I recently created a short YouTube video (48 seconds) that highlights what you can do with the exponential power of the Internet.

In less than 1 minute, I am able to introduce myself as The Exponential Growth Strategist, promote my 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine to help you get more done with less effort, and make sure your business gets noticed by going from Bland To Brand.

And that’s just 20 seconds into the 48 second video!

Then I explain that you can increase conversions and sales with our Killer Kopywriting System as well as get news leads for a fraction of the cost with our brand new Internet Sales Lead Generation Toolkit so you can acquire the Mindset Of A Champion and win in business!

All of that in less than a minute!

The reason this video is on my Business Coaching And Mentoring blog is because all of our Internet Marketing Strategies are geared for REAL businesses who want to sell more of their products and/or services.

The Internet and its multimedia capabilities enable you to do that at a fraction of the cost, with minimum effort.

This entire campaign took me about 1 hour and cost less than $100 in total.

That’s hard to beat with ‘traditional advertising’.

Clients see you in one of two ways, either as a COST or as a BENEFIT.

Examples of companies that are perceived as a ‘cost’

• Lawyers
• Dentists
• Plumbers
• Gym
• Search consultants/headhunters

Examples of companies that are perceived as a ‘benefit’

• Restaurants that you want to eat at (non fast food)
• Jeweller
• Concerts and events
• Zoo and other attractions
• Pubs, bars and other entertainment

Here’s the thing – UNLESS you transform yourself from a cost to a benefit, you’ll remain stuck in the vortex of price matching and discounting – BECAUSE the prospects SEE you as a cost and not as a benefit.

Read More »»

I was just talking with a print publisher explaining to her that I am a firm believer in the immense value of print media – EVEN if we are in a digital age, we are still not about to forego print anytime soon. Print just has to COMPLEMENT digital capabilities. Both print and digital can and SHOULD co-exist at least for another 5 years (if not a lot longer).

If we look at email versus direct mail, you’d think the physical mailing would be on its way out, but there has been a resurgence of direct mail BECAUSE of the overload of electronic media. Most people sign up for every email subscription and don’t manage their inbox very well.

Recent research estimates the number of emails sent per day to be around 294 billion which means more than 2.8 million emails are sent every second and some 90 trillion emails are sent per year. Even though most are spam and viruses, emails are sent by around 2.5 billion genuine email users.

Regardless of the Internet Statistics, they all point to electronic information overload with the average professional receiving more than 100 e-mails every day. That’s enough to load up your inbox quicker than you can clean it out.

That’s why the physical mailing has not only become an attractive alternative to email and online marketing, but a source of pre-screened and highly qualified visitors.

The Retail Advertising and Marketing Association (RAMA, USA) report that consumers are most motivated to begin an online search after viewing advertisements in magazines followed by ads on television and then newspapers.

Offline Consumers Come Online Via Magazines

What print media publishers need to recognise and appreciate
is the tactile aspect of their product

Nothing beats having a newspaper, magazine or book in hand. I totally understand the sexiness of an iPad, but it’s NOT the same experience. It’s a DIFFERENT ONE.

That’s the point I’m trying to make.

Print is print is print.

When publishers forget that, the game is over.

So what is a print publisher to do?

1. Embrace digital technology to complement, supplement and enhance the print medium with additional features and benefits.
2. Link the print medium to online alternatives with polls, surveys, feedback, audio and video components. A print article can easily be an introduction to a full in-depth interview or book chapter available online as an opt-in download.
3. Print-exclusive promotions such as tear-out coupons (identified as such) can bolster subscriptions and/or increase distribution.
4. Physical distribution costs can be shared with partners who have a vested interest in the publication’s increased reach.
5. Want to know more ideas and suggestions, contact us – it’s what we do for our clients!

A recent study showed that about 8 in 10 Canadians read a newspaper each week with American weekly and British daily readership at 64 and 49% respectively.

Magazines Canada reports that magazines are read by all age groups, and an average of 78 % read a magazine within the last 30 days.

An analysis by the Magazine Media Fact Book reveals American magazine reading habits include 93% of adults reading magazines for an average of 42 minutes per issue.

If you think it’s only the senior demographic that is holding on to physical print media, you’re dead wrong!

A recent study discovered that North American consumers, aged 18-34, prefer direct mail over online media for many types of marketing communications.

Examples of consumer preferences for offline versus online are:

But there’s a condition for the young generation to hold on to traditional print media.it’s vital that there be a cross-channel synergy between digital and direct mail for it to be effective.

So there you have it, if you want to get more sales in 2012, you need to go back to traditional offline marketing and leverage it with online ‘web enabled’ benefits.

If you want the genesis of this concept, watch Steve Job’s Commencement Address To Stanford University Graduates in 2005 shown below.

Listen to one of our Platinum Program Members
who explains this philosophy in his own words:

When we started, we were aiming to assist smaller businesses, those with less
than 20 employees.  This is because 55% of all employment income in this
country is paid by those businesses.  The multinationals only provide 2%.

So wanting to help Australia be a more prosperous and competitive economy
meant helping those smaller businesses to really become successful,
particularly in export markets.

So we started as a small, lower cost base business able to serve smaller
clients cost effectively.  Since then I have grown less enamoured with this
position over time.  There is a reason companies remain small.  Sometimes it
is because that is what they want.  Less.  Less is easier and can involve
reduced risk, though not always.  But often it is because they don’t have
the mindset, skill or vision to be anything else.

It is clear that for us to grow, I have to have the resources to do more work
and the income to pay for those resources.  So our business model doesn’t
scale if we want to move up in size.  Particularly with the type of clients we
have generally been working with.

This year I’m thinking about how to take what we are doing and push it past
the $1,000,000 mark.  So what I’ve started doing is pricing our quotes as if
we already were that size.  Sometimes this means the price is double what it
might have previously been.  But I’m also looking at the delivery side and
making sure it also looks like it should for the size of business I want to
be.

And it is working!  We are changing.  We are looking at moving to commercial
premises before the end of the financial year.  A new class of clients are
being attracted to us (and us to them) because our value proposition makes
sense to them.  Some of these clients are larger than our previous target
companies.  Some are wanting to grow and know they need the right
partnerships to get there.  There is a long way to go yet but the progress
is encouraging.

So my distinction is a simple one.  Start acting like who and what you want
to be.  Don’t wait for the growth and then respond.  Change first.  Be the
catalyst yourself.  Make it happen first in you and then it will flow out to
the rest of the world.

Steve Jobs would be proud.

Some people say that TV rots your brain and can’t teach you anything. I like to take a more exponential approach. TV is great way to unwind (if you’re like me and lucky enough to have the time and you can occasionally learn something from the boob tube and not just from documentaries.

Last week I was watching one of my favorite shows, Grey’s Anatomy (I actually bought the first six seasons on DVD to avoid all the annoying commercials!) and I realised that doctors are really on to something. I mean both real doctors and TV docs like the ones on Grey’s, but more on that later.

Grey's Anatomy and MasterMind Groups

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This graph says it all…

As a regular reader or subscriber to this and my other blogs, you know about my holistic approach to business. One of the key components of what Exponential Marketing is all about is establishing authentic and genuine rapport with your suspects, prospects and clients via what I call “Killer Konversations“.

If you don’t engage interactively with your suspects, prospects and clients, they will simply gravitate towards suppliers and providers that give them the attention they seek.

The exponential question then becomes – what conversation / relationship do you want to have with them? And secondly, how are you going to manage them?

Sources Of Client Attrition

Creating the various client conversations is one of the main features of what we do within the Platinum Program. Click on the hyperlink to learn more about how we could help you grow your business.

I love it when I learn my own lessons! I teach ambitious entrepreneurs and business executives how to find hidden opportunities in their businesses.

Opportunities that are sitting right there, under there noses…

That’s what happened to me today.

I figuratively tripped across a 4-minute audio that I completely forgot I had in my archives (I have more than 500 different electronic product components…)

It’s only 4 minutes, but it includes all of this!

Essential ingredients you NEED in your marketing to get
your PROFITS TO RISE FASTER than yeast in BREAD

• These ideas will enable you to bring home up to quarter of a million dollars per year more instead of netting a profit that makes you feel you are working in a job (Just Over Broke)  (00:24)
• Following these steps for improving your methods will bullet-proof your career and business so you will always lock in this much profit each year as a minimum (00:37)
• Changing this one thing will minimize your risk so you will feel you’re working your way to the upper crust rather than picking up the crumbs of clientele from the bottom of the heap (00:47)
• These vital ingredients enable you to look at things differently to get a bigger slice of the pie (00:54)
• Making these small changes within your business each week for less than a hundred dollars can grow your profits by a factor of 157. (2:40)
• Gaining new ideas on a daily basis provides the raw materials to get top-quality results within the first year (3:17)
• Learning to think exponentially is like the air in your dough: it will help your brand, business and profits rise to peak levels (4:00)
• The mindset you will gain from these distinctions will get people begging to give you their money so you will be rolling in dough (4:25) faster than you knead it!

Click here to access this 4-minute audio that reveals the 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine.

Exponential Marketing has a cornerstone concept: Add value to your clients and they will come back and refer more clients to you. Easier said than done.

That’s why I’ve included a simple example: An Australia Post Postcard Fact Sheet that helps clients prepare their documents for direct mail.

The question for YOU is “What basic information, like this can you make available to your clients?”

The more information you make available, the easier it will be for them to do business with you = you’ll sell more.

When you’re exponential, you create Pathways To Profits™ that guide people through the path of least resistance preemptively, smoothly, creating a memorable and hopefully unique experience they will want to repeat themselves and advocate to others.

This is what we help our clients do – create a Business Building Blueprint™ that summarises these processes so everyone in the business knows what to do and ideally, automate them leveraging the Internet so the business transforms from an effort-based model to a value-based model.

According to a recent Bankwest Business Trends Report, there were 42,000 more start-ups, a 3.3% increase in the number of people running their own business in 2010 than there were in 2009.

The report states this is the strongest level of start-up growth seen in almost a decade, with 1.3 million Australians now running their own business, accounting for 11.5% of employed Australians.

The report also reveals that there are more men than women running their own business. However, the strongest growth has come from female entrepreneurs. The Bankwest Report explains “We have found that over the past year, the growth rates for women running a business are almost double compared to men and over a five year period, the growth rates for women are more than triple that of men.” Women entrepreneurs are increasingly choosing to work for themselves for the added flexibility, in addition to the ease with which one can now work from home.

So, you’d think you’re in good company…

Read More »»

In a previous blog post, I explained how to use a promotional product to add value to your clients, prospects and suspects. I know this is an example of antimimeticisomorphism that takes a while to get a grasp of, which is why I wanted to show you an alternative, called Permacharts, shown below.

The charts themselves are self-explanatory, but which ones can help your clients?

Read More »»

You never get a second chance to make a first impression. That’s why branding is so important. In today’s post we’re going to take a close look at YOU… The image you project to the world – your suspects and prospects.

What Image Do You Project To Prospects And Clients?

• Read More »»

One of the foundational principles of Exponential Mindset Thinking™ is the 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine™. It seems simple enough as the videos below explain, but here’s the real challenge – most people, believe it or not don’t have the discipline to follow through. Even though it takes only minutes a day to essentially achieve their wildest dreams, they let themselves down – many within less than a week most within the first month.

I know how surprising that sounds, but that’s what I want to focus on for today – the fact that MOST don’t follow through means that when you do, you’ll get the lion’s share of the rewards.

That’s because no one else is doing it.

Read More »»

You be the judge if one idea can be worth $50,000.

Everyone involved in direct mail wants to increase response rates. I came across a blog post that explains how you can significantly increase direct mail response rates. I’ve used this strategy countless times. Of course you don’t want to overdo using post it notes as the video below confirms.

If you could do just one of these things a day, imagine what would be possible:

1. Write a new short blog post about something you saw through Google Alerts.
2. Post a useful comment on a forum or blog that your perfect customers commonly frequent.
3. Send a Top 10 list or helpful article to your clients and prospects.
4. Make one phone call to a new buyer to thank them for their business. Read More »»

I often get asked which of our business coaching systems is appropriate for you. It actually depends on who you are and where you’re at in business. I’ve summarised the various options here for you.

Silver Business Mastery Momentum Membership™

The Silver Business Mastery Massive Momentum Membership™ combines all the necessary elements you need to get your business going and growing. Delivered electronically, each element has been specifically chosen to get your business on the fast track to profits as economically as possible.

This is for you if you…

• Are relatively new to Exponential Growth Strategies™, this is the ideal introductory overview. It includes all the grounding materials for you to get acquainted with this ‘new way’ of doing business.
• Have not been exposed to Tony Robbins’ Personal Peak Performance Principles, Jay Abraham’s Exponential Marketing Strategies and Brian Tracy’s Sales Mastery techniques. This unique membership will highlight them all, providing you with a simple-to-follow action plan.
• Are just starting in business or have hit a hard patch and money is tight. This membership is economically priced so that you can learn to walk before you run. If you can’t afford this level of membership fee – don’t subscribe because you’re already in too much trouble for me to help you. These strategies are geared for growth – not trying to resuscitate a dying business. When you do recover from your current cash flow issues, you should re-visit this membership.
• Want to be held accountable on a weekly basis. The membership has one touch point +/- every week so that you are never overwhelmed or burdened with the program. It’s an easy-does-it approach to learning.

Gold Business Mastery Massive Momentum Membership™

The Gold Business Mastery Massive Momentum Membership™ has been designed and compiled for demanding and ambitious business owners like you who not only want to get on the fast track to profits, but want to take the Next Best Step™ laying the foundation for business growth using exponential strategies that explode your income, increase your pay cheque consistently and turn your hidden assets into cold, hard cash!

This is for you if you…

• Want to be held accountable on a DAILY basis. With the Dr’s Daily Distinctions™ delivered to your inbox every single day, you want to focus on the 1 Percent Improvement Doctrine™ that will propel you forward in your business, career or profession.
• Are looking for exponential growth from your business that is already on a good footing. In other words, you’re ready to take it and yourself to the next level, because it’s time. You feel it and know it is. You have no doubts and with exposure to these strategies, you’re confident to be able to deploy these strategies on your own and can’t wait to get to it.
• Have been exposed to Exponential Mindset Thinking™ strategies either through our efforts or over the past few years.

VIP Business Mastery Massive Momentum Membership™

The VIP Business Mastery Massive Momentum Membership™ includes most of the components of the results-based Platinum Program™ to accommodate business people who don’t live in or can’t commute to Sydney or Melbourne but want the very best exponential marketing strategies on a high-intensity basis to keep themselves accountable to the highest standards of excellence and performance in their business and career.

This is for you if you…

• Are at the point where you’re totally convinced Exponential Growth Strategies™ are for you and you have the time, effort and ability to play full-on without doubt or reservation. In sport, this means being competitive rather than playing ‘socially’. The level of commitment is much higher, as are the rewards.
• Have dabbled in Exponential Growth Strategies™ before and you know you need a guide, advisor and mentor to show you the way forward. You realise that success is as much about doing the right things as it is avoiding the common mistakes most people make.
• There is nothing holding you back – your business is doing well or is solidly established and you either want more growth OR more time for yourself without compromising results.
• You want to be held accountable at the highest level. You already hold yourself to a high standard, this is just an extension, or next logical step for you to take. You are not intimidated, but excited about the Exponential Potential™ that you can unleash from within your business. You can feel it’s been there for some time and you want the keys to the combination to unlock it.

Business Mastery Platinum Program™

The Business Mastery Platinum Program™ – the Unique 12-Month MasterMind Experience that will Unleash Exponential Growth and Profitability in your Business or Professional Practice, by Leveraging the World’s Best Exponential Marketing, Sales, Lead Generation Systemisation and Peak Performance Strategies, with an Unheard-of Money-Back Result Guarantee of a Minimum 300% Return on your program investment.

This is for you if you…

• Are a leader. Simple as that. This is our most elite, exclusive program for champions of business. You know you’re at the top of your game and want to keep improving.
• Want to spend time with other ‘winners’, like-minded business entrepreneurs and professionals who can share their challenges and triumphs with you.
• You’ve read the program description and downloaded the 26-page brochure and you know this is your Next Best Step™ in your personal and professional development.
• You know that with the MasterMind Mentoring Methodology™, nothing has been left to chance.
  

I’ve had a supplier for several years (identity hidden because I didn’t like them and this is not about bashing someone’s product or reputation) and recently needed a new service. We went out looking for the new service, selected it and a week AFTER the purchase was made, my existing supplier (of another service) sent me an email and BURIED in it was the mention that they offered the service I just bought and I had NO IDEA WHATSOEVER that they offered it. Not only was I not a happy client, I wasn’t even a suspect or prospect for their other service. I never even considered it!

The moral of the story is self-evident – if you don’t tell your clients what you have to sell, they won’t buy.

It just amazes me how much effort people put into finding NEW LEADS when all the sales they ever wanted could be right there with their existing clients…

Something to think about!

We’ve all heard of the classic money back guarantee, but where else have you heard of someone guaranteeing results? That’s exactly what we’re doing for our next 2 programs – Etch-A-Sketch Thinking In The iPad Age and Become The Next Corporate Rockstar.

Everyone gets to a point where they run out of fresh new ideas. What if there was a way to always have ideas ready to be deployed? What if these strategies were proven to work? How about is they were GUARANTEED to work?

That’s the premise of this unique event. We’re GUARANTEEING that you will produce at least $5,000 in the next 12 months as a result of attending the program. There is no legal fine print, no strings attached.

We can and are putting our money where our mouth is. No hype. No exaggerations. No smoke and mirrors. A simple iron-clad Results-Based Guarantee.

You can click on the image or this hyperlink > Etch-A-Sketch Thinking In The iPad Age. When all is said and done, if we’re willing to GUARANTEE $5,000 in the next 12 months, you can only imagine how much we expect you to make!

This is a classic advertising story that is worthy of repetition. It’s not just funny, but exceptionally valuable when you extract from it lessons that you can leverage from it. Enjoy!

A barber had been noticing that his clients had been dropping off slowly over the last eighteen months or so. He blamed the economy and people moving on and such things and just kept plodding on as you would expect.

The last straw for him was when,  just two doors down from his barber shop, someone opened up another barber shop! His competitor put up signage all over the front of the store windows announcing “hair cuts $5” .

When they opened, there were people spilling out the door lining up for haircuts. This went on for days and as you can guess his clients dropped off dramatically to the point that he decided that he would rather sit at home watching Oprah than do hair cuts for five dollars. He even decided he would close down his shop at the end of the week.

That afternoon, a gentleman walked in and asked if he could get a hair cut. The barber warned him that he charged fifteen dollars. The gentleman said that’s fine as he did not have time to stand in line and wait two hours for the barber two doors down .

After he finished the gentleman stood up looked and thanked the barber for a really good haircut. He also said he would be back next time he needed a trim because he was very satisfied with his haircut. That’s when the barber advised him that he was going to close his shop because he couldn’t compete with $5 hair cuts.

The gentleman looked at him smiled and asked “If I can increase the number of clients, would you be willing to pay me two hundred dollars?” The barber said he would only have two days to do it since he was going to close the shop on the third day. The gentleman confidently said that would not be as issue. The barber could not help but like this cocky guy in a suit and since it was only two hundred dollars, he thought he really didn’t have much to lose.

The next day, when the barber showed up, there were people waiting for him to open his door! They continued to stream in all day his phone was ring hot taking bookings! He was so busy that by the end of the day, he was exhausted. He could not remember ever being that busy.

The next day the same thing happened and about lunch time the gentleman walked in smiling and asked how things were going. The barber told him about all the clients and bookings and asked him what he did to change things around so quickly -  hoping he hadn’t done anything illegal. The gentleman smiled and assured the barber that everything was OK and that after work there would be something out the front of the store for him.

That night, the barber walked out the front of his shop and saw an A frame – he could not stop laughing when he read what was written:

FIVE DOLLAR HAIRCUTS FIXED HERE

This is a totally exponential strategy – but here are a few questions I have for you.

• How can you use this story to your advantage?
• How can you leverage someone else’s efforts in a legal and morally acceptable way?
• How can you make the most of your marketing budget to get the very best results?

A lot of people have either heard this story or others similar to it. They get a laugh and move on to something else.

Very few learn the lesson. Very few learn HOW to leverage something like this.

That’s what I teach my clients to do, as their business coach, adviser or mentor. I explain to them that this is not just a funny story. It’s a lesson to be learned and applied. I then usually explain via one of my case study examples or one from a client.  In this case, I heard this story and used it to close a $250,000 sale to a top 50 ASX company.

I know you’d love to know how I did that, but sorry – I keep that information for my Platinum Members!

The thing about having an Exponential Mindset is not just thinking differently, but making sure you walk the thought. That only happens when you’re taught how to translate a great story like this one INTO a practical system and process that you can use in your own business.

Otherwise, it’s just another fun story to tell mates over a cold beer at your local.

If you want someone to help you turn things around, like the barber – contact us and we’ll show you how to get people lining up at your shop front door, into your business or if you’re online – visiting your website.

Google “transactional marketing” or “relationship marketing” and you’ll get thousands of hits with titles like “relationship marketing vs transaction marketing”. Basically, transactional marketing is thought of as a thing of the past, while relationship marketing is the bright future that businesses should be striving towards.

Transactional Relationship Marketing: The Cost Effective and Environmentally Friendly Strategy

Transactional Marketing

“Transactional marketing is an approach that focuses upon one-off exchanges with consumers.”

“Transactional marketing: Orientation towards single purchase. Limited direct customer / supplier contact. Focus on product benefits. Emphasis on near-term performance. Limited level of customer service. Goal of customer satisfaction. Quality a manufacturing responsibility.”[ii]

Relationship Marketing

“Relationship marketing is a business philosophy which aims to develop strong relationships with a range of stakeholders, such as suppliers, media, intermediaries and public organisations, as well as with customers.”

“Relationship marketing is a form of marketing that emerged in the 1980s, in which emphasis is placed on building longer term relationships with customers rather than on individual transactions. It involves understanding the customers’ needs as they go through their life cycles. It emphasizes providing a range of products or services to existing customers as they need them.”

The new kid on the block is a strategy called Transactional Relationship Marketing, or TRM. This is a process trademarked by direct mail company, Hermes Precisa (HPA).

Transactional Relationship Marketing Read More »»