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Marketing Your Services With Video and The Billy Mays “Effect”

Pitchman Billy Mays sold eveything from OxiClean to car Scatch remover.

Whether you loved his bearded face and loud sales pitches or hated them there is one thing that is certain…he sold hundreds of millions dollars of products throughout his professional career.

Most people reading this blog would put Billy Mays in the “hate” category because frankly…we’re far to”educated” (and our clients are also far to educated) to be persuaded by loud and aggressive salespeople and pitches right?

We “know” this to be a true  because you have scientifically tested it right?

Below is a link to a site run by Internet marketing guru Rich Schefren. Rich sells EXPENSIVE (as in $5,000 per year per participant) coaching programs to large and small internet businesses.

Rich always operated under the assumption that his clientele were all far “to smart” for the “slick” infomercial type of pitches that Billy Mays was famous for.

Just to “prove” his assumption right he decided to split test a video for a new product that he is in the process of launching.

You will be very surprised at what he learned:

Here is the link to the video and the complete explanation of the results:

Click  HERE to See The “Video Split Test”

Can we learn something about high value professional services marketing from this?

Leave your thoughts and comments below.

Until nest time.

Reader Survey Results Part 2 – What Readers Want to See More Of

Thanks again to all of you that participated my Reader Survey.

In my last article I reported  on the number one business concerns that all of you have out there right now.  Not surprisingly given the state of the economy, Finding New Clients came out on top with almost 81% of you rating this as your number one business priority right now.

I also asked readers what topics they would like to see more of on this blog and here are the top 5 results:

1.  Lead  Generation Strategies: 65.38%

2.  Personal Branding and Reputation Strategies: 61.54%

3.  Developing Effective Marketing Plans: 57.69%

4.  Differentiation and Positioning Strategies: 53.85%

5. Using Technology to Leverage Yourself: 50.00%

Here are some more interesting reader “facts’:

• 80.77% of you want to see more coaching resources such as videos, checklists and fast start packages.
• 61.54% want more resources that can serve as a a training foundation for others at your firm.
• 76.92% of you prefer “self” paced learning versus the “3 Day Intensive Blow Your Brains Out In the First 3 Hours” type of stuff we are all familiar with.
• 80.77% of you feel that web based learning is just as effective as work shop based learning (this is more bad news for the airlines!)

Well…I am going to do my best to deliver on these things starting with some changes that you’ll be reading about very soon.

Please leave comments if there are some topics/gripes/likes/dislikes in addition to what I’ve talked about above that you would like to see the direction of this blog moving in.

Thanks.

Until next time.

Reader Survey Results – Getting New Clients #1 Concern

As you all know I conducted a brief readership survey 2 weeks ago.

Thanks to all of you who took the time to respond.

I’m going to discuss the findings over several blog posts.

Not surprisingly Finding New Clients is the number one priority with 81% of respondents stressing this as their major business concern right now.

In second place came dealing with Price Sensitive Clients with 58% of respondents citing this as a major concern.

Third place was a three way tie  at 30% between Collecting Fees, Strengthening Client Relationships For The Long Haul and Raising the Quality of Your Client Base.

So what does this tell us?

In simple terms nearly all of you out there need Lead Generation Systems and….you need to look at your Client Relationship Management Systems .

New leads can be developed in a variety of ways   and is the surest route to getting a flood of new business in the door. Recession or no recession, the MORE people you contact that are capable of buying your services and paying for them…the more your bottom line will grow.

Most client relationship (including collection problems) are solved with one simple thing…..Client Communication.

Do you speak with your clients about things other than their bills and the project at hand?

85% of you DON’T in my experience.

Get to know your clients on a personal level. Understand their problems and their dreams. Send them helpful materials at regular intervals. Call them periodically just to say hello.

Obviously we can’t discussed Client Relationship Management and Lead Generation in one blog post (hell….I could make two weeks of seminars out of these topics)….but….one thing you can do right now is set up a good client and prospect communication system as I discuss in the article Seven Simple Things You Can Do to Build Your Business and Have Fun This Summer.

The simplest way to set up a good contact management system is to get a CRM program.

Set it up including your past clients, current clients, centers of influence and prospects .

Start communicating like hell (about things other then your bills) and watch your relationships deepen and strengthen.

Learn how to build a lead generation system and implement it.

Also…stick with the systems!

Communication will solve 99% of your client relationship and business development problems.

Get out there and touch somebody…business is a contact spot and you are in business…aren’t you???

Until next time.

Subscriber Survey

I am conducting a brief 8 question multiple choice survey to determine the best and most useful information to share with you over the next six months.

Please assist me in this project so that I may provide you with the right resources for the current economic situation that we all find ourselves operating in.

The survey will take approximately 4 minutes to complete and all responses are 100% confidential.

I will share (as my way of thanking participants) the overall average results of the survey with participants in 15 days so that you can benchmark your firm against overall averages.

Click Here to take the survey

Thank you in advance for your participation.

Warmly,

Patrick  McEvoy

Seven Simple Things You Can Do to Build Your Business and Have Fun This Summer

We’re soon heading into the “Dog Days” of summer. For nearly all businesses in North America this generally means a reduction in the “intensity” levels of nearly everything we do, from factory production all the way up to “doing mega deals.”

While most people spend the next 60 days simply “punching in and punching out” (while day dreaming about the barbecue while they are “punched in) it’s my experience that the most successful Rainmakers take the slacker days of summer to lay the foundation for spectacular new client results in the fall.

Here are 7 simple things you can do this summer (and they won’t wreck your “beach time” with over work either.) Do these simple things right and you’ll hit the pavement traveling at 120 mph new business development wise come the first week of September:

1. Commit to developing an entrepreneurial mind set. Shift your thinking from “doing the work” to “finding new clients” so that other people can do the work. Learn to delegate everything you possibly can EXCEPT the task of marketing activities that will lead to new business.

2. Purchase and implement a contact management system like ACT by Sage or Maximizer. Input all past client contact data, current client contact data, prospect contact data, centers of influence contact data and networking contacts data. Commit to building this database to 1,000 names within 36 months. Get eMail addresses from everyone you meet. Watch your eMail list grow and feel the “rush” every time you pass another “100 names” landmark.

Understand that when you’ve got 1,000 quality names in your “electric rolodex” that you’ll never have to look for work again….it’ll always start looking for you instead.

That’s REAL career and business security.

3. Create a monthly print/electronic newsletter and get it out to every name you’ve set up in step 2 NO MATTER WHAT. Do this using your contact management software…all you do is push a button.

4. Write 8-10 Special Reports (5 pages each) that address hot button issues which are important to your target market.

5. Start giving short breakfast seminars once a week in your office to 7-10 of your “best” prospects/centers of influence individuals that you identified when constructing your contact management database. Your special reports serve as the seminar subject matter. Bring in some donuts…total cost per seminar….around twenty bucks.

Don’t try to sell anything at these seminars. The goal is to educate in a relaxed informal setting. That’s how long term relationships are built and new clients acquired.

6. Take 2 people per week to lunch that you have never met before. Goal: get to know them and their business. Do a good job of this and they’ll eventually start asking you about your business.

Don’t try to sell anything.

Learn about them, learn about them, learn about them!

You’ll find that you’ll actually have fun doing this. Once you get your own head out of your own ass and into solving the problems of others that life starts getting enjoyable again.

End result; in the next 8 weeks you’ll have met 16 new people that you didn’t know before…and…if you’ve done this right…you’ve met 16 fascinating potential new clients and friends.

Oh….get their eMail addresses and get them into your contact management system.

7. Educate yourself about marketing and sales.

Good marketing and sales systems are geared towards building long and lasting RELATIONSHIPS with potential clients and referral sources.

There are many tried and proven ways to accomplish these things quickly and professionally.

Understand learning is a lifelong process…marketing being no different than continuing professional education.

Get some good marketing seminar tapes, coaching tapes or motivational tapes and listen to these as you “lay on the beach.”

There it is…seven simple marketing “things” that you’ll actually find relaxing (if you do them right.)

And…if you do them right you’ll be amazed at the new business avalanche you’ll be facing in the last quarter of 2009.

I’ve watched super Rainmakers do these same things for 30 years each and every summer.

Relax, meet people, explore the other guy’s business and his problems along with his dreams.

Put some new knowledge in your head and barbecue whenever possible!

Think you can handle this?

Have a great July 4th weekend and a great summer.

Until next time.

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