Scott Hallman » profit

The Power of Pricing Part 1

Scott Hallman — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 14:12:01 +0000

Want to dominate your market in record speed? Now you can using the Power of Pricing in order to create an outrageous offer your competitors likely cannot match.

We teach several strategies for using price to maximize your profitability. With a few exceptions, these never include discounting for discounting sake.

One of my favorite pricing strategies for dominating a market is based upon the lifetime value of the customer. This can be a game changer for a business, and this strategy has literally transformed entire industries.

The strategy involves establishing a super low initial investment for your customers, which is a fraction of the total cost of the actual product or service, and internally financing the rest. You’ve seen these type of offers by large furniture stores that offer either no money down or little money down with no interest for six months. This enables someone that cannot afford to shell out $2500 to simply make a series of “easy” monthly payments.

Game Changer Strategy Revealed

In this Profit Tip I want to share another personal story to drive home this powerful profit generating strategy. ADT Security® is a nationwide home security company that sells and installs burglar alarms. For a typical home this may cost $1,250 if they purchased from a local security company.

In contrast, ADT Security® charges a tiny fraction for their installed alarm system, around $250 in total. But ADT understood the power of the Lifetime Value of a Customer and therefore gets the customer to instead commit to a three year “monitoring service” with a monthly fee of $44 or so.

They charge $250 for the ENTIRE SYSTEM INSTALLED vs $1,250 by the competitors for like-kind equipment.

Let’s take a look at the numbers.

Equipment and installation charge = $250
$44 * 36 Months = $1,584.
Total Revenue = $1,834, not counting the additional years of monitoring after the 3 years that likely adds thousands of dollars to the Lifetime Value generated from the alarm installation.

Game changer? Just try to find a local, independent security company these days that is not a dealer for one of 4-5 such national companies that has now deployed this pricing strategy. Plus ADT generates significantly more revenue and profits!

By the way, this type of strategy requires capital to finance the upfront cost of installing the equipment. If you have high profit margins you can elect to deploy this strategy as a limited time offer to control your cash flow or find an underwriter that will finance the program for you.

Perception Versus Reality

Scott Hallman — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 12:15:40 +0000

A $1M+ Lesson

Do your customers really value you at the level they should? If not, you will fail to retain them as long as you should; fail to maximize the frequency of their purchases; fail to get them to buy more of your other products and services; and fail to get the referrals you deserve…and of course, miss out on tons of profit.

Several years ago, after investing several hundred thousand in our landscaping, we were on our third gardener and I was once again less than satisfied and wanted to replace this gardener. Said another way, I PERCEIVED that the gardener was not doing a great job and that I was paying for hours where little was getting done.

One day I came home and the gardener was out in our front yard. He waved at me to come over by him. He proceeded to walk me around the yard and show me some of the extra things he was doing in order for my yard to be perfectly groomed. He showed me how he had trimmed my ornamental trees so that they would grow into perfect specimens.

After he finished sharing with me all that he had done, I quickly realized that my PERCEPTION was not in fact REALITY. And in just a few moments the gardener went from getting a grade C, and on the verge of being replaced, to getting a grade A and being irreplaceable.

Are you doing a good job ensuring that your customers perceive your products and services at the highest level?

If not, evaluate ways that you can help them to see the advantages you provide clearly. It can be as easy as sharing outcomes with them on occasion.

A dental newsletter client saw reorders and longevity skyrocket when they simply shared the number of leads that were generated from the newsletter and the lifetime value those patients represented. You see, the dentist PERCEIVED that they were getting few leads and PERCEIVED the value of these new patients was only the $70 initial visit fee. In contrast, the REALITY is they were getting far more leads and these patients expected lifetime value was over $6,000!

Take action on this tip and profit.

Downsell for Profits

Scott Hallman — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 09:32:36 +0000

How To Instantly Increase Your Sales Conversion Rate and Add $25,000-100,000+ To Your Profits by Changing One Tiny (no cost) Step in Your Sales Process What is “Downselling”? Many of you now utilize the point of purchase maximization technique of upselling (and I trust optimizing the results with what I shared with you in a past Tuesday Profit Tip). To make sure we are on the same page, upselling involved offering an additional item to the primary purchase to increase the overall price of the transaction. In contrast, downselling is where you offer an alternative to the primary purchase to decrease the overall transaction price. Why would you ever do that? Well we teach several applications of this strategy but for this brief tip I am going to focus on the application of “Increasing Sales Conversion”. If you are losing out on potential clients because they cannot afford (or chose not to) your product or service, even though they want what you provide, downselling provides a simple way to “give them what they want” and convert them into profits instantly. This strategy applies to most businesses and can be profound for many. When I taught Chet Holmes this concept, he said it was one of the most impactful things he ever implemented in his company. Essentially, downselling is where you offer the prospect a lower cost alternative. This may be a smaller quantity package or a lower quality item, or even a first time buyer “special purchase” opportunity. The goal is to win the customer so you gain the opportunity to do business with them in the future as well. Downselling Leverages What You Already Provide Downselling can be amazingly simple if you simply utilize the exact products and services you already offer to create the lower priced item. If you are a health club and trying to sell a prospect on a Gold Membership that includes a one year membership, an obvious downsell is a 90 day “trial” Membership. You win a customer and a chance to convert them to a regular member. Taking this a step further, you could have a second downsell to a 30 day membership…and finally to a one week membership.

Real World Example #1* An Instant Increase in Sales Conversion of over 125%

At my company, Business Growth Dynamics, we recently implemented a new downsell program in our coaching division. So we simply created a series of lower cost ways they could benefit from our coaching services and training. Our sales conversion rate increased by 125% in the first month. These are clients that would have never purchased coaching services at our standard one-on-one rates. But, and this is critical, they wanted and needed the service!! Real World Example #2* Marketing Systems Training Company adds $10,000 a month in Profit I recently spoke with the CEO of an international Marketing System Training company that said he heard my interview with my friend Eben Pagan and was intrigued at the concept of upselling… So I gave him some distinctions and helped him immediately create a downsell strategy – two training programs priced below their current lowest priced one. We quickly determined it was at least a $10,000 per month profit stream (based on past lost prospects that would have purchased) … and the CEO said that he expects it to grow to over $50,000 a month in profit! The great thing is that it includes the exact same services that they already provide, just stripped down versions. So it required little effort to put it into practice. Real World Example #3* $96,000 a year in profit while helping people – How cool is that? A healthcare provider immediately added $2,000 a week to their profits when they learned the detailed implementation systems we teach in our 30 minute “Downsell Workshop”. The strategy is totally proprietary so I am not allowed to reveal the details, except to say that there are 200 patients a year getting the help they need due to this creative downsell solution. And 50% of those that were offered the lower priced alternative are accepting the offer. Profit Action Steps Ok, let’s get you ringing the cash register. Select any product or service you offer and create a simple downsell that you can offer to prospects that do not purchase your standard product or service. Remember, it can be a lower quantity, quality, include fewer bells and whistles or even be a one time deal.

As with every strategy I share with you, Downselling for Profits costs virtually zero to create and test. So go for it and ProfitNOW™.

“Mushrooming” To Maximize Profits

Scott Hallman — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 12:24:32 +0000

How to “own” more of the business your customers purchase Welcome to this week’s Tuesday Profit Tip where we bring you real-world ways to Build-Grow-Manage-Profit from your business. My goal is that you earn at least $1,000 an hour for every hour you spend learning and applying our profit strategies. When I was taking my technology company public, we purchased a company that was run by two incredible entrepreneurs, Jessie and Rohit. While we were over-focused on getting new clients, they were focused on maximizing the revenue per client – literally “owning” these clients. And the results spoke for themselves. They were by far the most profitable division we had, and this fact caused me to pay close attention. You see, they learned that getting new clients was extremely difficult in the competitive arena of technology. They also learned that they could penetrate deeply and “mushroom” out (expand) into many more opportunities within these same customers, and as they did, they developed stronger relationships, had more opportunities and actually became harder to replace. In their case they used this strategy to dramatically, and I mean dramatically, increase revenue per client. As an example, they landed a large telecommunications client (namely due to confidentiality) with a small $10,000 strategy job. Rather than send in their $90 an hour consultants (as the bid provided for) they staffed it with a $225 an hour stud (at the same price). This brilliant move ensured the client was delighted and it also enabled the stud to “ask around” and identify other projects that were coming up.

Turning $10,000 into $26,000,000 Methodically

The result? The $10,000 job turned into over $1M per month, for 26 months! That is $26,000,000 for a $10,000 job! Mushrooming is all about focusing on meeting more of the needs of your customers. It is about:

Understanding the client’s needs
Understanding how you (and a joint partner if needed) can meet their needs
Building relationships with multiple decision makers
Maintaining “stealth insider info” so you know what they are buying and from whom (and it will be you if you focus on this strategy)

Mushrooming applies to many types of businesses& perhaps all.

If you are a chiropractor it means understanding all their health issues and nutritional issues so you can meet more needs, and understanding their families needs as well
If you are a parts supplier to major corporations it means finding other purchasing agents that are not buying from you – both within that physical division and other divisions/locations
If you are a duck farmer it means getting out and visiting your customers to verify you are the sole supplier… and if not, what you must do to be that
If you are a seasonal specialty item company that sells into large retail chains it means learning what other seasonal items the same buyers that trust you need/sell so you can create it or partner with someone that would die to have those relationships
If you are a carpet cleaning company it means learning about their needs for rug cleaning, repair, furniture cleaning, padding, and perhaps even other household cleaning needs

Mushrooming Protects Your Market and Margins

In Jessie and Rohit’s business, the strong presence in these accounts often meant they had little price pressure. Why? They were trusted, reliable, and fair. So margins were awesome! I used this same “mushrooming” strategy to protect my market share in my national medical record company. What started as a new concept developed by two of us quickly became a field of 1600 competitors, all who looked and sounded the same… sound familiar? So, to protect ourselves, we mushroomed deeper by developing other services our hospital clients needed. This made it more difficult for the competitors to duplicate our offerings and it entrenched us more solidly in the hospitals we were in. We continued this year after year, which I am confident, was a big part of our remarkable 94% client retention rate over 8 years. So “own” your customers and profit like never before. Apply this strategy and ProfitNOW™. To your success, Scott D Hallman PS If you are already a Small Business Growth Club member or are interested in accessing the step by step process for fully implementing strategy going directly to http://www.smallbusinessgrowthclub.com/public/352.cfm.

The Power Of Laser Target Marketing

Scott Hallman — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:04:22 +0000

Throughout the ProfitNow system, I continuously emphasize the fact that little changes can produce big results overall. One thing you hear me discuss over and over in my training sessions involves laser target marketing. Today’s tip is going to teach you how to use persuasion to dramatically increase your laser target marketing by emotionally influencing your prospects… and in turn, convincing them to buy what you sell. Consider this example… several large surveys show that most people believe a logical discussion… coupled with good data and the right logical supporting facts… are the best ways to persuade a prospect to buy what you sell. Often, they break the persuasion process down to three main steps:

1. Present your proposition clearly, and with conviction.

2. Present your supporting data, with the right facts, logic and information.

3. Structure your “deals” and move on to the close.

But according to Dr. Jay Conger, Director of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California Business School, “Following this process is one surefire way to fail at persuasion.” Why? Neuroscientists have recently discovered that the brain waves we emit when we engage in logical thinking are virtually identical to those we emit when we’re forced to plunge our hands and arms into ice water. It’s painful! Furthermore, these researchers have determined that our brains require 300 percent more effort-measured in calories burned-for heavy thinking, compared with “mental cruising.” No wonder people hate a logical, reasoned approach! Luckily for us, our brains are hard-wired with mechanisms that help us make good decisions without painstaking analysis and reasoning. These mechanisms are known as triggers, but you can also think of them as “hot buttons.” Essentially, they’re the decision-making shortcuts we easily and naturally employ all day long. They are our automatic self-guidance systems. We often don’t even realize we’re using them! Put simply, hot buttons are our navigational aids. They help us make easy, non-analytical, yet correct decisions. There are seven major persuasion elements we all depend on to help us easily make quick, automatic and right decisions. One example is the consistency trigger. Here’s how it works. We all have a kind of database in our brains that records past thoughts and actions. This database provides a sort of roadmap for future decisions. When faced with a new decision, our brain does an instantaneous search for similar past decisions, and we’re oriented to act in a way that’s consistent with our past actions. In short, we do what we’ve done before. A citizen who’s voted for the conservative slate in the past will usually do so again, without bothering to seriously analyze the rhetoric of all the candidates running. Spenders make decisions to keep spending… savers tend to decide again and again to save. Cautious people take careful actions… risk tolerant people do not. That’s not to say that logic has no place in decision-making. But logic tends to come later… AFTER the decision-maker has responded to his or her internal triggers. For example, when people are in the market for a house, they’re often attracted to one that “feels right.” Maybe it reminds them of a place where they used to live. Later, when they’re discussing the house with others, they’ll talk about more logical aspects… the great neighborhood, easy access to the highway, a good school system, and so on. Now, what does this mean for you, the business owner who is in the role of persuader? Knowledgeable persuaders don’t force persuasion partners into icy water! Skilled business owners don’t demand 300% more energy for decisions by their prospects. They help their prospects make good decisions by learning what they want, doing the heavy thinking for them and then determining how to position the discussion to create an emotional reaction.

Skilled persuaders evaluate which of the seven triggers will apply to another person. Then they carefully frame and deliver a presentation based on those triggers. They use facts and figures only when needed… to support a hot button based decision.

An example: A sales rep recently spoke with a client who boasted that his company was successful because he was able to make and implement decisions quickly. Being well versed in persuasion techniques, this astute sales rep wrapped up her presentation to this CEO by saying, “Charlie, you mentioned that you like to make quick decisions-will that be the case here?” Essentially, the rep set up a prime situation for the consistency trigger to operate. The CEO had to be consistent with his prior statement, and the consistency trigger resulted in a handshake, and a $50,000 profit to the sales rep! What’s great is that this formula is fundamental. Hit the right hot buttons to engage the prospect’s navigation system for making correct decisions. Use facts, figures, and logic only when needed to reinforce their hot button based decision. And enjoy the end result as you have now emotionally engaged the prospect with a compelling and persuasive reason to buy what you sell. Once you master persuasion marketing, you will have the unprecedented ability to attract more clients… attract them with greater frequency… at a lower cost… and with total and complete confidence and certainty. That’s the power of laser target marketing. This is the critical information we teach our clients every day. If you’re ready to learn more about this powerful process, or just need help building your business visit us at www.smallbusinessgrowthclub.com.

Know the Difference Between “Response Rate” and “Return on Investment”

Scott Hallman — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 09:59:44 +0000

Throughout the ProfitNow system, I continuously emphasize the fact that little changes can produce big results overall. To be sure you find these small changes, it’s important that you know and understand the difference between your prospects response rate and your actual return on investment. In other words, when you spend money on marketing, how many prospects does that marketing generate, and how much money do you put into your pocket because of that marketing. After all, it doesn’t do you any good to generate a thousand prospects if none of them buy from you. It’s also worthless if you spend a thousand dollars on marketing and sell just five $100 products that have a gross profit margin of $250. This means you just lost $750. Not a very smart move obviously, and yet we speak with business owners every day that are doing exactly that. Let me tell you about a real life example involving a real estate agent, and how an “uneducated” agent can lose a lot of money by not knowing the difference between response rate and ROI. I don’t want you to fall into this same costly trap. Not long ago an agent called us and said he was really disappointed with his marketing results. He told me that he placed home listing informational brochures into tube flyers on the signs outside his sellers homes, and after 2 months had only gotten 1 client from them. He thought that 1 client was a lousy response rate and that he probably wouldn’t continue this promotion any longer. So we started talking. I asked him how many active listings he currently had. He said 4. I asked him how much he spent to keep those info tubes full with his “property flyers.” He said about $40 on each listing per month. I asked him how many calls he received all totaled in those months. He said he got over 110 calls, but most of them were lousy leads and basically annoying interruptions. I asked him how much in GCI (commission) he made from that 1 sale. He said his co-broker commission was about $9,600 on the buyer, but after deducting out expenses and splits, his gross profit was about $5,000. “OK,” I said, “let’s do some simple math. You spent about $160 a month on 4 listings, which total $320 a month in marketing expenses for those 2 months. You received 110 calls, which means you spent $2.91 for each lead you received ($320/110 = $2.91). Of those 110 calls you actually closed 1 of them into a client – netting you a total of $5,000 in gross profit.” “Yeah” he said, “but I only got 1 sale from all those leads.” So I asked him this… “if you went down to your local bank and handed them $320, and 2 months later they handed you a check for $5,000, do you think that would be a good deal for you?” He said it would be a windfall – an unbelievable return on his money. I said, “then why do you think getting $5,000 for spending $320 on your marketing is such a bad deal?” He said he expected more. So we talked about what he could start doing to make some slight tweaks and minor adjustments that would motivate more prospects to call and the additional steps he could take to convert those additional calls into more clients. The point I want to make here is simple. Most business owners look at “response rate” and NOT “return on investment.” I’ve seen them actually stop working on promotions that were working, and shift over to promotions that were duds. Many of them just don’t know the difference. This is the single biggest reason why you should be measuring the effectiveness of your marketing…so you’ll know the difference between a windfall profit…and a hopeless loss. This is the critical information we teach our clients every day. If you’re ready to learn more about this powerful process, or just need help building your business visit us at www.smallbusinessgrowthclub.com.

Creating a Compelling Competitive Advantage to Make Your Business “The Logical Choice”

Scott Hallman — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 10:04:06 +0000

Think back 15 years ago. Coffee was a 65-cent item that came in a Styrofoam cup. It tasted like every other cup of coffee everyone else was offering and there was nothing enticing, compelling or appealing about it. But then someone dared to ask this question: “If I could create the ultimate coffee experience, what would that look like?” Brilliant question. And what did that question produce? Seductive art-deco boutiques… Americano, Cappuccino and Mocha… Baristas in place of clerks or waiters. And a multi-billion dollar juggernaut industry was born. Starbucks had a clear vision: make the $2-4 cup of coffee an affordable luxury. Re-invent a commodity and create an extraordinary experience. Starbucks has successfully created a competitive compelling advantage… and in the process made their business the only logical choice for most people to purchase their morning coffee from. So stop and think for a moment. If you could create the ultimate FANTASY about YOUR product, service or business, what would it look like? When you create a compelling competitive advantage that’s centered around your customer’s ultimate fantasy buying experience, your business literally becomes the middle kingdom between fantasy and reality. Prospects will read your ads because they pander to that fantasy, and they’ll buy your product as well. Domino’s Pizza built a billion dollar empire selling lousy tasting pizzas to hungry college kids whose ultimate fantasy was to receive fresh, hot pizza FAST! Domino’s wasn’t going after the market segment that wanted the best pizza or the segment that wanted atmosphere – it went after the segment that demanded their pizza get to them fast. And through this simple distinction, they revolutionized the pizza industry and became The Logical Choice. But here is the amazing part. Domino’s used the exact same cooking equipment and exact same pizza business know-how as everybody else in their industry. Were they the innovators of pizza delivery – NO! Tons of pizzerias delivered… just not fast; therefore the pizza was often cold and the kids were restless when the pizza arrived. Domino’s claimed “Delivery in 30 minutes or less or it’s FREE!” This became their primary advantage that met the needs of their newly defined market position – the busy college kids that wanted food fast. FedEx let it be known that they could absolutely, positively deliver your package anywhere in the world overnight. Even dog food is getting in on the act. Purina now makes a premium line of dog food they named “Canine Creations” and specifically targeted it at the well-to-do dog owner. Their tag line emphasizes their competitive advantage… “Chef Inspired… Dog Desired.” Do any of these competitive advantages sound familiar? “The milk chocolate melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” “It helps build strong bones 12 ways.” “Get the body you want, in half the time.” “Discounted diamonds – unmatched quality, untouchable price, unbeatable guarantee.” Each and every one of these has a compelling competitive advantage. Just remember that if you can fulfill a fantasy for an exceptional value (NOT low price), who can refuse that? Your Compelling Competitive Advantage is not a program… but instead, your business philosophy that should direct your entire future marketing and operational program.

The Truth About Selling “Value”…

Scott Hallman — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 14:07:50 +0000

Recently, I read a wonderful article in Go-To-Market Strategies regarding the topic of selling value versus price. If you have been a Small Business Growth Club member for any period of time, you have undoubtedly heard me say repeatedly that your prospects don’t buy price… they buy value. That’s why you must first focus on identifying the specific things your ideal client wants… and then looking for ways to innovate your business so you not only give them what they want… you go above and beyond what they were expecting. All small business owners, at some point in time, are faced with the pressure to negotiate price. This is especially true for those of you who sell, or want to sell at the higher end of your market. There are many schools of thought about dealing with this common sales objection, but the general consensus is to steer the prospect away from the conversation of price and toward a discussion of VALUE. But what is value? Technically, value means “the amount of money or relative worth that is considered to be the fair equivalent for what’s to be received in return.” Should be easy to identify and communicate, right? If it were only that easy. The truth about selling value is that it sounds much easier than it is to actually do. Why is that? The reason is two-fold:

Value is in the eye of the buyer, not the seller (what you think has value may not have relevant value to the buyer). We see it time and time again. A company believes they have a value proposition that matters to the buyer, but in the end…it’s not enough. What your customer values, and what they’ll pay for it, are often at odds. Don’t get caught in the fallacy that what you’re providing… and at the cost you’re providing it… will be considered “value” by your buyer. We always recommend that you survey your customers and define your value proposition based on what you find.
Buyers assume value is a given…what they really want is VALUE-ADD. When you look at the definition of value again, you can see that this is true. Buyers come to the table assuming that what they’re going to pay for something will be a “fair equivalent” for what they’ll be receiving. What they’re really looking for is a good value. No matter the price point, buyers want to know that what they’re buying is worth more than what they’re paying. As you define your value proposition, look for things you offer that add exclusive yet relevant value, but are included in your price. Make those value-added offerings a tangible part of your messaging!

So, as you begin to develop your “value pitch,” remember these two very important things…your value must be RELEVANT to your buyer… and it must be an EXCLUSIVE (meaning only you offer it) value-ADD. Innovation at its best… Let me give you a quick example of this. There is an advertisement I see continuously on TV for LaQuinta Inns. I have stayed at LaQuinta several times in the past and have always found them clean and comfortable. I would rate them in the middle of the road for hotels. They’re better than Motel 6 but not on the same level as a Hilton. So what are they highlighting in their advertisements? They focus on the fact that they have recently remodeled their sleeping rooms and their lobbies. And guess what? They have COMPLETELY missed the boat. Rooms and lobbies are NOT the hot button issues with travelers. First of all, I EXPECT a nice room when I go to a LaQuinta Inn. In fact, the rooms they show me in their ads actually look tackier than what I remember when I last stayed there. The rooms look exactly like a room in a Motel 6. As for the lobby, how much time did you spend in the lobby at the last hotel you stayed at? Who cares anything at all about the rooms or the lobby? No one… because they expect both of those to be nice. The key to selling value is to give your prospects what they want and expect so you don’t disappoint… but then “innovate” your business so you blow them off the face of the earth by exceeding what they expect. If I owned a LaQuinta Inn and my ideal client was a family of four enjoying vacation time, then I know they expect a nice room, clean sheets and towels, probably a swimming pool for the kids and a continental breakfast in the morning. Bu that’s what they EXPECT… so I better make sure I offer all of those. But what if during check-in, I inform them that they will receive, as part of our service, a 5 minute vacation analysis with our concierge. During the meeting with the parents, the concierge discovers the family is on vacation… and they plan to take the kids to Sea World in San Diego, Disneyland in Anaheim and Universal Studios in Hollywood. What if the concierge handed them discounted tickets to each of the parks, discounted meal coupons at restaurants close by all of those parks, provided them with free passes to a live filming of one of the kids favorite TV shows and then handed them a Garmin GPS locator to make sure they never get lost during their adventure? And all of this is complimentary. Think they might “notice” this service? Think they might just mention this to friends, family, relatives, acquaintances and business associates when they return home? Think the local newspaper, radio and TV stations “might” be interested in doing a local news spot on this hotel offering this remarkable “standard” service? Now, you might be asking what all of this would cost LaQuinta. All of the discount coupons are provided by the parks. Same thing for the meal discounts from the restaurants. The ONLY cost LaQuinta would incur would be to purchase the Garmin GPS locators for a hundred bucks… and they would last for years. By the way, what if the hotel created a special “vacation package” that included all of these services and discounts? Think they could charge an additional 20% per day for the room rate… and get it all day long? You wouldn’t be able to book the demand for this hotel fast enough. See what I mean by “value?” It truly is in the eye of the beholder. That’s why we encourage you to focus on ways you can “innovate” your business. If you massively innovate your business, marketing becomes easy. The value becomes so apparent all you have to do is just mention it without worrying about fancy words or magic phrases. Try it and see if it works for your business. I guarantee you won’t be sorry.

Taking a “Success Inventory” To Discover Hidden Profits in Your Business

Scott Hallman — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 14:26:04 +0000

Today I am going to share with you the first step in dramatically improving the results of everything you ALREADY do well – marketing campaigns, sales processes, lead generation techniques, upsells, referrals, collections, inventory management and so on. I am talking about adding 5%, 10% or even 20% improvements to things like increasing your sales conversion rates by 20% or shaving 10% off the time it takes to perform key tasks. Perhaps the best part is that none of these incredible added streams of profit will cost you a dime to implement, and you will meet little or no resistance from your staff, and only praise from your customers. Often I see businesses get so focused on fixing things or scrambling for new business that they make the painful mistake of ignoring the procedures and systems that are the key to their success. But the fact is that these very systems are the easiest to improve and see instantaneous, measurable results. Finding EASY Profits The first step of the four part series we call “Leveraging Your Success” is to take a “Success Inventory”. This involves taking an inventory of everything that is working well in your company — marketing campaigns, sales processes, lead generation techniques, upsells, referrals, collections, inventory management and so on. Then evaluating your current procedures (whether in writing or not) to spot opportunities for improvement: WOW! Scott that is a real revelation &.well, yes. It is. And you will be amazed what simple breakthroughs you will make by spending just a few minutes on this process. In working with thousands of companies, less than 2% have done this process (and only 4 have done all four steps of the Leverage Your Success System). Let me use a real-life example to illustrate the power of this simple process. A Physical Therapy client produces thousands of dollars in profit every month by cross-selling a medical device to their patients. Basically the process involved asking the patient, at the conclusion of treatment, if they wanted to purchase the piece of equipment that required a medical necessity and prescription from the patient’s attending physician, and a pre-approval from the insurance company. We revisited the undocumented “success best practice” and broke down the process. As we did this, we identified several simple ways to dramatically improved results — pre-approval was done day one. We streamlined the process and increased conversion rates by 27%. The important distinction here is that there was tons of improvement potential on something that was all ready super successful. There are two areas to quickly spot improvements: 1) Systemization This is where you have a process that works well but it is not being done consistently – essentially because you do not have written procedures to follow or a mechanism to measure and monitor outcomes. Systemization also includes techniques or procedures that are being left to individuals to do “their own way” instead of modeling the best way. In these cases, you will experience tremendous variance in performance — as was the case between Negotiator A and B. 2) Process Improvement Process improvements include procedures that are relatively systematic but where there is clearly an opportunity to improve certain elements or steps in the process that will make a measurable difference. This is often the fastest way to increase profits. After all, you have a documented procedure. Your staff follows the procedure and is getting results. Therefore, you can easily make changes (test) that often produce profound results. What are some successful procedures where you can improve one or more elements that will incrementally improve results? Write down 2-3 tasks and then evaluate the process to spot easy improvements.