The likelihood that your product or service is so unique that you do not have any competition is as rare as a Fremantle Dockers premiership :)!!

We need another Real Estate Agent (not), nor do we need another Coffee Shop, yet, new market entrants are constantly making an impact.

How can you make an impact with your product or service and this podcast will discuss how!

Transcript:

In this particular  podcast, I’m going to tell you about a question that I received from a subscriber. It’s a great question,  And I thought the answer would be very interesting, not only to him but to you. 

The question was: “ how can you make yourself and your business stand out from the rest, when there are so many out there doing exactly what you do.  And what’s more, they have more and better credentials and education than you do”.  

Now that’s the question and here’s the answer. 

With that particular question, here’s what that particular subscriber has actually done:  He’s actually built himself a box that  truly thinking about it like that, he can’t escape from ,  so his premise, in other words, the answer to this question,  is I can’t really beat that and I should quit. And once you’re at  that point, you probably need to go and get a job. 

But on the other hand, the reality in the marketplace nowadays, is there’s no need for just about anything.  

We’ve really got a lot of everything and everybody.

I mean, there’s really more than enough insurance agents, real estate agents, there’s more than enough marketing consultants, and heaven forbid, do we really need another coffee shop! At the end of the day, there are so many places to go and get a coffee.  BUT new businesses keep arriving, businesses keep prospering,  businesses  keep banking upon marketing that makes a real difference.  The way they do it is to create their own market space. 

And that folks, is super important. 

So it’s not about “is there somebody else doing it”. Yes, it’s likely that somebody else is doing everything and frankly,  your likelihood of finding something to do that no one else is doing is highly highly unusual or finding something to sell that nobody else is selling. Well, the chances of finding that isn’t really very good.  

So it’s really about finding a space in the marketplace that you can operate rather than finding something completely new. 

Now let’s get into the issue of credentials. 

They have very little to do with anything. And in fact,  education has  even less. 

In every different  thing that I do, I’m almost 100% sure that there’s someone better educated, someone who has better credentialed than me doing exactly what I do.  And I’ll guarantee that those who are better educated with  better credentials are doing it for a lot less money than I actually make.  Because nowadays, it’s not really about credentials,  nor is it about education but it’s really about believability or authority – which are closely related to each other and as such, is what really sets you apart. 

Very few markets are basing their decisions based on credentials, except perhaps when we are hiring somebody. and then we look for credentials and education but that is for another topic, another podcast. But truthfully, that’s not the smartest thing to do either. 

A resource I’d like to direct you to is a book written by Elsom Eldrige, Jr  –  The Obvious Expert .  I’ve analysed that book quite carefully and I’ve applied a lot of the stuff with marketing and I’ve put together a  step by step training program which are now available on How to Create An Authority or in another word, Believability and if you’d like to get access to that course, it’s only $10.99 and for under $11, you get a step by step videos, PDFs and a number of other things. 

Access it here. 

So back to the box my subscriber has placed himself inside of – I want everyone else to understand that you will probably find people with more credentials than you. 

You can’t really be intimidated by the options people face, everybody has more choices that they have ever faced before and that creates more opportunities to help them and straighten them out – and that’s where entrepreneurial marketers are never intimidated by any of these facts.   

 They are almost always in the crowded fields and they grow their businesses all the time. In fact we look for crowded fields because we know there are customers there. 

If there were no customers in that field, there wouldn’t be a lot of people trying to attract them. So, entrepreneurial marketers are looking for them all of the time.  And when they find them, they make and create their own market space. Identify their own market, and then they play their own game.  And don’t pay a lot  attention to what everyone else is doing around them. 

C’mon, you can do this. This is about believability. And if you want help, then go to this link.

Staying relevant is so important in business. You must be at the front of people’s minds every day and all of the time. 

The best way to do that is to always be trying something new or cool, and creating an atmosphere where people want to know what you’re up to and how it’s going.

Take a listen to my latest podcast.

Transcript: 

When you position yourself in the market as infallible, you’ll stop taking risks in order to avoid looking bad, and this will be the beginning of your end. 

Staying relevant is so important. You must be at the front of people’s minds every day and all of the time. 

The best way to do that is to always be trying something new or cool, and creating an atmosphere where people want to know what you’re up to and how it’s going.

I remember working alongside an overseas marketing guru once. He was so afraid to do anything risky that would upset his position in the market that had any blemish to it whatsoever. 

He had such a high opinion of himself that he had positioned himself in such a way that it made it VERY difficult to make a mistake.

Think about your positioning in your marketplace. As you position yourself as an authority or expert, how are you going to set parameters for yourself? Obviously, this depends upon your profession – if you are a dentist or a beauty therapist you probably want to be technically excellent but if you are in more forgiving professions you can perhaps be a bit more fallible.

For me for example, I am in the imperfect area of marketing, I’ve picked a positioning standpoint that allows me to try things risk things and at times fail but learning from each of these without I believe lowering my status. 

I am being me – open and honest and in doing so created a character that simply tries to share all the risks and the flops but emphasising what I have learned from them.

I remember vividly seeing this in action when I was working for a family property developing company that was being viewed as a take over target by a major National player. Whilst all of us lieutenants in the transaction were outing on our best performance and appearing really certain as to what we did – our founder, our boss – the owner was being himself warts and all and in doing so – not only did he land the deal but he came over so sincere, so worldly, so experienced, so capable with dealing with all sorts of things that the National company not only bought his family business but quickly moved to have our guy lead the whole company.

 This is how this podcast began. 

It is an unedited, raw look at the inner workings of Peter Gianoli —a human who loves to try new things and learn along the way. There’s no sugar coating. 

In some episodes, it’s clear I or my clients are having a win and I want to share with you why this has happened – what is working whilst at other times I will share with you what I am grappling with. No matter what, I want to share the real truth because this is consistent with my positioning.

This allows me to take big risks, stay relevant, and keep my status intact. 

So, if you can from a profession point of view – don’t enter the marketplace as the infallible guru. It’s the fastest way to fall to the bottom and become irrelevant.

Pick a position that allows you to fail and get back up again.

Is the funnel complete? 

Is there something more you can add? 

Ask these three questions all the time, even when you have an amazing funnel. 

At any point in the sales process, you can do more if you just ask yourself the question “what else can we do?” 

Find out more…

Transcript:

Is your offer really finished? 

Is the funnel complete? 

Is there something more you can add? 

Ask these three questions all the time, even when you have an amazing funnel. 

At any point in the sales process, you can do more if you just ask yourself the question “what else can we do?” 

If people click on your landing page but do not give you an email address, retarget them with ads. 

If they give you their email address but do not buy, contact them with an email or text or messenger sequence. 

If they buy your low-cost product, how can you add more to it with an order bump? 

Are there additional upsells you can add after they’ve made that first purchase? 

If they don’t take the big upsell, can you down sell something instead? 

What touchpoints can you create when the buying process is over to give them an opportunity to purchase higher-end products? 

Even if you’re making a lot of money—in fact, Especially when you’re making a lot of money—look for where you can add more. 

I guarantee there is always more you can do.

Transcript:

We individuals are very simple folk. We do things really mainly for two distinct motivations. Either to move away from the pain, or to move towards pleasure.  Now, we have to keep that firmly in our minds when we put together our  sales and marketing initiatives.

So, what I ask my clients to do when I take on a contract is to spend a lot of time getting to understand what are the pain points that people are moving away from, that this particular product is offering,  and what are the pleasure points that this particular service, or product can deliver. The better I get to know each and everyone of those- that I can tell you categorically, the better the sales and marketing efforts will be.  

So I go through an exercise.

So when I start with the pain points.  

Moving away from pain.  

I dig deep to find out what’s going on inside my dream customer  or the clients’ heads when they’re trying to move away from pain. Now, I force myself to write down a dozen phrases that the dream customer is saying or thinking as they try to move away from their pain.  Now, if you’re struggling to fill this out, write down what you used to say to yourself when you were in similar circumstance and then attempt to elaborate what the dream customer would be thinking.  Now, if you’re looking for places for ideas, then I suggest you research for forums, message boards, get on to facebook groups, and you will see a lot of these pain points and a lot of discussions people are getting into, in those particular places. 

Now the same goes for moving towards pleasure.

Now what I do, what I like to do is I try to deduce what’s going on inside the dream customers’ heads when they’re trying to move towards the pleasure.  And  this  too –  I write down at least a dozen phrases that dream customers are saying or thinking as they try to move towards the pleasure. And here too, you can pick up those examples from forums, message boards, facebook groups and the like.

And you know another  place you can do it is by going to your competitor’s ads, your competitor’s websites – and looking at some of the language that they use because those guys have probably also done these exercises or aspects of this exercise themselves. And by compiling from these industry’s files, you’ll get a really good look into what’s going on in your dream customer’s mind. As they either move away from pain or move towards pleasure. 

Now, this may seem like a superfluous exercise but trust me, it isn’t. 

The more zeroed in, the more fixated you become on this, the more you listen. The more voyeuristic you can be then the better, I guarantee –  your marketing and your sales effort  will end up accordingly.

So go ahead, do this exercise.  You don’t have to do this in one sitting. You can keep a notebook and collectively add to them  every time you’d come across a conversation that you experience with your dream customer about their pain or their pleasure they’re heading toward. And the better you put them together,  the better they cut through in the foremost of time

Stores like Coles and Woolworths only have a certain number of shelves. Every single item placed on their shelves is sharply judged based on performance.

If a product doesn’t do well, it’s removed from the shelf to make room for a better option. They are protective of their shelf space.

But in consulting or the service industry, it’s harder to see this principle in action. Our products are intangible or digital. Our shelf space is between our ears, in our minds.

Transcript

Protect Your Shelf Space

What is that new business idea or shiny object costing you in terms of focus?

Stores like Coles and Woolworths only have a certain number of shelves. Every single item placed on their shelves is sharply judged based on performance.

If a product doesn’t do well, it’s removed from the shelf to make room for a better option. They are protective of their shelf space.

But in consulting or the service industry, it’s harder to see this principle in action. Our products are intangible or digital. Our shelf space is between our ears, in our minds.

There came a point in my company when I realised how having my hands in all these business ventures was limiting my ability to grow my business. I had to protect my shelf space and let go of a lot of projects to keep it clear for what I wanted to grow.

The hard part for us entrepreneurs is we have so many good ideas, it’s hard to see them as unworthy. They aren’t bad at all! But in a sea of ideas, the merely good ideas become true enemies of the great.

We have to be ruthless with our mental shelf space and remember that whatever we focus on, that’s what will grow.

Take inventory in your store, and clear away anything that isn’t a top performer.

Or as a formula it is R=C & C=R

Now this might seem very simplistic to some people. But the importance of this formula and how the average entrepreneur applies it day to day can dramatically improve circumstances.

Listen to my latest podcast to learn how.

Transcript:

This formula is like the ultimate governor, here’s why…

This simple formula – Responsibility equals control and control equals responsibility – is so true but only to the degree that you are prepared to accept responsibility for any situation.

So, by accepting responsibility means you can exert control over the situations you find yourself in.

I first heard this formula from Mr Dan Kennedy the legendary Us copywriter who I had the pleasure of working with many moons ago on a USA based National Speakers Association tour and he used this example, to illustrate the point.

When he was a pro speaker on the tour – there was another speaker on the program (for the record this wasn’t me – but at times it could have been :)) who was not doing as well with sales at the back of the room as he should have been doing. And when Dan had a conversation with him, he had a litany of reasons, for why he wasn’t doing so well.

“The environment’s not good”, as they were in a great big sports arena and the audience was sitting on benches and,

“The sound is bad”.

“His time slot is bad.”

“The sales staff were doing a terrible job and they are erratic,” and so on.

In Dan Kennedys example Dan went on to explain that whilst the list was somewhat right it didn’t take Dan himself who was also on the tour that long to figure out all of the same things.

By the time Dan had done his third presentation, he could see it was a terrible environment. And, the staff did suck. And especially for Dan because by the end of the day, they were exhausted, and they just wanted out of there and they couldn’t care less if anybody purchased anything.

So, Dan had the same list, but the key difference was Dan began to exert control over element after element, after element on the list.

For example, with the sales staff at the back of the room, Dan was the only speaker who paid them bonuses. Dan would arrive at the venue two hours before he spoke and went around to the manager first of all, and put him on a bonus plan based on how much was sold, this was discussed and based on the size of the audience. And then he went around with the manager to every one of the product sales areas, and set them up on their own little bonus plan.

“So if we sell this much, everybody gets $5 bills. If we sell this much, everybody gets $10 bills. If we sell this much, everybody gets $20 bills. And when all the dust settles before you all leave, I’ll be back around, passing out the cash. Now, do you want to hear what you can do to sell more? Fine. Here’s the script. Here’s what you say when they come out, etc etc”…

And so Dan did something like this for every item One by one down the list, because he understood that ultimately he is responsible for trying to control the environment in which he worked.

Now I have found the same in my circles – just like if you ask a Real Estate sales person how is business, and they answer with how tough the banks are being with lending policies and nobody can get loans – so it is too difficult to sell.

Or if you ask an entertainer how are your bookings going in this strange COVID world and most of them will say – oh its terrible but what would you expect in this market nobody is having events.

I must admit though – just the other day I got back this answer which was “look I have had a few enquiries, but I priced myself too high and I didn’t get the gigs”.

As I am sure you can sense the answers of blaming banks or COVID or the market are not overly useful because you have no opportunity to exercise any control over them. But the answer like “I have had a few enquiries, but I priced myself too high and I didn’t get the gigs” means you at least have an opportunity now to go try and figure out what the hell it is that we can do differently that will affect the result.

This is a real thought pattern. And you pick it up, you can see who has it or not – by their language. And when you say to somebody, “how did your database mail campaign go?

“You know, it didn’t do very well” verses “well, we screwed it up”.

The person who says we screwed it up, guess what? They are the true entrepreneurs, the successful entrepreneurs – the winner.

How are things going?

“Oh, business this month. Isn’t very good, Now that is a loser talking because they are not taking any responsibility for it. Therefore they have no control over it. So they can’t do anything about it. The people that say, well, we haven’t done much business this month. Now they’re in the, fix it, improve it, figure it out mode. And so this formula  R=C & C=R is and can be so powerful.

People just don’t quite understand how important this is because this really does make a difference. Whether people take responsibility  or not depends if they are going to be in control of something and make a difference or just let things happen to them – the choice does exist.

And one of the things that I have observed amongst successful people – is how often they are willing to accept the fact and make the statement that I screwed this up. As opposed to so many other people who go the victim route, you know, this happened and that happened.

Remember there’s no power in that. No power in the excuse mode, in the long lists, all the excuses, the blame others…

The only power is in a hundred percent responsibility. So again, burn this into your psyche – your daily life – R=C & C=R

Responsibility equals control and control equals responsibility.

Trust me life and business will just keep getting better.

Then, it is best you take a leaf out of Anthony Robbins or Harry Houdini’s or even Mr Beast’s playbook. Introducing the powerful concept of “dramatic demonstration”.

Listen to my latest podcast to find out more.

Transcript:

Imagine having 171.9 million subscribers on YouTube with a total views of 22 billion. What sort of influence do you think you could have?

Enter Mr Beast the 23-year-old American Youtuber Jimmy Donaldson, an icon of total dedication to his art. Even though he has been credited with pioneering a genre of YouTube videos that centre on expensive stunts, this  is an age old technique and needs to be taken seriously in business marketing.

Ladies and Gentlemen – Harry Houdini and Dramatic Demonstration

Harry Houdini was all about dramatic demonstration. Houdini made his chops going to small town police stations where he could control the environment and the local media were thrilled to have something to cover. He would get the police to hand and ankle cuff him, tie him up and lock him in the cell. Naturally, he always managed to escape!

He then graduated to big city police departments and once he crossed that line, he became a worldwide celebrity. He thought about it formulaically. He figured out a place, an environment he could work in, be productive in, control, and then leverage up. And he did it all with dramatic demonstration. Same also, Jack Lalanne (swimming), David Copperfield (magic), Anthony Robbins (fire walk) and now Mr Beast with epic videos.

Dramatic demonstration is not just for celebrities

If your business has a component where you come face to face with a prospect, even online, structure in a dramatic demonstration and almost no selling will be required.

Over the years, carpet cleaners have done it sucking up a bowl of sand, car dealers do it by letting you test drive and smell the newness and during a sales webinar there will be evidence of people buying in droves.

So, the question is, do you have some great demonstrations? Is there a dramatic demonstration aspect to what you do? Since it’s an ingredient that eventuates in a higher status, it suggests to us we need it.

Marketing to the wealthy and the top-end-of-town is a passion and expertise of mine – take a listen to my latest podcast.

Transcript:

I have helped countless entrepreneurs transform their businesses into empires and make millions of dollars faster than they ever thought possible.

My recent work with entrepreneurs and marketers has been more impactful than anything I’ve ever done. I’ve been guiding, pushing, prodding and nagging them to reinvent themselves to specifically focus on marketing to the wealthy and the top-end-of-town.

To get very, very rich, you need to see where the most money is and then take your business there to get it.

Transforming your business to market to, appeal to, and attract the affluent, will transform your income, security, and business life.

The vast majority of marketers waste valuable resources trying to get money from people who have little of it to part with. They think that customers for whom price is irrelevant are as rare as unicorns. They never set out deliberately to attract and do business with them. 

In truth, there is a giant, growing availability of such customers.

The explosive growth of the “well heeled” makes this specialised focus irresistible.

We are in the midst of a demographic revolution, with the baby boomer population peaking, their inheritances exploding, and the affluent population growing richer per capita, all converging to produce a new “spending class.” 

Opportunities to trade up, to upgrade your clientele, to rearrange your business, your products, services, and prices, to attract the big spending consumers have never been better.

Get to understand them.

Appreciate how abundant and plentiful and obtainable they are (possibly contrary to your own limited perception) and learn to target and attract them.

In this episode of my podcast I outline a recent lesson I learnt thanks to an outreach email I had received.

Take a listen.

Transcript:

If you want to succeed in marketing you have to constantly keep your eyes and ears open and never stop learning. 

In this episode I outline a recent lesson I learnt thanks to an outreach email I had received.

Here Is the Email

Hi Peter,

I know you’re busy so I’ll cut right to it.

I’m reaching out to high-quality sites that feature great ways to get better leads. 

I came across your post: https://petergianoli.com/get-better-leads/ and was particularly interested in the free stock photo sites that you mentioned! 

I’d like to pitch my website for inclusion in the post – Pikwizard 

We have over 100,000 free images and videos on the site, with 20,000 of those exclusive to us. We are also adding new images and videos to our library daily and our ultimate goal is to get to more than 1 million images and videos.

We’ve got A LOT of pictures of people, which tend to be rare on free stock photo sites. If you check out our site and search for “office” or “meeting”, you will see the quality of images on the website. All of which are free to use without attribution.

You can also take each image and edit it on our graphic design tool, Design Wizard!

I realize it’s a pain for you to make changes, so I’d like to attempt to return the favour whatever way I can (Write the blurb? Share on social?)

If interested, you can check out the site here: www.pikwizard.com

Thanks very much,

David, 

Outreach Manager

The hospitality industry has been doing this for years.

In this podcast I outline the 3 key steps to success.

Transcript:

For people like me in marketing it is a very unwelcome fact: the higher up the financial food chain you go in search of clientele, the less likely you are to obtain a customer, client, or patient through advertising, direct mail, or other proactive outreach. 

Oprah Winfrey does not look on Google for a chiropractor, nor will she be motivated by a late night TV ad. If she has back pain, she’ll reach out to her network for a recommendation.

To woo affluent clients the best weaponry is by repeatedly offering “bragging rights experiences” to your customer and client base. The hospitality industry has been doing this for years.

Golf resorts have been dispatching massage therapists to deliver a quick rub to sore shoulders or achy backs between greens. Hilton’s super upscale Conrad Hotel introduced the now popular “pillow menu” and individual concierges. Whilst St. Regis, introduced your personal butler.

You probably don’t operate a hotel or a resort, but you can learn a lot from the most upscale of them. The best have committed clientele, unwilling to stay elsewhere unless absolutely unavoidable, and urging their peers and friends to follow their lead. 

Most businesses settle for whatever word-of-mouth advertising or specific referrals they get by accident, but in marketing to the wealthy, it is more vital to get them and each referral is so valuable, that a strategic investment of time and money is warranted. 

There are three main strategies: 

1. creating experiences customers are motivated, preferably compelled, to tell others about – that is, being the basis for storytelling 
2. recognizing and rewarding those who refer 
3. tracking, measuring, and managing referrals

Steps 2 and 3 aren’t very useful without step 1, which is pretty obvious. But by taking the time to understand the psychological and emotional drivers of your wealthy customers’ buying behaviour and enthusiasm for what they buy and whom they buy from to crafting the most appropriate sales language and choreographing your sales process – all combine the Total Experience as felt by the customer.

That total experience determines a customer’s willingness to refer when asked as well as the likelihood of them spontaneously recommending you to others of their own initiative.

An important thing to understand is that satisfaction is not sufficient. 

For example, there are many businesses I buy things from and do business with which I am sufficiently satisfied to continue as a customer. my dry cleaners, the local car wash, and my Accountant. But I have zero motivation to tell others about these businesses, let alone passionately urge others to use them. 

On the other hand, I have actively referred people to my dentist; my graphic designer Troy, my favourite restaurant, Brika.

Why do I champion these businesses but not the others? 

Because they do more than satisfy. They meet a higher standard. The secret to referral stimulus is the difference between satisfaction and enthusiasm, produced either by merely expectations or by exceeding them. 

Getting recommendations and referrals from your clients is about turning them into storytellers about their experiences with you. Nobody gathers a crowd around at a cocktail party to tell them, “My dry cleaner gets my clothes clean, folds them, and puts them on hangers.” It’s just not much of a story. 

Here’s why this is particularly important in working with affluent clientele: Surveys show that the affluent are 30% less likely than the general public to return or exchange unsatisfactory merchandise, seek out management to lodge complaints, or make their disappointments known. Their time is too valuable to spend on such activities. They simply go elsewhere. If the experience you are delivering is unsatisfactory or merely ordinary, you can’t rely on your wealthy customers to do your work for you and alert you to your mediocrity. You have to determine it, based on poor referral statistics or other statistical measurements and observation. Affluent consumers are, however, more demanding, even though they may keep their disappointments to themselves and go searching elsewhere for better experiences.

Peer Recommendations Rule

Abundant survey and statistical data supports the premise that, the more affluent the consumer, the more likely they are to rely, in whole or part, on word-of-mouth information and recommendations from peers in selecting stores, restaurants, products, services, and professional providers. If their interest is captured by advertising or direct solicitation, the wealthy consumer is at least four times (400%) more likely to ask their network about the company than is a consumer of average means. 

With the affluent, word of mouth is far more critical. And far more valuable. And must be earned through complex creation and delivery of exceptional experiences that serve as basis for positive, interesting storytelling. 

If you have all of this in place, you will get referrals. When you do, Strategy 2 (recognition and reward) should occur. 

I cannot tell you the number of times I’ve heard the same unhappy story – “I sent my friend/ client/ neighbour to x and never got so much as a thank-you note.” Each person telling me that story is expressing deep resentment of not being shown deserved respect and appreciation, and reinforcing their determination never to recommend that business to anyone else. I don’t think most businesspeople understand just how much it irritates people who deserve appreciation but not get it. 

This is multiplied with the affluent, who feel privileged to begin with and take the absence of appropriate response as a slap in the face. When they do you a favour, such as referring a customer, they are waiting for an appropriate acknowledgment. 

The good news is that recognition and rewards motivate more of the same behaviour. I guess we can all be Pavlov’s dogs. 

The best way to turn a first-time or occasional referrer into a frequent one is: recognition. And, the more affluent the customer, the more personal the recognition should be. They do not need a gift card that you buy a dozen at a time to reward referring customers. A personal, preferably handwritten thank-you note will do. 

But, ideally, it’s best to find and obtain something of specific relevance to the individual or their business, family, pets, or personal interests. And you are developing even more “bragging rights experiences”.

Finally, Strategy 3 is holding yourself, your staff, and even your clients accountable for referral activity. This means measuring effectiveness every way you can, beginning with overall stats. 

I often ask a professional service provider like a dentist or chiropractor to tell me how many referrals they’ve received per active patient this year to date vs. last year … and guess what – most of them have no idea. 

You can’t manage what you don’t measure. Depending on the nature of your business, you may be able to measure one staff person’s efficacy at securing referrals against another’s. You can certainly track referral numbers, frequency, and consistency for each customer, client, or patient. The courageous marketer will single out the clients referring below par and engage them in frank discussion about it. 

The point is that referral productivity is something to be proactively managed, not passively accepted, whatever it is.