Dan S. Kennedy's Blog, page 13

Why Top Producers Earn 10x More Than Their Competitors

Recently, my friend Brian Tracy told me he now knows exactly why top producers earn 10X more than the average person.  He actually put together a full report on that which you can get here.

Here’s how this all came about…

Brian said, “Our research shows that top producers continue to make 80% of the all the income and sell 10X more than their peers and competition…even in this economy!”

Knowing this alone doesn’t do much good, but knowing why this happens is EXTREMELY valuable.

Brian Tracy has studied success his whole life. He’s an “old dog” like me and one of the great thinkers of our time, able convert facts, observation and his and others’ experience into PRINCIPLES that predictably and reliably define success or failure.

He’s read everything ever written on success…or darn near everything anyway. He’s done extensive studying and research on the subject—working with, observing, and training millions of entrepreneurs and sales people in more than 60 countries.

Brian found, like I’ve discussed recently, that sales tactics which once worked are no longer working. The economy is a mess which means prospects are sitting on their wallets and doing everything they can to not spend money. It’s a competitive market out there and many people are losing sales—even with a good offer, match of needs, right target, “fits their budget,” and so on.  BUT, top producers don’t seem to be affected by ANY of this.

So to get this answer to what the top 10% did differently in order to earn 80% of the income, over the last several years, Brian and his staff analyzed over 10,000 hours of sales calls.

The tapes contained a wide range of sales calls in different businesses and every type of situation—everything from million dollar deals…to complete bombs…to unbelievable turnarounds where the sales person was able to get an entirely skeptical lead to make a purchase.

After carefully looking at the research, Brian did what he does best—he “reverse-engineered”—what top performers do.

Three reasons Brian gives about why people are struggling more with sales than ever before:

Your prospects have unbelievable access.  All they have to do is whip out their smart phone to access information about your prices, product, service, reputation—as well as your competition’s prices, product, service and reputation.You must not only be aware of this, but adapt to it and avoid being a commodity.
There is a fear of spending. Companies and consumers are gun-shy about spending. (Tweet this!) Retirement funds have been wiped out. Higher taxes, forced healthcare, and extra expenses associated with doing business has been hoisted on businesses. The economy isn’t getting any better. These factors contribute to ultra-conservative spending. It doesn’t mean people aren’t spending—they are—but they are careful about where they spend their money and who they spend it with.There is no room for sloppiness and average or below average sales people in this climate. Fortunately sales is a skill that can be learned and mastered. Those that learn the skill will join the top 10% who are earning 80% of the money. Those that don’t will reside in the land of struggle and uncertainty.
Competition comes from all over. Technology has made the world smaller. That means you aren’t just competing with companies that offer similar products and services in your town, but you could be competing with a company from across the world.

It’s important to note that the average person struggles with these. But NOT the top producers. They have no trouble outselling everyone else because they have paid close attention to these and adapted their sales game to address these sales realities occurring in the marketplace right now.  Get your own copy of Brian’s report for FREE now.  Click here.

What about you?

P.S.–  Click here to claim your customer-getting, sales-boosting tactics.

Six Ways To Grow Your Business FAST

Today, I’d like to give you 6 ways to help you meet your business goals and help you grow your business fast.

Get focused on your target market. A lot of businesses waste a ton of money on advertising because they haven’t spent enough time choosing the right market for their product and services. Get clear about who your audience is. Once you do this, you’ll cut your waste to zero and start getting maximum results from all your marketing.


Fine tune your Unique Selling Proposition (USP). If you are still competing with other businesses, then your USP needs work. Create a USP that makes your business the clear and only choice for your customers.


Sell packages. When you take a bunch of things you are already selling and create a package with a compelling price, you can often make a lot more money.


Offer more ‘done for you’ products. People want more “done for you” offers. They are increasingly more appealing. And they are willing to pay just to get it done. What ‘done for you’ package(s) can you offer your customers?


Sell to groups. We have talked about the idea of selling to groups from the stage, through tele-seminars, webinars, and so on, instead of one to one. When you get good at selling to groups you can make significantly more per hour.


Get better at email marketing. Competition for attention in your email in-box is at an all time high. Too many business owners are sloppy and don’t give enough care to creating good, relevant, compelling messages—consistently. Learn the fundamentals of crafting a compelling message and resist the temptation to just whip something up and get it out. Poor email messages will alienate your list—sometimes permanently. While a consistent compelling message will get them opening, clicking, and buying.


Round up your lost customers. You might be surprised how many of your customers have “gone missing”. They will be happy you remember them and many will be eager to come back. This is an immediate solution to bring an instant flow of cash into your business.

Doing one of these things will increase your income. Doing all of them could make a tremendous impact. Pick one or two to start and once you’ve implemented them, move on to another one (or two) on the list.

And if you really want to get a jump start, come to a Fast Implementation Bootcamp. A 2-Day Event –FREE to GKIC Members (Only $97 for Non-Members) will help you quickly and easily implement GKIC marketing tactics such as the ones I’ve covered in today’s message for FAST Growth.

This is for you whether you’re new to marketing your business or if you’ve been a student of marketing for some time. Discover the little hinges that swing BIG doors wide open in your business and find the hidden profits in your business.

Register for our next Bootcamp and get two days of workshops from yours truly and Mike “The Jewel” Stodola and you’ll discover 8 steps to increase your business by 25% in just 48 hours.  Click here now to join us…space is limited.

As a special bonus, When you register for this event by midnight July 15th you’ll get our program Growth Hacks, which sells for $597, for FREE when you attend.  Click here to register now…

Three Massive Opportunities From Frank Kern

I just got done watching a video from Frank Kern where he discusses three massive opportunities in today’s market.

1. Consulting -Right now in the U.S. the consulting industry is roughly a $100 Billion a year industry.  AND…according the the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics it’s projected to grow by a staggering 83% by 2018.

As a real estate agent the average full-time real estate agent was earning less than $40,000 a year in commission.  To be in the top couple percent you just barely needed to crack the six figure mark.  And to do that you it usually meant you worked 60+ hours a week, often on nights and weekends.

I was pretty successful, or so I thought, until one day I was hired to go consult with an office to show them what I did.  They offered $2,500 for a single day of my time.  Geez…no attracting leads, no turning them into buyers, no showing them dozens of homes, no legal, no mortgage, no inspections, no surveys!  Just show up and tell them what I did every day and get paid $2,500 for it…up front.

And the funny thing was, after the first time I did it, I got more and more calls from offices wanting this same “presentation.”  I was in the consulting business and didn’t even know it.  The thing I didn’t yet realize was that knowledge I took for granted, people were willing to pay a lot of money for.     

I was far from the best, or most successful real estate agent out there.  But I had did one thing everyone else wanted to know how to do.  I charged 7% to sell a home when others were struggling to charge 5%, and I closed more than 9 out of 10 people I met with.  So even the “best” agents out there, ones with a lot more experience, and who made a lot more money than I did, wanted to know how I did it and were willing to pay good money to find out.

(SIDE NOTE: If you’re struggling with this concept you can hear from Frank Kern live as he shows you how to generate large amounts of money from small lists.  Click here to for details on the FREE event.)

2. Coaching – Right now businesses are spending $12 Billion on coaching.  And that’s not all…that’s just business coaching.  According to the Life coaching Institute, Life Coaching which is already a $2 Billion a year business, is the second fast growing industry on the planet.  How about them apples?

Can you segment your knowledge and put it into a training program…one that’s delivered over weeks or months?  Do you have hobbies or passions that other shares and would want your knowledge delivered in a one on one or small group setting?

3. Professional Services –   This may be the largest and broadest category.  But here’s an example as it relates to people in the marketing world.  People first want to know “What To Do.”  Second they want to know “How Do I Do It?”  Third they want to know “Who Can Do This For Me?”

This area probably has the largest area of opportunity since you can find anything a segment of your market does, that you could take off their plate.  Figure that out and how to deliver it and you can be paid very well for your time and expertise.

So what do you do now?  Simple and two things.  First is you click here to reserve a spot on a FREE, one-time-only livecast Frank is doing next week.

Second you show up.  Many times we sign up for webinars with good intentions but as the day approaches we schedule events over them or simply forget to attend.  Well the truth is, if you were 100% where you wanted to be in your life, you probably wouldn’t be reading this blog right now.  You probably want a better life with more freedom, more time, and a business that supports your lifestyle instead of creating a lifestyle that supports your business.  So sign up now and put it in your calendar and DON’T miss it.

Again click here now and get all the details for the live event “How to Get BIG Sales From small Lists.”

The #1 Thing You Should Do If You Are Struggling To Make Sales Or Don’t Have Time

Years ago, I discovered the #1 thing I should focus on in business:  making saleable things and selling them.

And I can’t tell you how happy I am to have had that revelation early in life.

Without it, I most certainly would have struggled to survive, let alone grow my business.

Because one of the biggest problems that stop businesses from growing and also gets businesses quickly into trouble is failing to focus on making sales.  

It’s not uncommon to find situations where everybody in the company gets so focused on their own little job, each in his own cubicle, that they collectively place customers’ needs and preferences dead last on their list of priorities.

In large companies, the bigger a business gets, the more likely it is to be infected this way.

In smaller companies, where each person has multiple (and often conflicting) responsibilities, the customer becomes the interruption, perceived as an annoying distraction to getting the work done.

With entrepreneurs running solo, they put longer and longer hours in, trying to wear too many hats, and as a result, end up with “sales” near or at the bottom because they don’t have time to give it the attention it deserves.

When you carefully analyze the majority of companies that get into financial trouble or that are stymied on how to grow their company, you will discover that they have sacrificed effective sales methods and customer service in favor of the convenience and preferences of employees.

So if your sales are shrinking or if you are struggling to make sales…if you feel you are too busy to focus on sales or find you are putting sales at the low-end of the spectrum, I suggest you stop what you are doing right now and evaluate. Because this is a sure sign that you are headed for trouble.

The #1 thing you need to focus on is making sales. It’s the fastest and best way to grow your company.

Here are three recommendations for keeping sales the focus in your business:

Have people on your team whose sole purpose is selling. Sales is too important. When you hire someone and have them split their time between sales and some other role, it often leads to sales getting the short end of the stick.  

Not too mention you can hire people to worry over every imaginable detail and potential problem for a whole lot less when you leave the sales part out of the position. And a sales person devoted solely to sales can make a whole lot more from the same time spent on selling or causing sales.  

Never put someone with a financial background as CEO of your company. When sales are shrinking, it is the tendency of financial people to cut investments in the things that drive sales. It is better to have someone who knows how to make money in this position.

Create “miracle salesmen.” In 1937, W. Clement Stone energized his sales force by hiring Napoleon Hill to conduct classes for his entire national sales force on the thirteen principles from Hill’s book THINK AND GROW RICH. In Stone’s words, he and Hill built “miracle salesmen.” What he discovered is that many sales managers and companies have forgotten or were under-valuing the fact that motivation is more important than technique.

About this training Stone said, “My sales managers began to be builders of miracle salesmen, and our salesmen began to make such phenomenal sales records that the results achieved seemed unbelievable to those who haven’t learned the art of motivation.”

Most modern sales training is heavily weighted to process, with barely a nod to attitudes, but the truth is that most salespeople can sell—but don’t; they have sufficient skills to sell—but don’t, because they are not sufficiently motivated and self-motivated to overcome the inherent rejection and frustration of selling. Conversely, you can teach people all the technique in the world, and they’ll still fail if burdened with unproductive attitudes or lacking successful attitudes.

If I had a sales force, I would implement a continuing, multi-faceted system of “attitude training and improvement” to build self-images, confidence and ambition of my salespeople.

Which is why I’m very happy to introduce a completely new way to help you attract, recruit and motivate the best salespeople to sell your stuff so you can concentrate on making saleable things for them to sell.

What most people define as and perceive as important has not one darned thing to do with making a lot of money. 

What you need is to come up with saleable things and then sell them. Discover how to leverage your talents, work less hard, while earning the income you desire and taking all the time off you choose in “The Ultimate No B.S. Renegade Guide To Putting Together a Highly Effective Sales Team.”

 

P.S. – Get “The 10 Rules to Transforming Your Small Business into an Infinitely More Powerful Direct Response Marketing Business” for FREE. Click here to claim your customer-getting, sales-boosting tactics.

Walter Added $1,120,097 to His Business in 90 days Doing This…

I recently met with others at GKIC and told them, there’s practically no amount I WOULDN’T spend to get someone into a FREE, Fast Implementation Bootcamp.

It’s not because I like spending money unnecessarily, or that I’m SO generous that I want a lot of people to attend a free event simply because I think it’s one of the most important things business owners can do.

In fact, bluntly, it’s quite selfish.

I know that once you come to a Fast Implementation Bootcamp you are worth as little as 5x more to me than our average member and as much as 20x more.   The reason…because the light bulb goes off and you become a better business owner and you not only stick around the GKIC world for a long time, but you purchase resources, join coaching groups, attend paid events etc…

Take for example the person in the video below.  Walter Bergeron.

If we didn’t spend six figures a year putting on FREE events I don’t know what Walters story would have been.  I’m fairly confident he would still have been successful.  But the part I care about is would he have been successful with GKIC’s help?  Would he have purchased resource after resource, attended event after event and spent what most would consider outrageous sums of money with GKIC in order to aid him in his success.  I think not.

Walter might have stayed a member for a while, coming in and out of the GKIC like so many going through a revolving door.  Instead, because of his success with the strategies Walter took and applied from boot camp he was IN.  Fully IN.  All from a free event.

So while my true reasons may be self-serving, this is a win-win proposition.  Because I know that you’ll only stick around if you experience success and the BEST way for you to experience success QUICKLY is attend a FREE Fast Implementation Bootcamp.

Click here now a reserve a spot at one of the two remaining dates in 2016.  This is a live, in-person workshop, and they do fill up.  Don’t tarry.  Reserve your spot now, click here.

 

Ultimately, success boils down to your ability to do this…

I’ve faced many trials in life – business failures, personal distress, even loss of money. Yet, I’ve always managed to not only overcome them, but have even fashioned a life and career that works according to my own personal principles and rules.

The key involves a relentless focus on ONE specific discipline.

On the video below, I share a very personal story that illustrates the critical difference mastering that discipline can make to your business and your life.

 

 

Note: This weekend only we have a very special offer for you on my Personal Operating System. If you are interested in learning more click here now…

 

Grab Them By The Throat Using These Headline MUSTS!

The headline is the single most important part of any type of advertising you do.  Wether it’s a traditional print ad, like a postcard or sales letter, or the first sentence out of your mouth to a prospect in person or on a webinar or video sales letter (VSL).  When using Facebook or other pay-per-click media, a headline is practically all the real estate you get.  As we’ve said, ‘the headline is the ad, for the ad.’  Profound huh

7 Keys To Writing Killer Copy Quickly and Easily

In business you must always seize the moment. Opportunities quickly arise, producing the need for quick, clean, effective copy.

Which drives the need to kick out a killer sales letter at blinding speed.

If you want to write copy at the fastest speed possible, then you must do more than sit down at the keyboard and hammer away.

You need to have some kind of process and strategy in mind.

And that’s why over the years I’ve crafted my own very personal system for copywriting. And today I’m offering you a quick peek inside that system, a set of key points I’m calling: “7 Keys To Writing Killer Copy Quickly and Easily.”

They work for me and I know they’ll work for you.

Don’t re-invent the wheel! Take proven sales letters and ads and rewrite them to fit you and your offer. IMPORTANT: This does not just mean modeling sales letters and ads from your competitors… ANY letter or successful ad from ANY industry can be adapted for a totally different industry.
Create a “swipe” file of successful ads and letters. When you see an ad that catches your eye, cut it out and save it. NEVER throw away “junk” mail. A lot of the so-called “junk” mail is written by the best and the brightest copywriters on the planet. Save this stuff, study it, and model it. (Dan Kennedy strongly recommends that you read publications like the National Enquirer, The Star, The Globe, etc. The ads in those publications are incredible and pull in millions of dollars’ worth of orders.)
The single most important factor in making a lead generation ad or letter work is “message to market match.” This simply means that your offer has to have perceived value to your prospect. It has to be something that is appealing to them. Something that they want. So pick a battle you can’t lose. Selection is most important. The receptivity of the recipient is the most important part of the marketing process.
Use LOTS of Testimonials. You canNOT overuse testimonials! I STILL see marketing materials from all kinds of businesses that don’t have any testimonials or just a couple of weak ones. You need to use a truckload of powerful testimonials in ALL your marketing materials.
The headline is the most important part of any ad or letter you do. It is the ad for your ad or letter. You should have a swipe file of great headlines available to choose from.
Use multiple PS’s in your letter. Restate the offer, the deadline, the free gift, etc. If you’re using three PSS, the middle one is most important.
Before you write, make a list of all the reasons someone won’t buy your product or service and then come up with ways to overcome these objections. Having this in place BEFORE you write is possibly one of the best tools you can have when crafting a compelling sales letter. Do not skip this step.

The science and art of writing Killer Copy is deep and involved – but follow these 7 keys and I know you’ll find yourself well equipped to succeed.

 

NOTE: Make sure you set aside time for a powerful training taking place on May 25th 1PM ET. It’s called: “The E-Z Step-By-Step System For Writing Powerfully Effective Sales Copy.” Click here to register.

 

Three Secrets About Wealth I Wish I’d Discovered Decades Sooner

Truth is…there are many more I wish I’d known sooner than the three secrets I discuss here.

But in the limited space I have, there is no way to summarize them all.

I do my best to start using secrets as soon as I discover them, and to pass them along through my speaking and writing. I deal with these and other powerful discoveries in detail and in depth in places like my Wealth Attraction.

However, three of the many, I think, are bigger, more universally applicable that the rest, so here they are:

1)      Price Elasticity. There are no restrictions on what people will pay. There are only self-imposed limits, both psychological and practical in nature.  It is the absolute truth that we set our own prices, and more often than not, set them lower than necessary.

Many people under-value themselves, their services, their products, and under-estimate what the market will pay.

It is vital to grasp that you set your own price. As Foster Hibbard taught, teaspoon, pail or tanker truck, the ocean doesn’t care. In other words, there is an abundance of water. You choose how much you want to take away and are the one who puts limits on what is available.

2)      The secret of transaction size.  Simply put, it requires fewer $5000 sales than $500 sales or $50 sales to get to each million dollar benchmark.  BUT, it is not proportionately difficult to create and sell a $5000 thing than it is to create and sell a $50 thing.

Even in relatively mundane businesses, innovative entrepreneurs find ways to dramatically boost average transaction size.

That’s the thinking that replaced the coffee shop with Starbucks.

3)      The power of continuity. Think Max Sackheim’s remarkable invention, Book of the Month Club. Or health companies that automatically ship vitamins to consumer at a certain time each month.

It turns out I’d be several dollars richer had I built my newsletter business on continuity from the beginning. There are other millions I’ve missed out on as well. I miss those millions.

Everybody ought to strive and fight and work to find ways to create continuity income streams in their business, and if they can’t, to get involved in a business where they can.

I encourage you to make these three secrets of wealth creation the focus of your research, investigation, and study. Learn as much about them as quickly as possible. Pay attention to them on an ongoing bases. Carefully consider them every time you launch a new product or service. Get an opinion or several opinions from people who “get it” and who might see a way to price higher that you may have overlooked.

There is no virtue in settling for less than you are worth, less than you deserve, less than the market will cheerfully pay. Strive to never accept less than your customers would gladly give you.

P.S.– Get “The 10 Rules to Transforming Your Small Business into an Infinitely More Powerful Direct Response Marketing Business” for FREE. Click here to claim your customer-getting, sales-boosting tactics.

The Principle of Formula

If you want speed to success in anything it’s almost ALWAYS best to follow a formula.

You can arrive at a relatively small collection of formulas and structures that you rely on, that virtually guarantee success time after time, with little or no change, even to the same audience.

In every newsletter, every month, I do three stories, and they’re all story-point-benefit, story-point-benefit, story-point-benefit.  You’d think that people would catch on and get bored with that but do they?  No.  The opposite happens, they actually like it.

Every Law and Order, CSI, or going back a few years A-Team, episode is EXACTLY the same.  The plot was the same, the people were the same, the only thing that changed was the location and particular crime or crisis of the moment, but the formula was exactly the same…EVERY week.

There are 22 mystery plots, but they built an entire series around just one!  One works, why use two?  “Screw it.  Let’s use the same script outline; this week husband murdered, next week wife murdered, week after that baby sitter is murdered.”

Doesn’t make a difference, the plots EXACTLY the same.  Perry Mason ran for 9 years on television with exactly the same structure every single episode; only the details were interchangeable.  We’re fine with it, so you don’t need 20 or 30 formulas; you need one or two that’ll work.

The same thing works in sales letters, presentations, VSL’s etc…  You speed up the process and increase your chances of success by writing to a formula.

One I use often is the one about my yard being on fire.

There’s some kind of exciting incident, something that sets the formula in motion.  There’s a series of complications, things get worse.  These some sort of crisis that climaxes.  Then there’s a resolution to the story and of course then there’s the point that you want to make by the story.

There are really only four basic types of stories you’re always dealing with.

One is yours from personal experience.

Another is you’re telling a story about someone else’s experience.

The third is a parable; a story told kind of as fiction.

Then the last is a fable, like the rabbit and the tortoise is a fable.  The best thing about the parable and the fable is that they don’t breed as much resistance immediately.  The, “This is not for me,” resistance which we always have to counter in stories about real people, ourselves and others is much lower.

Bottom line is in anything you do, cooking, writing, growing a business, there are existing formulas for success.  It’s not like you’ll wake up tomorrow morning and instead of putting on your pants you’re going to say, “Forget this…I’m going to learn how to make me a pair of these suckers.”

I think you’ll agree that that’d be idiotic.

That’s what many though try to do with their business.  Instead of following proven formulas, virtually guaranteed to grow a business, people spend countless amounts of money, time and frustration trying to “learn how to make me a pair of these suckers.”

If you want to grow your business, there are seven principle strategies to do so.  Today Eben Pagan, who has grown ten businesses, from zero to a million+ dollars, released his formula where he’ll guide you through these seven strategies.  If growing you business, using Eben’s formula is of interest to you, click here now.

A message from GKIC headquarters tells me that if you like what Eben has to offer and invest in Eben’s program by clicking here, they are going to announce an incredible GKIC exclusive bonus tomorrow.  It’ll only be good for the first 10 people who invest, so if you know you want it, get it, and your name will be at the top of the list and you’ll be very pleasantly surprised by this time tomorrow.  Click here now.