Are you promoting your business via social media? Are you afraid of Facebook?
Time to read through this article.
Inverting The Sales Process
By becoming a RecEx, and producing Expert Proof Materials (EPM), our main aim is helping our clients to invert the typical sales process – or at least pave the sales path to make it smooth going.
What is the stereotypical sales process? The first and most basic version is the lone salesman, out trudging the road and knocking on doors. If Ms. Prospect has just a few minutes, we can introduce her to a product or service that will – ah, another door closed in our face. We trudge to the next door and try again.
Put Together Your Expert Proof Product
Every Recognized Expert should have an Expert Proof Product (EPP), or better yet – several that make up their Expert Proof Materials (EPM). An EPP could be a book, or a DVD or an audio CD, almost anything that demonstrates that the person is an expert in a particular subject, has definite ideas and opinions, and can reasonably be considered an expert on their subject.
In creating a non-fiction book (a novel could be considered EPP if the person is establishing their credibility as a fiction writer, or perhaps as a creative writing teacher), you don’t have to start from scratch. Putting together a series of articles or blog posts into a narrative that explains or explores the Expert’s niche is perfectly acceptable. Adding in some charts, perhaps even a transcript of an interview or two is also a possibility.
2 Year Degrees Can Make You More Money
CNN released the results of a study showing that people with a 2 year technical degree in some cases were out-earning those with 4 year degrees.
But then, if you’re willing to work with your hands, or at least do something others are unwilling to do, you can make a lot more money than they will.
Check out the article at this link.
Online Learning Center Coming
I’m working on adding an online learning center to the Agile’ web site. The first course is already in the planning stages. It will be a mix of video, digital and print instruction. Further classes are also in the works.
While the staff at Agile’ works directly with a select number of clients, we’ve received a number of inquiries about becoming a Recognized Expert:
- What is a RecEx?
- What are the benefits?
- How do I become one?
- How can this invert a typical sales process?
We work with our clients to develop what we call Expert Proof – something to show your prospects that helps establish our clients’ credentials. Many times the proof is a book, or a CD or DVD with a lecture or training on it. We’ve decided to produce an online class as part of our own Proof.
The initial number of participants is limited, and some of the seats have already been spoken for (which is flattering, as the course materials aren’t yet completed). If you’d like to sign up for this first class, please visit our Contact page and send us a message.
We look forward to working with you!
Raise Your Prices Right Now
Let me be blunt: you need to start raising your prices. However, this pricing must be in context. Pricing, like everything else, is connected to. . . well, everything else.
If you are selling old watches at a flea market, setting your price at $1,000 per watch is probably not a good idea. Even if the watches are worth that much, it’s unlikely you’ll find very many educated aficionados wandering through a flea market expecting to spend several thousand dollars on old watches. You need to be able to provide a quality product or service to a target market that can appreciate and afford your prices.
But charging more money just to put it in your pocket can be self-defeating. You must use some of the higher payment to invest in your business, so that new and existing clients will still be willing to pay higher prices. Higher pricing can help your product or service become aspirational; people will save up to be able to afford you.
By charging a higher price, you also cut down on the people who can afford you. This is true. And if you’re looking to provide service to a less financially capable group, raising your prices may seem like a cruel thing to do.
But, look at it this way: the ones who can afford your prices will afford you the time to help the most needy at low or no cost. Essentially, they’re subsidizing your good deeds. I have a health professional who, at the beginning of her career, was conflicted between helping the poor in need and making enough to survive herself. Now she charges high fees for her services, and is financially sound enough herself to be able to afford to help those in need for little or no cash.
You should have a budget written out, along with sales goals you need to meet in order to address that budget. Let’s say you need make a profit of $1,000 per week to break even with your planned expenses. If you have a service that nets you $100 per sale, you need to sell 10 of those to meet your $1,000 goal.
But say you create a service that, when purchased, nets you $1,000. How many of those do you have to sell per week to meet your needs? Just one. Now if you’re attempting to sell the higher-priced service to the same people who can only afford the lower-priced one, you will meet a lot of price resistance. But, if you find a group of people who appreciate the higher-end service and can afford the price, and market it to them, you may wind up with the same sale-to-offer ratio you had before. Perhaps a better ratio.
Stop right now and look at whatever you’re selling. Imagine that your costs suddenly doubled. What would that product or service have to be like in order to get your clients to buy the newer, higher-cost version? What would you add to make it worth it then?
Now, what could you add right this minute to get them to pay the new, higher price? A nicer wrap job? More personal attention? A better guarantee? A nicer sales location? What would it take to attract and keep clients who can afford and appreciate the newer, higher-priced version of what you’re selling?
Now – right now – raise your price and start providing that better experience to that target market!
Mine For Your Gold
How do most people find gold? Well, they look at the ground and pick up shiny rocks. They see another one a few feet away and they run to that one. Then there’s one over there, by that boulder. Yeah, you get it: I’m literally bringing the “low hanging fruit” analogy down to earth.
So most folks make a little gold by picking it up off the ground. But if you’re smart, you do a little research, identify the most geologically likely place for gold, and then you put in the effort and dig for it. (For fruit, you plant your own orchard and then get a ladder so you can reach every branch.)
Mining for gold allows you to dig deep in your own private. . . well, gold mine. You avoid all the other people scratching around in the dirt looking to get rich. When you find and follow the vein of gold, though, it’s all yours. You may pay more for specialized machinery, and hire geologists and other folks to swing picks and run sorting machines, but if you find the right vein, the profits will be exponentially higher than the costs.
So, what am I saying in terms of ramping up profits in your business? First, you need to identify the right group of customers for your service. You could also find a group and create a service or product to serve that group. If you’re smart, you’ll do both. That group becomes your “likely spot to dig for gold.”
Then, you need to reach out to this group and begin to provide them with goods and services, at prices that maximize your profit. Understand me clearly: I do not advocate charging exorbitant prices for poor or mediocre products or services. You charge high prices so that you can provide the best possible solutions for their problems.
Let’s go back to my fictional rug cleaner. Theoretically, any one who has rugs is a prospect for their services. Joe, owner of Joe’s Rug Cleaning, looks around and sees that the other cleaners in his city charge an average of $50 per room. Conventional “wisdom” says that in order to get clients, he has to charge less than that. That means that even if Joe has more experience and a better overall service, he’s still going to make less than the worst hack who charges $50/room.
But Joe realizes that there are dozens of small businesses out there, just trying to get in the door of anyone with a carpet at the lowest possible price. Joe makes like a geologist looking for likely spots and does his research. He contacts all the local suppliers of high-end carpeting, asking where their product is installed. Joe learns that the Bounty Bay neighborhood is filled with wealthier folks who bought nicer, more expensive carpets. They appreciate quality, and expect to keep their homes – and their carpets – in top shape.
Joe’s an unknown. Rather than plug his high-priced carpet cleaning straight away, he writes a pamphlet covering the care and cleaning of expensive carpets and rugs. He makes himself the local Recognized Expert on caring for top quality threaded flooring by getting endorsements from local carpet and rug dealers, as well as builders of high-end custom homes. Now he sends out his pamphlets to everyone in Bounty Bay.
Joe’s phone starts ringing! He’s lining up jobs in Bounty Bay, making sure he asks his satisfied customers if he can use their names when contacting their friends and neighbors. He’s found a seam of gold, and is beginning to actually mine it. In addition to his top end service, he offers a one month guarantee. If, for any reason at all, the carpet becomes stained in the next 30 days, he’ll come clean it again for free.
Joe talks with a couple prospects, and finds that they have invested in hardwood flooring. Rather than lose them as clients, Joe educates himself on the care and maintenance of hardwood floors, and offers to clean them as well. He’s found an additional service he can offer his selected group that ties in with what he already does.
Joe can suggest an annual cleaning, but what can he do in the mean time? How about selling eco-friendly floor cleaning products to his clients? How about selling those floor cleaning products to people who haven’t hired him to clean their carpets? How about adding a line of environmentally friendly general household cleaning products to his catalog?
Before selling his cleaning products, Joe is now averaging $200 per room – that’s four times what his “competitors” charge! And his clients are happy to have him, because Joe is the Recognized Expert at cleaning high-end flooring. Now, rather than going door to door and selling his services, Joe has people calling him asking to pay for his services.
All of this can happen for you if you identify your target market and become, in their eyes, the Recognized Expert in your niche. You need to find your likely spot, and then mine it.
Raise Your Prices!
A $1,200 hair cut? People are lining up for them.
The FUFT Principle – You Read It Here First
You’re sitting around doing nothing, or maybe at the office having a conversation, when suddenly the best idea in the world strikes! It doesn’t just happen to you, it happens to almost everyone, everywhere. But why isn’t the world awash in free energy, anti-grav packs and time machines?
Lack of FUFT.
I really don’t like sports metaphors, but they really fit in this particular instance. Let’s say you get invited to play golf. You put your ball on the tee, pull the driver back over your shoulder, and. . . stand there. Just stand there, with the club head pointed up in the air. How far does the ball go? It doesn’t. You haven’t even attempted to swing at it. Maybe you’re afraid you’ll flub the shot in front of your partners. Whatever. The point is, the ball can’t go anywhere because you haven’t put the effort into attempting to drive the ball.
Second scenario. You pull the club back, and with a mighty swing you bring the club head down and. . . stop it as it hits the ball. The ball pops off the tee and travels maybe 30 yards. If you play the game taking swings like that – just hitting the ball, it’s going to take you all day to make it through nine holes, if the course is completely empty. People who start out behind you will go around, or maybe drive across town to another course.
Third scenario. You tee up on the first hole, swing the club through the ball and back up in the air on the other side. It’s a monster drive! The ball travels 270 yards, magically winding up on the green about 10 feet from the hole. You place the driver back in your bag, pick it up and head back to your car, telling your friends you have to go pet your dog.
In each of the above examples, no FUFT.
Follow Up, Follow Through. These four words are why good – maybe even mediocre – ideas come to pass. Sure, a few great ones as well. But it’s the people who apply the FUFT Principle – Follow Up and Follow Through – who get things accomplished.
Not everything is worth completing. But that’s why you need to Follow Up. Check to see if anyone else is working on the idea you just had. Is there a need for your great new product or service? Is someone already selling it? Do customers like their version? What can you do to make your version better?
And this is NOT strictly a business principle. You’re sitting at a social event when you see someone and think, “I’d like to go on a date with that person.” FUFT! Go meet them, chat, get a number. You’ve followed up, now follow through by calling them and actually meeting for a burger or movie. FUFT is a principle that will serve you throughout your life.
But you can’t just “learn” it or “know” it – you need to apply it. You’ll be amazed at what can actually happen the next time you have a light bulb go off over your head, and you apply the FUFT Principle.