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Do You Know Your Numbers?

Do You Know Your Numbers?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group

This is crucial to making you tons of money.

If you don’t know your numbers, you have no idea what’s working and what’s not.

If you don’t know what’s working, you can’t possibly do more of what is working.

You can’t just have ‘a good idea’. You need to know for sure.

More business owners have been wrong about what is working and what isn’t working. They think something is working and it turns out it’s barely breaking even. Or they think its doing awful and stop doing it. When in reality it was actually doing 5 to 1 against cost- which is great!

You need to know the following to calculate your numbers:

The cost of the ad or mailing
The number of leads generated from it
How many of the leads turned into clients
The average job of clients- dollar amount
The average number of referrals per client

Once you calculate these numbers you compare it to your average numbers. That way you can see which methods are working better for you.

This is the only way to get ahead. Know your numbers or it’s not worth doing.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Are You Getting Rid Of Bad Apples?

Are You Getting Rid Of Bad Apples?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group

There is a very well, well known business theory called the 80/20 theory. What this theory says is that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your clients. Another little side kick to this theory is that 80% of your problems come from 20% of your clients. Hopefully that’s not the same 20%.

Seriously, clients who are problems all the time should be fired. That’s right- Fire your bad clients.

“What do you mean? You are saying to fire bad clients, but you keep preaching about client service and client satisfaction.”

We truly believe in excellent client service but only to good clients.

If a client is not satisfied with anything and always complains, she isn’t worth the headache- no matter how much business she does with you.

Long ago, we decided we wouldn’t give superior service to the bad apples. Bad apples can ruin the whole lot for you. They aren’t worth it. If we feel we’ve done more than what is expected and have done a great job, even bent over backwards to right a wrong, and someone still complains- just fire them. We’ll even give them their money back just to get rid of them. If you don’t, these bad apples have very big mouths. Even though they are being completely unreasonable, others won’t perceive it that way. So we gladly give them their money back and get rid of them.

Life is too short and there are too many good people out there to waste your time on bad apples.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Let Them Choose Between, You, You, and YOU

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

When you are selling, it is a big mistake to only have one offer.

When you only have one offer, it makes the choice between you and your competition. How do you make them choose you?

The first trick is to get them to choose between you, you and you; Not between you and your competition.

Can you see how this is a better strategy?

When we know the customer can only choose between you and you, then the only question left for them to answer becomes, “Which option?” Any one of YOUR options are better than having the customer (and their money) go elsewhere.

I suggest that you offer three options, or at the very least two. You should organize them into groups that make sense for your product/service, and give them a name that reflects their value, like the following examples:

Basic Service Package- This will be your cheapest and least desirable option.

Gold Service Package- This will be a higher value service; whatever is the middle equivalent between the most basic package and most premium package.

Platinum Service Package- The most premium package. “Everything upgraded.”

You should have 3 different choices for the client. Of course, #2 and #3 are going to be higher tickets, but you offer the lower priced #1 for those clients who aren’t quite used to paying for premium service or who just want to start out cautiously with you. If you get the client hooked on your business, then the next time they will easily spend more because they trust you.

Once the prospect sees that you offer 3 different options, most likely, (90% of the time,) he/she will choose one of them.

Make sure you mention that #2 is your most popular one. Most people will choose #2- about 70% of the time. The others will probably be split equally between #1 and #3.

And you should have a lengthy description of the services included with each package/option. Even if you think something isn’t worth describing in detail because it’s “standard,” do it. Not every business tells the client everything involved in their services and how the client benefits, so make sure your client can see everything they are getting for their money, and that it equates to a lot of value. Don’t forget to include your “guarantee” and other possible non-tangible benefits that are included!

The key to getting more money for your service is building perceived value. Packaging your services and describing them in detail does exactly that; You are defining your value directly to your customer.

Don’t limit yourself to these 3 basic options; if you have other services then add them in. Keep in mind that 3 options are great, but more than 5 will only confuse your clients. Of course, if they want part of one service and part of another, you can easily create that ‘special’ custom option/package just for them.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Do You Respond To Complaints Fast?

Do You Respond To Complaints Fast?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group

The key to keeping and even enhancing client relations is to respond to complaints quickly and effectively. Never leave a client unhappy. Even if they are a bad apple and you want to get rid of them give them their money back and send them on their way.

If you give them their money back, they can’t say bad things about you. If you don’t they’ll go to all ends and tell everyone they know what a terrible business you are. Statistics show that a happy client tells an average of 5 people, while an unhappy client tells and average of 30 people. Think of it as money well spent to save you from bad publicity.

For clients who are good clients and something just went wrong, correct it in a hurry.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Do You Confirm All Appointments?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group.

Confirming all your appointments is very important. Let me explain.

Does this sound familiar?

You look at your schedule for the day and you and your staff are fairly booked up, with a few gaps here and there. You’re hoping you get some other service calls. 4 out of the 13 service calls you have booked for the day- the people were not even home.

We’re sure you realize how much money this costs you. Between wasted hours and wasted money we figured out that when days like the above occur you lose more money than you make.

No More No-Shows
We developed a strategy to eliminate no-shows. Since we’ve implemented this system, we’ve never had a no-show.

This strategy may be obvious but less than 17% of all businesses actually do it. It’s easy:

You call your client one to three days before their scheduled appointment. You just tell them you’re calling to make sure that they remembered that a computer technician was coming over at whatever time.

You will hear over and over again “Gee I completely forgot, thanks for calling.” If you implement this strategy, you will virtually eliminate no shows.

We also suggest having the caller check the directions (if they don’t have a GPS) with the client to make sure they are clear. Getting lost and not being able to find the homeowner is another big money waster.

What to do if you can’t reach the clients:

First, call in the afternoon. If he/she can’t be reached then call in the evening between 5:30 and 7:30. If you still can’t reach him/her, leave a message on the machine and send an email.

Confirming appointments also helps build trust and confidence in your clients. Since very few businesses bother to confirm appointments, when one does people perceive that the business as very efficient. Clients want to do business with successful businesses that have got it together.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

No Offer/Lousy Offer

No Offer/Lousy Offer

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group

This marketing strategy will be about another BIG mistake business owners make when advertising which is:

It is costly to get a new client. What will make someone respond? Well, we’ll tell you one thing – there is no way that someone will respond to a lousy offer or worse yet, no offer. Remember, the real money in getting a new client is in making them a “client for life”.

Here we are going to talk about presenting a GREAT offer because if you don’t all the good work you did to get your prospect to look at your offer will be useless.

Let us explain.

If what you offer a potential client is not compelling, motivating, different from every other competitive of yours, and a “good deal” THEY WILL NOT TAKE YOU UP ON IT because it is a lousy offer.

Worst yet, if you fail to make NO offer at all, how can they really respond because there is nothing to respond to. Most advertising we see by businesses have NO offer at all and because of this fact they are just wasting money.

Make sense?

What makes a GREAT offer?

Whenever the “perceived value” of what you are offering is greater than the amount of money your potential client has to part with. The greater the perceived value the better. That is why FREE offers always work best because it represents the HIGHEST perceived value because your potential client doesn’t part with any money. Therefore they have NO RISK.

You may be thinking – isn’t it expensive to offer something for free?

Let me back up for just a minute. As a business owner you cannot possibly answer this question UNTIL you know what a new client is actually worth to you in dollars and cents.

The term for this again in marketing is “Life Time Value” (LTV) of a client. You figure this out by taking the amount of profit a client brings you per visit to your store or a service call and them multiply that by how may times that happens each year and then multiply that by the number of years your average clients stays with you.

This number does not have to be exact just a guideline for you to use.

OK, once you have your “number” then you can make an intelligent decision on how much you can spend to get new client.

We know the “Life Time Value” of a client for this industry is about $2,100. Yours will be pretty close to this, maybe a few hundred dollars lower or higher depending on your pricing and costs. So just use the $2,100 number for now.

So would you give away a “low end” FREE computer tune-up which actually costs you say $25 if I knew that client has a really good chance of becoming a client for a long time?

YES because I am getting $2,100 over time and the cost is only $25. That is an unbelievable return on your advertising investment.

GOOD NEWS

You don’t have to come up with your own GREAT offers because just about every marketing program we give you already has them built in. You may have to just “tweak” the offer so it applies to you specifically.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Consistency- The Key To Success

Consistency- The Key To Success

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group

On again off again. It’s a bad habit. And a very costly one for businesses. If you truly want to succeed and make big profits every year, you will have to be consistent.

We know one business owner who has OK marketing strategies, OK letters and OK ads. He does not have exceptional marketing strategies or ads. In fact you are way ahead of him in that category with this manual. But he consistently makes over $150,000 a year. He is consistent with his marketing strategies and his follow up. Yes it could be better, a lot better, but consistency is extremely important.

We also know another business owner who has some sensational ads, and some sensational letters. He barely makes $50,000 a year.

Why?

Simply because he is inconsistent. He doesn’t track his results. He doesn’t really know what is working and what isn’t.

A lot of people will tell you “This is working for me” and then when you analyze the numbers, you find out it’s not. The same is true for things people don’t think are working. Unless you know your numbers, you don’t know what’s working and what’s not.

Every time we talk to this business owner, he tells us how he is too busy to send thank you letters. And every time we say to ourselves “well, he won’t be too busy in a few months.” Then the next time we talk to him, it’s the same old story- ‘It’s dead, I don’t have any business.

He can’t figure out why this happens. It’s quite simple, but he won’t take the time and effort to be consistent.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Are You Tracking Your Results?

Are You Tracking Your Results?

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group

Why you must track your results:

If you don’t know what’s working and what’s not, you’ll have no way to increase your business.

Things aren’t always as they seem. You can’t guess whether something is working or not. You must keep track of the numbers and let them tell you.

Ad A: This is a Val-Pak type ad. You advertised a “computer tune-up”. It costs $350.00 to run it. It goes to 10,000 prospects. You get 30 clients from it.

Ad B: This is a direct mail piece. It costs $400.00 to send it to 500 prospects. You get 11 new clients.

Which is better? At first it may seem that A is better, but look at the rest of the numbers.

Ad A: The 30 clients generated, had an average ticket of $59.00. Twenty four out of 30 complained that your prices were too high. Three of them rescheduled another service appointment in 6 months.

Ad B: The 11 clients generated had an average ticket of $137.00. Zero of them complained about the price. Nine of them rescheduled in 6 months. And 7 of them bought other products and services you offer. Eight of them referred at least one client to you within 1 month of their visit.

As you can see, you made $750.00 ($25.00 x 30) off the front end of A. Ad A cost you $350.00. That’s $400.00 left. The backend isn’t very big, two clients in 6 weeks. – another $50.00 if they keep appointments.

Ad B on the other hand generated $1,507.00 on the front end ($137.00 x 11). The back end is even bigger with all those referrals, pre-booked appointments, etc. The coast of ad B was $400.00, so that’s $1,107 left- that’s more than ad a generated after the costs of the ad!

We hope now you can see why you must keep close track of your numbers. Some methods may be misleading where you think you are doing great but really you aren’t.

Don’t have an ‘idea’ whether something is working well. Know your numbers and know for sure!

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

How To Get Your Yellow Page Ad To Your Target Market Without Paying The Yellow Page Company

How To Get Your Yellow Page Ad To Your Target Market Without Paying The Yellow Page Company

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group

There is a separate booklet that came with your program that covers all the things you should be doing to MAXIMIZE your response to your yellow page advertising.

BUT there is another, very effective way to get your yellow page to your target market WITHOUT giving the yellow page company a ton of money every month.

This strategy to this will SHOCK you.

Are you ready?

DON’T ADVERTISE IN THE YELLOW PAGES

Waite a minute Bob, how are local customers supposed to find me? All my competitors are in the yellow pages. Now I think you have totally lost your mind – it must be the heat! Right?

Wrong!

We are going to show you right now how to get in the book without paying. And multiply your response results up to 20 times all for a fraction of the cost of a yellow page ad.

By the way the last time we looked into yellow page advertising in our town it was $50,000 for a full page ad, FIFTY GRAND, that’s a lot of green backs.

Before we tell you this one little strategy that can transform your bank account I want to clear up some realities about yellow page advertising, OK?

Most yellow page advertising does NOT work because it is missing all the elements of a successful ad. An ad in the yellow pages is NO different than any type of print ad. The paper it is printed on is yellow, that’s it.
Yellow page ad reps don’t know squat about advertising. All they want you to do is buy the biggest ad because then their commissions are bigger.
Most “big” companies have their advertising agency’s design their yellow page ad. Advertising reps don’t know squat about effective track-able advertising. The first question and adverting company will ask you is “what is your advertising budget?” You tell them and they proceed to spent it all with little tangible results.

Here is the strategy.

Design your ad like we show you how in your “Reinventing Your Yellow Page Ad System” (a full page ad). Get it printed on yellow newspaper just like a full page ad in a yellow page book and MAIL it to your surrounding area with a letter like the one we give you.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton

Never Rely On Walk-Ins Again

Never Rely On Walk-Ins Again

Hi Business Owner,

My name is Bob Britton, a fellow small business owner and President of Marketing Automation Group

The same old stuff that everyone is doing, which is luring walk-ins into the store by advertising price, just doesn’t work.

And Relying Strictly On Walk-ins Doesn’t Cut it

If you properly use Direct Response Marketing you will a full service schedule and walk-ins will be “icing on the cake” for you. . Just think, your days will be all booked up with qualified clients who are willing to pay the prices you deserve.

Don’t get us wrong, walk-ins can be nice filler. But, you CAN”T build a highly profitable business relying on walk-ins as your sole marketing tool. This required Direct Response.

The people that walk-in have read nothing about your extraordinary service and therefore have had no value-built in your business and will be more price resistant.

It costs you in the long run; it’s harder to build up your business. It will take longer to be a success. If you rely solely on it, you’ll most likely be at the same place in 5 years as you are now. Stop relying on walk-ins, and start Direct Response Marketing and join the top 1% businesses.

If you have any questions, need some immediate advice, or would like to get involved with my program please give me a call at 585-633-7563.

To your success,

Bob Britton