Inside Marketing

What is Your Color of Money?

2012-02-22T18:20:00.000-06:00

How would you like to know -- at a glance -- whether your agenda for the day is setting you up for success, productivity, and profits?

Well, you can. It's dead simple, really.

All you need to do is color-code agenda items 2 ways: low-value, low-profit activities, and high-value, high-profit activities. In my case, those colors are red and green, respectively.

Based on my 80/20 Marketing principles, which hold that the fastest way to success is to do more of what makes you money in the time you now waste doing what doesn't, I try to fill every day with high-value, high-profit activities.

To make it easy to know if I am on track, I color my vital few activities green, as you can see in the screenshot of a recent Google Calendar page below ...

Names and details have been blocked out to protect the innocent, but you can get the gist of what a profitable day looks like for me -- the more green, the better.

As you can see, my high-value activities include:

writing and testing landing pages
revising and creating web pages
following up to close sales with prospects
writing sales copy for the projects I've sold
meeting prospects and referral partners

Conversely, low-value, low-profit activities are colored red on my daily schedule. The fewer of those, the better. My low-value activities include:

phone calls to discuss subjects I should have finalized before
administrivia -- bill paying and the like (outsourced 80% already!)
checking email

You might want to give this idea a try tomorrow, and color-code your agenda two ways. Let me know what you choose as your color of money in the comments section below.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

The Money-Back Guarantee: Kill or Cure?

2012-02-20T17:59:00.000-06:00

Guess which 5 words on that box of lasagna caused my wife to buy it?

Right. The guarantee: Love It Or It's Free!

(By the way, we did love it.)

But we never would have found out if the maker hadn't removed the risk of trying this new product by guaranteeing we would love it, or not have to pay.

So, here's the lesson for your business: A strong money-back guarantee is an accelerant that works in one of two ways ...

1) A strong guarantee can work like gasoline, if your business sells crap and/or treats clients poorly. The more people who buy and tell their friends about your crappy business, the faster it burns to the ground.

Or ...

2) A guarantee can work like steroids, if your business sells cool stuff and/or treats clients like royalty. The more people who buy and tell their friends about your remarkable business, the faster it grows.

Bottom line: If you're any good at what you do, a strong guarantee can accelerate your sales ... and you can enjoy bucket-loads of new profits.

If you're not, it won't ... and you can't.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

What Do You Really Know About Your Marketing?

2012-02-16T07:30:00.007-06:00

One of the most-important things you can do is to regularly separate what you really know from what you think you know about your marketing efforts.

So, here's a question: What's working in your marketing?

Another question: How do you know?

Fact: If you can't answer "What's working in your marketing?" with cold, hard numbers straight from QuickBooks, you really don't know anything.

You are guessing. Playing blind archery. A danger to yourself and your business.

Okay. Enough tough talk ...

Let's assume I have sufficiently guilted you into analyzing your numbers and finding out exactly which marketing activities are producing which revenue.

Example: You got 17 clients and $74,600 last year from client referrals ... 13 clients and $57,000 from networking ... 5 clients and $31,200 from public speaking ... 3 clients and $23,000 from articles you wrote ... etc.

When you run the numbers, you will find, in all likelihood, that approximately 20% of your marketing produced about 80% of revenue. I have written before about this 80/20 Marketing phenomenon, so I won't do so again here.

In a nutshell, the 20% of your marketing efforts have HUGE upside potential. If you doubled these "20% Areas," you could expect to get 160% of current revenue.

And the other 80% of your marketing? They are dragging you down.

Your task as an entrepreneur (business owner, marketing manager, whatever) is to shift resources from 80% Areas of lower productivity into 20% Areas of higher productivity.

To illustrate, here's an example of low-value 80% Areas from one of my 80/20 Marketing students, along with his opportunities for becoming more productive -- and profitable. What parallels can you see between his business and yours?

Here are his 80% Areas to streamline, delegate, or drop:

His least-profitable clients are first-time home buyers. They require more education, showing of homes, hand holding through the mortgage process … for much less payout than experienced buyers.
His least-profitable marketing methods are sponsoring community events. They pay for a booth, have to set up everything, stand around all day, and don’t get any leads. But they do get "visibility."

Now, here's how he can leverage the power of 80/20 Marketing and create huge breakthroughs:

Clients: He can focus on targeting experienced “move-up” buyers and delegate as much of his dealings with new buyers as possible to his people/agents.
Clients: Turn new buyers into experienced buyers ASAP. Develop a “New Client Welcome Kit” that answers all typical questions and automates their education, so he can focus on high-value activities. A 15-minute educational video on YouTube could save him 3-4 hours of lost time per week (and get search engine traffic, social media mentions, and new leads to his site as a bonus).
Marketing methods: Taking the “New Client Welcome Kit” to its logical end, he could develop a series of articles or videos to answer the same questions he’s heard for years, then offer them to local newspapers as free articles. At the very least, have a college intern turn his knowledge into blog postings. No need to write – he can dictate much of the content off the top of his head via Dragon or other dictation software.
Marketing methods: Do fewer community “visibility” events and reinvest that money in efforts to surprise and delight existing clients (and stimulate referrals). Example: stage a nice event for clients and their guests; the theme can be seasonal, especially during his slow winter season. This is the perfect illustration of 80/20 Substitution: moving time/money from low-value areas to high-value areas!

You get the idea. In any business -- including yours -- there are screaming opportunities to boost sales and profits, by doing more of what makes you money in the time you waste doing what doesn’t. That idea is at the heart of 80/20 Marketing.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

Strategy as Recipe

2012-02-14T19:12:00.001-06:00

There's a lot of confusion about strategy and tactics.

You've heard that strategy is your objective, and tactics are how you'll achieve it. Or that strategy is the plan of action, and tactics are the weapons.

And, yet, you still mix them up. I know that I do.

So here's an idea I've found helpful ...

Think of strategy as a recipe for success, and tactics as ingredients.

Doing so can bring instant clarity.

Example: if your recipe for success (strategy) is to increase your business 50% through referrals, it becomes very clear which tactics (ingredients) to use.

Ingredients that are self-evidently wrong for this recipe, like automated webinars or Groupon, won't distract you. Adding them to the mix would be like adding sardines to make a PB&J.

On the other hand, if you know your recipe is for more referrals, you could add "ingredients" like:

creating a referral rewards program,
announcing that program in your newsletter, and
putting it on the back of your business card

... because those all fit.

It's not a perfect analogy, but it works for me. And thinking about strategy and tactics in new ways can generate new insights to help you grow your business.

Bottom line: when you're clear on strategy, the tactics reveal themselves.

Now, if you'll excuse me, my wife just took a chocolate cake out of the oven ....

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

Attract Ideal Clients with this Instant Copywriting Trick

2012-02-11T10:14:00.006-06:00

As a copywriter, it's my job to describe my clients' products or services in clear language that compels people to buy.

Want to learn one of my tricks to writing ads that sell?

It's almost embarrassingly simple ...

You can use it to improve your own sales letters, web page copy, email promotions, postcards, etc.

It's this: Let your clients write your next ad.

In other words, get and use as many testimonials as possible.

When you use testimonials -- written, audio, and/or video -- you are talking to prospects in the actual, unfiltered words of your best clients. This builds rapport and trust with your ideal prospects. Because you're speaking their language. Not techno babble or marketing-speak, but the language of people who have already given you money.

Now.

How do you get great testimonials, without hiring somebody like me to interview your clients?

Do these three things: listen, write, ask.

Specifically ...

1) Listen for signs that your clients love what you do.
Any time a client compliments you in any way, your ears should perk up like a dog hearing the UPS truck. This is your cue to ...

2) Write down what your client said, word for word, as best you can -- right away.
Then ...

3) Ask if you could use their comments in your marketing materials.
Say:

"Jeanne, thanks for saying that. I really appreciate it. Would you be willing to let me use your comments, with your name and city, on my web site and other marketing materials? It would mean a lot to me. And it would tell others what to expect when doing business with me."

Nine out of 10 times, your client will agree to let you use their testimonial. Just email their comments to them, along with this note, which often prompts them to add more to their testimonial:

"Jeanne, thanks again for agreeing to let me use your kind words about my business. Below is what I think I heard you say on the phone today. Would you please add to or subtract from it until it says exactly what you want it to say, then send it back to me? Thank you!"

To show you what the results can look like, here's a testimonial that I first heard myself saying about someone I do business with, my printer. I wrote it down, sent it to him, and now we both feel good:

"Jim Beckman at Full Throttle Print has been my go-to printer for nearly a year now. He never ceases to amaze me with the service and quality I get from him, at a price that’s comparable to what I used to pay at FedEx Kinko’s. He’s fast, he’s good, he’s dependable, and a great value. As long as Jim is in the printing business, he will get all of my printing business."

- Kevin Donlin, Client Cloning Systems, Edina, MN

Here's part of why that short testimonial packs a lot of punch: when I say Jim's printing services are "... at a price that’s comparable to what I used to pay at FedEx Kinko’s," I'm talking directly to Jim's prospects, most of whom have used FedEx Kinko's.

Jim, being a professional printer, never uses FedEx Kinko’s. He would have never thought to say that. But for me, a small business owner (and his ideal client) it's a natural thing to say.

My comments help Jim build rapport and trust with other small business owners like me -- Jim's ideal clients. Imagine what 5-6 testimonials like that could do for your business?

To attract more clients like your best clients with testimonials, just do these three things: listen, write, ask.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

What The French Know About Marketing That You Don't

2012-02-07T14:42:00.002-06:00

French economist Jean-Baptiste Say wrote: "The entrepreneur shifts economic resources out of an area of lower and into an area of higher productivity and greater yield."

In other words, entrepreneurs create value. They produce bigger, faster, better results from the same effort.

As a business owner or high-level manager, you may focus most of your thinking outwards, to create better results for your clients. But don't forget to look inwards, to create better results for your business.

Fact: The two most valuable activities in any business are marketing and innovation. That's according to Peter Drucker (and my experience and your experience). Marketing and innovation produce results. All other activities are costs.

Now, take a moment to think entrepreneurially about your marketing. Are you shifting resources from areas of lower productivity into areas of higher productivity?

Example: Have you looked -- long, hard, and carefully -- at how you got your last 10-25 clients? Answer these questions, for a start:

How did they find you?
What was their first point of contact with your business?
What did they buy first?
What did you say or do that caused them to buy?

When you know what's working in your marketing, here's what you'll find: About 20% of your efforts are bringing in 80% of your revenue.

That 20% of your marketing is REALLY producing results.

The other 80%? It's a cost.

Your task as an entrepreneur (business owner, smart manager, whatever) is to shift resources from areas of lower marketing productivity into areas of higher marketing productivity.

Never stop doing this and your marketing will never stop improving (or making you more money).

You can learn exactly how to do this in my 80/20 Marketing program, by the way.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

It Works! Let's Stop Doing It

2012-02-06T12:33:00.000-06:00

The exciting quest for new marketing methods can bankrupt you.

How? Two ways:

1) Chasing the flavor of the month (Facebook ads! LinkedIn ads! Facebook fan pages!) can stretch your time and money to the breaking point. You know this.

2) Chasing new marketing methods can result in costly amnesia. You may not know this.

Case in point? Me.

After analyzing my revenue for last month, then comparing it to last year, I realized that, around August 2011, I stopped attending weekly meetings of a local business group that had brought me 3 excellent clients and another half dozen referral partners.

Why did I stop doing it?

I simply got bored, forgot about it, and moved on to other shiny new marketing tactics. In other words, I had no good reason to drop this proven tactic and chase unproven ones.

So, tomorrow morning, I will visit that group again and make enough connections to get at least one new client. And I will do the same next week.

Question: Looking back at the last 12 months, what was working in your marketing that you stopped doing, for no good reason?

I'll bet you lunch there's at least one profitable business-building tactic that lies forgotten in your calendar, like a mummy buried in sand.

Find it. Dig it up. And don't stop doing it until it stops paying you back.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

Branding in Your Brain

2012-02-02T13:53:00.000-06:00

Along with the words on your web site, your prices, the message on your voice mail greeting, and other branding elements, every thought in your head must support the business you want to create.

All you need is one good idea to make a million bucks. But you can't build a million-dollar business with 50-cent thoughts.

Example: Would the head of a $1-million business flit from email, to Twitter, to LinkedIn, back to Twitter, then answer the phone ... and expect to get anything done?

No.

Because, not only do you lose time changing gears switching from activity to activity, you lose focus. And focused thinking is the mortar that holds your day together.

To build a million-dollar business, think million-dollar thoughts. That's the only way to motivate yourself to take million-dollar action.

Test: Before leaving this blog and heading to ESPN.com, Facebook, or to check your email for the 11th time today, ask yourself: "Would a $1-million person do this?"

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

5 Habits of Highly Productive People You Can Copy Tomorrow

2012-01-30T20:12:00.004-06:00

Do you like lists?

I do. So do most people.

Maybe that's part of why I love the "Tracked" column in WSJ Magazine.

Every issue, they follow a top achiever around for a day and tote up all they got done -- 73 phone calls, 14 meetings, 30 laps swum, etc.

I thought it would be fun to analyze a handful of "Tracked" profiles for you, in search of common traits -- each of which you can copy in your business.

Want to know what I found?

First, here's the list of super productive people:

Hollywood mega-producer Brian Grazer
Silicon Alley icon Kevin Ryan
CEO and publisher Martha Stewart
Restauranteur and "food crusader" Alice Waters
Pixar Chief Creative Officer John Lasseter

Now, here are 5 things they do to get huge amounts of profitable work done each day ...

Early to rise. Martha Stewart wakes up at 4:59, Alice Waters about 6:45. All 5 top achievers get up somewhere in between, further proof that Ben Franklin was right
Exercise before breakfast. Walk, swim, cardio/strength training -- every one of these highly productive people makes time to invest in their health
Follow a script. Nobody gets on their daily schedule without an appointment
Delegate. The highest-paid activity on earth is thinking. That's why people at the top surround themselves with support teams to implement their ideas, giving them more time to find more ideas
Over-communicate. Waters sent 193 emails, Brian Grazer made 73 phone calls, John Lasseter held more than 4 hours of meetings. However it's done, these top achievers have a lot to say each day -- and they say it in a way that matches their communications style

If you can find more shared habits among these 5 super achievers, let me know in the comments section below.

Meanwhile, I'm laying out the kettlebells for tomorrow morning's workout :-)

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

Dinner and a Limo with Harvey Mackay

2012-01-25T15:28:00.002-06:00

I had dinner with Harvey Mackay at his home last night, along with a group of folks helping promote his new book, The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World.

He shared dozens of anecdotes about business and life, many of which you'll find in his books.

(Writing was in Harvey's blood even before sales -- his father was a correspondent for the Associated Press in St. Paul for 35 years.)

My favorite story was about the chance meeting in a limo that helped make Harvey a best-selling author ...

In 1988, after publication of Swim With The Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive, Harvey found himself in the same New York ad agency as Larry King. Each was there to shoot publicity photos.

Harvey wanted to ask Larry King to book him as a guest on his TV show, but missed his chance. Quickly, the shoot was over and Larry headed out the door to his limo.

Harvey, dejected, walked out to hail a cab. Suddenly, the window rolled down on Larry King's limo -- "Where ya headed?"

"The Carlyle Hotel," replied Harvey.

"Hop in!"

Taking his seat, Harvey remembered a lesson his father had drilled into him as a kid: "When you shake someone's hand for the first time, ask yourself: 'How can I help this person?'"

While engaged in small talk, Harvey's mind raced: "How can I help Larry King?"

Nearing the hotel and running out of time, Harvey had an idea. "Larry, do you want to sell more books?"

"That's why I write 'em!" he said.

"Well, I've made quite a study of the publishing industry in the last year and I may be able to help you," said Harvey.

Just then, the limo pulled up at The Carlyle, but Larry told his chauffeur to turn off the engine and wait. "Go ahead!" he said.

About 15 minutes and 7 ideas later, Harvey had given Larry plenty of help. And Harvey had an invitation to appear on Larry's TV show.

Harvey's first appearance on "Larry King Live" sold 50,000 copies of Swim With The Sharks, and led to a spot on Oprah ... that sold another 50,000. The rest is publishing history.

So, next time you're talking to someone who can help you, resist the urge to brag about yourself or kiss up to them. Instead, ask yourself: "How can I help this person?" Then let the answers guide your conversation -- you may be very happy where it ends.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

Your Public To-Do List

2012-01-21T14:05:00.003-06:00

Email is your public to-do list that anybody can get on.

I don't know who came up with that idea (it wasn't me) but I’m happy to share it with you.

Anyone who knows your email address has a button they can push to give you something to do. You’re like a secretary on Mad Men who has to drop what you're doing anytime you get buzzed on the intercom.

Or think of email as a doorbell that anyone can ring. Imagine how little work you’d get done if the neighbor kids rang your doorbell every five minutes ... all day, every day.

Time is the only thing you have every day in which to do your work. When you let email steal your time, you’re leaving the vault doors open and inviting 100,000,000 strangers into the bank. You’re not just letting people steal from you -- you're an accessory to the crime.

If email is your public to-do list, that makes it Public Enemy #1 in your work (and life).

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

What's On Your Not To-Do List?

2012-01-17T17:49:00.003-06:00

We're 17 days into 2012 -- how are those New Year's Resolutions coming?

Before you yell at me, hold on. I'm just the messenger.

And if you're not happy with the progress you're making on your To-Do List for 2012, here's help ...

... in the form of a Not-to-Do List from Peter Drucker and The Drucker Institute:

If you’re like most people, you’re working on a list of resolutions: Eat healthy. Go to the gym more. Read the classics. But Peter Drucker would have likely asked you for a different kind of list: What are you going to stop doing?

As we’ve noted before, Drucker believed that “planned abandonment” is among the most important things that any organization can engage in. After all, shedding yesterday’s products, programs and policies is the only way to make room for the innovations of tomorrow.

But Drucker was also adamant that this same discipline should extend beyond the organization to the individual. That’s the only way one can ensure that he or she maintains proper focus and protects what for many of us is the most precious resource of all: our time.

“The job is . . . not to set priorities,” Drucker wrote in The Effective Executive, his 1967 classic. “That is easy. Everybody can do it. The reason why so few executives concentrate is the difficulty of setting ‘posteriorities’—that is, deciding what tasks not to tackle—and of sticking to the decision.”

In a 2004 interview with Forbes, Drucker asserted that leaders, in particular, need to make the setting of posteriorities—well, a priority. “The most dangerous traps for a leader are those near-successes where everybody says that if you just give it another big push it will go over the top,” Drucker said. “One tries it once. One tries it twice. One tries it a third time. But by then it should be obvious this will be very hard to do. So, I always advise my friend Rick Warren (the pastor at Saddleback Church), ‘Don’t tell me what you’re doing, Rick. Tell me what you stopped doing.’”

So, what are you going to stop doing this year, to free up more time for high-value activities like 80/20 Marketing?

I would never ask you a question I wouldn't answer myself, so here are 3 things I'm stopping in 2012:

reading past the front page of the newspaper at lunch (saving bad news for after dinner :-)
showering during the work day (hygiene is all well and good, but I'm moving my workouts before breakfast, to reduce transition time)
taking any work home past business hours (leaving all books, magazines, etc. in my office)

Chime in on the comments section if you'd like to share what's on your Not To-Do List this year.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

How To Break Bad News: What The Post Office Knows That You Don't

2012-01-10T15:50:00.002-06:00

You can learn a lot about how to break bad news to clients (or anyone) from the U.S. Postal Service.

Their news release announcing higher postage rates is a masterpiece of positioning ...

Look at the headline -- prices aren't going up, they're "adjusting."
A "penny increase" sounds minimal, doesn't it?
The increase is softened by bracketing it with the fact that it's the "first since May 2009."
The first paragraph provides more softening context: "... it will cost just a penny more to mail letters to any location in the United States, the first price change ... in more than two and a half years."

Sheesh. When you phrase it like that, I almost hate to complain about another jump in the price of stamps.

Bottom line: this news release -- obviously written by a pro -- illustrates the importance of context and language when communicating bad news to clients (or anyone).

It also shows how important it is for your marketing communications to be written by a pro ....

... because, while Bob the mailman or Dolores the postal clerk are pros at what they do and can tell you all about the new prices, they are NOT pros at choosing exactly the right words for this marketing message.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

What Can Only You Do? What Should You Do Right Now?

2012-01-09T08:08:00.000-06:00

Twitter asks, "What are you doing?"

Success asks, "What should you be doing?"

Harvard Business Review agrees with the latter:

"The higher up you get in an organization, the more you need to focus on what the company needs from you, not on what you want to do."

Stop. Look at what you're doing now. Then look at your calendar for the rest of today. How much of what you're doing is what you want to do vs. what your company needs you to do?

Especially if you're an entrepreneur or business leader, you need to do what you need to do, not what you want to do.

To the extent that those two ideas converge -- you love doing what you need to do -- you win. To the extent that they diverge ... you lose.

"While management experts advise doing what you are best at, great leaders do those things that only they can do"

What can only you do? (And may I suggest that it ought to include 80/20 Marketing?)

"Figure out what functions only you can perform. These may be tasks that are unique to your role, such as meeting with a key client or calling a top official. Or they may be strengths that the organization lacks, such as solid marketing skills. Gauge how you can be most useful and focus your time and effort there. Then delegate the rest."

To figure out what functions only you should perform, here's advice from Tom Hopkins, who uses this as one of his guiding principles: "I must do the most productive thing possible at every given moment."

So, here's the question you need to answer, all day every day: What is the most productive thing that only you can do right now?

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

Free Marketing Dashboard: More Profits Made Simple

2012-01-05T17:38:00.007-06:00

Want to improve your marketing in 2012 -- and beyond?

Fact: You can't improve what you don't measure.

Problem: You, like all mammals, probably hate tracking the data that goes into marketing. So you don't measure your marketing. Which makes it difficult to improve.

Solution: Why not try my Marketing Dashboard?

It's an Excel spreadsheet I created for my own use, but I'm happy to share it with you. It's an easy way to improve your marketing, by making it easy to measure it ...

... so you can do more of what makes you money, and less of what doesn't. You know, 80/20 Marketing.

Also: it's free. Gratis. Zero dinero.

First, take a look at a screen cap, below ...

The Marketing Dashboard

Here's what those columns mean ...

The first column = days and dates. Duh.

Connects Offered/Given = the number of networking connections I offered to or actually made for clients and prospects each day. There's no easier way to start a sales conversation with a prospect than to offer them a networking connection.

Pro. Emails = emails sent to prospects, either in reply to inquiries from them (reactive) or to follow up and provide more reasons to like and buy from me (proactive).

Pro. Convos. = conversations by phone or in person with prospects.

Client Convos. = conversations by phone or in person with clients.

Quotes Sent = price quotes sent by email to prospects, after we have had a sales conversation by phone or in person.

YES Rec'd = prospects who said yes, they want to buy.

Pymt Rec'd = checks or credit card orders received that day.

TOTAL at the bottom = results vs. quotas for the week

(10 of 10 = good ... 3 of 5 = bad).

I filled out the first week of January for you on the example, and left the next week blank for you to insert your own quotas. And, of course, feel free to modify any or all parts to suit your needs.

Want to download your own copy? Click here.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

80/20 Marketing: The Masters Interview

2012-01-04T10:13:00.006-06:00

Jim Ericson is someone you need to know.

A quiet legend in the Twin Cities and beyond, Jim was the founder and program director of The Masters Forum. For 23 years he presented workshops featuring speakers like Jim Collins, Peter Drucker, Steven Covey, and many others. Jim’s blog is here and I’m honored to be interviewed by him below …

Jim Ericson: Hi! My name is Jim Ericson and in the last few months, I met Kevin Donlin who, if I were still doing the Masters Forum, would certainly be one of the speakers I would invite to speak.

I would like to talk to Kevin today because he has done something new with an old concept. There is nothing really new in the world; there are just things that are old and important that we need to pay attention to. This one is called Pareto’s Law but Kevin calls it the 80/20 Rule. He applies it to marketing and I think he does it brilliantly.

Let’s start, Kevin.

Kevin Donlin: Jim thanks for that nice introduction.

Jim: What is the 80/20 Rule?

Kevin: The 80/20 Rule, well, I think most of us in business have heard of the 80/20 Rule, it is also called the Pareto Principle. Few of us have really done much with it but it holds such incredible promise that I have been, frankly, obsessed by it for about seven years now.

If we do a simple definition of the 80/20 Rule, it would be this: about 20% of input accounts for 80% of output. State it the other way around, about 80% of results can be traced to about 20% of causes.

Jim: So a lot of time gets wasted?

Kevin: Yeah.

Jim: 80% of the time that produces 20% of the results could probably be better spent.

Kevin: Yeah, by definition it could be. We are surrounded by things that waste our time and effort and energy. In 1906, the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto observed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population.

He didn’t name the principle after himself, however. It was first popularized by Joseph Juran, the quality expert. He wrote a book called The Quality Control Handbook in 1951. Juran used the Pareto Principle to identify the vital few causes of most defects in manufacturing.

Then in the 1960s, software developers began calling it the 80/20 Rule to describe how 80% of engineering deals with 20% of user requirements. 80% of crashes are caused by 20% of bugs, etc.

So it has been around for a long time and as you said earlier, we are actually wasting a lot of time and effort without knowing it. The 80/20 Rule kind of pervades life economics, manufacturing, it is all over the place.

Jim: I can recall recently reading an article about Steve Jobs and why he was so innovative. One of the things he said was, “Say ‘No’ to a thousand things.”

Kevin: Precisely.

Jim: There are a lot of things that can grab your attention and waste your time. Another data point is Rick Warren, who founded Saddleback Church, had Peter Drucker as a mentor and he said in an article that every time he saw Drucker, Drucker’s first question was, “What have you stopped doing?”

I have heard Jim Collins say the same thing, I have heard Jim Collins say to, “Start a to-don’t list.”

Kevin: It is not a matter of if we like it or don’t like it, it’s like gravity, you can choose to disagree with gravity but you won’t get far in life. This is just one of those natural laws out there.

You can confirm it by looking around your life -- 20% of the carpet in your house gets 80% of the foot traffic, for example ... 20% of your friends and family account for about 80% of your phone minutes.

And if you go shopping at Target, about 20% of the items in your shopping cart will add up to about 80% of the bill; it doesn’t matter if you are male or female. The list goes on and on.

Jim: How about 20% of your kids cause 80% of your problems?

Kevin: Oh yeah. Or family members in general, 80% of the fights are with 20% of your family members.

Let me redefine this a bit, it does not always add up to 100 and it is not always 80/20, that is just a general rule of thumb. It could be 5% of your family members cause 98% of your headaches. It could be 72-17. The numbers are always unbalanced, that is the key and they are almost always in a ratio of about 80 to 20.

Here is what is interesting -- I have been doing marketing since 1996. Because business and marketing are part of life in our world, business and marketing are predictably unbalanced as well.

If you look around your business, 20% of your clients will deliver 80% of your profits. 20% of your products or services will do the same thing and about 20% of your marketing methods will produce 80% of your profits.

We may have been introduced to this in one way or another, but what is going to be new to most, if not all, people is that these 80/20 relationships are hidden from view. They are not immediately obvious, by definition.

After all, if it were clear to you today that 80% of your profits were coming from 20% of your clients and you knew exactly who those clients were and exactly what you were doing that made them so profitable, you would be doing more of it right now. You would hang up on the other 80% of your clients and start calling and surrounding with love the 20% of the clients that were making the lion share of your profits. These things are hidden and you have to look for them.

Jim: What pops into my head, I was just thinking about some of the music groups and the bands that get out and do their tours. I am old enough to remember the Eagles and the Grateful Dead and I am thinking to myself, “You know, it was probably about 20% of their songs that generated about 80% of the audience that showed up.”

Kevin: Sure. Or 20% of their fans are buying 80% of their downloads. It is all over the place.

Jim: Yeah.

Kevin: But you have to know what you are looking for. When I am consulting with an entrepreneur or a sales and marketing professional, I help them find these 20% areas. They say the same things over and over, when we identify them they say, “That’s surprising” or “I did not realize that!”

Jim: Right.

Kevin: The goal of 80/20 Marketing is to generate the most profit from the least amount of time, effort and money. You achieve this by doing more of what is highly profitable and the time you now waste doing what isn’t.

When you make this mental shift, you are making what amounts to the world’s best and safest investment.

Here’s why: If the vital 20% of your marketing efforts produces 80% of the results, that is a four times output, let’s say 4X. Now if the trivial 80% of your marketing produces 20% of your results, which is a one fourth output or 1/4X.

As a result, when you do the math, your vital 20% is 16 times more powerful than your trivial 80%.

You simply do more of what is highly profitable in the time you now waste doing what isn’t. It is like trading dimes for dollars, day in and day out.

Jim: What interesting though is that people get into such habits, our brains are lazy and kind of grooved. Most of us in our lives, most of us in our businesses, keep doing the same things over and over gain until they slowly die on the vine. Was it the character in The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway’s book, when somebody asked him, “How did you go bankrupt?” He said, “Slowly, then all of a sudden.”

Kevin: Exactly.

Jim: That is kind of what happens, isn’t it? Isn’t it harder to figure out what is the 20% and what is the 80%? You have got to figure that out before you can stop doing the stuff that wastes your time, energy, and money.

Kevin: Exactly. An initial reaction that I get from some people is, “Well, wait a minute, if I am going to be focusing more on what I am already doing, am I going to cut myself off from new ideas and am I going to restrict myself?” The answer is, no.

Remember, what Steve Jobs said? Saying no to a thousand things is a prerequisite for innovation.

Jim: He also said, “Innovation is simply connecting things.” To connect things you have to look outside at the world for very different points of view. If you can free up some time to do that, you add to your potential to be innovative and not subtract from it.

Kevin: Let me give you an idea and there is not time to go into all of this, but let’s talk about a couple of signs to help people recognize the 20% of their marketing that is really highly profitable.

One criterion is this: it's 20% or less of how you are marketing now.

That sounds obvious and idiotic, perhaps, but it could be 10%, it could be 15, it could be 25. If a marketing method works so well that it might account for 80% or more of your current revenues and profits, why wouldn’t I be doing more of it?

Well, there may be several reasons but one of the most common is you simply take it for granted. Success with this marketing has become expected and you have not been excited or determined enough to push it as far as it can go for some reason or another. It is probably a small amount of what you are doing to market your business and yet it is highly effective and you just have not pushed it as far as it can go.

Here is another criterion: a 20% type of marketing produces an unexpected success.

This helps emphasize, again, that you want to look for surprise victories in your marketing. You would have probably passed them by otherwise and you would not be able to fully exploit them if you were not looking for unexpected successes.

Here is what Yogi Berra has to say on the subject: “You can observe a lot just by watching.” But who really takes time to watch and observe?

And here is an example of how this works -- there is a very large and successful tax preparation firm, they get a lot of referrals based on how they treat their clients and these referrals make them a lot of money.

First they were getting these referrals accidentally; it was not until the owner started observing the employees who were generating the most referrals that he saw something unexpected. The top employees were walking into the lobby, greeting clients by name, shaking their hands and walking them, very respectfully, back to the office.

It turns out that being treated with respect -- even though it cost nothing to do and it wasn’t anything the boss considered essential -- it was a very big deal to these clients, because they were low-income people. They were used to being treated like dirt by other businesses.

The company president never considered this as a marketing tactic, but after seeing the same pattern again and again -- because he was looking for it -- he turned this unexpected success into part of his company’s training program and he is doing very well these days.

The bottom line is, what you think is important and what your market thinks is important are often completely different things. You want to pay attention to any unexpected successes in your marketing and never dismiss them as lucky breaks or accidents, not when you can systematize and capitalize on them.

Jim: I think one important thing to add there is that John le Carre said, “It is very dangerous to view the world from behind a desk.” For that CEO to actually get out from behind his desk, talk to people, and figure it out, is a very important part of that equation.

Kevin: Exactly. You have got to be sleuthing around and looking for unexpected successes. There is no shortcut in Excel or QuickBooks that I know that looks for unexpected successes. It takes a little brain work, but it is definitely worth it.

Jim: Cool. So, what from here? How are you going to implement this? Are you in the process of bringing this to the market place? Are you starting to work with some people on helping them with this? It sounds like there’s a pot of gold sitting at the end of a rainbow here for some people if they would just start to pay attention and you probably have got the key.

Kevin: I am not offering a magic elixir and I am not promising the world to people. It was about six or seven years ago that I really got into this, when I added it up it was a $2.1 million windfall from one of my businesses simply by following these ideas and going very deep. That counts for something I suppose. Going very deep in and doing more of what worked and less of what didn’t.

Again, it is simple in theory but not easy. It wasn’t easy because I had to do a lot of thinking and looking for things but I have managed to put together a list of signs to look for.

I did a pilot session about a month ago with very good results with some people who run their own business. I am excited about this because when you are engaged in 80/20 Marketing, it's like sculpting for fun and money.

Michelangelo said, and I'm paraphrasing, "in every block of marble I see a perfect statue. My job is to simply chip away the walls that imprison my vision."

With 80/20 Marketing, you do the same thing, only what's revealed are profits.

In your business, no matter what you do, you are surrounded by 4/5 of what is not your vision, not your ideal result. Simply chip away at those ugly parts of your marketing and you can reveal some seriously beautiful profits hidden inside.

Jim: A lot of people try to make things so complicated.

Kevin: Right.

Jim: And so mechanical that they miss the really, simple and effective things that they might be doing. I like country music and I am reminded of what Harlan Howard once said, he said, “Country music is three chords and the truth.”

Kevin: You can do a lot with three chords and the truth. It is a simple formula but there are an infinite number of applications.

Jim: Yup.

Kevin: That's how 80/20 Marketing works. I want to wind down here and give people two website addresses where they can get more information ....

If you want to join my next 80/20 Marketing "UnCoaching" program, you can learn more at www.8020Unlimited.com. It's geared toward entrepreneurs and sales/marketing professionals who want to chip away 4/5 of the crap that's surrounding their business.

And if you want to sample the tactics that work best in 80/20 Marketing, I will point you to www.ClientCloningKit.com. That's where you can download a set of six tools, all based on these ideas. It's free to download and there are also a limited number of kits that can be mailed out for free in the continental US.

Jim: Fabulous! Thanks, Kevin.

Win, Profit, Repeat

2012-01-02T11:20:00.000-06:00

Think of a day when you made a lot of money in your business.

What did you do?

Did you:

Give a seminar in a hotel that produced 23 high-profit sales?
Call to follow up on an emailed project quote and make the sale over the phone?
Meet 3 referred prospects for coffee in one afternoon and sell two of them?

Now that you've identified at least one big-money day in your past, try something radical: Do it again.

If your last big payday was a seminar, for example, schedule your next seminar today -- even if you're not ready. Deadlines have a wonderful way of forcing you to take action ... especially if you're paying to rent the room for your seminar.

If your last big sale came after making a follow-up phone call, pick up the phone and make a follow-up call today. Better: make 5 calls.

If your last big payday came when you sold 2 of 3 prospects over coffee, why not invite both of those new clients meet each other -- and ask them to bring a friend? And re-invite that prospect you didn't sell before?

You get the idea. Stop trying to reinvent the wheel, at least for today.

Identify your last big success, then do it again:

do what you did,
wear what you wore,
go where you were, and
say what you said.

Cloning your best efforts is one way to clone your best clients.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

80/20 Marketing: The $10-Million Case Study

2011-12-23T09:07:00.007-06:00

80/20 Marketing is based on the 80/20 Rule, aka the Pareto Principle: in life -- and in your marketing -- only a few things matter. Most things don't.

About 20% of what you do to promote your business produces 80% of your profits, give or take. Most things you do to promote your business are a waste of time and money.

Don't believe me?

Look at your calendar for last week. How many hours of effort produced real profits?

I'll wait ...

Okay. You're probably peeved right now, but relax. There's a $10-million silver lining to all this.

Because, if 80% of what you're doing to promote your business is a waste of time and money, that means you have plenty of time and money to redeploy into the high-value, 20% activities that are already producing the bulk of your profits.

In other words, you can boost your profits fairly rapidly -- and predictably -- by doing more of what really makes you money in the time you now waste doing what doesn't.

Want to see a $10-million example of this?

Look at Plenty of Fish, the renegade Canadian dating web site first profiled by Inc. magazine in 2009.

The sub-headline to the story tells you all you need to know about his 80/20 success:

"Markus Frind works one hour a day and brings in $10 million a year. How does he do it? He keeps things simple."

The entire story is well worth your read, but here are the highlights and takeaway lessons you can use:

Five years ago, [Frind] started Plenty of Fish with no money, no plan, and scant knowledge of how to build a Web business. Today, according to the research firm Hitwise, his creation is the largest dating website in the U.S. and quite possibly the world.

Until 2007, Frind had a staff of exactly zero. Today, he employs just three customer service workers, who check for spam and delete nude images from the Plenty of Fish website while Frind handles everything else.

Bottom line: by doing only the vital few things that make him money, Markus Frind can ignore the trivial many things that don’t.

And make no mistake -- those trivial 80% matters are clamoring non-stop for his attention (and yours):

Frind is aware of his site's flaws but isn't eager to fix them. "There's no point in making trivial adjustments," he says. Frind's approach -- and the reason he spends so little time actually working -- is to do no harm.

Frind's 80/20 Marketing success puts him at the top of the food chain, where he can look down and laugh at Groupon, Yahoo, and other complex, labor-intensive businesses that don’t throw off a fraction of the profit per employee that his elegant little operation does.

His success formula is simple. Do what makes you money. Drop or delegate the rest.

So, what makes money for Frind and Plenty of Fish?

Here are 3 of the biggest keys to his 80/20 Marketing success ...

1) Get noticed

"Frind knew little about search-engine optimization or online advertising, but he was a quick study. From March to November 2003, his site expanded from 40 members to 10,000."

The more people who found Plenty of Fish in Google, the more he profited from the ads running on his site. More users attracted more advertisers, in a virtuous circle that caused his profits to skyrocket.

Question: What are you doing today to REALLY get your business noticed?

2) Deliver an outstanding user experience

In a 2006 interview with Web Publishing, Frind says:

"I suppose that the biggest issue has always been performance, In order handle 14-15 million pageviews a day on 4 servers you have to constantly tweak the database, as execution paths etc change as the database grows and load increases."

How do you know you're delivering an experience people want? Test.

"There is no magic bullet, but you should always test new designs or new text etc to get the result that you want. You will never have the worst design and never the best, but through testing you can always improve."

Get that? The more dates his site found for users, the more users found his site -- through word of mouth and media coverage.

That means you need to test your web pages, phone scripts, emails -- everything you do or say to prospects and clients.

Question: What are you testing today?

3) Keep things simple

According to the Inc. interview:

Amazingly, Frind has set up his company so that doing everything else amounts to doing almost nothing at all. "I usually accomplish everything in the first hour," he says, before pausing for a moment to think this over. "Actually, in the first 10 or 15 minutes."

Frind has kept his staff small by design--he has only three employees, who handle customer service--and he personally works only about an hour a day.

In another 2006 interview with the Affiliate Blog, Frind said: "As humans one of our biggest weaknesses is becoming obsessed with what is not important. We spend 90% of our time on that little 5% -- and that is why so many of us fail."

Lean is lovely. You can build a business that satisfies clients and pays you back handsomely. But only if you're willing to say No to at least 80% of the possible demands on your time and money, especially in marketing.

Question: What can you stop doing today, to simplify your business?

You can do this. Perhaps not to the extent Markus Frind has, but you can boost your profits today by ruthlessly cutting out the trivial demands on your time and marketing dollars, and replacing them with what really works.

Of course, you can't know what works until you examine your QuickBooks reports, client database, or other data.

That's an advantage Frind had. He's a software programmer first and a marketer second. By obsessively focusing on his numbers -- web visitors per day, the sources of those visits, the performance of his database, etc. -- he instinctively did more of what made him money.

Good news: You don't have to be a techno whiz or get 1 million visits to your web site to make 80/20 Marketing work.

Let's say you're an insurance agent, for example ...

Find out which clients make you the most profit (the 20%) and which don't (the 80%).

Double up on whatever you did to find the vital 20% of your clients. Advertise where you advertised, network where you networked, say what you said, etc.

Meanwhile, ignore or delegate the 80% of clients who demand the bulk of your time and energy, yet deliver only a fraction of your overall profits. Whatever you did to get these clients, stop doing that.

By doing this, you free up time, money, and energy to devote to cloning the vital few 20% of clients who really matter. You do this by delivering an outstanding experience (to delight them and stimulate referrals) and by keeping things simple (to further delight clients and to preserve your own time and energy).

I did all of this on a smaller scale than Frind in 2005, when I created a $2.1-million revenue stream for my own one-man business. And I show people how to copy that 80/20 Marketing story here.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

Everything I Know About Creativity

2011-12-22T15:35:00.006-06:00

Have you seen this book?

It's called, Everything Obama Knows About The Economy ...

... and it's 150 pages of blank text.

Get it?

Apparently, a lot of people got it.

Because, at the time of this writing, Everything Obama Knows About The Economy is getting a pantload of media attention -- and it's sold out on Amazon.

Now. Admit it. Love Obama or loathe him, don't you wish you had thought of this idea first?

Well, the "author," Jimmy Moncrief, didn't.

It turns out that this clever idea of selling a blank book is simply a new take on an old idea, dating back at least to 1995 ...

... when Everything Men Know About Women was published.

It, too, is an empty book.

And these two books illustrate everything I know about creativity, which is this: There are no really new ideas. Only new combinations of old ideas.

The blank book itself is, after all, just a "written" version of that kindergarten prank, the empty gift box.

So, when it comes to creating new ideas for your business, don't rack your brain too hard. Instead, look around for new combinations of old ideas.

Here are 3 examples that I've written about elsewhere:

1. Drive-thru windows at a restaurant
Introduced by In ‘n’ Out Burger, in 1948.

Where did the idea originate? The City Center Bank, Kansas City, MO, opened the first drive-thru window in 1928. By borrowing an old idea from banking, In ‘n’ Out Burger produced a breakthrough in fast food.

2. Chuck E. Cheese's restaurant
Founded by Nolan Bushnell in 1977.

Where did the idea of combining video games and food originate? Before opening a restaurant, Nolan Bushnell founded another company in 1972 -- Atari. So he didn't have far to look for inspiration.

3. Lady Jane’s Haircuts for Men
Founded in 2004, Lady Jane’s employs attractive female stylists to cut hair, surrounded by sports memorabilia on the walls and ESPN on plasma screen TVs.

I can’t prove it, but I'll bet you a haircut that Lady Jane’s is a new combination of two older ideas: Great Clips and Hooters.

What do you think?

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

What Do 75% More Profits Look Like?

2011-12-21T13:44:00.006-06:00

Here's a calendar representing a typical 5-day work week ...

There are nickels on 4 days: Monday through Thursday. That represents how 4/5 (or 80%) of your marketing efforts produces about 20% of your profits (based on the 80/20 Marketing principles I wrote about here).

There are 8 dimes on one day: Friday. That represents how 1/5 (or 20%) of your marketing efforts produce a full 80% of your profits.

So, how do you get 75% more profits, from the same time worked each week?

I'm glad you asked. You do this ...

Replace just one day of low-value 80% marketing efforts with one day of high-value 20% efforts.

When you do, you can go from 100% to 175% of profits -- a 75% gain. Do the math. We've replaced 5% of efforts (and profits) with an 80% portion, in only 1/5 of the workweek.

Exactly how you do this is the focus of my new 80/20 Marketing UnCoaching program ...

... but in a nutshell, you stop managing your time and start investing it.

Specifically, you can enjoy a 75% jump in profits -- or better -- by doing 4 things:

Find the vital 20% of your marketing efforts
Find the trivial 80%
Engage in 80/20 Substitution (trade low- for high-value efforts)
Analyze and improve

If it's not sold out or expired, you can learn more about 80/20 Marketing here.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

How to Grow a Business Faster, Smarter

2011-12-19T14:12:00.001-06:00

Wondering how to grow a business?

Strange, but true: Most things in business (and life!) don't matter.

Based on the 80/20 Rule and my own experience, only a few of your clients, marketing methods, products or services really mean anything.

Example: Only about 20% of your marketing methods (networking at trade shows? client referrals?) really work -- they produce about 80% of your profits.

The other 80% (networking at the Chamber of Commerce? social media?) don't work so well. They produce about 20% of your profits.

If the Vital 20% of your marketing efforts produces 80% of results, that's a 4x output.

And if the Trivial 80% of your marketing produces 20% of your results, that's a 1/4 output.

As a result, your Vital 20% is 16x more powerful than your Trivial 80%.

That means there's an easy route to dramatically higher profits staring you in the face: Spend more time, money, and effort on the 20% of your marketing that produces 80% of your profits.

And don't say, "I don't have time for more marketing" ... because you DO have time.

Remember? About 16 of every 20 hours you spend on marketing this week -- 80% -- are largely a waste of time.

All you need to do is determine your Vital 20% and your Trivial 80%, then move time and money from the 80% to your 20%.

And don't say, "Sounds good in theory. What about in practice?" ... because I used 80/20 Marketing to produce a $2.1-million breakthrough in my own business. More on that story here.

Fact: If you have any clients and revenue at all, you must be doing something right. Do more of it tomorrow in the time you're wasting on other things today, and you win.

As the year draws to close, it's the perfect time to analyze your your QuickBooks files and client database, to find out EXACTLY what's making you money.

Stop wondering how to grow a business. The numbers don't lie and the answers are there, if you look for them.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

Sampling is Sweet, Smart to Build Your Business

2011-12-06T09:38:00.001-06:00

Do you offer samples in your business?

If not, why not?

There's no easier way to get people to try what you're selling than to give a small part of it away.

If you're any good at what you do, you can always turn a percentage of "sample prospects" into sales.

Whereas, you can't turn any percentage of 0 prospects into any sales :-)

At left is a case in point: the Ho Ho Mint Moca ...

While writing at my favorite Caribou Coffee shop, a clerk brought me a tiny sample of this yummy moca, which I would not have ordered otherwise.

A good sample, like this one, is irresistible.

Examples of free samples you can offer:

a teleseminar or series of blog posts to "sample" your coaching program
mow one front or back yard free to "sample" your lawn service
offer the first chapter free to "sample" your ebook

You get the idea.

Sampling is how King Gillette built a shaving empire -- give away the razors, sell the blades.

Sampling is how Angry Birds built a base of millions of prospects who later shelled out more than $350 million, $.99 at a time, for the paid version.

Sampling is one way Debbi Fields built her Mrs. Fields Cookies business.

Sampling is worth sampling as a way to build your business.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

80/20 Marketing: Fun with Numbers

2011-12-01T17:54:00.007-06:00

Are you familiar with the 80/20 Rule, also known as the Law of the Vital Few, and the Pareto Principle?

It holds that roughly 80% of results come from 20% of causes. In almost every area of life (and business), a small input produces a very large output.

The ratio is rarely 80/20 exactly -- it may be 92/8 … 78/22 … 85/15 -- but it is always disproportionate.

According to Wikipedia:

Business-management consultant Joseph M. Juran suggested the principle and named it after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto, who observed in 1906 that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population; he developed the principle by observing that 20% of the pea pods in his garden contained 80% of the peas.

It's a spooky natural law that always works, but doesn't make any logical sense.

Examples:

about 20% of your clothes get worn 80% of the time
about 20% of your carpet gets 80% of the foot traffic
and about 20% of bugs cause 80% of software crashes (at Microsoft, anyway)

On and on it goes -- a large majority of results comes from a small minority of causes, in a ratio of about 80/20. In any business, including yours, about:

80% of your profits come from 20% of your customers
80% of your complaints come from 20% of your customers
80% of your profits come from 20% of your marketing activities

That last figure is important.

Because, if 20% of your marketing produces 80% of your profits, then 80% of your promotional efforts produce only 20% of your profits. In other words, 4/5 of your efforts are largely a waste of time.

Yikes.

Therefore, there's an easy route to dramatically higher profits: Spend more time, money, and effort on your most effective marketing methods -- the 20% of your marketing that's producing 80% of profits.

Imagine if you could double up on your vital few 20% marketing efforts. You would get 160% of your current revenue. But ...where do you find the extra time, money, and effort to do this?

In a word, replace.

Simply replace some of the time, money, and effort you're spending on low-value 80% marketing with high-value 20% marketing.

Example: Let's say you spend 10 hours a week marketing your business, and 40 hours a week in operations. (Yes, that's 50 hours a week -- most entrepreneurs I know work at least that much.)

And let's say that, after careful analysis, you find that only 2 of 10 hours spent marketing -- 20% -- are highly profitable. Turns out, those 2 high-value hours are spent attending a single weekly networking meeting, where you get 80% of your business.

The remaining 8 hours a week you devote to marketing are on low-value (for you) activities like Twitter, writing articles for ezines, and answering email.

So, try this: "Steal" 2 of those low-value 8 hours and replace them with high-value networking.

How?

find one more valuable networking group ...
spend an extra 2 hours being useful to the people in your current networking group ...
start your own networking group

Whatever you decide, any time, money, or effort you can redeploy from low- to high-value activities is like an investment that's almost guaranteed to deliver higher profits from the same hours worked each week.

Try it for yourself and see.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

Rapid-Response Marketing Example

2011-11-16T15:20:00.003-06:00

You may remember that I wrote about my Rapid-Response Marketing Kit -- the 2 stamped thank-you notes I carry with me everywhere, so I can thank prospects and clients at a moment's notice.

Mailing thank-you notes has been a secret weapon of mine for years. They work like a force multiplier, making any sales pitch by phone or email at least twice as effective, in my experience.

Turns out, I'm not alone.

A super-successful client of mine, Gaye Lindfors, carries around her own version of a Rapid-Response Marketing Kit. She sent me this photo below ...

Gaye says: "I keep it on the front seat of my car. If I’m early to a meeting, waiting for an appointment, or want to write a quick note after a meeting while the energy is fresh, I pull out a note card and make a connection with someone, rather than checking my emails."

Why do I put so much stock in mailing thank-you notes? And how can they work like secret weapons?

As marketing author Harry Beckwith writes: "Handwritten thank-you notes feel like gifts because you took the time to find the paper and envelope, write the note, affix the stamp, and gift-wrap your note in its package."

A handwritten thank-you note is a heartfelt gift. And gifts are good. They separate you from the hordes of impersonal competitors who are chasing the same prospects as you.

Whatever you mail to prospects (to get them as clients) and clients (to keep them as clients), mailing a "thank you" is better than emailing ... nor sending nothing.

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.

Tom Peters Wants You to Stop Lying to Yourself

2011-11-08T16:14:00.003-06:00

Tom Peters said: "The calendar never lies. You can claim something is your priority, but if your calendar doesn't reflect it, you're lying to yourself."

Here's my corollary: QuickBooks never lies. You can claim something is making you money, but if your QuickBooks reports don't reflect it, you're lying to yourself.

Implication? Stop lying to yourself. Find out what's really making you money.

Here's how: Look at QuickBooks or your customer database. Ask yourself two questions:

1) What's working really well?

What 1-3 marketing methods are producing the bulk of your new clients?
What 1-3 clients (or client types) are producing the bulk of your profits?
What 1-3 products or services are producing the bulk of your profits?

2) What's working unexpectedly well?

What 1-3 marketing methods are delivering more sales, more easily or profitably than expected?
What 1-3 clients (or client types) are easier and more profitable to serve than expected?
What 1-3 products or services are easier and more profitable to sell/produce/deliver than expected?

Size doesn't matter here -- you're looking for potential breakthroughs:

And this question is potentially more valuable than question 1) -- it helped me uncover a $54/month revenue stream that exploded into $54,000 a month.

If you're like most business owners, you won't take the time to answer these two questions.

Look around. Most business owners are struggling. What does that tell you?

More importantly, why not take a hard look at your numbers to see what they tell you?

Bio: Kevin Donlin can help you grow your business and enjoy the breakthrough results your hard work deserves. If you're interested in boosting your revenues and profits, please click here.