Roundtable Chronicles for October 6, 2013

Mel, This week I hosted my Roundtable meetings in Chicago. Roundtable is Planet Perry's Fight Club for entrepreneurs, where we all pound the slag off each others' ideas. Mr. D had his turn on the hot seat. Mr. D is the marketing director of a high-end design school. College tuition is $60,000 per year and he's got 100 students. It's an organization of A Players and he has surpassed all his direct competitors. He's at the top of the heap. On a consulting call I used the 80/20 Curve to show him how much money he's still leaving on the table. "Go to www.8020curve.com. Go to "Rack the Shotgun" and enter 100 members total, 100 responded and "Value of output" is 60,000. The tool spits out a graph, like this: "The red part, that's the dinero you're getting now - about $6 million a year. A small, boutique niche business." I said, "Everything between the upper curve and the red, that's money that your customers are fully capable of spending, that you are NOT getting. But they WOULD spend it, IF you offered them something that thoroughly scratched their educational itch in every possible way." He says, "So you're saying I've got 20 customers who would spend $240,000 or more on tuition, and $60,000 isn't enough??? We're already at the top of our market." "Yes," I said. "They would spend it if you put the right upgrade offer in front of them. They not only have the money but also the desire. It's practically a law of physics." He asks, "This is also showing me that the #1 family would pay $3.169 million per year. How is that even remotely possible?" I say, "Remember German Chancellor who wanted to send his daughter, but you turned him down because you couldn't guarantee absolute security and protection from the paparazzi?" "Yeah, I remember that." "Could his family afford to pay you $3 million a year if you give her ALL the perks that come with your school AND completely assured her dad that his security concerns would be met?" "Absolutely they could." "Plus you could easily afford the extra measures you'd have to take. And then how 'bout the arab sheiks who send their kids to your school? If you guaranteed to safely land their kid in Harvard's grad program, would they pay a million dollars?" "Yep. A handful of our parents absolutely would do that." That wasn't all. Matt Gillogly jumped in. "You know what you need? You need a FOUNDATION." "Why do I need a foundation?" "Because parents BELIEVE in your school's mission. Even people who wouldn't pay a penny more than the standard tuition, would still donate a million dollars to the school. Why? So underprivileged kids can go too. Or they might donate $3 million so they can have their name on a brand new arts building. That's the easiest way to get that $3 million." Matt continued: "You've got parents who would be *delighted* to be the chairman of your foundation, fly around in their corporate jets and solicit other, multi-million dollar donors." In Planet Perry we teach the Power Triangle of Traffic, Conversion, Economics, with 80/20 in the center. The conversation you just eavesdropped on is the ECONOMICS conversation. Certainly in our Mastermind Group you can get a bunch of geniuses to critique your landing page. But we also craft HUGE plans that grow into multi-million dollar corporations. Including the details that make them work. We also maintain confidentiality, which is why the details of this story have been tweaked. The principle remains unchanged. Do YOU crave an informal Board of Directors, men and women who will challenge you to the highest levels of excellence, call you out on your BS, and support you through your trials? I would not be caught dead *not* in a high level mastermind group. I'm taking applications for Roundtable 2014. Tuition is 19.9K, with extra options for those who wish to work more closely with me. First meeting at the end of January in Orlando. To submit your application, contact matt@perrymarshall.com. Perry Marshall           ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

Gems from Richard Koch's brand new book "The 80/20 Manager"

Mel,   Richard Koch's brand new book The 80/20 Manager is just out this week. Some juicy sound bytes: On Bill Bain, founder of Bain Consulting: "It probably didn't take Bill Bain long to work out this ingenious formula ad then to build his firm around it. But the value created for Bain & Company - and usually for the client, too - was astronomical. Bill spent his time on what he was uniquely qualified to do. His output bore no relation to the time or effort he inputted. But if Bill had been less lazy, I doubt that he ever would have dreamed up this amazing wealth-creation system. Also, I believe his lack of an MBA helped tremendously." "Surely it is significant that the two most creative and influential  management consultants of the last sixty years were indubitably the laziest too." Quoting Bertrand Russell: "Work is of two kinds: first, altering the position of matter at or near the earth's surface relatively to other such matter; second, telling other people to do so. The first one is unpleasant and ill paid; the second is pleasant and highly paid.” On Execution: "All strategic managers value thought above action." On Innovation: "If you have a hunch as to how your industry could be reconstructed, if you know what it lacks that a totally different approach might bring, and if you have an inkling of what that approach might be, you should pursue it… because you might well be on your way to founding the next Google or Facebook." On Simplification: "The greatest challenge for any business based on product innovation is how to simplify is products and in the process make them more affordable and easier to use. Product simplification is hard to achieve but it is a sure route to domination and expansion." On Laziness: "Laziness is the road to progress, but only when it is allied to intelligent thought and high ambition." On Decisive Leadership: "There's a true story about a handful of soldiers who got lost on a training exercise in the Alps when they became detached from their battalion. The snow disoriented them. Every peak looked the same.   They argued about which way to go. Light was fading. They were cold, hungry and afraid. They had little chance of surviving the night in the freezing temperatures. Then a miracle happened. One of them found a map in the lining of his kitbag. He figured out the route, pointed the way, and they all marched briskly back to base. It was only when they were warm and well fed that the soldier looked closer at the map. It was of the Pyrenees, hundreds of miles away." Get your copy of The 80/20 Manager on Amazon Perry Marshall             ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

3 Fast Bullets on Google AdWords Quality Score

Mel,   Quality Score directly impacts your AdWords cost. Bad QS means you overpay 200% for your clicks. 1) The first thing you need to know is: --> Click Thru Rate is 70% of Quality Score! Why? Cuz CTR is Google's best way to decide whether the users are having a good experience. I always say, "With Google, sleep with one eye open." You should ALWAYS be wary of Google. However too much cynicism here is not a good idea. Do NOT look at Quality Score like it's a big giant money-grab. Why? Because if you've got the highest CTR, the face of Google WILL smile down upon you and give you lots of discounted-price traffic. Google wants what its users want: ads people like to click on.   If you have a low CTR, Google will smite you. 2) The best way to improve Quality Score is: PEEL AND STICK. Peel keywords out of less-relevant ad groups, give them their own ads and ad groups and maybe even their own landing pages. According to Google, “the most important tip for success with AdWords is to create tightly knit ad groups with keywords and ad text that are based on a common theme.” That's Peel and Stick, baby. The 95/5 rule says 95% of your traffic comes from 5% of your keywords. Peel and stick your top 5% keywords and you get 95% of the benefit with 5% of the work. ----> 3) You MUST get creative about ad copy that both is exactly relevant to search phrases, AND presses emotional hot buttons, in a way that is NOT "me too" like everyone else! <------   Yeah I know that's tricky but Planet Perry members do it all the time. If you get stuck, ask for help on the Mastermind Forum. For an in-depth exploration of Quality Score, go here now and get WordStream's Quality Score White Paper: http://marketing.wordstream.com/20130906QualityScoreWhitePaper.html While you're at it, try their free AdWords Grader Tool. (I'm jealous I didn't invent it before they did.) Perry Marshall         ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

MP3: Non-Profit SLASHES Ad-Spend by 70% + Increases Conversions

Mel,   Quick revealing case study - John Chilkotowsky of Wilderness Awareness multiplied his conversions AND slashed his costs in Bobsled Run. 19 minute MP3 interview with Bryan: http://www.perrymarshall.com/training/4-hinges/case-study/   He even changed his title from "Marketing Director" to "Chief Story Teller." Listen to his whole story, it's enlightening. Bobsled Run starts Tuesday. Apply here now: http://www.bobsledrun.com           ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

AdWords + Facebook + Conversion = Bobsled Run 2013

Mel,   Once a year we arm our students to the TEETH with a full-on traffic + conversion battle plan. It's called Personal AdWords Coaching. We call it "Bobsled Run" because, just like the Olympic event, it's fast and furious. This year I've added Facebook ads to the toolbox. Until recently, Google AdWords had no equal. Not even close. The features, scalability, the sheer power of Google's ad platform were utterly unmatched. 80% market share. Now, in the last six months, Facebook has come alongside Google as a force to be reckoned with. Admittedly, Facebook is still crude in many respects. In absolute terms it has less reach. However, Facebook traffic is still cheap (won’t be 2 years from now, I promise you!) and you can acquire LOTS of new customers FAST for not much money. Google AdWords is a lead sled. It’s like a 40 foot motor coach. It takes a lot of gas but once you’ve got it lumbering down the road, it’s luxurious, air-conditioned comfort. Facebook is like a 300cc Kawasaki motor bike strapped to the back of that RV. It’s lightning fast, produces quick results, can buzz down little trails and side paths with ease. It’s great to have an RV… it’s great to have a Kawasaki motorcycle – but isn’t it better to have BOTH? That’s why Facebook forms a perfect complement to AdWords. 2013 Bobsled Run harnesses BOTH. Starts Tuesday September 24. By application only. Apply here now: http://www.BobsledRun.com Perry Marshall           ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

Dominating YOUR market swings on 4 Hinges

Mel,   It is *easier* to be #1 in your market than #4 or #5 or #10. It is EASIER to enjoy a fat juicy steak than to fight over stringy scraps of hamburger in the dumpster behind the restaurant. Most people don't know it, but it's true. Once you hold that premium position, it's easier to maintain it, than it had been to scrap and scrimp and save. How do you do this? What do you focus on? HINT: Doing the 17,324 tasks everyone's guilting you into doing is not gonna get you there faster. We will un-burden you on today's live webinar at 3pm Central: "4 Tiny Hinges That Swing HUGE Doors." There are just four leverage points in your business–”small hinges” in your marketing funnel, hiding in plain sight… waiting for you to find them. The hard part is knowing where to start and what to focus on. Join us today and we'll laser in. Register here: http://www.perrymarshall.com/training/4-hinges/ Date: Tuesday September 17 Time: 3pm Eastern / 2pm Central / 12pm Pacific / 20:00 London See you there. Perry Marshall ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here

Weebles wobble but they don't fall down

Mel,   Remember the Weebles toy commercials from the 70's? I love how Weebles became a picture of resilient people. Long-time Planet Perry member Ted Prodromou (pronounced "Pro-dro-mo") signed up for our Bobsled Run something like seven years ago. He got himself a rock-solid "sales funnel education." This was pre-economic meltdown. Ted went out and did all kinds of consulting, did all kinds of interesting stuff, and generally earned himself some fine dinero. He came to a 4-Man Intensive, where he was one of the first people to tell me about Twitter. I told him to write a book on it. Then the economic crash came, fishing holes dried up, so he got himself a cushy job in Silicon Valley. A few months later he posted this on my blog: "Think about using your knowledge managing AdWords campaigns as a consultant or for a company. There are tons of online marketing jobs out there right now and most pay over six figures.   "I never thought I could go back to a real job but I love getting that steady paycheck and going home and five every day not worrying about keeping my business going. Plus I'm consulting on the side still, so I'm making more than I ever have." Ted eventually did take me up on that advice to write a Twitter book. It's called "The Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Business" and he also wrote "The Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business." Both by Entrepreneur Press. Last year the company he was working for got a new director. The guy thought he was way smarter than Ted and his "measly" 6:1 ROI on paid traffic. Ted left, went back into consulting, has had clients lined up to do business ever since. Last January he joined Roundtable and I'll be seeing him again in October. Well here's the thing about Ted: He doesn't wear a three thousand dollar suit. He doesn't talk 900 miles an hour. He doesn't really do anything at 900 miles an hour. He's not going to shout over all the fools and imbeciles to make himself heard. If you want to hire a fool or imbecile to drive your company into the ground, he won't stop you. And Ted will still be plugging along after the imbecile has long disappeared with all your money. Ted is "steady as she goes." He methodically cranked out one book, then another, and he has the goods. He delivers. In a world with so many "boys of summer" and Beanie Babies that are all the rage and then go bust, he is the kind of guy that Planet Perry admires. What did Ted get from Bobsled Run? Certainly he learned a bunch of hot approaches and techniques. But more importantly, he acquired a master marketing framework that he then hung everything else on, all that he's learned in the time since. He didn't learn LinkedIn in Planet Perry. He didn't learn Twitter here either. But you could wake the man from a deep sleep and he would always know in his bones what these platforms should DO for you, and which parts are a pure waste of time. That's what you get from Bobsled Run. We call it Bobsled Run cuz it goes FAST. What most courses would take two years to cover, we teach in 12 weeks. Cuz we don't waste your time. You can squander the next two years banging around in the online education pinball machine if you prefer, but I suggest you set a bunch of stuff aside and discover how to build a sales machine the right way. Do it ONCE and do it right. The first time. The doors open in a few days. Stay tuned for the training sessions. And always remember: RESILIENT PEOPLE - Weebles wobble but they don't fall down. Seize the Day. Perry Marshall           ***NOTE: Please do not reply directly to this email, instead go to http://support.perrymarshall.com Free Video We manage our emails with Infusion. This Guide and Video explain my secret marketing sauce. If you no longer wish to receive our emails, click the link below:  Update subscriber options Perry S. Marshall & Assoc 159 N. Marion Street #295 Oak Park, Illinois 60301 United States (312) 386-7459   Having trouble viewing this email? Click here