Part 5– One Simple Marketing Secret That Can Double Your Sales

Want to watch your sales soar? Then you don’t want to miss the little known, and even less applied, marketing secrets you’ll learn in this fifth installment of the 12 Laws of Small Business Marketing Success series.

In life, people often end up making things more difficult than they need to be. This seems to be even more prevalent when it comes to marketing. Maybe it’s because the so-called “experts” out there have muddied the waters so much with their self-serving idea of marketing that the average business leader has no idea what works. Whatever the reason, you’re about to learn one simple principle that can effortlessly increase your sales.

Principle 6. Reverse the risk

Have you ever noticed how most businesses put the risk of doing business on you, the client? Just the other day I was at a garden center. While I was checking out I noticed a sign behind the counter that stated in bold red letters “Absolutely NO REFUNDS After 30 Days.”

Now it’s not that I disagree with the policy of the store. They need to protect themselves. But the way this policy is stated is a good way to destroy client trust. The exact same policy could have been stated positively and in fact could be used as a core part of marketing to build outstanding goodwill with clients.

What if instead the sign read, “We Will Be Happy To Refund Your Full Purchase Price Within 30 Days?” See the difference? The first statement seems to put the burden of responsibility on the client. The revised statement implies that you’ll take the risk and bend over backwards to help the client out.

Now this is a minor example and probably won’t kill a lot of sales, but why state things so negatively when the same statement can actually be used to build business? If you have a solid product or service, and you know it will perform the way you say it will, why not go all out to let your customers know about it?

- “Our Prices Are the Lowest In Town Or We’ll Refund Double the Difference.”

- “If We Don’t Have Your Size In Stock, We’ll Special Order and Have It Here Within 2 Days.”

- “Proven Resources Guaranteed To Turn Your Small Business Into BIG Profits”

Do you see how powerful these statements are? See how they put the risk on the business, not the client? If you can perform, you should do everything you can to shout it from the rooftops. Even if you get a few more returns or refund requests, they’ll be inconsequential compared to all of the new business you’ll attract.

John-Paul Micek is known as the “Click-and-Mortar Business Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club™. He’s a published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin, and a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.®

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc.® and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Part 4– How To Leverage Your Marketing Dollars For Exponential Results

You know what I find simply frustrating? It’s watching perfectly viable businesses go down the tubes. Or worse, struggle for years because they don’t know how to effectively market their goods and services.

Maybe it’s just me, but I hate to see this happen. In my business coaching I’m driven by my passion to optimize every resource you have as a small business owner has. I love to see profits maximized. Equally important to that benefit, is that a better life can be created for every person who is served by, works for, and has ownership in that company.

And that’s exactly what this series on small business marketing success is designed to help you do — help you start boosting your net profits and create a better quality of life for you and your team. If you aren’t satisfied with your net profits, the number of new clients coming into your business or if you’d just like more of a systems-oriented business, this 10-part article series is for you.

Today in Part 4 we’ll look at how you can optimize and leverage every marketing dollar you will ever invest from here on out, as long as you own your business.

Principle 4. How to leverage your current assets for maximum efficiency and profits.

Leverage is a very broad topic that deserves at least a 6-week coaching program and can’t possibly be covered in great detail in this short series. But I will give you a solid introduction that will ignite your passion for to unleash the hidden profits you have lurking in your business.

In the simplest financial terms, leverage means to multiply the productivity of a resource, any resource.

Some examples of leverage applied in business

I recently worked with one of my clients in the financial services arena to train his sales team on how to encourage customers to increase their average purchase amount by 15%. With no additional cost or effort, he just leveraged his sales staff. He increased his team’s productivity and the company profits by 15%.

Let’s take another example. Another client with a chain of retail stores recently changed her copy in an ad and the new ad out-performed her previous ad by 9%. That’s 9% more profit in her pocket for exactly the same cost and effort. Multiply that over her four stores and you have some serious leverage going on!

Finding resources to leverage in your business

The number of resources you can leverage significantly may surprise you. You can leverage ads, headlines, prices, publicity, in-store sales, field sales, average purchase amounts, repeat sales, referrals, new customer leads, lead conversions, and on and on.

All that and we’re not even mentioning your employees, management team, or your business systems. That’s an entirely different arena of exponential leverage that we’ll take a look at in future article series.

If you apply the principle of leverage I assure you that it’ll have an exponential, compounding impact on your business and profits in areas you never thought possible.

If you increase the response to your ads, AND boost your average sales amount, AND increase the number of times each customer buys from you annually - the leveraged affect is exponential. The compounded impact from these results can quite easily double or triple your annual net profits!

Principle 5. Headlines

All ads, sales letters, brochures, flyers, news releases, and commercials need a headline. Period. This isn’t for reasons of style or preference. Test after test has proven that a promotional piece with a headline – any headline – will out-perform a promotional piece without a headline. And if you can craft a headline centered on the major benefit you bring to your customers, the difference in response can be astounding.

Just recently I made some changes in one of our headlines that pulled nearly twice as much as an ad with a weaker headline. The copy and graphics were exactly the same. The offer was exactly the same. And the sales letter reached precisely the same audience. The only change was a different headline. I don’t know about you, but I’ll take improvements like that any day, year round. And you can have them too, with great headlines! (In an upcoming installment of this series we’ll look at the critical nature of testing and how it relates directly to headlines.)

In the next installment of this series you’ll learn two more fundamentals for maximum profit marketing that you can immediately put to use for increased profits and a surging cash flow.

John-Paul Micek is known as the “Click-and-Mortar Business Coach” by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club™. He’s a published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honolulu Star Bulletin, and a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.®

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc.® and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

The #1 Critical Ingredient For Successful Marketing

Small business is BIG business all across the USA. In 2001 nearly 10-million people in the US were “self-employed” and over 50% of the entire non-farm workforce was employed by small businesses. That’s a lot of families directly affected by the performance and profitability of small business. Whether you realize it or not, more and more people’s livelihood is directly impacted by how effective small businesses are at serving clients and producing profits.

Even if you don’t own your company, start to think about how you can help your team or supervisor apply these principles. I can guarantee you’ll be recognized as a leader if you do. You can be the one to reap the rewards of recognition when you step up in an innovative company. In today’s challenging business environment, no matter what your position is, the more you can do to help your company succeed – the more secure and profitable your position will be!

In this second article in the special series on Maximum Profit Marketing we’re going to look at what is The Most Critical ingredient for maximizing all your marketing efforts.

Principle 3. The Lifetime Value Of A Client

Sadly, many businesses have no idea what the lifetime value of a client means. Or if they do, they don’t know how to calculate this crucial figure and how to put it to use to literally squash the competition. While there’s no way for me to effectively show you how to harness the full force of this extraordinary concept in a short article, I can explain lifetime value for you - simply and clearly.

Lifetime value is defined as the total dollar amount your average client purchases over the entire period that they’re likely to do business with you. You can use actual sales figures from past years to arrive at an exact figure, or you can estimate. There are some simple tricks to making your estimates more accurate, but for the sake of brevity, we’ll use actual historical numbers in this example.

How it works

Here’s one way lifetime value can be applied. Let’s say that you’ve determined that your clients stay with you an average of three years. And you have 3,000 steady clients. Your net profits over these past three years have been $780,000. The Lifetime Value = $780,000/3,000 or $260. So each new client you can get and keep is worth an average of $260 net profit to you over the average client life of three years.

Now, here’s why lifetime value is so important and how you can use it to outfox your competition.

An example of how to apply the principle of lifetime value

Ok, let’s say you run an ad that costs $1,000 and you get 35 sales at $25 per sale, total revenue $875 (35 sales X $25 each). On the surface that doesn’t even appear to even cover your costs. Most businesses would consider these results a failure. But once you understand how to apply the lifetime value principle, you will not. You’ll see that for every $28.57 per client ($1,000/35 clients) you invest, you get a $260 return. And that’s not even counting on improving your service / product to increase purchase frequency or the amount of time a client stays with you!

I don’t know about you, but I’ll take as many new customers like that as you can find me!

The reason I am so passionate about this principle is simple. It can literally transform your small business into a client-focused, profit-producing powerhouse!

Among the many practical applications as this principle has, this principle has a powerful intangible impact on your philosophy of doing business. It will free you to give more to your clients than they expect. Plus you will never feel that you are losing money when you offer promotions or FREE products or offers.

In 1992 when my business coach showed me this powerful principle, I was blown away. It literally revolutionized my approach to marketing… and to client service. I can guarantee you that once you realize clients are actually an ongoing revenue source rather than just part of “today’s sales”; you’ll reap a profit windfall while at the same time exceeding your clients’ expectations. And you’ll actually be able to leverage your earnings and profits multiple times without increasing your customer base. (Yes… you can do this even if you have a “transient” based clientele too; it’s a virtual world now you know.)

Now that’s maximum profit marketing at work!

In the next installment of this series you’ll learn two more fundamentals for maximum profit marketing that you can immediately put to use for increased profits and a surging cash flow.

John-Paul Micek is known as the “Click-and-Mortar Business Coach” by by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club. He’s a published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honoulu Star Bulletin, and a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Part 2 –Who’s the number one focus in your small business marketing?

If you missed the introduction to this 10-part series, you’ll want to read part one first to learn some critical requirements for making these laws work in your business.

If you’re following along in this series, let’s get right into the first two of the 12 Laws of Small Business Marketing Success.

Principle 1. All of your business, all of your marketing, all of your profits depends on your clients.

While this may seem obvious, if you consider the failure rate of businesses today, and the number of owners who are suffering with sub-par profits — the only thing that is obvious is that most small business owners don’t understand or apply this principle.

The true function of any successful business is to sell people precisely what they want to buy. To put it bluntly – the people in your target market don’t give a rip about you or your business. They shouldn’t be asked to. All they care about is how you can make their lives easier or better.

People in your target market want results. They want their needs met. Consumers don’t want to give you their hard earned money unless you can give them a legitimate reason why they would benefit by doing business with you over your competitor.

Once you fully accept this fact, stop thinking about your convenience, and start focusing ALL your energy on discovering and delivering what your clients really want – you’ll literally be able to watch on paper as your sales and profits increase month after month. We’ve seen some of our business coaching clients transform their businesses by focusing and expanding on this one law alone!

Principle 2. All your marketing efforts must be based on your USP

Your USP is your “Unique Selling Proposition”. It’s a simple statement of the specific advantages you bring to your clients that set you apart from your competitors. In keeping with the first law of Small Business Marketing Success, your USP must always be centered on your clients

Your USP must be concise, benefit focused, and easy to understand – for both you and your clients. A good USP will be between seven and 18 words. The bottom line is — your USP must answer the question “why should I do business with you instead of your competitor?”

A classic example of a nearly flawless USP is Dominos old USP. “Hot, fresh, delicious pizza delivered straight to your door in 30-minutes or less – or it’s free!”

When people would hear or read that USP they learned three things.

They knew exactly what they got.
They know how they got it.
And they knew what happened if Dominos didn’t deliver on their promise.

The only reason Dominos stopped using this USP is because of lawsuits against the corporation due to Dominos delivery drivers getting into accidents.

Another important benefit you’ll get with a well crafted USP is directly for you and your employee team. Your USP helps you clarify the precise nature of your business. It’s like a mission statement for your marketing. And once you follow the necessary steps for creating a high impact USP, you and your team will always have your focus on what your clients really want.

In the next installment of this 10-part series you’ll learn the #1 ingredient that’s crucial for making low-cost hi-impact marketing work for you.

John-Paul Micek is known as the “Click-and-Mortar Business Coach” by by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club. He’s a published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honoulu Star Bulletin, and a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Would you like to learn how to unlock surging streams of cash flow in your small business, fuel the growth of your client base, and start reclaiming a bankroll of lost profits? If you answered yes, then this article series is for you.

In this special 10-part series, you’ll be introduced to the 12 Laws of Small Business Marketing Success. I won’t ell you they’re “secrets.” But I do promise you they’ll forever revolutionize the way you think about the marketing of your small business.

Once you start applying strategies founded on these laws you’ll begin to see self-multiplying results in your business. And when you see your competitors dazed and confused, wallowing around in the mud like pigs in the middle of a monsoon trying to figure our what your “secret” is — you’ll be like most of our business coaching clients who feel like they have an arsenal of small business marketing secrets at their disposal.

As we walk you through these foundational marketing laws (along with a little digital business coaching,) you’ll see:

• What you’ve been doing right
• What you could be doing more of
• And what you must do differently to maximize the results you get from every single marketing effort you make.

The best thing about these 12 laws is that they all cost little or nothing to implement and execute.

Successful small business marketing is all about the people

At the base of all successful marketing strategies are personal relationships. The goal of any marketing is to build long-term relationships with your clients and ethically draw on these relationships to sell them as many beneficial products and services as possible.

In effect, what you are doing when you follow this principle is you’re building what we call in our business coaching programs — your “Marketing Railroad.” It’s a commuter line that runs 24-hours a day dropping off and picking up clients and prospects at various stops in your business.

Before we get rolling with the 12 laws, let me just stop here and state three key points very clearly. If you want successfully implement these twelve laws it’s critical you have following prerequisites:

1. You must know specifically what your client’s want/need and you must have a proven product or service that provides a solution to current challenges that exist for your clients.

2. Once you know exactly what your clients’ needs are you must focus exclusively on those needs (not your own).

3. You must service your clients way beyond what any of your competitors are currently providing.

If you’re willing to build on these three fundamental prerequisites, I guarantee you’ll uncover more hidden profits in your small business than you’ve ever dreamed possible.

In part to of this series, your digital business coaching will continue with the first two of the twelve laws.

John-Paul Micek is known as the “Click-and-Mortar Business Coach” by by business owners around the world thanks to members of the Business Owners Coaching Club. He’s a published author and weekly columnist for the business section of the Honoulu Star Bulletin, and a managing partner with the international small business coaching company RPM Success Group Inc.

The © Copyright to all audio, video, images, and text are held by RPM Success Group Inc. and licensed under a Creative Commons License.

I recently attended a teleconference where my jaw was dropped practically the entire time. Not because the content was fabulous - but because it was my content the leader was sharing - without giving any credit to where she learned the information.

In an age where information is a commodity, many business owners haven’t educated themselves on what they can and can not use themselves to re-sell for their own profit.

Today, during a coaching call with a business owner who was putting together a unique presentation, this topic came up regarding ways for her to protect her information from being re-used, or distributed without her company name, or author’s tag on it.

I gave her several tips on what she could do immediately to begin protecting her work, and then I encouraged her as I would any business owner to learn everything they can about protecting their intellectual property. And do it before someone tries to hock your material as their own.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office is also offering a conference on how you can protect your intellectual property from being swiped by other unethical or unscrupulous business owners.

Why would you want to go to this type of conference personally? Well - once you do all the work and put forth the research, time, money and energy into innovating the information, products, seminars or workshops you put together and sell, you’ll most certainly want it protected from those who simply copy others.

CONFERENCE ON
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY IN THE
GLOBAL MARKETPLACE*

July 18-19, 2005
8:00am to 6:00pm

Hyatt Regency Phoenix
122 North Second Street
Phoenix, Arizona

Let me share one secret that can help you in a court of law if you ever needed several ways to prove that you developed and used the information first.

Mail yourself a printed copy of the workshop handouts, book, or printed web pages that you have on content you create. Whether it’s a web site, company name, USP, unique strategy or design, mail it to yourself before you let the general public see the information.

Once you receive it - do NOT open the envelope. Keep it in a sealed envelope, so that the judge could open it if you needed additional proof that you had it in use first.

I would also include your handwritten notes, mindmaps, or anything else you used to develop your innovative idea or material.

While this isn’t necessarily a legal strategy - it has helped other writers in the past to prove their creative contributions to the book/product. Afterall, if you have gone through these great, innovative lengths to protect this information, and your unscrupulous copycat competitor did not - who do you think the judge will side with?

Now - if you really want to learn more about protecting yourself, I’d highly recommend you attend the FREE conference on intellectual property so you will know the law about using other people’s material, and protecting your own.

Why attend the conference on intellectual property in Arizona?

Here’s two reasons directly from the USPTO web page promoting the FREE conference:

Do you know what’s in your intellectual property portfolio?

“Day 1” presentations help participants to identify
(a) the types of intellectual property that may be in their portfolios and
(b) the steps they need to take to protect their assets in the United States and abroad.

The presentations will cover the four major types of IP that businesses typically encounter: patents, trademarks (and domain names), copyrights, and trade secrets.

Do you know what steps to take to enforce the rights in your portfolio?

“Day 2” presentations focus on enforcement issues that may arise in protecting intellectual property rights here and abroad.

The presentations will help participants to understand the various types of intellectual property violations: patent, trademark, and copyright infringement; unfair competition; and counterfeiting and piracy.

“During the two-day seminar, patent, trademark and copyright experts and lawyers from the USPTO will provide small- and medium-sized businesses, entrepreneurs, and independent inventors interested in manufacturing or selling their products abroad with specific details and useful tips about protecting and enforcing their intellectual property rights in the United States and around the world.”

Q: I’m trying to motivate my team to think innovatively, and one member drives me crazy with her quick phrases that kill any brainstorming we might have been doing. My biggest pet peeves are when she says things like:

“We can’t do that here.”

or

“We’ve already tried that before and it didn’t work.”

Am I correct to demand that these types of statements not be allowed in a brainstorming session?

Sincerely,
Pessimistic-resistant Pet Peeved off

A: Ahhhh… I empathize with your pet peeve. When I was the Director for a Social Service agency, I heard these and other similar phrases alllll the time! It drove me crazy too.

In fact, I DID make a rule that certain “killer phrases” weren’t allowed EVER when introducing important changes within the company.

Ultimately, proving that it CAN be done, and that innovation WILL happen, will be your best strategy to curbing these statements. After all, no one wants to look stupid, and when you’re proved “wrong” it’s more than embarrassing.

I recently came across a blog by that highlighted the 50 Phrases that Kill Creativity that’s worth reviewing.

Here are my “favorites” that make me laugh and cringe at the same time when I hear them:

That’s not my job. URRRRRRGH! Drives me nutz!

It’s against company policy. Another one that I cringe everytime I hear it.

I’m not saying you’re wrong BUT…

Actually - “BUT” anything is a strict “no-no” in my Coaching relationships.

Good thought, but impractical.

And my last three personal favorites:

It’s impossible.

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

It can’t be done. (Then I go out and show how it CAN be done.)

Check out the other 50 Phrases that David A. Dufour created on his blog - at least to get a chuckle that “you’re not alone” with your pet peeves and thoughts about negative phrases, and at best to post it to the door of your office - almost like the 95 Theses.