Often I notice people waiting.  Waiting until next week, next year, when the kids are older, when the kids finish school, just waiting and finding any (not even a good) excuse to keep waiting …

The time for action is now, today …

Start your diet today, become a non-smoker now, become RICH today …

Remember, it all starts with a thought, a dream, a goal, a vision …

“Nothing if not at first a dream” is what they taught me when I was just 16 years of age.

So, dream it, decide it and do it.

It’s very simple, often so simple people keep waiting.  It can’t be that simple, just work at something for 10 straight years and whatever it is it will be a reality.

It is that simple.  Can life really be simple.  Yes, it is simple, doesn’t make it easy though, you still have to work.

So again, pick it, plan it, participate in it.

Remove all your excuses, both from your head and heart and then remove them from your physical world.  Remove things, people and activities that no longer get you towards your dreams and goals.

In other words, set sail, pull up the anchors and follow the stars.

Too many people are sitting at home watching ‘Lost’ and ‘Desperate Housewives’ to get anywhere.  When did they start to name the shows after the audience … ?

If you are in business or not, it doesn’t matter.  Grab a pen and paper, make a list of the 21 things you know you should be doing but are not, and get started.

Taking action is the cure to fear, the cure to a lack of knowledge ad the cure to most of the challenges people have in life.  Opportunities don’t come your way with a big sign saying, ‘pick me, I am your opportunity’.  They come disguised as problems, challenges and in many cases chances to learn …

So, let’s take a step back to those statements I made above …

Pick it, plan it, participate in it … Dream it, Decide it and Do it …

Notice they all start with deciding what it is you want as a goal.  NOT what you don’t want.  It’s not enough in life to decide what it is you don’t want to have, that’s like going on ‘Deal or No Deal’ and saying ‘I don’t want box number 13 thanks …’

Well which one do you want … ?

So, right now decide, what are 3 things you want to have in your life.  Go on, right now decide.

Now, decide on 3 things you want to do in your life …

Simply put you are setting your sails, or even simpler, punching in an address to the GPS navigation in your car.

If you don’t have all 6 things written down, do it now, write them down.  You can’t develop a plan if you don’t know where you are going.

The plan is next, and in MOST cases you will have no idea how you are going to make these 6 things a reality, and that’s what is supposed to happen.

Do you think they knew how to get to the moon when President Kennedy stated, “we choose to go to the moon”.

Make the choice, decide on it, then go and learn how to make it happen, build your plan and go to work …

Life and success are really no more difficult than this, so make the most of your life, set some new goals and build a plan that you can act on.

This article is reprinted courtesy of My Business magazine, one of the leading business publications in Australia.

I have a theory, and it’s a theory I have seen proven again and again in business.  And, it’s a theory that has made so many companies so much money, that it literally blows me away how few ever use it.

Think about this … who is the number 1 prospect to buy from you tomorrow …?

That’s right, the people who bought from you yesterday …

And that’s where my theory kicks in.

You see over the years, several reports have shown that most companies ignore my theory and spend 6 or 7 times more on chasing new customers than they do on getting past customers back.

And yet, the majority of profit in any company comes from repeat business.  Without repeat business a company will always struggle to grow and make profits.

So, back to my theory …

A company that doesn’t send thank-you cards to its customers leaves a lot of profit on the table …

It’s not just the thank-you card, it’s what sending the card shows me about how you do business.

Look at it this way, when was the last time you were sent a thank you note from a company you did business with … ?

If I’m right, it was a long time ago, if ever …

Big companies, small companies, they’re all as bad as each other.  They spend a small fortune getting you to come in and buy and when they have you right where they want you, they let you get away …

Most don’t even do the basics right.  But even if you get the basics right, let’s see how well you’re doing over all …

Here are my 6 steps to getting your customers buying from you again and again …

1. Collect their details – and I don’t just mean their name and number.  You need to learn as much as you can about them.  Preferences, birthdays and anything else that will help you turn them into a regular customer.  One thing to make sure of, you need to have a great database system, but no use keeping names if you don’t use the next 5 steps …
2. Send a thank you card and invite them back – and do it in hand writing, even on something as simple as a postcard.  It’s crazy how simple and inexpensive this is, yet so few ever do it.  You can even include business cards they can give to their friends …
3. Plan future buying – this is so simple yet very rarely done.  What if you sat down and thought through, or even called or met every customer and discussed their future needs.  Just think of how easy I would be for a printer to remind you or even call you about the fact that you are running out of letterhead.
4. Inform your customers of your entire range – ever had customers say, ‘oh, I didn’t know you sold that’?  You want every customer to know everything they can buy from you.  Just think of how people have insurance with several different companies, when was the last time your insurer called and asked if they could offer you a quote on all the policies you don’t have with them.  You need to be more pro-active with customers.
5. Write a monthly or at worst quarterly newsletter – with everyone going to email newsletters I am of a firm belief that it’s back to the old way of written and printed newsletters that will get the results.  With so much technology, some times it’s the back to basics that works best.
6. Special Offers – if they’re not receiving offers, carrying a VIP card, or in some way made to feel important, then you aren’t getting as much from your customers as you should be.  Think of your favourite restaurant, could they send you a text every Monday with the menu specials for the week.

I’m sure you can think of dozens more ways to get your customers coming back.  It’s not about ideas though, it’s about action.

It’s about putting any or all of these ideas into action in your business now … and if you do nothing else … at least send someone, or everyone a thank-you note …

This article is reprinted courtesy of My Business magazine, one of the leading business publications in Australia.

Hiring an employee is kind of like dating. The interview can be all roses, but then on date #1, you really start to understand who it is you’ve hired.  And “Oh no,” you got it wrong.

In a big business, one bad employee won’t really kill them. But in small business, we need basically everyone to be a great performer if we are to build our revenues and profits.

So, how do we get and keep good people … ?

I remember when I was 21 and hiring people for my business right at start-up phase and I turned to my Dad for some wisdom and hopefully encouragement.

I said, “You know Dad, I just can’t seem to find any good people.”

To which he ever so bluntly replied, “You know son, you get the people you deserve.”

“Gee, thanks Dad, so motivational.”

Motivation I didn’t get, but a reality check I did.  The really great people didn’t want to work for me, yet.

So, over the years, I’ve come to realize that even though I probably wouldn’t be quite as blunt as my Dad, I would have to agree with him.  I have noticed that with my own companies and just as often with the business owners I’ve coached, Dad was right.

When you run a great company, you get great people.  When you are a great leader you get great people, and vice versa.

At the time I wasn’t a leader, I would have been lucky to be seen as an average manager, and thus I was rewarded with the type of employees who like working for a manager who really wasn’t any good.

So, how did I go about fixing it.  Pretty simple really.

I started to look at what sort of company a great employee would want to join, what sort of leader they really want to work with and learn from.  Then, and only then could I go to work to build a company that they would want to be employed by.

So, just to get you started, great team members (not staff) want to work in a positive, rewarding, successful organization where they have the ability to give input, get the job done and be recognized for their work.

They want a company that is going places where they can learn, grow and build a career.  If that’s not you yet, then keep building.

So, step one is building a great business they want to work with, step two is becoming a great leader who they want to learn from and work with.

I read every book, went to every seminar, got myself a mentor and went to work on becoming a much better leader of great people.

Finally I started to get the people I needed and wanted to help build a great company.

That said, even with all of that, in today’s market place, it’s getting tighter and tighter.  We are running out of great people.  With the labour market as tight as it is, we have to think of our help wanted ads as more of a marketing piece than ever before.  We have to almost sell people on why they would want to come work with us.

And they say the new IR laws are making it tough on employees. Crazy.

As small business owners right now, we’re paying the highest wages we ever have on average, we’re finding it harder to get good people.  That is if anyone will even show up for an interview and as I’ve always thought, when business is booming, the employees have it the best they ever can.

At least we do business in a country now where as a business owner you are allowed to let people go without the fear of them suing you and taking your whole business, or at the very least wasting hours of your time defending yourself anymore.  Across the ditch, the Kiwi’s only wish they had our Industrial Relations laws.

Yes, getting and keeping great people is vital, and yes it’s harder now than it has been in a long while.

But, the next time to feel yourself saying, “I just can’t get good people,” take a look in the mirror and ask yourself, what sort of company do the great people want to join, and go do it.

This article is reprinted courtesy of My Business magazine, one of the leading business publications in Australia.

I am often reminded of getting back to basics to build revenues and profits in business.

But none more so than when I am confronted with a business owner who shows me they need more new customers …

If you really want to grow your business and you really want to do it fast, then take a look at grasping these few simple ideas …

You are already getting people contacting you, coming in, emailing you and so on.  Your people are already messing up and not selling to anywhere near enough of these people.  Want to know just how bad it is, ask one of your friends to call your business and try to buy, just wait and see how they go …

Almost every business owner I meet believes that they are selling to the majority of prospects they come into contact with.

Well, put bluntly, you are not … how do I know?  After doing this exercise with literally thousands of business owners, I have only twice been proven wrong.

So, here goes …

For the next two weeks keep a record of every phone call, every email enquiry, every walk in every single prospective buyer that contacts your business.  Ask every single one of them how they found out about your business and keep a record of it.  Was it referral, Yellow pages etc.?

Then, at the end of the two weeks see how many of them have bought from you.  If you think you are at about 6 or 7 out of 10, it will be about 3 or 4 out of 10. I have seen this with so many companies, even restaurants who think they get everybody, then measure the people that call versus the people that book, and the people that read the menu out front versus those who actually come in …

Your Conversion Rate is a massive opportunity … If it is lower than say 50%, then we’ve got to get to work …

First, you’ve got to start measuring it every day.  That focus alone will get it up to 10% higher than it is right now …

Add to that, here’s another 11 ways to boost your conversion rate right now, this week …

1. Get your salesperson with the best conversion rate to train everybody else for a day or two.
2. Script your sales process. Use a lot of questions in the script (it’s NOT a sales pitch) and learn from what the best sales people are doing.
3. Break your sales process down into each and every critical step and work on one step at a time.
4. Measure your conversion from one step to the next and work on improving each step by just 10% more than it was.
5. Work on the letters, brochures and other written or audio and video material you use during each step of the sales process.
6. Use my magic question for phone selling, “Thanks for your call, just so I can help you best would it be OK if I asked you a couple of questions?”
7. Run a competition among your sales people for a week or two around the one area you need to see the most improvement in, then learn from the new ways they start doing things.
8. Learn the critical buying step in your sale, for example in female fashion stores, it’s trying the clothes on, with it you have more than a 50% chance at making a sale, without it, less than 10%.
9. Follow up and follow through, too many sales are lost by salespeople who can’t be bothered to follow up again and again and again … at least 7 times …
10. Make an offer that is either limited or a bonus offer or something to get customers to act now and to give sales people some ammunition …
11. Just plain ask people to buy, usually in sales training the one biggest reason sales people are not getting the sale is that they don’t ask for it …

Stay focused on your conversion rate for 3 months and watch the dramatic effect it has on your bottom line.

Once you’ve got it right, or at least much better than it is today, then and only then is it time to go to work getting more prospects and investing more money into your marketing and fixing the marketing you are doing now.

This article is reprinted courtesy of My Business magazine, one of the leading business publications in Australia.

Let's be clear, advertising has only one job, to get SALES, money in the bank, thus MARKETING is MATH ...

Good sales and profits from an advert, good advert ... the whole winning awards with your advert rubbish is exactly that, rubbish.  Awards only count if they are for sales.  Yes you want a brand image, but not at the expense of sales ...

So, #1 on your list is the target audience.  ask yourself these two questions ... WHO specifically is my target audience for this marketing campaign?  And you better be specific, it could even be a single company or person ...  Then ask, WHERE will I find them in the highest concentration?  Rarely is that reading a newspaper, it's usually on a database, online, as members of a club, as clients of another company and so on.

Then #2 is the offer you make to them, you have to test several offers, NOT just pick one that's easy for you.  Ask yourself these two questions again.  WHAT do they want to buy or achieve through my product or service?  Too many companies focus on the product or service not the end result.  Then, WHY do they want or need my product or service.  Here, you're looking for benefits to them, real benefits, come up with at least 7 great ones ...

Finally #3 the Copy - ask yourself, HOW can I best get my message to them?  Could be a letter, an event, a call, an email a website a personal visit, a package or maybe an advert ...

All the Best ... Brad Sugars

That’s a shame, considering how profitable it can be.  Here are 7 brilliant applications of the idea …

1.                  Introduce yourself to the database of another business …

This is the easiest way to join forces, and something almost any business can do. 

It’s probably best explained with an example.  Let’s imagine you run a small hairdressing business.  You have a slew of regulars, but rarely see any new business, owing to a poor location and dull advertising.

No problem – for less than the cost of one ad, you can have 300 customers personally recommended to you.

Here’s how it works.  You arrange to meet with the owner of a non-competitive, yet related business.  For a hairdresser, a beauty salon would be ideal.  Dependent on the target market of the hairdresser, a ladies gym might also be a winner.

Tell the business owner you are willing to give every one of their customers a free haircut, valued at $18.95.  The trick is, you’re going to set it up so it looks as though the owner of the beauty salon has personally paid for this gift.

You write a letter, signed by the other business owner, that says ‘ Thanks for being a customer – I appreciate it immensely.  Just to show that I truly am grateful, I’ve arranged a special gift for you … a complimentary stylecut with Julia’s Hairdressing.  I recommend Julia and her team highly – and I’m certain you’ll appreciate the difference too.’

You mail this letter to the beauty salon’s entire database.  To sweeten the deal, you might offer to pay for the postage and printing.

The benefit to the beauty salon is clear – they get to mail their customers an $18 gift without paying a cent for it.  They get all the good feelings, referrals and repeat business and they didn’t have to do a thing.

But the real benefits are yours.  Hundreds of qualified people will receive a personal recommendation to see you for a haircut.  They’ll also get an almost irresistible offer.

Compare this with a traditional ad.  You spend $400, get 10 calls, and maybe 5 sales.  Cost per sale: $80.  That’s pretty steep. 

With the joining forces concept, the stats are a lot more appealing.  A mail out to 200 people might cost you $150 all up.  Let’s imagine you get 10% (a pretty conservative estimate) – that’s 20 new qualified customers.  Cost per sale: $7.50.  Hmmmm, now it’s starting to make sense.

2.                  Join forces with 4 or 5 related businesses, and form a ‘collective’ ...

This idea especially applies to people in the service industry.

Here’s a great example …

Let’s say you’re an auto electrician.  You’re doing ok, but most of the work is going elsewhere.  The main mechanics in town are referring the work to other guys, and you’re getting killed in Yellow Pages.

What can you do?  It’s a tough one – although everyone who has a car may one day need your service, you never know when. 

The answer is to join forces.  Get on the phone to a mechanic, a car detailer, a tyre retailer and car tinter.  Tell them of your brilliant idea – ‘let’s join forces!!’.

Here’s how it works.  You’ll advertise yourselves under the one name – let’s say ‘Guaranteed Car Services’ (you’ll probably need to be a bit more creative than that).  You have one number (a Freecall number), one guarantee (either you’re delighted or you get the job for half price) and one policy – everyone helps everyone else out.

If the mechanic, car tinter, car detailer or tyre seller becomes aware of a car that needs an auto electrician, you get the name and details.  If you see a mechanical problem, you pass on the customer to the mechanic.  If the car detailer overhears the customer talking about tinting, they refer them to the car tinter.

At the end of every job, you run the customer through a checklist – ‘Ok, that’s you’re electrical problem sorted out.  Now, when was the last time you had the car serviced?  Right, I could arrange a service for you.  Here’s a $25 voucher towards that – I know the mechanic, Paul, and he does a top notch job.  Oh, by the way, summer’s coming – have you thought about tinting?  No, you should – I’ve got this card here from John’s Auto Tinting.  He said if I gave it to any of my customers, he’d do two windows for free when you book your whole car in.  And in case you didn’t know, both of those guys are covered by Guaranteed Car Services.  If you’re not delighted you get your money back.’

You run through your checklist, until each business has been covered.  Any ‘hot’ leads get passed on to the relevant business, and they return the favour for you.

It takes a bit of organisation, but it’s certainly worth it.  Here are 3 more interesting combinations …

a)     Guaranteed Home Services – a lawn mower, water blaster, painter, roof restorer and tree stump removalist.

b)     Guaranteed Beauty – a beauty salon, hairdresser, masseuse, psychic and gym.

c)     Guaranteed Fashion – a clothes store, shoe shop, hat store, tie store and image consultant.

Open your mind to the possibilities – who could YOU join forces with? 

3.                  Arrange free gifts to give to your customers …

A great one for businesses where there’s a long interval between purchases.

Let’s think about a car salesperson.  The hardest thing about selling cars is getting people to remember who you are next time.  Because they go 2-3 years without buying a car, there’s very little loyalty.

That problem is easily solved – just keep in regular contact.  Mail your customers cards, letters and communication, just keep the relationship going.

But if you’re going to mail them something, why not make it extra special.  Drop down to the local clothes stores and say ‘you know, most of my customers are young trendy women – they’d love to know more about your store.  If you give me a $20 gift voucher for every one of my customers, I’ll write a personal recommendation that they come and visit you’.

Once you’ve got that out of the way, go onto the next target business – a massage therapist.  Say ‘most of my customers have the money to spend on a monthly massage, and if they were shown how good it really is, I’m certain they’d be more than willing to come back regularly.  If you give me a voucher for every one my customers, I’ll mail it direct to them, and recommend that they see you every 4 weeks’.

Ok, that should take care of your customers for a few months.

Imagine that – you buy a car from someone, then start getting all these great gifts in the mail.  How would that make you feel?

You can arrange gifts from almost any other business – either in the form of a gift voucher, a free service, a trial product, a 2 for 1 coupon, a free consultation, an in-home design service.  The possibilities are endless.

Best of all, you won’t have to pay a cent for any of it.  And because it’s off your own back (and not the dealership), you take the list of names with you when you leave for another yard. 

People buy off people, so if you’ve built the relationship, you get the sales.  

4.                  Join forces with the suppliers of businesses you’d like to sell to … this is an extension on idea 1.

Let’s say you’re a management consultant – you specialise in helping mangers reach a state of peak performance.  Simply introducing yourself directly could work – but it’s really only you saying ‘hey, I’m good’.

People expect you to toot your own horn.  It’s when someone else toots it for you that they get excited.

So how do you do that?  Easy – hit the suppliers of the businesses you’d like to deal with.  For example, their stationery supplier.  You say to them ‘I’d like to give you a gift which you can them pass on to your top clients.  It’ll make them love you, and give them some genuine benefits.  I’m a management consultant, and I charge $456 an hour.  For your clients, I’ll do a full 1 hour appraisal and performance evaluation free of charge.  This will be your gift to them.’

To understand why this idea will work, you first need to understand the plight of the poor old stationery supplier.  They’re aware that almost anyone with better prices can come along and knock them off their perch.  There’s so little differentiation between service, price is often the only factor.

Doing something out of the ordinary for their customers will give them the edge.  They’ve introduced emotion into a very bland, price driven business.

The benefit to you is also massive – you get a personal recommendation from someone the prospect already knows and trusts.  For something as intangible as management consultancy and personal performance coaching, that’s essential.

5.                  Sell someone else’s product … probably the most straightforward joining forces concept of them all.  The trick is to be constantly scanning for hot products related to your business. 

Getting back to our hairdresser example, there are plenty of opportunities – a new quick –setting hairspray that you spray just once, a hair dryer that runs on solar power yet generates more hot air than any on the market, a new hair colour that changes with the weather.

You simply write your customers a letter that explains the benefits of the new product and ends with ‘Of course, I’ve arranged a special price for you.  To order, simply call me now with your credit card details.  I’ll arrange postage within 2 days.  And your purchase is guaranteed – if you’re not delighted, simply phone me and I’ll drop by and pick it up.’

Suppliers generally won’t mind, even if they’re dealing direct with retail stores – it’s another opportunity to sell the product after all.

You can also do this with service businesses – simply take a commission of their first sale to the customer.  For instance, a gym might sell a massage therapist in a mail-out to the their customers.  They do this, on the condition they get half of the first sale.  If the massage therapist is smart, they’ll understand the lifetime value of the customer, and jump at the chance.

So put your thinking cap on – who can you join forces with?  There’s thousands of businesses out there.  Why not make some of them your allies?  

1.                   Target Market…  In most markets there will be a number of stations you can choose from.  Generally these stations will each attract a different listening audience.  For example, the music played on your local FM station may be aimed at people aged between 25 and 39, while the AM station may attract listeners aged 39+.  When considering which station to use, it’s important to keep in mind who you’re trying to reach.  Don’t simply choose a station because it’s the one you listen to.  Choose the one your customers prefer.

2.                   Costs…  There are 2 costs you’ll incur when advertising on radio.  Obviously you have to pay for the time your commercials are actually on air (airtime).  You’ll also need to pay to have the commercials produced (production costs).

Prices may vary between metropolitan and regional stations, but as a general rule of thumb you can expect to pay between $50 - $100 to have your commercials produced and production by an advertising agency can cost substantially more.  Whilst you can make substantial savings by dealing directly with the station, it’s important to remember that an expensive commercial that works, is better that a cheap one that gets little or no response.

Unlike other forms of advertising you need to spend a minimum amount before you begin to see any worthwhile results.  You can expect to spend approximately $2000 per week in a regional market, and around $3000 with a metropolitan station.  To spend any less on your campaign is a waste of money.  You simply won’t be able to get the repetition required to get you a result.  Repetition is important in radio advertising, so you need to make sure that your commercials are played on a regular basis.

3.                   Schedule…  Now that you’ve had your commercials produced you need to decide when you want them to go air.  There are 2 basic types of schedules that you can choose from.

The first is ‘run of station’.   This simply means that the station will decide when your commercials go to air, in other words the specific time of the day that each commercial will be played.

The second type is ‘target placed’.  Using ‘target placed’ commercials gives you the opportunity to decide when each commercial is played.  Normally ‘run of station’ placements are less expensive than those which are ‘target placed’.  They are also far less effective.

Your local station will have survey figures that indicate the most popular listening times for your potential customers.  You need to find out which are the highest ¼ hour listening shares for your target demographic rather then pay for your commercials to be played at a time when your target market is not listening.  Your station sales representative can tell you which times will suit you best.

4.                   Number of words per commercial…  As a rule 65 – 85 words is the limit for a 30 second commercial.  This can vary however depending on how many sound effects you use.  Remember that radio is back ground medium.  Most people will listen to the radio whilst doing something else, such as driving or working in the garden.  Understanding this it’s important not to put too much information into your ads.  You should only focus on one theme, the one “big idea” that you want to get across.

5.                   Choosing the right sound…  If your commercial is to standout from the rest you need to consider 3 main points.  The first thing you need to consider is who you want to voice your commercial.

You may be tempted to voice the commercial yourself.  However unless you have a good voice for radio you’re better off getting someone else to do this for you.  You need to keep in mind who you’re trying to reach and the type of person they’ll find believable, a voice they can relate to.  If you decide to use a local announcer, keep in mind that they probably won’t be able to use terms such as ‘us’ and ‘we’.  If you want the reader to sound like a representative of your company you may need to source outside ‘talent’.

Sound effects are another important consideration.  Used effectively these can help create a mental picture for your clients.  For example the clutter of dishes in a kitchen setting or the sound of a lawn mower in the background while two neighbours talk.  Your local station will have a number of different effects that you can choose from.  You may even decide to have your commercials recorded “live” in store.  This allows you to create the impression of your business being a popular, vibrant place.

You also need to give some thought to the type of music to be used.  Music is optional, but if you decide to use it in your commercial, keep in mind that it must suit the mood you’re trying to create.  Whilst music can help attract your prospects attention, it should not distract them from your selling message.

6.                   Some radio myths…  Having considered all of the above you need to be mindful of certain myths that radio sales people would have you believe.

One of my favourites is that of ‘image advertising’.  This is a tactic used to get you to spend vast sums of money without being able to gauge the effectiveness of your commercials.  Your advertising dollars should only be spent on specific promotions, services or products.  This allows you to test and measure the results.

Package deals are another method of milking money out of the unsuspecting business owner.  This typically occurs late in the month when the station is behind on budget.  These can sometimes be worthwhile providing your commercials are aired at a time that suits you and not simply placed ‘run of station’.

Because radio is a background medium, your target market will not be able to remember things like 8 digit phone numbers.  If yours is the type of business that relies on customers phoning you, then you should consider other forms of advertising.  Alternatively you can instruct them to look for your advertising in the Yellow Pages.

Radio is at its most effective when it creates a sense of urgency on the mind of the consumer.  Using terms like ‘hurry must end soon’ or ‘today only’ will generally give you the best results.