Marketing Headhunter

Proven "Sales Contest Idea"

Here's an astonishingly simple-yet-clever sales contest idea I learned from a client.  Did you realize that there are only three ways to grow your business?  Yep:

1. Increase your number of clients,
2. Increase the average size of each transaction per client, and ...
3. Increase the number of times per year each client buys from you.

Naturally, this means that if you have 1000 clients who spend $100 twice a year with you, your revenues will be $200,000.  Pretty straightforward, right?  Now consider that a 10 percent increase in each of these areas will increase your revenues by 33 percent.  More astonishingly, a 26 percent increase in each area will double your revenues.

Action item:  One month prior to your next company-wide meeting, announce your company’s first-annual “Innovation in Sales” contest.  Make a big, stinking deal about it.  Divide your sales team into three groups and give each team one of the above areas to analyze:

• Team “A” will research and create ways to increase your firm’s number of clients.
• Team “B” will research and create ways to the increase the average size of each transaction per client.
• Team “C” will research and create ways that your firm can increase the number of times per year each client buys from you.

Tell each team that they must give a 45-minute group presentation highlighting at least a dozen new and creative ways that your company can grow in their topic area.  Announce in advance that you will give a trophy, a victory dinner, and bragging rights to the winning team – and meet with each team at least twice before the presentation to make sure that they are “digging deep enough” for good ideas.

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Q:  Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A:  Download Harry's contact info for future reference.

Niche Marketing Basics

My wife, Alene (pronounced "ah-LEEN") is an expert on direct mail marketing:  For years, she has been telling me that I'm a moron for listening to hundreds of hours of Dan Kennedy, Ted Nicholas, and Gary Halbert "How to Get Rich in Direct Marketing" audio tapes.  She thinks these guys are hacks and she doesn't believe for a minute that anyone ever made any money in direct mail simply because she throws out 99% of her direct mail unopened.  Got that?  She buys one percent of the time -- and trust me, she spends BIG when she buys.

Anyway, last night -- at about 10:30pm -- Alene returns from Target -- where it's 34 degrees, windy, and raining.  While there, here is what she saw ...

Game Freaks Wait in Freezing Rain for New xBox.

If you haven't heard, yesterday Microsoft released its new Xbox 360 video game system -- and the gamers were out in force to buy it on immediate arrival at places like Best Buy and Target.  So big was the brew-ha that Bill Gates attended the Xbox 360's midnight release at a Best Buy in Seattle.

So Alene gushes, "Those kids are FREAKS!  Too bad your customers aren't like that!  And I bet they buy a ton of games after they install their new Xbox."

And there you have it.  Local Freaks Teach Atlanta Woman What Gary Halbert Has Been Saying for Years:  Find a rabid market niche and cultivate that puppy to death.  Rabid buyers, according to Mr. Halbert, are people like bass fishermen, brides-to-be, pro wrestling fans, pet lovers, cigar aficionados, wine enthusiasts, Harley Davidson owners, and golfers.  People who are passionate to the point of insane about a particular lifestyle and will buy any-damn-thing that supports or promotes it.

Indeed, even legendary copywriters like John Carlton will say that neither the copy nor the offer are as important as the quality of the list.  In other words, what you say and how you say it are not nearly as important as to whom you say it.

Think of the "rabidity" or "emotional arousability" of your buyer like a tailwind in golf.  For the marketers of the Xbox, launching a product to teens who are prepared to sleep in the freezing rain is like hitting a Big Bertha out of a tee box into a 110 MPH tailwind.  Whooooosh!

According to Mr. Kennedy, if you're on a tight budget, you can find a rabid market simply by going to the magazine rack at Borders and looking for titles that cater to a particular subculture.  Like yachts, for example.  When you find a subculture that looks remotely simpatico with your existing product or service, subscribe to all of the publications in that niche and market accordingly.

"Market accordingly" means to sell to them how they buy -- in their language -- on their payment terms -- through their preferred marketing media, and so on.  You have to immerse yourself in the subculture.  (When in Rome ...)  Then, for example, if you are a law firm, you might consider cobbling together a service offering tailored to yacht ownership:  Perhaps "sales, lease, and time-share contract advice and revisions" might be one place to start.  I have no idea.

Regardless, nowhere in Mr. Kennedy's or Mr. Halbert's material does it say anything about trying to convert lukewarm personalities into rabid buyers.  To my mind, rabidity is in the genes, and you either have rabid tendencies or you don't.  So target people who look hot blooded about something, and try to transfer that emotion on to your related product or service.

Obviously, the trick is trying to authentically place your product or service within the context of the lifestyle that's being celebrated.  Most members of a subculture can smell an outsider a mile away, and if you look like you're there just to cream the culture, you'll get spit out like a bad banana.  At least that has been my experience.

Also, sometimes a company will introduce a product that's so distinctive that a subculture will form around it.  MiniCooper and Krispy Kreme are examples.  But those are rare.  Per Mr. Kennedy, it's far better to target an established market and outsell the competition than to try to establish a new market from scratch.

My point of all this is that two very important marketing experts (my wife and Gary Halbert) finally agree on one thing:  In all things marketing, rabidity rules.

See also:  How to Reach a Niche Market.

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Q:  Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A:  Download Harry's contact info for future reference.

Land Major Accounts -- Here's How.

A ton of professional service providers read this blog:  Lawyers, Accountants, VC's, Consultants, Software Developers, Architects, Engineers, you name it.  Most are looking for painless ways to land their next large account.  If that's you, Chicken Little, then this is your lucky day...

Small business marketing guru (and personal friend) David Frey has just published an excellent special report that outlines his proven system for getting executives in big businesses to pick up the phone and call you.  For real.

• No cold calling
• No networking

David has used this system for years with huge success, but only recently has technology allowed him to automate every step of it.  Today, David explained his updated system to me on the phone, and it's sheer genius.  Click here to download.

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Q:  Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A:  Download Harry's contact info for future reference.

Memo to Vested Interests:

Typically I don't do posts about other people's posts simply because there are so many people who do it better than I ever could (Example: Rob).  But, man, you gotta see this post by DanaVan, which features my favorite quote of all time for now:

It's a rip and burn world man, rip and burn.

Right or wrong, simple fact is Dana's right.  Vested interests should buy a clue.  Or at least read Mark Cuban's blog.

Cold Calling Works (If Done Right)

Okay, maybe that's extreme, but I needed to punch things up so that this post would generate a click thru on your RSS reader!

Now then:  Here is what Seth said.  And here is Mike Smock's take on Seth's post.  Both of these guys are "wikked smaht" as they say in Boston.  But having trained door-to-door B2B sales reps at Aflac, I know for a flat-out fact that this type of selling works -- when it's done right.

Moreover, door-to-door selling doesn't need to be low brow, either.  In fact, in his book Thriving on Chaos, Tom Peters applauds Japanese banking senior executives who in tough times go door-to-door to solicit deposits -- the exact same tactic which Seth decries in his post.

People always throw the baby out with the bath water.  In this case, most marketers (and even most sales people) think that just because they suck at selling door-to-door that the tactic doesn't work.  These are the same people who can't stand cold calling, and I guarantee you that cold calling works because I do it all day long.  I rarely ask for the order on the first call, but I always try to establish the foundation for a two way permission-based dialogue going forward.

Nurture marketing is a multi-step process, and there's just no getting around that very first step -- whether it's a cold call or a referral or a knock on the prospect's door.  Fact is, if you have never met your prospect, then you are making a first impression.  That scares the hell out of most sales people, and therein lies the difference between a champ and a chump.

Seems to me that being a Purple Cow means being ballsy enough to do what your competition simply won't do.  And again, there's no reason that selling door-to-door has to be difficult or beneath one's dignity -- as long as you have a good process for it.

To quote Tom Hopkins:  "If your tactics are sound, they can't fight you."  Truer words have never been spoken.

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Q:  Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A:  Download Harry's contact info for future reference.

Geoffrey Moore - "Dealing with Darwin"

There are lots of books on business strategy, but there are very few that make a real difference over time to the businesspeople who read them.  Everyone has a favorite strategy book, and I have one too:  Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore.

If you've ever seen the movie "Wizard of Oz," you'll recall the scene in which Dorothy's house falls from the sky, kills the Wicked Witch of the East, and when Dorothy opens the door to Oz -- the movie goes from black-&-white to color.  That's what happened to my knowledge of business after reading CtC.  Old concepts had been slain, and everything looked different.  Suddenly, I wasn't in Kansas anymore.

Strictly speaking, CtC is a book on technology marketing -- but the practical uses of the chasm model (and the "technology adoption life cycle" and the "whole product model") go waaaaay beyond I.T.  So far beyond, in fact, that Moore's model has been reworked in a number of excellent business books, not the least of which is Unleashing the Ideavirus by Seth Godin.

Anyway, Geoffrey Moore has written a new book called Dealing with Darwin, to be published next month.  From what I have seen, it superimposes the cream of Michael Treacy's landmark strategy book The Discipline of Market Leaders with the essential concepts developed in CtC.  (If you haven't read it, Treacy's book kicks strategy butt, too.  My copy is highlighted, underlined, margin-scribbled, and Post-It noted to death.)

I'll shut up now.  But suffice it to say, Darwin's going to be a real page turner, especially if you want to know how to grow your business -- whatever your business may be.  Until the book comes out, you can download Dealing with Darwin's key concept PowerPoint slides right here.  Enjoy!

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Q:  Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A:  Download Harry's contact info for future reference.

20 Reasons to Love Peter Drucker

Peter Drucker died yesterday.  There are countless people much more talented than me who will write about Mr. Drucker's life in the next few days, so I'll refrain from waxing about how much his work has influenced my thinking on business.  I will say, however, that if you are unfamiliar with Mr. Drucker's work, please read The Daily Drucker -- a veritable showcase of Drucker gems mined from his 65 years of management writing, "nearly all of it essentially right," according to Jim Collins.

In a small salute to his life, following are twenty reasons to love Peter Drucker -- a few of my favorite quotes from The Daily Drucker.  As I compiled them, I was reminded of the legendary rock critic Lester Bangs, who once said "There are no bad Who songs; there are only less good ones."  And so it is with Peter Drucker.  These are my favorites today.  But I'm sure I'll wish I had included many others tomorrow.

1. The critical question is not "How can I achieve?" but "What can I contribute?"
2. There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer.  He alone gives employment.
3. It is easier to raise the performance of one leader than it is to raise the performance of a whole mass.
4. Leadership is not rank.  It is responsibility.
5. An executive should be a realist; and no one is less realistic than the cynic.
6. You cannot prevent a major catastrophe, but you can build an organization that is battle-ready, where people trust one another.  In military training, the first rule is to instill soldiers with trust in their officers -- because without trust, they won't fight.
7. Listening (the first competence of leadership) is not a skill, it is a discipline.  All you have to do is keep your mouth shut.
8. It is easy to look good in a boom.
9. Luck never built a business.  Prosperity and growth come only to the business that systematically finds and exploits its potential.
10. The one person to distrust is the one who never makes a mistake.  Either he is a phony, or he stays with the safe, the tried, and the trivial.
11. There are keys to success in managing bosses.  First, put down on a piece of paper a "boss list," everyone to whom you are accountable.  Next, go to each person on the list and ask, "What do I do and what do my people do that helps you do your job?"  And, "What do we do that makes your life more difficult?"
12. Workmanship is essential:  In fact, an organization demoralizes itself if it does not demand of its members the highest workmanship.
13. A decision is a commitment to action.  No decision has, in fact, been made until carrying it out has become somebody's responsibility.
14. It's much easier to sell the Brooklyn Bridge than to give it away.  Nobody trusts you if you offer something for free.
15. The ultimate test of an information system is that there are no surprises.
16. Until a business returns a profit that is greater than its cost of capital, it does not create wealth -- it destroys it.
17. The question has to be asked -- and asked seriously -- "If we did not do this already, would we go into it now?"  If the answer is no, the reaction must be "What do we do now?"  Very often, the right answer is abandonment.
18. Freedom is not fun.  It is a responsible choice.
19. One can't manage change.  One can only be ahead of it.
20. Just go out and make yourself useful.

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Q:  Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A:  Download Harry's contact info for future reference.

Should Job-Seekers Create a Blog?

MarketingSherpa:  Does having a personal blog mean you'll be contacted by headhunters more than most people are?

Harry:  Possibly.  But blogs are most useful in establishing one’s credibility among certain self-referencing networks of people – like trade association members.  Those networks can lead to job opportunities with or without headhunters.

Not many people know this – but blogs require an editorial platform to be successful.  Who is your target reader?  Are you one of them?  Were you one of them?  How to they think?  What do they fear? What makes them mad?  What are their top three daily frustrations?  Now: How will each blog post help them in their daily struggle?  There must be a concrete takeaway from each post, so you must develop a well-informed and teachable point of view on issues that are important to your target readership.

Think of your blog as a cookie jar.  All the busy reader wants is a tasty little diversion that is a little nutritious.  Tell them something that they didn’t already know.  Or give them a new way to apply something that they already know.  And ideally, keep each post to less than 100 words.  Remember that there are 9 million blogs now, so don’t expect people to read it just because it’s free.

Have something to say and say it in an engaging way.  Then, if you want to add family photos or podcasts or video-on-demand, that’s fine – as long as it’s professionally done and does not detract from the relevance of the blog.

Also, understand that getting "Googled" is a normal part of the client’s due diligence process these days.  A blog post today about last night’s drunken bender might well get thrown in your lap in a job interview two years from now.  So my advice is:  Be authentic AND professional.

Update:  See also Chris Mayaud's "Find of the Week"

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Q:  Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A:  Download Harry's contact info for future reference.

Adding Calculators to Your Website

One of the best ways to make a website “sticky” is to add online calculators to it.  You’ve seen examples: Online calculators can help people determine which car loan best suits their needs, which insurance policy makes the most sense for them, which mortgage is the cheapest, and so on.  These tools make it easy for your customers to educate themselves on your products and services, and will keep them coming back to your website to compare your competitors’ offerings to your own.  In fact, companies like Progressive Insurance have based entire marketing campaigns based on such functionality.

Martindale’s Online Calculator Center features 20,615 calculators that can solve almost any problem.  See it to believe it.  Almost all of these tools can be reproduced on your own website with a minimal amount of programming and cost.

Action item:  At your next marketing meeting, brainstorm ways to add calculators to your website in order to help your prospects understand your company’s value proposition.  Which of Martindale’s calculators can be copied “as is” to help your customers comprehend your product’s total cost of ownership?  Which calculators would work if modified?  How can they be improved for your purposes? For a list of good programmers who can cheaply reproduce these, contact me.

____________________________________________

Q:  Need the number of a recruiter who "gets it?"
A:  Download Harry's contact info for future reference.