Ok, it wasn’t awful. It was pretty amazing.

Just not as amazing as the current iPhone.

I owned the first gen iPhone. No copy and paste. No landscape view. No real GPS. No lots of things.

Could they have made it better? Yes. Could they have put more features into the first one? Yes.

They could have, but they didn’t.

I don’t have the inside track, but I’m guessing they had some idea if not detailed specs on what would be in the 2nd generation iPhone. They held back. They made improvements.

Gradually.

1st generation. 2nd generation. 3rd generation. 4th generation. 5th generation.

Each time adding more. Each time getting better. Each time selling millions.

Not just to new customers. To existing customers. People like me, who already had one of the previous models.

You see where I’m going with this?

Car makers have been on this path for decades.

Don’t give it all away at once.

Give them what they want now. Add. Improve. Up-sell. Keep it going.

Yes, charge more. But more importantly, give more value.

As a small business, you’re tempted to throw it all out on the table.

Here’s everything I can do. Buy it all. NOW!

What!?! You don’t need all this? DANGIT!

Ok. Stop doing that.

Give them what they need now. Solve the problem. Get results.

But plan for upgrades. Make them want more! Then sell more.

Go be like Apple.

If you want to make more money, make more money.

But be careful not to think the latter is dependent upon the former.

It’s not.

Some people believe it. Completely.

Then, other people come along and find ways to profit off of those people.

Buy this. Buy that. Build this. Store up on that.

Once enough people believe the premise, no one questions the activity. The purchases. The sales.

I often think some social media gurus are much like those apocalyptic prophets.

PS. Would you like to buy my new ebook on how to grow your business 10 times faster in just 90 days using a common, everyday social media platform?

Not in a bad way. No emergencies. Just craziness.

I’m working hard to get the heck out of crazy right now. But I don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Selling a house. Buying a house. Packing. Coaching T-Ball. Family time. Cutting grass. Trimming trees.

New work. Old work. Client issues. Managing projects. New computer. New systems. Emails galore.

You know exactly what I’m talking about. I know you do.

Don’t worry, I’ll be back.

Soon.

Another day or two.

In the meantime, watch this from Seth Godin. It’s 19 minutes. Make time. It’s worth it.

“Can you just scrape my teeth, but don’t brush them for me? I can do that on my own.”

You don’t ask your attorney to draw up half of your legal contract. Your CPA to do two-thirds of your tax prep. Your barber to cut some of your hair.

You know there’s a service you need. It has multiple components. They’re packaged together for a reason.

You pay. You get the service. You get the desired result.

Yet when it comes to selling your own services, you let your clients pick and choose like they’re looking at a Build Your Own Burger menu.

I don’t need your insight, just draw me a logo.

I don’t need your entire event planning package, just book my speaker and help with the registration.

Can I just get the digital files of the photos I want from that shoot? I don’t need you to edit or print them for me.

It’s sad, but that’s how it goes.

Instead of providing the whole service. The remarkable work. The amazing result.

You only do a fraction of the work. They only get a fraction of the result.

They’ll never remember what you could have done. They’ll never come back for the result they didn’t get. And they won’t refer you to someone for something they didn’t experience.

So if you want to build a business building burgers. Go right ahead.

But if you want to build a highly successful, remarkable and sought-after business doing amazing things for great people, stop working for customers who just want to buy a la carte.

They either start by selling small things, or they start by selling to small businesses.

Websites for small businesses.

Bookkeeping and accounting for small businesses.

Small works of art. Small consulting packages. A little of this and a little of that.

Why? I’m not exactly sure. My guess is that it’s driven by fear.

Fear of going big. Fear of being inadequate. Fear of falling on your face.

So, our fear makes us do dozens of small projects, rather than the two or three big projects that really make an impact.

We think we’re playing it safe.

But it kills us, and our business.

Selling at $2,000 and selling at $10,000 takes about the same amount of time. $20,000 vs $50,000. $100,000 vs $200,000.

The amount of time, effort, and energy needed to execute a small project versus a larger project isn’t all that different. There’s a fixed amount of time, effort, and energy needed to do anything.

Building a remarkable website for a small business isn’t drastically different than building one for a large company.

The effort you put into a song played for 1,000 people or 100,000 people isn’t significantly different. (Not if it’s really you, your art, and your passion.)

Is there really any difference between a small painting and a large painting?

Selling and executing ten $2,000 projects is more than 10 times the effort of selling and executing one $20,000 project.

Collectively they take more time. More energy. More effort.

More sales. More meetings. More invoices. More phone calls. More deadlines. More files. More materials.

It also takes an exponentially greater mental and emotional investment.

Then, there are the dozens of additional opportunities to fail.

More deadlines to miss. More mistakes to make. More of everything.

The worst part is that you know you can not add your full value to the smaller projects. They’re not paying for all you can do. They’re not paying for you years of expertise. Your unique style. Your talent, wisdom, or insights.

You don’t do your best work. You hold back. You resent them.

You resent you.

You may think going after smaller projects is the safer way to go. You couldn’t be more wrong.

Show them your website.

Let them look, and don’t speak. Don’t influence or explain anything.

Then ask them to describe what you do and what they would expect to find when they go to your business or meet with you.

What do they think makes you special? Different?

How much would it cost? How long would it take?

Do they think you’re cheap? Expensive? Value-driven?

Get as much info as you can from them based on their impression of your website.

Do this 3-5 more times with different people. People in different industries or jobs, or people with different interets.

Make notes. Compare.

Were those few people able to look at your website and accurately answer the above questions about you and your business?

If not, it’s time to redesign your website.

Essential items up front so you can get in and get out quickly. Candy and junk toys out of reach of little hands and fingers. Sugary cereal on the top shelf.

Large parking spaces and no through traffic between the front door and the parking lot.

Carts that are comfortable for kids and don’t take up the whole entire isle. Carts that work.

2. An interstate rest stop restaurant chain and gas station built with the best, most awesomest and cleanest bathrooms in the world.

Make the bathrooms THE attraction. Have attendants stationed there. Keep them smelling fresh. Family friendly. Fully stocked.

Buy up billboard spots touting “The Cleanest Restrooms in the World 12 Miles Ahead on Left”. Feel free to provide cheap gas and good food.

3. A restaurant built only for families with kids.

Not the typical place that parents don’t want to be with loud music and terrible food where kids get overloaded on junk and tempted by every knick-knack and video game known to man made in China.

I mean a place that’s clean. Decent. Kids menu first. An environment built for noise control. Easy seating. Baby food on the menu. Clean play areas and kid-friendly staff.

As I always say, build an amazingly remarkable business that people love, and the advertising will take care of itself.

Tell them they don’t need you.

They don’t need your service. There’s a cheaper, more effective, or simpler approach to solving their problem or generating results.

Give them free advice, or take five minutes to point them in the right direction.

When someone realizes you’re putting their best interest over your financial interests, you gain immediate credibility and trust.

Firestone gained my trust when they told me they fixed a problem I thought may cost upwards of $400, with a $25 test and a free clamp.

Not only will I continue to use them for all future repairs, I’m eager to let others know how trustworthy they are. Especially in an industry that often seems as shady as SEO and MLM.

Now that that’s clear, let’s move on.

You should be using email marketing as part of your marketing strategy. If you’re not, stop reading this and go read about that. You can start with Why Your Business Needs Email Marketing Yesterday.

When you’re done, come back.

Welcome!

When you use a service like MailChimp, you get great data. Some such data includes who clicked on which link, in every single email you send.

Take a few minutes to export all that data into Excel.

Use the provided data to find the small percentage of people that open and click on everything you send.

Create a special offer just for those amazing fans. Send them a special email, thank them, and then give them your special offer.

Give them a free product or service, a discount, or perhaps a gift card to a restaurant or coffee shop. Whatever matches up with your business, brand, and style.

That’s it. Don’t ask for anything. Don’t write more. Keep it simple.

See what happens.

Then, message me on Twitter after you do this and let me know what kind of response you get!