Hi-Def Deception In The Single Speaker Showroom

Mel,   Back when I was in junior high I'd hop a bus downtown to visit all the stereo shops and soak up every scrap of knowledge I could.   I'm sure the sales people hated me.   I'd materialize once every month or so... monopolize an hour of their time... pummel them with questions about speakers, amplifiers, tape decks, turntables and decibels—then vanish without spending a single thin dime.   One of these patient souls once advised me, "You should read everything you can get your hands on."   I took that quite literally. Instead of clothes, most of the drawers in my dresser in my bedroom were stuffed with audio literature, brochures and catalogs.   Much later on, I discovered a dirty little secret:   95% of the products I was drooling over were COMMODITIES.   Vendors in the audio industry are among the very best, of any industry out there, at juking and jiving their way around the fact that the things they sell sound and perform *exactly* the same as their competitors.   One of the most brilliant of these dance moves was from Linn, a high-end audio manufacturer in Scotland.   Every stereo shop has a special room for the high end equipment.   And the top lines carried by that dealer compete fiercely for attention in that room.   One day someone at Linn figured out a sneaky way to nab the primo  positioning in those rooms: "The Single Speaker Demonstration."   The shtick goes like this:   The existence of any other speaker in a room corrupts the sound and the listener experience.   Even a telephone, by its very presence, will distort the sound and make the listener's judgment suspect and unnatural.   Therefore only one speaker can be demonstrated at any one time; if you switch speakers, you must lug the old ones out of the room before new ones are brought in.   So they went out to all their dealers and showed this to them.   They would put a pair of speakers in the room and play them – then they'd bring a telephone in and out of the room.   Steve the Linn rep says, "Mark, can you hear the difference the presence of this little telephone makes?"   Mark thinks for a minute and says "Play that again, would you?"   So they do another trial. "Yeah, Steve, now I hear exactly what you're talking about. The midrange is muddier with the telephone in the room. Wow, that's amazing!"   The factory guy has successfully done a bit of psycho-manipulation on the dealer, who will in turn do this to many dozens of unsuspecting customers.   Next the factory guy pulls a sticker out of his notebook—it's a "Single Speaker Demonstration" sticker—and affixes it to the front door of the retail store.   Now this dealer is certified as a "Single Speaker Demonstration Room" dealer, and Linn's speakers are, of course, always the default speakers in this special room.   Linn then goes on to publish a list of dealers who conform to this now-higher standard of demonstrating audio equipment—and run ads promoting those dealers.   Fact check:   Does having another pair of speakers in the room change the sound?   Yes, it theoretically does.   However, the difference is microscopically small (especially compared to the rattling drywall, the air conditioner, and whatever else is going on).   Here's what's important though: It is now literally impossible for the customer to make a side-by-side comparison.   Your hearing is extremely susceptible to suggestion.   And the salesman, convinced by Linn's "single speaker" pitch, can now tell customers what he wants them to hear, instead of flipping a switch from A to B and letting them hear it for themselves.   Linn has deftly shoved the competition out of the way.   Now to be clear, what Linn did here isn't exactly ethical.   But the principle is one any business should heed:   The way to escape the "commodity trap" is to make it impossible for your customers to compare you 1-to-1 with anyone else.   An excellent way to do this is to create a "buyer's guide" for your market that lays out the questions customers should ask when choosing who to work with.   By encouraging your customers to ask questions that highlight your USP, you eliminate your competition without firing a shot.   Hey, nobody said this was going to be a fair fight!   Carpe Diem,   Perry Marshall             ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:   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

Logarithmic Upsells For Big-Ass Profits

Mel,   Listen up:   Somebody's going to make a lot of money from what I'm about to say here—might as well be you.   The pricing of services, especially in niches, is EXTREMELY elastic.   This has a lot to do with the fact that people take services very seriously. ("Big-Ass Fans" is wildly successful, but "Big-Ass HVAC Contractors" would go belly up before they ever got a single customer.)   Service businesses are also more intrinsically personality driven than product business.   So the pricing strategy you use for services needs to be much, much different.   For example, if you sell a $20,000 car, then when you add the Mop&Glo and the extended warranty and the high-end stereo and the espresso machine, maybe the price goes up to $30,000.   Upsells on hard products are usually very incremental, and only a fraction of the base price.   Services, information and advice are different.   When you sell services and information, the variation in price should change by a factor of 10 or 100 or 1000, depending on how much of you the customer gets.   Let's say you sell a piece of software.   Your basic version costs $200. Then you have a $350 version and a $500 version.   That's how most software companies structure their pricing—and as a result they're waltzing right past stacks of $100 bills.   Here's how how I'd approach it...   I'd start with the same $200 version, and then have about five or six upgrades that are all 2-3X more expensive than the previous tier.   The product lineup would look something like this:   - Basic version with online support is $200 - Deluxe is $500 with online support - Deluxe with weekly training teleconference calls is $1,000 - Deluxe, with weekly training teleconference calls and remote installation & service done by your staff via the Internet, $2,500 - Deluxe, with online installation & service, 8-5 live phone support, and the weekly training teleconference calls, $5,000 - Deluxe, with on-site installation & service, 24 hour live phone support including a special "911 hotline" for dire emergencies, plus the weekly teleconference calls, $10,000 - Presidential Platinum Deluxe, with on-site installation & service, redundant servers, 24 hour live phone support and 911 hotline, six weeks of intensive hands-on, on-site training and a direct line to the president of the company in case there are any problems, plus the weekly teleconference calls, $25,000.   Now if you build your sales process and story according to this "logarithmic" pricing model, where upsells are multiples instead of linear increments, here's what you'll discover:   1) You will make roughly equal amounts of revenue from every single price level. In other words, you sell about as much dollar volume of $10,000 packages as $200 packages. But you only have to deal with 1/50th the number of customers. Big money from small numbers.   2) You will extract maximum sales from your marketplace and take full advantage of the extreme pricing elasticity that exists in the market   3) You will almost invariably find that your high end customers are more pleasant and less troublesome than your low-end customers   4) You can fire or downgrade problem customers   5) It's easier for you to prioritize who gets the majority of your time and attention—you just see which kind of customer they are.   Useful bonus tip:   It's perfectly OK to have a super-duper deluxe version that hardly anyone actually buys.   Tom Orent, a business coach for cosmetic dentists, used to do this with his $72,000 coaching program. Nobody ever bought it, but it made his $48,000 program more palatable.   So think very carefully about how you can add a Presidential Super Platinum Deluxe version of what you sell.   It's a terrific cash-flow slack adjuster.   Carpe Diem,   Perry Marshall                 ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:   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

Rush Limbaugh's Marketing Secret Sauce

Mel,   If you're in the info business, you're in the exact same business as Rush Limbaugh and Oprah Winfrey and Regis Philbin:   The *personality* business.   Write that on a PostIt note and stick it on your bathroom mirror, because it's one of the most important insights you could ever possess about selling information.   Sure, your customer's RATIONAL reason for buying your stuff is to become more informed, to learn how to solve problems and make progress in life.   But to paraphrase Mark Twain, behind every sale there's a rational reason... and a REAL reason. The emotional one.   Your customer's *emotional* reason is that they connect to you in a personal way.   Over time, they listen to you not as much for the content per se as much as to get a personality fix.   They do it to get a piece of you.   This is NOT scary.   In fact, it's very liberating. Because unlike what they told you in school, you now have permission to be yourself.   Not Rush Limbaugh. Not Oprah Winfrey. Not Regis Philbin, or even Perry Marshall—but YOU.   Over time, your personality becomes your USP.   Anybody can put authors and experts and actresses on camera in front of a live audience, but only Oprah can be Oprah.   People quickly tire of corporate monotone. We crave human touch, even if it just comes to us through a warm smile on a high-def screen.   I don't know what your best medium of expression is.   Maybe it's writing. Maybe it's speaking to audiences. Maybe it's video or teleseminars.   But one of the best skills you can to develop over time is simply expressing yourself, your personality and your style.   John Carlton calls this "Finding your voice."   The first time I asked him to critique one of my sales letters, he gutted my carefully chosen words like a fisherman cleans out a 30-pound bass.   And I wised up. My sales letters started to get better.   He commented that I was starting to find my voice, and admitted it had taken him a half dozen newsletters his first year to really find his voice.   This personality principle works even if you're not in the info business per se—even if you're just sending out your company newsletter and selling a physical product.   When you show up consistently and sound like a real human being, you stand out.   People are so shocked to hear an actual human voice, they snap to attention.   Do this, and one day soon you'll look up and realize that you've built a whole tribe of followers who can't get enough of you.   Carpe Diem,   Perry Marshall       ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:   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

Last Call for Swiss Army Knife for Consultants…Starts TODAY!

Mel,   We’re about to get rolling with the Swiss Army Knife for Consultants Q&A session.    What is Swiss Army Knife for Consultants?    It’s a simple, back-pocket tool you can pull out whenever you get “stuck.”   It’s all about giving you more clicks on your dial, more tricks in your bag, more blades on your knife. More ways to get clients. More ways to keep clients longer. More ways to make money for clients. More ways to make more money from each client.    Here are some of the “Blades” you get…   1. The Acquiring New Clients Blade… Eliminate “head case” clients before you sign them up Determine their “reachability” before you go chasing them Weed out the “nickel and dimers” before they chisel into your profitability Upgrade your stable of clients from doddering old mares to galloping thoroughbreds in 6 months The 5 Power Disqualifiers Do less work per-client Methods for making more money per client 3 different ways to reach them with direct mail  23 ways to find clients 7 things to include in case studies to attract great clients 2 strategies to close them before you close them How to repel tire-kickers 4 ways to establish and maintain authority  Ways to negotiate for higher fees     2. The Keeping Good Clients Blade 11 Ways to get Quick-Hit results for clients 3 Ways to improve their data and analytics 9 Places to focus to improve their traffic 9 Ways to identify their most profitable customers and target them more accurately 5 Questions to ask to help them repel their most money-sucking, headache-inducing customers 2 Ways to grab low-hanging fruit in email marketing 4 Insights to make their emails more compelling 3 ways to eliminate wasteful ad spend 3 ways to sharpen their USP fast 3 places to find the money in their list 3 80/20 strategies to implement right away 5 strategies to increase their revenue quickly 4 secrets to help them reduce refunds 2 ways to monetize “wasted leads”   And that’s just 2 of the 5 blades!   You’ll also get…   3. The Getting Paid Blade With 8 different fee collection strategies   4. The Getting Paid MORE Blade 5 Strategies for boosting your fees even further   5. The Scaling Your Business Blade 6 Methods for growing your business quickly   It’s a simple tool to whip out whenever you feel “stuck” and need to make money show up.   I’m very proud of this tool.   And I think you’ll love it…and love the price.    But you have to hurry. Starts today.    Find out more here.    Carpe Diem,  Perry Marshall         ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:   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

The Little Scrap of Paper that Saved My Butt

Mel,   In 2001 I stood at a crossroads. The company I had helped build was sold. And I was offered two choices… Parachute out of the Dilbert Cube with a nice buyout…or  Stick around and work for the new owners. I hemmed and hawed and pondered and analyzed.   My wife, Laura, did not. “Take the money and run, Perry! You’ve always wanted to do your own thing, now’s your shot!”   But did I have the chops to make it as a freelance consultant?   I thought I did. But all my big successes had come while I was working “for the man” within the safety of the warm and fuzzy company cocoon …not out on my own.   In fact, the Amway stuff I’d done on my own had yielded a big fat goose egg of nothingness. Gut-punching rejection to the umpteenth power.   So, I wouldn’t exactly say I was Mr. Swaggering Bravado when it came to hanging out my own consulting shingle.   But I took Laura’s advice and made the leap.   And those first few months were…exhilarating, sure…but also anxiety-ridden.   But one little scrap of paper kept me sane through those first few nail-biting months.   On a 3x5 index card I had scribbled twelve things I knew I could do to make money.   If I couldn’t get a client to let me do those 12 for them…I could do them for myself!   So, when I’d walk down the stairs each morning and sit staring at my monitor wondering when the money was going to start showing up…every time my chest started to tighten when I realized I need to make $9,000 this month but only had $3000 on the books…every time my pits started to wreak from the flop sweat...I’d pull out that card and remind myself of all the things I could do to make dollars show up.   It was my little Swiss Army Knife for Anxiety Reduction.   When I’d look at my options, my pulse would abate…my breathing would get deeper and more regular…I’d be able to focus…and get to work.   And whenever I’d get stuck…whenever I needed to pull a rabbit out of the hat…I’d whip out that card and look at it.   And I’d always come with a new idea for making cash appear.   That little Swiss Army Knife card saved my hide more than a few times.   Because when you’re a freelance consultant, there is no worse feeling than “trapped animal” syndrome. You know you need to make money show up, but because your panicking and hyperventilating, all you can see is a few feet in front of your darting eyes. All you can see is the path straight in front of you…and it’s barred up and blocked off!   But the best feeling is when you know you have options. Clicks on your dial. When you know you have 9 or 10 different ways to solve one problem…   7 different ways to make clients show up 15 different ways to make money from every client 13 ways to negotiate for higher fees   Options. Alternate paths. New ways forward.   It’s all about having more blades on your knife…and pulling out the right one at the right time.   And that’s what my Swiss Army Knife for Consultants gives you.   A simple tool to whip out whenever you feel “stuck” and need to make money show up. Need to find more clients? That’s on the Swiss Army Knife Need to weed out the nickel-and-dimers? That’s on the knife Need to make more money from each client? That’s a blade on the knife Need to grow your consulting business? There’s a blade for that! I’m very proud of this tool. And I think you’ll love it…and love the price.   Find out more here.   Carpe Diem, Perry Marshall     ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:   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

Come See Me, Alex and Ted LIVE TONIGHT!

An Evening with 3 Marketing Experts $100 or Free for Mastermind Club members! TONIGHT 6:30PM San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront SAVE YOUR SPOT HERE   Mel,   I’m doing a very special live event with Alex Mandossian and Ted Prodromou tonight.   This is a very unique opportunity to see us live, here our latest marketing insights, and even ask us some questions!   We’ll do live problem-solving Maybe a hotseat or two? And take your questions   It’s gonna be fun!   $100 or Free for Mastermind Club Members! But you must register.   SAVE YOUR SEAT HERE   Perry Marshall   PS: Space is limited, so you must register. Do not just show up hoping you’ll be able to get in!     ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:   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

Marketing Insights from 3 Experts (LIVE!)

An Evening with 3 Marketing Experts $100 or Free for Mastermind Club members! January 27th, 6:30PM San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront SAVE YOUR SPOT HERE   Mel,   Tomorrow, I’m doing a very special live event with Alex Mandossian and Ted Prodromou.   If you don’t know Ted, he is the… Author of the Ultimate Guide to LinkedIn for Business Author of the Ultimate Guide to Twitter for Business Ted is a long-time Planet Perry guy, speaker, author and online advertising consultant. In his past life, Ted worked for high tech companies IBM, DEC and Cellular One before starting his own consulting firm in 1999.   Ted is soft-spoken but he knows his stuff. And since it looks like Twitter might FINALLY be getting their advertising act together…now’s a great time to see Ted if you can.   Ted will join me and marketing legend Alex Mandossian…on January 27th.   We will share our favorite marketing discoveries of the last 12 months... and then we’ll take your questions.   We’ll do live problem-solving. Maybe a hotseat or two? And you’ll decide what questions we tackle   It’ll be a fun night of cutting-edge marketing insights.   $100 or Free for Mastermind Club Members! But you must register.   SAVE YOUR SEAT HERE   Perry Marshall   PS: But don’t wait! Alex and Ted are promoting this too. The event is less than a week away. And the room only holds FORTY people. It WILL sell out.     ***NOTE: This email address isn't monitored! If you need help, please email:   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