When people go through a bad patch in business, they sometimes refer to it as ‘a bit of bad luck’. We all get hit with something unforeseen from time to time but most often ‘bad luck’ is a result of bad management or bad decisions.
Here’s a double-barrelled tip:
Complete a business plan – in writing.
When it’s done, don’t put it in the bottom drawer. Keep it on top of your desk and regularly compare your actual performance to your plan to see whether you’re achieving your plans, falling behind or actually exceeding expectations.
Let’s look at 5 myths about business planning:
‘You need special skills to do a business plan’. You don’t have to be a genius to plan or set your objectives. You are the person who knows the business and knows what can be achieved. Get involved and involve your accountant in the process too. They have the skills to make it simple for you.
‘Planning takes too much time and costs too much.’ Your time is an investment in your future profits. It’s worth setting aside one or two days to create a business plan for your whole operation for the next 1-2 years. It’s not a cost; it’s an investment in the future of your business. You’ll find that it’s the best money you’ve ever spent on your accountant if you involve them.
‘With a simple business like mine it’s easy to see what the problems are.’ Simple answer… if you know what the problems are then they shouldn’t be there. Plan to eliminate them.
‘I keep my business plan in my head.’ It’s too easy to forget an objective if you don’t write it down. You keep fooling yourself that you are achieving what you need to achieve. And, if anything happens to you, your family, partners or key team members need to know the plans and objectives for the business.
‘In my business, I can’t plan ahead – it’s month to month.’ That’s being reactive, not proactive. If you can plan so things don’t happen to you, life becomes much easier.
In summary, plan ahead, and stay in control. Remember the 6P’s of success… Proper Planning Prevents Pretty Poor Performance!
And here I focus on what our Tourism authorities have done to lure overseas visitors. Here’s some of the hype from the Tourism Australia press release trumpeting the new campaign designed to entice overseas visitors to Australia.
“Tourism Australia has launched the next stage of its new global tourism campaign – There’s Nothing Like Australia – and the video advertising piece created for the campaign has been directed by internationally acclaimed director Michael Gracey, who has had significant international success. Accompanying the spectacular images featured in the video is the ‘There’s Nothing Like Australia’ song written by Josh Abrahams. The use of the song represents a back to basics approach by using music to ensure that consumers remember the advertising long after they have seen it.”
I think that adds up to a pretty big budget to for the campaign including the TVC which must have cost a helluva lot to make and which you can see here…
I think you’d agree that it’s pretty good and the music is quite catchy but, being a 60 seconder, they’re gunna need a big budget to run it in their prime markets of the USA and UK. However they do say they’re gunna make extensive use of the new social media to get people watching it and going to the web sites and, if they can get traction there, they can achieve a helluva lot for very little.
Potential travellers around the world will be able to access information using the latest interactive digital media technology at www.australia.com and www.nothinglikeaustralia.com to research and plan their trip to Australia. Supporting the website is a suite of adaptable digital, print and broadcast advertising materials that give the travel trade the ability to consistently sell Australia’s tourism experiences internationally with the There’s Nothing Like Australia message.
So, what do you think? Are we going to see a huge influx of tourists as a result? We certainly didn’t see that with their previous campaign, the ‘Where The Bloody Hell Are You” TVC that launched Lara Bingle’s career.
By far the best campaign which produced quite spectacular results was the one which rode on the back of the success of the movie Crocodile Dundee and gave rise to the brilliant “Throw Another Shrimp On The Barbie” TVC featuring Paul Hogan.
The headline of your advertisement, the opening words of your radio commercial or whatever attracts attention in your TV commercial is the most important thing about your advertisement. You see the headline, the attraction getter, is really an advertisement for the rest of the advertisement. You see first of all you’ve got to get people’s attention. So, you should know there are some magic words you can use. Now you don’t use all of these words in every ad but thinking about them and using one is a great idea because it will make sure your ad works well. So here they are, the 12 magic words…
1. You – And it’s the most important word. Because when you use the word ‘you’ you’re talking about the prospect.
2. Money – is another important word because everybody is interested in money.
3. Discovery – What can people discover about your product or service. What discovery have you made that might help them get through life easier, better and more successfully?
4. Results – Is a great word, people buy on results. So show them the results. And incidentally the best way of showing results is to have testimonials from happy and satisfied users.
5. Save – People love to save money of course. But they also love saving time, embarrassment, lives, effort and so on. So have a headline that shows people what and how they can save.
6. Health – And of course that refers to their physical health but what about the health of their business, the health of their farm, the health of their family or their bank account. Show people what you can do for their health and you’ve got them interested.
7. New – You see people love new things. New ideas, new products, new discoveries, new services. And they are always interested in reading about them. You’ll get their attention with new thoughts on your product or services.
8. Proven – Is an old fashioned word but it’s a beauty. People don’t just want to buy a pig in a poke. They want something that’s proven. So give them proven ideas, proven recipes, proven suggestions and your ad will work gangbusters (and don’t forget that testimonials can be the proof).
9. Easy- People like things to be easy not difficult. So show people easy ways, easy methods, and easy approaches. You’ll find that it works like a charm.
10. Guarantee – And I guarantee to come back and explain, so here I am. When people invest, when people buy, when people spend they want to know what they are investing in, buying or spending on will work for them. They love to get a guarantee. So how can you show them that what you sell them will do the job for them? Give them a guarantee. Do you recall me talking about the plumbing that changed his ad? Instead of having name, rank and serial number type advertisements his said “Plumbing on time or it’s free”. What a great guarantee that is. Did that ad work? It worked gangbusters. So if it works for a plumber why not make it work for you. What can you guarantee about your products? Your experience? Your service? Your team members? That will impress people and get them to choose you. If you guarantee what you do, then it’s guaranteed to work.
11. Love – And of course it means the emotional experience between two people. But more, importantly, it’s a much stronger, more passionate word to use than like, appreciate or enjoy. So instead of saying “here’s a product you’ll like” say, “here’s a product you’ll love”. Tell them they’ll love your great view or they’ll love the movie. You see people just love to love things. It will give you results you’ll love.
12. Free – Yes free. Now I’m not suggesting you give your product or services away for nothing. Of course not! But what comes free with your products and services? Experience, help, ideas, suggestions, free installation, after sales service. Emphasise what comes free and you’ll find people love to buy. Oh by the way, one of the most powerful headlines you can use is “Buy one, get one free”. Works gangbusters… much better than two for the price of one!
You know how when you visit any health professional, the receptionist normally hands you a clip board, a pen and a 76 question personal disclosure sheet which you need to hand back before they’ll even look at your body? Well, one of my dental clients has gone the high tech route and now hands you an iPad – making it easy, simple and state of the art. Not only that, as few people have yet seen the iPad or used one, it provides a really great “wow” factor for the practice.
Maybe you should be looking at how you can better use technology in your practice?
It’s not often that I get to speak at a conference that is not a “closed door” company one and that’s why I’m so excited to be speaking at The SoooperMAX Fitness Business Conference & Expo to be held on the Gold Coast on Saturday, August 21 and in Auckland on Saturday August 28.
Whilst the content will be predominantly directed at Fitness Professionals and Personal Trainers it is all about how to generate prospects, turn them into high value sales and keep them coming back for life… something everyone in their own business has to do. At just $187 for the whole information packed day, I reckon its steal! I know that, with the simple, street smart tips and techniques you’ll get, you’ll finish the day 10 feet tall and bullet proof so that you’ll walk away ready and able to make massive increases in your business virtually overnight.
The day has been put together by my good friend Rowena McEvoy who has gone from having her backside out of her jeans to being in the BRW rich list… not bad for a girl who ran away from home in Blacktown at sixteen. What she’ll deliver will be just amazing.
Put that together with 4 other experts on sales, customer service, leadership and growth plus me and you’ve got one of the most brilliant days you’re ever likely to get the chance to attend.
So, my advice… turn one of those Saturdays into pure gold. Be there! Find out more about the speakers in this video:
VIP Gold Delegates have front rows and VIP seating. You will also be the guests of the presenters for Dinner on Saturday night and receive a full DVD set of the SooooperMAX Sessions - WOW!!
Group bookings offer great savings as well, just choose one of our “Corporate” options of either 5 or 10 tickets.
While normally the rate for general admission would be $247, we have a subscribers special running for a limited time! Book early to secure your special pricing.
Order now to guarantee your seat at SoooooperMAX… (Form takes you to Max College Site)
There’s one phrase we encounter when we’re endeavouring to do business with somebody that strikes terror into our hearts isn’t there?
It’s when we tell the prospect the price and they look at us and say “Geez that’s expensive.” How do you handle that? If you’re like many people you say “Well hang on, let me get the pencil out and I’ll see what I can do” and you shave the price.
It means you lose a lot of credibility… and profit! It suggests that your original price was too high anyway.
So what’s the answer to the “that’s expensive” try out?
Well, you’ve got to immediately respond by looking like you’ve just sucked a lemon. You get sucked lemon expression on your face… one of extreme distaste. Then you look them straight in the eye and say these words exactly “Is cheap important to you?” and shut up.
You wait for them to answer no matter how long it takes. And you’ll be amazed by the answer you get.
You see what happens is that, whilst you wait for their response to the question, they are delving into their subconscious to find what cheap means.
And that’s when they remember what word their mother used to say went with “cheap.” “Nasty.” But nobody wants anything that’s nasty and you emphasised cheap with that underlining pause after the cheap word.
So what will they say? Well, 99 times out of 100, it’ll be “No I guess not.”
And you respond with. “That’s right, what you’re looking for is value, which means the right product at the right price” and you pause so that they can nod in agreement. Then you go on with “Let me explain what your investment is buying you here” and you recapitulate on the benefits of your product or service.
The bottom line is that you’ll almost always make the sale… at your price!
Here’s the script in easy-to-read form…
Them: Geez, that’s expensive
You: (Lemon look) Is cheap (pause) important to you? (Shut up)
Them: No
You: That’s right! What you’re looking for is value, which means the right widget for you at the right price. Let me explain what you’re getting here…
Well let’s focus on a couple of blasts from the past to see what was influencing us to buy back in the dawn of Australian TV.
Oh how simple and unsophisticated we were back in the sixties when a commercial like this could get us buying Vegemite by the ton. It featured some cute kids doing very little for most of the time, a catchy jingle that anyone who was around at the time can still remember and a pretty blunt advertising message. Love the bit about put it next to the pepper and a salt… real politically incorrect now.
An all time favourite of many people came out of the seventies and really did reflect the ethos of the time. We all got to know this commercial pretty well and the repetitive and catchy tune ensured that we all sang along with it when it screened. It did a great job of selling all four icons but particularly the then much loved Holden car, “Australia’s own car” as it was known.
This is just a reminder that my teleseminar “How to keep business and money rolling in!” is coming up on July 14th.
In this absorbing and very practical 60 minute TeleSeminar you will find out exactly how to turn times like these into great times that are very, very profitable for your business.
The way to do that is quite simple really! In any business cycle, whether the economy is going up or down, some businesses will do better than average, some will do worse!
All you have to do is to make sure that you are among the businesses that do better than average!
That’s what this enthralling, enlightening and enthusing TeleSeminar is all about… sharing the secrets that will help your business perform better than average. You’ll discover the things that average business owners don’t know and don’t do. Then all you have to do is just do them!
In a sensationally simple TeleSeminar you will discover down-to-earth, plain and simple, nitty gritty ideas that you can
use to keep the business and money rolling in during times like these.
When you’re writing the headline of an advertisement you shouldn’t be writing it to please yourself, or the rest of the people in your business, because you and they already know all about the product or service. When you write that ad you should be writing it for someone in your target market; have in your mind’s eye the sort of person that is your customer, your client or your patient and write the advert to talk to them.
One of the great ways to do that is to address them as a group. What do I mean by that? Well, if you’re appealing to dairy farmers, the ad could start, “Dairy farmers! Here’s a great way you can increase the yield of your herd!” Hey that’s only going to attract dairy farmers. People who are into sugar cane growing, beef rearing or plumbing or electrical work won’t be interested. But you’ll flag dairy farmers down with that headline.
Then, once you’ve got their attention of course, you’ve got to tell the story of the headline; you’ve got to amplify and explain it so that, as they read it, it excites their interest and creates desire… desire to buy. Explain to them in terms that they understand what you’ve got for them that’s going to make their life easier, make them more successful, help them make more money, or get the results they want.
Do that and you’ve got an advert that’s really starting to work!
I just saw a telephone survey questionnaire that had lots of questions, which could be used in a variety of situations depending on what the business wanted to achieve. The question of me was “Would I write a script for the telephone call for these questions?”
Frankly, I would never phone someone and endeavour to get answers to that many questions… it would annoy the daylight out of me and I’m sure most would feel the same! However, you could selectively ask a couple of questions, up to say 5 or 6 – providing that they were relevant to the person you were asking, and depending on how you asked them. You would need to make sure that they could see that their opinion was important to you.
It would be a different kettle of fish if you were to mail it to them (maybe even prefaced by a phone call to advise them of it) and you offered them some sort of incentive to complete and return it (making sure that you included a reply paid envelope). Your incentive could be a gift voucher or a couple of movie theatre tickets or whatever.
Now, despite my reservations, you can still achieve great results if you ring someone and start cheerfully and brightly by saying something along the lines of…
Hello Mrs Smith, its June from The Widget Factory and you bought a Platinum Widget from us the other day. I know that you’re busy but was wondering if you could spare me just a couple of minutes to give me some feedback.
(Wait for response and if positive)
Great, thank you Mrs Smith, now here’s an easy one to start with… question 1.
(Listen carefully to answer and acknowledge it)
Thanks Mrs Smith, that’s great now, what about… question 2
(Listen carefully to answer and acknowledge it)
You’re doing well Mrs Smith and I appreciate it. Thanks heaps, only a couple more, lets go to… question 3.
Etc., etc.
Use lots of encouragement and sincerely thank her regularly for each answer so she knows you appreciate the feedback whether you like what she is telling you or not (people love to be asked for their opinion). You can ask extra questions if you judge that she’s not getting too tired of them by prefacing them with “by the way”, “tell me” or “incidentally.”
When you get to the end, thank her sincerely and reward her with something of value that she’ll appreciate which doesn’t cost you heaps, like a product you buy at wholesale and sell at retail (the soft dollar option).
The important thing in all of this is to be clear on what you want to know and then ask the right questions.
Winno, July 30th, 2010 
Categories: Advertising & Marketing, Business Development, Uncategorized Customer Service, Leadership, Management, Professional Development, Sales, Small Business | 
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