonalds
restaurant for conversation. They may be selling hamburgers and egg
muffins, but their focus is on the people and the conversations they
have. Nowhere does the marketing piece get into the freshness of their
fries or the juiciness of their burgers. That is old school stuff. They are
striving to create that synapse between the product and the people by
focusing on the people. Nice touch.
A powerful brand is one that builds a reputation in the mind of the
customer of a company, product or service that help makes them who
they are. It is so relevant to them personally that it becomes a symbol
of who they are. They wear Chanel No. 5 cologne, brush with Colgate
toothpaste, wear Manolo Blahnik shoes, Calvin Klein jeans and drive
a BMW. Thats who they are. Serve them well and you are likely to do
business with their friends and your profits will grow exponentially.
Serve them poorly, and you will lose the lot of them.
A great brand has staying power. They may change a lot of things
in their life, but they will hang onto the brand because it defines
them. Price? Sure its important. But it certainly isnt the only thing
involved, and in many cases it ranks way back there on the scale
of importance. The proper combination of price and value becomes
a powerful marketing force that can be irresistible to the public. A
grocery chain by the name of Trader Joes has an entire aisle of their
store dedicated to wines. They have wine buyers who make huge
deals with vineyards to bring the best wine for the buck to the table.
One of their wines is from the Charles Shaw vineyard, which makes
a palatable Cabernet Sauvignon which Trader Joes sells for $2.95
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per bottle. They cant keep it on the shelves now that it has become
universally known as Two-Buck Chuck.
How Are We Doing

I have a friend who loves to fill out comment cards. She will even
ask for them sometimes at restaurants and other places where service
is rendered. I asked her once why she does it. She told me that in her
business, she encourages customer surveys and asks everyone she does
business with to fill out a comment card.
I live and die by these, she told me. If they are that important to me,
I know they will be important to these people.
As it turns out, the comment card she was filling out at this particular
restaurant asked patrons to rate the service from poor to excellent and
give comments as to why. She had nothing but good things to say about
everything from the food to the service, but she did make the tiny
observation that the air conditioning had made the room too cool on
the day of our visit.
Whether or not her comments made a difference, who know? But it is
a fact that asking customers for their input accomplishes two things.
It lets them know that you care about their opinion and that it matters
to you whether you are meeting their needs. It should also allow you
the ability to tweak your offerings so they have more appeal to your
customer base. If you consider your customers to be happy ones, then
confirm it through surveys and comment cards. Offer a premium for the
time and effort they expended filling them in. If people are not happy
with the results they received doing business with you, you certainly
wish to know that as well, dont you? These activities help you build
credibility with your clients and customers.
Say Thank You Often and Sincerely

It is only natural to want to feel special. We all want to be appreciated and
valued. A story that resonates with me is the one about Gary Vaynerchuk,
founder of the WineLibrary.com. He once directed his marketing
department to follow a customers tweets from his Twitter account,
which is a perfectly legitimate thing to do (I add that because it has come
to be known as Twitter stalking, which sounds rather sinister). They
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Marketing Miracles
found by following the customers tweets that he is a huge fan of the

Chicago Bears. Many of his tweets were lionizing the then quarterback
of the team, Jay Cutler. To thank the man for his first WineLibrary.com
order, Vaynerchuk sent him a Bears jersey signed by Cutler. Months
later, the customer wrote to Vaynerchuk, thanking him and asking how
Vaynerchuk knew to send the jersey. Nice touch. Good marketing.
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ABOUT LUBA
Luba Winter Skin Care Expert, Entrepreneur and Inventor of
Rejuvenation G4
Making women and men look better and feel better about themselves
is the passion for entrepreneur and inventor, Luba Winter. Winter, an expert in skin
care and the founder of Nu Way Beauty, has traveled to various parts of the world
to perfect her revolutionary product that brings the technology of high-end spa and
dermatological treatments to the home market in a very affordable fashion. With the
assistance of top level European engineers and cosmetologists, Winter developed the
Rejuvenation G4 as a home remedy for individuals to care for their skin and to slow
the affects of the aging process on ones appearance.Using galvanic, ultrasound and
phototherapy treatments in this innovative handheld device has enabled thousands of
users to achieve youthful looking results they never imagined possible.
Winter has a strong educational background in dermatology as well as clinical
psychology. This interesting combination gives her a unique perspective on how ones
outward appearance affects how they feel about themselves and the world around them.
The FDA cleared and patent-pending Rejuvenation G4 was put under rigorous safety
testing, including hundreds of clinical study participants performing more than 500
face treatments. A panel of doctors specializing in dermatology and plastic surgery
saw a noticeable reduction in wrinkles in ninety-eight percent of participants after only
one month of daily treatments. After 12 weeks of galvanic, ultrasonic and phototherapy
skin treatments, 94 percent of participants agreed that the Rejuvenation G4 appears
to eliminate fine lines, rather than just reduce the appearance of fine lines. Dr. Max
Grishkevich, an investigative dermatologist at the VIP MediSpa in Portland, Oregon,
ran several comprehensive clinical studies on the Rejuvenation G4. He states, Blind
evaluations revealed improvement in more than ninety percent of the subjects and
user satisfaction was high to very high.
Winter has an extremely busy schedule as she continues to expand the market for
her Rejuvenation G4 product. She is also launching Nu Way Beautys Nataliya for
Women and Nataliya for Men products. In addition to her work as a skin care expert
and product designer, she is the author ofHow to Look Beautiful Without Harming
Yourself, to be released later this year. Because of her success she has been invited
to write chapters in the upcoming booksBreaking the Success Codeby Brian Tracy
andMarketingMiraclesby Dan Kennedy. She is a sought after speaker and has been
featured on radio, has been written about and quoted in publications, and has appeared
onAmericas Premier Expertstelevision program. Winter will soon be featured inUSA
Todayas one of Americas Game Changers because of her leadership and expertise
in her industry. Winter anticipates her product reaching either QVC or the Home
Shopping Network in the near future. She is dedicated to continue developing organic
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beauty products, educating others, and helping business owners improve their
businesses in her industry. Additional information about Winter, Rejuvenation G4, and
her other products are available on the company website atwww.nuwaybeauty.com.
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ChAPTER 12
By Mikkel Pitzner
am thrilled to have been invited to this book collaboration with

Dan Kennedy, a man who comes with legendary reputation for
marketing savvy, skills and insightsnot to mention results.
So in contemplating on what exactly to write about for my personal
contribution to this book I came up with The Power Of A Price.
Lets talk about price. Or pricing. Now, ordinarily speaking, this is an
area that does not interest me much; it can actually annoy me at times.
For instance, I recently had this beautiful fancy top-model Ferrari (if
you must know, this was a brand new Ferrari 599 GTB) and more often
than I care to remember, people would ask me: How much did that
cost? and quite honestly I never really wanted to tell. Quite possibly
because I also found it embarrassing just how much money was poured
into what is ultimately just a car. I would rather talk about the benefits
of the car rather than how much I had to shell out for it.
But there are a couple of exceptions when I find price talks hold
particular interesting aspects, and where special considerations may be
a key ingredient to actually making the business (or indeed break it).
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My contribution, which I hope you will find valuable, will illustrate a

couple of strategies you can utilize to set your business on the map in
a big way and bring you the results that many others try to accomplish
in vain.
Lets dig in straight away.
The Power Of Free

You cannot beat free. Free offers just seem to open up the flood gates
of customers pouring in and certain marketers have built their entire
customer base and business on a foundation of a free offer. You find
this marketing ploy used by almost all online information product
marketers and it is their way of obtaining that new potential customer.
They offer some product or piece of information (hopefully a good one,
but that actually seems to vary a lot) for free in return for obtaining
the name and email address of the potential customer (or some form
of contact information). Then once the contact information is in the
bag they sometimes present an immediate offer of a complementary
product of perhaps an extension and expansion of the product given
for free, but this time there is a price to be paid for the offer if the
customers chooses to get it.
More and more marketers are finding out, however, that it is more
powerful to give away even more great offers or valuable information
(often in the form of training videos) for free over a period of time
following the sign up or whats often called the opt-in. The reason
for this is that they are now establishing rapport and building up trust
before they move ahead with their real product that comes with a price
label attached. Its kind of like taking your prospect out for a few more
dates before you move in for the kiss.
It is important to note that just because you are giving away something
for free, it still needs to be something with a real (or at least, perceived)
value to the recipient. If it doesnt, you more than likely will not be able
to sell them anything or keep the prospective customer, but they will opt
out and look elsewhere and be altogether turned off by your offerings.
This free price model works wonders in the online market space, but it
actually works just as well in the offline market space.
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Meeting a lot of people I am often asked what I do, and my reply has
usually been that I am a serial entrepreneur. Well, in fact as someone I
recently met told me, I am more a parallel entrepreneur as I endeavor
in multitudes of businesses and enterprises at any one given time. Its
how I like it. I enjoy being engaged in many different things and then
making use of my experience and expertise from across many areas and
different businesses and industries into each enterprise and see how I
can bring value to that and increase its potential and real results.
One of such enterprises that I am engaged in is that of a company
called Freetrailer. The name says it all, especially when I offer you just
a few more specific insights to the company. Freetrailer offers small
cargo trailer rentals for FREE. You would know such similar trailers
from the small box trailers that you latch onto your cars tow hitch
and in which you can transport your goods, purchases, or furniture
from one place to another. For example if, you are moving from one
location to another, or if you just bought a sofa or a refrigerator and
now need to get it home, but cannot fit it into your car and dont want
to pay for a delivery service. In the United States of America, you
would probably recognize similar trailers from the company called
U-Haul, except at U-Haul you actually would have to pay for the
rentalsFreetrailer offers them for FREE.
Our business model is that these trailers are advertise-funded. In other
words we partner up with big box companies who we call our partners,
an example is IKEA. We dress the trailers with the partners logos and
then offer the trailers for rentals at the partners locations for free while
the partner pays us for the advertising which then pays for us bringing
the trailers and service about.
The benefit for the big box partner is that they get very targeted
advertising out to their very specific target audience while at the same
time aiding their customers to an inexpensive way of bringing their
purchases home. The partner also actually acquires new customers
simply for the fact that the trailers are available from the partner. No
purchases are necessary, but since the customer is there anyway to pick
up the trailer, they might as well go and look at that bookshelf and the
night table lamp they have been thinking about getting. The partner also
enjoys great goodwill from the trailer user. Who does not appreciate a
partner that makes available a free solution?
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Marketing Miracles
So in providing this free service, the partner is acquiring customers,

receiving goodwill and gaining customer loyalty while getting the
customers to bring their advertising out to the exact areas other potential
partner customers reside. The model the partner is utilizing is the Free
Price model (or freemium).
In this setup Freetrailer is offering the freemium model too. While
Freetrailer makes no money on the model from the advertising which
only pays for bringing about the trailers, Freetrailer does make money
on small upsells, such as an extra days hire or sales of insurance.
The price offered for these upsells are so small in comparison to the
value that about two-thirds of the trailer users actually end up making
use of these offers. Large volumes of trailer usage multiplied by small
amounts accumulate to noticeable sums that then pays for our CEO,
Key Account Executives, Support personnel, office etc. and leaves us
with profits. Currently the Freetrailer model is offered all over Denmark
and all over Sweden and will soon come to a city near you.
In closing our discussion of the Free Price offer, there are countless of
ways in which a company can utilize this strategy and build a sound
business from it. I mentioned the online information product marketers
from the online world and Freetrailer from the offline brick and mortar
service industry world.
In other words whether your business or your product or service resides
in the online or offline world, the free price strategy is one you can
utilize to grow, expand and build your business. Who knows? Perhaps
yours will be one of the really big ones. Remember the model used
by Google and Facebookjust to name some of the very current big
company names of todayis the free price model.
The High Ticket Price Offer

Now at the other end of the price scale is what I call the High Ticket
Price Offer. Basically under this positioning ploy you offer your
product, service, expertise or information (or whatever you sell), but
this time at a very high price.
It is interesting to note the effects of a high ticket price offering.
First of all, it instantaneously drives the prospective buyers interest
and curiosity up. Right away when presented with a high ticket price
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offer on a product or service that resonates with the prospective buyer,

questions in their heads start to pile up. Questions such as: How can it
be so expensive?, Is it really worth this?, What secrets are revealed
that could mean all the difference for me and my own success?, Can
I afford this? or even Can I afford not to buy this?
By utilizing a very high ticket price for your product you accomplish a
number of things. With higher and higher price points you automatically
siphon off the buyers who quite simply cannot afford your product or
your services. And although my altruistic heart would want the best
for everybody, not every product or service may be equally suited for
everybody and a high ticket price product or service more than likely
would be better fitting with someone who has the means to actually
buy it. Not to belittle those of few means, but it is very, very often cited
that customer support issues seem to diminish with higher product or
service prices. In other words, it could appear as if those who tend to
buy a high ticket price product or service has a lower propensity to
complain or raise many issues.
A high ticket price also instantaneously raises customers expectation
to the product and not least the value a customer will place of said
product or service. The latter can be a blessing in itself as the customers
automatically perceive the product or service to be of extra high value.
The former naturally demands of you to make sure your product
or service actually does come with incredibly high value. Indeed
sometimes when we are given something for free we often tend to place
no value on it and thus as a result often do not make use of it or do not
regard it as something really of use. By same token oftentimes when
we buy something that came with a high price tag, we tend to value it
higher and take better care of it or make better use of it.
The high ticket price also may come with the benefit that you as the
buyer will feel like you are special and you now are part of a limited
and elite group who had the rare privilege of acquiring the product
or service.
So going back to my Ferrari, although I never liked to discuss the high
price the car came with, it certainly brought my value placement right
up there, where I did not just view the car as just a car, but as a real
supercar, but also in the eyes of everybody it also brought me in with a
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Marketing Miracles
select few who had the privilege and joy of such a vehicle (for better or
worse). Was one of my motives for buying such an outrageous car to be
recognized as someone not just quite ordinary?
A lot of prestige may be bought with high ticket price products and
services. Most recognized luxury brands sell products that while they
may be of high quality and standards, certainly come at a much higher
price than said product could be sold at while still leaving a decent
profit margin. Just think of many of the big luxury names such a Louis
Vuiton, Chanel, Hermes and many of the luxury cars etc. People
buying these products more often than not are not just buying into good
quality, nice product and such, but also buy into the prestige, the look,
the fashion, the recognition and not least status they believe they will
obtain with the product.
This can be very powerful when selling your product or service.
As mentioned earlier the online world has seen an incredible amount of
people and experts selling advice and how-to training, and it is offered
at a great variety of prices. So consider the online information product
world. Wouldnt you quite possibly believe the product that is offered
at $10,000 for a three-day seminar to be so much more valuable than
a 3-day seminar that comes with a $3,000 price tag? Would you not
automatically also believe the attendees who would come to the two
different events might be attendees who already were getting different
results? If not, then just exchange the numbers with something of
bigger difference, so imagine the Mastermind that comes a $10,000
a year compared to a mastermind offered at $100,000 or hell, for that
matter, compare it with one that comes at $1,000,000 a year.
Trust me, I am making no judgments on the people who can afford the
different price points. But these price points do exist in the real world and
I would suspect (from what I have experienced myself) and hope that the
obtained value from each of these programs would differ as well.
Now make no mistake: whatever you sell, you must bring real value
to your customer. If you dont, your sales and your success will be
short lived. To illustrate the point, allow me to reference one of my
own experiences from back when I ran the largest limousine service
in Denmark.
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Through my limousine service company we were offering high

end corporate limousine and professional transportation services
to professionals, multinational companies, embassies, royalties,
celebrities and even the entourages of presidents including three recent
US presidents.
When we had the right team and we knew we delivered second to none
service, we also increased our rates, some times way above the rates
offered by our competitors. But we got away with it. Our customers
perceived we were well worth it and we were, and we also as a result
obtained much higher profit margins than those of our competitors.
Unfortunately, by the same token at one point in time our team changed
and was no longer the ultimate resource for the services we offered;
soon it proved difficult to uphold the prices, especially when forced
with market conditions such as world focus on cost savings over service
level etc. In fact, due to too long a process of finding a well functioning
team again, the pressure on price grew and grew and eventually we
entered into one of in my eyes most dreaded situations for any business
to be in; the situation where you are really just competing on price.
In my book only companies like the Walmarts that can operate huge
volumes should ever engage in competing on price. All other businesses
better find other value propositions (at least perceived) than price. It is
my contention that if you allow yourself to compete just on price, you
are bound to fail, because there is always someone out there willing to
offer the same product or service at a lesser price, if for no other reason
than because that person cannot make any calculations or omits taking
into account his or her own time consumed by supplying the product
or service.
Ultimately, our results began to lack and actually running the business
became less fun. The clientele seemed to change, too. It was way
more fun, not to say lucrative, running the business when our value
proposition was in the high ticket price category.
With the right focus and bringing the right value about and you too can
enjoy a high ticket price business. Or you may be able to build your
business on that intriguing strategy of free or super high value at very
low prices and feel really good about bringing something like that to
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Marketing Miracles
market, while still being greatly compensated. Indeed if you bring the
value to market, the market will compensate you.
Price Juxtaposition
I wanted to end my contribution to this chapter illustrating another
price point strategy that can prove excessively important for your
success with selling your product or services, but alas, my contribution
is under a space limit here in this book, so I am out of more lines to
put in. But fret not, I hope you have really enjoyed my insights on the
two ultimate price point strategies and I will give you the insight on
Price Juxtaposition to you for free as well, so if you go to my website
at www.mikkelpitzner.com/price-juxtaposition, then you can get the
continuance of this chapter. Hope to see you there.
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About Mikkel
Mikkel Pitzner was born on March 3, 1968. He received a Bachelor of
Science in Economics from University College of London (England)
with honors in 1991. He has completed shorter intense courses in
Political Science and Game Theory at Columbia University in New
York, and a business course for CEOs at Harvard Business School in Massachusetts.
He is a serial and parallel entrepreneur, investor, and professional board member in
Denmark, Sweden and the U.S. (who currently sits on nine boards spanning diverse
industries), as well as a marketing and social media expert and consultant, masterminder, and dreamer extraordinaire.
He is a partner in the unique marketing and trailer rental company Freetrailer, which
currently operates throughout Denmark and Sweden with more countries to come. He
is a partner of Aksel & Ko, a company that can find that special gimmick or solution
corporations need for their marketing strategies.
Pitzner is originally from Denmark, where he used to run what became the fourthlargest car rental company and a leasing company whose size he doubled and locations he quadrupled. Until recently, he owned and operated the largest limousine
service company in Denmark, whose profits he managed to grow 3200% during the
first year of ownership alone. The company served the most discerning clientele,
including no fewer than three U.S. presidentsGeorge W. Bush, Bill Clinton and
Barack Obama, the last one during the United Nations Climate Change Conference
in 2009 during which the company serviced more than 200 limousines to the U.S.
Embassy in Copenhagen, along with numerous other embassies, countries, royalties, celebrities, multi-conglomerates, and so on. Pitzner also successfully ran an
import and distribution company of scuba diving equipment until that company was
sold to a German distributor.
Mikkel Pitzner is also a best-selling author and speaker who teaches entrepreneurs
how to create a business that will provide them with the lifestyle they choose while
taking them off the treadmill of their jobs. Pitzner has been featured on CNBC, ABC,
NBC, CNNMONEY.com, Fox News, CBS News, and in the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Fast Company, SmartMoney and USA Today. He was also recently a guest on
the Brian Tracy Show.
Mikkel Pitzner currently resides in Florida with his beautiful wife Olga and 21-monthold son Gabriel, and theyre expecting a baby girl. Hes building four new business
ventures simultaneously, while helping a local manufacturer in a struggling and challenging economy.
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ChAPTER 13
Embracing Online
Marketing
By Lindsay Dicks
e live in the most astounding time when it comes to marketing

resources and potential. Not long ago, a small business
had very limited reach and it sometimes took years before
their marketing reach was able to go beyond their local community.
However, in todays environment, a small business can launch and
literally reach around the world with their product or service the very
same day a marketing miracle we call the Internet. While that may
be an oversimplification of the process, it is not an exaggeration.
Granted, certain infrastructure components must be established
before the marketing reach can become effective. But the reality is
that you no longer have to be a giant business to have a worldwide
marketing footprint.
There are many terms used in the virtual world for promoting your
business: online marketing, internet marketing, web marketing,
webvertising, e-marketing, social media marketingand the list goes
on. Whatever you may call it, if you dont have it or dont use it
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Marketing Miracles
effectively in your business, you are shortchanging your possibility

for growth and expansion. It has been said, If you dont have an
online presence, your business doesnt exist.
Today you can earn an undergraduate or graduate degree in online
marketing. However, most online marketers dont carry such a degree.
In fact, many very successful online marketers today dont even have
a degree of any kind. One of the very interesting things about the
digital age is that many online marketing practices are self-taught
or accomplished through informal or semi-formal training methods.
In recent years there has been a plethora of online marketing efforts
geared toward finding individuals that will pay a web-based company
to be trained in the art of online marketing through a series of training
modules. In other words, people have made a great deal of money
training others online to become online marketers.
It would be an understatement to say that internet marketing can
become very complex, confusing, and ever changing. What is written
today about internet marketing may become old news within a few
months. New services are always on the horizon and the next magic
application is usually lurking around the corner. Yet, there are some
consistent strategies that will continue to be effective as business
owners ride the wave of the constantly evolving cyber world. Lets
discuss those strategies.
The first question that has to be answered is, Who is your customer?
You may be surprised to know that many businesses fail to really evaluate
their customer base. I often ask business owners about the demographic
of their customer base. It is not unusual for the business owner to get a
glazed-over look in their eyes and respond with, Im not really sure.
It is imperative to fully understand your target market if you are going
to effectively communicate with them. The way you communicate to a
twenty-five year old will be much different than communicating with
a sixty-five year old. Information such as age, socio-economic status,
geographical location, gender, education, marital status, and social
values are key factors in understanding your audience.
Another crucial component to your online marketing effort is Search
Engine Optimization (SEO). This can become a daunting task and
may be overwhelming for the less tech savvy business owner. You
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must fine tune your focused content pages and your home page by
making certain adjustments to make them rank higher in the search
engines. There is software available which enables you to check
your current ranking and compare your web pages against your top
keyword competitors. The software will also make recommendations
for what changes to make. This type of SEO fine tuning can quickly
move many people out of their tech comfort level. For that reason,
many businesses outsource SEO.
In order to have an effective internet marketing campaign, you must
be convinced that taking your business into the cyber world is an
investment and not an expense. While we all understand the checks
you write to pay for an internet presence has to come from the debit
side of your bank account, it is imperative that you recognize the
return on investment that will follow. Until you are able to grasp
this concept, you will not commit the necessary resources to make
your online presence effective. If you dont have an effective online
presence, it wont deliver desired results and you will conclude that
your attempt at internet marketing was a failure. Dont set yourself up
for failure. Make sure you have a commitment to online marketing.
Dont be afraid to move some of your traditional marketing budget
to be used for online marketing efforts. While online marketing
doesnt have to be extremely expensive, there will be some costs to
an effective campaign.
There are numerous online marketing tools that can be used. However,
if you try to use too many of these tools you will water down your
efforts and become ineffective. Focus on four or five tools with
which you feel confident and master them. If you are new to online
marketing dont be afraid to ask others that have more experience.
Seek out other business owners that have used internet marketing
strategies effectively and ask them why they use those tools and how
it has impacted their business. There are also many internet marketing
consultants who can give you guidance in creating a strong online
presence for your business. While the consultants will charge for their
services, they may prove to be one of your best allies in business.
However, make sure you do your due diligence when selecting a
consultant. I would recommend you talk to others who have used
the consultant and ask very detailed questions about the consultant141
Marketing Miracles
business owner relationship and the effectiveness of their work.

This leads us to a very important topic. Should you take care of
your internet marketing in-house or should you outsource that task?
There are varying opinions on this subject by the experts. But, here
is a general rule of thumb. If you can accomplish effective internet
marketing internally, then you should keep it in-house where you
have the most control over the activity. However, if you cannot
manage your internet marketing effectively in-house, you should
outsource it. The key word here is effectively. Many businesses
have an ineffective in-house online marketing presence which is not
benefiting them. Depending on the size of your business and the size
of your marketing strategy, it may be less expensive to outsource.
To accomplish online marketing effectively internally, you will
have to hire someone experienced in online marketing, offer them a
competitive wage, benefits, vacation time, and pay employee taxes
and unemployment expenses. Then, you pray they dont ever get
upset with something on the job and walk out on you, leaving you
with no one controlling your online presence. While you do maintain
more control by having in-house staff, there are also some inherent
risks. On the other hand, if you outsource, you dont have to worry
about the overhead expenses or worry about your online marketer
suddenly quitting or taking an extended leave of absence.
You may want to begin with very stable, tried and vetted tools as you
begin your online marketing strategy. Even businesses that have been
marketing online for many years often will stick with these venues.
The most common online marketing avenues used by businesses today
continue to be Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, e-newsletters, and blogs.
As of this writing, the venues that seem to be gaining the most traction
and continuously growing in popularity and usage are Pinterest and
mobile applications. Of course, there are many other resources that can
be used but the list would become too lengthy to outline here. After you
narrow your focus on the online services you will use in your marketing
campaigns and strategy, it is very important to have a specific plan and
to work your plan consistently. I cannot stress enough the importance
of having a specific plan and working the plan consistently.
The entire goal for your online marketing campaign must be to drive
people to your website and to your business. Marketing, of course, is
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for the end goal of increasing sales and the resulting increase in gross
revenue. You increase sales by building relationships and creating
exuberant interest in your product or service through online marketing.
One of the ways you create relationships and build exuberant interest
is by offering something free. People love to receive free stuff.
Giving something free does not necessarily have to be a product that
costs you large amounts of money. It can be free information. You
may want to create white papers about a specific subject that will be of
interest to your target market then make it known through your online
marketing venues that you have free, downloadable information that
will be of benefit to them. Or, you may want to give away a product
or service so you can drive attention to your business. For example,
if you have an auto detailing shop, why not run a contest to offer a
free deluxe auto detailing service to the person that has brought in
the most new fans to your Facebook fan page? You will create a buzz
about your business, you will create new relationships and build on
the existing relationships, you will create exuberant interest in your
service, and one of your Facebook fans will become one of your most
loyal customers because you gave them something free!
Lets talk about the new social media kid on the block and how
businesses are using it to promote themselves. Pinterest is a social
image bookmarking site that has experienced phenomenal growth
since its inception in 2009. According to some reports, as of this
writing, it is the third most popular social network only to be topped
by Facebook and Twitter. Only six months ago it was in the number
seven spot. The site hit ten million monthly unique U.S. visitors
faster than any other site in the history of the internet. You might
think of Pinterest as a form of window shopping for anything that
may appeal to you or catch your interest. It may be a physical item
such as clothing, furniture, or a vehicle. Or, it may be pictures of
exotic vacation spots or a cluster of your favorite quotes. Individuals
using this site will pin their selections to their board and others can
follow them to see what they have pinned. The pinning process is also
conveniently tied to Facebook or Twitter so more of your friends can
also share the experience with you.
Where there is an application, businesses must find a way to use it for
marketing purposes. Pinterest has been no exception. Businesses use
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Pinterest because it is exploding in popularity, it is constantly adding

new users and it has the ability to drive traffic and build your SEO.
Since images are at the heart of Pinterest, make sure your photos
are high quality and that they are tagged correctly so they index
properly within Pinterest. Encourage comments about your pins by
asking questions such as, Tell us about your experience using our
new product. You can also imbed pins into your blog. One good way
to get more followers is to follow other pinners. They will then often
follow you in return. Make sure you create key words or hash tags for
your pins to optimize your pins for people that search for pins by key
words. It is very important that you always link back to your website
in your Pinterest profile to encourage traffic and increase SEO. If you
are interested in knowing who is pinning about your business on their
board, you can find out by using this specific URL: http://pinterest.
com/source/ADD YOUR URL HERE. For example: http://pinterest.
com/source/abccompany.com.
Blogging is another great opportunity to show the world your
expertise, but, it also has another benefit. It can be used effectively to
boost your SEO. If you offer excellent content, other users are likely
to link to it, thereby increasing your page rank on the search engines.
Consistency and content are extremely important when blogging. As
with any online content, make sure you have key words strategically
placed within your writing to boost SEO. There are also services that
will push your blog to numerous sites where it will potentially remain
for many months.
Social media sources will be key factors to your online marketing
efforts. Facebook is the most commonly used social media venue.
Businesses create fan pages and develop strategies to build their fan
base. Links to your fan page should be placed on your website, blog,
e-mail signature line, and any other electronic medium you may
use. Consistency is also very important when communicating with
your fan base. Typically, businesses will have daily posts and many
businesses will post two to four times a day. Your Facebook posts can
also be directly linked to your Twitter account.
Twitter, the second most used social media venue, is a powerful tool.
Let me give you a great example of how Twitter can be influential
in business. I was talking to a business owner recently who told
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me about a twitter interaction he had with someone. The business

owner was very interested in a reality television program he saw on
a popular national television network that featured a certain business
industry in which he was intimately involved. The program peaked
his interest as a possible way to promote his product to a national
audience. Armed with only the name of the program and the name of
the host, he began searching through social media sources for contact
information. Without much effort he found the host on Twitter. The
business owner sent a tweet to the host about his product that could be
used on the reality show. Much to his surprise, the host tweeted him
back immediately. They continued their tweeting dialogue, which
resulted in further non-Twitter discussion. The end result was that
in a matter of weeks a contract was signed and the business owners
product is now going to be featured in the reality program that will
be aired nationally sometime this summer. Do not underestimate the
power of the Tweet!
Online marketing can become very complex. But, it can also become
very powerful and result in increased business and increased gross
revenue. One thing is for sure: in todays world, your business will
not thrive without embracing it.
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About Lindsay
Lindsay Dicks helps her clients tell their stories in the online world.
Being brought up around a family of marketers, but a product of
Generation Y, Lindsay naturally gravitated to the new world of online
marketing. Lindsay began freelance writing in 2000 and soon after
launched her own PR firm that thrived by offering an in-your-face Guaranteed PR
that was one of the first of its type in the nation.
Lindsays new media career is centered on her philosophy that people buy people.
Her goal is to help her clients build a relationship with their prospects and customers.
Once that relationship is built and they learn to trust them as the expert in their field,
then they will do business with them. Lindsay also built a patent-pending process that
utilizes social media marketing, content marketing and search engine optimization
to create online buzz for her clients that helps them to convey their business and
personal story. Lindsays clientele span the entire business map and range from
doctors and small business owners to Inc 500 CEOs.
Lindsay is a graduate of the University of Florida. She is the CEO of CelebritySites,
an online marketing company specializing in social media and online personal
branding. Lindsay is also a multi-best-selling author including the best-selling book
Power Principles for Success, which she co-authored with Brian Tracy. She was also
selected as one of Americas PremierExperts and has been quoted in Newsweek, the
Wall Street Journal, USA Today, and Inc. magazine as well as featured on NBC, ABC,
and CBS television affiliates speaking on social media, search engine optimization
and making more money online. Lindsay was also recently brought on FOX 35 News
as their Online Marketing Expert.
Lindsay, a national speaker, has shared the stage with some of the top speakers in
the world, such as Brian Tracy, Lee Milteer, Ron LeGrand, Arielle Ford, David Bullock,
Brian Horn, Peter Shankman and many others. Lindsay was also a Producer on the
Emmy-nominated film Jacobs Turn.
You can connect with Lindsay at:
[email protected]
www.twitter.com/LindsayMDicks
www.facebook.com/LindsayDicks
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Making a Real Estate Marketing Miracle
ChAPTER 14
Making a Real Estate
Marketing Miracle:
16 Secret Ninja Techniques
for Success
By Jason Cianflone
hen it comes to real estate marketing, literally everything has been

done...from social networking to bus bench signs, from video to
some really crazy, out there guerilla marketing strategies.
The problem is, for a lot of real estate agents, those strategies arent
really working.
Most people get into the real estate industry with high hopes and big
dreams, and then wind up failing so completely and spectacularly that
they end up getting out within just two years or make meager living.
The reason? They never learned how to market themselves properly.
Whether youre a real estate newbie or a battle-hardened veteran, there
is a secret to becoming a star in your market.
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Its all about marketing the right productyou. Its all about making
yourself into a recognizable, respected, and exciting brand that people
know about and want to do business with.
How do you do that? Here are 16 killer Ninja Real Estate Marketing
Techniques guaranteed to help you reach the top in your market.
Technique #1: Create Your USP

Why should a person choose to do business with you, as opposed to
some other agent? It all comes down to your USP.
USP stands for Unique Selling Propositionand yours will make you
stand out from the pack. Your USP should be all about what makes you
special, what makes you you. Working for a brokerage is not a USP
many, many agents do that. Having a real estate license is clearly not
a USP. Even being a top negotiator is not a USP, since today, everyone
claims to be a top negotiator!
Instead, look for something personal that makes you stand out from the
crowd youre competing with. Maybe its a looksomething about the
car you drive, or the way you dress that makes you instantly identifiable
as that guy or that gal that everyone wants to work with. Or maybe
its the personal service you provide to all your clients.
In the Jason Cianflone Real Estate Team, our USP is that we are a
genuine family operation. Were a close-knit group of Italians
cousins, uncles, even my dadwho spend holidays together, eat pasta
together, support each other and work together. Everyone in our area
knows the Cianflone family and knows we stand for quality real estate
representation.
Technique #2: Define Your Brand

Is your brand professional? Is it fun? Is it young? Is it geared toward
luxury properties, starter homes, or older clients? You need to figure
out what your brand focus is all about, and then choose the colors,
typefaces, and imagery that best represent that brand. Keep in mind that
when you create a brand that works with your USP, they reinforce each
other and make them both stronger.
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Our USP is all about how our family takes care of your family. So, in
all of our brandingour business cards, our ads, our listing signswe
feature our entire family. Yes, its a lot of people to squeeze onto one
little sign, but we do it because thats who we are.
Technique #3: Dress for Success

Some real estate agents try to dress like their clients. I advise you to
dress for success. A home is the biggest investment most people will
ever make, so its important to look like a knowledgeable, professional
expert that clients will feel that they can trust. A good three-piece suit
will make you look like the expert you are.
Technique #4: Enjoy the Great Outdoors

Once you solidify your USP and your brand, its time to put them to use
where everyone can see them. You want people to see your face, your
name and your call to actionand of course, your phone numberso
often that they become ingrained in their brains.
Outdoor advertising is a fantastic way to make that happen. Bus benches
are often the best and most affordable option, but others like to invest
in larger signs. Whichever way you go, remember your ultimate goal is
to gain maximum visibility with your signs so people see you on their
way to and from work, shopping or other leisure activities. That way
YOUR brand and YOUR name and YOUR call to action become so
ingrained in their brains that when they need a real estate agentguess
who pops into their head?
Technique #5: Play the Numbers Game

Every real estate agent has listing signs, but you can make your impact
with what you put on the sign. A big opportunity is, believe it or not,
your phone number. Dont use your brokers numbereveryone
does that. Instead, get your own number and try to make it something
memorable so that it sticks with people. For instance, our number is
made up of almost all sevens. When you compare the simple pattern
of our number against everyone elses random collection of digits that
can be impossible to remember without writing it down, were already
ahead of the game. And we make sure we stay ahead by putting the
number on the sign two or three times, so you cant possibly miss it.
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Technique #6: Create Attention-Getting

Advertising
Were the first to admit itwe like to go over the top with our ads. We
make an open house or a new listing a major event, with lines like Sale
starts NOW! and Call me now, dont delay! And then we usually
add some type of giveaway to ramp up the fun factor even more
such as, Get a Free TV with Your Purchase! or Buy This House and
Well Send You to Vegas! Sometimes we co-brand with other people,
offering such prizes as a Home Depot shopping spree.
And of course, we always prominently feature our telephone number!
Technique #7: Be a Radio Star

A lot of real estate agents would never consider advertising on the
radio. But when it comes to getting your personality out there, you
cant beat it.
Radio lets you speak directly to people, in your own voice, often very
inexpensively. Remember, when you do run a radio ad, to include a call
to action, and also your phone number, your name, your brand, and any
giveaway or offer youve added on.
By the way, radio can also offer FREE advertising opportunities.
Depending on where you live, you may be able to win a spot on a
Meet the Experts panel on a regular radio informational show, or you
might even be able to host your own weekly half-hour or hour. Smaller
stations are always looking for free programming to fill up air time, and
you never know how far a little creativity can take you.
Technique #8: Be a Video Star

I am a huge fan of YouTube videos to market yourself and your business,
with one major caveatyou have to do them the right way. That means
sending links out to your database and using software that will let you
market to those people again and again. Its almost like putting out a
newscast directly targeted to your prospects week after week.
And, by the way, dont forget a video is most effective when its
entertaining. For example, I posted a video showing me making my
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grandmothers famous recipe for homemade meatballs. People see me

in the kitchen, wearing an apron, having a glass of vino, and its a whole
other side of me. I become a fun guy they want to know and I also share
a delicious recipe. The idea is to create value with your marketing, so
that people look forward to seeing what youre doing and want to get to
know the man or woman behind the image.
Technique #9: Be Smart About Social Media

Just about everyone in the real estate business is Tweeting,
Facebooking and Linking In. But are they actually getting anything
out of all that effort?
Using social media effectively means deciding in advance what you are
going to talk about and making sure it reinforces your brand. Do you
think your clients really care about what you ate for breakfast, or that
you bought a pair of shoes today? Sure, everyone posts this stuff, but...
so what?
My advice is, if youre going to use social media, take the time to come
up with something thats interesting, or exciting and informative. Also,
when it comes to social media, less is more. Instead of blasting out 70
meaningless updates a day, send out one consistent message, like a
tip, a funny news item or anything that adds value or brings a smile to
peoples faces.
Always make them look forward to hearing from you.
Technique #10: Go Door to Door

Yes, I know, it sounds old school. But I believe knocking on doors is
even more important than ever, since we hardly ever see people faceto-face anymore. In real estate, getting your face out there is everything
and many agents fail to make the effort to do that.
The minute you sell a property in your area, seize the moment, print up
some flyers, grab a bundle of lollipops or chocolates for the kids, and
hit the streets. Introduce yourself to the homeowner, tell them about
the property you sold in their area, and let them know that if they need
anything, youre there to help. And, of course, give the kids some candy
(if its okay with Mom and Dad).
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Lets be real. Chances are the homeowner is not going to say, Whoa!
Dude! I was just thinking of selling my house. Let me list with you
right now! When they ARE ready to buy or sell, howeveror one of
their friends or relatives istheyll remember that you were the guy (or
gal) who actually took the time to stop by!
And dont forget to ask the people you meet if theyd like to receive your
free newsletter to stay updated on local trends and events. That way, you
can put them on your mailing list and market to them in other ways.
Technique #11: Go Public

Whether you volunteer to throw out the first pitch at a local baseball
game or emcee a charity auction, another way to meet the public is to
go out in public. You dont have to go to every Boy Scout Jamboree or
Kiwanis Club meeting, but making an appearance at an event at least
once a month is something to shoot for. This activity expands your
circle of influence and makes people more likely to like and trust you.
Technique #12: Throw a Party

Who doesnt love parties? Chances are, your clients do (especially if
food and drink is on the house!)
So treat them to an occasional fun, social evening. Every three months
or so, throw a seasonal basha holiday party, a summer barbeque,
whatever suits the season. Invite two or three hundred of your closest
friends, clients and business associates, take off your tie, slip into your
Kiss the Cook apron or get behind the bar, and just have a blast.
People will remember you for the great time that you showed them and
that you gave back to them for giving you their business.
Technique #13: Stay in Touch

As your business grows, you may start getting bigger, more important
clientscorporate contracts, condo projects, and new home
developments. That means you may lose touch with those individuals
with which you built your business. Make sure you communicate
with them to let them know youre still around and still there for them
whenever they need you. A newsletter is a great way to keep them in
the loop and to stay top of mind.
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Technique #14: State Your Mission

What are you all about? What matters to you? Your mission statement
says it all. And a great place to put that statement is right on the back
of your business card. With one glance, your contact or client will
know exactly who you are, what you care about and how youre there
to help them.
I personally have a separate business cardmy so-called personal
business cardwith my home phone number on the back. When I hand
it to someone, I tell the person to feel free to call and leave a message
(unless its an emergency), and then later, I call them from home. Ill
even have a sit down with them if they want to stop by the house.
Technique #15: You Give and You Get

Never underestimate the power of a move-in gift. Whenever one of
your clients moves into a house, make it a point to personally drop by
with a thoughtful, well-chosen moving present. And make it a gift that
will last, not something that will only be around for a few days like
fruit or flowers, that way it will continue to remind them of you and
your generosity for years to come.
One of my personal favorite gifts to give is a knife set. I know, some
people say its bad luck to give knives, but my executive assistant gave
me one and, for me, it was the best gift in the world, because I love to
cook. It showed me that she cared about me and what I value. Its also
engraved with her name on the bottom, so every time I use it, it reminds
me that she gave it to me. Send that kind of message to your clients, and
theyll come back to you again and again.
Technique #16: Do Your Website Right!

These days, just having a brochure website isnt going to cut it. Your
website needs to be about more than buying, selling and your personal
information. Instead, strive to create a flexible website that is constantly
changing with new and valuable information. Include updates on
the market, area schools, local sports teams, events in the area, the
weatherwhatever people care about and might find interesting.
When you provide information like this, it shows that you care about
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your community. You may need an assistant who can spend an hour or
two a day keeping the website up to date, but its well worth the expense.
Oh...and one more thing

The most important Ninja Marketing Technique of all is making sure
all the pieces of everything you do work together. That builds a unified
picture of you and your real estate services and enables you to make the
biggest possible impact in your local market.
When you sell yourself correctly, when you train and grow as a
professional, when you reach to provide the best service you can to
your clients, you become your own best advertisement. Once you reach
that tipping point, you can go anywhere and be successful, because
youve mastered the essentials and put them all together to make the
right things happen.
I wish you all the best in creating your own Real Estate Marketing
Miracle!
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About Jason
Jason Livio Franco Cianflone, better known as The Real Estate
Doctor is a Leader and Innovator in Real Estate Marketing,
Advertising, Project Consulting and Investments. Founded on the
principle of genuine, caring, personal service, he will consistently
exceed all customer expectations, providing a memorable experience and exceptional
value.Jason has been seen on NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox affiliates as well as in The
Wall Street Journal, USA Today and Newsweek.
Jason has grown at a remarkable pace in the past 5 years to be known as one of
the top in North America and continues to spread nationwide like wild fire. Theres
no stopping at just buying or selling homes. With a growing team of rising experts
and a reputation of excellence including a client base treated like family, Jason
continues to strive to provide the best service and advice from Marketing to Project
Consulting and more!
To get to know Jason Cianflone on a more personal basis and to extend your
knowledge in the Real Estate World, visit www.JASONCIANLFLONE.com or call
1-204-772-7777.
www.JASONCIANFLONE.com
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Marketing Miracle Formula
ChAPTER 15
Marketing Miracle
Formula:
5 Principles to Success
By Lamont Stephens
hen discussing Marketing Miracles, it seems appropriate to

consider the marketing principles contained in the historical
record of a literal miraclein the chronological accounts of
the kings within the dynasty of Israel, sometime between 536 and
562 BC. The account discusses the plight of a widow of a prominent
and well respected individual within his community and probably
within quite a wide geographical region. However, while the widows
husband was well respected, he incurred considerable debt prior to his
death. Subsequent to his demise, the widow had no means to pay back
the debt and was poor, destitute, and was under the obligation to pay
the entire debt to the creditor. In the historical setting of the culture
in which this narrative occurs, people borrowed money based upon
their personal credit, and the primary security for the debt was their
own value as a laborer and the value of the labor of their children. If
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full payment of the debt could not be paid at the time it was due, the
debtor and their children became a servant to the creditor to literally
work off the debt. This was the situation this widow faced. The
creditor had called for the debt to be paid, but since there was no
money, the creditor was going to take her children into his custody
until they worked off the debt.
In desperation, the woman sought out the help of another well
respected and authoritative figure within the community. The mans
name was Elisha. Elisha engaged the widow in conversation to assess
the gravity of the situation and to determine what could be done. He
basically asked her two questions. The first, What do you want me to
do? The second question was, What do you have in your house? The
answer to the first question is probably obvious. The widow wanted
direction from him so she could find a way to pay the debt so her
children would not be subject to forced labor. However, the answer to
the second question left the woman feeling very inadequate. Literally,
the only thing she had in her home was a small amount of oil. Not
even enough oil to use in the preparation of a meal. Her response was,
I have nothing in my house except for a little oil.
Without hesitation, Elisha instructed her to go through the
neighborhood and collect as many bottles as possible. Not just a few,
but as many bottles as the neighbors would give her. She did as she
was instructed and brought the bottles inside her home. Elisha then
instructed her to take her sons into the house, close the door, and
begin pouring the little bit of oil she had into the empty jars until all
the jars were full. The widow did as she was instructed and found that
the little bit of oil she had seemed to be never ending. She filled jar
after jar after jar until every jar was full. When she no longer had
any empty jars, the oil she used also ran out.
The oil the widow possessed after this miracle was very valuable.
She had the opportunity to sell the oil, possibly to some of the same
neighbors that gave her the empty bottles as well as others. She would
have been able to collect enough money to pay off her debt, keep her
sons from forced labor under her creditor, and have enough left over
to provide for herself and her children.
There are five principles I see in this account of the miracle that
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transpired to transform the life and circumstances of this widow.

First, there had to be motivation to change her circumstances.
She was in a desperate situation. Its very interesting to see how
negative circumstances can become a motivating factor in our lives.
Many who are reading this chapter are facing circumstances that
seem insurmountable and overwhelming. You may feel like you are
suffocating from the burden of your situation and you dont know
where to turn or what to do. But, in the midst of the emotional
upheaval in your life there is something that stirs within you that
says, I must survive! I must fight through this circumstance! Im
sure you have heard the phrase used many times, You can allow
your circumstances to make you bitter or better. Even though that
expression may be overused at times, there is tremendous truth in
it. Listen to the voice inside you that wont allow you to give up.
No matter how low you get or how financially destitute you become,
dont allow yourself to succumb to the burden of your circumstances.
Some of you have a dream to do something really big, but you are
surrounded by people that keep telling you it cant be done. It may be
your spouse, a family member or a close friend telling you to give up
and focus your attention on something more stable or less visionary.
Whatever your circumstances may be, use it as catalyst to motivate
yourself toward accomplishment.
The second principle contained in the widows miracle is mission.
The widows mission was to get out of debt and save her children
from becoming the forced laborers of her creditor. What is your
mission? Have you defined it? The widow knew exactly what she
wanted to accomplish, she just wasnt sure how to get there. For me
as well as for many others reading this chapter, just like the widow,
the welfare of our family and our children is one of our highest
priorities in our lives. They become a large part of our mission even
though our mission may extend beyond our immediate family. What
example would you like to be to your children? Do you want them to
see an example of success and accomplishment? I know youre not
fighting to keep them from becoming a forced laborer to your creditor
like the widow. But, are you a slave to your creditors? Do you have
to work day after day and sometimes more than one job just to keep
your creditors paid? If so, you have become a slave to your creditors.
That is not the example you want to be for your children. Defining
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your mission will enable you to begin putting into action a plan to
break out of negative circumstances and become free from creditors
and those issues in life that prevent you from excelling. It is vitally
important to have a specific mission in place.
The third principle I see in the widows miracle is the map or plan
that was provided for her. Did you notice in the historical record of
this event that Elisha did not give the widow the entire plan at once?
He gave her a simple instruction. He told her to go and gather as
many empty bottles as she could possibly find. You may note that the
instruction was very simplistic and within her ability to accomplish.
There is a key here that must not be overlooked. Some people think
that great accomplishment must be done through complex instruction.
On the contrary, great accomplishment is usually achieved through a
series of very routine, but very consistent steps. Many people think
they really have to be stretched and do things that are far outside of
their comfort zone to be successful. Im not suggesting that we should
never move outside our comfort zone, in fact, at some point it will be
necessary to stretch and grow to achieve significant accomplishment.
But, it is even more important to begin doing things that are well
within the realm of your zone of comfort and ability. Begin there,
where you are most comfortable. Get some successes under your belt.
Can you imagine the motivation the widow must have felt when the
first neighbor gave her the first bottle as she began her collection?
Maybe that neighbor gave her ten bottles. Be assured, there were
some neighbors that told her to go away and gave her nothing. But,
as long as she was able to see some accomplishment and she kept her
eye on her mission, her motivation soared. She followed through on a
very simple first step, had a sense of great accomplishment, and was
ready for the next step.
The next step in the map or plan Elisha laid out for the widow
was to begin pouring the small amount of oil into the empty jars
she collected. As she poured the oil something miraculous began
to happen. It continued to pour out until all the empty jars were
completely full. In order for the widow to see the great success of
having an overflowing abundance of oil at her disposal she had to
follow the map Elisha gave her. It probably didnt make sense in her
own mind to begin pouring the little bit of oil she had into an empty
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jar. But, she followed the instruction in detail and saw things happen
that were beyond her comprehension.
Can you imagine what the situation would have been like if she failed
to remember the little bit of oil she had in her house? She could have
thought the amount of oil was so insignificant that it wouldnt make
any difference in her circumstances. That is not unlike how many
people think. They look at their resources and determine they dont
have anything that can make a difference. Or they fail to see the
resources at hand because they are so focused on their circumstances.
I remember a story someone told me one time about running into a
friend on the street and this individual asked the friend how he was
doing. The friend responded, Alright, under the circumstances. The
individual responded, Well, what are you doing under there? The
friend replied, Under where? to which the individual responded,
Under your circumstances. I must ask you that same question.
What are you doing under your circumstances? You must get out from
under your circumstances where you can see clearly or you might
not remember the little bit of oil that has the potential to become the
resource to lead you to great victories.
The fourth principle I see is marketing. She initially went to her
neighbors to ask for empty bottles. I equate this to building a list.
Any marketer knows you have to have a list and you need to keep
the list growing. You need to keep prospects continually flowing into
your sales funnel. After the widow experienced the miracle of an
overflowing abundance of oil, she was able to take her resource to
market. While this is purely an assumption on my part, I believe she
took her oil back to the same neighbors she contacted for the empty
bottles, told them her story, and they began buying. She probably
sold oil to neighbors and friends that told her she would never make
it. You know those family and friends Im talking about. She turned
oil into cash, paid off her debt and began to live a comfortable life.
The fifth and final principle I see is need for a mentor. While she
didnt realize it at the time, the widow had a mentor that would be
one of the most renowned historical figures in the annals of time for
her nation. Elisha was a man fully qualified to help her out of her
circumstances. As a mentor, he listened to her problem and gave her
a recommended action plan. The widow had a choice to make. She
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could follow her mentors advice or walk away from the advice and
try to figure out a solution on her own. Even though her mentors
solution may not have made sense to her at the time, she trusted him
and followed his advice. She took a step of faith and believed in the
person giving her the advice. Had she not followed his advice, she
would have lost her children to her creditor. She would have failed to
be an example of success to her children and others around her. But,
instead she followed the instruction of her mentor without question
and was lead to success. The importance of a qualified mentor cannot
be overstressed. If you want to be successful, find someone that is
more successful than you and follow their lead. Listen to their advice
even when it may not make complete sense to you. Put your confidence
in the fact that they have been successful and can lead you down that
same path of accomplishment.
The five principles that will guide you to success include:
1. Motivation Dont fall prey to your circumstances, but
allow your circumstances to become a motivating factor
for you to succeed.
2. Mission Make sure your mission is clear in your mind
and that it permeates your entire being.
3. Map Establish a well thought-out plan for yourself and
how you will accomplish your mission. Then, follow the
map with consistency.
4. Marketing Keep the sales funnel full at all times.
Continuously reach out to new prospects.
5. Mentor Find a mentor that is fully qualified and has
demonstrated success. Listen intently to what they tell
you and trust them.
I have found by following these principles I have accomplished many
things in my life that would normally seem to be out of my reach. You can
be successful! I believe in you! Believe in yourself! Miracles do happen!
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ABOUT LAMONT
Lamont Stephens, also known as the preacher, is a best-selling
author, speaker, entrepreneur, marketing, and business coach,
who is sought out regularly for his expertise. Lamont is known for
identifying hidden talents and resources within his clients and help
them leverage that knowledge in the form of products. He founded Teach By DVD, Inc.
in 2007, a company that produces and provides informational products nationwide.
Teach By DVD, Inc. helps clients to develop their business through informational
product creation and marketing.
Critically acclaimed, Lamont Stephens Product Money System allows you start
right where you are to create great looking products, put into a marketing system for
both offline and online. There is no other easy to use system that takes you step-bystep on how he has created product after product.
To learn more about Lamont Stephens, and how you can receive the free Special
Report Business Success Guide: 5 Foundational Principles for Every Business, visit
www.LamontStephens.com or call Toll-Free 1-888-DVD-Income (1-888-383-4626).
www.LamontStephens.com
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How to Turn Website Visitors into Paying Customers in 7 Steps
ChAPTER 16
How to Turn Website
Visitors into Paying
Customers in 7 Steps
By Lloyd Irvin
The Most Important Measure Of Your Websites

Success Is How Much Money It Makes You.
It doesnt matter how good your website looks or what it tells everyone
about you.
The success of your site is determined by how many of the people who
visit it actually become your customers.
You then have to do whatever is necessary to turn more of these visitors
into customers, get them to stay with you longer and spend more money.
In order to do that, you need to follow a clearly defined process.
Here are the seven steps you need to follow to turn more of your website
visitors into profitable customers.
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Marketing Miracles
Step 1: Focus On The Opt-In

When someone visits your website, they probably found it because they
are interested in what you are offeringwhether they found it via a
search, as a result of your marketing or through a link or recommendation
from someone else.
In a handful of cases, they will be ready right then to pick up the phone
and call you or buy what you are offering.
But the reality is most visitors are likely to be interested in what you
offer, but not ready to purchase right now.
If you let them just visit your site, the chances are they will never return
even if they are very interested in what you offer. So its absolutely vital
you do whatever you can to get their contact details so that you can follow
up with them until they are ready to buy.
When you collect the information, you are creating a pool of people
interested in what you offer and you can keep going back to them. This
is the basis of what is called two-step marketing.
The first step is to collect their information; the second is to keep following
up with them until they buy.
In order to collect their details, you need a box on your site where they
can enter their name and email so that you can follow up with them using
an email autoresponder.
When someone gives you their details, this is called an opt-in.
For example, if 100 people visit your site and 60 of them join your list,
your opt-in rate is 60%. One of your tasks is to keep making changes to
get the opt-in rate as high as possible.
Here are five ways to get the best possible results from your opt-in box.
Make the opt-in very prominent: The main opt-in box must be
very easy to see. The best location is normally the top right of the
page and it must be visible as soon as someone visits your site
no matter the size of their computer screen.
Use pop-ups and pop-unders: You may hate them but pop-ups
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and pop-unders are very effective at increasing your opt-in rate.

If someone is interested in what you offer, they will respond. You
should use them when someone exits your site to make sure you
capture as many visitors as possible.
Have multiple opt-in boxes: Some people will scroll down past
the main opt-in box so you must have multiple opt-in locations
top, middle and bottom of the page. You should also have them on
every page, not just the home page.
Tell people exactly what to do: Always state very clearly where
people should enter their information and what they will get in
return. Large arrows pointing to the opt-in box plus visuals and
bold titles promoting the benefits can help greatly.
Test different options: The less information you ask for, the more
opt-ins you will get. For example, just asking for the email is better
than asking for name and emailbut if you dont get the name,
you cant personalize the message. Asking for the phone number
will reduce the number of opt-ins further but may enable you to
follow up more effectively.
Step 2: Offer A Great Widget

To persuade people to give you their contact details, you need to offer
something of value as a bribe in exchange for those details. I call this a
widget. Your widget could be something like a free DVD, a free report/
guide, a free online video, a series of tips, etc. It has to be good enough
to get them to give you their contact information. To get started, a poor
widget is better than no widget; but the better your widget, the more
names you will capture.
A better widget also gives them a more positive impression of what you
can offer and makes people more likely to stay on your list.
Your widget has to be appropriate to what you offer and be relevant and
valuable to your market.
There are several ways to create a widget easily:
Create a short report with answers to the most common questions
you are asked
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Marketing Miracles
Produce a list of tips relevant to your market

Hire a freelancer on a site, such as elance.com,
to write a special report
Have someone interview you and offer an mp3 of the interview
Record a short videoor use one you have prepared
for another purpose
To make your widget more effective, give it an appealing title using
something like 7 Secrets or 10 Tips and have a graphic created to
use on your site to attract attention.
Its a good idea to test different widgets, different titles and different
wordings when promoting them to see what gets you the best results.
Step 3: Get Full Contact Details

While asking for just the email address or name plus email address will
get you higher response initially, its usually a good idea to go on and get
the full contact details i.e. the home address and phone number.
These days you are lucky if 75% of your emails get through but, if you
have a physical address and send a mailer, a postcard or a DVD, almost
100% of them get through.
You can get the full contact information by taking people to a second
page after they have entered their name and email address. You then ask
them to give you their full details on this page in exchange for a physical
widget such as a DVD or CD.
Sending something physical to someones house is 10 times more
powerful than just sending an email as they have something they
can hold in their hand. It may appear to cost more but, provided you
know how much it costs you to make a sale and how much a potential
customer is worth to you, it can be a wise investment. If you have a
strong sales process, you can even call them up as soon as they enter
their phone number.
With this two-stage approach, even if someone doesnt give you their full
contact details, you still have their email from stage one and can follow
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up with the autoresponder messages.
Step 4: Follow Up Immediately

The big mistake a lot of people make when collecting contact details is
they seem to think collecting the details is enough.
The truth is that getting the contact details is just the start of the process
and the start of what you hope will be a very long relationship.
So you need to make sure you begin the process of establishing that
relationship immediately. You need to help people get to know you
quickly and discover what you can offer.
If you dont do this from the first day, they will have forgotten who you
are within a week or two.
So get started right away telling your story and giving them valuable
information.
The big advantage of using autoresponders is that you can have all these
messages set up in advance so that they go out automatically. Once they
are written, you can go on using them for years.
You may well be spending money on Yellow Pages, Google AdWords,
radio, TV or whatever to generate the traffic that brought this person to
your website.
Now you need to start working to make sure you get a return on that
investment.
If you dont follow up right away, you are wasting the time and money
you have invested in bringing them to your site and persuading them to
sign up.
Step 5: Make An Irresistible Offer

When you start building the relationship, you want to demonstrate that
you can deliver valuable information. You dont want to be in their face
selling every moment.
Its just like building a relationship in your personal life. You dont
normally suggest marriage the moment you meet someone you like.
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Marketing Miracles
Thats usually the way to end the relationship before it even starts. If the
people receiving your emails think you are in their face the whole time,
they will quickly unsubscribe.
However, the problem many people have is that they go to the opposite
extreme.
They may send out lots of emails but never actually make an offer or ask
for the sale.
You are sending out emails because you want to build a profitable
relationship. So your email sequence needs to include opportunities for
them to deepen the relationship by buying something from you.
People are on your list because they are interested in what you can do for
them, so they want to know how you can help.
The exact offer will depend on your product or service. It may be an
invitation to make a small initial purchase; it may be the option to attend
a webinar or they could make an appointment to visit you.
Whatever offer you plan to make, you need to make it clear, you need to
make it as irresistible as possible and you need to specify exactly what
you want people to do.
Step 6: Stay In Touch Until They Buy Or Die

The real key to success in turning website visitors into long-term
customers is staying in touch with them until they are ready to buy.
People will develop their relationship with you at different paces.
Some people will want what you offer right away and will buy everything
you present to them.
Others will happily continue receiving your emails until the moment is
right for them and this may be quite a long time after they sign up.
Ive had people staying on my lists for years before they buy anything
from me but they then become great customers.
If somebody is no longer interested in what you have to say, they can
unsubscribe from your list. People will do that and you should not worry
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about it. Focus your attention on the people who remain on your list.
They are the potential customers.
You grow the relationship over time by continuing to send valuable
information, whether in the form of regular emails, online newsletters or
one-off mailings.
You want to follow up with them in as many ways as possible both by
email and, wherever possible, offline through direct mail and postcards.
You should also maintain the relationship by building contact through
other channels such as social media. You want to integrate your various
strands of marketing activity as much as possible.
Different people prefer contact in different ways so you need to make
contact in as many ways as possible.
The frequency of contact depends on your offer and your market. I am
involved in niches where I email my lists every day. I also have others
where the contact is less frequent.
You need to figure out what frequency works best for your market but
you need to stay in touch.
Step 7: Check, Change And Continue Improving

If you want to turn as many of your website visitors as possible into
customers, you need to keep improving your results. For example, you
should track which messages get the most clicks, which get the most
people to call and which cause the most people to opt-out.
With good autoresponder services, you can track which individual people
on your list are opening specific emails and which are not. Different
people respond to different things so, when someone doesnt open your
email, you can send them the same message a few days later with a
different subject line.
Most people dont take time to segment their lists like that but you can
improve your results significantly by doing this over and over.
You should always test different approaches as changes can make a big
difference to the number of opt-ins.
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Marketing Miracles
For example, on one of my sites, I made a simple change to the sales

copy above the opt-in box and the signups increased by more than 20%.
A small increase in the number of opt-ins can potentially be worth a lot
of money.
So testing everything from the wording on your opt-in form to the subject
lines in your emails can help you make more money much faster.
Getting The Best Results

When someone visits your website, you have a few seconds in which to
grab their attention and encourage them to give you their details.
You then need to follow the right process to build a relationship with
them so that you turn them into paying customers who stay with you
long-term.
When you follow the process effectively, you will end up not only with a
very successful website. You will also have a highly profitable business.
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About Lloyd
Lloyd Irvin is a member of that very small group of
entrepreneurs who have built multi-million dollar businesses
both offline and online.
He is also one of the few who devotes as much time to helping others succeed in
business as he does to building his own.
His commitment to martial artshe is a former Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu World champion
led to him setting up his own martial arts school. However, he struggled to make
money at first and quickly recognized the need to change his approach.
Breaking the Mold
He broke the mold in martial arts by being one of the first to use direct marketing
strategies to attract new students.
Despite initial criticism from others, his marketing success allowed him to quickly build
one of the USAs leading martial arts academies.
Marketing campaigns delivering a steady stream of new students have led to his
academy producing several world champions, UFC champions and a world champion
kids team.
Creating Millionaires
In addition to building his own academy, he is passionate about showing other martial
arts school owners how to change the way they work to easily attract more students
and make more money.
With his help, many go from charging less than $100 a month to charging 5-figure fees
while still getting more students.
His mastermind groups, coaching programs, live events and home study courses
have helped hundreds of martial arts school owners around the world. As a result,
many have turned their interest in martial arts from a virtual hobby into a million
dollar business.
Million Dollar Days
Having mastered the techniques of direct marketing and internet marketing in building
his school, Lloyd took this knowledge into a range of other markets.
Initially seeing internet marketing as a way of adding a few thousand dollars a month
to his income, he realized the potential was much greater when his first online launch
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Marketing Miracles
made over $180,000 in just one day.

Since then, he has built multi-million dollar businesses in many different markets
including several million dollar product launches, with one making more than $1.7
million in just one day.
He has now built successful businesses in several niches including diet, healthcare
and multi-level marketing.
His proven marketing strategies backed by specialist teams he has built - enable
him to use technology and marketing expertise to dominate the key markets where he
operates and to enter new markets easily.
Keys to Success
As an enthusiastic fan of Napoleon Hills Think and Grow Rich, he attributes his
success to being willing to master specialized skills such as direct marketing, internet
marketing and copywriting.
He also believes in the importance of taking fast action and implementing what you
learn if you want to get results.
Lloyd believes especially strongly in the power of the mastermind principle and having
the right mentors. He feels its vital to surround yourself with people who share your
aspirations or who are already successful in fields where you want to get results.
Through combining a world champion mindset with consistently applying proven
marketing strategies, Lloyd Irvin continues to build multi-million-dollar businesses and
help others do the same.
www.MyMarketingSecrets.com
www.MMAMillionaires.com
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ChAPTER 17
Market Smarter,
Not Harder
by Gus Kaloti
veryone wants their business to be more successful, from beginning

businesspeople launching startups, to owners of underperforming
businesses, to already successful business owners looking for
explosive growth. In the work that I do, be it as president of Inovia
Health, as a management consultant and success coach for dental
practices, in traveling and media appearances, or in researching the
books I write, I interact with many people and hear one question over
and over again: How can I be successful? Its a complex question with
many possible answers, however, in this era of a shifting economy and
constantly evolving technology, a key area of focus to amplify success
is in smarter marketing. Specifically, smart business owners must bridge
the gap between the traditional marketing strategies that businesses have
harnessed for years, partnering them with online marketing methods
that are changing as fast as the technologies that support them. It sounds
daunting, but it doesnt have to be. Like everything worthwhile, it it
simply takes workand a well-devised checklist.
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Marketing Miracles
Consider the example of a dental practice in New York City. This

practice was underperforming to the point of being unviable. In my
initial assessment of their strengths and weaknesses, I identified a
massive opportunity. They had virtually no marketing, (a budget item
that gets redlined by many businesses in survival mode). This was a
huge problem, as reactionary survival modes often only hasten demise.
My first advice was, Marketget your name out there again, because
you cant afford not to. Convinced, the client started by establishing an
online presence. It used to be for dentists, like many other businesses,
an ad in the Yellow Pages or a blanket mailing was enough. Thats no
longer the case in our networked world.
According to the Online Marketing Institute London, in their report
The State of Social Media 2012, one out of every seven minutes spent
online is on Facebook. Social networks create new life for a business,
and my client began updating a Facebook page daily with motivational
quotes, images or videos, and basically any relevant / interesting
content that demonstrated the business was still alive. People started
paying attention again. As the likes grew, the credibility of the practice
did too, because potential customers evaluate your business based on
your online presence. The more followers you have on social accounts,
the more credibility you demonstrate.
We were increasing interest for the struggling practice, but we needed
to get patients in the door. I knew a blockbuster promotion was
something this practice needed. Studying the potentials, I determined
that a popular, invisible braces product would resonate well. We took a
multi-prong approach. We ran a Facebook test promotion, and when we
saw we were on the right track by the response, we took advantage of a
traditional marketing tool, a direct mail campaign. Armed with targeted
demographics, we got our message in front of potential patients, and
then I advised, Now get them online. Thats the key to bridging the
gaptouching each customer on and offline. From the above referenced
report, by 2015, 75% of ads will be socially enabled. Now is the time
to embrace this technology. The print mailing got peoples attention,
it pointed them to the clients online presence, which demonstrated
their popularity and credibility, passively building trust from the first
impression. Because they were interested and felt comfortable, these
new patients began booking. The practice continued what it was already
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doing well, giving great care, phenomenal service and value. Doing this,
they converted the new patients into repeats. Thats the way to grow a
business. With a smart strategy, connecting traditional marketing and
online marketing, this NYC practice went from barely surviving to
being one of the largest invisible braces providers on the East coast,
which was a miraculous recovery. Thats how one established business,
a dentists office, turned their business around with the right marketing.
Another question Im asked constantly is: How can I make my new
product launch successful? My advice is clear-cut.
Bridging the gap between print and online marketing is crucial from the
start. The example that leaps to mind is of a product I created, Smiles
Plus, a dental discount program I pioneered in the Midwest that became
the most successful and oft-duplicated of its kind in the region. Like most
great ideas, it started with a personal passion. I believe people should
have access to quality, affordable dental care. Too many people neglect
their health because of a lack of insurance. The Smiles Plus program
allowed individuals to buy a plan that would offer them contracted
rates on dental services. Similar to what insured patients pay, but the
rates negotiated by the dentists and Smiles Plus, bypassing inefficient
insurance companies completely. We marketed this program offline at
first, and it gained traction. People absorb information differently, so
we covered multiple mediums, with print ads, as well as radio ads for
those more auditory in their acquisition of information. Video is great
for this, combining sight and sound. As a bridge, the same commercial
you use for television can be a YouTube spot, linked to your Facebook
page, or used on your website. Video is a marketing must.
At the same time we marketed offline, we established an online presence,
and when it came time, we took our message digital. When people came
to investigate Smiles Plus online, they saw a company with a thriving
face in the networked world, helping them feel comfortable to become
customers. We built trust, which is essential when making potential
customers your customers for life. We thought creatively, rewarding our
customers and extending our reach simultaneously. Existing customers
providing referrals for new ones earned credit to spend on their own
treatments, and likes on Facebook earned them extra credit. In the
same promotion we used both word of mouth, the most traditional and
vital of all marketing techniques; and we extended it online, by getting
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Marketing Miracles
people online to learn more and follow the business. These followers
built our credibility furthera cycle of success.
As word spread about Smiles Plus, and potential customers found
us online, we gained customers far from the region the program was
offered, and many drove hours or even flew in to use our dentists. The
testimonials we got from those very satisfied customers made acquiring
new customers easier still. When you offer a great product, satisfy
customers, get the word out, and you are consistent, success follows.
Smiles Plus has been a tremendous success that Im proud of, not only
because it was profitable, but because it helped people that might not
have otherwise had access to dental care. From these two examples of
how marketing saved a failing dental practice and grew it into a valuable
one, and from the successful launch of a product using the power of
offline and online marketing synergistically, how can individuals and
businesses apply these lessons to find more success? The following
List of Six are principles that any individual or business can use to
market better, bridge the gap between print and online marketing, and
to be more successful.
List of Six
1. Run Your Business Inside Out: Consumers dont solely
purchase with their walletsthey use their hearts and brains,
seeking distinctive brands with character at their center. As a
businessperson, start by looking at who you are, your inner core.
Take those passions and values and use them for the basis of
starting and running your business, and use them to set the course
for your marketing efforts. Run your business as a leader, the
same way you live your life. Successful marketing starts with a
great thing to market, and market whats inside you. By working
from the inside out your authenticity will set you apart every
time, allowing you to be great at what you do.
2. Tell People: You have a great business, a business you can be
excited about, and you need customers. The best way to get them
is by telling them who you are, what you do, how youre going
to satisfy their needs, and the value you offer. Tell people this
every way you can. Be smart about it, know when to cast a wide
net and when to target focus, and do it. Establish a presence
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online through a website and social media because this is no

longer optional, its part of the purchasing process for todays
consumers. Build the credible web presence and take your
message offline as well. Send targeted mailings, like I did with
the NYC dentist mentioned above, but with that printed message
get your potential customer online, too. Broadcast the message,
bridge the gap and the customers will come.
3. Show People: People want to know your business, what you
are and what you do. Show them. This starts before a client
ever walks into your establishment. Quality marketing materials
communicate professionalism. A well-done video on your website
or Facebook can begin to forge the relationship that has to be built
to establish lasting customers. The same video can be used as a
DVD you send to new clients. Let them get to know you, because
you are what theyre buying. When they become clients, continue
to show them. Providing great service isnt just good business, it
also reinforces your marketing message and extends it: the service
they receive is an invitation for repeat business.
4. Be Consistent: Consistency is applied several ways; in
branding, in business practice, and in marketing efforts. When
you are branding yourself, be consistent. For example, a highend business that worked hard to develop a luxury reputation
shouldnt suddenly be a discounter. Business practices need
to similarly follow through. If a customer comes to you with
the expectation youve branded, and their expectations arent
met, they wont repeat the mistake. Experience must match
expectations for optimal customer reactions. Finally, in your
marketing efforts, consistency pays. State your message and
demonstrate it thoughtfully and steadily. Give your efforts time
and the attention they need to work. Be proactive in the research
that precedes launching a marketing campaign; dont only be
reactive when an ill-planned effort yields poor results. Proactive
businesses make more money than reactive ones. Inconsistency
undermines marketing efforts, and undermines businesses.
5. Be Credible: People dont buy from, or use the services from,
the untrustworthy. When you work from the inside out, with your
core values influencing all you do, you are already running your
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Marketing Miracles
business authentically and therefore credibility doesnt need to be

generatedjust demonstrated and reinforced. One great source
of credibility comes from a positive word-of-mouth reputation.
Give people a reason to spread the word about your business,
such a consumer credit for customer referrals like we used with
the Smiles Plus Program. This kind of marketing goes a long
way, both online and offline. Credible businesses need a web
presence that illustrates their worth. Spend the time and effort
to develop a useful and informative website, and social media
accounts that are engaging, well-maintained and followed. This
will help your business demonstrate that you are an authority at
what you do, and that customers can trust you. If your clients
trust you, theyll stick with you, and that makes businesses less
vulnerable to economic downturns and other threats. Credible
businesses are lasting ones.
6. Adjust as Needed: The last concept on the List of Six is certainly
not least. When marketing your business, you do the research,
make a plan, execute it well, and track the results. Then what?
Learn from what youve done and adjust. Online marketing efforts
can be tracked with increasingly sophisticated analytics, giving your
business better than ever insight into your customers. If marketing
campaigns dont deliver the intended results, take the time to learn
why they didnt work. The issue could be that you havent yet found
the right formula for your individual business to balance online and
offline marketing. When a campaign is successful, take the time to
understand what you did right, then replicate and improve upon it in
future marketing efforts. We can always market better, I tell my many
clients. This post-assessment and adjustment builds future and lasting
success, which is the intention behind all marketing efforts. To get more
hands-on and various insight into my marketing techniques, guskaloti.
com should be your next stop, where you gain valuable information,
coaching, management tips, and much more. I am sure you care about
your success as much as I do.
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About Gus
Author and president of Inovia Healthcare, Gus Kaloti redefined
dental practice success, smashing old barriers to maximize
efficiency and skyrocket profitability. Kalotis entrepreneurial and
industry-specific experience turns around underperforming practices
and delivers quantifiable results with his proven combination of sound management,
penetrative marketing, and emerging technology-based solutions. He is set to be
featured in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and on ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX.
His skilled dental coaching develops your team, increases your reach, grows your
practice, and gives back what Kaloti realizes is most valuable: your time.-- Gus Kaloti,
Leader in Innovation
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LEVERAGING TIME AND RESOURCES
ChAPTER 18
LEVERAGING TIME AND
RESOURCES:
How farming the right leads
will change your business
By Gordon Dey
good day for an average Realtor would probably flow something

like this: send a few emails to prospective clients, make some
phone calls to potential clients, get one or two on the phone, get
rejected by most of the prospects you actually made contact with, spend
hours preparing a presentation for a prospect, meet with prospect, get a
listing. If that Realtor is statistically blessed, his listing will sell within
a couple of months. In a perfect world, one presentation equals one
sale, but it is not a perfect world is it? Moreover, who really wants to
be average?
A niche that allows a Realtor to leverage his time and resources changes
the game. Why settle for a single when you can get a triple or even
a homerun? While a typical Realtor markets to owners and buyers,
typical leads to average results. Any Realtor can change the 1 to
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Marketing Miracles
1 ratio of transactions to sales to one transaction equals 100 sales by

simply following a few key steps past owners and buyers only know:
getting to new homebuilders.
The beauty of my system is that the initial process resembles any other
lead farming that Realtors or other business people normally go through.
You generate your lead list, set up constant contact with the leads in a
follow-up system, and convert those contacts into sales; however, you
leverage your time and resources to achieve greater results. Farming
leads really does resemble traditional farming of a field. You scatter
seeds and after much care, they will flourish. However, as any real
farmer knows, the quality of the field you have prepared will directly
affect your cropit will determine if you reap abundantly or sparsely
for the same effort.
For the purpose of this chapter, I will show you how farming the new
homebuilder market can dramatically change your annual yield. Even
if you are not in Real Estate, you can apply these ideas to your business
by simply selecting a niche market that will bear fruit more abundantly
than the leads you have sowed before.
WHO IS YOUR TARGET?

Homebuilders are investors who put their hard-earned money into
business to make more money. An investor with $1 million invested in
four homes does not make a dime if those homes do not sell. If he sells
those four homes this year, his return on investment might hit his mark.
However, help this same builder sell the first four homes in the first half
of the year so that he can build and sell four more in the second half
of the year, and YOU just helped him double his profit. Your goal as
the Realtor advisor to a new homebuilder is to help him sell as many
cycles of building four homes and returning his initial investment plus
profit as possible, which then can be used to build four more homes in
the same year. When you increase his ROI, you become a member of
his very important cabinet and become indispensable.
Knowing the goals and needs of your farm area changes your status
from sales person to advisor. If you are not an expert yet, or have few
transactions under your belt, find the National Association of Expert
Advisors. Members goal is to teach, share, mentor, and lead. Get
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yourself an expert to assist you in building your knowledge base, and

then, your customer base.
WHAT IS IN IT FOR YOU?

If the average Realtor only sells six to eight homes per year, and invests
about $150 per month on average in marketing his business, that Realtor
is never reaching his full potential. What tends to happen in a Real
Estate office is there are a few top producers and the rest stand around
drinking coffee. Do you want to be a top producer? If yes, consider
this. Think of the number of hours you normally spend preparing for
a client. You could spend 1-2 hours weekly for each property you
sell just for the listing presentation alone. Add to that your three-hour
preparation time for a total of five hours of research, preparation and
meeting time, and the risk that this prep time will yield you nothing.
Conversely, when you meet with and sign a New Homebuilder, your
initial listing presentation with the builder happens once to net, say,
20 different sales! That is about a five-hour investment for sales that if
pursued individually would have taken about 100 hours of your time.
PURSUE
How do you farm New Home Builders?
Establish New Home Builders as a target of your business. Get lists
of the New Home Builders in your area from the Home Builders
Association. When you become a member of the HBA, you get access
to these valuable lists. You also are invited to their events. Before you
groan and say that you cannot stand to go to those functions, you should
be aware that Meet & Greets serve you for two reasons. First, you have
been invited to attend. Prospects are more likely to talk with you in a
meaningful way when they meet you at an event than they would if you
cold-called their office. Second, everyone who attends a Meet & Greet
type of event is there to meet people. Approach your prospects, give
them your 15-20 second elevator speech, and then ask them How can
I help you?
Spend time getting to know how to help them. Make your efforts more
about them and less about you. Builders are in need of assistance because
they are competing with short sales and distress sales, and foreclosures.
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Marketing Miracles
PRESENT
Once you have a rapport with the builder, it is time to get in front
of them for a presentation. Getting to the presentation will require
diligence: follow up with email or, even better, a short handwritten note
that says, It was great to meet you at the HBA social. Put them into
your personal follow-up rotation. Once you have been in front of your
lead before, as at the social functions, it is far easier to get in front of
your contact again.
Please remember that your goal remains to get in front of them again.
Email is nice and quick, but it should not be your first choice for a first
contact with your contacts, ever. Keep your eye on the prize. You want
to be in front of these people at least once a month until they recognize
that they need you. When you finally get the opportunity to make your
presentation to them in person, you dont want to blow it. New Home
Builders are smart business people. Be prepared to offer them concrete
financial reasons why it makes sense to do business with you.
DEMONSTRATE VALUE
Your value to them is complete outsourcing of their sales department
to you. You offer him professional sales that he does not need to train,
manage, or market to get results. You will want to show the homebuilders
that you are saving them money at every turn. The builder pays the same
commission compensation he would if it was his sales force plus the
builders split with an outside buyers agent; however, you cover all his
sales force expenses and you save him money on any advertising, training,
time to manage sales force and his headaches will be gone. Instead of his
investing hours in market research, you are Johnny on the Spot with the
right numbers at your fingertips to be his trusted business advisor!
Two key facts to have at the ready for your homebuilder prospect are
Absorption Rate and Market Share. The absorption rate for your area
can save the homebuilder money in two ways: this data tells him how
many homes like his sold last year and for how much they sold in the
areas he wants to build. If your builder has plans to build 20 houses at
a particular price point and square footage, but only nine such homes
sold in the area last year, he could be waiting a while for a return on
his investment unless he competitively prices his homes. Every new
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homebuilder will know that his market share affects his bottom line.
Consult with him to find out what his pricing threshold is in order
to increase his market share. Show him that by pricing his homes
competitively he will sell more houses more quickly, thus freeing his
money to be reinvested that much sooner.
ASK for the BUSINESS

Do you feel that having my experience and expertise would save you
money? should be your next question after your presentation. If the
answer is still No and your prospect is still not ready, put him back
on your follow up list. Send a thank you note for your visit. Reiterate in
your note that you can save him money, time, and hassles.
PROCESS
If you asked for the business and got the initial appointment with one
of your targets from your farm list, it is time to do your homework.
Prepare all the relevant numbers for the homebuilder with whom you
will be meeting. At this point, unless you are an experienced sales
person or Realtor, you want to enlist the help of a power agent. If you
do not know one of these top producers yourself, you can go to the
MLS to find an agent in your office who has sold many properties. You
want the one who really sells as a career and not on a part-time basis.
This agent can assist you to polish your presentation and be ready for
your appointment.
After you earn their listing(s), your process reverts to what you already
know; it follows the same marketing process:
Create internet presence: 90% of all buyers are coming to the internet.
Track internet buyers
Generate buyer interest
Sell their properties
Obviously, getting to yes with one client from your farm list does not
mean you stop farming. Farming is all about numbers. With builders
you are probably going to hit about 1% of what you farm, but that
average is still exceptional compared with the less than 1% return of
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Marketing Miracles
direct mail. Farming the New Homebuilder market and achieving your
1% annual return, your business will be on fire. The equation for your
six figure income simple + basic + success = repeat business. The five
homes that the builder initially had to sell will quickly turn to 15 homes
if you are doing your job well. Nevertheless, you will continue to farm
your list and attend functions of the HBA. You will continue to seek out
your prospects on a monthly basis until you get to yes.
BEYOND REAL ESTATE LEAD FARMING

As I mentioned before, you can apply this simple formula to almost any
business. You need to locate the niche markets that have the greatest
propensity for repeat business or multiple sales with repeat business.
If you are direct marketing any product, to who can you market and
have built-in repeat business? Just as with real estate, knowing your
market and the data of your industry will give you a leg up above
the crowd. Is there an association you can join where you will meet
potential customers such as a chamber of commerce or local clubs or
organizations? Again, your goal is to be invited to events where you can
meet your prospects in a setting that is conducive to conversation and
where people congregate specifically to meet others in their industry.
Few people strive to be average, or worse, mediocre. Dont settle for
selling the average 6-8 houses a year that keeps other agents happy. If
all things were equal, would you really settle for one-fifth of what you
would earn if you only followed this simple plan to a six-figure income?
Leverage your time to your best advantage. In the words of William Penn,
time is what we want most, butwhat we use worst. Make every atbat a homerun; let the average people be happy with a single.
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About Gordon
Gordon Dey is a best-selling author and marketing expert who is
regularly sought out by the new homebuilders for his opinions on
market conditions and marketing campaigns that really work. Gordon
has been seen on NBC, CBS, ABC, and FOX affiliates. Gordon is
known for his innovative marketing skills that produce results. Gordon was recognized
as the No. 1 Broker/Owner in the State of Florida by a large real estate franchise for
having the highest average agent productivity in sales volume and transactions sold.
Gordons ability to attract New Home Builders to list with him or his company was a
huge part of his success.
Focusing on New Homebuilders was a game changer for Gordon. Gordon and his
team have sold over 400 new homes. Gordon has helped even his newest agent list
new homebuilders and begin to enjoy this profitable real estate niche market.
To learn more about Gordon Dey and how you can receive the Free Special Report
Working with New Home Builders visit www.GordonDeyNewHomes.com or call him
at (850) 748-0575.
www.GordonDeyNewHomes.com
189
How To Build A Mobile Website That Converts Visitors To Clients...
ChAPTER 19
How To Build A Mobile
Website That Converts
Visitors To Clients...
The Top 9 Strategies Revealed
By Gus Skarlis
Did you know that...
92% Of ALL Local Searches Were Done On A Mobile Device?
86% Are Looking For Phone, Contact & Address Information?
50% Will NOT Return To A Site That Is Not
Mobile Optimized?
40% Have Went To A Competitor Site That WAS
Mobile Optimized?
35% Of All Your Current Website Traffic Is Coming
From Mobile Devices?
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Marketing Miracles
In fact, by 2013, there will be more searches done on mobile devices

than desktop devices. Heres a brief introduction to mobile websites.
What is a mobile website?

The simple answer is a website that will display correctly on a
mobile device.
In order to achieve a website that will render on these smaller screens,
a new set of code and standards has been developed that is totally
different from the code your desktop website was built on.
This new code platform is called HTML 5 and CSS 3 and this will
allow your pages to load much quicker and also be indexed in the new
mobile search engines.
The reason you should build a mobile website is because your desktop
website was built for a 15-inch or larger screen sizes and most mobile
devices are around 3 inches.
See how this can present a problem for visitors trying to navigate your
website on a mobile device?
MOBILE WEBSITE TIP:

The search engines have stated that any website that does not have
mobile compatible code
(HTML5 & CSS 3) will not be listed in their indexes.
RESOURCE: Find out if your website has mobile compatible code:
http://www.MobileWebsiteTester.com
Rule #1: Intent To Take Action

This is going to come as a surprise, but your current website content
is basically worthless on a mobile device because mobile visitors want
quick information and answers.
You need to build your mobile website so it allows the mobile visitor
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to take fast action. But first, you need to figure out what action youd
like them to take...

Do you want their email address?
Do you want them to call you?
Do you want to capture their phone number?
Do you want them to buy something?
Do you want them to watch a video?
Remember, your mobile visitors are on the go, at the mall, in between
the kids lessons and practiceso build your mobile website with
this in mind.
MOBILE WEBSITE TIP:

Make it easy for your mobile visitors to take action.
Rule #2: Best Mobile Designs

When it comes to designing a mobile website, everyone has an
opinionbut if you stick to these
3 types of mobile layouts youll build a winner.
Horizontal Layouts: These layouts are best for e-commerce sites that
have multiple categories and sub-categories. They are clean and easy
to use for visitors.
Button Layouts: This style looks like an app because it will generally
have 9 buttons (3 rows of 3) with icons. Visitors like these types of sites
because they familiar with them and can easily identify the icon with
the page content.
We have designed a lot of mobile websites but it seems the ones that get
the best response are the Image Layouts.
What we do is take an image (or video) and overlay the navigation on
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Marketing Miracles
top of the image. This creates a stop in your tracks mobile website
that gets a lot of oooohhs and aahhs.
MOBILE WEBSITE TIP:

Design a mobile website that screams stop and look at me because
you only have a few seconds to capture their attention and interest.
RESOURCE: You can see examples of hundreds of different types of
layouts at http://www.MobileWebsites.com
Rule #3: Navigation

One of the most important secrets that gets higher conversions is to
create a Take Actionwhich means we order the navigation pages
from least resistance to highest resistance.
A sample mobile website navigation for a tanning salon would be:

Watch Video
About Us
Download Free Report
Call Us
Buy Session
Directions
This allows the visitor to follow a natural path of learning and exploring
and lets them go directly to an action page without having to search
your site.
MOBILE WEBSITE TIP:

The order of your navigation is just as important as the content so
make sure all of your top level navigation has take action.
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Rule #4: Top Converting Colors

Color makes no difference... the color you choose for your mobile
website comes down to personal preferencejust dont do black!
If you website is about the environment, green would be a good choice,
if it has to do with babies then pink or blue would work fine.
Select your color theme with what a mobile visitor would expect as
it will create instant identification. The last thing you want is to make
your visitor guess what your site is about.
MOBILE WEBSITE TIP:

Most phones are black so be careful using a black background as this
will make it very hard to read and navigate in low light settings.
Rule #5: Mobile Marketing

Mobile Marketing covers many different types of campaigns, but here
are the only ones you need to be concerned with...
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Text message marketing

Email marketing
Click To Call
QR Codes
Pay Per Click
Text message marketing is growing at a rapid pace and will soon be the
most used form of marketing to visitors and clients.
Text messaging allows you send short messages directly to a persons
mobile phone and over 98% of all text messages are opened by the recipient.
Heres how to do it: set up a one-line form on your mobile website
with an offer for coupons, giveaways, alerts, appointments, events,
discounts or newsletters.
When someone types in their phone number it will automatically send
a text message back to them with your message... and now you can
continue to send them messages for just a few pennies.
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Marketing Miracles
MOBILE WEBSITE TIP:

Dont use short codesthey are a waste of money. If you set up
your mobile website correctly you do not need them.
Email Marketing:
75% of people say that they check email from their mobile device and
this can present some problems.
You need to assume that your emails are being read on mobile devices
and take the appropriate steps to ensure that your email content is
mobile optimized as well as the click-through URLs.
MOBILE WEBSITE TIP:

Keep your emails short, preferably text and if you are requesting
them to click-through make sure you are sending them to a mobile
optimized page, video or form.
Click To Call:
With the advances in technology you can now tap on a phone number
and it will automatically connect you with the number.
Make sure you add a click to call number on your mobile website so
your visitors can easily connect with you.
Most developers add the click to call as a button that says Click Here
To Talk To Us or something similar... but do not do this.
MOBILE WEBSITE TIP:

Make sure your click to call is text with the phone number visible.
This will help your search engine rankings and allow your visitors
to read your phone number if they need to write it down.
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QR CODES:
QR codes are those square bar codes you have probably seen in
magazines, billboards or newspapers.
Heres how they work... a smartphone user takes a picture of the QR
code and then are re-directed to:

Mobile Website
Facebook Page
Phone Number
LinkedIn Profile
Twitter Profile
YouTube Video
Or just about any other address you want to send the visitor to.
They allow you take a long URL and embed it in an image that smart
phones can scan.
Try It: Take a picture of this QR code to see how it works:
(make sure you have a QR code reader installed)
They are available for free at http://itunes.com or http://play.google.com
QR codes are great for marketing and you should put QR codes on your
business cards, flyers, invoices and any printed material.
MOBILE WEBSITE TIP:
Do not use the free QR code generators found on the internet

because if they shut down your QR codes will not work.
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Rule #6: Mobile Search Engine Optimization

The search engines now have a new mobile search engine that will only
allow sites that are mobile compatible to be found:
Heres what you need to know...
Once Googlebot-Mobile crawls your URLs, we
then check for whether the URL is viewable
on a mobile device. Pages we determine arent
viewable on a mobile phone wont be included
in our mobile site index (although they may
be included in the regular web index.
If its not in a compatible format, the page
is ineligible for the mobile search index.
As you build your mobile website you will need to optimize your
mobile website, just like you did with your desktop website.

Keywords
Title Tags
Meta Descriptions
Image Alt Tags
Micro Data
Mobile Site Maps
The most important part of mobile SEO is that you spend the time to set
up the proper keywords and find the buyer keywordsbuy, review,
find, how to, who is, best and top.
Dont worry about the lower search numbers because these keywords
show intent and these visitors will convert at a higher rate.
MOBILE WEBSITE TIP:

Submitting site maps is a secret of the top webmasters. In fact, the
search engines have a new mobile sitemap that is just for your mobile
content but youll also need to submit all 4 sitemaps: Content, Mobile,
Images and Video to Google, Yahoo, and Bing via their webmaster tools.
RESOURCE: Learn how micro data will get your mobile site ranked
higher: http://schema.org/docs/gs.html
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Rule #7: Mobile Website Vs. A Mobile APP

There are a lot of theories about which to build and what is best for
your business. Heres what I think:
1. Everyone should have a mobile website.
2. Mobile Apps are for larger companies like Paypal and Zynga.
3. Apps are more for games and tools.
While apps are cool, neat and fun, unless you have a specific reason to
build one I believe you should build out your mobile website first and
then build out an app to complement the website at a later date.
You must consider your market, clients and visitors. For example, a
local chiropractor wanted to build a mobile app, but then we put the
app use in a scenario.
The chiropractor would have to build the app for 3 platforms, market
the app to their visitors and then have them go download the app versus
just having a mobile website where they can quickly and easily find
directions and phone number.
MOBILE WEBSITE TIP:

Right now 30% of your traffic is coming from mobile devices.
Optimize your website first!
Rule #8: Mobile Profit Centers

There are hundreds of additional ways that you can generate profits and
sales from your mobile website. Here are a few examples...
Sell Gift Cards: this works great for restaurants
Offer Memberships: Chiropractors love this
Sell Complimentary Products & Kits: Great for affiliate
marketing
Thank You Page: Put on an offer or affiliate link on your
mobile thank you page
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Autoresponders: Capture and then follow up with email

marketing
SMS Text Message Marketing: capture phone numbers and
then send out coupons or deals
Directory Listings: Offer a premium listing or paid advertising
Members Only Area: Allow your clients access to members
only content
Advertising: Show mobile ads on your mobile website
CPA/Affiliate Offers: Create a mobile blog with CPA or
affiliate offers
MOBILE WEBSITE TIP:

When you build your mobile website make sure you can sell
products or services from it. Even if you dont have mobile
e-commerce plans right now make sure it is available because
there are huge opportunities for ANY WEBSITE to make money
from mobile e-commerce.
Rule #9: Mistakes To Avoid

1. Ask this question before you hire any mobile website developer:
How Will I Manage The Mobile Website?
The reason that you need to ask this question is to make sure the
developer has a mobile platform. The last thing you want is to have
them build a mobile site that you can not easily manage or access.
2. Dont over-think the design. As long as you build with Intent
To Take Action the design is secondary. You will not get a
visitor to take action because of a cool website.
3. Automated 1 Click mobile website builders dont work...
There are just too many variables, code and languages to build
you an optimized mobile website. They can do some of the
work but not all.
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In addition, these companies built software to take the place of

staff so they rarely offer any support or help after the sale.
4. Call and email the developer before you build. Make sure
they have a business license, HTML5, CSS 3 developer
credentials and are writing their own code.
5. Find out about their redirection code. Most will use a
subdomain of their website domain. Make sure you can use
m.yourdomain.com. If you cant use your own subdomain do
not build with them.
6. You get what you pay for. If you want to spend $10 per month
then you are going to get a $10 mobile website.
7. Check to see if they have an apple developer license. If they
have built a mobile website I can almost guarantee they have
built an app.
8. What about Tablet content? Find out how they display
content to tablet users. If they show your desktop site to tablet
users it will not be optimizedif they show your mobile site
to tablet users it will be under-optimized.
9. How do they handle changes, updates and modifications?
Do they charge per incident, per hour? Who do you contact?
What is the process? Know the answers to these questions.
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Marketing Miracles
About Gus
Gus Skarlis is a mobile website and online marketing expert who
has spent the past 8 years developing thousands of websites with
first page results.
Because of his expert status in the technology world, Gus is regarded as the Go-To
Guy for companies and small businesses looking to build, market and manage their
mobile website.
Frustrated with constantly trying to implement the myriad of 3rd party software and
code into his websites, he founded MobileWebsites.com in 2009, a company that
provides the only mobile platform that will manage your mobile content, SEO and
marketing from 1 area without having to deal with multiple vendors and software
products.
To learn more about Gus Skarlis and mobile websites watch the video The
Shocking Truth About Mobile Websites at
http://www.MobileWebsites.com or call Toll-Free 1-800-660-9395
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21st Century Marketing and Analytics
ChAPTER 20
21st Century
Marketing and
Analytics:
The Science behind
Marketing Miracles
by James Walker
ets say you have a thousand dollars youve budgeted to gamble in

Las Vegas. And you have to determine where that moneys going
to give you the biggest pay-off. Are you going to hit the poker
tables at Caesars, the blackjack tables at Bellagio or just try the slots at
the Golden Nugget?
Now, you could just randomly try each of those casinos and/or each of
those games. Or, lets say you had some inside informationand you
had the exact odds of each game at each casino. Lets go further and
say you had a software program that could tell you the exact amount
of your money to bet on which game at which casino to have the best
odds of a big pay-off.
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Marketing Miracles
Youd probably let that program tell you what to do, because the
numbers dont lie. And you want the odds on your side.
Well, Marketing Analytics isnt much different than that process. With
Marketing Analytics, you can determine where you should place your
marketing bets. When youre ready to roll out your new product,
service or just want to sell your brand in a high-profile way, Marketing
Analytics gives you the best shot at reaching a receptive audience with
a track record of spending money on whatever it is youre selling.
If youre not putting Marketing Analytics to work for your business in this
day and age, be warnedyoure missing out on a real Marketing Miracle.
THE ANALYTICS REVOLUTION

In the past, Marketing Analytics were used to support whatever the
main marketing message happened to be. In most cases, that message
was concocted without the benefit of those analytics; no one gave
them a thought as to being a creative force of their own. No, analytics
were strictly a numbers game employed to make sure the campaigns
developed by advertising gurus unrolled in as effective a manner as
possible. To be fair, analytic systems were fairly primitive until recently.
Today, however, Marketing Analytics are a whole new ballgame.
The combination of amazing new analytical techniques, amped-up
computer power and instantaneous online resources has resulted in
incredibly powerful software tools that have changed the marketing
game forever. So powerful, in fact, that analytics are no longer there
just to lend support. Instead, robust simulations can unlock dynamic
opportunities that provide their own creative firepowerwhich drives
new strategies and opens up game-changing marketing possibilities
never before imagined.
At our international brand and marketing consultancy company,
Prophet, we supply sophisticated marketing models for our clients
everydaywhich leads them to marketing decisions that avoid shotin-the-dark guesswork and, instead, embrace solid results.
Lets look at four key areas where Marketing Analytics are really
making a difference.
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#1:
MARKETING MIX MODELING
No pilot sits in a real aircraft cockpit without first spending a certain

amount of hours training in a flight simulator. Similarly, with our
Marketing Mix Modeling analytics and software tools, we can simulate
all the brands in a single category, in one ecosystem model, and decide
on how to optimize the marketing mix; how much should be spent on
advertising, promotions, and other marketing techniques.
With these tools, we can play an almost-infinite number of what-if
games. For example, an expert modeling system, such as our ProphetModeler, can explore thousands of possible models to examine the
historical impact of each marketing channel by region and other
variables. We can also drill deeper and generate continual response
curves for each media, each product, each product and so forth.
Another marketing mix optimization tool such as our Prophet-Allocator
looks at multiple scenarios that reflect different investment levels in
different areas. With this software, its easy to see how one marketing
investment feeds into another and creates a powerful synergy that adds
up to more than the sum of its parts.
Live data visualizations are also now a reality as part of our client
service. That means not relying on PowerPoints created weeks or
months ago for data referenceit means accessing the latest information
instantaneously so theres no question were all dealing with the reality
of todays 24/7 market.
#2:
CUSTOMER ANALYTICS
Of course, its not enough to just take a look at where you can invest
your marketing dollars; its also critical to know who your best potential
customers are and what their buying behavior is.
We believe thats a three-step process, beginning with Customer
Diagnostics. What are your current customers behavioral patterns
of engagement over time? Using advanced analytics and simple
metrics (such as overall amount spent by each customer or number of
transactions over time), you can key in on such critical components as
a customers average lifetime value and the strength of their ongoing
brand loyalty.
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Marketing Miracles
From that phase, we move into Opportunity Identification and

Prioritization. Youve already identified engagement patterns; now
you can grow your understanding of what makes your customers tick
and uncover their attitudes and motivations; category behavior with
your brand as well as your competitors; transactional and service
behavior; and their typical response to marketing efforts.
Marketing Analytics can take this information and determine just what
elements can improve customer engagement and sales conversions.
This, in turn, can be the inspiration for a marketing campaign that
hits all the right buttons in the most effective way - in order to create
the best possible ROI from your marketing efforts.
The final phase of Customer Analytics is, of course Activation, or
putting all this data to work so you can begin to realize results. The
previous phase undoubtedly uncovered some low-hanging fruit
that will be easy to take advantage of; but more complex marketing
concepts will undoubtedly also need to be evaluated. By using efficient
test and learn plants, these ideas can be fine-tuned and prioritized to
see which are the most effective.
How do Customer Analytics work in reality? Well, we had one client,
a digital photo services provider, that needed to improve customer
engagement. Our data shattered some of their long-held beliefs, such as
that the bulk of their customer base only bought from them during the
holidays, since revenues spiked in that time period. It turned out these
holiday shoppers only represented seven percent of the total customer
basewhich meant a huge opportunity was being ignored for yearround business.
Ultimately, the company put together marketing and customer service
data for the first time to truly understand their customer engagement.
The result? A thirty-five percent reduction in marketing campaign
investments and a ten percent increase in annual revenues.
Thats what ROI is all about.
#3:
PRICE, PROMOTION AND SKU ANALYTICS
Pricing is not one of the sexiest aspects of marketing, but it is one of the
most critical. Obviously, the margins a business makes as a result of its
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pricing enables it to grow or causes it financial pain.

But we firmly believe that its wrong to focus on price alone. Assortment
(SKU groupings), promotions and pricing are all joined at the hip
and have to be integrated into any Marketing Analytics. All three must
work together to achieve maximum results.
Most companies only correlate sales and pricing with a possible
inclusion of promotions; more often than not, SKU offerings arent
considered. When they are, however, the difference is profound. Proctor
& Gamble is one company that is renowned for its analytics in this
area. They conquered the disposable razor category with its Gillette
brand, even though that category was formerly crowded with products
from Bic and Schick, thanks to Gillettes ladder of tiered products,
including their Turbo, Fusion and ProGlide sub-brands.
To begin the Market Analytics of price, SKU offering and promotion,
you have to engage in the following key activities:
Understand your target consumers
Identify potential selling channel alternatives
Evaluate the consumer/occasion fit
Evaluate the brand and partner fit
Prioritize and select the most attractive channels
From there, you can address various pricing strategies as they pertain
to such issues as customer management, product life cycle, operational
issues, bundling and upselling and synergistic opportunities. In the
next phase, you can build and test various scenarios designed to
exploit identified pricing opportunities and create pricing plans to put
into action.
A disciplined pricing strategy, linked to a brand strategy, creates the
conditions for meeting short-term financial targets while building a
vibrant and robust long-term brand. This can be accomplishing by using
the enormous power of cutting-edge Marketing Analytics to optimize
SKU and pricing for maximum commercial impact.
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Marketing Miracles
#4:
CHANNEL AND SALES FORCE OPTIMIZATION
Marketing Analytics gives us many major advantages out in the field as

well, where the actual selling gets done. New techniques and software,
as well as data feeds from sales force automation tools, allow us to
develop optimized channel strategies, the best messaging to different
customers, and the capability to design the ideal sales force. That sales
force should employ the right mix of different types of reps allocating
their time to different customers in different territories in the most
efficient and effective way possible.
But, first, lets talk about channels. Channels are vital to the brand
experience and cannot be ignored. For example, you can buy Ralph
Lauren products online, in its directly-owned stores, at outlet locations
or at a department store. Each channel has its own unique pricing
considerations. Is there more value (i.e. a higher price) to a shopper in
a Ralph Lauren store rather than a department store such as a Macys or
Nordstroms? Solid channel analytics will provide the answer.
What every company wants is a sales force thats optimized for the
most profit and the most impact. That process begins by defining the
basic metrics of the sales force, including:
The number of different audiences and channels
The defined universes of audience potential (in other words,
how many types of audience are within the same channelfor
example, an office manager as well as a healthcare professional
at a dermatologists office
The reach (our targeted accounts as a percentage of the
total market)
The frequency (how many times you want to engage with
the channel in a year)
The number of calls per year
The number of products supported and the weighting of each
product by audience and channel
Work days per year planned
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Percentage sales time vs. percentage travel time

Hours worked per day
Miles driven per day
Cost of representative, including extras such as a
car and laptop
Cost per call, by type of call
Extra sales gained from targeting an account
New customers gained per year
Multi-channel sales force reps, call center, online, etc.
Working from this data, analytics can provide the best sales model for
each channel, and learn whether a direct sales force (company sales reps,
website, owned retail stores, etc.), an indirect sales force (wholesalers,
distributors, dealers, internet intermediaries, etc.) or, most frequently, a
mix of the two will prove to be the most successful.
Direct and indirect sales forces each have their own advantages. With
direct sales forces, you have:
Better control of selling activity
Ownership of salesperson quality
The ability to coordinate sales with other company functions
A closer relationship with customers
With indirect sales forces, you have:
Capabilities that are hard to replicate
The ability to gain quick entry into a market
Potential product synergy with indirect partner
Possible efficiency gains
As with pricing and customer analytics, once sales metrics and channel
data are in place, real-time models can be run to create the perfect
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Marketing Miracles
balance of sales methods appropriate for the needed channels. Once

again, an informed bet always trumps an easily-misplaced hunch.
OUR BRAND BELIEFS

When it comes to brands, all of us at Prophet work off the same
basic understandings of how they workand sometimes dont work.
These beliefs come from our experience, as well as our extensive data
collection and analysis. Id like to end this chapter by sharing these
Brand Beliefs:
Brand Entropy is all too real
Without adequate marketing support (and the right kind of marketing
support), the substance of a brand decays over time. Coca-Cola never
takes their brand for granted and neither should you. That means paying
as much attention to the brands big picture as well as on-the-ground
retail sales.
Brands exist in ecosystems
Brands dont live in a vacuum; theyre out in the marketplace, embedded
in a specific internal context (product relationships and hierarchies)
as well as a specific external context (partnerships and the product
categories in which the brand is sold). You cant just artificially market
a brand on its own, isolated from its surroundings. You have to look at
systems of interacting brands.
Brands are important assets
Brands arent just a vehicle to hit sales targetsthey have a value all
their own and should be regarded as a vital asset. Brand value should
always be an important part of Market Analytics.
Marketing should be viewed as a
multi-year investment
Measuring the immediate impact of marketing only shows part of the
picturethe real impact makes itself known over time. Thats why
long-term planning over the lifecycle of the product is vital, instead of
just focusing on current campaign results.
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Marketing systems should be industry-specific

Instead of applying the same marketing modeling to all business
categories, specific multi-dimensional models that apply to the industry
in question must be developed. Every business has its peculiarities that
need to be addressed.
Digital marketing is a major game-changer
The digital revolution has significantly changed the marketing
landscape in terms of reach, media usage and message control. Thats
why the proper mix of digital and non-digital marketing activities must
be pursued in the 21st Century.
Marketing Analytics provides real-world solutions to marketing
questions that formerly perplexed experts. When you put hard numbers
and the right data visualizations to work, you uncover marketing
methods unrivaled in their power and effectiveness. It may look like
a Marketing Miraclebut in reality, its grounded by a thriving and
proven science.
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Marketing Miracles
ABOUT JAMES
James Walker
Senior Partner, Prophet
James Walker is a senior partner at Prophet. James, who has spent
the last 20 years honing his skills and understanding of research and analytics across
the spectrum of brand and marketing disciplines, leads Prophets analytics practice.
He splits his time between London and New York.
His diverse background embraces the analytical, the creative and the entrepreneurial.
James founded Brand Science, which he and his partners later sold to Omnicom. He
was a partner at Edge, which he sold to Accenture to create the kernel of Accenture
Marketing Sciences. James was President International at AMS, and was an Accenture
partner for 7 years.
Along the way, James was part of the launch team of the media agency MindShare,
was one of J. Walter Thompsons youngest directors, owned the seminal The Clinic
nightclub in Londons Soho, and has made a number of feature films (including Fulham
Noir and The Flower Girl) and worked on artistic projects with the UN amongst and
other organizations. James is a frequent conference speaker, with contributions to
TEDu and TEDx, and was a TEDGlobal host in 2011. James also speaks at many
Marketing conferences ever year, is widely published, and also teaches at London
Business School, Stern School Of Business at New York University, and INSEAD.
James expertise in analytics includes brand research and analytics, brand equity
modeling, marketing mix modeling, segmentation, econometrics, sales and marketing
process improvement, among others. He has led consulting assignments in more than
40 countries, and has worked in most industries.
More recently prior to Prophet, James has helped launch and revitalize a variety of entrepreneurial ventures focused on both analytics and media. These included MOFILM,
the Worlds largest crowd-sourcing creative agency where James is an investor and
director; SSA & Company, a consultancy focusing on Six Sigma process improvement where James was a director and helped create a more 21st Century definition
of Six Sigma and worked in partnership with a number of private equity houses; and
Nunwood Consulting, a research firm, which James helped morph into the consulting
space, spearheaded aggressive international expansion and helped pick up a number
of awards.
James is a graduate of the London School of Economics and Political Science, the
University of London.
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The $20 Million Dollar Marketing Miracle Formula
ChAPTER 21
The $20 Million
Dollar Marketing
Miracle Formula
By DC Gilman
s the summer sun beat down on me, the air was thick and the
sweat dripped off my forehead in a steady stream. The sound of
the roaring engine filled the Missouri air as I diligently mowed
the lawns of twenty people on that sweltering Saturday afternoon. By
all accounts, I had a thriving businessat the ripe age of eleven.
All I knew is that I did a good jobI was always on time and nice to
all my customers. I even helped Mrs. Tilley get her groceries each week
(without charging her). I probably could have, but she always tipped
me more than I thought it was worth.
All the people talked to one another in that small town, and that talk was
good for my business. The phone rang nearly every week with someone
else who wanted me to mow their lawn. I had so much business that I
enlisted my friends to help. I hired one to mow the lawns, one to follow
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Marketing Miracles
behind for clean up, and another to handle the details and collect the
money. I built it to a point where I had five friends working for me and
when Saturdays rolled around, I could be found at the movie theater,
playing or at the soda fountain.
My dad had taught me a lesson early on in life that proved invaluable as
I grew up. The lesson was providing exceptional service and delegating
as much as you can. I could have continued to mow the lawns and work
both Saturday and Sunday and keep one hundred percent of the money.
But I decided I didnt want to work both days of my weekend.
Another valuable lesson in that decision: I learned the real value of my
time and taking time for myself.
My first corporate job was for one of Americas largest printing companies.
We focused primarily on printing magazines. As a family-owned
company, the founders had instilled a strong culture that was centered
around the customer and providing exceptional service consistently.
I started as an estimator and before I knew it, I was in sales. I continued to
climb the ladder as the Vice President of Sales, and then moved into the
role of Vice President of Operations shortly thereafter. In this role, I was
technically second in command. I was directly under the President and
the company was generating just under $15 million per year in revenue.
By many standards, it was a tremendously successful company. For me,
I knew there was more out there; more customers, more revenue, more
profit and more efficiency. When one of the owners wanted to retire,
the brothers promoted me to President and I finally got my chance to
demonstrate what I could do.
Deep down, I think, the brothers thought there would be a minimal
transition when I took over; they assumed I would continue to run
a smooth operation, with revenues remaining steady. Well, they
underestimated me, thats for sure. As I took over, I came in like a bull
in a china shop. At least thats the rumblings I heard years later.
For me, I was only doing what I had been eager to do for years. As I
grew through the ranks, I knew all of the pitfalls, gaps, weaknesses and
areas of inefficiency that were in the business. So, I started addressing
them. I began with the operational issues internally. We saw an increase
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in operational efficiencies, streamlined work flow, reduced production

schedules by fifty percent and actually increased on-time delivery by
nearly twenty percent. I also implemented lean manufacturing skills
which drove additional profit to the bottom line.
But the greatest miracle to happen in that two-year period? Pure
marketing magic. When I was in the sales roles, I realized the company
talked about caring for the customerbut talk and execution were two
different things. It was about the ticket price, the sales volume and
there was no taking into account the life-time value of a customer.
I had read enough books to know there was more revenue to be mined
from our existing customers and more business in the market in general,
but it would take a solid strategy to do it. I brainstormed and strategized,
knowing the golden nuggets would be found in the little things.
I came back with the strategy to take the company to an entirely new
level, and I knew it. I began to unveil piece by piece, knowing it would
take some time to see the results. There were three categories that I
focused on:
Existing customers
New customers
Internal customers
With existing customers, I ran a list and broke them into three categories
based upon revenues. Then I identified the additional incremental services
we could provide that would generate more revenue than the cost of the
service provided. Remember, my goal was to drive more profit to the
bottom line, so this was an important component to the plan.
When I looked at the mid-tier revenue based customers, they were
either near the lower end and almost in the bottom revenue category or
at the top and almost in the higher revenue category. It was interesting
and I found myself wondering what it would take to push the ones near
the top over the edge and into the next revenue category, and nudge the
ones at the bottom into the middle and upper revenue category.
I started calling the customers. Asking what they liked, what they didnt
and what they thought was missing in our service offering. I uncovered
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Marketing Miracles
the answers to take each customer to another level. It was interesting

to me that none of our customers were working with us because of the
price, which was good because we were not always the least expensive
in the marketthats for sure.
For the smaller revenue category of clients, I analyzed the services they
were purchasing from us. I uncovered a pattern and this pattern was
worth a lot of money. Not in the actual services they were purchasing
but rather in the services they werent. The answer took me thinking in
the opposite direction from what I would have normally thought.
It was revelation for me. Similar to looking at a painting where you
see one figure instantly, yet the real figure is hidden in the opposite
coloration of the image. Thats what I finally saw. In all the years in
sales and operations, the answer was there yet I had never seen it.
With one additional package offering, I discovered that we were missing
an additional twenty percent of revenue. It was astonishing that there
was that much additional revenue sitting on the table, just waiting for
us to pick it up.
New customers arent always as obvious as one would think either.
Many think it is simply a function of reaching more prospects and
increasing the conversion rates. I decided that would be too easy, so
I approached the situation with the same mindset as I did with our
smallest customers. Look for what is obvious and do the opposite.
What I found was that we were actually turning away business. Yes,
turning it away. When I dug into it further, what I found was astonishing.
The sales team was turning down jobs because the production in the
plant would not handle the volume. If we couldnt get press time, then
the jobs couldnt get printed.
The sales people had a take it or leave it attitude because it had been
a problem for quite some time and no one knew about it. They chalked
it up and just knew some jobs they could take and some they couldnt.
A win some, lose some attitude.
I knew we had addressed the primary issues through the increased
efficiencies we were seeing with the internal changes I had made. So I
assured the sales team that we could take each and every job they brought
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into the system. If there was a job to be done, we could do it. Guaranteed.
This brings me to the last area I addressed: internal customers. What is
an internal customer? It is the internal team, from your employees to
the vendors your business works with. Often we overlook the fact that
these people are actually customers as well. Customers in the sense
that vendors have the ability to refer new clients, and employees from
the sense that they have the ability to convert sales, refer sales and
influence sales.
When I began this process, I didnt realize the issues we had with our
internal customers was actually worse than what we had with our external
customers. We had an internal morale issue and our vendors were being
treated just as a vendor. In my eyes, they were partners and some of
our best customers. Yet in the eyes of our employees, they were merely
someone expected to provide a good or service to the company.
How does one shift this attitude and mindset in a team of over 160?
Well, I can tell you that it doesnt happen overnight and it also doesnt
happen through a pep rally. It took strategy and thought to create the
plan of attack for this issue.
I started with the employees first. I adopted a marketing campaign that
was fun, challenging, and thought provokingand just as importantly,
revolved around making them proud, feel great and understand they
were valued. My message of value your employees as you would your
best customers quickly rippled throughout the company. The rumblings
were positive and the air in the offices felt lifted. It was lighter, more
fun and there was a sense of positive energy that resonated throughout
the offices, which had never existed before.
Once the attitude shift with the internal employee had taken place, it
was time to filter that out to the vendors. I changed all of the internal
communication to read Valued Support Provider. I wanted the team to
know, understand and appreciate that without our vendors support, we
would not have any business.
That was the last component I needed to implement. The process was
complete, the wheels were in motion and I needed to sit back and be
patient. Like the captain of the ship, you stay the courseand thats
exactly what I did.
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Marketing Miracles
As I sat in my chair after two years in the Presidents seat, I watched

the CFO bring in the report. It was the ultimate report card. I knew that
we had been seeing significant increases, actual jumps in the numbers,
but I didnt know the ultimate impact. As I reviewed the report, I leaned
back, folded my arms behind my head and just smiled. I had done it.
I had pulled it off. I had defied what the owners thought was possible
and had taken the company from $15 million per year in revenue to $21
million. And, I did it in less than two years.
I grinned because I knew I had pulled off a marketing miracle. It
wasnt one magic bullet. One statement. One approach. One client.
One strategy. It was the ultimate success cocktail concoction that had
proven potent, powerful and profitable. Then, I began to wonder how
many other business owners out there were in the same situation and
needed a marketing miracle.
After nearly another six months, I realized my heart and my passion
was in helping entrepreneurs (especially young entrepreneurs). So I
quit my job. Yes, I left a hefty six-figure salary and decided to become
an entrepreneur.
As I reflected back on things, it was interesting I had been climbing
the ladder all of my life. From starting out mowing lawns to working
in the potato chip factory to radio shack to pumping gas to the printing
company. I had actually ran out of ladder. I had reached the top rung
and the only thing left for me was to jump to another ladderbut I
would still be assuming the top rung on it, of course.
The lessons I learned in my career have certainly served me well and
also provided a tremendous platform for me to help other entrepreneurs.
In fact, I now share my marketing miracle formula and am excited to
receive feedback from the businesses it has positively impacted.
Let me recap the $20 million dollar formula for you.
1. E
xisting customers look at all aspects of your existing customers
and apply this 3-pronged approach to increase revenues:
a. I ncremental Sales what are the incremental sales that
you may be overlooking? I challenge you to look at
your existing customers and determine what areas and
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opportunities may be right in front of you yet are going

unnoticed. Call your customers. It sounds so simple, yet
it can be profound. The feedback and insight you gain
lends to new ideas, new service offerings and many
times discontinuation of service offerings.
b. P
lay the Revenue Pick-Up Game identify the new
areas of service that you can be offering that have a
nominal impact on your expense line yet yield a positive
impact on the bottom line.
2. N
ew customers analyze the Why behind your
sales process.
a. Why arent they buying?
b. Why arent they buying more?
c. Why arent they coming back more often?
When you answer these three basic questions, the
answers for your growth will be revealed.
3.. Internal customers your employees and vendors are some of
your best customers. Apply the 3-in-1 approach:
a. N
ame three new programs that you can institute that will
generate one new customer.
Why limit it to one customer? You are not. If the approach
will work to generate one, it will generate many.
You never realize the lessons you learn as a young entrepreneur and
how they can impact you as an adult. In reflection, the marketing
miracle formula I just shared with you stemmed from my first job
mowing lawns when I was a child.
Get set, get ready and sit back enjoy the results. The ride is a journey,
the experience is a blessing and the results are a joy.
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Marketing Miracles
About DC
DC Gilman worked his way up the corporate ladder from estimator
through the sales ranks to Vice President of sales and ultimately
President of a nationally recognized $21 million printing company.
Under his leadership, sales outpaced production and he strategized
and implemented operational efficiency systems, streamlined workflow, reduced
production schedules by 50 percent and increased on-time delivery by nearly 20 percent.
Through his laser-focused efforts, make-ready waste was reduced by 60 percent and
annual revenues increased from $15 million to over $21 million under his leadership.
He implemented lean manufacturing while managing over 160 employees nationwide.
DC left his successful position in 2011 to follow his passion and personal dream of
building his own organization that fosters entrepreneurship. Knowing the positive
impact that entrepreneurs have on the global economy, DC has dedicated his time,
energy and efforts to providing proven tools, systems and knowledge. Through his
various speaking engagements and efforts, he has taken what he learned growing up
in a small town in Missouriwhere he started his first business before he could drive
and absorbed the strong work ethic that was instilled by his fatherand combined this
with the realistic approach of how to work smarter, not harder. This has formed the
foundation and back bone for his educational platform.
Today, DC owns five companies and manages several streams of revenuefrom
network marketing to real estateall by following the same advice and principles
he shares with others. His no-nonsense approach shows entrepreneurs how to cut
through the garbage, take action today, leverage cash flow and maximize opportunities
and talents. For more information, go to www.DCGilman.com.
DCs latest book, Get Your Win On! showcases the essential steps, attitude and
mindset for entrepreneurial success. DC was also selected as a contributing author for
Entrepreneurial Success Stories: How Common People Achieve Uncommon Results
with John Robinson and Loral Langemeier, scheduled for release late 2012. DC has
been interviewed on various radio programs and has been featured in USA Today as
a Game Changer.
DC has worked with and/or shared the stage with some of the top speakers, authors and
renowned experts from around the world. He holds a Bachelors degree in Business
Administration from Central Missouri State University and is a graduate of the Dale
Carnegie Course. DC and his wife Kathy have two teenage daughters, Mikaela and
Alana, who they are assisting in building their own entrepreneurial empires. DC enjoys
traveling, creative masterminds and learning about innovative business strategies.
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CREATING ONLINE MARKETING MIRACLES
ChAPTER 22
CREATING ONLINE
MARKETING MIRACLES:
3 FOOLPROOF MAGNETIC
MARKETING METHODS
By Darrin Mish
f youre a fan of Dan Kennedys marketing style (and I would think

you would be if youre reading this book), you know he likes to be as
outrageous as possible to get his message across.
Underneath that outrageousness, though, are tried-and-true marketing

principles that always get the job donethe outrageousness is just the
icing on the cake. Thats why I love Dancrazy as a fox is the perfect
description of him. Even when his stuff seems the most unhinged, its
always carefully planned to make the right impact.
I may be a lawyer, but, in many ways, Im a marketer at heart. A lot
of people dont think Dans techniques are right for an attorney such
as myself, but as Dan says, theyre made to work for any business.
The alternative? Well, frankly, there really is no advantage to using the
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Marketing Miracles
traditional (and expensive) methods of marketing, such as radio, TV and

print, anymore. The fact is that audiences have been fragmented to such
an extent that old media channels just dont work like they used to.
And thats okay. More than okay. Because Ive become one of the top
earners in my business by leveraging all the new (and, best of all, FREE!)
online selling opportunities available. Ive put them to work in innovative
and exciting ways that leave my competition in the dust.
These days, the only offline marketing I really do is direct mailwhich
now actually works better than ever, because hardly anybody sends
mail any more. That means your envelope has a much better chance of
standing out (and heres a big secret to Direct Mail success: try to make
sure your piece arrives on a Tuesday. Your message will almost always
be sitting there all alone in the mailbox and attention WILL be paid!).
In this chapter, Im going to tell you a few of my online marketing secrets
secrets that can work for any entrepreneur, professional or companyif
youre willing to commit. These methods transform ordinary businesses
into extraordinary money machines if you put these secrets to work.
THE BIG SECRET

Lets start by talking about Dans concept of Magnetic Marketing.
The way Magnetic Marketing works is your marketing does the work
of attracting clients to youyou dont go chasing after them. Your job
is to send a powerful message out into the marketplace, which causes
interested people to raise their hands. When they do, theyre basically
saying to you, Tell me more, so you can confidently move on to the
next step: converting that interest into a sale.
Thats all well and good, but how do you build the all-important
magnetic element into your marketing? How do you get people to
want to listen to your message? How do you magnetize your marketing
to attract the right leads?
Well, again, lets go back to the Book of Dan (or, actually, books, since
hes written a whole bunch). Dan says prevention is almost impossible to
sell, but offering pain relief can be a goldmine.
What does that mean, practically speaking? Well, lets say a parent wants
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their kids to wash their hands before eating. If the parent just says, Wash
your hands so you dont spread germs on your food and get sick, well,
no kid is going to listen to that message. No Magnetic Marketing there!
However, if that same parent has kids who are way hungry and desperate
for dinner, and that parent says, Im not serving dinner until you wash
your hands... well, all those little ones want is to make the pain of their
rumbling stomachs to go away. The parent just told them that the only
way to make that pain go away is if they wash their hands. That is a very
magnetic message.
In my business, Ive seen this principle work time and time againand
sometimes even against me. As a tax lawyer, I usually target people who
already have big time pain from the IRSI offer the relief they need.
This works like crazy, because they need professional help to get through
their tax problems.
So I thought about what would be the natural next step to create more
revenue for my practice, and I had what I thought was a brilliant idea
along those lines. What if I offered tax planning to people who had just
survived their IRS escapades, so that I could make sure they never got in
that kind of jam again?
Well, I went out and sold it with the systems that always worked so well
for me...only this time, they didnt work so well. I think I had one signup in total. It turned out nobody was interested in stopping trouble from
coming down the linethey only wanted to deal with it when it had
already hit!
Remember, they dont sell pills to stop headaches before they happen;
they sell them to make the ones you already have go away. Thats why
Magnetic Marketing focuses on pain and not prevention. Prevention isnt
going to push someone into buyingbut getting rid of some real pain is
always an urgent matter.
MAGNETIC MARKETING METHOD #1: SEO

The internet is ideal for Magnetic Marketing because you have the ability
to drive traffic to your website as well as deliver your message through
a myriad of ways.
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Marketing Miracles
But how do you drive people to your website? How do you uncover the
ones with the specific pain that you have the prescription for?
Well, the foundation of that process is to use SEO (Search Engine
Optimization) tools to make the people who need your specific services
come to you for that helpinstead of your competition.
That starts with using the right keywords. When you dig in and do the
right keyword research for your particular business, you can almost
guarantee that youll be attracting the exact right leads for your product
or service.
Again, that means zeroing in on the pain from which your would-be
customers are seeking relief. For my tax practice, I rely on keywords
like IRS Levy Relief or IRS Tax Help. When people search on these
keywords on Google or any other search engine, my websites will rank
high in the results. This process has helped me go from being mainly a
local business to one with clients all across the country.
So...what problem do you solve? Why do people come to you for help?
Start by asking those questions and then, start making lists of sample
keywords that people might search for, looking for answers. For example,
if youre a chiropractor, a big keyword would probably be back pain.
If youre a dentist, you might look at painless dentistry. Test out your
keyword list with the free keyword tool that Google provides to see
which ones motivate the most searches. Then, set up specific landing
pages that are linked to those keywords and which sell the product or
service that meets the leads needs.
Most importantly, start building your herd, as Dan Kennedy would
say. That means include an offer of free information at your website,
contingent on the visitor leaving his or her name and email address. This
way, you can begin to build a marketing list that allows you to sell to
these people down the line. Theyve already raised their hands and
demonstrated interest in what youre sellingand those kinds of warm
leads are obviously the best kind of leads to have.
Another great FREE SEO opportunity is Google Maps. This involves
almost NO work on your part. You dont need to set up any websites or
landing pages, you just have to fill in your info, upload any photos or
224
videos you might want, and put it to work. All you have to do is log into
Google maps with your Gmail account, list yourself as a local provider
and then start entering the requested information.
Why is Google Maps so effective and important to your business? Well,
when people use Google Maps to find a business, that means theyre
at an advanced stage of the buying process. As a matter of fact, theyre
probably in need of someone at that moment and looking at what their
choices are. If your business ranks high on Google Maps, youll have the
opportunity to reach them at the precise moment every marketer waits
forthe moment when theyre ready to open their wallet and pay for
your product or service.
Getting yourself at the top of that Google Maps search results page gives
you a huge advantage in maximizing the opportunity in that moment.
Generally speaking, if you get yourself at the top of the results, youll
get four times as many click-throughs as the next company down on the
list. Thats a massive amount of traffic you can have coming your way
just by taking the proper steps. If you have some faithful customers who
are willing to help you out by leaving some positive reviews of your
business, thats going to really help your ranking along.
MAGNETIC MARKETING METHOD #2: VIDEO

Here are some statistics that should make you sit up and take notice.
Online video viewers are expected to reach about 170 million this year.
Over half of the population and over 70% of internet users will watch
online video. Mobile video viewers will hit 55 million and Smartphone
video viewers will hit 51 million.
Thats a lot of potential customers for your business.
But video isnt just great marketing because of the numbers involved.
Its also great marketing because people get to know who you are on their
own terms, without having to actually come in to your office. Theres
no social pressure in watching a videothey can come to their own
conclusions and decide whether they want to do business with you or not.
The fact is people buy people - and theres no better (or, lets face it,
cheaper) way to put your personality out there than online video.
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Marketing Miracles
Now, lets talk a little bit about personalitybecause its critical that you
come across as authentic on camera. That means you shouldnt pretend
youre something youre not, because people will smell a phony.
On the other hand, you should also not be afraid to be who you are; the
more human you are, the more people will like you and be attracted to
buy from you.
Case in point: I made one of my most memorable videos a few years ago
and, to this day, people still ask me about it. Why? Because of a stupid
accident that happened in the middle of recording it.
I was halfway through a video explaining an IRS tax matter when I
accidentally knocked the microphone I had on the desk in front of me
onto the floor. Well, of course, most people would have stopped recording
and started over. I pride myself on not being most peopleso I simply
leaned over, picked up the mike and put it back on the desk and kept
goingall while the camera was still rolling.
And thats what stuck in peoples mind, more than anything else that
came out of my mouth!
While you wont find many lawyers allowing themselves to be seen
like that, I just thought it was a funny, human moment. I was already
demonstrating my expertise in the content I was providing in the video,
so I wasnt worried about not seeming professional. Thats not usually a
lawyers problem. To be honest, most people are intimidated by lawyers,
and I really believe that letting this blooper stand was a way to make
them feel more comfortable about doing business with me.
Now, you might be reluctant to do your own videos. You might say, Ive
got a face thats only good for radio. Well, Im not exactly Tom Cruise
either, but it doesnt matter. You just have to show that you know what
youre talking about, you have solid solutions for your potential clients
problems and that youre personable and approachable. Just make sure
you communicate clearly and concisely and avoid too much jargon or too
many big words. Everyone needs to be able to understand your message.
Online video helps your SEO. Google gives it more weight than ordinary
written content. It also allows you to be seen as a celebrity, just as your
local news anchorman would be, simply because youre on a form of
226
TV; people actually stop and stare when I walk through the lobby of my
practice, because they recognize me from my videos.
So its a complete win-win to build your own YouTube channel and also
to imbed those videos on your website and on your social media pages...
which brings us to our final Magnetic Marketing secret...
MAGNETIC MARKETING METHOD #3: SOCIAL MEDIA

Social media is where a lot of what Ive been talking about comes
together. The population of Facebook would make it the third biggest
country in the world (behind China and India)so, again, the numbers
are certainly there!
Just like the videos, social media allows you to display your personality
and be yourself. You will attract people who want to work with you based
on that. Ive posted some slightly controversial things on my Facebook
pageI am a gun owner and I dont shy away from talking about itbut
the truth is you shouldnt do business with someone whos going to judge
you by things like that which dont really matter professionally.
You need to post regularly and you need to post articles, videos and
blogs that again demonstrate that youre a trusted authority in your field
(along with the personal stuff). Again, dont be afraid to have a little
fun with your professional image. If you check out my Facebook page,
youll probably do a little bit of a double take at my profile photoit was
obviously taken at a professional photo session, but the face Im making
isnt exactly business-like!
But, again, thats okayat least for my brand. The point is that the picture
still looks like its from a professional photo shoot - my expression just
puts a little spin on the ball!
Personality-driven Magnetic Marketing attracts clients to any business,
whether you or a lawyer, doctor, plumber or hardware store owner. It
becomes an ongoing Marketing Miracle that builds your business
without you having to do all that much work! So, if youre not already,
put these three Magnetic Marketing methods to work for your enterprise.
And please, feel free to visit my website at www.LawyersSecret.com for
more information about how to create your own marketing miracles!
227
Marketing Miracles
About Darrin
Darrin Mish, Esq. graduated from Golden Gate University, in San
Francisco, California, in 1993 with a Doctor of Jurisprudence. He
was admitted to the Florida Bar in that same year and the Bar of
the State of Colorado in 2002. He has earned an AV rating from
Martindale-Hubbell, the countrys most popular attorney rating service. An AV rating
signifies an attorney that has achieved the highest levels of professional skill and
integrity. The AV rating is based upon peer reviews by other members of the Bar
and the judiciary. Lawyers and judges in the larger community have been polled by
Martindale-Hubbell and, based upon their submissions, the company has granted him
the highest available rating for his legal skills, as well as for honesty and integrity. He
has been honored to have his name placed in Martindale- Hubbells Bar Register of
Preeminent Lawyers as well.
This means that you, the client, receive aggressive representation from a young,
energetic, honest, yet experienced attorney. Mr. Mish is permitted to practice before the
United States Supreme Court; all courts of the State of Florida; the State of Colorado;
the United States District Court, Middle District of Florida; United States Court of
Appeals, 11th Circuit; United States Tax Court; United States Court of Federal Claims;
the United States Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit; United States Court of Appeals,
District of Columbia Circuit; and the United States District Court, Northern District of
Florida. He has taken the extra steps to be admitted before all of these courts because
he is committed to helping you with your IRS problems, including appeals.
In 2002, Mr. Mish was awarded Practitioner of the Year by the American Society of
IRS Problem Solvers. He is a member of the Tax Freedom Institute, the American Bar
Association, the National Association of Tax Professionals, the National Association of
Criminal Defense Lawyers, the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and
the Hillsborough County Bar Association. These memberships help him stay current
with the law and enable him to protect your rights.
228
Five Miracles to Help You Transform and Continuously Improve Your Marketing
ChAPTER 23
Five Miracles to
Help You Transform
and Continuously
Improve Your
Marketing and Your
Business
By Dale Gibbons
e said, Im gonna make you an offer you cant refuse.
Little did I know a series of Miracles was about to happen that

would make me a new business owner and eventually help fulfill
my dream of being financially free.
My friend Bob, who was also my boss at the time, had a struggling
small business with a faint heartbeat across the hall from his newest
entrepreneurial venture. Hed hired me a few months before to help
229
Marketing Miracles
him make his new business idea, unrelated to said struggling business,
a success.
My only connection with the struggling business, which sold training
for information technology professionals, was the water cooler. I know
it sounds clich, but its where Id go for a drink of water and the office
scuttlebutt. Each time I went over for a sip, I felt I was standing in an
emergency room, the patient fading fast and the ER staff pretending
nothing was wrong. This business truly needed a miracle.
During my visits, I would chat with Peggy, the administrative assistant,
as well as the other employees. Over the course of several weeks, I had
put my finger on the pulse of the small company while everyone was
too busy arranging deck chairs on the Titanic to even take notice of me.
Confident I had the cure, and sure I could help my friend wean it from
his checkbook life support system, Id make suggestions to him during
our lunch meetings.
One day he said something that shocked me.
Look he said. If you know so much about this business and how to
fix it, then you need to own it.
I thought hed lost his mind. First, I had very little cash to work with
and had absolutely no idea how I was going to purchase a business.
Second, why should I? I mean really, the business was losing money!
In hindsight, maybe he should have given it to me! After all, not one
of the sharks on ABCs Shark Tank would have invested. In fact, if it
even made the show, it would be one of the crazy, goofball deals the
producers slip in just for entertainment value.
Im not interested, I said. I dont want to make your problem my problem.
I was confident the conversation was over, when he responded, But Dale,
youre missing the opportunity here. My problem is your opportunity
because you have knowledge and experience I dont have. You can fix
this business. I cant, and I just want to get my investment back.
Heres the rest of the story, and the miracles Ive experienced that you
too, can make happen in your own business:
230
Miracle #1: Learning to hear and discover

what people really buy
On January 10, 2005, we signed the paperwork and I was the proud
owner of a small business with a million dollars in annual sales.
I had learned throughout my careerand confirmed during my many
meetings with my friendthat people really buy three things:
1.
2.
3.
Solutions to their problems

Experiences that make them feel good
Certainty, security and peace of mind
Yes, were complicated creatures and its hard to fit all our motives
for buying into three categories. But its helpful to simplify things by
separating the critical few from the helpful many, and the three above
are the critical few, in my humble but accurate opinion.
Bob knew I had the solution to his problem. I had explained it to him
in detail. He had worked with me for quite some time, and it had been
a good experience for him. The solution and his good experience with
me up to that point gave him enough certainty that his decision to make
me an offer I couldnt refuse was a good one.
If youre having trouble in marketing or sales, it could be because you
arent tuned into what these three things are for your market. Whether its
one person across the lunch table or a list of a hundred thousand people,
youll need to ask good questions to truly hear what they are saying to
understand what these three things are. Write these three things down on
a note card before you write your next sales letter, go on your next sales
call or, dare I say, try to get your kids to clean up their room.
Theres more required though, than just understanding what people buy.
We need to understand what theyre willing to use to pay for it. Most
assume people pay for things with money. But thats not really true.
In business, there are two primary currencies we all use in our
transactions.
1. Time
2. Money
231
Marketing Miracles
If you cant get someone to pay with their time, theyll never pay with
their money. If they dont invest time to consider your offer, they wont
buy. The trick is to understand what people really buy, then make your
marketing worth something. More on this in the next miracle.
Miracle #2: Clarity

One day during a meeting with all my employees (we had gone from
fourteen to seven) I asked them what they thought our customers were
willing to pay for.
I got seven different answers.
An important concept in continuous improvement is to define things
clearly. We call these operational definitions.
The operational definition of an operational definition is: A clear, unambiguous,
description expressed in objective, usually measurable terms.
Heres the first, and most important operational definition I gave
the team. Its the long pole in the continuous improvement tent, and
everything we did in our business from the day I walked in as the new
owner had to support it. I explained to the team that we had to focus
our time on doing things people were willing to pay for. Our actions
had to create value. Anything else was highly suspect. Heres your next
operational definition:
Value: Anything people will pay for with their time or money.
Remember, the anything in our operational definition of value above is
primarily three things. (See Miracle #1 if youve forgotten them.)
We went on to write several operational definitions, the most important
of which was the definition of what people buy. We also developed the
habit of asking ourselves Is our customer willing to pay for what Im
doing right now?
If the answer is no or youre not sure, Miracle #3 below will remove
all doubt.
232
Miracle #3: Learning to see

A church secretary received a phone call one day and the man on the
line said with a southern drawl, Id like ta speak ta the head hawg uh
the trough.
Excuse me. The stunned secretary said.
Well maam, Im a lookin fer the leader uh the church. Ya know, the
head hawg.
Trying to not offend yet engineer a graceful exit, the secretary said,
Oh, I see. Well sir that would be pastor Russell and, well, we would
never refer to him as a hog. Plus, hes on the phone now and cant
possibly speak with you. Perhaps
The man interrupted, Well now that thars a cryin shame, cuz Im a
farmer and jist sold some livestock. Got a perdy penny fer it too, and was
a thinkin Id like ta make a ten thousand dollar donation to yer church.
Stunned by the mans words, the secretary quickly gathered her wits.
Well, sir, uh, well will miracles never cease. It seems the big pig just
finished his call and can speak with you now. She quickly connected
the farmer to the pastor.
Clearly, the secretary saw no value in the farmers words, at least not in
the beginning. In fact, she was insulted. She certainly wasnt going to
invest her or the pastors time in this man. The farmer, too, didnt realize
he was adding no value to the secretary. But the offer of a donation
was irresistible. It added value, and that value changed everything. The
money could certainly be a solution to a struggling churchs problems.
(See Miracle #1.)
So if value is anything people will pay for with their time or money,
then what about the rest? What about the things they wont pay for?
Wouldnt we want to know them, see them and minimize them?
Heres your third operational definition:
Waste: Anything people will not pay for with their time of money. In
other words, it is non-value added activity.
233
Marketing Miracles
For every dollar we

spend on goods
and services, only
about a nickel is
truly value added.
The rest is waste.
Some waste, or non value-added activity, is required. Theres nothing we
can do but live with it. Filling out government paperwork comes to mind,
unless youre a CPA and you client is paying you to do this for them.
Dan Kennedy taught me long ago that marketing is really anything and
everything we can do to attract customers to our businesses. To me,
marketing is creating and communicating value. In other words, its the
art and science of offering, getting a response and delivering the three
things in miracle #1.
In order to create more value, youll need to free up time and money
by seeing waste in all its forms, and systematically eradicate it. There
are nine forms of waste I look for in my businesses. Here are all nine,
plus a couple examples of each. To help you remember them, let me
introduce you to Timm P Wood:
Transportation
the excessive delivery or movement of information, supplies
or materials...
Delivering unneeded documents
Excessive filing of documents
Over-addressing email distribution lists
Hand carrying paper to another process
Cross-departmental resource commitments
Inventory
any supply of excess information, supplies or materials needed to
produce goods or services just in time...
234
Files awaiting signatures or approvals
Work awaiting task completion by others
Obsolete files
Obsolete equipment
Outdated marketing materials
Purchasing excessive supplies
Insufficient training of back-ups
Motion
any excess movement of people or machine needed to produce
goods or services just in time...
Searching for computer files
Searching for documents in file cabinets
Repeatedly reviewing manuals for

information
Hand carrying paper or parts to another

process
Cross-departmental resource commitments

without proper communications
Not making something a priority for

someone to complete
Marketing
any effort that does measurably acquire new customers, increase sales
with existing customers or increase the average transaction value
Get your name out there marketing
Ads directed toward the wrong market
Ads that dont communicate value and solicit Anything that creates negative word
a response
of mouth
Brand advertising with no differentiation of
offer to the market
No understanding of what the market

will buy
People skills
any appropriate people skills that are unutilized and not adding value
Doing non-value added work
Improper task to skills match
Not making highest and best use of time
Uneven workload
Poor delegation and follow-up
Micro-managing
235
Marketing Miracles
Waiting
idle time created when people wait for people, people wait for
machines, and machines wait for people...
Excessive signatures or approvals
Dependency on others to complete tasks
Delays in receiving information
Computer software revision problems
Cross departmental resource commitments
Not a priority for someone to complete
Over-processing
any effort which adds no value to the product or service...
Producing reports no one reads or needs
Making extra copies
E-mailing, faxing the same document

multiple times
Entering repetitive information on

multiple documents
Ineffective meetings
Overproduction
producing more or faster than needed to produce goods or services
just in time...
Duplicating reports or information
Repetitive data entry
Too much information being shared
Constantly revising documents
Ineffective meetings and no agendas
Poor project planning
236
Defects
inspection, repair or rework of a product or service...
Data entry errors
Pricing errors
Forwarding incomplete documentation
Lost files or records
Incorrect information on document
Inefficient file system on desktop PC or in cabinet
Not appropriate staffing to service customer
A/P and A/R errors

Audit findings
Miracle #4: The power of helping others see, too

When I first met with the sales team, I was frustrated with the information
they were giving me about their sales pipelines and what they were
doing to move deals toward closing. We pored over excel spreadsheets
and each sales rep would talk about the deals they were working on.
They droned on about why it was a good deal and sure to close.
After about three weeks of the same old shell game, Id had enough.
There was a large 4 x 8 white board in the meeting room of our office,
and I decided it was time to drain the swamp on our marketing and
sales system to see what was really going on. It was time to implement
visual management of our marketing and sales process.
I went to the office the next Saturday when I knew Id have the place
to myself. I cleaned the board and drew vertical black lines that made
five columns. Each column had a label at the top. It looked something
like this:
25
50
75
237
90
100
Marketing Miracles
I then wrote operational definitions for each of these phases. There

were very specific criteria that a deal had to meet in order to be placed
into a phase.
The next Monday, the sales team filed into the meeting room as usual,
excel sheets in hand.
They looked nervously at the board. I handed each sales rep their own
colored super sticky PostIt note pad. I then handed them copies of
the operational definitions of a lead, a prospect, a customer etc. Also
included were the operational definitions and criteria for each phase of
the pipeline.
Take thirty minutes and use the template Ive created for you to transfer
your deals from your Excel spreadsheet to the pipeline board. You have
your unique colored sticky note. Once youre sure your deal matches
the criteria Ive written for you, add it to the board in the correct phase.
I then left them to finish their assignment.
When I returned, I was amazed at what I saw. One of the reps, Ill call
him Dennis, suddenly had just one deal that was worth talking about.
Most of his pipeline evaporated because his deals did not meet the
new criteria.
Eight years later, weve refined this substantially. And every morning,
we have a 30-minute team huddle to discuss the board and what each
rep is doing to move the deal toward close, what help they need, what
marketing sequence each prospect is for each step, etc.
Miracle #5: A smooth flowing stream

Over the years, weve refined the way we manage our marketing and
sales process. The business has grown 8 fold and has been an Inc. 5000
honoree multiple times.
One of the transformational steps in our success has been to think of
our sequence of value-adding activities as a value stream. Heres
how to picture it in your minds eye for your business:
Someone raises their hand from the masses in response to your now
238
valuable marketing message, and we help them into your boat.

Theyre now on a journey down the value stream with you. They can
leave at any moment if you stop adding value. If you fail to solve their
problem, create a good experience or make them feel certain their
decision was a good one, theyre gone. There are boats standing by to
take them off (competitors, your own risk reversal and guarantees).
Invest a little time in mapping your value stream and learning to see
and eliminate waste, and you could experience the same miracles I
have over the last eight years.
Smooth sailing!
239
Marketing Miracles
About Dale
Dale Gibbons is an entrepreneur, writer and speaker. He owns
two businesses and publishes a monthly newsletter on business
development topics. Dale is a graduate of Purdue University and
he began his career in the aerospace industry in 1987, as a field
service liaison with General Electrics aircraft engine group. After working 18 years with
firms like GE, Compaq, EDS and Manpower, Inc., Dale acquired a small, struggling
technology firm in 2005. While applying his passion for process improvement,
marketing and sales, he reinvented the business, which is now ranked 4th on the
Business First list of 50 largest Louisville, KY, area technology firms and has made the
Inc. Magazine list of fastest growing private small businesses in the U.S.
After turning the tech firm around, Dale replaced himself in 2008 and currently plays a
passive role of coach and advisor to the management team. Dale founded The Continuous
Improvement Center in 2008, consulting with businesses on process improvement and
performance excellence. He also serves as Vice President, COO with Farm Credit MidAmerica, one of the nations largest lenders to farmers and rural Americans.
Dale is active with the Kentucky Center for Performance Excellence, where he serves
on the operating committee and also as a certified examiner for the Malcom Baldrige
Performance Excellence Award. Dale also serves on the board of directors of Junior
Achievement of Kentuckiana.He can be reached at www.TheCICenter.com.
240

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Copyright 2012 CelebrityPress LLC

How to be Fun and Entertaining Instead

Get Customers Ready to Buy Today Through

By Dr. Lisa Lang................................................................................... 67

By Richard Seppala............................................................................. 109

By Jason Cianflone........................................................................... 147

By Lamont Stephens.......................................................................... 157

How farming the right leads will change your business

By Gordon Dey..................................................................................... 183

By Gus Skarlis......................................................................................... 191

by James Walker.................................................................................... 203

By Darrin Mish....................................................................................... 221

How Do Marketing Miracles REALLY Occur?

ets start with my disagreements with some of the contributing

web: we grope. We test a matrix of possibilities in theme, copy appeals,

How Do Marketing Miracles REALLY Occur?

who advises focus on one media to the neglect or exclusion of others

How Do Marketing Miracles REALLY Occur?

patients to accept treatment, in order to book $1-million in dentistry?

How Do Marketing Miracles REALLY Occur?

Youve seen this mansion on the HBO series ENTOURAGE, as home

How Do Marketing Miracles REALLY Occur?

PRICE STRATEGY & PRICE ELASTICITY STRATEGY

pyramid in a category is common failing. Gardners Mattress thrives

How Do Marketing Miracles REALLY Occur?

about marketing be a conclusion. Marketing is not something you learn

ts Monday morning, and you are going thru a pile of papers,

to the side and lets start with #2.

The Shopping Process

Dont be boring and bugging

So after 9 months of getting a different cartoon about Everlast Floor every

for other businesses too. So I got involved with CartoonMarketing.com

No Test Drive Needed

f you are like most entrepreneurs, experts, authors or business

concept called Educational Marketing allows you to begin to attract

What Is Educational Marketing?

No Test Drive Needed

had a problem and educated themselves on a solution. The education

Using Education In Your Marketing

2. To reveal an opportunity to stop the problem they are currently

The Online Marketer

No Test Drive Needed

in an online webinar. The entire 2-hour presentation is filled with

The Financial Advisor

Your Educational Marketing Roadmap

No Test Drive Needed

THE MIRACLE SALES POWER OF YOUR IRRESTIBLE OFFER!

You have three seconds!

what youre selling.

DEFINING THE IRRESISTIBLE OFFER

DEFINING YOUR PRODUCT OR SERVICE

THE MIRACLE SALES POWER OF YOUR IRRESTIBLE OFFER!

youre providing the buyer with? Is what youre providing something

because they never heard of the company.

THE MIRACLE SALES POWER OF YOUR IRRESTIBLE OFFER!

Ingredient #2 - p ut in the elements of believability that will

2. Your Industry How You and Your Competitors Sell