BIG MISTAKE (8 of 10) according to Peter Thomson

Not enjoying the TWO HIDDEN BENEFITS of using a referral system

• Referral systems temperature check your relationship with your customers because if they are not referring you to someone after you ask this of them, then something is not as good as it should be in your relationship with them
• Referral systems are themselves a retention strategy because if a customer refers you to someone else, they will remain a customer to stay congruent with them referral

BIG MISTAKE (7 of 10) according to Peter Thomson

Letting your customers continue slipping out the back door

Three strategies to eeep them close and buying;

1. Unconditional contact – i.e. without selling them anything, e.g. “saw this, thought of you”
2. Have a well-thought-out script for contacting them and use it
3. Send them blind bonuses (i.e. unexpected) – something with low inherent cost to you, but with high perceived value to them

Systematise your customer retention process and PERSONALISE THE EXCEPTIONS, e.g. how www.TGIMondays.com works

BIG MISTAKE (6 of 10) according to Peter Thomson

Struggling to increase sales and profits by NOT using the THREE GOLDEN QUESTIONS of exponential business growth

1. How do we increase the number of clients?
2. How do we increase the average order value?
3. How do we increase the average order frequency?
   
   

• Turnover is vanity, profit is sanity but cash is reality
• You must systematise your referral system
• Try aiming for 10% increase in sales, 10% increase in Price and 10% Decrease in costs and you might BE AMAZED at the results. Have a look at the pic in this post, to confirm the results for yourself.

BIG MISTAKE (5 of 10) according to Peter Thomson

Thinking we can manage time when all we can really do is manage ourselves

• We can only manage what we do with the time we have been given
• The BIG ONE is email distraction. ONLY turn it on at otherwise inactive windows during the day, then turn it back OFF
• Your “do lists” – it takes strength of character to answer focused questions to enable you to prioritise your ‘do list’ and re-prioritise as necessary
• Your goals need to be auditable goals. Find them by filling the blank to, “If only I’d ___” – write down what your mind tells you. Try this one: “Yes, I achieved my goal because I _____” – and stretch your mind while doing this, e.g. a a zero or two to your financial goal
• Adding in just one more hour per days gives you and EXTRA 2 ½ MONTHS per year!!!
• Ask yourself, “Is what I am doing right now making money?”
• Follow the 4 D’s: do it, delegate it, dump it or diarize it

BIG MISTAKE (4 of 10) according to Peter Thomson

Marketing without the awesome power of the three-letter word

• You must tell them WHY you are doing what your doing
• You must tell them WHY for everything; including WHY you are offering discounts, formats, special offers, etc

BIG MISTAKE (3 of 10) according to Peter Thomson

Leaving cash on the table that is identifiable using the Magic Matrix (TM)

• Do you know what you sell? If you don’t know, your customers don’t know either.


• Do you know who your clients are? If you don’t know, your clients don’t know either.


• The empty holes in the Magic Matrix are your primary windows of Opportunity where you are leaving cash on the table (see the pic in this post!)


• Do you use survey monkey or Fusion Soft (CRM tools)? You should, to keep on top of who is buying what, who is interested in what, etc.


• Books / booklets are the best business card you can have, to establish yourself as an expert and display what you sell (and to whom) brad note – check out my very first post in this blog to get yourself a copy of Jonathan Jay’s free book!


• You need to be clear how replaceable you and your company are and how difficult it is for others to learn what you do


• Your customers should know, like and trust you


• If customers haven’t bought any of your other related products / services from you, it’s because they didn’t KNOW you sell them


• You need to make sure they KNOW, via websites, emails, newsletters, service calls, face to face meetings etc…


• In the telling, you are doing some selling


• A great line to use is: “I’m ever so sorry, but I’ve been so busy I haven’t told you about the others things we sell”….
  
• You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink – UNLESS YOU ADD SOME SALT TO THE OATS FIRST

BIG MISTAKE (2 of 10) according to Peter Thomson

Avoiding the richlist mindest – you have to live just south of a town called Arrogant

• get in the right state – not A right state!
  
• Confidence is simply the application of confidence
  
• Position yourself as the obvious expert, the go-to person
  
• Radio interviewing will provide you a low/no cost way to display your expert status

BIG MISTAKE (1 of 10) according to Peter Thomson

Forgetting to include the “key ingredient” in your price (*)

• We overlay our perception of value on others’ prices
  
• Credibility of the source is important
  
• Credibility of the buyers is important
  
• People believe free advice and expensive advice
  
• People don’t believe advice that’s at an average price
  
• People will never consistently be who they are not, do what they do not coherently do, believe or value
• You want consistent action taken with congruence with your beliefs
  
• You want to be on the edge of expensive because belief creates action which create delight with results
  
• You should get paid in life for what you’ve done – not what you do - e.g. plumber’s detailed invoice: £10 for the kick and £90 for knowing where to kick
  
• It’s not about what your business makes for you but what it makes OF you
  
• The brand of the supplier is in the eyes of the customer
  
• The question to ask yourself is are you charging enough for your personal experience in the deal
  
• In answer to the price objection that others are cheaper: “we don’t mind our competitors charging less – they obviously know what their service is worth”

(*) the "key" is your experience!

A few of my notes from Peter Thomson's session

Peter Thomson had a lot to say and I took alot of notes, which you will see in subsequent posts. In the mean time check out http://www.tgimondays.com

OK - first notes...

• Deepak Chopra said “spend money to create a vacuum for more money”, so my wife tells me she’s vacuuming (when she's at the shops)!
  
• "I don’t sell – I allow people to buy (if I like them) "
  
• "I only deal with people I like"
  
• Fedex Michael Bash says you want people who “stay, say and pay”
  
• Key advice: DDWT (don’t deal with tossers)
  
• All communication is about convincing someone to do / not do something today or tomorrow
  
• You’ve probably wee’d all over your website – no one is interested in “we”, they want to know about “me”

Marketing tips from Jonathan Jay

Jonathan Jay presented these great tips during his SuccessTrack weekend

1. In promotional literature, you need social proof from other people who were like your target customers
   
2. Collect testimonials, case studies, and endorsements – and keep them safe!
   
3. Use before and after stories – e.g. weight watcher pictures to convey ability to secure desired outcome ("I looked like this, now I look like this, thanks to Weight Watchers")
   
4. Your copy needs to be benefit driven, focussing on WIIFM
   
5. Provide an absolute guarantee – e.g. pay afterwards, try before you buy, profit before purchase
   
6. Make it easy for people to buy – e.g. try before you buy
   
7. Provide multiple ordering options – phone, email, website, post – consider niche-specific purchasing vehicles
   
8. Demonstrate the value of the outcome of their purchase – especially in pounds and pence
   
9. You can best address the concerns of your potential customers by deeply understanding your niche market
   
10. Raise your credibility – your letter / website / message needs to be from the highest authority e.g. CEO or a borrowed third party known and respected by your target market
    
11. People concentrate first on the headlines – and the captions under photos – so you have to capture the reader’s eye to get them to want to read the rest, like writing a thriller, paragraph by paragraph
    
12. Give them a powerful call to action – tell people exactly what to do – never just leave it for them to figure out
    
13. Create scarcity related to what you are selling – you must have scarcity so people don’t want to miss out. This can be time-bound, quality-bound….
    
14. Create confidence in your product – this can come from image, brand, the way a phone is answered – all the little things add up
    
15. Imply confidence that the customer can do it, can benefit from their purchase – show them how easy it is for them to do so
    
16. Ensure you have the AIDA elements in your copy – attention, interest, desire, action
    
17. Show how your customers can be achieving expert status fast (if appropriate to the market you are targeting)
    
18. Provide explicit price justification – e.g. why so little, why so much, "because it’s….."
    
19. Make sure your offer is easy to understand and easy to use (the instruction manual). Paint a picture – show how easily using the service or product will create a better life
    
20. Go through your copy and highlight the “I” and “we” words and change most of them to “you”
    
21. Use photos to show what your offer does in action

Jonathan Jay's SuccessTracks FORMULA

OK - I missed this off my last post because I am new to Blogger and couldn't figure out how to insert the pic at the right spot. So here, in its very own post, is his formula. I wonder if he is planning to provide workshops or seminars on each aspect of his formula...... maybe we should ask him!

My Notes from Jonathan Jay's first session

Here they are - please help me clean them up / add to them, if you can

• Enthusiasm can be more important than skill
• Be the Harrods not the WallMarts in pricing
• The price you set is the value you place on yourself asnd that is the single most important factor in your business
• Ask yourself what additional products or services you can offer your existing customers
• How can you leverage your time in such a way that people pay you more money for the same or less amount of your time?
• Just because we’re broke doesn’t mean everyone else is
• If you’re passionate, you may forget it’s a business – passion needs to be underpinned by good business sense
• When you are “new to the circuit”, some customers will want to snap you up (and others won’t) – so concentrate on the ones who will by magnifying the value of your ‘newness”
• Position your fees with the top players in your niche area
• Exchanging personal time for money is a bad business model, so you need to change it if you are going to move forward
• One of the most critical factors is the revenue model and 80 percent of the revenue is linked to marketing
• 80 percent of your time should be linked to your marketing model
• Focus your time on your marketing strategy – you can learn everything you need to know about marketing in twenty hours max
• If you’re not making money, make contacts – network!
• Whatever is being written and televised about the most is a clue about what your strategy should include
• Your biggest payday will be when you have created an entity that you can sell
• To break the business model of time for money, marketing is key
• If you have a market place that wants something, you can be average and still have outstanding results
• Get the audience right and then get the message to that audience right
• You should have an affinity to the very specific niche market you are targeting
• Copywriting is what people are most embarrassed about
• You need to learn how to write in such a way that people will buy from you
• Think about the return on investment – not the cost

Great Marketing Book - FOR FREE

I'm really not sure why I am doing this! Why would I bother taking the time to promote somone else who I have not as yet really interacted with very much? I guess there are a few reasons;

1. The book's as inspiring as it is informative - and it's broken down into seriously simple steps



2. I am still feeling the rush from being at the SuccessTrack seminar I was on at the weekend - where I saw Jonathan Jay really walking his talk (and book text)



3. I've a notion he may get wind of this and decide to have a chat with me

I haven't completed typing up my notes yet, but I thought this link to his FREE BOOK was worth putting up! http://www.freemarketingbook.org/

Brad

Jonathan Jay's launch of SuccessTrack

You may have watched Jonathan Jay's previous organisation grow over the last 8 years and thought "interesting - but his organisation lacks a certain professionalism, so it's not worth my time or financial investment"

That was my take, anyway. All I did was watch his emails and direct mails arrive in my office for eight years. A sort of passive "lurker" - that was me.

Then when I saw him starting up his latest venture - SuccessTrack - and I decided to take action. So it seems that he had established a "brand" with me over those eight years - one of persistence, which I respected (even if I thought the organisation he started lacked a certain finesse).

Why did I take action now? Because his persistence paid off with a very healthy sale of that organisation and now I brand him as someone with not only persistence but progressive profitability as well. And the opportunity to learn ways to grow your business immediately is of course a very attractive prospect to me as much as it probably is to you.

So as I said - I took action. I signed up for his launch weekend seminar for business owners and boy did I enjoy every minute of it! He and his team delivered a very full-on agenda of information, insights and inspiration.

You can check out http://www.jonathanjay.com/ to learn more about this guy and what he's up to.

Over the following days, I will be posting some of the notes I've taken from the weekend, along with my reflections on those notes. But for now, it's time to finish typing up my notes.