Top Secrets of Marketing & Sales

Jim Rohn once said, “Don’t let your learning lead to knowledge, let your learning lead to action.” This week, I’ve been conducting live training sessions at the PPAI Expo in Las Vegas, with the goal of delivering ideas and action steps specifically designed to turn learning into action. The attendees inspire me. Hi and welcome to the podcast, if you’ve listened to many previous episodes, you probably already know that I’m not a huge fan of learning for the sake of learning. So Jim Rohn’s quote about letting learning lead to action really resonates with me. Yesterday, I conducted two different sessions. The first was called The Three Tier Profit System, where we explored Twelve Focus Activities, meaning twelve very specific things attendees can focus on, to maximize revenue pre-sale, sale and post-sale. The second session was a bit too ambitious for some. It was a 90 minute workshop on our Total Market Domination training. And I noticed something interesting during that session. Some people are not cut out for the “work” part of a workshop. We did a few exercises that required some thought. Thinking through aspects of the business like which markets attendees wanted to dominate, and which sections of the market they would begin with. We talked about the difference between direct contact methods, like cold-calling and networking vs. what I call “The Lure Method” which is designed to get prospects to reach out to you. And while everyone really seems to love the idea, power and appeal of having clients come to them, instead of having to go out and chase their clients, not everyone is willing to take even the simplest actions necessary to make it happen. So when it came time to put pen to paper and start mapping out their own plan of action, a few people bailed. It happens in training sessions but it happens even more frequently in life, and in business. And that is actually great news for those who are willing to stay focused and remain in the game long enough to learn what to do, and to do it. Some people are natural born starters. They’re great at coming up with ideas and initiating things. They’re often seen as visionaries and big picture thinkers. Some people are natural born finishers. They have the focus and ability to see a project through to completion. They tend to possess great attention to detail, AND the self-discipline necessary to stick with things, even when they’re no longer fun. I’m definitely more of a natural born starter, myself. So one of the things I’ve had to work on over the years, and I do mean work, is forcing myself to develop some of the focus and skills of the natural born finishers. While it still doesn’t come naturally to me, I’m now able to do it. And I saw quite a bit of that happening in the room yesterday. I saw some visionary entrepreneurs, business owners and salespeople, struggling with some of what I was proposing. I could see they wanted the result, but maybe they weren’t sure they could do it, or they weren’t sure it would work, or maybe they just weren’t sure it would work for them. But then I saw something really inspiring. I saw the push through that, remain focused, and stay in the zone. I have enormous respect for that. If you’re serious about growing your sales and profits, and if you’d like my help doing that, then you should definitely schedule a time to talk with myself or a member of my team. We’ll take the time to help you identify which markets you’re interested in dominating, who you need to reach and how you need to reach them. If we think we can help you, we’ll tell you that, if we think we can’t, we’ll tell you that, too. So if you’re a doer, who is determined to create the results you want in your life and your business, go to topsecrets.com/call and schedule a time to talk.

As the new year begins, it's a good time to reflect back on the good and the bad. The friends we've made, the people we've lost and what to do next if we want to make 2020 our new best year ever. David:                   Hi, and welcome to the podcast.  Today, co-host Chris Templeton and I will float a few ideas that you can use to make this your best year ever. Welcome back, Chris. Chris:                     Hi David, thanks for having me. Let's talk a little bit about this because I've always thought about it in terms of growth of the economy. When is it ever too much? When do we say, as a business, “Gee, I've got to where I want to be and I don't need to make the year better than the last.” Is that realistic to have those kinds of expectations? Need Help with This? Schedule a Call David:                   That's a good question. I don't know. I imagine there are people who get to a point where they're doing the type of business they want to do. They don't really feel the need to grow, but even in those situations, if you just want to maintain; you tend to have to have a growth mindset anyway because there're going to be clients that are going to go away. There are going to be clients that go elsewhere, or something happens. So I think in business, if you're going to remain in business, there is always a process that involves thinking in terms of next steps, thinking in terms of advancement, thinking in terms of replacing clients who are no longer with you and that sort of thing. And there are some people who are more motivated than others. There are some who want to start out the New Year and they're like, “Okay, I want to double my business in the next year.”  And there's some people who say, “I'd like to maintain the business I have. I don't really want to grow anymore because I'd have to hire more people.” And it's an individual thing. So for different business owners, for different salespeople, the mindset is going to be different. The approach is going to be different. But just thinking in terms of what does that even mean to me? In other words, my best year ever might not have anything to do with the volume of sales I do. Maybe it has more to do with spending more time with my family. Maybe it has to do with spending more time with my friends. So your best year ever is going to be different than my best year ever, or somebody else's best year ever. And that's going to be part of what we need to identify is: What does that even mean for you? And as they said at the beginning of the podcast, making it your new best year ever. Cause ideally each year we always want our next year to be better than the last. That sounds like an Irish blessing or something. You know, may your next year be better than your last. I don't know. It seems like it should be if it's not, but it's just a good thought. It's the idea that we want our lives to constantly get better and we want things to evolve and continue to grow and become more wonderful. Chris:                     I know this wasn't in what we're going to talk about, but this is why I truly love doing this podcast with you, David, because it's so easy for people to fall into this idea of, well, I'm going to have my best year ever. What, what's that mean? Well, it means I'm going to make more money than I ever did. And you, and what you do is always about a work life balance and I just think it's so important that in this day and age, more than any, we take a little bit of time and make sure that that balance is there.  And you've really done a fine job of consistently making that a priority, and it can be tough to do can’t it? David:                   It can.  I mean, I think some people are more focused on it than others,

A few weeks ago, I was in California for a wedding and I got a big reminder about the fact that regardless of what's going on in the economy, there is always a segment of the population that has significant money available to spend. So every now and then I think it's a good idea to just get out of your bubble! David:         Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, we're going to try something a little different. I'm going to welcome a new co-host who will be along for at least the next several episodes to help me probe a little deeper, perhaps ask a few questions that you might be inclined to ask yourself, if this were more of a dialogue, and hopefully make this podcast even more valuable to you. His name is Chris Templeton. He's got extensive experience doing this kind of thing. So welcome Chris! Chris:         Thank you, David. So, you're at this wedding and then you mentioned getting out of your bubble. What does that mean to you? Cause I think so many people don't really have a good sense of that. David:         Yeah. Well I think every one of us in our day to day lives, we're doing things, we're operating around a certain group of people were interacting with the same people. We're talking to the same people and sometimes when we just get out of our zone, get out of our bubble, we're able to see things a little differently. And I mean the economy now at the moment for most people actually seems pretty good, but sometimes you can get out of your bubble and you can see that, wow, it's even maybe better than I thought. And regardless of what the economy is doing, even when it's not as good as it is, there are always situations, there are always people who are still doing things, still spending money and still having a great time. Chris:         You know, it is really easy to go down that road of kind of telling a story about what's going on, and a lot of times I think as business people especially, we get stuck in that place. But what do you do? What's the process of getting out of your bubble? I think people kind of, well, I don't know, who should I talk to? It's kind of a nebulous thing for a lot of people. David:         Starting with where you are and who's in your bubble now, it's really just a matter of starting with that and then saying, okay, how can I expand beyond this? I mean, are there are people in my industry that I should be interacting with are there people beyond my industry that I should be interacting with? Looking at our prospects, the types of prospects that we're interacting with. Should I be interacting with a different level of prospect people and perhaps larger companies, people who have more connections themselves? Should I try to look at things like LinkedIn and identify more of the people on there that I want to be interacting with? We're connected with so many people that I think the opportunities, the potential for getting out of our bubble are practically limitless, but it starts with just identifying, okay, who is somebody else that I might just want to talk to? Might want to have a conversation with to start thinking beyond my current circumstances. Chris:         And when you talk about all of the different means that are available to us, whether LinkedIn, Facebook, our list of prospects, clients, I think part of the problem for a lot of businesses, is I don't know where to begin. It's so overwhelming. So from your standpoint in what you do, what do you see as kind of the ideal process of starting? David:         If you have an idea of where you want to be, that's part of it. Some of this is just direction. I mean, getting out of our bubble is like, okay, well before I leave I have to decide where I want to go, just as if I were getting into a car and going somewhere. So when we think in terms of the types of prospects we'd like to interact with,

This morning I heard the song "Don't Fear the Reaper" by Blue Oyster Cult in my Pandora mix, and it reminded me of a famous Saturday Night Live sketch, where Christopher Walken's character, Bruce Dickinson, insists the song "needs more cowbell." And it made me think about all the business owners and salespeople who are looking for that one thing, that little boost, that little something extra. Yes, I'm talking about those who need a little more cowbell in their businesses. (To hear my rather poor Christopher Walken impression, play the audio below.) Many business owners and salespeople feel like there's something missing in their marketing or sales process. They're in search of that one thing... the perfect marketing vehicle, the perfect funnel, the perfect sales pitch, the single missing ingredient that will make all the difference. So what's your cowbell? What do you need more of in your business? More time for prospecting? More qualified prospects? More productive salespeople? Maybe you feel like you need all of the above. But for most businesses, the answer is much simpler. They need more of the qualified prospects in their market to know who they are and know what they do so they can make an intelligent, informed decision about whether or not to do business with them. All the other things they think they need -- more time, more prospects, more pitches, more salespeople -- are all symptomatic of the real problem. Not enough of their qualified prospects know they exist. They need more cowbell! And that can very often be cured with a simple, focused, strategic approach that doesn't have to be ridiculously expensive, and doesn't require a huge team of highly trained people to implement it. Recently, I've been working with the participants in our Total Market Domination course to help them create the necessary levels of awareness among exactly their target markets to get the results they're looking for. From the mindset, to the prospects themselves, the communication, the contact, qualification, segmentation, drip campaigns, automated lead generation & follow-up, closing skills, evaluation, identifying prime opportunities and solidifying their processes. All of this is important, but none of it is rocket science. However, most people's attention spans are so short, their attention is so spread out, their efforts so unfocused, that they're not able to implement it. The reason our approach works so well, is that it eliminates the time-consuming and unproductive tasks that waste hours, and produce no results, while isolating the most important and effective tasks that make all the difference and focusing them, like a laser beam, to create the desired result. So if you know something is missing in your business. If you've been thinking, "It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!", then give us a call toll-free at 1-800-494-2721 or visit us online at topsecrets.com/call. We've set aside some time in the next 48 hours or so to speak with you personally, to help you get really clear on who you need to reach, how you're currently reaching them and what you have to do better and differently to create the result you want. So give us a call and say, "Guess what? I got a fever. And the only prescription is more cowbell!" We'll take the time to walk you through the process and let you know if we can help. So give us a call or visit us online at topsecrets.com/call. That's topsecrets.com/call. Ready to Grow Your Sales & Profits? If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product...

If I gave you $1,000, what would you do with it? Take just a moment and think about that, because the answer will tell you a lot about the way your business is structured. It's been a while between episodes, which is pretty unusual for me. But I've been spending a lot of time working with my Total Market Domination clients, creating training modules, answering their questions and helping them to create top of mind awareness and dominate their markets. For quite a few years, I've been talking about cutting back on the travel and the free training and focusing more time and resources on helping our active clients. In particular, our AIM SmartEQP, Inner Circle, Makeover and Total Market Domination clients. In fact, the way I've been spending my time recently is what lead me to ask you the question that I started with. If I were to hand you $1,000, what's the first thing that leaps to mind for you to do with it? * Would you buy yourself something fun? * Pay off some bills? * Buy some holiday gifts? * Invest it in the stock market? Or, would you invest it in the growth of your business? Most people work hard for their money, and even those who don't, probably tell themselves they do. Even those of us who aren't engaged in hard, physical, manual labor fancy ourselves quite busy and hard working. But when we earn money, particularly extra money, what do we do with it? We spend it, we save it, we invest it in the stock market (which is essentially investing it in other people's businesses, rather than our own.) One year, when the stock market was tanking and I saw my investments going down, I asked myself, why am I investing this in other people's businesses instead of my own? I mean, Warren Buffet is a brilliant guy and all, but when we have our sales processes dialed in, shouldn't we be able to make more than single digit or low double digit returns on our investments each year? And what about our time? Same thing there. If we're not making back a high multiple in revenue of the time we're putting into our businesses and sales careers, then why are we doing it in the first place? Sometimes, particularly in the early stages of a business, we have to invest a lot of time, energy, effort and resources to get things going. But... if you've been at it for years, and you're still putting in more time, energy and effort than you feel you're getting back in revenue, that's a screaming indication that something isn't right. One of the primary tenets of our Total Marketing Domination course is the idea that if you’ve been in business for any length of time, and you’re STILL not hitting your desired levels of sales and profit, that indicates a real problem -- the kind of problem that time is unlikely to fix. Because if time hasn't already fixed the problem, why would that change in the future? Instead, we need to change our actions. Over the years, I've invested a lot of money in my own training and education. I've purchased books, tapes, CDs, DVDs, printed reports, digital audios, videos, training programs, online courses, memberships and anything else I thought would help. Not all of them were gold, but I can tell you without a doubt, that the money I invested in my own training and education produced a far higher return on investment than any other financial investment I've ever made. I remember telling Michael Gerber, the author of the business classic The E-Myth (and The E-Myth Revisited) that after reading his book, I developed more systems and processes, restructured my environment, grew my sales and profits, and started, built and sold several different businesses. Then I told him that buying his book was the best eleven bucks I ever spent.

In today's podcast, I'd like to share with you the audio of the third video I did on the topic of Total Market Domination. In this session, I explained how to overcome obstacles so you can dominate your market. This podcast also mentions a free pdf mind-map you can follow along with. If you'd like to download a copy of that pdf and see the videos that go with this series, you can access all of that at topsecrets.com/tmd. That's topsecrets.com/tmd. Now here's the audio of video 3. Hi, I’m David Blaise... welcome to Video 3 in our workshop series on how to create top of mind awareness and dominate your market. If you've already taken the time to check out videos one and two in this series, and added your comments and questions, thank you! I really appreciate the input, and I'm excited to share this information with you today. I LOVE hearing from people who say, "you know, I've never really thought about the idea of dominating my market before, but I can really see how it would be helpful to create more awareness and increase my market share."  That's a beautiful thing! After all, as we discussed in video one, there are leaders and followers in every market. And the leaders tend to dominate, while the followers are left fighting for the scraps!  Besides that, if you're not leading your market, it means someone else is, and that is never going to be good for your business. In video two, we identified twelve primary obstacles that keep business owners and salespeople from creating top of mind awareness and dominating their markets. And today, with Video 3, I'd also like to share a mind-map that I put together for you, to show you what it will take to overcome each of those primary obstacles.  So if you haven't done so already, be sure to click the button below this video and download a copy of your mind-map right now.  If you print it out now, I will be happy to walk you through each of the steps in this video. As you're doing that, I just want to let you know something. The reason this is so important, is that very often we think in terms of goals, objectives, and things we want to accomplish in our lives.  But standing between us and every worthwhile goal, there are often significant obstacles, designed to slow us down or keep us from getting there at all.  And no matter how attractive or desirable the goal we're after, if we can't overcome the obstacles, we're just not getting there! Imagine you're driving along a road, on the way to somewhere you really want to go.  The weather's beautiful, you're making great time, but all of a sudden, you look ahead and see two gigantic rocks blocking your path!  At that point, it's not about your desire to get where you're going.  It's not about your motivation to make it happen. That's not going to do it.  It's not even about the potentially bad consequences if you don't get there.  In that moment, it's no longer about the goal at all. Your success depends entirely upon your ability to overcome the obstacle.  Will you go over it? Will you go under it? Will you go around it?  How are you going to do it?  What if your secondary route is also blocked?  What if the third route is blocked as well?  That happens. In fact business, sales and life seem DESIGNED to throw obstacles in our path, and if you can't overcome the obstacles, you can not reach your goals. So, if you've downloaded your mind-map, let's get started with the 12 Biggest Obstacles to Creating Top of Mind Awareness, along with the recommended solutions to each one. Okay, as you can see in the PDF, I've listed out each of the 12 obstacles, along with a recommended solution to each obstacle. Beyond that, I've also included what to do to implement the solution and wh...

Today, I'd like to share with you the audio of a presentation I did on the twelve obstacles to creating top of mind awareness and dominating your market. This is part two in our workshop series, so if you missed part one or if you'd like to see the videos that go with this series, you can get access to that now at topsecrets.com/tmd. That's topsecrets.com/tmd. Now let's get to the presentation! Hi, I’m David Blaise... welcome to Video 2 in our workshop series on how to create top of mind awareness and dominate your market. I’d like to thank everyone who provided feedback on video one, where we discussed the fact that there are leaders and followers in every market, and that leaders tend to dominate, while followers are often left fighting for scraps. We explained that market leaders are those who immediately leap to mind when a prospect starts thinking about buying a product or service, and how those who don’t leap to mind immediately are at a big disadvantage, because they’re effectively shut out of the decision-making process before they ever have a chance to be considered. We revealed that dominating a market is not about control or manipulation, it’s about creating an environment in which all the very best prospects for your products and services know who you are, know what you do and have the ability to make an informed decision about whether or not to do business with you. We also covered a lot more in that video, so if you haven’t seen it, I would encourage you to go back and check it out as soon as possible. Because if you’re not yet creating a level of awareness in your market that allows your very best prospect to know about you, it means you are not leading. And if you’re not leading, then it’s likely someone else is, and that is not going to help you at all. Now if you’ve been thinking you can’t do this... that you can’t move from follower to leader... Or if you think it’ll be too hard or take too long or cost too much, then I’d like to walk you through a quick exercise designed to show you how you can begin to create top of mind awareness, in exactly your target market starting right now, even if you’re working with a very limited budget. You see, creating top of mind awareness begins with identifying exactly the market you want to go after. So today, I’d like you to ask yourself this question: What’s your ideal scenario when you think in terms of the market that you’d like to dominate? Is it the universe? If so, get over yourself Darth Vader, we’re not there yet.  Is it the world? Sorry Dr. Evil, you’re probably going to need to start a little smaller.  In reality, most business owners have a pretty good idea of what success would look like for them. So let’s just start with that. What is the market that YOU want to be completely aware of you? Is it a geographic market, like a city?  Is it a particular industrial market like manufacturing if you’re selling B to B?  Is it a particular group of people, like yoga enthusiasts, or a demographic, like single women between the ages of 18 and 34? The target market is different for every business, but creating awareness HAS to start with identifying, as clearly as possible, exactly the market you want to reach.  For example, a financial planner might want to target people with a net worth of a million dollars or more who live in a particular city or geographic area.  A real estate agent might want to target homeowners in a particular community or development.  A print or promotional business might want to target companies of a certain size in a particular industry that historically have spent a lot of money on print or promotions.

Hi and welcome to the podcast, this week I'd like to share the audio of a presentation I did asking who is the leader in your market and how will you create the top-of-mind awareness you'll need to dominate... in a good way! If you'd like to see the video that goes with it, you can go to topsecrets.com/tmd. That's topsecrets.com/tmd. Let's roll! Hi, I'm David Blaise from TopSecrets.com, and I have a tough question for you today, if you're a business owner or a salesperson... Who is the leader in your market for the products and services you offer?  Is it you or someone else?  I hope, for your sake, it's you.  But if it's not, then please pay close attention to what I'm about to say. Here's something you already know is true: In every market, there are leaders and followers. The leaders are those who dominate their markets. They're well known, they're recognized, and people tend to think of them FIRST whenever they're in need of the products and services they offer.  The followers, on the other hand, are those most often left fighting for the scraps, after the leaders have had their fill.  That creates a very uncomfortable situation for everyone, except the leaders. Now ask yourself this: How would your life be different if you were viewed as the leader? What if you could create that all-important top of mind awareness among the most influential and successful people in your market? What would it feel like to have the very best prospects - the most highly profitable clients -- chasing you, instead of the other way around? Essentially what I'm asking is, what if you could really lead and begin to dominate your market... in a good way. Here's what I mean... To some people, the idea of dominating their market sounds impossible, like it could never happen.  To some, it sounds controlling -- a little too "Fifty Shades of Grey" perhaps.  Some people just want to do a good job for their customers, and not really think in terms of dominating anything.  And that's fine. This material is definitely NOT for everyone. But before you decide whether or not it's for you, remember... There are leaders in every market. And they rarely end up leading... by accident.  Regardless of your business or industry, there is very likely a company or two that leap to mind when prospects start thinking about buying the products or services you offer.  Those who leap to mind immediately have that "top of mind awareness" I mentioned.  These are the people who are generally considered to be the market leaders. They're also the ones who tend to dominate their markets. On the flip side, those who don't leap to mind are at a huge disadvantage, because they're effectively shut out of the decision-making process before ever having a chance to be considered. This is what leaves them fighting for the scraps. But here's something interesting to consider... Who do YOUR very best clients think of first when they need the products and service you offer? Well, if they're your very best clients, then it's likely they think of YOU first.  That means you have already achieved top of mind awareness, and therefore some level of market domination, among the core group of clients you serve.  Nothing wrong with that, is there?  They still choose whether or not to do business with you. They still choose whether or not to consider alternatives. They still maintain ultimate buying authority over their purchases. So just to be clear, when I talk about dominating your market, I'm not talking about controlling, exploiting, manipulating or bullying other people.  I'm simply talking about creating an environment -- a level of awareness -- in which...

We've been talking a lot lately about different levels of awareness, from the entry-level awareness necessary to let someone know we exist, to the comfort-level awareness we need for prospects to feel comfortable enough with us to place that first order, to the top of mind awareness necessary to start dominating your market. And all of that requires a specific type of contact. In fact, it's exactly the type of contact that we'll be talking about today. Are we there yet? Have you ever traveled in a car with small children? It's fun for maybe the first ten to fifteen minutes. The quest for new horizons, the thrill of adventure, the license plate game, the glamour of traveling to new places. But as the fun starts to wear off, one question often pops up. Are we there yet? No. Are we there yet? Not yet. Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Ahhhhh! Children are masters of repetition of contact. They can say the same thing over and over again and not think a thing of it. They don't realize that it can become a bit, shall we say, tedious. So what does all this have to do with creating awareness? Well, in a nutshell, creating awareness requires repetition of contact. It's very likely we'll need to be in touch with someone more than once before they're ready to buy from us. In fact, numerous studies over the years have indicated that someone will need to hear from us anywhere from nine to more than thirty times before they'll be ready to buy from us. Some salespeople hear this and take an "are we there yet" approach. Are you ready to buy? Would you like to place an order? What's it going to take to put you behind the wheel of this beautiful new car today? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet? So if you want to create top of mind awareness without driving people crazy, repetition of contact alone is not enough. You need to engage in "intelligent" repetition of contact. It's a type of contact that provides value to the prospect. It's helpful. It's thoughtful. It's engaging. It's anything but "are we there yet?" Intelligent repetition of contact means mixing things up a bit. We provide helpful insights. We anticipate questions that might not have come up yet. We mix up the delivery mechanism, meaning we don't just call on the phone or just email or just text. We don't say the same things in the same way over and over and over. Intelligent repetition of contact requires a level of consideration and thoughtfulness that is often missing in conversation today. And no, that's not purely a generational thing. If you're a baby boomer, don't point fingers at others. There are plenty of people, of all generations who struggle with this. It really is an art form that needs to be mastered if you ever want to accomplish all you're capable of achieving. How can you reach out to the same person multiple times without making it sound repetitive or annoying? What new facts or ideas can you bring to the conversation that will pique interest, instead of killing it? How will you use the lesson of "are we there yet" to convert repetition of contact into "intelligent" repetition of contact? If you have a question about this topic or any other that you'd like to have addressed in a future podcast, just go to asktopsecrets.com. That's asktopsecrets.com. Ready to Grow Your Sales & Profits? If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow: * Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sal...

In our last couple of episodes, we've been talking about different levels of awareness, starting with the entry-level awareness necessary to let people know we exist, then the comfort-level awareness we need to create so new prospects can feel comfortable enough with us to place that first order. But if you want to create the kind of awareness that gets you known with all the very best prospects in your market, that requires top of mind awareness. Last week we discussed the fact that it's not who you know that really benefits you or your business. It's who knows you. And for every business, there is one specific group of prospects who need to know you if you want to dominate your market. That group is composed of the very best prospects for your products and services. For a financial planner, it might be those in your market with the most assets to invest. For a realtor, it might be high-end home owners in a particular geographic area. For a print or promotional products business, it might be businesses of a certain size, with a certain number of employees, who market themselves aggressively. The book Marketing Metrics describes top of mind awareness as "The first brand that comes to mind when a customer is asked an unprompted question about a category." But if you're like me, you don't want to have to wait for someone to ask your best prospects an unprompted question, because that doesn't usually happen. Instead, you want to be the person or company who immediately leaps to mind, unprompted, the moment your best prospect thinks in terms of needing what you have to offer. But top of mind awareness is not created by accident. It doesn't just happen. When you're doing it proactively, it starts with identifying exactly the people or prospects in whose minds you would like to create that level of awareness. And the sooner and more accurately you can identify those people, the sooner you can get started. In my live training sessions, I'll often show a map of the world with a caption that says, "This is a map of the world. It is not your prospecting list." Because the truth of the matter is that very few businesses can afford to market to everyone. We have to more selective. And the more selective we are, the better we become at creating top of mind awareness with exactly the people we need to reach. Some people want to create top of mind awareness in their city. But it's likely that many people in their city aren't good prospects. Some people want to create top of mind awareness in a particular industry -- selling to manufacturing companies or banks, schools or government. Same thing. Some in each market will be very receptive, and good prospects. Others will be a total waste of time. So the better we get at clearly identifying the very best prospects in our target market, the easier it will be to create that awareness and start dominating. For those who don't know us at all, it begins with that entry-level awareness we were talking about. The type that says, "Here I am. I exist." It continues with comfort-level awareness, the type that leads to liking, trusting and a first order. But it doesn't flourish, spread or lead to market domination until you succeed in creating top of mind awareness with the very best prospects for your products and services. And that requires the type of contact that we'll be talking about in our next episode. Talk to you then. Ready to Grow Your Sales & Profits? If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow: * Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help. * Need Clients Now?

A few weeks ago, I posted a podcast and conducted a live training session in Chicago on the topic of Total Market Domination. Since then, I've gotten a lot of great feedback which made me realize that some people might not be comfortable with the title. If you want to dominate your market, that's not a bad thing. Quite the opposite. It's about creating an environment, a level of awareness, in which the people that you're looking to impact know who you are, well enough to be able to make an informed decision, thumbs up or thumbs down on whether or not they want to do business with you. And I believe that's a goal worth pursuing for every true professional in our industry! If you're a bit put off by the idea of Total Market Domination, then this is the podcast for you! It was inspired by a long time client who emailed me recently and said that she doesn't try to dominate the market, she just wants clients to use her, because she cares about them and provides excellent service at a great value. That's a beautiful thing. It's exactly what clients and the market needs -- people like her providing solutions. In fact, aren't those exactly the types of businesses who should be successful... who should dominate? Today, I'd like to give you a sneak peek inside the live training I conducted recently on the topic of Total Market Domination. Inner Circle and AIM SmartEQP members can access the entire presentation inside our membership site, but in this short clip, pay particular attention to the goal, to the methods of and the reasons for differentiating yourself, and ask yourself, if you're really good at what you do, shouldn't the qualified people in your market know about that? Excerpt from Live Presentation: Go to any city in the world, and you'll find a lot of distributors who are all doing a lot of the same things. They are selling the same products from the same suppliers, and in many cases they are doing it in exactly the same ways. For that reason, it becomes difficult for them to compete. If I, as a customer, feel like I can go to any of you and get what I need, then none of you become special to me, and it's going to be very difficult for any of you to dominate your market. Now, when I talk about dominating a market, what I really mean is that the people in your market are aware of you. They know who you are, they know what you do, and they can make a decision about whether or not they want to do business with you. If you talk about category killers, Amazon.com right now has a reputation for market domination. What that means is you know about them, you know whether you want to do business with them or whether you don't. So when I talk about this, that's what I'm referring to. Creating an environment in which the people you're looking to impact know who you are well enough to be able to make a decision, thumbs up or thumbs down on whether or not they want to do business with you. Then as long as you're doing a decent job, chances are they will want to do business with you. That's the goal of what we're looking to do here. So let me ask you this: In a market like ours, where we're all selling the same products from the same companies, is it possible to differentiate yourself? Who here says yes? Who here says either no or it's gonna be really tough? Okay, it's a valid concern. It's very difficult to differentiate ourselves if we're going based only on the products we sell. But the products we sell are not ultimately going to determine who becomes our best clients. It will determine whether or not somebody can buy from us, because if they don't need our products, they're not going to buy from us. But beyond that, it's who we are as individuals, it's who we are as people, how well we're able to relate to them,

So what happens after a customer buys from you? "Thank you, have a good day. Bye-bye!" Or are you selling after the sale? If the purchase is the end of your sales process, you're doing it all wrong! I'm back from the ASI Show in Chicago, my last major industry trade show of the year. It's always such a pleasure seeing our Inner Circle and AIM SmartEQP members and meeting so many new people at my training sessions, our booth and our various get-togethers. One of the topics we discussed in Chicago was all about what happens after the sale. And if you get this wrong, you're leaving a ton of money on the table. We all know intellectually that there's more to sales than getting an order, delivering an order and getting paid. As a professional in our industry, completing that first order should be viewed as the official beginning of your business relationship with a client, not the end. Although many distributors treat it that way. Too often, we're so excited about the prospect of getting an order that we just want to grab it, run out the door and get it processed, before the client has an opportunity to change his or her mind. Send out a bill, then it's quickly on the next prospect. But here's the deal... If you don’t have a solid, proven process in place for bonding with your clients, evaluating the results of the work you've done with them, gauging their response to that work, and using that experience to tee up the next sale, you are missing out on the lion's share of the profits. Very few clients spend the bulk of their money on a first order with a new vendor. It happens, but it's very rare. More often, a new client will "try you out" to see how you do. If you don't completely mess up the first order, you may get a shot at a second. If that goes well, maybe a third. And eventually, after trust has been established and confidence starts to run high, you may hit pay dirt -- that big money, high margin order you've been waiting for! But that can't happen if you don't first pass the hurdle of each all-important order successfully, from the first through the last. Each order gives you an opportunity to continue bonding with the client after the sale. You'll want to sweat the details! Gather and document all the information correctly, confirm the details with the client, convey it all correctly to the supplier and pay particular attention to important deadlines and in-hands dates. You'll also want to acknowledge the order appropriately and with positivity. Send thank you notes that incorporate three messages: Thank you for your order, I appreciate the opportunity to work with you on your promotional challenges and I look forward to working with you again in the future. Continue in each communication to telegraph the next steps. They should never have to wonder if or when they're ever going to hear from you again. Typical distributors feel like they're done after the order has been delivered and payment received. But my clients -- at least the ones who follow my instructions -- have a multi-step formula in place for evaluating the results of each order with the client. Lesser distributors are scared to do this, because they think, "what if I ask them about the results of the order and they're not happy with it?" Let me tell you, if they're not happy, you're likely to find out about it one way or another, but maybe not until they've moved all their future business somewhere else. Obviously, you're far better off being proactive about this and finding out about any potential problems while there still may be time to do something about them. There's much more to generating repeat business and cultivating a high value client base than just recommending product and providing pricing. If you want to be seen as a professional and paid like one,

How well does your current prospecting approach work? Are you comfortable with prospecting? On a scale of one to ten, how confident are you that your current approach to prospecting -- that is, identifying and bringing new clients through the door like clockwork -- is completely dialed-in and as effective as it can possibly be? Do you have a clear idea of exactly how many people you're approaching, how many of them you've been able to qualify in, how many you've been able to qualify out and how many are just completely blowing you off? If you were to rate the effectiveness of your prospecting, right now, on a one to ten scale, what would you give yourself? Would you give yourself a seven? Or a nine? Or a three? If you're not completely confident in and comfortable with your current prospecting approach, if it's not generating the results you want and need, that's a real problem. So I'd like to suggest that you get comfortable with it, starting today. Because if you don't, it's very unlikely that you will take all the necessary and appropriate actions that you'll need to take in order to make it happen. Before we get into today's topic, I'd like to say that it's a testament to the quality of the readers of my newsletter and the listeners of my podcast that all the feedback I got last week regarding my discussion of "Paupers Selling Promos" was very positive and encouraging. Yes, a few paupers unsubscribed and a few others tried to make the case for why people with absolutely nothing to offer another human being should still be allowed in the industry, but by and large the producers in our industry agreed with me. No real surprise there, but it was still nice to receive the feedback. So thank you. Now, on to prospecting! It's a sure bet that one of the things the failures in our industry have never managed to do, is to perfect their prospecting approach. If your current approach is working well, that's awesome. But if it's not, I urge you to tweak it, change it, adapt it, test the results and do whatever is necessary to make sure that your prospecting efforts flow from you naturally, operating like a well oiled machine. This is something that we work on extensively with our Makeover clients and our $100K Coaching clients and our Top Secrets of Customer Acquisition clients, because it's just that important. But for purposes of our discussion today, I'd just like to provide you with 5 tips for getting completely comfortable with prospecting. And you need to be completely comfortable with it, because if you're not, you just won't do it. Or you won't do it enough. Or you won't do it consistently. And that lack of action could literally cost you millions of dollars in lost opportunity over your working lifetime. That's how important it is. So let's get started: 1. Target businesses you actually want to sell to (and don't sell to just anyone.) Establish some standards! Decide in advance what types of businesses you want to sell to, and which type you'd like to leave for your unworthy competitors. Will you get it exactly right the first time out of the gate? No! It will take a little practice. It will require trial and error, but it will be worth it. Start out by targeting those you THINK you might want to sell to and see how that goes. Then target others if you don't like the results you're getting. This can actually be done very quickly and very effectively when you have the right prospecting approach in place, locked and loaded! Or you can drag it out for years with an inferior approach like much of the industry does... and still not know who you should be selling to. 2. Target positions that suit you. What positions do you like? Of course I'm referring to positions within companies. Do you want to target executives, administrative assistants, human resources?

Most people starting out in our industry have no experience selling promotional products. That's understandable. Maybe they had previous experience selling other services like print or embroidery, or maybe they had some customer service experience. That's all fine. But there's a disturbing trend in our industry now that I would like to see ended as soon as possible. People who call themselves promotional distributors, who not only have no experience in our industry, but who also say they have no time and no money to learn it. I call them paupers selling promos. At the risk of sounding callous, I would just say that if you have no experience, and you have no time and no money to learn what to do before you get started, please... just stay out! The last thing our industry needs is more paupers selling promos. OK, I'm not going to get any prizes today for compassion, but I've got to tell you, this growing trend of inexperienced, dead-broke individuals calling themselves promotional distributors has got to stop. In my career, I have likely trained more new promotional products distributors than anyone else on the planet, so I speak from a lot of experience here. The people I work with, regardless of their level of experience coming in, are focused, motivated and determined to succeed. Like every industry professional, they're busy. They have demands on their time from prospects, clients, friends and family. They start early and work late, but they manage to either find the time or make the time to do what's necessary to learn their craft. They invest in themselves. They invest in their businesses. They invest in customer acquisition. And they do this regardless of whether or not they are flush with cash. They may not be investing much, but they're investing something. For many starting out, it's a struggle. But instead of making excuses, they do what is necessary to succeed. Obviously, these are not the people I'm talking about when I refer to paupers selling promos. Instead, I'm talking about individuals, who claim to be promotional products distributors, but who also seem to indicate that they don't have two pennies to rub together. They say they have no money to invest in training, no money to get to industry trade shows. They certainly have no money to hire help, and it makes me wonder... how it the world could they possibly ever pay a supplier in the unlikely event that they somehow managed to get an order? But it gets worse. In addition to having no money, many "paupers selling promos" also say they just don't have the time to learn. No time to attend even a free webinar training. They're just too busy. But doing what? In business, you need time, you need money or ideally, both. You don't have to have a ton of each. But you have to have something. Success requires investment. I'm sure you've heard the expression, "you get out of life what you put into it." But I am constantly amazed at the number of people finding their way into our industry who think that they can literally invest nothing -- no time, no money, no focused effort, no commitment to excellence or even competence -- and still get something out. Let me assure you, it will not happen. Success in business requires the ability to create value for people. And value creation requires time, focus, commitment and at least minimal levels of investment. First in yourself, then in your prospects and clients. If you've been reading our newsletter, listening to our podcasts, learning from our training or benefiting from our memberships, then you probably already know that you can't get anything out of our industry (or any other industry for that matter) without having something to contribute -- without having the ability to put something, anything in.

In our last episode, we discussed the fact that you can only really build and sustain a profit-focused business if you are consistently creating exceptional value for your customers. But what's a good gauge for whether or not you're doing that? Ask yourself this: Are you being paid enough for the time you're putting in? The question "are you being paid enough for the time you're putting into your business" may sound funny, or perhaps strange, particularly to an employee, because many employees just assume that most business owners are overpaid, right? If you listen to what's said in the media about people who own businesses, you will get the impression that we're all greedy pigs, hopelessly overpaid. But in small businesses particularly, that is very often not the case. Businesses don't survive very long unless they're actually able to help people. In our industry, we help people create awareness, we help them with their promotions, we help them get attention and attract customers. Obviously we want to sell them our products, but the result is that we help people -- and hopefully make a living as a reward for providing that help. When we're starting out, in a lot of cases we're not likely to be making that money much up front. That goes for commissioned salespeople, as well as for business owners. We may need to put money in upfront, and we will almost certainly have to put in a lot of time, energy and effort learning our craft before we can get things to where they ultimately need to be. In the early stages, small businesses owners in particular are constantly reinvesting in the business and often not getting paid. Sometimes we have to be reminded to pay ourselves. "Pay yourself first!" You've heard that, right? But we don't always feel like we can do it. So asking yourself the question, "Are you being paid enough for your hours and effort?" is really important. When you look at these two things, the hours you're putting in and the effort you're putting in and then you compare that with the compensation you're receiving, it's pretty straightforward. Either you are or you're not. If you think about the hours you put in prospecting people, marketing to people, getting in front of them, having meetings, getting details, writing an order, placing the order with the supplier, getting everything done, following up after the order... If you add up the time and then divide the commission you're receiving by the number of hours you put in to it, you might discover that the kid who served you lunch at McDonald’s today was actually making more on an hourly basis than you were. Not ideal! That's why we have to be extremely careful about where we're investing our time and energy. If you think about it from the standpoint of where are you now, versus where do you want to be, that's probably a good start. Then the question becomes how do I get there? Am I going to do it through my own personal sales efforts or by hiring others? And either way, what are the efforts I'm going to have to engage in to make that happen? Most of us have a pretty good idea of what it is that we have to do, but sometimes we're not completely clear about how we need to do it. For example, we all know we have to do prospecting, we all know we have to make presentations, we all know we need to follow up. But then the question becomes "how am I going to go about doing all those things?" Will I make cold calls? Will I do in-person canvassing? Will I use the process taught in the Top Secrets of Customer Acquisition Program? If you're smart, you will! But there are a lot of different ways to prospect, some great,