Billionaire Habits

A resource that's chocked full of everyday financial, health, and life wisdom is Early to Rise.

How often do you use the excuse... If only I had more time to... work ON my business, work On my Marketing, work ON training my staff, work ON implementing systems in my business?

You know, we're all blessed with the same amout of time. The key is how we use it.

Learn how billionaires use their time here

He Wrote the Book...

Literally.

... on "Scientific Advertising".

A guy named Claude Hopkins... nearly 100 years ago.

This book has completely revolutionized the advertising and copywriting industries. And this ageless classic is still as relevant today as it was years ago.

Relevant even for all you mortgage brokers, insurance agents,financial planners, and CPAs looking to boost their marketing efforts.

You can now read it for free. It's my gift to you ...

Don't think this marketing advertising stuff applies to your practice-building?

Stay tuned... come back here often

Discover the Secret to Traffic...The Web 2.0 Way

Grab the 2007 Authority Black Book

The Essential List of Web 2.0 Resources to Generate aSteady Stream of Qualified Traffic

What's Your Difference?

So, what difference do you offer your clients?

You know, when your prospects look around for your services, and don't discover a unique difference that you bring to the table, you force them to compare what you do based upon the only thing they know...

PRICE.

But, with a little thinking, some soul-searching, and this step-by-step technique...

You can discover your unique value.



Are You a Commodity?

©Tessa Stowe, Sales Conversation, 2007

Do you find yourself competing on price? Do you often talk to a prospect, you think you have them, and then they decide to shop around and buy based on price?

If this sounds familiar, then you’re probably being perceived as a commodity by potential clients. They think the service you’re offering is much the same as the service offered by LOTS of other people. So it makes sense for them to shop around and buy the cheapest. Wouldn’t you?

I know you think your service is unique, and potential clients should be able to understand that and should be able to see your value. But if you’re competing on price, this is a red flag that your potential clients don’t see your unique value. Instead, they perceive you as a commodity. In this case, you need to do something about it -- and fast.

The question is what do you need to do so you are not perceived as commodity?

The solution "seems" obvious: make yourself unique. This will take "shopping for the cheapest" out of the equation and instead, potential buyers must make a decision based on the value of what you're offering. So how can you make yourself unique?

Here are three steps to ensure your clients see you as unique and therefore make decisions based on your value and not your price.

Step One: Determine the unique value (results) of your service

Get really clear on the results you achieve for your clients. Then look at those results as a potential client would. Don’t cut corners doing this exercise, it’s crucial. Dig deep to find the answers. If you’re not clear on your own value, how can you expect your potential clients to be?

Once you’ve done that, figure out what it is you offer that no one else does. I would suggest asking some of your clients these questions. Their answers may surprise and enlighten you.

Step Two: Determine the unique value of you

What unique skills and strengths do you bring to what you do? What is unique about your approach and your interaction with clients? Again, I would suggest asking some of your clients these questions.

Step Three: Communicate your unique value

It’s imperative that you communicate your distinct value in all of your conversations and marketing materials. It’s not enough that you know your unique value; you have to be able to clearly convey it to potential clients. This is the key. Don’t leave it up to people to guess. If they have to, you’ve already lost them. The "how" of doing this is where most people struggle but it is a skill that can be learned as part of the sales conversation process.

If you follow these three steps, your unique value will be clear to potential clients. You will start having conversations with clients about the unique value you offer, and they will make a decision based on whether they want that value or not. Remember, if they want your unique value, they can’t shop around.

A funny thing will happen when you clearly articulate your unique value. You will find more and more people will be naturally attracted to you and they will be prepared to pay your price. You’ll also get a lot more referrals as your "unique value" message spreads. Chances are too that you can increase your price and potential clients will pay it.

If you go through the three steps and you still find yourself competing on price or getting price objections, then simply go back and repeat the process. It’s also a good idea to ask the person you’re talking to for their input as they could shine the light on your value gap.

Spend some quality time thinking about your unique value and how you can convey it. You will then start turning your sales conversations into higher paying clients.

Tessa Stowe teaches small business owners and recovering salespeople 10 simple steps to turn conversations into clients without being sales-y or pushy. Her FREE monthly Sales Conversation newsletter is full of tips on how to sell your services by just being yourself. Sign up now at www.salesconversation.com.

The Four Currencies

There are four currencies in people’s lives: Money, Time, Feeling Safe, and Feeling Special.

“Most people think there is only one currency, therefore, they can think of only one way to compete. But when you realize that there are four currencies in people’s lives, there are hundreds of ways to compete,” states Donald Cooper in his powerful audio program, Human Marketing: How to Become the Preferred Supplier of What You Sell

Cooper suggests you make a list of how you can exploit the currencies other than money.

What can you do to save your clients time, help them feel safe, or give them that special experience every time you serve them?

Get a Vision of What You WANT

“Visualization, imagination, imaging it's all the same.

We underestimate and underrate the power of visualizing what it is that we want.

But you do it everyday.

When you get up in the morning, you think about what you're going to wear before you get dressed.

That's visualization

You can’t have something in your life without first imagining it.

Everybody says, "I'll believe it when I see it." No, no,no.

You'll see it when you believe it. 

You will see it when you can imagine it, when you can begin to visualize

it because what you are doing is you are feeding an image to your subconscious

And it is your subconscious that produces the results,

and the material things that come into your life.

So, practice being quiet, practice concentrating."  

Wally “Famous” Amos

What Don't You Want?

Knowing what you don't want is the springboard to your miracles.
Knowing what you don't want is simply your current reality.

And your current reality can change.

What Don't You Want... in your business,
in the clients you're attracting... in your life?

What kinds or types of clients
Do You NOT want in Your Financial Services Practice?

"Man is a magnet, and every line, dot, and detail of his experiences
come by his own attraction."
The Life of Power and How to Use It by Elizabeth Towne,1906

RISKY Marketing?

The difference between a good practice and one that churns out HUGE profits is almost always great MARKETING. And when it comes to marketing, there’s a big difference between doing something RISKY and taking an intelligent, calculated risk.

Marketing, done right, isn’t risky.

It’s PROFITABLE.

Here’s what’s RISKY:

1. Running a Practice without knowing how to describe your product/service benefits in a tangible and specific way that causes people to see themselves having and enjoying those benefits (this is an art, but you can learn it, and once you do, you’ll immediately see more sales)…

2. Not knowing how to write a good marketing letter, ad, or website copy that effectively communicates those benefits to potential clients (you’ve got to keep them reading, and there are specific ways to do that)…

3. Not knowing how to frame a “can’t refuse” offer that compels prospects to whip out their credit card or check book (this is SO easy, and creates a ton more sales, but so few do it)…

4. Not knowing how to write a great headline that grabs your prospect and gets them to want to read your web page, ad, or sales letter

5, Not knowing how to convert leads into buyers (leads are useless unless they buy–and blasting your ads out to everyone just to get your phone ringing might be good for the ego, but they don’t buy your baby new shoes or get you that new Mercedes S550)…

6. Not knowing how to get your clients to buy more, and to buy more often (the real profit is on the back end, but lots of financial services pros leave thousands of dollars in commissions and fees on the table for another adviser to grab. Are you educating your clients to put their money ,place their insurance with another adviser?)

7. Not understanding how to use direct response on-line marketing to explode your client attraction.

8. Ignoring changing on-line Web 2.0 marketing trends and strategies. Millions of people from all walks of life are joining social networking sites such as MySpace, viewing YouTube, posting on blogs. Are you?

I could list a lot more, but here’s my point:

Forget about what your wife thinks, or your neighbor, or Uncle Charlie. Are they great business people? Are they marketing experts?

Instead, do the things that successful people do, and you’ll be successful, too. Take the time to learn what works…

…and then DO IT.

This isn’t pie in the sky. You can do it, too.

Here’s how:

1) Make SURE that your clients really get all the benefits you promise

2) Seek out expert marketing information and help

3) USE IT, and

4) Think like a Marketer, so you eventually generate your own ideas, your own promotions, your own techniques.

You can do this, too!

And, when you DO this…

Your business is a money machine. A money-machine that makes your practice a lot easier...

And...

Tons more fun!

How to Target Your Perfect Customer

This article from Michel Fortin, one of the top copywriters on the Internet, digs into the importance and the process of targeting your market.

Stay tuned... I'll talk about the difference between "perfect customers" and Ideal Clients".

Also, a small warning when reading this article: remember Michel is a copywriter and his "perfect customers" are fellow copywriters for his coaching.

Targeting Your Perfect Customer

The most important part of your copy is not your headline, not your offer and certainly not your benefits. The most important part is your customer.

In the last few weeks, I’ve been critiquing some pretty good copy. Very well-written and compelling. But if the conversion rate is low (hence, the reason why I was hired to conduct a critique consultation), it’s because these salesletters do not target the right audience for the offer, or the author and the copy fail to connect with their readers.

Researching your customer in depth is vital to the success of your copy. It’s not only an important component of targeting and qualifying the best prospect for your offer, but also an effective way to discover new ideas, different angles, captivating storylines, unsought benefits, and appropriate length and language of your copy that will convert more.

If you have done enough research to know your product is viable, then targeting and connecting with your market as much as possible should be the obvious next step. However, this is where many marketers fail, for they are trying to be “all things to all people” and attempt to market their product to everyone.

Instead, try to discover the qualities, characteristics and behavioral patterns of your specific (or greatest) market. Your niche. Then market to that audience more than any other and as often as possible. These usually fall into four main categories.

The best copywriters in the world who have written multi-million dollar salesletters and ads are usually those who have spent a great many hours interviewing clients, spending time learning about them (maybe even to be with them), asking a lot of questions, and spending a lot of time learning about:

• Geographics
• Demographics
• Psychographics
• Technographics

Empathy Starts With Discovery

It was Ken Blanchard, in the One-Minute Sales Manager, who said: “Before I walk a mile in your shoes, I must first take off my own.” Brian Keith Voiles, in an interview I gave him regarding the power of empathy in copy, said it best:

“The first thing I do is try to live a ‘day in the life’ of my prospect. What keeps him up at night? What are his biggest concerns or his biggest joys? What’s the first thing he does in the morning as he wakes up? Does he read the paper? What kind of paper? What sections? Does he hurt? Is he frustrated? About what? In all, I try to put myself in my prospect’s shoes as much as possible and really try to see what he sees, thinks what he thinks, feels what he feels. The more I do, the more empathetic I am in my copy … and the more I sell.”

Demographics are the basic qualities and characteristics of your market. They include age, gender, culture, employment, industry, income level, marital status, and so on. Does your product cater uniquely to women? Is it more appealing to a specific industry? Does your product complement another type of product?

Geographics are the countries, locations and establishments in which your target market resides or works, or those it frequents or to which it travels. Is your market made up of French Canadians? Does your product cater to a market from a certain state that is predominantly of a certain religious or political persuasion? Are they urbanites or rural folk?

On the other hand, psychographics are made up of the emotional and behavioral qualities of your market. They include the emotions, buying patterns, purchase histories, and even thought processes behind people’s decision to buy your product.

For example, they include events they attend, interests and hobbies in which they’re engaged, associations to which they belong, previous purchases made, other related products your market has consumed, and length of time they remained with a particular company.

Finally, a new category, recently defined by Forrester Research, includes people’s affection or aversion towards technology. Are they early adopters? Do they use gadgets such as Blackberries and cellphones? Or at least do they own a computer? Do they surf the web and buy online? Or do they prefer to consummate the sale offline?

Bottom line, who buys from you specifically?

If you were to say “everyone,” then you are falling in the trap mentioned earlier. Avoid it as much as you can. Try to be as specific as possible. But if you do cater to a diverse market, find out who buys from you the most or the most often.

Intelligence Gathering

The two most important elements are, of course, demographics and psychographics. In other words, demographics include the segment of the population that needs your product, while psychographics are those within your demographics that want your product.

If you don’t know this, you can easily conduct a survey as part of a marketing research campaign among your current clients, potential clients and clients of other similar products or companies. Don’t underestimate your greatest source for marketing research — clients!

For example, here’s a list of questions you should ask:

• Who, exactly, is your perfect customer?
• What’s a day in the life of your perfect customer like?
• Why did they buy your product? If not, why not?
• Why did they buy from you or your competitor specifically?
• Why did they not buy from you or the competition?
• Why did they buy from you at that specific point in time?
• Why did they buy right away (on impulse) or took their time?
• If they shopped around, why did they? Where did they go?
• What do they like the most and the least about the product?
• Would they refer you to others? Why? If not, why not?
• What specific benefits do they see in your product?
• What specific benefits do they see in your competitor’s product?
• And so on.

These are immensely important questions that can help you, guide you, or even cause you to change your approach altogether. Don’t discount the power of doing marketing research, especially within your own backyard. You want to know not only who buys from you but, more important, why they do. In other words, think psychographics and not just demographics.

To illustrate the difference between demographics and psychographics, here’s an example pulled from my own experience as a copywriter in the cosmetic surgery field.

Hair transplant doctors cater mainly to men who have experienced hair loss and are able to afford such an operation — i.e., men and bald men specifically are potential patients because they may need of more hair. Psychographics, on the other hand, go a little further. In this example, they are comprised of men who not only need but also want more hair — since not all of them do. (It’s a matter of priorities, just as the type of clothing one chooses to wear).

Therefore, in order to target this market as precisely as possible and thus generate better leads, doctors must take the psychographic element into account, such as their patients’ lifestyle, their interests, the type of industry in which they work (since certain industries are image-related), as well as their previous buying habits (such as men who have already invested in other forms of hair replacement solutions) — the more information the better.

For example, you have a headline that said, “Are you losing your hair?” That appeals to your demographics. People who have hairloss will probably read the ad. Problem is, they may not care about it. But if your headline said, “Suffering from hairloss?” now your ad is targeting someone who not only has hairloss but also cares about it enough to want to do something about it.

Aim For The Bull’s-Eye

Nevertheless, arm yourself with as much of this type of information beforehand and your chances of achieving greater success with your product will be virtually guaranteed. While you can’t be everything to everyone, you shouldn’t be targeting everyone for everything.

The following represents the Success Doctor™’s Market Targeting Model (a format to follow when targeting an audience, or while engaged in any targeting activity). It’s in the form of three concentric circles, like a bull’s-eye, as follows:

Applying the targeting model is simple. Each circle represents a different level in the targeting process — the center being the first and so on. As the adage goes, “fish where the fish swim.” Find places, events or publications that meet any of the three.

The bull’s-eye, the center, which are things that directly and specifically involve your “perfect customer,” should be your main aim at all times. The second level are things that are related to them. The third level, while not related, are things that are oriented towards your perfect customer. Here’s a quick description of each circle:

• The Center (Bull’s-Eye): It’s what pertains directly to your target market. In other words, it’s anything that meets your perfect customer profile (and does so immediately and as specifically as possible). Things like demographics, psychographics and geographics are included.
  
• The Second Tier (Middle Layer): It’s what pertains indirectly to your target market. Stated differently, it’s anything that relates to or logically fits in your perfect customer profile. This includes things such as direct competitors, complementary products, related industries, etc.
  
• The Third Tier (Outside Layer): It’s what does not pertain at all to your target market but somehow matches or is oriented towards any of its areas. Examples are unrelated industries with which your customer is associated, other businesses patronized by your customer, other unrelated products they consume (products that do not complement, replace or supersede yours, but are consumed by them), common threads among your audience (even if they have nothing to do with your product), etc.

Here’s An Example

Here’s a real-life example. Let’s say you’re in the computer sales business. Your perfect customer is a person aged between 20 and 35, earning around $30,000, living in the eastern part of the United States and working in the high-tech field.

The center or bull’s-eye would include computer-related magazines, shows, websites, tradeshows, ezines and directories, among other types of media — wherever your perfect customer is targeted, based on the qualities and characteristics of your product or customer, should be your first goal.

The second tier are areas that are indirectly related to your perfect customer. Your goal would then be to target markets that are similar to your own or somehow logically fit into your target market as well — in short, other related publications, businesses or areas that target your perfect customer, too.

Areas include software magazines, trade publications, technology websites, industry associations, non-competing businesses, etc. An example would be other websites selling computer peripherals or software your perfect customer would need or enjoy, such as an accounting software package.

The third and final tier consist of totally unrelated areas your perfect customer frequents, without anything to do with your industry. You want to be in front of as many of their eyeballs as possible, even if where you appear has anything to do with your product, industry or niche.

Let’s say, through some research, you found that a large percentage of your target market are coffee drinkers. Then areas you would seek are, for example, coffee-related websites, specialty coffee magazines, coffee product stores (e.g., coffee maker companies, mugs, espresso machines, etc), restaurants, books on coffee and so on.

It means that, as long as the audiences of such websites and publications logically fit into your target market somehow, even if, in this case, they have nothing to do with computers at all, then you’ve got it made. In essence, you’re still within your “bullseye,” in other words.

The bottom line is, in order to convert at a much higher rate, you need to be in front of the right people as often as possible. You not only need to know who your perfect customer is, but you also need to understand her, connect with her and empathize with her.

As Robert Collier said in his book, The Robert Collier Letter Book, you need to continue the conversation already going on in their minds. Or as Dan Kennedy often says, above all pay close attention to “message-to-market match.”

About the Author

Michel Fortin is a direct response copywriter, author, speaker and consultant. Watch him rewrite copy on video each month, and get tips and tested conversion strategies proven to boost response in his membership site at http://TheCopyDoctor.com/ today.

Blog Power Goes Local

Calling: Insurance agents, financial planners, mortgage brokers, CPAs...


Do you realize the POWER of WEB 2.0?

Just when you thought you had a clue about static website Search Engine Optimization and Pay-Per-Click tactics to drive visitors to your site, a whole new ball game breaks out.

A blog is one of the most powerful local search tools for you to consider adding to your website.

Here are a few ideas for your blog:

Post things going on in the community, school events, neighborhood block parties, the local sports teams...

Post content that is relevant to your primary business, but as long as the towns and neighborhoods you want to score well in the search engines with are in your posts and titles, you will get some serious lift for those terms.

And, here's a killer blog strategy:

Post your client testimonials... pictures, audio,along with the names and towns of your clients... on a Client Testimonial Blog.

You'll be the talk of your town!

Take AIM... Market Smarter

Dan Kennedy has a brutally honest, blunt, practical common-sense approach and philosophy on marketing strategy that rings true.

Does this ring true for your business?

"Every product, every service, every business either appeals, or has the potential to appeal, much more strongly to a certain definable group of people than it appeals to all people, yet most marketers get to their grade-A prospects only by lucky accident- by throwing their message to everybody and letting the right people find it. This is like getting a message to your aunt in Pittsburgh by dropping 100,000 copies of your letter out of an airplane as you fly over Pennsylvania.

I call this "blind archery."

Blindfolded, given an unlimited supply of arrows and some degree of luck, you'll hit the target eventually. And you will hit it once out of every X times you shoot off an arrow. Of course you'll also hit innocent bystanders, bushes, fence posts, stray animals, and everything else around.

Arrows are one thing; dollars are another. Nobody has an unlimited supply of dollars to play with.

You must make the commitment to market smarter by picking better targets. Don't say 'That's okay for somebody else, but it won't work for my business because...' Don't waste your energy figuring out why this can't be done in your business. Any idiot can come up with a list.

You need to find the way it can work for you."

Dan Kennedy, The Ultimate Marketing Plan

Technorati Profile

The 10 Commandments of Winners

• 1. When a winner makes a mistake, he says, "I was wrong." When a loser makes a mistake, he says, "It wasn't my fault."
• 2. A winner credits good luck for winning, even though it isn't good luck. A loser blames bad luck for losing, even though it wasn't bad luck.
• 3. A winner works harder than a loser and has more time. A loser is always too busy to do what is necessary.
• 4. A winner goes through a problem. A loser tries to get around it and never past it.
• 5. A winner shows he's is sorry by making up for it. A loser says, "I'm sorry," then turns around and does the same thing over again.
• 6. A winner knows what to fight for and what to compromise on. A loser compromises on what he shouldn't and fights for what isn't worth fighting about.
• 7. A winner says, "I'm good, but not as good as I ought to be." A loser says, "I'm not as bad as a lot of other people."
• 8. A winner would rather be admired than liked, although he would prefer both. A loser would rather be liked than admired, and even is willing to pay the price of mild contempt for it.
• 9. A winner respects those who are superior to him and tries to learn something from them. A loser resents those who are superior to him and tries to find chinks in their armor.
• 1O. A winner feels responsible for more than his job. A loser says, "I only work here."

- Author Unknown

I

"What Good have I DONE Today?"

Two Daily Questions...

… to ask yourself Everyday. This from The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin.

Each and Every morning, Ben would ask himself this question when he woke up:

"What Good shall I DO Today?"

And, before going to sleep at night, he asked this of himself:

"What Good have I DONE Today?"

A Focus on Contribution and Service brings riches and personal fulfillment.

Give Ben's morning and evening questions a try over the next 2 days.

Your clients are waiting for you to identify, build, and share your unique gifts.

The more people you Serve, the more riches you Attract.

What Good will You DO Today?

What Good have You DONE Today?