Top Secrets of Marketing & Sales

Recently I was explaining to our Inner Circle and AIM SmartEQP members about how to maximize their revenue within the 3 areas of customer contact, and more specifically, within the 9 focus areas that ensure profitability. Most distributors don't even know what the 9 focus areas are, let alone how to maximize them, which gives my clients a tremendous competitive advantage in the form of a high value, profit-focused business. Much of the work I do with my distributor clients relates to operating a profit-focused business. That probably sounds a lot more mercenary than it is, so what do I mean by a profit-focused business? Well, many businesses are geared toward production or distribution. They're geared toward finding products, sourcing products and delivering products. Essentially, this means they're focused on the operation side of things, which is important, but it's not where the money is. When I talk about a profit-focused business, I'm referring to one that is conceived, built, designed and focused relentlessly on achieving the maximum profit margin for the purpose of serving more clients and growing a scalable company. Without profit, you have no money to grow, build, or hire help. You have no cash to reinvest. In fact, most businesses stagnate because they're building a business that barely covers its own day to day expenses. Many distributors find themselves overworked and stuck on a hamster wheel, because they're doing just enough business to eke out a living, but not enough to hire help. One of the questions I get all the time is, "when is the best time to hire?" Generally, my answer is as soon as humanly possible, because if you'd like to build and scale a profitable business, without flying solo, it means hiring other people. But you can't hire other people if you don't have a profit-focused business. So here's the thing: If the sales you're generating right now don't produce significant enough profit to allow you to hire others to help you, it's a screaming indicator that you are not operating a profit-focused business. But let me clarify something. Some people think that operating a profit-focus business is about being greedy or selfish. But that's not what I'm talking about at all. Because the only way you can build and sustain a profit-focused business is if you are consistently creating exceptional value for your customers. People have lots of options from which to choose, including lots of low cost options in nearly every market. So the only thing that will allow you to differentiate yourself and to become a profit-focused business yourself, is if you are able to significantly outperform your competition within the 3 key areas of customer contact and the 9 focus areas. So being a profit-focused business is not about being selfish at all. It's about providing the very best value for the people you serve. It's about being able to sell confidently, even when you're up against lowball competition. It gives you the cash you need to be able to grow, scale and better service your existing customers and to target, attract and convert as many new customers as possible. If you're already an Inner Circle or AIM SmartEQP member, be sure to log into the members area and review our material on the 3 areas of customer contact and the 9 focus areas that ensure profitability. If you're not a member, at least start by asking yourself, "What can I do right now, today, to significantly increase the value I create for my clients?" How can I improve every interaction I have with them, before, during and after the sales process? And how can I better position myself to sell effectively and confidently, even when I'm going up against websites, local competitors and price-based competition. 'Cause if you don't know how to do that, you'll never be as profitable as possible and every day will remain a s...

We got some good feedback last week in our discussion about account penetration. In it, I provided a simple framework for using referrals to spread yourself throughout a large organization like a virus. This week, we'll discuss three reasons why following this strategy and fully penetrating every large account you work with is not just a good idea, it should be a job requirement! Since last week's episode on penetrating large accounts, Samuel said "Good information. Keep it coming." Paul said "Interesting and useful. Worth trying." If you missed that episode, I would encourage you to go back, check it out and share it with everyone in your organization. You can find it at topsecrets.com/166. As Paul suggested, penetrating large accounts is definitely worth trying. But in my opinion -- beyond that, I would say it's worth instituting as a requirement... as part of your company's ongoing success procedures. Hopefully, you have a series of success procedures in place in your business -- formulas and tactics that are proven to work again and again and again. If you don't have that, I would recommend you get that in place as soon as possible. And here are three reasons why I believe that having a procedure in place for fully penetrating large accounts should be part of your sales training -- required of all employee salespeople in your organization and strongly encouraged among all your independent reps. 1. To grow your sales within each organization you work with. That's the most obvious one. But unfortunately, if you just view it as a way to grow your sales, you might view it as optional or a "some day" thing. After all, you can do it anytime, right? Well, no. It's actually not right at all. It's a big mistake, and we'll talk about why in a moment, but just think about it from your own point of view. Aren't there big accounts that you know you should be penetrating, but for some reason you haven't done it? It may have occurred to you, you might have even thought, "I really ought to do this," but for some reason, you failed to take action on it. Growing sales within existing accounts should really be viewed as the low hanging fruit. But that's just one reason you should do it. 2. You think they're buying from you, but they're not. I got some feedback on this last week from Bob, who said, "So true! Just last week I was working with a large account on a re-brand. I always believed everything went through their marketing director and then to me. However, we discovered three different departments had ordered online for a total of $22,000! When I questioned the marketing director relative to why they were ordering online, she said that is my problem, not hers. I should have been doing what you suggested all along." Fortunately, when Bob found out, he said he was able to "unhook the orders and get them placed with us," but it's an important lesson. Just because you feel like you have a good relationship with one contact in an organization doesn't mean you're getting all the business. And as Bob's client pointed out, that's the salesperson's problem, not the client's. Another good reason to make fully penetrating your accounts a requirement. 3. This one is just painful. Imagine you've been selling to one person in a large account for years. You have a great relationship with them and they only buy from you. Extremely loyal. You've been meaning to ask about others in the organization who buy, but you keep putting it off. You don't want to rock the boat or be a pest. Then one day, you call your client and find out that he or she is no longer with the company. Gone without warning! What happens now? Now, you have to struggle to resell yourself into an account where you used to rule.

Most marketing messages and business communications are bland, directionless, and dull as dishwater. They lack a clear marketing voice. If you're sending out emails that don't get a response or leaving voicemail messages that are largely ignored, take a look at what you're putting out. I can virtually guarantee it's missing one or more of the Five Elements of a Compelling Marketing Voice. If you've ever wondered what's missing from your marketing -- what causes it to be ignored rather than acted upon, It may very well be one of the 5 things we're about to discuss. First is a clear target: Knowing exactly who you're reaching out to and why. Every communication you put out should be written as if it's to one person, even if it's going out to dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people. Think of one particular prospect or client you know well. Pick someone you communicate with most authentically, who could be representative of this group, and then write as if you're writing to that person. Go back over it before you send it, of course, and make sure it applies to the entire group, but if you write as if you're writing to just one person, it will be far more effective. This leads right into the second thing which may be missing, which is "you" centered communication. Have a look at the messages you're putting out -- the emails and texts you're sending. Listen to yourself as you're leaving a voicemail message and see how many of your sentences start with or contain the the word "I" vs. the word "you." "Hi, I was just calling because I'd like to set up a time to get together and go over some ideas I had for you." You may not realize it, but that simple sentence had 3 I's before it ever got to a "you." That ratio, 3:1, is completely off. Whenever possible, your communication should lead with them, be centered around them, and refer to them... a lot. That means using the word "you," more than "I" or "me." A third thing that might be missing is good, old fashioned, conversational English. Many marketers and salespeople, for some reason, slip into formal "corporate speak" the moment they start writing a letter or email. Dear Mr. Phillips, pursuant to our conversation of Thursday, March 1st, I herewith enclose a detailed proposal incorporating my primary, secondary and tertiary suggestions, recommendations and guidance for your impending client promotion of April 15th. That's one side of the coin. The other is those who are too informal. If you've ever received an email with no punctuation, no sentence structure or capitalization -- either all lower case or even worse, all upper case (which is seen by most as shouting) -- you know what I'm talking about. In both cases, the solution is the same: conversational English. While some clients prefer a more formal approach and some a less formal approach, you can always adapt your conversational English to their preferences without taking it to either of the two extremes we just discussed. Fourth is a personality or point of view. Each of us is unique, so whenever possible, it's good to convey the most positive aspects of our personality in our communication. This further humanizes our message and creates a better bond with the person who's receiving it. The Fifth element which may be missing is interest or passion. How can you make what you're saying as interesting as possible to the recipient? Are you excited or passionate about your ability to help your client? If so, be sure to allow some of that excitement to show through in your choice of words in a written communication and your tone of voice in spoken communication. This element is very compatible with the previous points, because when you infuse interest or passion,

Everyone knows that if you over-promise and under-deliver, it kills your credibility with clients. But what about the reverse? What if you under-promise and over-deliver -- giving them more than they expected or were promised? Sounds like a good plan, right? But delivering more than what's promised often comes with its own set of issues. Many people in business like the idea of delivering more than what's promised to customers. The idea is that if you deliver more than what they expected or better than what was promised, most clients will be happy. And that's probably true. Years ago, when I was in New Orleans, I was introduced to the concept of lagniappe -- it's a small gift given to a customer by a merchant at the time of purchase. It's like a little extra or bonus. Similar to the idea of a baker's dozen -- where you buy a dozen donuts and the baker throws in an extra one. When it happens, it's very nice. It makes you feel good. It makes you feel special. Very endearing. But if you know in advance that you're going to be giving your customers more than they expected, or more than they're paying for, why not let them know that up front so they can make their buying decisions based on all the facts? In a previous podcast, I talked about the disconnect that often exists between marketing, sales and production, where marketing offers one thing, sales promises something else and production delivers something that doesn't resemble either of those things. Imagine if the ads for McDonald's restaurants encouraged you to come in for gourmet food, the person taking your order then promised you healthy food, and then the counter attendant handed you a Big Mac. It's a pretty extreme example, but it's a good illustration of what happens when there's a disconnect between what's promised and what's delivered. Even if the example were reversed -- If they promised you a Big Mac and then delivered a lean, beautifully cooked filet mignon, you might love it, but you might also be thinking, "this is not what we discussed." You might also be wondering what you should expect the next time you come in and order a Big Mac. And that's the problem with delivering anything other than what you promise. It can make them wonder about the disconnect and why you didn't just tell them what you were going to deliver to them in the first place. So if you know you're going to delivering an exceptional experience, why not offer that in your marketing, promise it during the sales process and then have production deliver it? That creates consistency, which many clients value more than anything else. We need to be able to trust that what we'll be getting is what we're promised. By promising and delivering something great, they can be happy throughout the entire process, rather than potentially being concerned up front and then being pleasantly surprised upon delivery. Or vice-versa. Also, if you develop a pattern of under-promising and over-delivering, people may come to expect it. Let's say you promise five day delivery, but consistently deliver in three days. Sounds great, but what if I become used to that? I place my order, now fully expecting it to arrive in three days, but for some reason, it takes four. Now I'm disappointed. You may say, "but I promised five day delivery, it's still a day early!" Maybe. But if you got me used to something else, you may be setting yourself up for trouble. So in most cases, you are probably better off knowing exactly what you're going to be delivering, promising it through your marketing, confirming it through sales and then delivering it via production. Under-promising feels safe, because when we under-promise, we're confident that we can dramatically outperform the p...

What was the intent of your last social media post? What will be the intent of your next one? To express an opinion? To say what’s on your mind? To let them know what you’re up to? If you want to craft communication that sells, you have to remain laser focused on the target — meaning the recipient of the communication. In this podcast, I'll explain...

One of the biggest issues that sales professionals are dealing with these days is the inability to get a response. In order for that to change, our messaging will need to be far more interesting, engaging, compelling, and beneficial than the bulk of bland, boring, self-serving "content" that most people are putting out today.

In our last episode, we talked about the fact that in sales, there are times when making more calls can actually do you more harm than good. Particularly, when we're saying the wrong things, targeting the wrong businesses or approaching the wrong people. But who is training your salespeople? Each of these situations is symptomatic of the same problem: untrained or poorly trained sales reps. And it's a big problem -- for the salesperson, the business that hires them and the industry at large. Many new people are really excited to get started in our industry. They're all fired up and ready to take on the world, so they just dive right in! Sales reps like this suffer from what my late friend and colleague Bill Brooks used to call "energized incompetence." They toss themselves head-first into the proverbial pool and just start flailing and kicking! They make phone calls and attend networking functions and get in front of prospective clients, all the while making themselves, their coworkers, their employers, the companies they work for, and the industry at large look ridiculously unprofessional and unprepared. They engage in all these efforts in the hope that they'll eventually figure things out as they go along. But hope is not a viable sales or business strategy. Some sales managers -- not the good ones, of course -- actually encourage this sort of behavior, turning people loose and saying "practice makes perfect." But as the great Vince Lombardi accurately pointed out, "Practice does not make perfect. Only perfect practice makes perfect." This means that when we practice doing the wrong things, in the wrong way over and over again, we get very good at doing the wrong things in the wrong way -- exactly the opposite of what we should be doing. And this problem is not limited to sales people and sales managers. Many businesses in our industry, even some of the largest, spend enormous amounts of time and money trying to recruit other businesses' salespeople, while investing very little or nothing to help, grow, train and nurture the people they have -- those responsible for 100% of their sales to date. Then they're surprised when their people leave or fail. In fact, in some organizations, accountability for sales training becomes a gigantic catch-22. The sales reps believe the business should train them and the business believes the sales reps should train themselves. As a result, no one trains anyone and the salesperson, their families, the business and the industry all suffer for it. In a nutshell: If you don't train your salespeople, you are harming your business. I conduct training at all the major industry trade shows and have done so since January of 2001. Training at these type of events is great to spark ideas, provide shortcuts or hacks, or even teach a particular aspect or aspects of the job. But event training itself -- the type of training that takes place just once (or even once per year) -- is not a substitute for ongoing, process training... where the conversation continues, questions can be answered and the salesperson becomes grounded in the activities, methods and procedures that will help to ensure positive results. Process training demonstrates to a salesperson what's possible and often sets him or her on a path to lifetime learning and success. If you're a salesperson in our industry and you need help getting more leads, qualifying more prospects, converting leads into sales or creating loyal, repeat clients... or if you're a conciencious sales manager or business owner who wants to train your salespeople, but just don't have the time, desire, staff or resources to do it in-house, give us a call, toll-free, at 1-800-494-2721 and ask for a complimentary needs analysis.

If you ever have trouble getting things done, here's a RADD approach to making it happen. And with this approach, actually doing it is the final option. This week, I'm headed to the Lone Star State to conduct four different training sessions on topics like Total Market Domination, How to Manage the Customer Cycle, The Lead Generation Machine and How to Simplify for Success - Getting More Done by Doing Fewer Things. This is an approach I've been cultivating a lot over the past few years, but in the last twelve months or so, I've been able to see some significant changes as a result of this approach and all of them are positive. One of the things I realized is that the true power of our work is not in doing it, it's in getting it done. The money (the cash!) is in the completion of the task, not in the doing of it. Many people in our industry, even those who earn a good living, don't realize how little they're being paid when you divide it out by the number of hours they're working. If a salesperson earns $75,000 a year working 35 hours a week, with four weeks of vacation per year, that's an average of $44.64 an hour. If a salesperson earns $75,000 a year working 60 hours a week, with ZERO weeks vacation per year, that's an average of $24.04 an hour. They're both getting paid the same amount on an annualized basis, but one is earning a little more than half as much as the other one on an hourly basis. Does that mean that his or her time is worth half as much? If you go by the results, you would have to say yes. So it's a good idea to calculate your actual hourly rate to see how you're doing.  It doesn't matter if your hourly, or salaried, or commissioned or any mix of those. You just divide what you actually got paid for the year by the number of weeks you actually worked, then divide that number by the number of hours you worked each week. That's your actual hourly rate. If you want to increase it, you can either sell more in the same amount of time or you can reduce or eliminate the amount of time you're putting in, by eliminating the things you're doing that need not be done at all. We each have our own strengths -- the things we're great at -- that no one else can do as well as we do. At least, we'd better have some strengths. Otherwise, it will be hard to remain employed, either for ourselves or for someone else. If you haven't already done so, take a look inside and ask yourself, what is my superpower? What is it that I'm best at? Once you've identified it, you'll want to spend as much time there as possible, and then take a RADD approach to the rest of it. RADD: Removing, Automating or Delegating the Task, rather than Doing it. A RADD approach means that before I engage in any activity, I ask myself, "can this task simply be Removed? That's the R. Can I just not do it? If you can remove the task without a significant negative impact, then by all means do so. If you can't, then move onto the A. Ask, "can I automate this task?" Am I able to use a technological solution to get this job done? If the task can't be automated, then we move onto the D and ask: "Can this task be Delegated?" Can I pass it off to someone else who can do it better than I can? Or as well as I can? Or nearly as well as I can? If the answer is yes, then delegate it. If someone can do it 80% as well as you can, it might be fine like that. And even if it's not, it will take you a lot less time to help out with the remaining 20% than it would be to start out at zero and do the whole thing. Finally, if it can't be removed or automated or delegated, it's time to actually Do it. That's the final D. And the reason it's last, is that you'll want to explore each of the previous options thoroughl...

Every few years our federal government shuts down for one reason or another and non-essential personnel are furloughed. Then, after the shutdown, these non-essential personnel are often paid for the work they didn't do during the shutdown. Paying non-essential workers to do non-essential work that didn't actually get done may be something that governments can afford to do. But most of us in business can not. So the question is: "Do You Have Non-Essential Personnel in Your Business?"

Referrals are a big key to business success. But if you're not getting enough of them to grow as quickly as you'd like, take a look at the Four Rs. It's Expo Week and I was invited to present three training sessions on education day. One was about Cashing in on Niche Markets. One outlined the Ultimate 90 Day Marketing Plan and another was about Creating Word of Mouth for yourself, by designing simple referral marketing systems that pay. And I'd like to share a few points from that training with you right now... When I think of word of mouth, I think "reactive." Word of mouth happens when people think enough of our work to recommend or refer us to others. But referral marketing systems are different. They're proactive. If word of mouth is about waiting for people to refer you, referral marketing systems are about doing what's necessary yourself... going out and getting referrals - now. Anyone who knows me, knows that I am a huge fan of being proactive. I don't like waiting around for things to happen -- particularly things that might not happen at all. It reminds me of an old quote from Zig Ziglar who said, "Don't look for your ship to come in if you haven't sent one out." I'm all about sending out those ships! So when we ask for referrals, we should do it proactively. We should also do it in a way that helps people to solve problems. In other words, we don't say, "who do you know who wants to buy something from me?" That's way too salesy, and needy and kind of pathetic. Instead, we should ask them how we can help someone they know solve a problem. For example: Who do you know that needs help promoting their business? Who do you know that needs to attract more customers? Who do you know that needs help creating awareness, or getting noticed, or motivating their salespeople? When you ask in a way that's designed to help people, the responses you get are much better. Because no one wants to sic a salesy, needy, potentially desperate salesperson on someone who trusts them. Very obvious advice, but often overlooked. Simply by changing the way we ask, we can dramatically improve our results and feel much better about asking. Because it becomes about helping them instead of just helping ourselves. In my training session, I also introduced what I call The Four Rs of Referrals. Instead of just blurting out a request -- "Hey, who do you know?" -- I recommend that you start out by... Reaffirming the Relationship. That's the first R. You could say, "I'm really glad we've been able to do business together all this time. It's such a pleasure working with you." When you sincerely reaffirm the relationship, it reminds people about why they've done business with you in the first place. Which brings us to the second R, which is Remind. If you already do a lot of business as a result of referrals, it's a good idea to remind people of this. This reminder also helps you to convey the idea that you don't do business with just anyone. Now maybe you do, and if that's the case, you'll have to come up with something different to remind them of, but if you can say something like, "As you know, I work almost exclusively by referral business," it gets agreement and sets the stage for... The next R, which is Relate. We want people to know that we're not looking for just anyone. We want clients just like them -- the people we're asking. In addition to being flattering, it's also just good business. Because if you have a good or a great client, you DO want more just like them. And who is in a better position to know someone like themselves than the person you're talking to? You can accomplish the third R with just a simple statement like, "I'm looking for more clients just like you."

There is a big difference between active clients, non-clients and former clients. And those who fail to make the distinction will waste a lot of time and money. It was great seeing so many familiar faces last week at the ASI Show in Orlando. What a nice way to start off the new year. The weather was colder than expected, but the training and the attendance were hot, hot, hot! I ran into a lot of people I’ve known for a long time and it got me thinking about the tremendous difference between clients, non-clients and former clients. And it’s a lesson I think we should all take to heart. I’m back in the office this week for a quick break in the action before heading out to Las Vegas next week for the training sessions I’m conducting at the PPAI Expo, then off to Dallas the following week for my presentations at the next ASI Show. While the travel schedule can be hectic, I love being at these events, making the presentations and interacting with our clients and members. Each year, I see a lot of people I know including clients, former clients and non-clients. If you’ve been in sales or business for any length of time, you see and know people like this as well. Starting with: Your active clients: These are the people who benefit from the services you offer on an ongoing basis. They order from you regularly and form the foundation of your customer base. They can count on you, and you can count on them. These are the people we’re constantly looking for in business: Loyal clients who get what we do and who appreciate the value we bring to the table. Make no mistake, these are the people we’re in business for. Second: Non-clients. Those who, for whatever reason, have never purchased from us and most likely never will. Many non-clients are happy to pick our brains and take advantage of whatever tips, advice, ideas, services or benefits we’re willing to offer them for free. But they will not spend any money with us, at all — ever. For that reason, one of the most critical and important prospecting skills we can develop is the ability to quickly identify non-clients, so we can prevent them from distracting our focus, tapping our resources and wasting our time. Third: Former clients. People who at one point or another found enough value in our work to pay us for that value, but for whatever reasons, no longer do. If you’re like me, you appreciate former clients. You’re happy that you were able to be a part of their world and they were able to be a part of yours. I’m really fortunate, because many of my former clients still get tremendous value from purchases they made from me years ago. One former client who I helped though a difficult time told me last week that he was able to get his mortgage paid off in 2017, he’s on track to do nearly a million in sales and he still uses our Getting Started program to train all his new reps. One of our AIM SmartEQP members was telling me last week how he’s been using our Customer Acquisition program to bring in new clients for years. He told me he’s launched more than 20 customer acquisition campaigns and it works for him every time -- meaning that the most successful campaigns get him a lot of customers and the least successful campaigns still get him customers, but also show him exactly where things are going wrong, so he knows what to fix. But it’s not always strictly business. At a trade show in Chicago, I ran into a former client in an elevator who thanked me for something I said in one of the original Top Secrets training programs. I was talking about how as a business owner one of the biggest benefits we have is the ability to determine how we spend our time. I talked about the fact that I had adjusted my schedule to drive my kids to school from the time they were in kindergarten,

Happy New Year! Welcome to the first podcast of 2018. I hope you enjoyed the holiday season and are ready to get your year rolling and off to a great start. The holidays are over and it's time to start selling! It's trade show season! This podcast is being posted on January 2nd and I am scheduled to present four training sessions today at the ASI Show in Orlando. I'm talking about Maximizing Revenue from Your Customer Base, Making Prospecting Simple with your own Lead Generation Machine, Simplifying for Success and Total Market Domination: How to Become a Recognized Force in Your Marketplace. If you're in Orlando today, I hope you'll attend ALL of those sessions, if not, here are a couple of takeaway points from my session on the Lead Generation Machine. Consider this: Every machine has inputs and outputs. With a vending machine, you put in money and you get a snack or drink or candy in return. With an ATM or automated teller, you put in your card and password and you get money out. And with a lead generation machine, you put unqualified people in and you get qualified prospects, who become customers, out. If you don't have a fully functional lead generation machine operating in your business right now, today, I can assure you with great confidence that you are losing, if not outright hemorrhaging money! Think of your lead generation machine as the black box on an airplane. There is a process taking place inside the box that is shielded. Something is happening in there. Do you know what that something is? Crazy as it sounds, many people in our industry do not know what's going on inside their own lead generation machine! If you don't have a tested, proven system for converting unqualified people into qualified leads -- and qualified leads into paying clients -- you will never earn all you're capable of earning. When you DO have such a system in place -- when you have a lead generation machine that works consistently to convert unqualified leads into qualified leads into paying clients -- what do you spend your time doing? Feeding the machine, right?  That's all you do, you just keep feeding the machine. If you had a process that worked, you wouldn't waste your time with non-essentials. You'd spend every waking moment feeding the machine. And that's exactly what you should be doing. Unless you don't have such a machine in place. Which is exactly the situation in which many distributors find themselves. People talk about networking and cold calling and referrals and prospecting and content and social media as if any of these things are actually a means of converting strangers into clients. And they just aren't. At best, they are components of a lead generation machine. You can use networking and cold calling and referrals and prospecting and content and social media to feed the machine, but it's what happens inside the machine, after you've brought the prospects in, that really counts. The goal is not to do a social media post, the goal is to post something that gets someone to raise their hand and express interest. The goal is not to do a podcast. The goal is to have a podcast listener contact you to request more information. The goal is not to crank out reams of content consistently like a broken copier machine. The goal is to put out the right content, to the right prospect with the right message, strategically, to create a specific result. So many people focus on a spaghetti-on-the-wall approach -- throwing it all up there to see what will stick -- and then expressing frustration when nothing sticks. Consistent content is worthless if it's garbage. If you want a lead generation machine in your business that works, you need to create a strategic process for moving human beings through that process.

Planning is a great way to get in touch with what we really want, and regardless of whether or not we get it, the act of planning itself can be tremendously valuable to us. By taking the time to consider, "what would I love to have happen in the coming year," we're filled with hope and possibility. We'll do a bit of that in this podcast!

Discussions about low-ballers and price-cutters inevitably generate lots of comments and questions. In our last episode, we talked about what we can learn from losing business to a low-baller or price-cutter and what we should NEVER learn from them. Today, I'd like to address another question I'm frequently asked, which is "How am I supposed to compete with this?"

There are few things more annoying than losing business to a low-balling, price-cutting competitor. But when it happens, let's make sure we don't learn the wrong lesson! In this episode, we'll discuss what CAN be learned from price-cutters.