1. business and industrial

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$97.00
HOW TO GET MORE CUSTOMERS
WHO WILL PAY YOU
MORE MONEY, MORE OFTEN™
(The following report is a transcript of an audio program
recorded by renowned marketing guru Jim Ackerman.)
Provided by:
Jim Ackerman
&
1044 Louise Meadow Dr
South Jordan UT 84095
801.254.7964 Fax: 254.7963
mail@ascendmarketing.com • www.ascendmarketing.com
www.morecustomersmoremoneymoreoften.com
www.thedeltainitiative.com
www.jimackermanspeaks.com
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
2
HOW TO GET MORE CUSTOMERS WHO WILL PAY YOU MORE MONEY,
MORE OFTEN™
(The following report is a transcript of an audio program
recorded by renowned marketing guru Jim Ackerman.)
Greetings. My name is Jim Ackerman and I’m the President of Ascend Marketing, which
for 10 years has helped business owners, marketing directors and sales managers for
companies just like yours to get more customers who will pay you more money, more
often, the fastest, easiest, most cost effective ways possible.
The truth is, there are literally dozens of ways for any kind of company… manufacturer,
wholesaler, retailer, service company or professional to get more people to do business
with you, and to get the ones who already are to buy more from you each time they buy
and come back to buy more often.
Tragically, though, less than three percent of all businesses understand the powerful
marketing dynamics that make this possible. And of the ones who do, only a small
fraction operate at anywhere near their true possibilities.
In this report, I’m going to open your eyes to a goldmine of principles and strategies to
help you quickly and dramatically increase your revenues and do it with little or no
increase in the money you’re currently spending to market your business.
Specifically, we’re going to look at 31 building blocks to bring in new customers, clients
or patients, 12 building blocks to increase your average sale and 11 building blocks to
increase frequency of purchase. This isn’t a comprehensive list in any category. It is a
great collection to help you build a Powermid of Profits™.
FIRST THINGS FIRST
Before I do that, I have to warn you. There is a difference between opening your eyes and
opening your mind. In this report, I can share with you a wealth of knowledge about what
to do to build your business. I guarantee your eyes will open. But what about your mind?
Only you can open that.
Statistically, less than 10% of people who buy books read them. The level of
implementation from seminars and workshops ranges from 1.4 to 8.4 percent. Not very
impressive, is it?
Basically, what I’m saying is, less than one in 10 of the people who read this report will
implement even one of the concepts I talk about here. That, to me, is nothing less than a
tragedy.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
3
There is money to be made, businesses to be built, families to secure, children to educate,
customers, clients and patients to serve, employees to be hired, communities to be blessed
by the prospering OF YOUR ENTERPRISE.
As important as the dreams that can be fulfilled on such a far-reaching plane by applying
these principles, are the nightmares that can be avoided. While success in business is not
the “be all and end all” of our existence, it’s well documented that economic struggles are
at the heart of many of today’s social problems. Divorce, child abuse, depression,
homelessness, poor physical health. All of these problems can be reduced and sometimes
eliminated by the incomes that result from a thriving business… your thriving business.
And while you may succeed at some level even without application of what you learn
here, there is so much more that can be done if you will implement just some of the ideas
I am about to reveal.
Will you apply them? Well… Only you can answer that question. I do have some
suggestions, however, for making sure that you do… for ensuring that you have the
greatest possible chance of making the time we spend together profitable for your
business.
THE 5 “U-NEEDS”
I have discovered there are five keys any entrepreneur or enterpriser needs to have
possession of to achieve extraordinary success. When all five of these keys are applied,
success is virtually assured. Without them you may well find yourself doomed to struggle
on the battlefield of frustrating mediocrity throughout your entire career.
Here are the five keys… I call them The 5 “U-needs.”
1. You must know what to do.
2. You must know how to do it.
3. You must have resources to get it done
4. You must have feedback to make sure you do it right
5. You must have accountability, to make sure you actually do it
And in order to secure those five keys, you must be prepared to make an investment in
yourself.
Sprinter Maurice Greene was close to giving up his sport when he failed to medal in the
1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia. But sitting in the stands, in tears, as he
watched the medal ceremony for the 100 meter dash, he vowed there would not be
another Olympic medal ceremony without him. He made a commitment to himself and
then he took massive action.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
4
He returned to his home in Kansas City long enough to pack up his things and move to
California, where he could engage the services of a new Coach. He focused on his goal.
He made the commitment to do things differently than he had before… than he knew how
before. He made changes and the changes brought results.
He set the world record in 100 meters and won the Gold medal in the 100 meter dash in
the Sydney Olympics of the year 2000.
What are you willing to do to achieve the success you say you desire? Are you willing
to do things differently? Are you willing to open your eyes and your mind? Indeed are
you willing to open your heart to new possibilities? Are you willing to change what you
are doing and have always done in your business, in order to see that enterprise grow and
prosper?
Anthony Robbins says the definition of insanity is doing the same things and expecting
different results. Are you insane? Will you stay that way? Or will you make the
commitment to apply what I am about to reveal to you in this program?
I would like to be your “Phil Jackson”. I would like to be your Coach. You can be my
Michael Jordan. In this report I’ll be talking a lot about the what to dos. Some of them
will be familiar to you and others will be new. Some will be a new twist on concepts
you’re familiar with. But while this report will deliver the what to dos, I would like to
help you with the how to do its, the resources, the feedback and the accountability.
After I’ve shared with you the principles and strategies of getting more customers, clients
or patients, the ideas on increasing your average transaction and of getting those who buy
from you to do so more often and for longer periods, in their own best interest, I want you
to investigate specifically how you can engage my on-going coaching to help you build
your business. Yes, there will be a very modest investment in both money and time. And I
absolutely GUARANTEE the results.
You can find out more about my Principle-Centered Marketing Coaching™ Program
by going to http://pcmcoach.com
Right now, though, lets take a look at some key principles for getting more people to do
business with you…
THREE WAYS TO GROW YOUR ENTERPRISE
When you boil it all down, there are only three ways to grow your business.
The 1 - 2 - 3 is revealed in my Unique Purchase Appeal and the title of this report, “Get
more customers who will pay you more money, more often.”
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
5
The first way to grow your business, of course, is to get more customers. Most business
owners spend almost all their time, effort, and money on this area of business growth. But
this is seldom the easiest or the most profitable way of growing. Still, most businesses are
caught in the trap of working only on this area, simply because they have never learned
how to do anything else. They don’t understand what the other two even are.
Here’s the second way to grow your business…
Get your customers to pay you more money. In other words, get them to make larger
purchases each time they buy from you. These are the easiest and fastest ways of
increasing profits. Ironic that most businesses have extensive and expensive plans to get
more customers, but few have any plan or spend any time, money, or resources on how to
increase the unit of sale – the size of each transaction – which, in reality, can make each
sale perhaps as much as 30 to 50 percent more profitable.
And last but not least, the third way to increase your business is to get your customers to
buy from you more often. Increase the frequency of purchase for your typical customers.
Far too many businesses ignore their customers after they have made that all important
first purchase. This is more than a mistake. It’s a ludicrous and tragic blunder. After all,
you’ve already spent a bundle in marketing, facilities, equipment, employees, and
virtually every other kind of resource you have, just to bring them in the first time. How
can you then be content to let them walk away with a single purchase… or perhaps
without making any purchase at all?
No… no… no… no… no… no… NO! Your existing customer base is a huge untapped
asset. It’s a lot less expensive to get your customers to come back than it is to get new
ones.
Now, before we go any further, there is a philosophy… I call it the “Maverick
Marketing Philosophy” that you must adopt if you are to take full advantage of this
approach to marketing.
Here is the philosophy…
1. I will always be honest with my customers and prospects
2. I will always be courteous with my customers and prospects
3. I am absolutely committed to consistently adding massive value, advantage,
protection and benefit to the lives of my customers
4. Once conditions one through three are met, I will do whatever it takes to be as
successful as I can be
5. From this moment on, I will hold all of my marketing and advertising
absolutely accountable to the bottom line
6. I have now embarked on a never-ending quest to discover and implement the
most effective and powerful marketing and advertising for my bhuisness.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
6
These six commitments are at the heart of the “more customers, more money, more
often” philosophy. If you’re honest, courteous and consistently adding value to the lives
of your customers, why shouldn’t they happily, consistently do business with you, happily
pay you more for the privilege of doing so, and happily and energetically help you serve
their friends and neighbors as well?
If you hold your marketing and advertising accountable to the bottom line and are
engaged in a never-ending quest to improve your marketing results, you’ll functionally
“genetically engineer” your marketing for ever-increasing success. And you’ll achieve
it.
GET MORE CUSTOMERS
With these success commitments in mind, let’s look at some specific ways to get more
people doing business with you…
Everyone wants more customers. Every business has a main method of getting them. A
plumber is going to get a lot of new customers by advertising in the yellow pages. The
yellow pages publisher is going to get new customers by employing a direct sales force.
The mortgage broker finds the bulk of his new customers using direct mail. In your
business, odds are you use one primary method for bringing in new customers, and more
than likely it’s “how things are done” in your industry. Nothing wrong with that.
However, if you weren’t restricted by the “rules” of “how things are done” in your
industry, what else could you do to grow your business?
You see, the number of methods of bringing in new customers is virtually limited only by
your imagination. I will give you 32 ideas today. I realize you probably won’t be able to
use every one of them, but there will be many you can use, that you never thought of
before. There are some I’m not going to spend a lot of time on, because you are already
familiar with them. They include…
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
NEWSPAPER
RADIO
TELEVISION
MAGAZINES
BILLBOARDS
YELLOW PAGES
Not that these six aren’t worthy of discussion, but this is a “what to do” book. These six
items are usually the first marketing methods most business people think of when they’re
considering how to promote their businesses. I could… and have… created entire
programs around each of these marketing methods. The problem with them is, they’re
expensive and relatively inefficient. They all can be very powerful when used correctly,
but that’s the business of a “how to” discussion. For now, let’s focus on the lesser known
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
7
or less-considered, and often, more effective alternative methods of getting more
customers.
How about…
7. BUSINESS CARDS, for example.
Lesser known, you ask incredulously? Everybody knows about business cards!
True, but not one person in 1,000 uses them the right way to maximize their businessbuilding potential. That’s why business cards is strategy #7. Here’s what you do…
A. Make sure your business card is laid out horizontally, not vertically. When it
goes into that business card holder, rolodex, or scanner, it’ll be horizontal.
Make it easy for your prospect to read without physical gyrations or having to
remove it from his or her file.
B. Avoid folding cards. When they go into that file, the person doesn’t want to
have to pull it out to open and read it.
C. Make sure the card states your Unique Purchase Appeal… the advantages that
set you apart from your competition.
D. Use both sides of the card to let people know everything you do and how you
do it.
E. Make an offer on your card. That’s right, an offer that gives the prospect a
legitimate reason to contact you right away. Offer free information, a free
report, a free audit or evaluation or some other FREE, no-obligation service
that will benefit your prospect and encourage him or her to call. A marketing
piece without an offer is simply incomplete.
Now let me ask you something. How do you feel when someone calls or comes into your
business and says “My friend suggested I do business with you?” You’re thrilled, aren’t
you? You know this person is going to become a client. You know they’re going to be
easy to close and they’re not likely to quibble about price. You know they’re already
convinced of the value you render.
That’s the excitement and value of strategy…
8. REFERRAL SELLING. Trouble is, for most businesses, referrals happen on an
incidental, rather than a systematic basis. In order to get more referrals, here’s what you
do…
A. Offer your clients incentives to send their friends, neighbors, relatives and
business associates your way. You might even reward them for simply giving
you the names of people you can contact. I know a heating contractor in
Savannah, Georgia who put this kind of system in place and within a few
weeks had generated more than $50,000 in business. And they didn’t have to
spend a dime on advertising up front. They simply provided their referring
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
8
clients with a cash reward whenever one of the people they referred became a
customer. It cost them nothing until a sale was actually made. Wouldn’t you
rather pay your marketing expense only after the revenue was generated?
B. Make sure you make a particularly compelling offer to the people your clients
refer, specifically because their friend referred them. You want your referring
client to be a hero in the eyes of the referral.
C. Install incentives for your staff members that will encourage them to ask
clients for referrals and install dis-incentives or consequences for them if they
fail to ask for referrals. You can provide increased commissions, spiffs and
contests on the incentive side. You can factor a failure to ask for referrals into
salary and wage reviews, reduce commissions if certain levels of referrals are
not met, etc. Be sure to reward the behaviors you want. And be sure to train
your staff on how to use the new referral systems.
D. Install a tracking system to make sure referrals are being sought, followed-up
on and properly rewarded.
I love referral selling. In my business, in just the last 60 days from the time I wrote this,
referrals accounted for the better part of $60,000 in sales. That’s a thousand dollars a day,
simply because I know how to ask for referrals. And just think, I didn’t have to pay a
dime for these new customers until after they actually became customers. And then, the
cost of rewarding my referring clients was just a fraction of what it normally costs me to
market to a “cold” prospect through traditional means.
If your product or service is providing outstanding value to your clients, it is only natural
that they would want to share that value with others. However, it’s necessary that you
have a planned system for gathering those referrals. Your system can be as simple as
regularly and consistently asking.
A few years ago a young Chiropractor came to one of my public, 3-hour marketing
seminars. I told the group about referral systems and demonstrated mine by asking for
referrals. He directly copied my system in his practice and literally doubled his patient
load within a month. Another Chiropractor started having his staff call all of his patients
on a systematic basis. He would ask about their health and how they responded to his
treatment. Not only would he find out if they needed to come back in for another
treatment, he would ask them for a referral. They didn’t always have a referral on the
spot, but this technique did increase his practice 40% over the course of one year. He has
patients lined up to get in to see him now, almost all from patient referrals.
A dental practice engaged my services to create a referral system for them. Within weeks
they were adding 60 new patients a month to their practice. Do you have any idea what a
patient is worth to a dental practice over the lifetime of a patient?
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
9
And there’s not a business on the planet that couldn’t benefit from systematically seeking
referrals.
“INTEGRATED MARKETING”
I talk about the concept of a “Powermid of Profits™” constructed of massive, strategic
“building blocks” of marketing. The strategies for getting more customers form the
foundation building blocks for that Powermid.
Unfortunately, most businesses build on the shaky point of an inverted pyramid. They
have that “one way” to bring in the business, and everything else they do is piled on top
of that. If something were to damage or destroy that one block – like a new, aggressive
competitor, or any number of other factors – the whole unstable structure can come
crashing down around (or on top) of you.
The Powermid, on the other hand, depends on a broad array of marketing building
blocks… a cadre of marketing techniques. If one or two are damaged or destroyed, it’s an
annoyance and may create a tremor in your bottom line, but the others will support you as
you repair or replace, adjust, adapt and resume your climb toward the apex of success.
In broadening the base of your Powermid, look at what the most successful businesses in
your industry are doing to bring in customers that you aren’t. Are you leaving tens or
hundreds of thousands of dollars on the table? And don’t dismiss this as overstatement.
For example...
I had a friend who had owned an independent yellow pages company. In five short years
he had risen to become one of the top 10 independents in the country. He was doing
everything just right… or so he thought. After all, he was taking home a fat six-figure
income, had all the toys, travelled when he wanted, had a dream home on a quiet,
secluded, wooded lot. Life was great!
Then, at an annual convention, he heard a speaker talk about strategy #9…
9. TELEMARKETING. He had thought telemarketing was for the giant companies, not
for small independents. Then, that evening, over dinner with one of his colleagues, he
discovered his friend had been using telemarketing and it was bringing in a lot of new
business.
Now you might have a belief that telemarketing is an abhorrent way to market. You may
have visions of people interrupting your dinner or New York City stock brokers in
telephone sweatshops playing havoc with your work day. You may find the concept
personally obnoxious. But the truth is, it works… and when it’s done right, nobody has to
be offended.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
10
So my friend decided to give telemarketing a try. He hired a telemarketing expert to write
a script, hired three part-time housewives, and set them up in a spare office with no
windows. One year later my friend was giving a speech at the convention on… “How to
set-up a telemarketing department and add $1 million dollars to the bottom line.”
His business increased 25% in one year. And the fixed costs associated with acquiring
this new business were lower than anything else he was doing! Thank goodness he was
willing to keep an open mind and copy the marketing strategies of other companies in his
industry.
Incidentally, what are the marketing strategies other successful companies within your
industry are using? What can be gained by copying and implementing them in your
business?
And here’s a radical concept. Look at businesses in other industries and find out what
they are doing to bring in new customers, and apply their strategies to your business.
Can you use telemarketing in your business? I guarantee there are others in your industry
who are, and who are doing it very effectively. Find out who they are. Copy them… then
improve on what they’re doing for even greater success.
Another building block every business should use is strategy…
10. DIRECT MAIL. It is one of the quickest ways of bringing in new customers and
profits I know. And it’s also incredibly flexible, and an economical way to test market
concepts.
Let me give you an example…
The late Jim Hunter, one of my former clients in Park City, Utah, owned a hot air balloon
company. He got more than his share of business, because he was a very good marketer.
He used the same methods everyone in his industry used. He advertised in the hotel
magazines, rack cards, referrals from hotel concierge, etc. But he had neglected direct
mail.
As we explored expanding his business, we recognized he had occasionally received a
call or referral for corporate events, but no ballooners were systematically approaching
the business community in Salt Lake City. I suggested he send a direct mail package to
4,000 businesses and introduce to them to the corporate event idea with hot air balloons
and snowmobiles. The package included a letter, two brochures – one for the hot air
balloons and another for snowmobiles – and the response card. Each package cost a dollar
to send. Jim sent the piece and in two weeks generated an extra $160,000.00 in new
business! Hey, why didn’t he send that sooner?
Better yet, when are YOU going to send YOUR next direct mail piece?
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
11
Direct mail is a powerful weapon every business needs to be using. You can also use this
weapon with the other two business-growing categories (increasing your unit of sale and
your frequency of purchase).
Now hold your horses. We’ll get to how to do that in the other sections of this report.
Right now, we’re not finished talking about how to get more customers yet.
Another way of expanding your business is using…
11. DIRECT SALES. Another example from my personal files…
Several years ago, I was the sole source of sales for the company. We were generating
enough revenue for me to make a living and keep a small group of employees busy. But if
the company was to grow, we needed more sales than I, one person, could generate.
We went through several sales people and a variety of compensation plans. It wasn’t easy
to put this marketing building block in place, but we kept at it. Eventually we hired Brad
to work on selling our products. He succeeded and added hundreds of thousands of
dollars to the company. Later Brad left to start a business of his own. But he had proven
that our products could be sold directly, face-to-face or by phone.
Not too long afterward, my son, Jake joined the business and was even more successful
than Brad. We were able to add other successful sales people to the force and the
company grew to the point that we added two additional divisions to the enterprise.
A direct sales force -- inside, outside, and on the phones -- can have a tremendous impact
on your business. Can every business use this strategy? There may be a few who couldn’t.
Doctors and lawyers, for example, may not. But accountants certainly can.
If you already have an inside sales force, try adding an outside one. If you have an outside
one, try adding an inside force. If all your sales are happening face-to-face, experiment
with selling the same products by phone, supported with mail, e-mail and your website.
I have calculated that, after expenses, adding direct sales to our marketing mix generated
approximately $170,000 in profit to our company in one year. I don’t know about you, but
that’s a nice chunk of change when it comes to sending kids to college, financing new
cars and taking family vacations.
And I believe you can use direct sales for a lot more business applications than you might
think. For example, when window washers are in an area washing windows, they
sometimes hang flyers on the neighbors’ doors. What would happen if a salesman
actually banged on the neighbors’ doors a day or two ahead of when the window washers
are scheduled in the area? What if they offered a special deal because they are already in
the neighborhood?
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
12
We know of an entrepreneur who recognized he could sell pest control services door-todoor and never have to spray a house himself. He approached a national chain and
worked out an arrangement to sell their service for a commission. What do you think this
pest company said to that proposal? Now he hires and trains hundreds of salesmen from
coast to coast, and they run the legs off the pest company’s employees, they generate so
much business.
Are you beginning to realize the potential of opening your mind to new money making,
business growing ideas that are not necessarily “ the way it’s done” in your industry?
Let’s speed up the process a little bit for you.
12. SEMINARS
One of my clients has a counseling practice. She counsels parents with Attention Deficit
Disorder (ADD) kids, and has developed some new and unique methods for solving these
special problems. She does FREE seminars for parents to introduce them to her services.
In her area there are no other professionals doing this.
It also became apparent that she could expand her business by doing seminars, and
training other counselors in her methods. A whole new twist to her business and a whole
new revenue stream.
We have suggested that Alan Reed, our home delivery dairyman in Idaho Falls, Idaho,
bring in other dairymen from around the country at $10K a pop, to teach them how he
markets, his cost control practices, and generally how they can use his know-how to run a
more successful dairy operation.
Do this kind of seminar a couple of times a year and add tens or even hundreds of
thousands of dollars to the bottom line with very little effort. A whole new source of
income.
Specific niches in the insurance industry, such as retirement planning, have been using
seminars successfully for years. They bring in people for FREE to listen to them. Many
times they even provide a nice dinner to get people to show up, so they can introduce
their service. It pays off handsomely.
13. PUBLIC SPEAKING
In my home state of Utah, there are over 460 organizations that meet on a regular basis.
Most of them are in the greater Salt Lake City area. Your area is probably no different.
There are dozens of organizations having weekly or monthly luncheon meetings, who put
on seminars for their members, hold dinners for a variety of purposes. Each event they
sponsor usually calls for a speaker. In my case, assuming the typical organization meets
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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13
on a monthly basis, those 460 plus organizations have need of 5,520 speakers over the
course of a year. You’d think I could speak at least once a week.
For example, I spoke to a Rotary Club where only about a dozen businesses were
represented in the room. Still, following my 40-minute presentation, four of their
members registered for one of my workshops. Two of the four brought more than one
person, and two wound up becoming members of my exclusive marketing alliance. I
made over $1,500 from that one speech. That’s over $125.00 per business represented in
the room, and on an hourly basis, it works out to $2,252.25 per hour. Not bad, eh?
14. SAMPLING
Huge companies have been built on the concept of sampling. Outfits like Proctor &
Gamble send you samples of soap, laundry detergent, shampoo, diapers… even feminine
hygiene products in the mail. All the major grocery chains and warehouse stores have
sampling programs for food products. But what about other products and services?
Doctors, lawyers, and chiropractors often offer a first consultation without charge. That’s
a form of sampling. Because people are so loath to change accountants, an accountant
could actually offer to prepare your taxes for FREE the first year. Odds are that would
secure your business for five years to a decade or more.
We even heard of a building contractor who always builds a client’s first project AT
COST! True. He makes no money on the first project and he makes sure his clients know
it. He tells them he wants them to experience his service and his quality at his risk first.
Almost all of them build with him again and again.
15. FREE PUBLICITY
It takes a little time and effort, but it can pay off big time. One of my Coaching Clients
used free publicity, and his business grew 12 1/2% in two weeks! Taking time out of his
schedule to write a press release brought $89,000.00 in profits.
At a real estate meeting at which I spoke, I wrote a press release for everyone in the
audience to use. Within one week Mary Harker from Dallas, Texas had a half-page article
in the local newspaper – including her picture – that was generating public awareness as
well as immediate leads.
16. RADIO TALK SHOWS
One real estate agent in the DC area offered to do a weekly “Real Estate Report” for the
radio station, and it turned into his own half hour show. One of our members in Salt Lake
City created his own one-hour real estate program on Saturday mornings. He paid the
radio station an extremely discounted rate for the time because most advertisers consider
it an unattractive time slot, and because of the extended commitment he made. He sells
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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14
commercial time on his show and makes money from that, and generates tons of leads he
hands off to his sales team every week.
Coaching Clients, David and Scott Menough actually pay for a guest appearance on a
Denver gardening show on Saturday mornings. They both own Wild Birds Unlimited
franchise stores in the area. On each appearance, they make a strong offer for bird seed
and/or bird feeding products they carry in their store. They recover the bulk of their
investment by charging other Wild Birds Unlimited stores in the area for the exposure
brought to those stores by Dave and Scott’s appearances. All the Wild Birds Unlimited
stores coordinate the offer, so anyone can walk into any local Wild Birds store and take
advantage of the offer.
I see natural health retailers doing this, insurance agents, dentists and I’m sure there are
others. How about you?
17. INFOMERCIALS
Many businesses simply dismiss this powerful marketing tool as something other
businesses use. Could it possibly make sense in your business? In Phoenix, there is a
plastic surgeon that uses infomercials. Before he tried this method, not one of his
competitors had even thought of using them. It was unheard of in his industry.
How many of you have seen the Hair Club for Men infomercials? Again a local business
that has expanded nationwide with an infomercial. If he had just stuck to what everyone
else was doing, he would still be running an average business. Now he has a spectacular
one. And the freedom and success it has given him is beyond what he dreamed possible.
I’m currently in the process of helping a heating and air conditioning contractor put an
infomercial together. Will it work for him? I’ll keep you posted.
18. RADIO INFOMERCIALS
A relatively new form of marketing is the radio infomercial. Same as television
infomercials, but a lot less expensive to produce and air. Also a way to test whether you
can sell via broadcast. If it works on the radio, you may be able to justify the budget to try
it on TV.
19. FRANCHISING
You already know of the success stories in the franchising industry. All sorts of
businesses are franchising. You have printers, restaurants, tire stores, accounting services,
window washing, windshield replacement, etc. Can you imagine having people pay you
$30,000 to $150,000 for your system of making money? Sounds pretty good doesn’t it?
Well it won’t happen unless you look into it. It can be complicated and “legal intensive,”
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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but if you have a proven money-making system, franchising it can make you money upfront and a stream of money for decades to come.
20. LICENSING
This is a great way of selling your successful business methods without franchising.
People will pay you to help them set up a turnkey business like yours. Depending upon
what your business is generating, you can license your strategies, methods, and practices,
for $5,000 to $50,000 or more. You can also require a residual income every month or
quarter. And you don’t have to license your whole operation. You can license advertising
that has been particularly successful, processes for saving money in production, sales
techniques, accounting systems… just about any facet of your business that you have
perfected to a higher level than your non-competing colleagues.
I do this myself. You can become an Ascend Marketing, licensed, certified PrincipleCentered Marketing Coaching Program Coach.
21. CARD DECKS
These are a remarkably inexpensive way to reach a large number of targeted suspects and
prospects. People seem to be intrigued by them and almost always give them a quick
thumb-through when they arrive. The secret to using them successfully is to make a
sensational, risk FREE offer that initiates an inquiry. Actually selling something is
possible, but more difficult. If you try it, sell an introductory item that is almost an
impulse buy, and make sure you power up your risk reversal.
Not only should you consider advertising in cards decks, you should consider doing your
own. If you have a data base of customers numbering as small as 5,000, you can make
money selling other businesses ads to be delivered to your customers. When you run the
numbers on an idea like this, your greed glands will start to drool.
22. STATEMENT STUFFERS
Imagine delivering your sales message to thousands of customers of international credit
cards. You know yourself those bills don’t go out alone every month. Each carries one, or
multiple, selling messages, in the form of stuffers. Want to know how to do it nationally?
Call the The V12 Group, formerly Media Solution Services at 1.866.842.1001.
But what if you only market regionally or locally? Well, there are local department,
furniture, and appliance stores who send statements to your prospects. There are also
doctors and lawyers, accountants, pest control services, lawn care services, the cable TV
company, and local banks and credit unions who send monthly statements to their
customers. Many of them may be willing to send your solicitation for a piece of the
action, or if you’ll simply pick up the cost of their postage.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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You get an added bonus when you sell this way. Even if your statement mailing host
doesn’t specifically endorse you, the very presence of your piece in that company’s
envelope constitutes an implied endorsement.
23. INTERNET
Even for small brick and mortar businesses, a website is crucial. BUT BE CAREFUL.
This is not a slam-dunk winner for everybody, right out of the blocks. If you want to get
involved in internet marketing, you must be dedicated to the concept. Somebody in your
office has to be assigned to the project. It has to be a major focus of somebody’s day,
every day. It takes research and constant attention. You’re also going to have to spend a
few bucks getting it going and keeping it vibrant, fresh, exciting and compelling. And it’s
not all about websites. It’s largely about building a list and marketing to that list
consistently. E-mail is a big part of where it’s at!
There are a lot of strategic processes to consider here: permission marketing, search
engine marketing, online advertising, how you pay for it, and getting customers to keep
coming to you.
One of my clients, a heating and AC contractor in the Kansas City area, booked over a
million dollars worth of business via an online contest he ran through his website. This
was over a four-month period. It was the result of smart marketing thinking and crosspromoting with his other advertising media to drive people to his site.
24. MANUFACTURER’S REPS
Akin to having a direct sales force of your own. You can use Reps to broaden your
geographic base without intensive and expensive staffing. The downside is, Reps usually
represent a variety of products. Their efforts are therefore diffused, and sometimes your
product or line doesn’t get enough attention. But they are commission only, and you’ll
have no employee expenses associated with them. So anything they sell is, for all intents
and purposes, FREE money!
25. BARTER
Here is another marketing building block that too many thumb their noses at. Barter can
be an incredibly powerful way to build your business. You can trade for advertising, for
example. If you have a product that the media wants and you have a 50% margin, you
may be able to get twice the retail value of your product in advertising, which is like
buying the time or space at 25¢ on the dollar.
But that’s only the beginning. When people trade with you, they are helping you fill
unused production capacity, move inventory, and save money. They are also sampling
your wares, and developing a relationship with you, that can well turn into cash-
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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generating business down the line. And don’t forget the referral business that can be
cultivated in the process.
There are national barter organizations with local offices. I use ITEX. They have over
100 offices nationwide. You can contact them at www.itex.com. When you do, let them
know I sent you. I’m afraid you don’t get a discount on your membership dues when you
mention me, but I get rewarded for referring you. When you refer, you’ll be rewarded too.
26. CALL/EMAIL/CALL
This marketing technology is working well in some industries. A telemarketer first calls
your prospect and introduces the product or service very briefly, then asks the prospect
for permission to send an email that presents more of the details. When the prospect
agrees to look at the materials, the telemarketer promises a return call. I’ve used this as
part of a three-step marketing process for our seminars. My email offer was for the
prospect to come to a preview lunch, where I give them useful marketing information,
and introduce them to my one-day workshop, newsletter, or coaching program. You
should be able to accomplish the same thing with other services or tangible products.
Again, your offer is key, as is your risk reversal.
You can also employ a Call/Fax/Call strategy or a Call/Mail/Call strategy.
27. PREMIUMS
Sometimes you can sell your products as a premium to be given away, or sold to an end
user, at a fraction of full value, when another product is purchased. To do this you need to
be willing to make the product (or a version of it) available in large quantity, and usually
at a better than wholesale discount. The upside is, you make a lot of money on a single
sale.
A former client had a unique food-storage container. His product would go very well with
any cooking product sold on infomercials. He can sell in quantity to the Ron Popiels of
the world, at a very attractive price. Ron then gives his product away as a bonus, when
people buy his pasta maker or food dehydrator.
One of my former partners used to be the Marketing Director for a bank. He
commissioned an artist to do a series of drawings which he then reproduced in limited
edition. The drawings became a “self-liquidating premium” for customers who opened a
new account.
You can do the same thing with services. If you’re an accountant, for example, cut a deal
with an automobile dealer. Every customer who buys a new car from the dealership
during January gets his taxes done FREE by you. Of course, you’re still getting paid for
the work. You can charge the dealer a flat fee for a set number of returns, or you can
charge him on a per return basis. In the first case, you can get a big windfall check. If you
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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sell him 100 returns at $100.00 each, you’ll collect a fat check for $10,000.00. Odds are
only about half of the people who receive the service offer will ever take you up on it.
And the more that do, the happier you are, because you get a chance to convert all of
them into long-term clients.
I offer my newsletter, audio sets, and workshop manuals to other businesses who want to
provide them to their customers. Nature’s Herbs, the national, natural health supplement
company has purchased 500 of my marketing alliance memberships. I got less than half
their regular value, but they bought in groups of about 30, and I then had the chance to
sell those new members renewals, coaching programs, audios, workshops, and anything
else I sell.
Endless possibilities, aren’t there? Use some imagination and you’ll come up with ways
to do the same in your business.
28. CATALOGS
If you’re already selling a variety of products or services, why not broaden your reach by
putting them into a catalog and selling them all over the place? We had a workshop
attendee whose retail store exclusively sold cat paraphernalia. Everything from cat
supplies to cat art. Gifts for cats and the cat lovers who own them. Their store was
unique. They had scoured the globe for cat stuff. With all that effort, they could easily
have “cat”apulted to a whole new level by doing a catalog and mailing it to a list of cat
lovers all over the country. What a great market-expanding building block.
You can do the same thing with services. Real estate agent trainer Howard Brinton has
created a series of training courses for agents. He sells them in a catalog.
And you may be able to get your products included in the catalogs produced by other
companies.
Don’t overlook this strategy. It may be more applicable to your situation than you think
and if you can make it work, your business could explode nationally… maybe even world
wide!
Marriage mail, like ADVO, Money Mailer, and catalog/marriage mail hybrids like the
Carol Wright envelope are variations on this theme.
And now, with the internet, anyone can publish a catalog. You don’t print it, you just put
it online, where people can place orders on the spot.
29. TRADE SHOWS
They don’t make sense for every business, but they do for many. They’re a great way to
reach a lot of highly targeted customers in one spot. Be careful, though, it may be difficult
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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to complete the sale on the spot. Decide in advance what you want to accomplish at the
show. Adequately staff your booth and have pre-show systems in place to maximize
attendance and post-show follow-up systems in place to maximize sales.
30. GUEST/HOST JOINT VENTURES
This is one of the most important business building blocks you can use. Look for other
businesses who share the same kind of customers you do and joint venture with them.
They endorse your products and services to their lists, in exchange for a piece of all the
sales created by the promotion. As your host, they are able to take greater advantage of
their list for increased profits with no need to inventory products or venture outside of
their primary area of expertise. As their guest, you add primary target customers to your
business with higher response rates and lower costs than virtually any other way to do
business. You can also play host to those businesses, selling what they sell to your
customers for a piece of the action. But we’ll discuss that in the “more often” section of
this book.
31. PRIVATE LABELING
If you produce a product, produce it for others and let them market your product under
their banner. Even if you’re their competitor, they will build your sales. Can you do the
same thing with services? Of course you can. Offer your service to other complementary
service providers as an “in-house” department of theirs.
This is done all the time in the advertising business. A graphic designer might provide
services to an ad agency, as if he were part of that agency. Media buyers do the same
thing. This is tantamount to “private labeling” their service.
I suggested to a pair of mortgage broker friends of mine that they strike agreements with a
number of realtors to provide in-house or private label financing services. Once or twice a
week they can set up shop in the offices of the agents, as if they are part of the company.
It helps the real estate agencies, and it helps them.
32. RETAIL
Seems like everybody would like to have their product in Walmart. Some of you sell
other people’s products in a retail environment. Many people believe that only products
can be sold retail. Ever seen a real estate office in a mall? H&R Block sells tax
preparation services from a storefront. Banks have set up retail establishments in grocery
stores. I am considering a kiosk store in the mall to sell books and audio programs and
seminars for entrepreneurs.
EXTRA-MILE DELIVERY
Well, I promised 32 building blocks for the marketing Powermid and now you have them.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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If you haven’t gotten at least a half dozen ways you can add customers, sales, and profits
to your business by now, you are either asleep or brain dead. You now have a sensational
collection of building blocks for constructing towering sales.
Now that you have them, start using them. You can even combine them. Call/Fax/Call is
a combination approach, using a fax solicitation (I didn’t even cover that one as a standalone building block), with telemarketing. What if you sent a direct mail piece out and
followed it up with a telemarketing program? What could you expect in reasonable
increased results? That’s been researched and you can improve response from 30 to 300
percent. Worth a try, don’t you think?
The more blocks you add to your Powermid, the more likely you are to bring in hordes of
new customers. The more secure your business will be and the more freedom you’ll have.
I’ve given you the “what to dos” and even a few “how to do its.” Let me suggest that you
apply yourself to this task for at least 30 minutes every day. If your effort is consistent and
persistent, you will be able to make several of these new marketing building blocks
come profitably alive in your business. If you need assistance, I’d be happy to provide
it. I encourage you to contact me immediately.
Email me at mail@ascendmarketing.com, or call me at 1.800.584.7585. I’ll be happy
to explain how you can get greater insights into the “how tos” for any of these building
blocks, along with ready-to-use resources, the feedback to make sure you maximize the
opportunities for success that come with each of these principles, strategies and
techniques, and our system for making sure you actually follow through and put these
dynamics to work growing your enterprise.
Meanwhile, let’s move on to parts two and three of our program… How to get your
customers, clients or patients to buy more from you, more often, in their own best
interest.
REAPING MAXIMUM PROFITS
IN MINIMUM TIME!!!
In part one, we focused on what most people spend all of their marketing time, money
and effort on… bringing in more new customers, clients, patients and prospects. But that
is the most expensive, time consuming and inefficient way to grow any enterprise.
The most powerful, least expensive, most effective ways to grow are related to your
existing clientele. Getting them to buy more each time they buy, and getting them to come
back and buy more often, for a longer period of time… always, of course, in their own
best interest.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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Yet, very few businesses have a strategy for getting their customers to make larger
purchases or for getting customers to come back more often.
What would it mean to your business if you could get your customers to make just a
10% larger purchase once they were in your store, office, or practice? Your sales would
go up 10% but your profits could jump 20% to 30% or more. Think about it. If you could
increase your sales without increasing your expenses, is that something you could get
excited about? Don’t you think it’s time for you to come up with a plan for getting
larger purchases?
So here in part two of this book, let’s talk about some ways to…
INCREASE YOUR UNIT OF SALE
Getting larger purchases is not difficult. In fact, it’s actually a lot easier than you might
think. The first strategy for getting customers to make larger purchases is to simply...
1. ASK!!!
Now you may be thinking, “Has this guy gone nuts? What kind of goofy strategy is
‘ask?’”
Well, listen up. This concept is vitally sound and extremely important for growing your
sales and profits quickly.
If you owned a computer store and someone came in and bought a computer, wouldn’t it
make sense to ask if he wanted to buy a printer, or software, or other computer
accessories?
If you ran a restaurant and a customer ordered a meal, wouldn’t it be natural to offer an
appetizer or dessert?
Or what if you sold furniture? When someone bought a sofa, don’t you think it would be
prudent to offer them a coffee table or lamp?
I’m certain you understand the point. But it’s absolutely shocking, the number of
businesses that fail to ask. Think about how many times you’ve eaten out and the waitress
simply brings you a check without asking you if you would like dessert. Most businesses
are failing to even ask the customer to take the next natural step, whatever that step
may be. How about you? Are you asking the customer to take the next step in his or her
own best interest? If not, why not?
As long as you are adding value, pleasure, performance or a better result to your
customers’ lives, you have an obligation to offer them more products or services. If you
don’t ask you are not serving your customers or your business and you deserve what you
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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get, which is a mediocre business, with little or no customer loyalty. And to make matters
worse, your shoddy service will force you to have to repurchase the same customers over
and over again… the most expensive way to do business. You don’t want that, do you?
It takes simple planning and then training to program into your business the idea that you
are serving your customers by asking them to buy more. It’s a matter of becoming aware.
If you don’t feel that way about what it is you are selling, it’s time to do something else.
Closely related to the concept of simply asking are two of the easiest ways of getting
customers to make larger purchases…
2. THE “CROSS-SELL” and 3. THE “UP-SELL”
Within five minutes of my first face-to-face meeting with Howard Brinton Seminars in
Boulder, Colorado, I gave Howard and his staff one simple idea that has added tens of
thousands of dollars in sales to their business.
Howard had built a nice, multi-million dollar company. But when people phoned in to
order his products, his in-bound operators had never asked them if they’d like to buy
something else. We suggested they have a list of three or four specific products to offer
the phone customers, in descending price order. Howard implemented immediately and
BANG!!!… right from the start, 30 to 50 percent of all callers bought the “cross-sell,”
adding an average of 20% to the average order! It all happened THE SAME
AFTERNOON
Coaching Clients Mike Clarke and Tom Anderson of CSG Golf, headquartered in
Spokane, Washington had an almost identical result when they started offering additional
products to people who called in to order products from their golf club componant
catalog. Their Unit of Sale increased 17%… literally overnight.
And I was able to help Nature’s Sunshine Products add 2.29 million dollars to their
revenues in just one year, simply teaching their in-bound telemarketing staff how to ask
people to buy a little more.
That’s what cross-selling or add-on selling is all about. While someone is purchasing
one item, offer them another item or an additional service from your line.
All of us have experienced the add-on-sell if we have driven through a fast food joint.
After you have placed your order the next question to come back over the speaker is,
“Can I add a fruit pie dessert to your order?” or “Can we super size your drink or fries for
just 25 cents more?”
Up-selling is the process of “up-grading” the package.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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If you prepare in advance to up-sell, your profits will go through the roof. You need to be
prepared to offer something of value for a good price, right at the point of purchase.
When you go to a car dealer, the first thing they ask is, “how much do you want to
spend?” If you say $15,000.00, they immediately start showing you $25,000.00 cars. This
is an up-sell. They don’t necessarily expect you to buy a car $10,000.00 above your
budget, but by showing you that car, odds are good you wind up spending 17 to 20
thousand, instead of the 15K you planned on.
In a past issue of my newsletter which was totally devoted to the concept of up-selling, I
told the story of a client who owns a window washing business.
I suggested to him that when somebody calls him to do their windows, after doing the job
(and before getting the check from the customer), he should have his serviceman offer the
customer an annual (four-time minimum) service contract. He can offer this as a
substantial discount and get his money up front, and he’ll still be profitable because he
eliminates the costs associated with “remarketing” to his customers.
The cross-sell differs somewhat from the up-sell. It’s an additional product above and
beyond the initial purchase.
Let’s say that a customer turns him down our window washer on his up-sell. He can whip
out an offer for a bottle of his commercial-grade cleaner that can be used in the kitchen
and bathroom on countertops, sinks, showers and tile to easily and quickly remove hard
water spots.
This technique can be used in your business as well, easily and profitably.
Joe Squire has one of the top 10 accounting practices in the state of Utah. After attending
one of our workshops, Joe realized he can and should be cross-selling additional products
to his clients, which would be in their best interest.
So now, when Joe’s tax accountants complete a client’s tax return, they walk the client
through a questionnaire designed to determine what other needs the client has. As a
result, Joe is cross-selling financial planning, retirement and exit strategic consultations…
he’s even recommending his clients get involved with my company to improve their
marketing effectiveness.
Okay, here’s the fourth strategy for getting your customers to pay you more money...
4. RAISE YOUR PRICES!
I know I may have just put you into shock. You think you couldn’t possibly charge more
money or you would lose all your business. Let’s examine this concept.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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Most businesses are so focused on low price they believe that is all the customer is
looking for. It’s just not true. Customers do want a good price, but they first want what
they want.
Kent Monsen, another of my Principle-Centered Marketing Coaching Clients, found this
out first hand. A customer came into his store to look at refrigerators, AFTER he had just
purchased a refrigerator at a competitor’s store 20 minutes earlier. Well, you might think
Kent’s chances of getting a sale weren’t very good. But as Kent talked with the customer,
he learned the guy wanted a better refrigerator than he bought from the competition. But
the salesman at the other store believed every customer only wanted a cheap price. And
you can’t blame the salesman for thinking that way. Cheap price was the store’s entire
marketing campaign. So the salesman went about selling the customer the cheapest
refrigerator he could. The salesman didn’t take time to find out what the guy really
wanted. So the customer bought what the salesman sold him.
By the time he left Kent, he had purchased a more expensive refrigerator and cancelled
the order from the other store! He took home a new refrigerator that cost $300 more than
the first one he bought! The customer wanted more bells and whistles and he got what he
wanted.... from someone else.
Remember, there is often a difference between what people say they want, and what they
really want. If you ask a purchasing agent of a large manufacturing facility what he wants
he will say, “the best price,” when in reality, on-time delivery and defect-free parts are the
things that really mean the most to him, because he has to keep production on line. It
won’t matter a bit to him if he saves a nickel on a part if it isn’t on the assembly line
when it’s needed and he’s got 100 workers standing around with nothing to do, or when
one of his biggest clients returns a carload of defective products.
So the lesson here is... customers are looking for value first. You also need to realize
customers may not even understand, on a conscious level, what they really want. You
have to be sensitive to what their real needs are.
Customers want what they really want, whether they know it or not.
It’s up to you to provide it for them and let them know what that value is.
Understand, once the customer is standing in your store, office or practice, or is on the
other end of the phone, she has revealed she is in the market for whatever it is you’re
selling. You owe it to the customer to offer her the best product or service you have. It’s
generally advisable to start with your best product or service. If your customer doesn’t
want the larger unit, or upgraded service she can refuse it, but if it’s never offered to her,
you are failing to serve her. Don’t let yourself or your staff do this kind of disservice to
your customers.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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Earl Daly came into my office to report he had doubled his photography business by
using what he learned at my workshop and in my newsletter. He was ecstatic. So was I.
(This is the kind of stuff I love to hear about!)
As I talked with Earl, I asked him where he fit on the price scale with his other
competitors. With 10 being highest price and 1 representing the lowest. He admitted he
was at the 1 level. I asked him where the next level of competitor was priced. Earl said at
the 5 level. I suggested to him that he RAISE HIS PRICES!!!
…to about the “4” level. He would still be the cheapest guy in town but he would
instantly quadruple his profits! You should have seen the look of enlightenment come
across his face!
He said it hadn’t occurred to him because he felt he was already making a good profit and
his overhead was low because he worked out of his house. I pointed out however, that if
he wanted his business to grow and to move into a studio, or buy a new digital camera, or
upgrade equipment so he could serve more people better, the only way would be to
charge more money when it made sense, and was fair to both the customer and himself. In
this situation he could raise his prices and still be the lowest priced guy in his market!
And I might add that Earl’s bookings may actually go up. Fact is, being so far below the
market, many people may doubt Earl’s professionalism. That’s one of the dangers of
having too low a price.
Here’s the fifth easy way of getting customers to buy more.
5. GIVE THEM A CHOICE
Tests have shown that by giving customers three selections, each with increasing value,
the number of people that select the middle item is astounding.
Ralene was another photographer client of mine. She discovered she could make a lot
more money by giving customers three choices. She put together low, middle and high
end packages with the middle package priced higher than her average sale. Her original
thought was that she would sell a lot of low end packages and move more volume. To her
delight she discovered that almost no one wanted the “cheap” package. And though she
sells more middle packages than anything else, she also sells more larger packages,
because she has programmed it into offering it to everybody.
Are you getting any new ideas on how to get your customers to pay you more money?
Well, just in case you’re one of those hard to convince types here are some more ideas.
6. PACKAGING OR BUNDLING
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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I recently bought some cologne, packaged with deodorant and body talc. By packaging
the three items together, I got a better buy than if I purchased them individually. This was
a very attractive offer, and I still spent more money for the package than I would have for
just the cologne. The merchant got a larger overall unit of sale, because had the three not
been “bundled”, I would have bought the cologne only.
Many of my most successful natural health supplement retailers say they don’t sell
“products” they sell “programs.” In other words, they bundle a collection of at least three
supplements that work synergistically to benefit their customer, and they recommend the
customer purchase the entire package. If the customer says no, they remove one item and
recommend the remaining two.
I find I sell a lot more Alliance Memberships when I package three hours of consultation
with it. And I have packaged an introductory, two-year deal for the price of one. It
represents a much better value and I sell more newsletters at a higher price than stripping
out the consultation or second year and selling it for a lower price.
Some people may need to do something more dramatic to get more money out of your
customers. You may have to…
7. CHANGE THE PROFILE OF WHAT YOU SELL TO A MORE “UPMARKET”
This really applies when you truly deal in the low end of the market in your industry.
At one workshop I had an attendee who owned a family furniture business. He
represented the third generation. His parents and grandparents choose to serve the low
end of the furniture market so they stocked low end furniture and dealt in used furniture.
When he took over the store he was told this was the only way to do the furniture
business in this market. So like a good son he took Mom and Dad’s word for it. After
running the store for a while he became frustrated with the type of customer the used
furniture attracted. His typical customer was unemployed, or on a fixed income. He
recognized these folks were in a survival mode and couldn’t buy anything better even if
they wanted to. And their Lifetime Profit Value or Marginal Net Worth was just that…
marginal!
He took a big gamble, upset his parents, went against tradition, and threw out all of the
used furniture. Then he added a middle line of goods to the store. Now he carries all new
furniture… a line of low end inexpensive furniture for folks starting out in life, like
newlyweds and college students needing to furnish their apartments with something
inexpensive, yet nice, and a middle line of furniture for folks that are moving up in life;
that are out of school, starting a new job, or moving out of the old apartment and into
their first home.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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27
Overnight it changed his customer profile. These people can and want to spend more and
can turn into life-long customers.
8. OFFERING A LARGER UNIT OF PURCHASE
If you sell janitorial supplies and your customers repeat purchase every three months,
offer them a six month supply at an attractive price if they will buy it up front. Could you
cut them a better deal if they would commit to a whole year’s supply now?
Here’s another idea. One of our clients sells health food supplements. They have
customers that reorder every 30 days. We suggested they offer the customer a couple of
options. They could give them a better deal if they purchased three bottles at a time (that
would be offering a quantity discount), or they could put them on a…
9. CONTINUITY PROGRAM
…where the company automatically ships their order every month and simply charges the
customer’s credit card. Or they could sell them a…
10. SUBSCRIPTION PROGRAM
Where they purchase the whole program up front and receive the product month-bymonth.
11. THE NEGATIVE OPTION PROGRAM
…is a close relative of the larger unit of purchase idea. Lots of people don’t like this, but
it is being used successfully and your business may be able to take advantage of this
strategy. With the negative option the customer agrees to let you send product at regular
intervals and charge him automatically unless he specifically asks you not to send a
specific shipment, or until he cancels the service altogether. Sometimes a customer
continues on the service longer than he would normally, simply because he doesn’t take
the time to cancel.
Book and record clubs invented this technique, but now it and the “subscription” offers,
are being used by companies that sell cosmetics by infomercial, multi-level marketing
companies, direct mail suppliers of health supplements, and a host of others. How can
you make these programs work for your business?
Not long ago I had a flat tire had in my BMW and I had to hoof it down the road for help
because, like an idiot, I had no spare?
While I was stranded at the convenience store waiting for help to arrive, I took advantage
of this rare “opportunity” to observe how they operated. They are masters of the…
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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12. POINT OF PURCHASE DISPLAY… The impulse sale
Ever notice it’s sometimes difficult to even see the clerk behind all of the point-ofpurchase, impulse-buy marketing?
Ever since this experience I have noticed how all convenience stores are set up similarly.
One item I’ve noticed they all have right up front is the beef jerky. You can buy a single
piece of this western delicacy for a $1.00. That makes this stuff about $100.00 a pound! I
can hardly believe people will pay this much money for a piece of dried cow carcass, but
they obviously do. I’ve noticed that the jars are half empty every time I go into one of
these places.
They are truly taking advantage of the impulse buy. Grocery stores do a lot of displays at
the end of each isle. Businesses pay top dollar to be in these positions because they know
their sales will go up.
Any retail business can take advantage of this principle. And it isn’t simply an impulse
idea. If you display a popular or new product that can add real value, benefit or
maximum service to your customers life at the point of purchase and then couple it with
asking the customer to buy, you can add some serious revenue to your business overnight!
By the way, lest you think the impulse buy is limited to retailers, I heard a story of a
doctor who uses it. He puts little signs up in his waiting room. Things like “Flu Shots -$19 Today.” People who came in for other reasons buy a lot of flu shots this way. It’s a
great service to the patient, who is reminded of a need, and it has added tens of thousands
of dollars in revenue to this doctor’s bottom line.
These are some great ideas for getting your customer to spend more money with you. I’m
certain there are many more. However, these ideas should be very adaptable to all
business in some form. It takes some planning and an action plan, and most of all,
discipline, to get these ideas implemented. Trust me. You’ll quickly discover it’s worth
the effort.
“THE KNOWLEDGE MYTH”
Again, as I mentioned at the end of the first part of this program, it is important that you
take action.
The old saying, “knowledge is power,” is a myth. It’s not true. Knowledge is nothing
without application.
I’ve suggested that you apply yourself to the task for at least 30 minutes every day. That if
your effort is consistent and persistent, you will be able to make several of these new
marketing building blocks come profitably alive in your business. I have also offered
my help. I encourage you contact me by email at mail@ascendmarketing.com. Or call
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
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me at 1.800.584.7585. I have programs to provide resources, feedback and accountability
and I have a remarkable track record of helping you achieve the success you desire. I
have products, services and programs that will fit your needs -- one-man shop to megamillion dollar corporation.
And now it’s time we talked about Step #3… the third way of growing your business…
GET YOUR CUSTOMERS TO COME BACK MORE OFTEN
OR
INCREASE FREQUENCY OF PURCHASE!!!
I don’t want to assume anything here, so lets start with THE fundamental principle of
being able to act on the ideas you are about to receive.
One of the biggest marketing mistakes business commit is the failure to capture the
names and addresses of everyone that comes into their business regardless of whether
they make a purchase or not. It boggles the mind at how many businesses fail to do this.
They will spend thousands of dollars on advertising to bring in new people into their
business and then they don’t bother to capture their name or address. You must
understand these names are pure gold. You’ve paid for them, and you’ve paid a lot.
Doesn’t it make sense to capture them?
Even if they didn’t buy anything from you today, the fact that they came into your
business or practice, or responded to an ad, or visited your website, means they are at
least interested in your product or service. They have qualified themselves as a prospect.
You don’t want to let them escape, and put yourself in the regrettable position of having
to spend a bundle to bring them back, when a letter with a simple postage stamp – or
today, a FREE email -- can get the job done far more efficiently.
So the absolute crucial, never fail, gotta do number 1 strategy for increasing frequency
of purchase is…
CAPTURE THE NAME, ADDRESS, AND EMAIL ADDRESS OF EVERY
CUSTOMER, CLIENT, PATIENT, OR PROSPECT THAT GRACES
YOUR ENTERPRISE IN ANY WAY!!!
And once again, one of the best ways to get your customers to come back more often is
to...
2. ASK THEM TO!!!
The big catalog companies like Lands End mail catalogs to their best customers as many
as 15 times a year. That means you’re getting more than a catalog a month. And the
catalogs aren’t that different. Different cover; a change in the 2-3 spread, the back inside
cover and probably the center spread and order form page and that’s it. The rest is the
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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same. Why do they mail so often? Because it works! You should be contacting your
existing your customers, clients, patients and prospects at least six times a year and 12
would be better. Not all of those contacts have to be solicitations. Birthday and Christmas
greetings or thank you cards are always appropriate. But the majority of those contacts
should be inviting customers to buy again.
3. TELEMARKETING
Nobody likes unknown telemarketers who interrupt your dinner or those pushy New York
stock brokers who interrupt your busy work day. But receiving a phone call from
someone with whom you already have a relationship of trust is not considered an
interruption. Calling your customers is one of the least offensive and most effective use of
the telephone. If you own a restaurant and Tuesday and Wednesday nights are always
slow, why not have your hostesses get on the phone to frequent patrons and invite them to
come to dinner at a special price as long as they come on Tuesday or Wednesday. I
guarantee most patrons will appreciate the special invitation. None will be offended,
assuming you have a courteously written script. And this same approach works for
virtually every kind of business. Ever get a call from your dentist reminding you it’s
check up time? See what I mean?
4. E-MAIL
The newest way to maintain and cultivate your client relationships. Make exstensive use
of email as well as your website. Maintain permission to keep marketing by rendering
value through the internet. For example, a heating and air conditioning contractor gets
permission to send his clients a reminder when it’s time to change their air filter. Once
they’re used to receiving his reminder in their email, he can make additional offers at the
same time. Cost? Zero. It’s all pre-programmed and delivered to his customer base for
FREE!
5. PRIVATE & PREFERRED-CUSTOMER EVENTS
When you ask, give them a reason to come back. This can take many forms. You can hold
a special event. I recommended to a client with a women’s apparel shop that she send out
invitations for a special private showing to her best customers, every time her new
seasonal inventory came in. This event is held after hours as a “closed door” affair with
light refreshments. The purpose is to simply give the best customers first crack at the new
items. This way the best customers get the size, style and selection they want before
anyone else. But most importantly… it makes them feel special and important. What a
great way to cement client relationships. The trick to making your private and preferred
customer sales work is to make them personal. Everything from the way you deliver the
invitation to the conduct of the event must be designed to make the customers feel you
are treating them special, because you value them on a higher level than the “normal”
customer. Done properly, I have never seen one of these events fail. And they’re not just
for retailers. Private and preferred customer promotions can work for any industry.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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6. MAKE DOING BUSINESS WITH YOU FUN!!!
If you don’t have a natural reason to hold an event or give customers a reason to come
back again, invent one. Marketing guru, Jay Abraham, tells of a music store that has a
special event every day of the week. They have shave your head day, perform like a
maniac day, military day, dress like a farm animal day, swim suit day, crawl on your
knees day, kareoke day, etc... you get the point. These folks probably go overboard on the
idea but what if you did something like this once a week or once a month? If you are
consistent with it you will gain a loyal following coming back every year.
7. MAKE YOUR CUSTOMERS FEEL SPECIAL
Diana Kokoszka, my realtor friend and former client in Arvada, Colorado, has two events
a year. One is for the community, but the other is for her clients. She takes 150 clients to
a nearby gambling resort. She feeds them a prime rib dinner and turns them lose to have
fun. These clients continue to give her referrals every year. And she asks them for those
referrals too. They also keep buying from her themselves. Primary residences, second
homes, investment properties.
8. TAKE ADVANTAGE OF “BACK-END” OFFERS
What can you sell your customers on the back-end? Once they have purchased from you,
the opportunity to sell them something else goes up dramatically because you have
broken through the barrier of sales resistance. Your customers trust you. They are
receptive to your offers to add more value, more advantage, more protection, more benefit
to their lives. Your current customers are prime prospects for additional products or
services.
Let’s use our furniture example. Suppose you located a discontinued line of new oak bar
stools for 25 cents on the dollar. You could send out a letter to all of your customers and
let them in on this incredible deal. Talk about adding value to their lives! They will love
you for it. And once they are back in the store what can you up-sell or cross-sell them?
You might be able to unload your entire supply of those bar stools to your existing
customers, and you would do it far less expensively than if you had to advertise those
stools in the newspaper or in the broadcast media.
9. NEWSLETTERS
A customer newsletter can often be a wonderful way to keep in touch with clients on a
regular basis. One of the great strengths of this technique is the opportunity to continually
render value, rather than “only selling.” But there are three critical issues to consider in
using this technique. First, you’ve got to publish frequently enough. Anything less than
every other month is too little. Monthly is better. You want people looking forward to
receiving your newsletter and they won’t anticipate it if it’s only quarterly or semi-annual.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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Second, make sure there is content and offers. You’ve got to have both. Offers provide
the urgency that make people look now, and content makes them feel it’s not just a sales
piece. The content provides the intrinsic value. And third, make sure the content is
relevant.
Another back end opportunity is…
10. HOSTING OTHER PEOPLES’ PRODUCTS
What other products or services do your customers buy before or after the sale you make
to them?
If I owned a furniture store I would work a deal with a company that cleaned furniture or
carpets. I would send out a letter to my customers telling them I’ve located this business
with a great service and arranged a special deal just for them. Then I would make sure the
carpet cleaner cut me in on a piece of the action.
One of my clients, Dave, owned an employee leasing company. He wrote the checks for
several hundred employees every week. Does this give you any ideas? Let’s say Mothers
Day is right around the corner. It would be a good idea for Dave to contact a florist and
make arrangements to offer a special deal to his employee’s and cut himself in on the
profits.
What else would employees need? Let’s see… how about a tax preparation service?
Restaurants are always looking for new customers and I’m certain employees eat. Maybe
dentists or orthodontists. Car dealers, appliances, electronics. It really is endless!
Our client could set up deals with dozens of businesses and offer their products to his
employees, and may actually make more money on the back end from products and
services totally unrelated to his business, than he does from his core business!
In fact, if he institutionalized this process at the highest level, he could even provide the
low-margin payroll services for FREE, and make all of his money on the back end.
WOW! A wild concept, but would that give him a Unique Purchase Appeal or what!!!
My Wild Birds Unlimited clients could sell landscaping and yard services, painting, deck
construction, maintenance and repair, nursery services, swing sets and Tough Sheds. And
I’m only getting started.
Just ask yourself: what other products or services are your customers going to buy
whether you help them out or not?
11. PROGRAMMING YOUR CLIENTS FOR REPEAT USAGE
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
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I talked about this idea earlier. The window washer who sold a service contract
guaranteed himself repeat business. The carpet cleaner could do the same thing as well as
the tree trimmer. Dozens of businesses can and should adapt this idea.
You can use price inducements to encourage repeat business. The frequent flyer programs
the airline offer fall into this category. You can offer a frequent purchase program for
your customers, here are few examples.
After I get my oil changed 10 times I earn a free one. When I use my American Express
card I earn points that are good for free merchandise or discount. I find myself subconsciously trying to charge more on my American Express card this year. My Discover
Card gives me back 1% of my purchase. At our local supermarket they give me a voucher
with every gallon of milk I buy. When I’ve collected 12 of these vouchers I can trade
them in for a free gallon. All of these programs are designed to get customers to come
back more often.
SO NOW THAT YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO…
WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO?
What will you do this month to induce your customers to come back more often, and buy
more when they come? What will you do to get more customers?
May I make a suggestion?
READY… FIRE… AIM
What I’m saying is… take some action. Take massive action. Take it NOW. Don’t
worry if it’s right or perfect. In most cases, even a mediocre effort can yield astounding
results.
Please don’t delay. Every day without these marketing blocks in your “Powermid of
Profits” represents lost sales, profits, service to your customers, clients, or patients… and
a loss of quality of life for you.
Another suggestion. Select just one marketing building block in each of the three
categories… more customers, more money, and more often… and work on one at a time.
Once you’ve gotten one up and profitably working, move on to the next.
Finally, I’d love to help.
You may have heard the saying, “Successful people do what unsuccessful people aren’t
willing to do.”
There is a lot of truth in that statement. But nobody can do it alone. At the beginning of
part one of this report, I quoted you the stats… less than 10% of the people who buy
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
34
books actually finish reading them. Implementation from reading, listening, seminars and
workshops is a dismal 1.4 to 8.4%.
I sincerely hope you’re not in the 91.6 to 98.6 percent who will never implement, and I
know ways that can improve your odds, not only of implementing, but of implementing
and getting a result that you will be happy with, to a remarkable level of better than
60%… Better than 92% if you’ll really follow through.
But, as I said at the beginning, you have to be willing to invest in yourself and your
future.
I can provide you with all five of the U-needs…
I can provide you with the…
•
•
•
•
•
What to dos
the how to do its
the resources to get it done
the feedback to make sure you do it right
and the accountability to make sure you actually follow through… that you
actually do it…
…If… you are willing to make that investment of time and resources.
I assure you the investment is very modest. Indeed, when you consider the return… a
multiple of your investment return GUARANTEED or your money back, I might add…
the investment is perhaps the greatest bargain you will ever encounter in your business
career.
The first step is to contact me for a preliminary consultation. There is no charge for this
service and through it, we will determine where your greatest and most immediate
opportunities are for improving sales and profits.
I want you to succeed in every way you dream possible. I believe you owe it to yourself
to achieve that kind of success. I believe you owe it to your spouse and your family… to
your employees… to your customers, clients or patients… indeed to your whole
community, to be as successful as you dream possible. I want you to enjoy the freedom,
the satisfaction, the control, the self esteem, the prestige and the income that comes with
that kind of success. I believe we can help you do so.
But I also know there may be some hesitation in your mind. Despite the good information
I’ve already given you here, there may be something holding you back from taking
advantage of this complimentary consultation.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com
35
You may feel like just taking advantage of free information isn’t fair to me, because you
don’t intend to actually become one of my clients.
You may be even more afraid that you will become one of our clients and that means
you’ll have to make that up-front investment.
Again, I make the point… if you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll always get
what you’ve always got.
Please… break through those barriers of inaction. Be bold. Be courageous. Take
advantage of this special offer. Take the risk that will almost certainly lead to a dramatic
success. Contact me by emailing mail@ascendmarketing.com, or by calling
1.800.584.7585, and I will provide all the information and insights you need to determine
which of my programs is right for your particular situation and how we can help you “get
more customers who will pay you more money, more often, the fastest, easiest, most
cost efficient ways possible.™”
Do it now, so you can begin to reap the rewards of better, smarter marketing
immediately.
For better and for more,
Jim Ackerman, President
Ascend Marketing, Inc.
©2004-2008, Jim Ackerman. All Rights Reserved
mail@ascendmarketing.com