Stop! Before You Raise Your Rates…Do This

Stop! Before You Raise Your Rates…Do This

by | Offline Marketing

In every coach’s life, there comes a time when you simply have to raise your rates. Maybe you’ve been in business for years without a pay increase. Maybe your skills have recently improved through a new training course or certification. Or maybe you just want to attract a higher caliber of client.

Whatever the reason, it pays to have a plan in place before you make your big announcement. Here’s where to start.

First, take a look at your current clients. Will you raise their rates as well? If the answer is no, then you have to consider if keeping them will be worth your time, or if you’ll feel resentful at the amount of (lower paid) time you are spending with them. Resentment can build up, so be wary of this. It’s better to raise their rates than provide substandard services due to hidden anger.

If the answer is yes, then you have to prepare yourself for potential fallout. Simply put, there are some clients (you likely know who they are) who will balk at a price hike. They’ll threaten to leave. They may actually leave. Are you prepared for the hit your wallet will take should that happen?

Next, consider when your rate increase will go into effect. This might be different for each client, depending on when/how they’re paying you. A client who is on an annual coaching plan might not see an increase for 8 months or more, while a monthly client might be shocked to find his or her rate is going up in a week.

If you can, give you clients at least 30 days notice of the increase, so they can not only budget a higher expense, but shop around for a new coach if they choose to.

Finally, if you’re a little flexible and want to gain a few new clients, you might think about creating a last-minute offer. Announce that your rates are going up on [whatever date], then offer to let X number of new clients lock in your current rate, if they sign a contract right now.

Sure, you’ll still be working at your old rate, but with a few new clients on the roster, your cash flow will definitely improve.

The most important thing to remember about rate increases is this: You have to feel good about the prices you charge. If you think your rates are too low, chances are good that they are. Raising them will not only make you feel better, but it might just let your current and prospective clients know the value of your services as well.

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The Art of the Discount: How to Never Lower Your Rates Again

The Art of the Discount: How to Never Lower Your Rates Again

by | Offline Marketing

It’s happened to every coach and service provider at one time or another—probably more than once.

You offer a proposal or contract, only to have your potential client respond with, “That sounds great, but I can’t afford it.”

What do you do?

For a lot of coaches, their first response is to lower their rate. After all, they reason, she really does need my help. Plus it’s good karma, and she’ll talk about me with her friends, and refer business to me later.

Maybe, but more likely than not, what you end up with is a client who takes far too much of your time, for less money than you deserve. You wind up resentful, and wondering why you aren’t earning the living you know you’re capable of.

Sound familiar?

I want you to make a promise to yourself right now that you will never again lower your rates to appeal to a client. Doing so devalues your services, makes the client less likely to follow through, and worse, makes you feel terrible later.

Now, I’m not saying you can never offer special deals. But I do want you to change how those offers are made. Here’s how it works.

If your coaching package includes:

  • 1 45-minute call per month
  • 1 email per day
  • 1 in-person meeting per quarter
  • and 1 mastermind retreat per year

and your potential client claims to not be able to afford your asking price of $1,000 per month, rather than offering to reduce the price, you offer to reduce the price and the package.

So the offer you make to her now includes everything BUT the mastermind retreat. Or everything BUT the in-person meeting every quarter.

You have not lowered your rates so far that you feel used, but at the same time, you’ve worked with her to create a plan she can afford. It’s a true win-win for both of you.

The same technique can be used for any type of coach or service provider, unless you’re charging strictly by the hour. If that’s the case, take a look at how you can reduce the number of hours you need to invest while still providing value.

For example, rather than offering four one-hour calls, change your plan to just two calls, with email follow-ups. She’ll still get plenty of value, and you’ll free up some time by inviting email questions rather than blocks of time on the phone.

Next time you’re asked to reduce your rates for anything, take a close look at how you can also reduce the work you’ll be doing. That way you’ll never feel as if you’ve been taken advantage of, and your clients will still get great service.

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How To Work Out What To Charge

How To Work Out What To Charge

by | Offline Marketing

It might just be the most stressful decision you ever have to make: what to charge?

You’ve got the competition to consider, your own skill set, what you perceive to be your skills (yes, this is different from the former for most of us), what your market will pay, your location, and a host of other variables. Working it out can feel like a hurdle you can’t quite get past.

what to charge

But what about all those other questions? It can be really stressful working out what to charge for your services, but creating a solid pricing structure requires you to do a little more digging. So with your starting number in line, take a look at:

Your Competition. This might take a little detective work, since a lot of coaches and service providers don’t publish rates. But if you pay attention to their websites and social media, ask a few discreet questions, and get on their mailing list, you can figure it out.

Be realistic about who, exactly, your competition is, though. Don’t undervalue or over-sell yourself. In other words, make sure you’re comparing yourself to another provider who shares the same skills, market, and track record, rather than simply looking at who you strive to become.

Your Skills. In some fields, this is easy. There are certifications and educational programs that allow you—by virtue of having achieved them—to charge a certain rate. If you’ve followed this path, then pricing will be easy for you. If not, take a solid look at what you can legitimately claim as a skill.

Look, too, at your track record. Have you proven yourself by helping former clients (and do you have the testimonials and case studies to show for it)? Have your former clients moved on to bigger and better coaches after working with you? (That’s a good thing!) These are all reasons to maybe consider a higher price range than you might have first thought.

Your Market. In the game of working out what to charge, it’s your market that has the final say. As any first year economy student can tell you, the price of anything lies where what the buyer is willing to pay meets what the seller is willing to accept.

If your goal is to give newbies a helping hand and lead them down the path to success, that unfortunately means you can look forward to low paying gigs. That’s not a bad thing—everyone has to begin somewhere—but it does need to be acknowledged. If, on the other hand, you’re target market is more established and economically stable, then a higher fee isn’t just warranted—it’s a must. They will expect a higher price, and will not find value in the lowest-cost provider of anything, whether it’s coffee beans or business coaching.

Finally, don’t forget that pricing is never set in stone. It’s flexible. If you find you’re attracting the wrong market (or no market at all) you can always change your rates. Working too hard for not enough return? Raise your rates.

It’s your business. You get to call the shots and work out what to charge – so it’s up to you :)

 

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The 25 Most Profitable Clients You Should Seek for Your Online Marketing Services

The 25 Most Profitable Clients You Should Seek for Your Online Marketing Services

by | Offline Marketing

I know what you’re thinking. I do. I’ve thought it too. I did.

When I first started as an entrepreneur … those times that my wallet was doing a PERFECT job acting as a money repellent.  I could see other people online doing really well, but felt like I was working MUCH harder than EVERYONE.

It’s that frustrating question, over and over again…

What am I missing? What in the world am I missing?

Right? What am I missing when I’m making less money than those working a fraction of my hours? What am I missing when I’m spending time doing the same things, but my bank account still looks the same?  What am I missing when I generate crazy amounts of traffic and get pennies in return?

Then it clicked… I’ll share it with you, but… it might sting a bit

You’re focusing on wrong things.

This is important, so I’ll make it even more clear for you:

If you’re feeling like this in your online business when ANY kind of service for people … you’re focusing on the wrong clients.

The first step is to admit you have a problem, right? (AA 101… haha)

So today I want to help you STOP wasting your time with the wrong type of client, acting like some kind of one-man or one-woman marketing shop.

Here’s the deal… There are only two type of profitable clients for online marketing when your team has one member and you’re looking at them in the mirror: generous billionaires who wanna spend money randomly, and businesses and professions for which a single client means hundreds, thousands of dollars in the bank.

I don’t know about you, but I’m not regularly meeting up with that many crazy billionaires.

If all you’ve got are your skills and your own time: Focus on the most profitable clients an… Click To Tweet

These businesses and people can have a good year with only a few clients per month. Imagine that. Be the marketer who delivers them the clients to pay them $5,000 – $10,000 – $50,000 per sale, and they’ll have no problem paying you $100 – $500 – $1,000 per lead.

#1 Architects

You can count on an architect to draw themselves a good business. They get between 5 and 15 percent of the value of the new construction or remodelling project they get. What that looks like in cash? Anywhere from $4,000 to a whole lot of money!

Average Customer Lifetime Value: $4,000 – $50,000

The marketer’s mission: Get locals who want to build a new house or remodel the one they already have to consider and reach out to the architect they’re representing.

#2 App Development Studios

Don’t get too excited about this one. You might not be a part of the next Snapchat, but there’s still a tonne of money to be made by matching people who have silly or brilliant ideas and app developers. Looking by the 6-figure numbers flying around in the field, it really pays off to be the rainmaker for these tech peeps.

Average Customer Lifetime Value: $25,000 – $100,000

The marketer’s mission: Get people who think they have a killer idea for an app to book a free consultation with the app developers.

profitable clients

#3 Catering Companies

The best part about doing online marketing for a catering business? Not having to be the one to peel the potatoes for 200 guests! Right?

Average Customer Lifetime Value: $3,000 – $13,000

The marketer’s mission: Get brides to be or event organiser to email or call the catering company for a personalised quote.

#4 Cord Blood Banks

Cord blood banks are charging parents both a first-year processing fee and an annual amount for storing the blood.

Average Customer Lifetime Value: $2,500 – $5,000

The marketer’s mission: Educate expecting parents on what stem cells are and why people from all around the world are collecting cord blood at birth and store it.

#5 Corporate Headhunters

I guess CEOs and top executives haven’t seen a job application form in years, and why would they since they’re recruited by headhunters?

These recruitment snipers don’t offer their services cheap. No, sir. They charge 20-25% of what the company’s paying the candidate in their first year. That’s one juicy piece of pie you’d wanna to be able to stick your fork in.

Average Customer Lifetime Value: $50,000 – $300,000

The marketer’s mission: Position the headhunters they’re working with as the best on the market and get corporate decision makers to get their input on recruiting for a new position.

#6 Co-Working Spaces

The future of work is here, and millions of freelancers and entrepreneurs need a place they could call their office where they have to wear pants and talk to other adults.

Co-working spaces charge anywhere from $200 to $600 per month per member, which at the end of the year sounds like a magnificent deal for a marketer delivering results.

Average Customer Lifetime Value: $2,400 – $7,200

The marketer’s mission: Get local entrepreneurs and freelancers to book a showing.

#7 Egg Freezing Clinics

Some women are willing to spend big bucks to have their eggs in the bank and make a withdrawal when the right moment arrives. They call it fertility insurance, and it’s not hard to see why.

Average Customer Lifetime Value: $9,000 – $15,000

The marketer’s mission: Educate women on the benefits of ovule freezing and get them to book a meeting with a clinic representative.

#8 Farm Implements Retailers

No matter their size, farms call for a little more than a hose and a rake for maintenance. Helping farm implements makers sell their costly products will grow you a damn fine crop.

Average Customer Lifetime Value: $1,000 – $120,000

The marketer’s mission: Build a list of farmers who might buy farm implements down the line and position the seller as having the best deals in the country.

#9 Fine Jewellery Stores

On average, an engagement ring costs $4,000. That’s a shining example of how not all customers are created equal. Acting Cupid for buyers and cute engagement rings can make you heaps of money.

Average Customer Lifetime Value: $2,000 – $10,000

The marketer’s mission: Promote engagement rings and build favorability for the client’s jewellery store over others.

#10 Funeral Homes

There’s not a lot of time or disposition for weighting options when dealing with a heartbreaking loss, so the first decent find will usually do.

Average Customer Lifetime Value: $3,500 – $9,000

The marketer’s mission: Help the funeral home rank better for local searches and run efficient PPC campaigns.

#11 Home Insulation Contractors

To save money on heating, homeowners will spend a lot of cash to have spray foam installed. So, guess what! It makes total sense for those doing the installing to pay you money to get the leads in the first place.

Average Customer Lifetime Value: $800 – $3,800

The marketer’s mission: Run efficient PPC campaigns and optimise the client’s website for better local search traffic.

#12 House Builders

Quick! Think of the most expensive thing a person buys in a lifetime! Correct! It’s a home! And if you’re lucky enough to get yours designed and built exactly to your wishes, you know we’re talking major spendings.

Customer Lifetime Value: $150,000 – $300,000

The marketer’s mission: Get potential customers to message or call the builders for a cost estimate.

#13 In Vitro Fertilisation Clinics

Even a basic IVF cycle costs a lot of money. Managing to connect clinics with interested couples can both fill your bank accounts and bring new cute babies into the world.

Customer Lifetime Value: $12,000 – $30,000

The marketer’s mission: Run effective PPC campaigns and implement content marketing strategies that would educate the public and generate leads.

#14 Landscapers

Landscaping projects are expensive, and I don’t mean “I’ll only take two of those” expensive but “get the hell outta here” expensive. When their phones ring, these people hear cha-ching!

Customer Lifetime Value: $5,000 – $100,000

The marketer’s mission: Make sure the landscapist’s name is on any real estate developer’s mind in the city.

#15 Lawyers

The more complicated a case, the more money a customer will spend. This might be the only situation for “more problems, more money”, rather than “more money, more problems”.

Customer Lifetime Value: $500 – $30,000

The marketer’s mission: Help the lawyer they’re representing rank higher in local searches and implement cost-effective PPC campaigns.

#16 Piano Stores

When a baby grand piano sells for $4,000 – $8,000, you can bet any new lead is sweet music to a store owner’s ears.

Customer Lifetime Value: $1,000 – $50,000

The marketer’s mission: Help the store rank better in local searches and build a list of musicians waiting for the perfect deal.

#17 Plastic Surgeons

Get those looking for a plastic surgeon to trust your client for the procedure and your bank account will also get a makeover.

Customer Lifetime Value: $5,000 – $35,000

The marketer’s mission: Help those wanting to enhance their looks discover the client’s offer and book an initial consultation.

#18 Restaurant Furniture Makers

Pull yourself a chair before you feel your knees get week. This might be the top money maker on our list.

Customer Lifetime Value: $15,000 – $1 million

The marketer’s mission: Get entrepreneurs and procurement department decision makers notice the furniture maker’s offer and portfolio.

#19 Senior Living Homes

It’s good to show some care to your bottom line, especially when your client’s clients also get the support they need.

Customer Lifetime Value: $28,000 – $140,000

The marketer’s mission: Get the living home a boost in ranking for local searches and run effective PPC campaigns.

#20 Solar Panel Stores

This line of work is electrifying for anyone looking to turn their skills into cash AND contribute to building a better world.

Customer Lifetime Value: $10,000 – $30,000

The marketer’s mission: Get people to ask the store for a cost estimate for their home.

#21 Tattoo Removal Clinics

How about a couple’s tattoo to celebrate this rock solid relationship?

Customer Lifetime Value: $1,000 – $5,000

The marketer’s mission: Educate potential clients and get them to book their first session.

#22 Teeth Whitening Dental Clinics

Whitening strips might be dirt cheap, but they’re also less effective as laser teeth whitening. Those looking for a movie-star smile are willing to open wide their wallets to get it.

Customer Lifetime Value: $800 – $8,000

The marketer’s mission: Get local people to book their first consultation and schedule a laser whitening session.

#23 Therapists

How does making a lot of money by getting people to look for professional help make you feel?

Customer Lifetime Value: $1,200 – $6,000

The marketer’s mission: Get people in the neighbourhood to book their first therapy session.

#24 Wedding Planners

Full-service planners don’t come cheaply, but hey, if it’s the couple’s most important day of their lives, it’s money worth spending. What’s the harm in you getting a slice of the cake, too?

Customer Lifetime Value: $5,000 – $10,000

The marketer’s mission: Make couples feel that they can really trust the wedding planner you represent and get them to schedule a meeting.

#25 Wedding Venues

What’s a dream wedding without a dream venue? Help venues move their online presence from meh to wow and reap the benefits ASAP!

Customer Lifetime Value: $8,000 – $14,000

The marketer’s mission: Make it easy for couples to find out when the venue’s available and to ask for a quotation.

So there we go!  That didn’t hurt much, did it? If it did sting a bit, think of it as a little vaccine against clients who aren’t worth your time.

Now that you’re vaccinated, it’s time to start using your marketing skills to capture some profitable clients and start building your empire.

Stealthy Web Traffic Tactics for Local Businesses

Stealthy Web Traffic Tactics for Local Businesses

by | Offline Marketing

In this episode I interview Randy Stuppard, who has built multiple multi-million dollar companies, and has over 15 years of hands-on experience with local business owners to get more exposure online

If you’d like to listen to the entire interview you can do that below – or, read the transcript.

local businesses

Cindy: Randy, it is so cool to have you here on the show. For people who actually haven’t heard of you before, why don’t you just tell us briefly how you go into this line of work? Who are you and what is your thing?

Randy: Cindy, thank you so much for having me on your show. I really appreciate it. I’ve known you for a few years anyway, and I’ve been following you around, so I’m really interested in what you’re doing.

Cindy: Thank you.

Randy: Quick history, though, who am I and why should you care. I built one of the first ISPs when the internet first became commercially available in ’94, so I’ve been around for a few years in the whole marketing game. I’ve built a few multimillion dollar businesses with partners and by myself, and I tell you, it’s way easier with partners. What I’ve been doing for probably the last fifteen years is using those same strategies and typically only working with local business owners on how to grow their businesses. But a lot of those strategies convert right over to online. I have a number of clients who are strictly online, and it’s making a huge impact on their business, some of these ideas that I’ll share today.

Cindy: Yeah, well, it’s a bit exciting having you here because a lot of the other people that I’ve had on the show for this month’s theme have been talking pretty much exclusively about web traffic, which is fantastic, but you are going to be able to show us a way to implement, you know, using web traffic for offline and local businesses, which I’m excited about learning a little bit about. You were talking about, when we were, just before we started this interview, talking a little bit about reputation management and so where do you think is a good place here to start? What shall we share with these people?

Randy: Great place to start. We all started our businesses and our blogs and online, everything, the same place, is on our reputation. Word of mouth, referrals, they got bigger and bigger. The game has changed dramatically in the last twelve to eighteen months where we have to go back to our reputation, because everything is so much more transparent. That’s really, if you go back to the basics, that is the place to start, because 97 percent of the people go back to word of mouth or referral, or they hear about you online or SEO, they go, “Oh, who is this Cindy person?” They’re going to want to find out what other people are talking about you first before they’re going to listen to you.

Cindy: Exactly.

Randy: It’s called social proof. The more you can gather that up, the more trustworthy you are, the more people want to do business with you.

Cindy: Social proof is huge, especially for local businesses, because before people are going to go and spend, especially if it’s like, you know, you need to get your house painted and it cost you something like four, five thousand dollars. Before you go and throw money at someone, you’re going to ask friends who have dealt with someone, or you’re going to go on the internet and just do a quick search and see what people are really saying about these guys.

Randy: Exactly. Do you know who Nielsen is?

Cindy: Yeah, yeah.

Randy: It’s a big survey company. They did a study where they asked people, how much do they trust different forms of advertising. Ninety percent of people trust word of mouth and recommendations. The second one, 72 percent, online reviews.

Cindy: Right.

Randy: The next closest one was 58 percent at a branded website, TV advertising was like 20 percent, and e-mails was at 40 percent if they’re not done the right way. I only ask my clients one question after they know that. Where should you spend your marketing dollar?

Cindy: It makes sense, actually, put it into something that’s going to bring actual cash into your company.

Randy: Exactly.

Cindy: Yeah, so where does someone start? When you’re talking about reviews and word of mouth and all of that, if you haven’t done anything of that actually, like practically, where does someone begin?

Randy: Are you talking about someone who is just starting out in business, or someone who’s been in business for a while, either online or offline, but they haven’t really focused on that area?

Cindy: Well, for most of our people, it’s probably, I’m not sure that they have their, I mean, they might have their own local business, maybe some people, but for the majority, people who are listening in probably are helping clients to build their, find clients to build their online reputation. How do we actually help, how do we help these guys to start… I can see your face, you’re going, “What? Where’s she going with this?” How do you actually, our listeners, how do they first of all, find clients, and then how do they provide a great service for these guys, for their clients?

Randy: All right. I’ll attack that two different ways. One, let’s say you have no clients and you’re starting up. What I always recommend is, have something that, to build up value or trust, so it’s huge value, not a lot of cost to you, and give it away, or for a very low amount of money, in exchange for feedback and referrals. Once you get the feedback, now you’re starting to build up your wealth of reviews, but they’ve also given you referrals of like-minded business owners, so now you can go talk to them. Do the same thing over and over again, until you have, and the magic number is ten, you want ten reviews to be seen as trusted online.

Once you have those ten, now you don’t have to focus so much on getting the referrals, but I do that anyway, because it’s a really easy way to be introduced to other smart business owners.

Cindy: Okay.

Randy: That kind of takes care of someone who is new. Let’s say you already have a business, and you do have some sort of a client base. Well, let’s take the last three months of your clients, and let’s e-mail them. What we want to do is we want to do an e-mail saying, “Hi, I really appreciated you working with me, this is awesome. Would you mind leaving me some feedback? Here’s our mission. Thanks once again.” You want them to go to a Capture page, where if they leave a positive review, then you e-mail those people back, say, “Hey, thanks so much for leaving it. Would you mind leaving that in other places?” If it’s a negative review, you don’t want to send them an e-mail saying, “Leave that negative review in other places.”

Cindy: Right, no.

Randy: It would be dumb. Gives you a chance to e-mail or call them and say, “Hey, I’m really sorry for what happened, how can I make this better?” Over 70 percent of the time, approaching it that way, you can turn a bad review into a five-star [gold 07:24] review. It’s amazing.

Cindy: Right, because it’s often, people, if they have complaints, they just really want someone to talk to and help them to fix it. It’s not that they’re always going to be angry with you, it’s that they want someone to help find a solution and fix it.

Randy: Well, we did a survey on that as well. As you can tell, I love surveys. Metrics tell you everything. Over 68 percent of the people will not leave a negative review, even if they’ve had a bad experience with your company.

Cindy: Yep, okay.

Randy: Give them the opportunity just to say, “Hey, you pissed me off.” You go, “Hey, I totally get it. How could we fix it?” You’d be amazed at how all of a sudden, they become a raving fan.

Cindy: Yep. I think people want the chance to be happy, it’s not like everyone, I mean, there’s a few people that are just always angry and always going to be just complaining, it’s going to happen. But for the most part, I think people want to find a good service. When you send people to a … So you reply back to them, and you say, “Hey, would you mind sharing that here and there?” Do you have a list of places where you suggest that they go and share their good news?

Randy: Well, for local businesses, bricks and mortar, like chiropractors or auto mechanics or panel beaters, as you call them down in Australia, they’re autobody shops here, the number one place that people look for a local business online is Google and the group of three. The number two place is Facebook, and then start looking at Yelp and Insider Pages. There’s probably for any business, there’s between ten and twenty local directories that you should be seen on. What you want to do is focus on one to get, what was the magic number that you needed?

Cindy: Ten.

Randy: Yes, excellent.

Cindy: Ten is the magic number, yes.

Randy: Ten is the magic number, ten on Google, ten on Facebook, ten on Yelp, go back to Google, and always try to be five to ten more than your nearest competitor. For the online people, you don’t have to worry so much about Google, but you should also try to build that up if you can because Google, one of Google’s algorithms is, if you don’t have a good reputation, your SEO efforts suffer. Facebook, Foursquare and Instagram check-ins are also important, acting like social triggers.

Cindy: Okay.

Randy: They should really focus on doing that, but more so now on Facebook, because there’s more of a social triggers type thing, to be seen on Foursquare and Instagram. You can put all those reviews in those areas. It works out really well.

Cindy: Yeah, okay. You talk a bit about surveying, and surveying is huge, because once you know your people, then you can actually give them what they want. If you don’t know what they want to buy, it’s the easiest way to find out what to sell them. Do you have any kind of formula for actually surveying? When you’re surveying people, do you have anything that you definitely ask them, stuff that you definitely don’t ask them?

Randy: Boy, that’s a can of worms right there. We do ask campaigns, and there’s just courses out there that can teach you all about it, but essentially is the first question that goes out there is, “This is what you bought. What did you like and not like about it? What could be done differently?” The next question might be, “You answered these type of questions, here’s some more options of what we’re thinking about going in the future.” They’re going to come back, and you’re going to find that it’s really going to skew into people really pushing into this area, and they didn’t want that area at all. There’s no bad thing to ask.

Cindy: Yeah, okay, well, that’s cool. Have you got any other advice that you can share when it comes to helping people to get a better online presence, and really making the most of the word-of-mouth benefits?

Randy: Well, there’s something out there called the ten-by-ten formula.

Cindy: Ten is one of your favorite numbers, I’m catching a bit of that.

Randy: Well, my favorite number is three, but on the internet it’s ten. I don’t know what’s going on there. This is what I always suggest to my business clients, that when they’ve got a handle on their reputation and their referrals are coming in and they have referral systems in place. Then they create a ten-by-ten formula, where they do ten frequently asked questions and ten should-ask questions. What happens is, you keep them under 90 seconds, so now you’ve got, oh, my god, twenty weeks of content to come out on your blog, and it goes to YouTube and DailyMotion and any of the video places.

Now you’re flooding the internet and the real leverage trick here is you take those videos and you transcribe them. Now you’ve got twenty articles. You take these twenty articles and you post them up there in the world as well. You also take these twenty articles, make it into an e-book, and if you are so disposed to, a real hands- on book. Now you’ve leveraged one thing multiple times, flooding the internet, you’ll be seen as the expert in your area, and it’s just an amazing thing that probably only 2 percent of the population does.

Cindy: I was speaking, I can’t remember who it was the other day, but they were talking about exactly a similar thing, where you take, he was talking about Disney, and how when you go into Disneyland and they say, [who knows 13:03] where is the castle? Everyone comes and asks that question. He was saying, if you can just find out these frequently asked questions, put them down, everyone is going to come and they’re going to want that information anyway, so you might as well give it to them, right?

Randy: Well, exactly. They’re going to ask the question anyway, so why not be out there on a video telling people, hey, if you really want to get traction in your business, the one thing I do is I talk to movers and shakers like Cindy and on her podcast and share the wealth, share the word out there. All of a sudden, someone will see that, they’ll go, “Oh, who’s this Cindy person?” And off it goes.

Cindy: Right, well, thank you. Yeah, getting as much stuff out there as you can. Also, because I’ve done a lot of product sales and you know, product creations and that kind of thing. Now probably the last twelve months or so, it’s been a really big thing at the bottom of digital products, to have a frequently asked questions section. Because it allows you to basically not just get more content up there and just hear yourself talk, but to actually address any of these things that are going, like ideas that might stop someone from buying.

Anything that’s actually going to stop someone from making that “yes” decision, you want to try and answer that question, even if they, they might not actually know to verbalize that question. But once you’ve said it, and you address it, it just brings closure to that, and then it helps them move towards the sale a little bit better.

Randy: You’re removing all the barriers for them to purchase.

Cindy: Yeah, exactly.

Randy: The question there, they may not even have thought about, they go, “Wow, thank you so much from bringing that up to me.” Also,

[inaudible 14:52] your product, for any of your e-mails that you’re sending out, you put testimonials.

Cindy: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Randy: Because now instead of you saying, “Hey, look how great I am. Don’t listen to me, Cindy said this great stuff about me.” Even if you pay someone to say it, they’re still more believable than you saying it about yourself.

Cindy: Yeah, exactly. You can do this for local business as well, can’t you, and get … Do you, have you had much experience with actually getting a lot of testimonials from clients? Because you were mentioning reviews as very, very powerful, I mean, reviews linked into testimonials very tightly, I guess.

Randy: They’re, I use them interchangeably. My latest chiropractor client, we went from zero to sixty-two reviews on Google in eight months, and his business is booming. He’s passed over the half million dollar mark.

Cindy: Okay, is there, I mean, besides sending out a survey or just a question, are there any, because you want, a lot of people aren’t going to just give you a testimonial. You have to give some sort of incentive or some sort of reason for them to take their time and give you a review or a feedback or something like that. Have you got anything to nudge them towards actually giving you that?

Randy: I love this question, absolutely love it. Both Yelp and Google state that you’re not supposed to ask anyone for reviews, but Google runs a contest saying, if you leave reviews, you’ll be entered into a contest. This is what I tell people to do, is you incentivize people to leave a review, good or bad, and you say, in this month, all the latest reviews, you’re going to be entered into a contest for a iPad or for whatever it happens to be. For a chiropractor it was great, because one patient is worth so much money for them. They can offer something quite valuable to it.

That is the the best way, contest, we’re only going to be looking at this month, we’re going to randomly draw, that person will get it. The real trick there is, you get everybody something anyway. Something small, everyone is a winner.

Cindy: Yep. Okay. That is fantastic. All right, we’re probably going to wrap it up pretty soon. Do you have any last-minute advice or tips that you’d like to share with our listeners?

Randy: Not a lot. I think we covered a whole lot of ground here. There’s a lot of information there for people to absorb, and me to throw more stuff out there, it’s just going to be like getting punched in the face. [crosstalk 17:28]

Cindy: We’re not about punching people in the faces.

Randy: Listen to this a few times, if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me, and I know Cindy is going to give you my contact information. Cindy: Sure.

Randy: I’d be more than happy to either e-mail with you or we can do a Skype conversation. Because your choice is always one of three things. One, do nothing, which is dumb. Two, do it yourself, which if you have no money, then that’s what you should do. Or three, hire people who know what they’re doing in that specific expertise, and you’ll get much further add. That’s where I can help you.

Cindy: Absolutely. If you are listening, if you’re a 7 Figure Furnace listener from your phone or any other way via the podcast and you haven’t actually shown up on the 7figurefurnace.com blog, come on over, find Randy’s discussion here, and look below the podcast and you’ll see a whole bunch of links, and basically me being silly, as usual [inaudible 18:30]. Yeah, grab some links, some details. It’s been fantastic having you here on the show, Randy. Let’s hope you get …

Randy: Thanks for having me, Cindy, I appreciate it. You’re amazing, what can I say?

Cindy: Thanks so much. Talk to you soon, then. Bye-bye.

Randy: You betcha.