Top Secrets of Marketing & Sales show

Top Secrets of Marketing & Sales

Summary: Tips on how to increase sales, improve profit margins and grow your promotional products business on a guaranteed basis.

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  • Artist: David Blaise
  • Copyright: Copyright © Blaise Drake & Company, Inc. | TopSecrets.com

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 Maximize Profit with The Four Mores | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 17:51

The idea of The Four Mores is to recognize that if you want to maximize profit but you're just focusing on bringing in more clients -- you are very likely missing out on 75% of the available profits that are going to come from these other three quadrants. Maximize Profit with The Four Mores David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be talking about The Four Mores: More clients, more money, more margin, more often. Great to see you again, Jay. Jay: Yeah, it's good to be here. And I feel like there's one more more, if you can get all of those. More happiness and more peace of mind, right? David: Yeah. That's true. There are more than four mores. Jay: Yes. Quadrant #1: More Clients David: I think that what we're thinking of here is that these four mores are designed to increase the value of our clients and increase the value of our businesses. A lot of times when people are thinking in terms of growing their sales and profits, they think in terms of the first more. They think in terms of more clients. “I need to get more clients, “I need to get more business.” And so many business owners focus their time and attention exclusively on bringing in more customers. And sometimes what ends up happening is they forget about the ones that they have. And they start to lose track of the fact that they could be drifting off. Anyone who's been in business for any length of time has heard the old adage that it costs a whole lot more to bring in a new customer than it does to resell an existing customer or to satisfy an existing customer. Stop Missing Out But it's easy to lose sight of. And so the idea of The Four Mores is to recognize that if you're just focusing on one thing -- bringing in more clients -- you are very likely missing out on 75% of the available profits that are going to come from these other three quadrants. Jay: Wow. That's very good. And kind of like we talked about last time, moving people into that center zone, that loyalty zone. Right? David: Yes. Jay: And then, if they're reoccurring, I mean it just makes life so much better. If you have a loyal base and then you're bringing in more clients, to me it's just the perfect pattern, right? David: Yeah, it does. So now we've got sort of conflicting visual images, however. Because last time we were talking about a target. Now we're talking about quadrants, but it's all designed to accomplish the same thing. Which is to get more of our clients buying from us more often. Spending more money with us at higher profit margins so that we can continue to grow the business, service those people. And without the profit part of it, you're dead in the water. I mean, you cannot continue to operate without that. So each of these four components is absolutely critical to being able to grow the business the way that we want to do it. What About Quality of Life? Jay: Yeah. A good, healthy business that is making money, is growing, has loyal customers. And hopefully giving you peace of mind and maybe some quality of life. Right? David: Exactly. Yeah. Quality of life is a nice bonus for some people <laugh>. It should be a requirement, but it's not always a requirement. Sometimes we sacrifice quality of life just to reach our financial goals. Sometimes, particularly in the early stages of a business. But eventually, yeah, we learn. But one of the things about this topic that I think is so important is that when you look at each of these four elements and you focus on them and you focus on improving them, it does improve your quality of life. Because now you're not investing a lot of time on aspects of the business that are less important. Because if you think about the idea of bringing m...

 Get More Responses: Sequence Your Communication | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 15:37

The best way to get more responses from your prospects and clients is to sequence your communication. If I've got a sequence in place that says, all right, when I get a lead from a networking function, what I'm going to do is I'm going to initially, either same day or next morning, send out this email message, which essentially says, "it was great meeting you at the networking function. Nice having a chance to talk." And then. you've got something that is said in that email that is designed to elicit a response. Some will initiate a dialogue, some of them won't. So from that point, if you don't hear back, you could have another one that goes out a couple of days later saying, Hey never heard back you on this, but something else occurred to me that I didn't mention and then you add something else to the conversation that could potentially be of interest to them. So you're not just hitting them with "call me, call me, call me, call me." You're actually creating value in the communication, which is also particularly key when you're doing sequencing like that. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the topic of sequencing your communication. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, David. Great to be with you again. I really love that we dive into these things that can have such an impact on your daily business. Oftentimes people will focus on the large things, not understanding that sometimes the smallest tweaks can make all the difference. David: Yeah, and things like this really are kind of diving deep. And many times I know other people in podcasts or in stuff that's actually going out to the public, they'll just keep it all high level and not really get into too much. I think we've done a reasonably good job over the years of diving a little deeper and getting into things in a little bit more detail. Because it's important for people who watch this or listen to this to recognize that there are a lot of aspects to all of this. And we touched on this in the previous episode. We were talking about sort of the high level goals, we were talking about the high level concepts versus the nitty gritty of what do I have to do on a day-to-day basis. And this really gets more into the idea of the nitty gritty. But sequencing is something that I don't hear many people talk about in business. And I think it's a real game changer for people in the sense that when you get this and you start implementing it, it changes the way that you interact with your prospects and clients to make what you are doing better and more appealing than what your competition is probably doing. Jay: Yeah, such a great point. And back to the idea of focusing on the smaller stuff. I'm weird. I call myself lazy because I want to avoid steps and reduce steps, but in the name of that laziness, I will spend weeks trying to create a system, whether it's a software system or a planning system or something, just knowing that over the long run, it's going to have such a dramatic impact. And I can be lazy about that thing after that. And I'm focused. I mean, if I can reduce one little step, I'll spend weeks trying to figure out how to do that. David: Yeah. But that's smart. I don't think that's lazy. I think it's far lazier to just go into each situation, not knowing what's going to happen, not knowing how to respond to the common objections you get, not knowing how to create a system that will allow you to bring clients through the door like clockwork. And when you do that, you're basically going into work every day with no idea of what's going to happen. So I think that's really lazy and really sloppy and I don't think what you described is lazy at all.

 Achieving Goals Means More than Just Setting Them | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 15:24

Achieving goals is quite different than just setting them. So while the first step may be to set the goals you really want, then we have to prioritize our actions from high to low. What is the most important thing that I need to do in order to get there? Because generally, you can come up with a dozen or a hundred different things that you're going to need to do to reach your goals. But there's probably one to three things on there that are going to be more important than the other 97. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing achieving your goals. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, so glad to be here, David, and once again, I'm looking forward to this discussion. We hear people talk about goals all the time, and I know for me it's something that I struggle with because what will happen is I'll set those goals. I really haven't defined how I'm going to get there, and then when I don't achieve them, it becomes something that deflates me. So I think for a lot of people, goal setting can work against them. David: I think it can too, because I believe there is a lot of focus on goal setting, and it's something that we do, particularly at the beginning of a new year. A lot of people focus on their new year resolutions, which are their goals. And while there's been a lot written about goal setting, the importance of goal setting, writing things down, reviewing it regularly, having your affirmations and things like that. All of those things are certainly helpful, but they don't actually, directly connect to the idea of achieving the goals. And that's why I wanted to title this the way that I did, because setting your goals has been done to death, but how do we go about achieving it? And I think it's interesting to explore that aspect of this topic. Jay: Well, yeah. And one of the things that frustrates me is, when people talk about goal setting, they tend to assume that everybody's the same. Oh, just follow this and you're great. It's like, I read seven Habits of Highly Successful People and what was never mentioned or considered in that was, it was also seven habits for highly organized people already. You had already achieved a level where all you had to do was put these things in place and you're good. Well, what about me? I wasn't raised with systems and those kind of things, so what about me? I didn't feel like there was any place that I could implement that. David: Yeah. And that is very common. I mean, I think everyone probably deals with that because unfortunately, when you're writing a book that's going to be on a shelf for a long period of time, you have to include things that are essentially timeless. And the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. I mean, it's such a great book. It's a very inspirational read. But when you've got rules, like "Be Proactive," that's a big, broad rule, right? And. In many cases you can be proactive, but what does that mean? It gets down to the nitty gritty. And we've talked in the past about Michael Gerber, the author of the E-Myth. And I love that book. The E-Myth, The E-Myth Revisited. I read the original copy a long, long time ago, and I just loved it. I'm like, okay, because this was all about processes. And that book talked primarily about the fact that you have to have processes. But then what are those processes, right? Because that's the part that people like you and I need. It's like, okay, well what are the processes and how do I do that and how do I make that happen? And so, so much of my career has been focused on that. Okay, how do I turn this great recommendation, "be proactive," you know? Jay: Yeah.

 Declare Independence from Poor Quality Clients | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 14:04

I know people who have been in business for decades and they've held onto clients 5, 10, 15 years longer than they should have, because they never got this simple thing down. Declare independence from poor quality clients. If you've got a way to generate new clients consistently, like clockwork, you don't have to deal with that. You can become independent from poor quality clients, but you have to have that plan in place. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. It is Independence Day in the United States, and today co-host Jay McFarland and I will be declaring independence from underperforming business tactics. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, thank you so much David, and happy 4th of July to you and everybody else, and once again, I love this topic because I think there's a lot of things that we're all doing that we really haven't stood back and assessed. Is that productive? Do I just do it because I've always done it. A good analysis of these things could probably save you a lot of time and effort. David: Yeah, absolutely. And personally, I just love the 4th of July. I love Independence Day. I love the idea of independence. I think a lot of people do. And whether or not it's actually achievable on a personal or a business level, because it's probably not. I mean, we're all dependent on other people to some extent or another. But to the extent that it is possible, I like to sort of look at what are the things that I would like to become independent of? What are the things that I'm dependent on that I'm not comfortable with? And then say, "alright, what can I do to change that?" So I feel like that's a reasonable starting point. Understanding that, are we really going to be completely independent? Well, no, we're going to have to get our food from somewhere. We're going to have to have customers. There are a lot of things that we're dependent on. In most industries, I mean, we're going to be dependent on suppliers, prospects, customers, supply chains, availability of cash or credit. That's not going to change. We will be dependent on some of those things, but what are the things that we can become independent of? That's what I think starts to get interesting. Jay: Yeah. I totally agree with you and I've, had this experience where somebody from the outside has come in, and maybe they're just new to the company or maybe they're a consultant and they look at what we're doing and they're like, why are you doing this? And I sit back and I go, Well, I'm not really sure. And then I've had the same thing where people have asked me to come into their business and within seconds, sometimes I can identify things and we get in that tunnel vision, and we don't take time to step back and say, you know, why are we doing those things? I would really like independence from this thing, but I feel like it's necessary. And maybe it's not. David: Yeah. And if you consider the things that you really want to sort of separate yourself from, the things that you really want to become independent of. Like when I think about that, for me, it's like, okay, I know that I'm going to be dependent on suppliers to some extent, but can I become independent of poor quality suppliers, right? Jay: Mm-hmm. David: I know I'm going to be dependent to some extent on prospects. But can I become independent of poor quality prospects? Poor quality clients, right? If there are clients that I'm interacting with because they're in there and I'm afraid to let go of them, what do I have to do to change that? What do I have to do to become confident enough in my ability to generate new clients that I'd be willing to let go or sacrifice some of the old ones? And that's where I feel like this conversation has valu...

 From Obscurity to Loyalty in the Mind of the Client | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 18:08

Getting from Obscurity to Loyalty in the mind of the client is all about building relationships, and I'm all about that! Until I sell you something and then I'm off doing the next thing, and I forget about you completely, until and unless you call again. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing how you get from obscurity to loyalty in the mind of a new prospect. Welcome back, Jay. Great to have you here... Jay: Thank you, David. And once again, I'm super excited about this. How Do You Move from Obscurity to Customer Loyalty? Jay: I feel like customer loyalty is the holy grail of having a business. But I'm not sure if people know how to get their customers to that point. So I'm very excited. Where do you even start with that? From obscurity to loyalty. How do you begin this process? David: Yeah, it's a fun topic because I think again, most people don't think of it like this. It sort of ties back to what we were talking about last week. But the idea of getting from total obscurity to blind customer loyalty for most people just seems impossible. You know, "how do you do that?" But if you think about it, one of the things that I normally do, if I'm explaining this to an audience, I'll draw a target on a flip chart. At the center of the target, the bullseye is blind customer loyalty. This is just loyal. I would never consider doing business with anyone else, but you. And then, a couple of rings out -- outside the circles -- you have obscurity, total obscurity. I have no idea who you are. I have no idea that you're taking in air on the planet. I have no idea why I should do business with you, right? Intelligent Repetition of Contact And so you're not going to get from total obscurity to blind customer loyalty in one step. It's going to require intelligent repetition of contact, which is something we talked about last time as well. So when you think about it, there are stages you have to go through to get there. The first step is to move from obscurity, "I don't know who you are," to recognition, "Oh, I recognize you." I recognize that you're here. I don't love you. I don't hate you. I don't know you well enough to do either of those things. But I recognize that you're alive. So recognition is that first step. Jay: Okay. Moving from Obscurity to Recognition David: And when we think in terms of communication, the type of communication that you will engage in to let somebody know you're alive is very different than the type of communication that you'll engage in to get them to be more loyal to you and to get them to place that first-time order. So that initial step -- moving from obscurity to recognition -- that's step one. Then from recognition, the next thing we have to get it to is some level of comfort. They have to be comfortable enough with you to have additional conversations, to place that first-time order with you. And then once they're comfortable with you, that first order happens. From there, if you perform properly, if they place that order, and if you deliver the way you're supposed to and everything works out well, then they might say, "okay, I'll give you another chance and we'll do it again." Getting from Recognition to Comfort At that point, they're in that comfort ring. They're in that comfort level. You can operate in the comfort level for quite some time. And if you continue to perform in the comfort level, then eventually you start to move into that bullseye area. You start to move into that area of loyalty where people essentially say "Okay. I'm going to continue to come back to you... unless you mess up." Jay: Mm-hmm David: So now at that point, I'm pretty loyal. I'm kind of loyal.

 The Power of Storytelling to Increase Sales | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:50

If our storytelling allows us to build trust, build credibility, build a bond, and increase sales, then we're telling the right stories. If it's just designed to be manipulative, then save your breath. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the power of storytelling in sales. Jay, tell me a story. Jay: Listen, I am a storyteller. I love to tell stories and I like to build when I tell stories, right? And so this is something that I use on a regular basis when I'm talking to people and it's not just telling a story. I think it's putting people in a story and what character are they in that story? And I think most people want to be the hero in their own story, right? David: They do. which gets to the whole idea of the hero's journey and all that kind of stuff for anybody who follows that sort of storyline or that Jay: mm-hmm. David: type of story arc, The Hero's Journey by Campbell, I can't think of his first name. But it's a book and it describes essentially the plot of most of the most popular movies of all time. Jay: Yeah, David: Right. Star Wars, Rocky, anything where you've got this person who is initially kind of beaten down and not winning, and then they come in contact with a mentor and then they learn new things and they have a confrontation and it might not go well, and then they learn some more things and then eventually they come out triumphant. There's a whole arc. And you're right, a lot of people want to be the hero, and the challenge as a salesperson is, in our storytelling, we can't be the hero. Mm. Right. We need to make sure that the person we're talking to is the hero and that we are the mentor or guide. We're not Luke Skywalker. We have to be Yoda. We have to be the one who's helping Luke to destroy the Death Star. Jay: Yeah. This is a really hard thing, I think for a lot of people. Because we want to go in and think we're the hero, right? I'm coming into your business. I'm going to provide something that is going to save the day, and then I'm going to walk away and you're going to praise me and you're going to pay me. But that's not what really is supposed to be happening, right? It's that I have the tools and the resources that you need to be the hero. David: Yes, and it's easy to forget that, particularly when we're trying to read ourselves in as the hero to each story. But one of the things that I've noticed in sales is that many, if not most of the very best salespeople are also the best storytellers. You can say. "Hi, do you know what time it is?" And instead of getting the time, you will get a fantastic story that might weave the time into it. Jay: Mm. David: But you're going off in all kinds of directions, and when they do it right, it's captivating enough that you sit there and pay attention. Jay: Yeah. But you pointed out "when you do it right." David: Yes. Jay: Right. so let's talk about that a little bit. Let's talk about your feedback on doing it right. David: Well, number one, as we already touched on, it can't just be all about you. You can't make the story about yourself. You need to make it about them, and a lot of that upfront comes from finding out about them, which means you're asking more questions, then you're answering, hopefully in the early stages. Jay: Yes David: Because customers always just want to know what it's going to cost upfront, and you don't generally want to lead off with that. So a lot of our storytelling will actually have to come from the conversations that ensue after we've gathered enough information. Jay: Yeah.

 Upselling and Cross-Selling: Increase Value and Help Customers | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:47

When I think in terms of upselling versus cross-selling, what's the difference? Upselling to me means selling a better or a higher priced version of the thing that they're looking at. Whereas cross-selling is making a recommendation of something that's compatible. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the topic of upselling and cross-selling. Are you doing it? Welcome back, Jay Jay: Yeah, hey, thank you, David. Listen, have these bad memories when I was a kid and I was working in a fast food place and the manager was always pressing me, "ask them if they want a Coke, ask them if they want fries." And I got to a point where it's hard to upsell and I think this has grown into my adulthood. You know, I just barely got the sale and now I'm asking them for more. It's not an easy thing to do for people. David: You know, it's interesting you should mention the fast food example because it's the perfect example. It's the one that everyone can relate to. "You want fries with that?" Jay: Yeah. David: Or the shortened version that you hear a lot of times, "want fries with that," as the four word upsell. And it works extremely successfully for people in that sort of industry. Because it makes sense. Somebody's coming in, they're ordering whatever, a burger or something, or they're ordering a burger and a drink, "want fries with that" makes perfect sense. And some percentage of time they're going to say yes. And whether that is 1% of the time or 80% of the time, it's probably maybe 30 to 60% of the time, I would guess, they're going to say yes. Because it's like, "oh, all right, sure. Why not? I'm already here." Jay: Yeah. David: And you hit on a great point, which is that we can feel funny about upselling, if we feel like the purpose is to simply get more money out of a person. If it feels like it's completely one-sided, if it feels like it's manipulative, then we're not going to want to do it. So I personally believe that the times that we should upsell and cross-sell are the times when we truly believe that we have an additional solution that is going to be better for them. Now, in the fast food example, are french fries better for you on top of the Coke and the hamburger? Jay: Yes! David: Probably not from a, health level, but certainly from a satisfaction level, yeah, it's better. People are likely to want that. But in business, if you're selling something, and somebody comes to you and they have something very specific they want to buy, and you have something that would be complimentary to that, or something that would go with that really well and would increase the value to the buyer, then you kind of owe it to them to at least ask them if they're interested in that. Jay: Mm, I love that. I love that idea that if you are feeling uncomfortable, maybe you should ask yourself why. And how do you feel about your product? Are you really providing a value to them or are you just trying to sell something and get a paycheck, right? And I think we all have to ask that question about our own careers and what we're doing and what we're selling. But, you know, if you can just feel great that what you're providing them is going to improve their situation, then you're just passionate about what you're doing and that's going to come through. David: Yeah. So when you are talking to somebody like that, if you've got something that is actually going to be a benefit to them, if it's going to help them, then it's a lot easier to do it. So that really just boils down to motives. What is the motive? And unfortunately, I think sometimes managers, like in the situation you described in the fast food resta...

 Convert More Sales: Turn Leads into Customers | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 12:28

To convert more sales and turn leads into customers you need to be dealing with qualified prospects. If somebody is not responsive, you can decide, do I want to continue to pursue this person, or do I want to leave them to my competitors? Let my competitors chase that person. If they're disqualified, you don't have to spend time with them at all. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the idea of converting more sales: turning leads into customers. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, David. Such a pleasure to be with you. This is kind of the secret sauce, right? I mean, if we could all increase our conversion rates and bring down our customer acquisition costs that's where the rubber meets the road. David: Yeah, in a lot of cases it's a really critical part of it, and I think some people make a mistake upfront when it comes to conversion, and that's that they want to convert everyone. You know, they just meet somebody for the first time and they immediately go into sales mode. And I think that they can really save themselves and other people a lot of time and a lot of aggravation if they actually start where it really should begin with a little bit of qualification. Trying to find out if they have the need, the desire, the money, the budget, the willingness to spend, those kind of things. Because a lot of times there are salespeople who will spend weeks, months, years pursuing somebody, just to find out once they get an appointment with them that they weren't qualified to buy to begin with. And you can eliminate that right up front. Save yourself a world of heartache. Jay: Yeah, I love this point, David. I can't tell you I've had this happen, you know, I'm on the phone with somebody and talking about the product and things like that, and then after asking some questions, I realize this is not a good fit. I don't have the services they're looking for. And I could have saved us both a lot of time if I had done a little pre-qualification before we got started. David: Yeah. Or if that's happening on the first call, then you're pretty good at that point. But literally, I know there are people who have gone to networking functions for a long period of time, and they're talking to people and trying to get them to agree to an appointment, and then they finally agree to the appointment, and then you get out there and you're talking to them. I had this experience myself early in my career. I'll never forget it. There was this guy and I thought he was going to be a great prospect, so I tried to get an appointment with him. He agreed to the appointment. I showed up at his place. His place was a dump and he didn't show up for the appointment, and I was sitting there looking around and I was thinking, "okay, why am I here?" And so a little bit of diligence upfront and a little bit of qualifying goes a long way. Jay: Yeah, I agree. And I also think technology can do a lot of that pre-qualifying, right? We had the experience where our Google ad buy was not targeting the right people. And so I was getting all these calls and I'm like, "wow, look at these leads we're getting." And it turned out I was just wasting time. So I'm wasting money on the Google ad buy. And then I'm wasting money fielding all of these calls. That's just, you're spinning your wheels at that point. David: Yeah, absolutely. And when you think about it, pitching unqualified prospects is the single biggest time waster on the planet. So if we can avoid that, we're going to be a lot better off. Jay: Yeah. I think there's a tendency though to think, "oh, we can sell anybody." Or I think the other side of that is if you're not pre-qualifying,

 Fix Your Messaging: Improve Business Communication with the TBDs | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:13

To fix your messaging and improve business communication with the TBDs, consider this... If nothing that you convey in your communication, instills any sort of belief in the other person as to why they should take the action that you're requesting in the third step, then it's not at all likely they're going to take that action. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the TBDs. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, it's such a pleasure to be here with you again, David. We're talking about communication here and I'll be honest, oftentimes we'll discuss a podcast that we want to do, or you'll send me the topics and I sit here and I think, you know, I've never once thought about this type of thing, how to improve communication. I just kind of fall in the trap. You know, I talk to people, I send them emails. I'm guessing that that's good communication, but I've not really thought about it, David. David: Yeah. I sort of introduced this topic backwards, I guess, at the top of this podcast. When I say we're going to be talking about the TBDs, what we're really talking about is improving our communication with the TBDs. And for those of you who are saying, "what are they talking about?" Allow me to elaborate. A lot of times when I'm working with clients, one of the things that they'll ask about is how to improve the results that they're getting with the communications they're having with prospects. That could be anything from the messages they're leaving on people's voicemails. It could be not getting responses to emails. It could be the things they're posting on social media, any form of outbound communication, whether it's one-to-one or one-to-many. What you say in those communications is going to determine what happens. We touched on this a little bit in the previous episode. But if you want to really think about what is going to likely get you the best results, what I ended up boiling it down to for myself and for my clients is what I refer to as the TBDs. Now, when people think of that abbreviation "to be determined," that's often what's used there. That's not what I'm thinking in terms of. When we're looking to communicate with other people, particularly when we're looking to get a result, we want to ask ourselves: "As a result of this communication, what do I want this person to think? What do I want them to believe, and what do I want them to do? Okay? And so if you structure your communication in a way where it addresses those three points, you're going to be a lot more likely to get at least closer to the result that you're looking for. If I'm sending somebody an email and there's nothing in particular that I want them to think, believe or do, there is no reason for me to send that email. Jay: Mm-hmm. David: If I'm making a phone call, if I'm leaving a voicemail message, if I'm doing anything that is initiating contact with another human being, if there's nothing in particular that I want for them to think, believe, or do, then there's no point to having the conversation. Now, if you're calling a loved one, Okay. You know? Jay: Yeah. David: You want them to know that you love them, you want to know that they love you, all that sort of thing. But, in business in particular, in our communications, if we don't have a reasonably good idea of what we want the other person to think, believe, or do, then there's not a whole lot of reason to communicate. Jay: Yeah. That's so powerful because how often or is the temptation I'm calling a client? Hey, just checking in, seeing how you're doing give me a call back. It's like, that's the trap. I think so many of us fall into.

 The Best Use of Social Media in Business: Metrics that Matter | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:21

A lot of people think the goal is to get likes and engagement, but when it comes to the best use of social media in business, conversations and conversions are the metrics that matter. That's what results in sales. The rest are vanity metrics. Those who think it's all about views and clicks might be missing the point. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the best use of social media in business. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, thank you so much, David I feel like this is one of those areas where I don't feel confident in myself, but I'm not in a position yet where I'm going to hire somebody to do it. And so, it's hard to get motivated every day, because I know it's an important part, especially in my business. Most of our leads come from the internet and social media, so it's like I don't know that this is something I should be handling myself. David: I think a lot of people feel that way, and for many of us, social media can be a huge distraction. And in some cases, like, well, the best use of social media is to keep it turned off if you have to actually get things done. But there are benefits to it when it's used properly, and part of our Total Market Domination course involves working with our clients to help them through the best forms of first contact with a new prospect. And one of those methods is social media. I mean, you can be doing it via cold calls, you can be doing it via networking events, direct mail, lots of different ways to initiate first contact with a new prospect. But many people like the idea of using social media, particularly because it is a one-to-many method of reaching people. You can post something on social media one time, and hundreds of people could see it, or thousands of people could see it. And so it allows you a great deal of leverage much more than if you're making one phone call at a time or meeting one person at a time. So there are definitely benefits to utilizing it. And of course, with the benefits come the flip side, the detriments that go along with it in some cases. And so one of the things that a lot of people seem to struggle with is that they go onto social media with one purpose and they end up doing 10 other things that they didn't plan on doing when they got in there. And they don't end up doing the thing that they actually wanted to do. And so a lot of it, I think, boils down to the fact that we're not sure what to do. In a lot of cases. We're not sure, well, what should I post? What should I say? What should it be designed to do? And there's so much talk among so many people about creating content, and I've done classes on this. The fact that content is kind of a misunderstood word. If you think about what is content? Well, content is whatever's in something, right? If you've got a bag, whatever's in that bag is the content. Could be something good, could be something very bad, right? But whatever's in the bag. So if you think of it like that and you say, okay, I have to create content. Well, yeah, but you need to do more than just content. You want to make sure that whatever it is that you're dispersing to the masses has enough value for people that they say, wow, that was actually worthwhile. That was worth my time. So a lot of what we focus on in the communication aspects of what we do with our clients is related to how do we do that? How do we create value in our communications? And I know I'm sort of rattling off all kinds of different things that could be entirely different podcast subjects. But coming back to the idea of the best use of social media, if you think about what it is, I mean, I've got an idea of what I believe it is. Do you have any thoughts on that before I spill t...

 Are Your Priorities BS? Here’s How to Know for Sure… | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:43

Are your priorities BS? Well, focusing on that area in particular, looking at what are the things in my life that really are important to me? What are the actions that I want to take and need to take that are important to me? Even if they're not urgent, how can I get those things scheduled so that they have a better likelihood of getting done? David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will discuss the topic Are Your Priorities BS? Welcome, Jay. Jay: Hey, David, as always, such a pleasure to be with you. And another great topic. I think that it's so easy to just do the squirrel thing or the squeaky wheel gets the grease and we don't really know what our priorities should be a lot of the time that's half the battle I think. David: Yeah, I think that's true. Knowing what our priorities are and recognizing that a lot of times they're not really what we think they are. And most of the time when I talk about stuff on these podcasts, it's not because I'm particularly smart, is because I feel like I've made every stupid mistake that anyone can make. And so if I can help our listeners and viewers to avoid doing some of those things, then that's a pretty good service. And when I think about priorities and I reflect on the priorities that I've had over the years and over my life, I recognize that we have priorities that we really put out there. We say, okay, this is what's important to me. What's important to me is my family. What's important to me are my friends. What's important to me is, whatever, losing weight, like if we have goals, my my priority is to do this and to do that, and all these different things. And then when we look at our actions and we realize that our actions don't really line up with what we say our priorities are, it raises the questions are our priorities BS? And I think in some cases, even when we don't realize it, they might be. Jay: Yeah. First of all, I'd say there's nothing wrong with learning in the school of hard knocks. I mean, sometimes those are the best lessons we can learn. But I also think it, we can spin our wheels a lot trying to reinvent the wheel, so learning from other people can help expedite that process. Right? Which is why I'm glad you're so willing to share the trials that you've had. I think that that's so critical. But I think you're right. We've talked a lot in the past about self assessment. Can you really look at yourself and know what your weaknesses are and what your strengths are? And oftentimes, I think you're right. We think something is a priority for us, but in the grand scheme of things, and according to our own actions, it's really not. And we're kind of fooling ourselves. David: Yeah, and the way that I've actually sort of worked through some of this is recognizing that there's a really big difference between our stated priorities, the things that we say are priorities to us, and then our actual priorities, meaning the priorities we act on the things that we do, the actual steps that we take or don't take. Because if our priority is to spend time with our family and our actions are that we're working all the time and we're not spending time with our family, then we have two different sets of priorities, our stated priorities that always sound good, and then our actual priorities, which is what we're doing on a daily basis. Jay: Yeah, I see this all the time in like TV reality shows. I don't know why this comes to mind, but you see people saying, my family is the most important thing to me, and they're working 80 hours a week at their career, or their job. And I'm sitting there thinking, Hmm, no, I don't think you really understand what your priorities really are. David: Yeah,

 Your First Contact with a New Prospect | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 14:53

So what is your first contact with a new prospect? Another good question to ask yourself is how does that first contact happen? And is it proactive on my part? David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing your first contact with a new prospect. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, it's good to be with you again. David. When you say first contact, I always think about Star Trek with their first contact with the aliens, and I feel like you're kind of sitting there going, okay, are these going to be nice? Are they going to try and destroy the human race. You know, there's a lot of trepidation with first contact and sometimes that first contact, how it goes, determines the whole rest of the relationship. David: That's exactly where I stole the term from Jay. That is exactly where I stole the term from. And the way that came about is that I was talking to somebody about cold calling. This was years and years and years ago. Well, actually we were talking about prospecting and one of the things that this person mentioned to me was something related to cold calling. And I said, "okay, well, cold calling is one way that you can reach out to people." I said, "think of it like it's your first contact." And literally it was because I had seen that movie about first contact and I thought it's such a great concept. The idea of whatever, meeting an alien species for the first time is one thing. But for salespeople, you're exactly right. It's the same thing. We're walking into an unknown situation. We have absolutely no idea how the person is going to react and that. Doesn't matter whether it's on the phone as a cold call, whether it's meeting someone at a networking event, whether it's through social media. We have no idea what's on the other end until we engage. Therefore, the whole idea, the whole concept of first contact, I think is really highly appropriate. It is the very first contact that we have with a prospect. If you understand that conceptually, it can really sort of open up your mind to the possibilities and to the opportunities. Because there are a lot of people who view whatever it is they do as first contact, as first contact. What I mean is if all they've ever done is make cold calls, they view that as first contact. If all they ever have done to generate customers is through social media, that's what they view as first contact. When you recognize, that's just a method, that's just one particular method of first contact, and you realize that there's a whole other universe. To continue the space analogy here, there's a whole other universe of options. It really allows you to test different things to figure out what's going to work best for you. Jay: Yeah. And I love the idea that first contact, when I first thought of this, I was thinking that's the first time that I meet them voice-to-voice or face-to-face. And in today's world, that's probably not going to be the first contact. In my business, the first contact is our website. That's the first time that they're going to see us. Now, in my business, I'm very fortunate that our three main competitors, their websites are awful, David, they are terrible. They are designed terribly. They're hard to read. And all the time I get people saying, literally saying to me, "I chose you because I liked your website." We're somebody that offers this high level of expertise and you chose us just because we have a really good web designer. But that was the difference. Their first contact with us is positive, because we've spent the time to get that right. David: Yeah, it's a lot more than the web designer too, because you could have a beautiful design,

 The Trouble with Targeting in Business | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 13:10

The trouble with targeting in business is that a lot of people don't do it well. It reminds me of that line from one of the Godfather movies where Michael Corleone says something along the lines of, "if history has taught us nothing else, it's that you can get to anybody." Right? And that is now true in terms of advertising. You can get to anybody, but what is the cost? David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I discuss the trouble with targeting. Welcome back Jay. Jay: Hey, David, once again, I'm excited to be here and I'm really excited to get your feedback on this, because when you first said we're going to talk about the trouble with targeting, I kind of thought in my head, well, isn't that what I'm supposed to be doing? Aren't, aren't I supposed to be targeting? David: Oh yeah. Yeah. We definitely have to target. We definitely need to target. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with targeting. The trouble with targeting that I was thinking about is that a lot of people don't do it, and a lot of the people who do do it maybe don't do it as well as it can be done, and as a result, they don't get the results they're looking for. Some people think they're targeting and they may be doing that, but if you're not targeting to the point where it's resulting in better quality prospects, better quality clients, and conversations that lead to sales, then you might need to hone in a little bit better in terms of your targeting efforts and your targeting approach. Jay: Yeah, so as I think about targeting, there's a lot of work to be done upfront, right? If you're going to target somebody, you've got to know who the target is. And that can take a lot of research on your own part. A lot of experimentation, a lot of looking at past contacts, how those contacts came into your funnel, and understand those things before shooting arrow in different directions. The odds that you're going to hit anything that looks like a target are pretty slim. David: Exactly. And I think a lot of the reason for that is, many people think of the term targeting in terms of what you said, targeting's like aiming at something. But it's not just aiming at something, it's having an idea in advance of what it is that you want to hit. And if we think in terms of some of the more common ways of targeting. Some people don't even get this specific about it. But if you look at the different ways to target, I mean some people target geographically, I'm going to target everybody within a certain geographic area. If I'm a realtor and I'm working in a particular neighborhood... Great example of geographic targeting. Some people target by industry. If I'm selling B2B, I might target a particular group of people in a particular industry. I might target companies that deal with technical kind of things, or I might target education, or I might target finance, right? So that's a different way to target, by industry. I can target by need if I'm selling something like whatever, insurance, and I'm targeting people who need insurance. Okay. They could be wherever they are. Now, it's harder to do that when you target by need because so many people might need it and you might have to pare things down a little bit to be able to get to the people that you want. In the promotional products industry, where I do a lot of work, people can sell by program specialty. In other words, people who are looking for a specific result. If you're selling to people who are looking to increase safety in the workplace, then you could potentially be selling them a safety campaign, a safety program. There are some people who target by product specialty. There are different companies who might be looking for a specific ki...

 Are You Pursuing Unqualified Prospects? | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 15:53

Pursuing unqualified prospects is a waste of time. Lately, I've also been on a bit of a kick in terms of commitment versus interest. If you're interested in the possibility of working with us, that's very different than if you're committed to getting the results you want in your business and working with us to do it. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the pursuit of unqualified prospects. Welcome, Jay! Jay: Hey, it's so great to be here again, David, and I always love the topics that we get into. I think usually, or mostly, especially in my case, I'm in pursuit of just any prospect and I don't give a lot of thought to are they qualified, are they not? It's like, just send me all the leads and all sort through it, and I'm sure that I'm wasting a lot of time doing that. David: It's funny, isn't it? It's like just looking for warm bodies. Anybody who can fog a mirror, right? And to some extent, that's part of every process. Because we really don't know who's qualified and who's not until and unless we have a qualification procedure in place to figure that out, or if we just sort of get good at it from having conversations and hearing what people say. So I think you're right. I think no one really sets out to pursue unqualified prospects, and yet, to some extent, we all do it every day. Jay: Yeah, exactly. I will tell you that as a company, we've done some things. when we first started using Google ads, it was crazy. I mean, we were getting so many responses. And then after taking all of these leads and calls, we realized that 90% of them were not good. Because, our key words that we were using for Google were bringing us the wrong type of client that we couldn't help and that we couldn't close. So once we just did something as simple as figure out our keywords, wow, that saved us a lot of time and money. David: It really helps to dial it in, doesn't it? When you're more specific and it, you're right. It could be the difference of one additional parameter, one additional thing that you're saying in the messaging that you're putting out there. Because all of that's going to contribute to the type of people who respond to your ads when we're talking about leading with advertising. Jay: Yeah, exactly. The other thing we found is a seasonality to it, and you and I have talked about seasonality a lot when it comes to sales. But we've found that the same keywords don't work the same all year long, that there's different motivations that things change. And so, we're kind of starting to keep track of that now for the first time, and I'm excited. You know, we probably won't reap the benefits of that until next year, but that's how far ahead we have to be, to know when and how to start pivoting and adjusting. David: Yeah, I can see exactly how that could be the case. And it's something that you discover through doing it, right? Through iterations. You try different things and you say, Hey, this isn't working. This used to work. What's the reason for that? So a lot of it too is sometimes talking to people. One of the things that we've done for a long time is when people make a decision not to work with us, or sometimes, if someone expresses interest in working with us, but then doesn't follow through, we'll reach out to those people and find out. "Hey, it looks like you were thinking about contacting us. Looks like you were maybe thinking about scheduling a strategy session with us. You didn't do it. What was it that held you back? And the answers you get from that can be extremely helpful in terms of finding out what might also be holding other people back. Jay: Yeah. That is so powerful and I think sometimes people...

 What Makes Us Different from Our Competitors? | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 12:33

When we think in terms of what makes us different from our competitors, a lot of it should be addressing who is our ideal target market? And it's largely going to consist of people who want to do business the way that we do business, and then matching up our style of business with the way that they want to do it. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will ask the question, what makes you different? Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you for asking me to be with you again. David. I love this question because if we don't know what makes us different, I think it becomes harder to sell or to present yourself or anything else, knowing your strengths and weaknesses, and playing to your strengths. Well, that's obviously something that we should be doing, but I've met a lot of people that don't have a self-awareness. They wouldn't be able to answer this question, and so they don't really know where to focus and they're kind of haphazard. David: Yeah. In the promotional products industry in particular, people struggle with this because you have all these distributors who are essentially representing very similar lines of product or the same lines of product from the same manufacturers. So a lot of people look at that and they say, well, how can I be different if I'm selling exactly the same products as all the other people that I'm competing with? And if you ask that question in a rhetorical sense, well, how can I possibly do it? You're doing it wrong. You need to actually ask yourself that question in a way where you demand results of yourself and sit down. Bullet point it out. What is it that makes me different? What could make me different? What can make me different? A lot of times when I ask the question in live seminars and I say, what is it that differentiates you from your competition? And sometimes people will shout things out and sometimes somebody will say service, right? And I'll say, who here feels their service differentiates them and sets them apart, and 40% of the hands in the room go up? And I say, okay, keep 'em up and look around. You know, can you all be right? Can your service differentiate you from the other people who have their hands in the air? And it's kind of a rhetorical question, but the answer kind of has to be yes. It has to be yes. I have to be able to differentiate myself in a way that justifies my existence in the market. And so I can be different. I can be different than you. We can both be great potentially in different areas. You know, if you think in terms of the Walmart approach, you know, their thing is cheapest price. Ideally, we don't want to be that in our market, right? But there is probably something that we can do that will better serve the clients that we're looking for than what other people in our market are doing. Jay: Yeah, it's such an important question if we're all selling the same product. Then what's going to make somebody choose me over somebody else? And we talked about it in the last podcast. Relationships can be a, a certain part of that, but our systems are turnaround. You know, there's so many things we can look at internally to say that we live up to that. I think the other hard part, and maybe it's an important part, is to figure out how to assess what your competitors are doing. If you're losing sales to your competitors, can you try and assess what they're doing that is making them win and you not? David: Yeah, and for a lot of people, the difference between an online business and an offline. Is like night and day. Very often there are offline businesses that are trying to compete with online businesses, which have a completely different set of rules and a completely different set of ben...

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