Archives for January 2013

Jim Palmer Interview

January 23, 2013 by

Stories of the ‘Newsletter That Travelled Halfway Round The World,’ Where the term ‘Newsletter Pansy’ came from and Jim’s formula of how to extract every possible cent of revenue from your existing clients.

Zac and I decided it was time to interview one of our sources for newsletter success, Jim Palmer.

Jim is an expert on customer retention strategies and has been doing newsletters in various guises since half a decade before I was born (Zac being a bit older had made it all the way to crawling and eating mashed avocado by that stage).

During the call Jim reveals how:

  • a 1% change in customer retention can result in a 7% increase in profits
  • In his first job as manager, how Jim was able to shrink the customer base, reduce gross revenue, while at the same time keeping net profit the same. (Getting the same profit from less customers means more money for less work)
  • How a client of Jim’s made $400,000 from a newsletter that made it into the hands of a complete stranger half way around the world
  • How you can use a newsletter to
    • Increase referral rates
    • Sell more of your other products and services to your existing customers
    • Become the expert in your industry
    • Build ‘brand name awareness’
    • Sell to customers with their ‘sales defences’ down (something your competitors will never be able to do)
    • Solicit new customers
    • Insider Information that no internet marketing expert would willing tell anyone about email and online marketing for building a client relationships…

So take the time to really listen to the guidance of the newsletter guru.

 

 

 

 

Could You Do The Same?

Find out if you can achieve similar results to Jim Palmer or his clients in your business with a 60 minute no obligation newsletter suitability audit – Get Started Today

Filed Under: Case Study

How NOT to get that promotion

January 9, 2013 by

Did you get turned down for a promotion? For more than one? Ambition alone won’t help you get ahead. If you’re not advancing as fast as you want, despite your skills, the reason may be that you’re making these mistakes that tend to disqualify otherwise talented employees from advancement:

  •  Your appearance counts against you. Like it or not, your wardrobe says a lot about your attitude and professionalism. Even in a casual workplace, a neat and clean appearance will impress the decision makers.
  •  You’re seen as anti-social. Quietly doing your job won’t get you noticed. Make a point of talking to people, helping out, and attending company functions so you don’t get taken for granted.
  •  You don’t grasp the big picture. Managers promote employees who can contribute to the organization’s goals. If you don’t know how your job—and the position you want—actively supports the company’s strategy, you’ll have trouble persuad­ing the higher-ups to trust you with more responsibility.
  •  You don’t manage time effectively. If you miss deadlines regularly, or you’re always late, you’ll earn a reputation for being disorganized that will hold you back. Learn to master the to-do list and other time management tools so no one can complain that you’re not on top of your duties.
Filed Under: ezine

Fighting the Work-at-Home Bulge

January 9, 2013 by

The great majority of people who decide to work at home choose to do so for a feeling of freedom, to save cash and to achieve a better quality of life. The moment we stop going to the office, we immediately start saving money and feeling freer, but achieving quality of life can be a trickier business. The reality is that people working from home often get less exercise than those who have to go out to work; plus, it can be very tempting to eat more when at home. Full meals and regular snacks can soon add up, and although it is important to keep up your metabolic rate, it is vital not to be so active that it ends up dragging you down.

 It is a good idea to make sure you take a couple of breaks at some point in the day. Exercise doesn’t have to involve going to the gym or running a marathon; just use a 15- or 20-minute break to walk around the block, play tag with the kids, get on the treadmill, do some stretching or even try a little yoga.

Filed Under: ezine

Preparing For The Inevitable – The Day where you sell your business

January 9, 2013 by

At some point you are probably going to sell your business. There is no shame in it, we are too. Whether we acknowledge it openly or not the smartest people in the room see owning their own business as a vehicle to create wealth, so that we can have the lifestyle we want both now and when we are finished working.

The vast majority of business owners however see their business (wrongly I might add) as a way of owning their own job- simply content to get by. They invariably coast by their entire business life and then when they feel like retiring sell their business and leave lots of money on the table.

Most business owners sell up for some variation of their gross profits, what is on their balance sheet and some good will. Far less than what their business is actually worth to the buyer.

Most of us have an ‘Enough is Enough Number.’ We know once we have so many dollars that we are set for life and can stop working. Some of us plan on keeping on working past that but the vast majority of us are in business to fast track the accumulation of enough wealth so that we can do something like sit on the beach and drink margaritas.

And being paid multiples of earnings for your business makes that dream of reaching our ‘Enough is Enough Number’ and sitting on the beach that much easier.

When you are looking to sell, the sustainability of your business is important to any business buyer. That is how predictable is the business’s revenue month-on-month or year-on-year?

A strong relationship with your customers increases the predictability of your revenue it also increases the amount of revenue and also profits. Having defined relationship building systems means that there is less risk in the variability of future revenue.

These systems mean that your business can be sold for multiples of its annual income or book value simply because you can prove the predictability of the revenue – the buyer is no longer buying a business. They are buying systems that produce an annual income – effectively an unfranchised franchise.

All of this needs to be thought about long before you ever think about taking your ‘chips off the table.’ The late Steven Covey first habit of highly effective people was ‘begin with the end in mind.’ So the sooner you structure your business in way that you can make desirable to a buyer the longer the track record you have to prove that your systems work and also it means that you have far less headaches to deal with in the mean time.

In fact if you have retention and relationship building systems in place you’ll have much higher profits that you can use for all sorts of other things like getting even more customers. So that you can sell your business for even more when the time comes.

Filed Under: Blog

Teach Yourself by Teaching Others

January 9, 2013 by

Educators all over the world have known for a very long time that one of the best methods of learning something is to teach it to another person. This is the reason teachers made you do presentations to the rest of the class when you were in school; they were hoping that by teaching something to your peers, you would get more out of the assignment.

 The same principle can still be applied today when you take your newly learned knowledge and skills and share them with someone else. You can start by translating the information into your own words; this process alone can actually help your brain solidify the information. The next step is to find a way of sharing with others what you have just learned. There are numerous methods of doing this; you could write a post to your blog, participate in a group discussion or create a podcast.

Filed Under: ezine

Practicing for a Presentation

January 9, 2013 by

Whether you are a seasoned public speaker or you have never been in front of an audience before, practicing for a presentation is essential, so it is important to make sure that you set aside some additional time for it. Each time you practice, you should go through the material in full, including such things as how you are intending to move and stand, and how any visuals will be incorporated into your presentation. During your rehearsal, use the equipment you intend to make use of in your presentation, to prevent technical gaffes. Say your lines aloud to prevent them from sounding as if they have been memorized. Concentrate on your message and your wish to communicate it well rather than on your notes. If you will be speaking to a big group of people or at a high-profile event, you might even want to record your rehearsal on video to allow you to evaluate it more closely and tweak any problem areas.

Filed Under: ezine

What’s The Story Morning Glory? 3 Steps to telling the story behind your business

January 9, 2013 by

With your newsletter you can create the kind of “sitting under the veranda in the extreme heat of summer, cold drinks in hands and a captive audience” type of vibe.

What do you do in that situation in real life? Don’t know ‘bout you but I’d tell stories.

Now using stories in sales and marketing takes some skill but it is a skill well worth investing in to learn. It puts your business in context. Think about the story behind Rich Dad Poor Dad – Kiyosaki is dispensing some very rudimentary financial advice. You can find better advice in umpteen books with better advice before and after Robert.

But only Kiyosaki has sold the publishing rights for his financial advice for $100 million and change.

Why?

The story behind it.

Without that story of having two dads Kiyosaki is just one of dozens if not hundreds of financial advice authors who are out to make money by telling you how to manage your money. See how you need to come up with the story. That story means you are just another sales person pitching product. Here is my guide to creating that story:

Step 1: A Reason You Are In Business That Isn’t to Make Money.

You need to tell your audience why you are in business and it had better have nothing to do with making money. Although the reality is that you are in business to make money your customers are uncomfortable with you if that is the only reason. Don’t shoot the messenger here.

Take Dexter Morgan of TV and book series (Dexter) fame. His origin story means that instead of being the bad guy as he could be in so many crime novels he is in fact a brooding, charming, charismatic anti-hero loved by many all because of his origin story (and not just a sociopath with a really disgusting hobby). That story frames why you are in business in way that makes you emotionally appealing to your customers –  not just a salesman.

Step 2: Keep referencing it.

You need to keep telling your story behind your product because it is more interesting than the ‘feeds and speeds.’ It is a form of differentiation from your competitors. The second reason is because quite simply the more times you tell it the more chances you give your audience to bond with you over your competitors.

Step 3: Be able to tell it multiple ways

Since everybody eventually gets sick of being told the same damn thing over and over again you’ll need to be able to tell your story in different ways in different lengths in order to bring forward different benefits and reasons they should do business with you.

There you go my complete guide to telling to the story behind you and your business. Have fun developing yours.

Filed Under: Blog