Being in a desperate position, Joe realizes that his only hope is to make major money with his printer. He and his wife decide to print customized envelopes for small businesses. They figure that all they need is one or two orders to bring in some quick cash. And envelopes is one thing that businesses use everyday, thus, if they played the cards right, they would earn repeat business every month. It would mean the end of all their money problems!

The only thing left to do was to find a couple of businesses that would buy customized envelopes from them. Next day, Joe goes to the business district and enters one store after another trying to convince the store owners to buy customized envelopes. He tells them how sending business letters in customized envelopes would make them look more professional and sharp. He blurts out benefit after benefit on how less it would cost but how much image value it would bring to the store. But he gets no orders. Not many want customized envelopes. And those who do, don’t trust a new printer to do the job.

After one whole day of rejections, Joe realizes that he has to have a better strategy if he wants to compete against the established printers of the town. He decides to go the extra mile and add the personal touch. Next day, Joe goes back to the business district. But this time he doesn’t enter any store. Instead, he just notes down all the stores names and addresses in the district. Then he heads back home and sets his plan in motion.

Back home, he prints out 2 customized envelopes for each store without receiving their orders. Then Joe goes back to the business district, but this time, he is armed with customized envelopes. Joe gives a very similar sales speech to each store owner that he had given last time. But this time, he dangles the 2 customized envelopes in front of the store owners eyes. The store owners would take the sample envelopes thinking that they are samples Joe had made for some other clients. And then he would read his stores name and address in the top left corner in Gold ink!

Seeing how beautiful his own store’s name in gold looked on an envelope, he would instantly place the order for more customized envelopes. Joe uses the same strategy over and over again, and soon he has more business than he can handle. He soon has to buy a larger and quicker printer and hire people to take a bit of his workload!

Action Summary:

°    Use the power of demonstration. You can keep on saying your product is the best in the market without any effect. But demonstrate the workings of your product, and people will believe. And people will buy.

°    Use the power of personalization. Send personalized offers. Give away personalized samples and you will sell more.

Frustrated, he decides to be his own boss and open his own business. But his new business idea confuses many. Its nothing remotely related to finance and spread sheets. Out of the blue, Dan decides to launch an auto-service business.

He buys the equipment and announces to the world that his “Dan’s Oil Changes” is open for business. But the start is slow. He doesn’t get many customers. That all soon changes when Dan changes his marketing strategy.

Instead of waiting for customers to come to him, Dan decides to go to his customers. But he realizes that it wouldn’t be worthwhile to knock on every door. So he decides to knock on only “big” doors. Only on doors that lead to many clients at once.

Dan starts going to office complexes and knocking on the doors of big companies. He starts offering on worksite automotive oil and filter changing services to employees of companies only. Soon, employees of about a dozen companies of the locality rely on him to service their cars while they are busy working in their cubicles and offices.

Today, Dan earns more servicing automobiles than he did in his job as a financial analyst.

In a recent interview, Dan says: “It’s been easy getting business. The secret, is to come up with a chore that the average employee doesn’t have time to do during the week, and find a way to do it for him while he is at work.

Action Summary:

°    As Willy Sutton says: go where the money is. Instead of going to individual car owners’ homes, Dan went to office complexes where many car owners are found together. Target a place where many of your prospective clients can be found together.

°    And then Dan made his service more accessible than the other oil changing shops. One of the easiest ways to blow away your competition is to make your product or service more accessible to people. Make it easy for them to do business with you and your sales will increase.

Check out the classes at Wizardacademy.org.

Learn about the Wizard and the partners at RHW.com

Also, I learned this week that Ankesh is publishing a second book!  More to come on this.

In 1986, a few executives get together and buy the entire company and make Parker Pens a privately held company. By the end of 1986, their bottom line is red! How would the revitalize the company?

They change the entire selling strategy.

Their new marketing plan increases demand by curtailing supply of the pens. The pen is no longer sold anywhere and everywhere. Its high quality pens are only sold in high end stores like jewelry shops and office supply stores. They are only sold under glass in nice packaging, not on any racks in the open. The price of the pens is increased too.

The plan worked. The year the executives bought Parker Pens, it was making a loss.

A year after that, it makes a stellar profit of over $20 million!

Action Summary:

°    One way of increasing demand is by supplying your product in limited quantity. You can sell fewer quality products and yet make more profits by curtailing supply and increasing prices.

°    Parker Pens is a luxurious pen and even used as jewelry because of its higher demand…and lower supply. But the company didn’t only curtail supply; they also improved the perception of the pens by selling them only in higher end stores in nice packaging.

°    Improve your packaging and you can charge a higher price too.

Her goal is simple: to get as many people to spread the word about her services. Her plan is two pronged.

°    To promote her babysitting service, Kate visits all the places where parents gather: toy stores, day care centers, churches, and restaurants. She then convinces the owners and managers of these businesses that they would be helping their patrons by letting her post her business sign at their establishment.

°    She also convinces the parents who employ her babysitting services to allow her to put up her business sign in their yards.

Her sign is simple and reads:

Kate Loves Kids

World Class Babysitting

Call 555-5555

Soon, Kate’s babysitting signs are everywhere. Nearly everyone in town knows her name. Kate is soon flooded with referrals and can’t cope up with demand. She ends up hiring

10 babysitters working for her. She creates a babysitting dynasty without spending a cent on advertising.

And, oh yes . . . Kate is in the ninth grade.

Action Summary:

°    If a ninth grade student can build a business dynasty without spending money on advertising, so can you!

°    Go to places where your customers gather and start spreading the word.

°    Convince other business owners to carry your business cards and signs. If need be, provide them incentives, or commission per sale.

°    Develop a referral system and make sure that all your current customers promote you. Give signs and even certificates to your clients that they can show to other people.

Henry drops out of college in September 2002 to start his own video-editing company. To buy equipment at a low cost, he logs onto ebay.com. But soon discovers that no one is selling the equipment he wants.

So Henry finds a video equipment company that carries the products he wants. On a whim, he posts an auction for that same product the day he receives it. Eight bids and seven days later, Henry sells the video equipment for a small profit. He soon does some calculations and figures that he can make more money buying and selling hard-to-find video equipment on ebay.com than by starting his own video- editing business.

His calculations prove to be correct and Henry ends up selling 70 different types of video equipment for a grand total of $500,000 in gross sales within 1 year. But others get a sniff of his success and try to copy his system.

Within no time, the copycats find sources that manufacture the equipment at a much lower cost. Henry can’t compete with them even when he sells the equipment at cost price making no profits.

When he can’t compete on price basis, Henry decides to compete on better service. Henry starts offering free technical assistance to people who buy products from him.He starts posting his phone number in all the auction listings. Even though his prices are higher, many people choose to buy from him, as installing the complex video equipment system could be a daunting task.

The sales erosion stops. But Henry doesn’t stop there. He goes on and makes a step-by-step training DVDs that help buyers install and use the equipment on their own. And earns more money selling the DVDs!

Action Summary:

°    Provide a better service and people will end up paying you more. Give free technical assistance, and provide better customer care; and people will buy from you even though your competition is cheaper.

°    Make step-by-step training tutorials on how to use your products most effectively and sell them with your products.

Becky owns an steakhouse.   About 2 months before the elections, Becky starts a contest at her restaurant that generates some free publicity for her.

All diners are given a choice of 2 ketchups they can use with their meals: The Heinz or the W ketchup. John Kerry’s wife, Tereza Heinz Kerry is the heiress of the company that makes Heinz ketchup. While W ketchup is made by a republican supporter who didn’t want to eat the Heinz ketchup and support the democrats.

Becky gives each diner an opportunity to caste a vote in favour of the ketchup they like. She says: “As patrons are paying for their meals, they are handed a jelly bean and asked to put in an a jar favoring Heinz ketchup or the jar indicating W ketchup.”

In September, she sends press releases to media outlets letting them know about her unofficial poll and receives plenty of free publicity. Then on Nov 1, Becky tallies the votes and sends one more press release to the same media outlets letting them know about the winner of her polls. This time, she receives even more publicity as its just one day before the elections.

Alas! Her polls didn’t accurately predict the elections. Her diners overwhelmingly select Heinz over W ketchup. And George W ends up winning the elections.  Even though her polls are poor predictors, Becky is richer because of it!

Action summary:

°    Piggy bank on current affairs. Read news. Associate your product with the news. Send press releases and you’ll receive some media publicity for free.

°    When the state government was changing the name of Bombay’s only international airport from “Sahara airport” to “Chatrapati Shivaji airport”, a young kid sends a press release to media outlets letting them know that he is running a poll on a website asking people if they liked the new name or not. The local news channel makes his website famous and asks people to go vote on his website. The kid then sends the results in a press release to media outlets again and receives even more free publicity when the results are announced on air.

This standard solicitation approach generates a mere 18% agreement. 18 out of 100 people agree to see a representative at their homes.

D. H. then tweaks the telemarketing script a bit. When residents pick up the phone, they are greeted with “I hope you are feeling well this evening?” This tweak surprises Howard by generating an even lower response of only 15%.

Being a true researcher, D. H. tries one more approach. This time, the callers ask residents a question before the solicitation. The caller simply asks “How are you feeling today?” and waits for an answer before giving the sales pitch. The results are surprising. 108 out of 120 people give a positive response to the question, such as “I am fine” Or “I am doing great today.” Even more surprising is the number of residents that agree to see a representative at their homes. 32% people agree to see the cookie seller at their place!

Action summary:

°    A greater % of people agree to see the seller once they’ve answered a simple “how are you feeling” question. This is because they feel committed to you by answering a question.

°    Once people make a small commitment to you by answering questions, they can make a bigger commitment by agreeing to see you and ultimately by agreeing to purchase from you hopefully.

°    The more sincere you are with your questions, the better response you’ll receive.

°    Involve people in the process. Asking people “how are you feeling today” and then waiting for the answer involved them and almost doubled the response rate. Imagine the response you might receive if you make your clients feel like they are involved in the process by asking about their opinions and suggestions!

Here is a story about a fast growing restaurant chain.  They grew to over 400 restaurants in 20 short years. Over the years, they have fine-tuned a system that makes sure that they generate a lot of buzz before they open for business in a new town. They make sure that they are a success even before they open up.

How do they do that?

Some time before opening, This restaurant will join the Chamber of Commerce in the town. By being a member, they gain access to all the other members. Then, they send a note to all the members of the Chamber of Commerce, inviting them to come for a free meal before it opens up to the rest of the town.

Many of these members, who are business owners and have a good standing in the community, show up for the free meal. It almost becomes like a Chambers get together. The restaurant does its best in impressing these businessmen and women. They provide great food and a terrific service. And they create a festive mood by decorating the restaurant.

As a result, the night makes a killer impression and gets the whole town talking about the new restaurant. It become a hit restaurant in the new town even before they open up for business.

Action Summary:

°    Give away samples of your product freely to generate a buzz. It’s worth one night’s worth of free food to create a buzz.

°    Reach the influential people of the society. Impress people who are well respected in the society, or are well respected in their field of business, and word about your products will spread.

°    Gather people to an event and give them a memorable day, and they’ll become loyal to you.

Henry drops out of college in September 2002 to start his own video-editing company. To buy equipment at a low cost, he logs onto ebay.com. But soon discovers that no one is selling the equipment he wants. So Henry finds a video equipment company that carries the products he wants. On a whim, he posts an auction for that same product the day he receives it. Eight bids and seven days later, Henry sells the video equipment for a small profit. He soon does some calculations and figures that he can make more money buying and selling hard-to-find video equipment than by starting his own video- editing business.

His calculations prove to be correct and Henry ends up selling 70 different types of video equipment for a grand total of $500,000 in gross sales within 1 year. But others get a sniff of his success and try to copy his system.  Within no time, the copycats find sources that manufacture the equipment at a much lower cost. Henry can’t compete with them even when he sells the equipment at cost price making no profits.

When he can’t compete on price basis, Henry decides to compete on better service. Henry starts offering free technical assistance to people who buy products from him. He starts posting his phone number in all the auction listings. Even though his prices are higher, many people choose to buy from him, as installing the complex video equipment system could be a daunting task.

The sales erosion stops. But Henry doesn’t stop there. He goes on and makes a step-by-step training DVDs that help buyers install and use the equipment on their own and earns more money selling the DVDs!

Action Summary:

°    Provide a better service and people will end up paying you more. Give free technical assistance, and provide better customer care; and people will buy from you even though your competition is cheaper.

°    Make step-by-step training tutorials on how to use your products most effectively and sell them with your products.