I made a decent sized sale yesterday and here’s how it went down.
This old client and I met up for coffee.
This guy has been a client of mine for years.
We’ve done a little web work, a little marketing.
Yesterday we talked mostly marketing.
I said, “Okay, I’ll do some marketing for you.”
He said, “How much?”
I said, “Hmmmm, no bloody idea really…..how about we make it [insert large number here] each month.”
He said, “Okay.”
I’m not writing up big plans or detailed reports. There’ll be no intricate market segmentation analysis, nor any timelines.
I’ll just do what I think will work, when I think it will work.
What I Didn’t Sell
I didn’t sell my marketing ideas or web expertise or different thinking ability.
What I Did Sell
All I sold was my reputation.
We’ve worked together before and he trusts me.
So he doesn’t see any risk in buying from me.
And that is pretty much every sale every made.
Pretty much every bit of your marketing should get your prospect to trust you just that little bit more so he feels no risk in buying from you.
Are you doing that?
Cheers
Brendon
A few weeks back my 2 sons (Jack and Harry) competed in a 5 member school team (4 students and a teacher) in the grueling 96 km Kokoda Challenge.
The lads trained very hard for months leading up to the event and were pretty keen to win the school section (there were 66 teams competing).
Managed To Win & Break The Old Record
Everything went well on the day and they managed to not only win but they knocked 21 minutes off the old record after a staggering 19 hour 15 minute trek through the bush.
L-R: Nathan, Ryan, Glen Hogan (Teacher), Harry, Jack
Because of the win they were to be awarded the Stan Bisset Cup.
A Bit About Stan
Stan Bisset is an iconic Australian – he’s a Kokoda Track veteran, the oldest living Wallaby (Australian Rugby Union team) and has been awarded an OAM for his service to veterans.
(If you’ve ever read Peter Fitzsimons brilliant book ‘Kokoda‘ you might remember that Stan was one of the central people in the book, with the story of Stan holding his dying brother Butch in his arms after he was shot on the Kokoda Track a particularly poignant part.)
Jack and Harry read up on Stan and were mighty proud to have won the Cup named in his honour.
Stan Invited The Boys For A Visit
The boys found out Stan lives on the Sunshine Coast (a few hundred kilometres up the road) and phoned to thank Stan for the inspiration – they were thrilled when Stan invited them up for a visit.
Jack and Harry enjoyed a great afternoon with Stan and his wonderful wife Gloria, with Stan recounting many of his war stories and having a long chat.
The Cup Presented By The Man Himself
A few days later the boys, along with the rest of the team, were invited along to a reunion of Stan’s legendary 2/14 Battalion to have the Stan Bisset Cup presented by the man himself.
To say the team were overwhelmed is the understatement of the year.
One of my boys commented later to someone that:
“The things that the 39th and 2/14th did make you realise the rest of us have much to be modest about.”
Good line that one! And true, too.
Well Done To Kokoda Organisers
Because the Stan Bisset Cup is a perpetual trophy (meaning it’s not kept forever by the winning team), the event organisers came up with a very neat trophy the boys could keep forever.
Today the boys came home from school with a trophy each for the win.
And it’s about the best trophy I’ve ever seen – remembering that it’s for the boys trudging 96 kms in the bush.
96 km Kokoda Challenge Trophy - First To The Line
What a cool trophy – simple, cheap and with just a bit of thought the lads all end up with a trophy that’s:
- unique,
- a talking point and
- will take pride of place for years to come.
Great stuff by Doug Henderson and the Kokoda Challenge team.
Cheers
Brendon
(Note: This is from my newsletter I sent out earlier today – thought I’d repost it here as these calls seem to be coming more frequently.)
Don’t Fall For The “I’m From Google” Bullshit
2 emails in a day from me is some sort of record!
But this one is a warning against dodgy people trying to screw you over.
If you’re like me, you’re probably getting calls from people saying they’re from Google.
They’re Not From Google
They’re not – they’re full of it.
Once you get into the conversation (if you ask the right questions) they’ll say they’re an “Official Partner of Google” – every man and his dog is Google’s partner because they buy ads off them!
All these guys are trying to do is screw you over via Google AdWords (Google AdWords are great, just not when someone is screwing you with massive margins).
They’ll generally try and sell you a keyword or 2 that is now “available for just $99 and $299 per month (+ GST)”.
Of course it’s bloody available – anyone can bid on it!
A Client Got Sucked In Last Week
One of our clients got sucked in by one of these calls last week.
He signed up with one of these guys for a “Major keyword that gets lots of searches for $299 per month (+ GST)”.
The keyword gets 33 searches a month and he’ll get 1.6 clicks/visitors per month.
He’s already been bidding on that same term term for over a year (with us managing the account) and paying an average of 64 cents a visitor.
For the next 3 months he’ll be paying $185 per visitor!
(And I’ve just looked at the contract he has with them and unless he gets out within 60 days, then he’s stuck for another 12 months.
That 1 decision to go with these sharks has the potential to cost him $5,000 – for that he gets 24 visitors.
The same 24 visitors he would of gotten anyway for a grand total of just $15,36.)
Don’t get conned by these parasites. Your money is too hard earned to give you to a smooth talker guy working from a script in a call centre in Sydney.
Cheers
Brendon
When I was 10 years old, my 11 year old brother and I were fishing from the wharf in our hometown of Hobart.
It was 1976 and the only people around was a few local drunks and the beat copper trying to find a nice warm spot to stand for a minute or 2.
It’s not like that now.
These days Elizabeth Pier in is dotted with bars, fine dining restaurants and up market accommodation.
Quite sophisticated.
(If a couple of local kids fished there today at the late hour we were, their parents would be arrested for neglect, there’d be a huge outcry and before the week was out a huge fence would be erected with signs galore keeping you out!)
But back then it was just Scott and I trying to catch a fish.
We Were Cold Wet & Hungry
We were cold, wet and hungry (we were always hungry). It was after 9 pm. We weren’t leaving until we caught one last fish.
Suddenly, Scott felt a massive tug on his line. We had no idea what it could be. A fish was our best guess. Beyond that we had no clue. Us Sinclairs weren’t that smart.
What we eventually dragged up (from the Derwent River in the middle of Hobart) after a 10 minute struggle was a hell of a surprise to us.
We Raced Home
We bagged our prize and raced home.
When I say “raced” I mean we got home as fast as the old MTT bus would trundle us up the hill.
“Mum, Dad…..you won’t believe what we just caught!” we gasped as we raced in the front door.
They were AMAZED AND ASTOUNDED!
You see, they’d never heard of anyone catching a shark before in the middle of Hobart.
People Read Stories
The point of this story is this: People love and read stories.
It’s how we communicate most effectively.
Stories are a time honoured and highly credible way to:
- get attention
- keep attention
- make your point
I reckon people are sick of the same old boring sales copy – could your business just start telling stories of amazing service, great care or personal ancedotes to connect with your market?
I bet you could.
…..But Back To The Shark
It was only a little shark to be sure.
But it was big enough to let me tell people we once caught a shark in the middle of Hobart!
Cheers
Brendon
Just launched a nice little site for some carpet cleaners on the Gold Coast.
I really like these nice, clean, simple sites that tell you straight up what they’re about.
As part of the process of developing the site I sat with the owner as she handled her telephone enquiries.
From that we developed part of the web site copy based on 1 simple phrase she mentions to prospects on the phone – this one phrase had her sales explode.
Can you figure out what it is on the web site?
Cheers
Brendon
Note: I originally published the below article on December 18, 2007.
One of the sites we work with is the sports nutrition site, HammerNutrition.com.au.
Hammer Nutrition sponsor a heap of athletes and events.
But we talk about only one on a very regular basis and in glowing terms. We publish her photos, race reports and more. We tell thousands of people just how good she is.
And you know why?
Because out of all the athletes and events, Michelle is the only one who makes it easy for us.
She sends us:
- race reports,
- tidbits of info,
- links to media stories about her,
- photos and
- product endorsements.
All Michelle does is make it incredibly easy for us to talk about her. So we do.
Here’s an example.
- Today Michelle sent us a race report.
- With photos.
- In the Race Report (where Michelle stunned Pro triathletes by winning a Half Ironman race as an Age Grouper!), Michelle mentions Hammer Nutrition as a key part of her success.
Of course we are going to feature the Race Report on the Hammer web site!
Showcased In Front Of Thousands
Michelle gets showcased in front of thousands and thousands of people because she does that.
Site visitors see she rides a FELT bike and uses an Orca wetsuit. All great exposure for her sponsors. And great exposure for Michelle.
She’s a much more valuable person to sponsor because she does this simple thing of sending info and photos.
What she does only takes an hour per race, but it’s the thing that sets her apart and makes her an athlete who gives great value to her sponsors.
Make it as easy as possible for people to use you and you make more ‘sales’. Easy stuff.
Brendon
P.S: And Michelle gets mentioned again!
Some days at work are better than others.
Take today for instance.
Today, my mate Vanessa and I worked hard for 3 1/2 hours at a Surfers Paradise resort.
But for some reason, it still felt like a good day at ‘work’.
I have no idea why.
Any ideas???
Cheers
Brendon
Just touched base with an old mate of mine, Wayne Hickson, who is a PR guru for all things sporting.
Reading Wayne’s profile page on his web site:
“But perhaps Wayne’s greatest sporting achievement came in 1972 when he was crowned yo-yo champion of his Grade 6 class thanks to an awesome execution of his ‘rock the cradle’ signature move in the Grand Final.”
That ‘rock the cradle’ was hard!
Nice work from Wayne to show that even if you’re the PR guy the massive clients turn to, you can still have a chuckle.
Nice work to personalise your profile without compromising your professionalism.
Cheers
Brendon
