As part of my research dedicated to bringing Savvy Craft to life ..
Ive been corisponding with Chris Cardell,one of Britain’s leading authorities on Marketing and Entrepreneurial Success.
Over 253,000 UK Business owners receive regular email updates on business success.
Chris Cardell: I will be delighted to send you my Free email tips, I think you’ll find it contains some very useful information to help you grow your business and increase your profits.
Dear Azza,
Thank you for signing up for my Free information on Marketing and Entrepreneurial Success.
This email has 10 specific free Marketing strategies that I think you'll find useful.
First, Why should you take any notice of me?
I'm the leading provider of sales and marketing success information to business owners in the UK and throughout Europe. I've been featured on BBC, ITV, News at Ten and The Sunday Times. I combine leading edge Business, Marketing and Entrepreneur success skills – with the Advanced Thinking strategies of the world's highest achievers. I'm renowned for being able to show business owners like yourself how to increase your profits by 50-250%.
Second, I'll tell it to you like it is. I do believe that you have the potential for great Entrepreneurial success – but I also know that it's not always a straightforward path. If you're like most business owners, you're being bombarded with people trying to rip you off – from advertising companies to web site designers. As if that's not enough, finding out what really works in growing a business can be another huge challenge.
So my role is to sort through all of this for you and do all the hard work for you... so I can provide you with the clearest and simplest strategies for Marketing to make your sales soar.
The good news is that Marketing success is really much easier than you might think, because it all really boils down to some very simple fundamentals
I'd like to share 10 free Marketing strategies with you here now, then in future emails we'll move onto the specifics of increasing your profits as rapidly as possible.
So here are my 10 free Marketing strategies for your business. I'll be coming back to each of these in detail in the weeks and months ahead:
* Slash your advertising budget in half. Use the money you save to test some other simple forms of marketing. If you feel uncomfortable about stopping your advertising even though as I've said, it probably isn't actually working, just try cutting it in half and use that money for other marketing tests. Better yet, get on the phone to the media you advertise in and ask them to reduce the prices - in this economy they are really struggling and I can almost guarantee they'll give you a substantial saving. Use the money you save to test new forms of Marketing and Internet Marketing.
* PR. Publicity. Expert positioning. Any time your name appears in print, you are automatically an expert. People believe what they read in the papers, see on the TV and hear on the radio. It can be as simple as writing a small column in a local paper -- most of these papers are crying out for quality content. They have little money to pay freelancers to write for them and might well welcome material from you.
* Upselling. If you don't ask your customers to buy more from you, they'll rarely come offering. You can build tremendous momentum with a sale if you keep offering add-ons and more “de-luxe” versions. Don't just sell a sofa - sell it with a full carpet clean, and matching rugs.
* Go out and meet your top 20 customers. Don't try to sell them anything, but do ask for referrals. Take them to lunch, or even just a coffee at Starbuck's. This is a powerful strategy simply because in this modern and hectic world, no one seems to want to do it any more. If other people aren't doing something, that's a good enough reason for you to test it.
* Networking. Go anywhere people in your target market or in synergistic businesses might hang out. You don't have to pay to join a Breakfast club - there are lots of trade shows and events you can get in for free. The people at these events are there for the same reason you are: to do business.
* Public Speaking. Any time you get up in front of an audience to speak about your business, you're marketing. There are dozens of opportunities to speak to interested, qualified prospects all over the place.
* Improve your sales skills. There is an incredible amount of top quality, free information out there on sales - you're reading some NOW! Books aren't expensive, either, and you can get them from the library if you don't want to buy them yourself. Knowledge is priceless, and it's something no one can ever take away from you. Always be prepared to invest heavily in yourself. Becoming great at selling is absolutely fundamental for business success today.
* Emails. If you're emailing your customers and clients less than once a week, you are definitely leaving money lying around unclaimed. Make it a habit to mail your list regularly with useful, topical content they can use. They'll love you for it, and you will make more sales.
* Joint ventures. Look around you and you'll see dozens of non-competing businesses whose customers are just like yours. For instance, imagine you deal with, VOIP systems and save your customers money. Now imagine you get local accountants to let you leave your paper newsletter or other marketing piece in their waiting room. Anyone waiting for their accountant has money on their mind and will be a prime target for your “save money” message. It works.
* Become an expert at Internet Marketing, particularly Pay per Click Advertising on Google. Pay per Click is the most powerful breakthrough in Marketing this century – yet very few small business owners truly understand its power. I'll be keeping you updated on Pay per Click in the weeks and months ahead.
Nothing I tell you will ever be theory. My own business is worth over £20 million but getting there was not always easy. All my strategies were developed in ‘the trenches'. If I can save you from some of the hurdles I had to jump over, I will have done a good job.
I'll speak to you again soon.
Best wishes
Chris Cardell
Dear Azza,
As Entrepreneurs, we have only one source of wealth. It’s not our talent or expertise. It’s not even our product or service.
Our only source of wealth is our customers.
Yet it’s very easy to neglect that source of wealth.
Today I want to focus on one of the most overlooked elements of Entrepreneurial success - your communications with your existing customers.
Most marketing efforts focus on acquiring new customers. But I've yet to find a business that is maximizing its marketing to its existing customers.
I would take this a step further. When I speak to a business owner, I know without a doubt that they are sitting on a goldmine. This goldmine consists of the wealth that is hidden in their relationships with their current customers.
How do you access that goldmine? By answering these questions:
What do you have to offer your existing customers? When did you last let them know? What are you not offering existing customers that you could be offering them? When did you last send a letter to your customers? When did you last email them? Did you measure the response? When did you last call them? What would happen if you doubled your contact with them this year? When you do communicate with them, what more could you be doing to clearly explain the specific benefits that they will experience?
I once helped an Entrepreneur who generated £300,000 by sending a brochure to their clients once a year. I asked what would happen if they sent the brochure twice a year. It might seem an obvious question but the thought had never even crossed their mind. We did it (and a lot more) and it generated a fortune for them.
This is not an unusual story. We are all so close to our businesses that it is often a challenge to step back and look at the obvious - the elusive obvious.
Here are some more useful questions: How often do you communicate with your customers by direct mail? Do you test and measure the response? Do you spend at least 15 minutes each month thinking of an exclusive offer you can make to your existing customers? Do you say 'thank you' to your customers either by letter, email or telephone? Do you ask your customers for referrals? If you have a limited service or product line - do you know of additional companies, products or services that your customers could benefit from?
There are hundreds of great marketing strategies for getting new customers. But before that, you need to nurture your relationships with your existing customers. It is the first key to the goldmine.
Best wishes
Chris Cardell
Leading Edge Information to Grow your Business and Increase your Profits Chris Cardell
Cardell Media Ltd
1 Northumberland Avenue
Trafalgar Square
London
WC2N 5BW
Hi Azza,
Following my recent emails about Information Marketing, a couple of people have asked me
“Will Information Marketing work for me?”
The answer is “Yes.”
Information Marketing works for any business and in any industry.
Here are just six of the many ways that Information Marketing can work for you:
1. Coaching people (including your existing customers) either in the implementation of your product/service, or if you choose, in a totally different area. People want to be led - especially when times are tough like now. No matter what business you’re in they’ll welcome the opportunity to have one-on-one time with a true expert.
2. Writing a book. You write a book... you become the expert (there’s reason for the old phrase “he wrote the book on it”). And it’s easier and quicker than you’d believe. I believe that all business owners should write a book. Even if you sell screwdrivers. The fact that not many people will buy your ‘Ultimate Guide to Screwdrivers’ is irrelevant. When you send it to prospective customers it positions you above the competition. You can self publish a book for a few hundred pounds.
3. Taking your knowledge and expertise and creating products such as CDs and DVDs. Almost anything from a live seminar, to a teleseminar to a recorded on-screen-presentation you make at your own PC can be turned into saleable and very profitable product. It’s no longer just the “big boys” who can be information publishers selling high-quality and professional information products for high profits.
4. Presenting live events and Seminars. If you now think people are willing to pay for your information products on CD and DVD... how much more will they pay to attend a LIVE event where they get exclusive access to YOU, the new authority in your industry
5. Presenting Teleseminars and Webinars (including for your existing customers). There is a huge untapped market in every industry for paid-for teleseminar and webinar series which you can record and turn into products in their own right.
6. Being a high paid consultant (Information Marketers are generally the highest paid Consultants in the world). And as a world-class and recognized authority and industry expert the fees you can command are exceptionally high.
This afternoon (Wednesday) Bill Glazer and I (Bill is a world leader in Information Marketing) are holding a unique Free Online Video Seminar called, ‘Information Marketing: The Business that Everyone Should be in.’ This is your last chance to register your Free place for this special event. You can do that here:
http://www.cardellmedia.co.uk/videoseminar1.html
The Video Seminar is 90 minutes and could be a turning point for you. I am not aware of any type of business that creates as many millionaires each year as Information Marketing. You might not want to aim that high – but you should at least have an Information Marketing ‘arm’ to your current business. Find out why this afternoon. Reserve your Free place here:
http://www.cardellmedia.co.uk/videoseminar1.html
Best wishes
Chris Cardell
Dear Azza
Of all the ways to waste money on Marketing, advertising seems to be everyone's favourite - so today we're looking at how to get better results from your advertising.
First - be aware that there are many more effective ways to market than just advertising. In my experience, many businesses depend too heavily on advertising, when there are many more effective ways to market. In addition, advertising can be one of the most expensive marketing options. So I would always look at more cost effective marketing strategies before we get to advertising. But if you are advertising already, or plan to in the future, here are some basics on what works and what doesn't.
First of all, stop any advertising that isn't working.
That may sound ridiculously obvious but you would be amazed at how many people are running ads just because that's what their business has always done and they don't really know whether the ads are working.
Secondly, you wont know whether the ads are working unless you test and measure all of your advertising. I spoke about testing last time - but it's so important. So many businesses just allocate a certain amount of money to an advertising budget, spend the money every year…and they've only got a vague sense of whether the ads are working or not. This is crazy. If your ads are working, you want to roll them out on a larger scale. If they're not, STOP and use the money on one of the dozens of other marketing strategies that can bring you a 100 or 200 or 300% return on your investments.
Third, only run ads that are going to produce a response. This is known as direct response advertising. The other form of advertising is institutional (or brand) advertising. This is what Coca-Cola and McDonalds engage in. It's designed to build and sustain awareness of their brand. If you're in a small or medium sized business, brand advertising is almost certainly a huge waste of money.
Unless you're a global multi national, the purpose of your ads must be to produce a response. Smart marketers are ruthless in only creating and paying for ads that produce a response - a profitable response.
In the ad itself the most important element is the headline. The headline is either the heading that goes at the top of the ad or if there's no heading it's the first words of the ad. The headline needs to grab peoples' attention. One change in a headline can produce a 50 -100% increase in response. (TIP: If the headline of your ad is currently the name of your company, you can almost certainly increase the response rate by changing the headline.)
The copy of your ad needs to be a personal communication to the individual reading it. And it needs to be about them. It needs to address their needs, desires and fears and it needs to constantly communicate the benefits of what you are offering. At the end of the ad you need a call to action. Tell people exactly what they need to do to follow through and make it easy for them to do so.
Here are some other fundamentals of advertising: Don't advertise on a left hand page. This has been tested again and again. When you read a publication, your eyes are drawn to the right hand page as you flick through, so statistically more people will see your ad if it's on the right hand page.
Never pay the full rate for advertising. Most advertising rate cards are far too high and you can always negotiate. If you're a small business remember that large companies who use ad agencies are buying based on the readership or audience levels rather than the rate card - so haggle and negotiate. If you can pay 20 or 30% less for your advertising it can sometimes turn an unprofitable ad campaign into a successful one.
One of the biggest mistakes people make is advertising in publications just because their competitors are in them. Don't for a minute think that all your competitors are there because their ads are producing great results. They're more likely to be there because everyone else is and most of them wont have a clue whether their ads are working. The only criteria for advertising anywhere is if the ad produces great results for you.
Once again, my experience is that many businesses are wasting money on ineffective advertising when they could be getting a much better return on other forms of marketing (Direct Mail, Telephone Marketing, Direct Sales, Email, Internet, Referrals, Strategic Alliances etc) But if you do it well and test and experiment, advertising can become a highly profitable element of your marketing mix.
For more information on Entrepreneurial success, visit www.CardellMedia.co.uk
Feel free to forward this email on to anyone who will find it useful. If they receive this message and want to receive my emails, they need to go to www.CardellMedia.co.uk/vip.html to register.
Best wishes
Chris Cardell
Dear Azza,
Very few business owners are willing to take extraordinary measures to win the trust of new customers.
It’s increasingly important to do something out of the ordinary to win these new customers’ trust in this economic climate, because as I’m sure you’ve noticed, your customers are more careful with their buying decisions. Many actually have as much disposable income as they had two years ago – but they’re far more cautious when it comes to taking that first step and making the buying decision.
If you don’t have an extraordinary first offer for your new customers – you’re missing out, probably on a huge scale.
The most extraordinary type of offer is to have no sales offer at all – but to give people something Free, of significant value to earn their trust and respect.
That’s what I’m currently doing. For anybody like you, who’s serious about Entrepreneurial success and who wants fast access to the strategies to achieve it, I invest in sending you a six CD set worth £295, plus giving you two months membership of my VIP Inner Circle. There’s a third bonus too which in total involves me giving you over £500 worth of material, just to encourage you to try it and make some significant additional profits.
Why do I do this and why do you want to do something similar? It’s totally counter intuitive to invest in your customer before they invest in you. But it’s the most powerful relationship builder in the world. I do it because if you can experience the value of what I have, if you can make thousands or tens of thousands of pounds from material I send you Free, you’re likely to become a lifetime customer. My top end Platinum group members pay £24,000 per year to work personally with me, because it effectively costs them nothing. They’re making hundreds of thousands, in some cases millions in return.
Today I want to share with you one of the key ingredients for your Entrepreneurial success.
It's Free and you can do it right now but I can guarantee that virtually none of your competitors are doing it.
What is it? It's thinking outside the box. It's taking a step back from your business and looking at your marketing in a totally new way.
Let me explain. Most businesses are trapped in a prison. It's the prison that says they have to market in the same way that everyone else in their profession markets. So all the plumbers advertise in the yellow pages, all the hairdressers advertise in the local paper, all the double glazing companies use telemarketing etc etc.
If you are similar to 95% of businesses, you probably use just one or two primary ways to market and grow your business. Perhaps it's advertising. Perhaps it's referrals, or direct mail. I understand why you're doing it but you need to know that only using one or two marketing approaches is seriously limiting your profits and your potential. So here's my question for you: What would happen if over the next few months you doubled that to four or five prime ways of marketing? Then, over the next few months you were to double it again, so that you were using up to 10 prime ways of marketing to maximise your customer base and your profitability?
I'll tell you what will happen. You'll achieve what everyone continually tells me is 'impossible.' You'll increase your profits by 50% or 100% or more. I've seen it happen again and again with my clients and those rare business owners and managers who are willing to decide to make Marketing excellence their top priority.
At this point people normally start coming up with excuses. 'I haven't got time' or 'I don't understand Marketing' are the most frequent. Great, so start with the simple stuff. Let me give you an example: When did you last get an email from your hairdresser? Instead of putting all their efforts into advertising, what would happen if your hairdresser took your email address next time you visited and sent you the occasional email making you a special offer, or asking if you would like to make an appointment, or asking for referrals? If they did that continually across the business they would probably increase their re-booking rate by 20-50% and their rate of referrals could easily double. And it will have cost them virtually nothing.
Dear Azza
This article is about an area of much confusion - yet an area of significant potential profit for you and your business - Direct Mail.
What sets the smart business owners and managers apart from the rest is that they are willing to take the time to really understand Direct Mail. There are many myths and a lot of nonsense surrounding Direct Mail. You may want to print out and keep this email - because in my continuing efforts to help you and your business create exponential success - I am about to share the essentials of Direct Mail that you really should know. I would be surprised if the contents of this email were not worth at least a few thousand pounds to you over the next year - if you apply all the principles we are going to cover. (By the way, if you're totally new to the subject 'Direct Mail' simply refers to anything you send people in the post - letters, brochures etc.)
First lets dispel some of the myths about Direct Mail. My favourite is 'Direct Mail doesn't work.' This ingenious conclusion is arrived at by the fact that you and I throw most of the mail we receive in the bin - therefore the logic is it's a waste of money. The truth is that 90 out of 100 people may throw your mailing in the bin, but if 5 people glance at it, 5 more read it and one of those 5 buys from you - you may well have a highly profitable mailing. Direct Mail is a numbers game and you have to enter into it in the knowledge that most of your mailings will probably go unread. (One of the important factors is to make sure that your mailing is so compelling that people DO read it - but we'll come to that later.)
So the reason that Viking Direct and many other big companies bombard you with mailings is because they work. These companies have spent a fortune testing and fine tuning their mailings - they know what works and what doesn't. But here's a word of warning - it is true that a significant amount of direct mail does not work - and that tends to be the mailings conducted by small and medium sized businesses who do not really understand what they are doing. When it's done well direct mail can make your profits soar. When it's done badly it can eat up your marketing budget instantly. So be careful.
The second myth is that there is a magical percentage conversion rate that a successful mailing campaign should receive. In other words, you should 'expect' 3% (or whatever) of the people you mail to buy from you. This is absolute nonsense - and it's very dangerous nonsense.
First of all, the price of what you are offering plays a significant factor. If you're selling CDs at £9.95 you'll probably get a different response rates than if you're selling million pound yachts. Secondly, it's not the percentage response that counts - it's whether the mailing is profitable or not. Thirdly and perhaps most importantly, nobody can ever predict the response from a direct mail campaign. This is why TESTING is absolutely imperative in Direct Mail.
You should never embark on a Direct Mail campaign without testing it on a small scale first. Why? Because the beauty of Direct Mail is that it is statistically very predictable.
Let me explain what I mean - and this is really, really important so please re-read this paragraph until you get it. Direct Mail is statistically predictable. If you send out 2000 letters and get 20 responses - you can predict with some certainty that if you send out 4000 letters (to the same group) you will get somewhere in the region of 40 responses. Equally, if you send out 2000 letters, get 1 response and lose money on the mailing, it is highly unlikely that if you send out 4000 letters you will have a profitable mailing.
Why is this so important? Because far too many people spend a fortune on a glossy brochure, mail out 10,000 copies to a dodgy list, get a terrible result and lose thousands of pounds. I've seen this again and again - and it can really harm your business. So always test your mailing on a small scale first. It needs to be small enough to be an amount of money you can afford to lose if it doesn't work out - but large enough to be able to hopefully generate at least 7 or 8 responses. For a typical business, that's going to be somewhere between 500 and 2500.
Any mailings you consider will fall into two categories: The first is mailings to your existing customers. The second is mailings to potential new customers.
If you do not currently do much direct mail - and you have a list of past customers, you should start by mailing these existing customers.
Let me be more explicit. Every client I have ever worked with who has existing customers has been sitting on a goldmine of untapped profits because they have not been utilising direct mail with these customers.
Think of something you can offer these customers, send them a letter and measure the response. If it works, mail them again next month and measure the results. If it keeps on working, keep on doing it!
Then there is using Direct Mail to attract new customers. This is an art and science in itself - and you may want to bring in outside help - but again there are some fundamentals which you will want to follow. Here are eight of them to keep you going:
1 Remember to Test any Direct Mail campaigns for new customers on a small scale before rolling them out.
2 Consider testing renting mailing lists relevant to your target group. There are thousands of highly accurate mailing lists which can be a great way of reaching new people.
3 Always include a letter with any brochure you send - it will increase the response rate.
4 Make sure that the contents of your mailing focus on the benefits of your product or service. You want it to be about your potential customer and what you can do for them rather than just being about you.
5 Don't limit Direct Mail to pure selling. You can use it to say 'thank you' to customers. You can use it to ask for referrals or to introduce your customers to a company you've partnered with. It's only limited by your imagination.
6 If you repeat a successful mailing three weeks later you can expect a response rate around 50% of the original
7 Test mailing postcards - they are cheaper than a normal mailing and in some cases will produce a higher response rate
8 If you follow up a mailing with a phone call you can increase the response rate by up to 1000%
Direct Mail is a huge subject - but these principles should help you make a start on your next campaign and avoid costly mistakes in the future.
For more information on Entrepreneurial success, visit www.CardellMedia.co.uk
Feel free to forward this email on to anyone who will find it useful. If they receive this message and want to receive my emails, they need to go to www.CardellMedia.co.uk/vip.html to register.
Best wishes
Chris Cardell
Leading Edge Information to Grow your Business and Increase your Profits
Dear Azza
Today I am going to share with you the one piece of knowledge on marketing and business success that changed my entire business life. I don't want anything from you in return. I'm not selling you anything. I just want you to read this - and ideally print it out and re-read it several times. Why am I doing this? ….well in a strange way that's what this message is all about.
It struck me recently that if I am going to stick to my goal of giving you the very best Entrepreneurial success tips and advice, there is something very obvious that I have not told you about.
It's all very well showing you how to save money on advertising, make direct mail work for you, use email and the internet etc - but there is another vital element to your business success that drives everything else.
I have been asked several times recently why I send out information that could be worth a great deal to business owners and managers - for FREE. Some people think I am mad, some think I am the new Messiah (possible but unlikely) and some want to know what the catch is. There is no catch. Only a handful of people truly understand at the deepest level the method behind my madness. It struck me that until you understand the thinking behind my marketing success - you are never going to be able to reach the heights that you deserve. So here goes. As my personal gift to you, I would now like to unveil the principle driving force behind successful marketing in the 21st Century.
If you ask most business owners and managers what the deepest purpose of their business is, they will probably all say it is to make money and profits.
I think this is a huge mistake. Here's why …..
Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to spend time with some of the world's great Entrepreneurs. People such as Richard Branson, Duncan Bannatyne and the late Anita Roddick. When I met these individuals, I questioned them in great detail about what creates their success. When you do this, something surprising soon becomes apparent: The prime driving force behind their success is not the desire to make money. It is certainly one of the driving forces but it is not the prime driving force.
That might sound surprising - but think of it this way. At the time of writing this, Microsoft has around 57 billion dollars in cash reserves in the bank. 57 BILLION DOLLARS. Cash just sitting there waiting to be spent. Do you honestly think that the prime motivating factor that gets Bill Gates out of bed in the morning is the desire to make some more money? Of course not.
Here's what really drives all these people. At some level, it is a deep desire to make a real difference in the lives of the people they reach. To impact them in some way. To make a real difference. Don't get me wrong, Gates and Branson and co love money. They love profits, but they're also smart enough to know that it was their passion for making a difference that brought in those profits in the first place.
What's this got to do with your business success? Everything. Let me explain by using my experience as an example. When I discovered what I've just been discussing, it literally changed my business life. Here's how:
I'm well known for showing Entrepreneurs how to substantially increase their profits using a combination of Advanced Business Strategies and Advanced Thinking. But I used to have a bizarre problem in promoting my own services. The problem was that people simply did not believe it was possible for them to increase profits by 50% or 100% or more. I had spent many years and tens of thousands of pounds learning the most powerful marketing and Entrepreneurial success strategies in the world for small and medium sized businesses. I was able to work with business owners and managers and achieve 'remarkable' results. As time went on I built up case studies of business people who had made the decision to get in touch with me - and whose marketing had been transformed as a result. So I used to launch my own 'marketing campaigns' to 'convince' people that I could do the same for them. I sent out brochures, I called people. I even became one of a handful of such experts to guarantee my results. I had a great sales pitch. If you were a prospective client, I knew with such certainty that I could increase your profits I would call and say "Work with me and I guarantee I can solve your marketing problems and substantially grow your business. And if I can't, you don't pay a penny." I did very well but still not as well as I wanted to. Something was not right. Then, one day, it finally clicked.
I decided, literally overnight to shift my emphasis totally. I decided to stop selling and start giving. If you can understand this paradox, then this is your lucky day.
I made the prime purpose of my business to give, give, give. To add incredible value to the lives of people that I came into contact with. I gave everyone who was interested tons of great information on how to grow their business. I sent them information in the post. I emailed them. I chatted to them on the phone. Some became clients, some didn't. It really didn't matter because I knew I was making a difference. I stopped forever the "I can grow your business and solve your marketing problems - Why don't you become my client" pitch. Within a few days people started contacting me asking me to work with them.
What had changed? Instead of trying to convince people that I could give them the knowledge that could solve their marketing problems - I just started giving them the knowledge anyway and let them decide for themselves. I switched my focus from what I wanted to what they wanted.
I learnt some profound lessons. The first is that in business, as in life, giving is a great experience. The second was that most businesses wait until a client or customer gives them money before they start adding value to that customer's life. Now I say 'Why wait' Start adding value now and believe me, the customers will come to you.
So here's my very strong suggestion to you. Take this concept and try it out in your business for ten days and see what happens. It's the most powerful business growth concept on earth - and yet it will cost you absolutely nothing. Decide for the next ten days that the prime purpose of your business is to add incredible value to the lives of your customers. For a few days, forget about the struggle for money and profits. Forget about you and just focus on them. Step into their shoes and do whatever you can to enhance the quality of their lives. Surprise them. Shock them. Make them laugh. Give them something they weren't expecting for free. Brighten up their day. Send them a gift…anything that lets them know that their well-being is your top priority.
The result is that you will differentiate yourself so massively from the mass of mediocrity out there, I think you may be surprised and quite possibly stunned at the results.
The phrase 'win-win' is very over used these days, but if you are willing to give it a go, this strategy is true win-win. Your customers get an amazing and unprecedented experience from being in your presence …and your working day becomes a blast because everyone who interacts with you enjoys your company.
My basic message here is that maybe we've got it all wrong. We're so immersed in working out how to increase sales and grow our businesses, in how to improve our own lives - we're missing the obvious way to do it - and it's right in front of you. The irony is that if there is a secret to your success it is to stop worrying about your success and start thinking about the success of your customers and potential customers. Pay attention to their problems, their needs. Go out of your way to make their lives easier, to put a bit of joy into their lives. Will the occasional one still treat you badly? Sure but who cares. The majority will be simply stunned by the way you are so different from the masses.
Think of it in terms of this email. Around a thousand people will receive this message today. 50% wont have read this far because they'd sooner go and have a cigarette. Of the 50% who've read this far, probably 8 out of 10 will go off and think about it and may make a small change to their business as a result. I may never hear from them in my life ..but that's great… 400 people who we may have impacted with one simple email.
The 100 people remaining will be really struck by the thinking behind all this. They'll hit reply and send me a nice message. How cool is that. 100 messages from people who think I'm a genius!!
Of those hundred, a handful will have reached the point in their business where they realise it's finally time to solve that big marketing problem or take their business to the next level.
All from just giving. It's a great way of doing business. Actually it's a wonderful way of doing business. Have you any idea what it's like to wake up in the morning and know that you're going to make a difference to people's lives? - and there's no getting out of this if you've got a 'boring' job. I've seen train guards brighten up people's day, widget sellers who take such an interest in their customers' lives that their monthly sales soar. Because guess what, this philosophy doesn't just make you more successful - it can totally transform the quality of your working life. Because even if you regard your job as mundane or boring, the purpose of you going to work has now shifted from 'paying the mortgage' or whatever, to enhancing the lives of the people around you. So if this message has meant anything to you, please take action now.
For more information on Entrepreneurial success, visit www.CardellMedia.co.uk
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Best wishes
Chris Cardell
Leading Edge Information to Grow your Business and Increase your Profits
Cardell Media Ltd
1 Northumberland Avenue
Trafalgar Square
London
WC2N 5BW
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