1. Research
2. Contrarian Advice
3. Let the Market Change You as a Person

What’s #4? “The Paid Consultation as Your First Business Contact”

This one’s a tough one to embrace because it goes entirely against the norm and makes a lot of potential customers mad.

But it accomplishes three things:

• First and foremost it protects your time (and/or your sales people’s time) from ambivalent or unqualified prospects.
• Second, it dramatically increases closing ratios, because you’re only speaking with people proven willing to give you money to start with.  (I’m talking about 500% to 1,000% increase in my personal experience)
• Third, it protects the customer from purchasing things they’re not really ready to purchase, and/or things they’re not qualified to purchase.
• Fourth, it protects your business from unhappy customers (particularly important for service businesses)

Take my coaching salesletter for example.   (Click here to open in a new window so you can read along with the commentary)

With some frequency I get people who request FREE time to discuss their situation and see if it’s a good fit.   They usually say they’ve read my letter, but object to paying before speaking with me (or Ryan).   The vast majority of coaches, they say, would consider it very BAD business to require payment before the first consultation.  In fact, they don’t know ANY other coach who would insist upon this.

While I respect their decision, I stick to my guns.

You see, the vast majority of coaches HAVE TO spend their time developing business with free consultations whenever they can get them because they don’t really know how to market themselves.

But when you DO have the deal flow in volume, I’ve simply found it ineffective to offer time for free to a customer in ANY circumstance (other than the research phase of a business).   If  you read the coaching salesletter,  you’ll see I’ve actually set it up to try and dissuade all but the most well fit people from the program.

Because I’ve found if people don’t really already know that this is the right system for them, and we’re the right coaches, it’s an uphill battle to get them to actually embrace the work and take our direction.

There are literally dozens of turns and events within my system where the student needs to go against typical practices and engage in what their friends, family, and colleagues would perceive as a crazy way to do business.

And there’s no guarantee of success, even then.

So everyone winds up unhappy.

I worked really hard to develop the deal-flow to allow me to take this contrarian position because I believe it’s the only one which works for everyone concerned.  Otherwise you wind up with a kind of ”revolving door” practice with a lot of ambivalent and unhappy people who just pay for a few months at a high rate and then drop out.

Long story short, I thoroughly understand when a customer wishes to find another coach or work with another system given our philosophies and business practices.

Because if they’re not confident enough in what we’ve presented to commit to a refundable first month, then the odds are they’re not quite ready to work with us anyway, and we’d get a bad result for them.

There’s nothing at all wrong with people for choosing not to proceed under these circumstances.   I respect that as a perfectly reasonable position and  wish them the best.

(NOTE: I’m also not trying to maximize profitability in the coaching program, I’m trying to surround myself with people who embrace my systems successfully. They’re much more valuable to me both business wise and personally than the extra income from not-so-well-fit additional students.  This makes the “Paid Consult as Your First Contact” even more important)

I used a similar process when building Rocket Clicks.   All sorts of people wanted to get some free time to see if it was right for them.  And were incredibly annoyed at having to pay for the (refundable) consult.

But I diligently I did the work to build an effective salesletter and follow up system to drive people to a paid consultation.  And while most PPC salespeople would report a closing ratio of 10% or so, we had our pick of the litter (about 80% of those we wanted to take on as a client after the consultation could be sold)

So…

How can YOU free your time, increase your closing ratio, and grow your business with the Paid Consultation as the First Business Contact?

Love to hear your examples below,

Dr. G

Hyperresponsive Marketing Secrets |   Coaching

My #1 money making secret is Research.

#2 money making secret  is contrarian advice

Know what #3 is?

“Let the market change you as a person”

Here’s why this is so important.

Everyone TALKS a good game when it comes to equating marketing with empathy for your prospects and customers.  But truly empathizing with another human being means:

• making yourself vulnerable…
• being open minded and willing to change cherished thoughts and long held opinions…
• letting yourself FEEL the other person’s pain, joy, heartbreak, and despair…
• truly, deeply, and wholeheartedly absorbing their stories and desires into your soul…

It means changing as a person.  (Really)

It means that in at least some small but significant way you’ve yielded your ego to the other person, let your values disintegrate, and then put yourself together again better and stronger.  (A psychological term for this is “regression in the service of the ego”)

In fact, I only really know that I’m ready to go INTO a new market when I feel that I’ve been changed as a person.

I’ll give you a few examples to drive the point home, and I’ll show you how this translates into money making marketing insight.

HOW A SCUZZY LITTLE RODENT MADE ME A BETTER PERSON:

I have to admit I originally got into the guinea pig market as a purely mercenary marketing experiment (my first successful internet project).  I didn’t have any long standing love for the furry little creatures.

In fact, I basically thought of them like my mother did… “scuzzy little rodents with hair”  (I brought one home from summer camp when I was nine without telling her… that’s when I first heard them characterized in this charming way)

But I knew I could never ethically and honestly market guinea pig care books if I held onto those feelings and beliefs.

So I got myself a guinea pig (actually Sharon bought it for me for Valentine’s day in 2004) and started cuddling and playing with it every day.

But that didn’t really do it for me.

Still seemed a little scuzzy.  Still seemed like a rodent, even though it  occasionally made me laugh.

But then I started INTERVIEWING guinea pig owners (as in, you know, actually talking to people… like we OLD people used to do way back in the dinosaur era before computers), asking them WHY they wanted a guinea pig in the first place?

A surprising number of them said something like this “Because I got my little 7 year old Suzie a hamster last year and it died after just a few months.  She was devastated, and it rocked the whole household.  I heard Guinea Pigs live longer and I want our family to have a better experience.  I want my little one to learn how to nurture and care for another living creature, and to  successfully reap the rewards!”

This hit me in the heart.

I’ve got a little nephew who means the world to me.  At that time he was only three.  I remember how upset he was when his pet fish died.

Suddenly a guinea pig was no longer a “scuzzy little rodent with hair”, and I wasn’t an uncaring adult with no use for them.   Now the little monsters were a vehicle of love, and a means to help create children who would responsibly pass love on.

What could be more important?

This immediately crystallized the USP for me: “Guinea Pig Secrets Which Can DOUBLE Your Guinea Pigs Life”

Then I just had to seek proof to support it.

Turns out there are about a half dozen little known guinea pig care FACTS which can double the average lifespan of a piggie. (AS A SIDE NOTE: You’ll be amazed just how ignorant the average market is, and how much blatantly wrong conventional wisdom gets passed around without scientific backing.  You can almost always find facts to support a better outcome in any market!)

What you feed your guinea pig, the litter you use, how you insulate them from stress, etc. CAN actually double their life expectancy.

The real killer, it turns out, was that most veterinarians didn’t realize that guinea pigs had a different type of bacteria in their gut than cats and dogs.  As a result, giving a guinea pig the same antibiotics as you’d give a cat or a dog can easily kill him.  So veterinarians were frequently killing these little pets by accident, can you imagine?

Let me TEMPLATE this process so YOU can repeat it in YOUR MARKET:

1) Dig deep into the market with surveys, research, and other online intelligence (like I teach in the Hyper Responsive Club)

2) TALK to people.  Go out and meet them.  LIVE the same problems your market is living

3) Know yourself.  Let yourself feel how the market is changing you.

4) When you get “hit in the heart”… when a deep feeling of change comes over you, know that you’re onto something which is probably the core of what your USP needs to be

5) Formulate your USP

6) Find proof to support it. (Intriguingly, there’s almost always proof available.  The thing is, hardly anyone really digs this deeply in most markets, so there’s LOTS of gold available for the taking)

I hope this is getting you to start thinking.

Have you let YOUR market change you?

How, specifically?

You should be able to articulate it in as much detail as I did above.  If you can’t, it means you need to spend more time IN your market, talking to them, smelling them, living their pain.

Food for thought.

For SERIOUS thought,

Dr. G

PS – The weight loss (emotional eating) market definitely changed Sharon.  She realized that these people were out of control and hysterical because nothing they could do THEMSELVES seemed to work for them.  They really needed someone to do at least part of the work FOR them.  That was a real problem, because overeating is usually something people really need to make a conscious decision to change.

But then she realized that HYPNOSIS could give people the head start they were looking for… that’s what would truly relieve their feelings of panic about their eating and bond them to her in a stronger way than ever before.

So she did nothing less than spend the whole summer getting certified as a hypnotist.  (My wife does NOT mess around once she makes up her mind)

Here’s a very fascinating little MP3 we recorded for the weight loss market about hypnosis for weight loss.   She’s already using it effectively with her clients.   (SIDE NOTE: If you happen to be interested, take her up on it in the next few weeks before she gets too busy… she’s offering lower rates to jump start that part of her practice.  Contact info at the end of the audio)

My Best Stuff |   Beginners A to Z |  SEO Blueprint You Can Trust
(Note: price of the SEO blueprint will be $30 less when you get to the checkout page for the next week or so.  Special discount for my list)

I think there are MANY factors driving this rather neurotic tendency we all seem to struggle with (including, and perhaps especially, yours truly!)…

• Traffic sources are inherently unstable.   Google’s always changing the rules for both Adwords and SEO.  Social Media is a wild new animal hardly anyone really understands yet.   The email landscape is  subject to various laws, filters, and conventions (people have been crying “email marketing is dead” since I first started studying internet marketing back in 1998),  there are constant mergers and acquisitions, talk about taxes and online restrictions, FTC regulations, etc.
• A Tremendous Number of Skills Are Required to Succeed:   Research, copywriting, pay per click, blogging, systems development, market evaluation, human resources, management, legal, communications, emotional marketing and imagery, time management, accounting, html, javascript, blogging (you can outsource these last three  - oh yeah, you gotta know how to outsource well too)… I could go on and on.     The point is, NOBODY really is strong at all of these, so we’re all constantly searching for partners, JVs, and vendors to fill in the gaps
• Dreaming is a LOT More Fun Than Doing:   Setting up a marketing system (and the business to support it) is a lot of WORK.  It’s a lot more fun to consume the latest marketing package than to EXECUTE the latest marketing package.     (I still remember when this hit me.  In the midst of near bankruptcy back in 2003, I LOVED nothing better than to fill up my MP3 player with PPC and Copywriting gurus and just go walk in the mountains all day long.   It’s GREAT that I did this… I wouldn’t know what I know at this time if I hadn’t.  But the point is, we all need to ensure we’re “dreaming to live” and NOT “living to dream”)
• We Live With Constant Disappointment:  Because it’s rare that people thoroughly do their research and cash flow projections for a project… and then put in the necessary time, effort, and resources against a very realistically estimated growth curve, what happens to most entrepreneurs can only be described as episodic mania followed by severe disappointment (and depression).   It’s only human nature to run to the NEXT project dream when this happens.

Now, I’ve been fond of telling people “it takes 85% of a rocket’s fuel to achieve ‘escape velocity’ and get into outer space… the rest of the ride to the moon is mostly coasting and steering.”  I say that in order to assuage people’s anxiety, and to help motivate them through the “hump” required to get their projects off the ground.

But suddenly it hit me…

If it takes 85% of your fuel to get off the ground, then trying to launch four rockets at the same time is a losing game.  You simply can’t put 25% of your fuel into each rocket and expect it to do anything but fall back under the weight of the Earth’s gravity.

So, DESPITE the fears, insecurities, and constantly changing landscape of the internet, or perhaps BECAUSE of them, the spoils really go to those with persistence, fortitude, and FOCUS!

If you’re a member of Glenn Club, you know how psychotically I focus on choosing the right keyword conversation for your market, so YOU can narrow down your focus to exactly the right competitors, do exactly the right survey and interview research, and really dominate that keyword space.

But I’m talking about something way beyond your keyword space, I’m talking about your whole business.

What’s the single most important project in your business?  Are you focusing 85% of your resources on it?

Something worth thinking about, don’t you think?

Dr. G

Getten U Eeena Ze Club |   Coaching |   Beginners |   Outsourcing Webinar Replay

I’ve got the weirdest job in the world.

It’s true!

Because, you see, I get paid gobs of money to talk to myself.   I spend a LOT of time alone in my room, staring at the computer, recording Camtasia videos, MP3s, etc.   Of course, I’ve also got REAL businesses, and of course, I’m not really talking to myself, I’m talking to thousands of people.

But still, if a Martian were to land and observe what I was doing, he’d see a great big hairy guy sitting in his room and talking to himself.

Which couldn’t be farther from what I set out to do as a psychologist… (I really thought I’d be spending my days in a room listening to other people talk to themselves)

Anyway… sometimes it makes me a little “loopy”

(The Rocket Clicks team is great, and always interested in talking to me… but they’re in Milwaukee and, truth be told, Rob Sieracki is such an amazing Chief Operating Officer and partner that Jeff and I really don’t have to do that much anymore)

So I suppose this is a part of the reason I’m pushing the coaching program more seriously now.   (Get on the priority notification list at the bottom of this page if you’re interested … a limited number of slots will open tomorrow and, from experience, will go very quickly) I find that the people who’re willing to work my systems seriously via the coaching structure I’ve set up are some of the nicest, most interesting, (and most respectful of my time and boundaries)  people I’ve met in my years as an internet marketer.

Plus,  sometimes it’s just plain nice to worry about someone else’s business instead of your own.

I dunno.

Maybe I really am nuts.

I really should be DOING more than teaching, if money was my primary goal.

But I’m gonna do this anyway, at least for a while.

Hope you’ll take me up on it before I change my mind

Ryan, one of my most successful students, is also offering to coach a limited number of people through my systems for a little more than HALF my personal rates.   (Get on the priority notification list at the bottom of this page if you’re interested … a limited number of slots will open tomorrow and, from experience, will go very quickly)

Here’s a VERY SHORT MP3 (13 minutes) where Sharon and I discuss my personal neuroses, and how they can benefit you.

Enjoy

What might these coffee grinds have to do with Kaizen in Marketing?

This is the third and final article in the guest posting series from Ryan, one of my most successful students.  Ryan’s already built a $250K/year business using my methods (please read the disclaimer on GlennCoach.com), and after coaching directly with me all year, is about to launch what I believe will be a much larger one.

It probably won’t surprise you to learn I’ll be opening several coaching slots tomorrow, including a new level with monthly telephone access, and with Ryan available to walk you through the hyper-responsive process at a much lower price.   You can review the NEW details on GlennCoach.com, and if you’re even remotely interested, please sign up for the priority notification list at the bottom.

Here’s Ryan’s article

—-

“KAIZEN FINALE: The Secret Emotional Connection between Kaizen, Coffee, and… Your Customer? (HINT: It’s NOT What You Might Think…)”

Hi, it’s Ryan here again

And today, I’ll be wrapping up this three-part Guest Post series on the Power of Kaizen.

But before we begin, let’s quickly recap what we’ve covered so far:

In Article #1, we talked about Kaizen and your BUSINESS.

I shared a few real-life examples of how tiny, incremental improvements can yield big gains in your business (and how this exact approach enabled me to go from earning $0 to $25,000 per month in my first 18 months online, using the hyper-responsive process).

In Article #2, we talked about Kaizen and your BRAIN.

We explored the idea of moving toward your business goals by taking one “impossible to fail step” at a time — using a deceptively simple (but extremely powerful) “Kaizen Mind Trick” that I personally use whenever I reach a “sticking point” in my business.

(By the way, if you missed either of those articles, you can still get them here: #1, #2.)

Now, in today’s conclusion to this three-part series, I’d like to talk about how I apply Kaizen principles within my sales materials — and across my entire marketing funnels — in a way that might surprise you…

Specifically, I’m going to talk about how you might use Kaizen principles to positively influence THE single most important person in your business — (Yes, someone even more important than YOU…)

And that someone is of course — Your CUSTOMER

To illustrate the sort of thing I’m talking about, I’d like to share a slightly embarrassing personal story with you, which I think you may find amusing:

Some time ago, I had one of those mini-marketing-epiphanies we all get from time to time — as I was standing in the supermarket looking to buy — of all things — coffee.

As I stood there scratching my head, staring at the shelves hopelessly lost, and deciding which brand of coffee to buy — it was like suddenly, my entire coffee-drinking life flashed before my eyes:

The first coffee I remember drinking was the one my parents drank their entire lives — Folgers — the Buick of coffees — sold in that unmistakable giant red can, priced at $3.99 / lb.

For most of my early adult life, Folgers was my coffee of choice — by default.

But years later, by the time Starbucks was on every corner and they’d started selling their ground coffee on the grocery store shelf — at some point, it went on sale — probably for something like $5.99 / lb.  And as a fan of their ‘by-the-cup’ product, I decided to give it a try.

I remember weeks later, when it went back up to the regular $8.99 / lb. price, I was faced with a decision — continue drinking the Starbucks brew, OR go back to my Folgers roots?

But, by that time, it was already too late.  I was hooked on Starbucks– whether I cared to admit it or not…

And then, a few years later, my coffee drinking habits evolved yet again:

As we started getting bit older, my wife and I began making a concerted effort to eat healthier across the board.  And in that quest, I came across compelling research that convinced me to start drinking certified organic (and pesticide-free) coffee only.

Making that organic transition came with a $10.99 / lb. price tag.

And now, after this whole episode flashed through my brain, I found myself standing in the coffee aisle at the local Whole Foods, deciding between two different certified-organic, fair-trade, boutique-brand varieties at a price of $12.99 and $13.99 / lb. respectively.

(And after realizing how I’d arrived at this point, suddenly questioning my own sanity…)

But THAT’S also when the mini-marketing epiphany hit me like a ton of bricks.

(Any guesses on what it might be?  And how it relates to Kaizen?)

Well, let’s start with this:

For me, as a consumer in this market, I NEVER would have made a direct leap from Folders at $3.99 / lb. to my current boutique brand, certified-organic, fair-trade variety at $13.99 / lb.

The price jump is just TOO BIG.

But each buying decision along the way that lead me there was small enough (and non-threatening enough), that I was able to seamlessly and unconsciously move down this path without setting off any of my internal, amygdala-controlled warning signals.

Or in other words, moving up a notch — one small step at a time — was never a big deal.

Okay, so how can you take this and apply the Kaizen principle of “one small step at a time” within this context in your sales materials — and across your entire marketing funnels — on a  practical level?

Well, for starters — knowing what you now know about how Kaizen impacts the brain, you might start asking yourself a few questions:

Like for example: Are you seamlessly moving your prospects and customers through your marketing funnels — and more broadly, to your way of thinking — one small, non-threatening, step at a time?

Or somewhere along the way — maybe in the form of an objection you fail to address in your sales letter or autoresponder sequence, or the price gap between your front and back-end products — are you asking your prospects and customers to take a step that’s just TOO BIG?

Because perhaps that could be the VERY STEP that might be causing them to “freeze” or “flee” — and put the brakes on any sort of buying decision.

After all, your customers’ brains are not unlike yours or mine.

We’re all wired the same way.

Until next time — to your continued success!

Ryan

PS - But going back to the coffee story, really the Kaizen lens above is just ONE way of looking at things — (and a convenient way to bring our discussion on Kaizen full circle…)

But there are at least 5 other marketing takeaways (which have nothing to do with Kaizen) that I was able to pull from that experience as a consumer.

And I’d be VERY curious to know:

As you read that story for the first time, what marketing lessons were YOU able pick out?

I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below, and I hope at least some of you will let me coach you through your very own Kaizen Success!  (Sign up for the priority notification list if you’re interested on Glenn’s coaching page)

PPS - I’d also like to send out a warm word of thanks to everyone who took the time to read this series of guest posts — and particularly those who shared their comments and feedback. Thanks so much!

So for the record, here are 4 THINGS I NO LONGER BELIEVE:

#1 The Right Market Research Makes You Invulnerable to Competition: I used to think no one could touch me in my old markets because I did so much research, I’d know so much more about the market than anyone else would.   It still truly IS  invaluable, but you have to make the time, energy, and resources to execute on all that intelligence, and keep executing as the market evolves.

Moreover, as people start seeing your success you definitely get a bulls eye painted on your back.  So I now believe it’s critical to engage in counter-intelligence, put up fake sites for your competitors to copy, and focus like crazy on a very small number of markets where you can continually build visitor value and execute on everything you learn. Oh, and like John Reese used to say “Make your money and then just shut up!” (Don’t go around talking about your markets except with your closest friends, mastermind partners, and mentors)

#2 PPC is a good enough traffic source to sustain a real business all by itself:   It’s not.  PPC is the best (but not the only) place to research and test a market, to identify your “money keywords”, optimize your sales engine, and build your visitor value.  But there are so many ways to get traffic in this Web 2.0 world (soon to be 3.0) that’s it’s crazy to obsess about PPC alone.

Moreover, PPC ads are always a deteriorating asset.  It’s just the nature of a Darwinian auction environment.  If you’re not constantly working on it, your campaign’s performance will constantly degrade.  If it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse.

The solution?  Build a profitable stream on PPC, and pump it for all you can, but not at the expense of SEO, social media, telemarketing, direct mail, and above all… a compulsively psychotic quest to build your visitor value by serving your best customers with ever more high end products and services.  (As Dan Kennedy says “the winner isn’t the one who pays least for the leads, the winner is the one who engineers their business to be able to pay the most”)

#3 Social Media isn’t really worth that much of your time:

In the past year, for those of you who’ve been following along, I’ve been warning people to avoid spending too much time considering Twitter, Facebook, etc. as possible traffic sources.

However, at the same time, I’ve engineered my research processes to incorporate them for market intelligence purposes.  (Note: This is taught in Month #2 of the Hyper Responsive Club and it’s one of the most amazing things I’ve ever discovered about how to reverse engineer the language and concerns of a market)

Well, I suppose not surprisingly, since I incorporated social media into the research process this year, the businesses people are developing on same are showing some decent conversions from the social media traffic.  (As is my Emotional Eating business by the way).  Not an overwhelming amount, but enough that I need to rescind my previous trash-talk, and enough that I’ve hired a team in the Phillipines (watch this Free Webinar Replay via my affiliate link by the way to see how I did that – a rather amazing resource) to start figuring out how to drive more social media traffic.

I still put PPC first, but with the new research process, social media’s (and in particular Twitter and Facebook) looking like a very attractive part of the roll out process.

#4) That it’s always possible, or even desirable, to launch a business in the black from day one. I’m taking a big risk by saying this, since a lot of my reputation was built on pounding ALL the risk you could out of a new business by exhaustively researching  a market using techniques I developed as a Fortune 100 consultant.

And people tend to talk about me as the guy who “launched 17 markets profitably IN A ROW”.

Well, first of all, that’s a big  fish story, which seems to have gotten bigger over time.  I did go into 17 markets profitably.  And most of them were in the black within a week or two after launching.  But they weren’t all sequential.  There were a lot of false-starts and red flag negatives which caused me to kill several markets over the course of that famed 18 months.  And there was one I flopped on early on.

Moreover, only 5 of those markets were anything to write home about, and then, only after working very hard to push them from fledgling profitability to serious monthly income and list building.  The rest were anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand a month.

But here’s the thing … in today’s competitive environment, you’re doing yourself a disservice if you think you’re gonna  be profitable out of the gate.  There are literally 10x more advertisers than when I started.  Plus, in many (if not most) markets, the click costs are 5 times higher.   And marketers are MUCH more sophisticated in content management, follow up, and direct response in general.  Plus, of course, Google’s made it harder and harder for the little guy to advertise well.

So, just like in the real world, if you want to develop a real business, you’ve got to have a funding and cash flow plan to get you through your research + a few months of losses while you do your testing and develop your system.

“The name of the game is staying in the game until you win the game!” That’s my favorite thing I ever said.   Doing yourself the honor of researching your market and carefully planning cash flow is what empowers you to keep buying traffic and making incremental improvements until you’re profitable, and then WAY PROFITABLE.

Thinking you’ve gotta get out of the gate in the black is just a way to demoralize yourself before you even start. (I’m not saying to be stupid and just let money run out of your bank account month after month – but to have a realistic plan to inch your way to profitability with steady testing and product development)

Which is why I spent a good part of month #8 in the  Hyper Responsive Club reviewing a detailed spreadsheet model I use for cash flow forecasting prior to launching a business.

—

There,  I feel so much better! (Now if someone could just help me tell my Mom I no longer believe in Santa Claus I think my conscience will be totally clear)

Onwards and upwards!,

Dr. G

PS – I’m going to open a few personal coaching slots in the next few weeks.  And in addition to the slots with myself, there  should also be a few available at HALF PRICE with one of my most successful students, who’s mastered the process and has already built a $250K/year business using my methods in a non-make-money niche.  Get on the waiting list please if you’re interested.

PPS – The Outsourcing Webinar Replay really IS worth watching (Note: affiliate link) if you’re not already familiar with this resource.

Last night, one of my more hyper-responsive customers (Tom) stopped by my house for dinner.   He’s been a VERY successful coaching student for approximately 8 months and was passing through the area, so I offered to cook for him.

No problem so far, right?

Except, I really, really, really can’t cook (for other people).  I don’t know why.

Something always seems to go horribly wrong.  And I’m not just being modest or polite… I mean horrendously wrong as in you want to be sure there’s an ambulance near-bye.

It always starts with the best intentions.

Last night I started with Black Bean chili.   I was just gonna heat it up from the can. But I burned it beyond recognition.  It was burned so badly, Sharon made me leave it outside on the porch to try and air out the house before Tom arrived.

There was also brown rice, of course.  How hard is it to steam brown rice?  Apparently VERY.  Because even though I make rice myself about 3x/week, this particular batch just didn’t want to make.

I put it in the steamer for well over 90 minutes, checking every 20.  (It usually only takes an hour).  God knows why, but the damn rice just wouldn’t cook.  It was INVINCIBLE .

Despite the mounds of steam, and the fact that all vegetables steamed perfectly well  (as they had a hundred time before), this particular batch just sat there like a rock.  As in, I may has well have just gone outside and scooped up some gravel to pour the burnt chili over.

Finally, there was the salad dressing.  I was going to blend up some garlic, ginger, soy sauce, and a little water.  (Usually works really well).  But for some reason this came out too thin, so I thought I’d fix that with a little Guar Gum.

Result?  Disgusting Garlic puddling.  Yummmm.

You may think I’m taking dramatic license for this post and exaggerating for effect.  But I’m not.  I’m quite realistically describing what happened.

I can’t imagine how Tom could be saying anything to his family today besides “Uhm… I don’t know why, but Glenn tried to kill me”.

When I went upstairs with Sharon at night she said “Honey, I have to say that was about the worst cooking I’ve ever, EVER had in my life.  What possessed you?”

OK, now back to marketing your business.

Tom will stay with me regardless of the bad food.  So will your most hyper-responsive customers… you’re entitled to make a mistake once in a while.

When you’ve truly established a hyper-responsive customer, your job has more to do with NOT UNSELLING them.  There’s a natural momentum the customer wants to maintain.  They want to continue the relationship and grow/consume more with you.    It’s only natural for people to want more of a good thing, right?

But…

It really IS possible to “kill” (UNsell) your customers.

I see it all the time.

I used to supervise coaches and psychotherapists who constantly complained to me about the unreliability of their income, not having enough clients/patients, not knowing why clients constantly left before accomplishing their goals.

But when you really listened to their stories, you inevitably saw something the coach/therapist did to UNSELL their client.

Sometimes it was blatant, like confronting the client too hard before developing a solid foundation in the relationship.  Other times it was subtle, like constantly coming 1 minute late for the appointment.  (The difference isn’t the 1 minute, it’s who waits for whom, and believe me personal service clients have a whole different experience when they’re forced to wait for you instead of feeling that you’re all set, prepared, and looking forward to seeing them)

In the products business, it’s slightly under-delivering a few times in a row (they’ll usually forgive it once), after you’ve established a history of excellence and delight/surprise.

Why would a marketer do this?

Human nature, really.

We always want what we don’t yet have.  Which means we’ve always got our eye on “the next level”, too frequently forgetting about the people who got us where we are now.

You can guard against this by honestly asking yourself 3 simple questions…

- Why do my best customers stay with me?

- What have I STOPPED doing for my best customers, which I simply need to reinstall in my business?

- What have I done recently which could UNSELL my most hyper-responsive people?

OK, now, who wants leftovers?

G

www.HyperResponsiveMarketingSecrets.com

PS – This isn’t the first time I’ve cooked people out of my home.  Terry Dean’s spent a weekend with me on more than one occasion.  It’s kind of fun to see him squirm (he’s so polite) and ask “Um, Glenn, how about we get  Chinese Food again tonight?”.     And Perry Marshall’s due to stop bye for lunch next month when he’s passing through.    When I offered to make vegan cooking for him, he said “that sounds like fun”.  We’ll see!

It’s never had much, if anything, to do with luck, “secrets”, and especially not short cuts.

Moreover, I don’t think I’ve met anyone who’s accomplished much of significance any other way.

Have you?  (I’m really curious – please let me know below)

And if not, then why are we all so perpetually curious and hungry for “the secret”?  What stops us from just getting down to the work of getting things done?  Of course, we all need to work SMART, but why do we all hold so tight to the fantasy that things will be different “someday” when we finally learn that magic something?  (“Someday” isn’t on the Calendar, I’ve checked)

What do you think?

Let me know in your comments below please:

“A healthy society must go to any lengths to eradicate evil”

Note:  I’ve paraphrased the quote to make it more difficult to look up, so no cheating!

LIARS.

A Darwinian economy creates ruthless temptation to lie, exaggerate,  distort, and mislead.  And the PPC auction puts that on steroids.

Every time you look at the results of a split test you’re faced with a moral dilemma.   Because the majority of the time, strengthening your claim beyond what you can actually deliver raises your click through and conversion.   And sadly, outright lying raises it stratospherically.

Of course, the smart marketer knows that lying creates only trial, not repeat. (It can also lead to being married to a big smelly guy named Bubba, and spending a lot of time lifting weights in the yard)

So what’s an ethical marketer to do?

I’ve known Chuck Batson for years, have had dinner with him, and in my judgment he’s one of the most ethical marketers around.  Chuck  operates in a market you’d think is more traditionally known for honesty and compassion… the vegetarian/vegan/raw-food world. (Which means, you know… he refuses to eat fried kittens and stuff, no matter how good they taste)

But he’s up against LIARS too.

Thankfully, he used my old How To Double Your Business course (predecessor to the hyper-responsive club) and found an honest way into the market, but he’s only making a few bucks and because he works full time as a programmer, he can’t seem to find the time to expand.

I really like Chuck, respect his values, and appreciate what a dedicated customer he’s been for almost 4 years.

Listen carefully and you’ll learn a few things about dealing with the Liars in your market too!

Dr. G

PS – Chuck asked a few very valuable questions towards the end about the difference between free and paid content.  It’s definitely worth listening to the answer if you’re following my model.

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