How to Sell Cold Facts to Hard-Ass Customers
Right now I'm writing the toughest white paper I've ever written. I'm trying to convince a corporation why it's in their best interest to risk 1 million dollars on a single deal. I have to prove that it's actually not risky at all.
Even though they'd be going into a new type of business they know nothing about. Even though they're extremely conservative and they've literally got an office full of actuaries.
The gatekeeper asked me to write a proposal.
If they're intrigued, I get to talk to the head honchos. If not, I'm dead.
They're probably going to pass my paper around for 2 weeks and discuss it amongst themselves before I hear a single word back from them.
They're gonna scour the Internet and research this thing to death. And probably talk to a dozen people.
The document I'm sending them isn't called a "white paper" but that's what it is. It's a blend of HARD COLD FACTS and SEDUCTIVE PERSUASION.
Think of it as a research report that has to get somebody's juices flowing. A sales letter that has to build a lawyer-like case.
When your customers are "hard asses" about facts and details, you need a killer white paper.
That one killer white paper can melt sales resistance and pave a path for you for years.
***Now let me give you a Secret Ingredient that makes a White Paper like this super-persuasive***
In this paper I truly believe I have made an absolutely airtight case. If they hire a world-class expert to evaluate everything I said, the most pessimistic thing he can report back to them will be: "Perry IS right so far as we know. But some day he *might* turn out to be wrong."
So I go on to explain all the ways I in fact *might* be wrong, someday, somehow. I actually help them imagine all the 'alternative universes' where they could lose a million dollars. Every way I can think of.
*I'm even offering to pay the fee for them to hire an outside consultant to try and shoot holes in every single thing I've said.*
I want them to know they've covered every possible scenario? and that the chances of losing money are frankly so remote as to be trivial.
I play Devil's Advocate and show them they'll probably win even in the worst possible situation. I have to anticipate everything they might hear when they start talking to people.
This will make them comfortable. It shows them I'm telling the truth to the best of my ability.
If you MUST prove to your customer that you will obliterate his risk – if you MUST prove, with hard facts, the superiority of your solution – then "The Definitive Guide to Writing and Promoting Your White Paper" will show you exactly how to do it.
Perry
Ecommerce Website Owners: Win A $35,000 Makeover!
We're very excited to announce that BigCommerce, the leading innovator in hosted ecommerce software for small business merchants (and one of our fabulous clients!), has just launched the BigCommerce $35,000 Ecommerce Makeover Contest to discover online merchants who have the potential to become the next ecommerce giant (think Amazon.com, Zappos.com) but need a little help to do it!
From now until June 15th, 2010, small online business owners can enter the contest by posting a 60-second video to YouTube with the tags "bigcommerce" and "ecommerce contest" that communicates why they should win the ecommerce makeover and other relevant information about their business.
The grand prize winner will receive all of the following amazing services and resources to help grow their business faster:
- BigCommerce Diamond Store, with two-year free subscription
- Professional store redesign & migration of the store to BigCommerce
- Two-year MailChimp email marketing subscription
- One-year Fan Appz Pro license for social media marketing
- Google AdWords Account Audit & Strategy Session* from ROI Revolution!
- Online sales and marketing program consulting from Sales Rescue Team
- Significant promotion & various PR opportunities
- Full case study posted on BigCommerce.com
Four runner-ups will receive a two-year BigCommerce Gold Store subscription, PR opportunities and a case study on BigCommerce.com.
BigCommerce invites eligible contestants to submit their videos now through June 15, 2010. Five finalists will be selected by the judges to enter the final round, at which point finalist videos will be posted on the BigCommerce web site and Facebook page where the public will have an opportunity to vote for their favorite submitted video. Public voting runs from June 29, 2010 through July 9, 2010. The grand prize winner will be announced on July 15, 2010!
To be eligible, contestants must be online merchants based in the U.S. with less than 1,000 products on their site and have been selling online for at least one year. The contest is open to both current BigCommerce clients as well as customers using other ecommerce shopping cart platforms.
More contest details and official entry guidelines can be found here. Good luck and we look forward to helping develop the next ecommerce giant!
*Don't qualify for the contest but still want to grow your online business? Learn how we can help you get the most out of your online advertising with a comprehensive AdWords account audit & strategy session!
UPDATE:
As of May 25, 2010, the contest is now open to anyone (18 years or older) in ANY country with little to no experience selling online!
The contest was previously limited to US residents only with at least one year of online selling experience.
Click here for all the details and official entry guidelines. Best of luck to all the contestants out there!
Google AdWords Remarketing Campaigns: See how we set up our own campaigns
Google remarketing campaigns allow you to serve custom ads to users who have visited your website.
My latest Search Engine Land article covers the basics of setting up a remarketing campaign and gives some examples for setting up remarketing ad groups for an ecommerce site. If you are new to remarketing, you might want to take a quick look through that article and learn the basics of how to set up a remarketing campaign as in this article we’re going to make the assumption that you have some basic knowledge of remarketing.
In this article, we will show you how we are setting them up for our new product, Certified Knowledge (note: the site is not fully live yet, but we’re planning out our marketing campaigns now so this is what it will look like once everything is publicly launched).
The Marketing Campaign’s Objectives
Certified Knowledge is a subscription based AdWords learning, PPC tool, and community site. With many subscription products it takes a few visits for someone to finally convert. Therefore, remarketing is a perfect way to serve custom ads to those who have been on the site once, but have not yet bought a subscription.
There are three main benefits of Certified Knowledge (tutorials, tools, and community); therefore, we want to make custom ads based upon what sections someone has visited within the site.
If someone entered the cart but did not buy, we want a very custom message. For example, if a user started the purchase process but did not complete the transaction; we want to display a custom message or offer specific to the fact that they didn’t finish the purchase process. This group of cart abandoners still have a better chance of converting than someone who has never been to our website before or looked around the site and didn’t enter the cart, so our bids for this list will be higher than for any other audience.
If someone has subscribed we don’t want to serve then an ad for the membership.
Lastly, the further into the conversion process that someone was, the longer the cookie will last based upon our settings (remarketing ads are displayed based upon a browser having a cookie that corresponds to your lists).
The Remarketing Lists
Google offers the ability to create a straightforward list (a cookie on the computer means they are in a list), or a custom combination which uses Boolean strings to combine audiences into a single list. With some of these lists, I think we could use custom combinations instead of straight lists. However, I’ve not been able to test Google’s Boolean strings yet to be confident in their use. What I’d like to do is add someone to list 1. Then, if they also make it to list 2, remove them from list 2. However, that is not currently possible.
In addition, what I don’t know is if someone is on two different lists; and you use one list as a negative list, it appears that the ad will not be displayed to that person at all. (i.e. if someone is on list a and on list b, and list a is your positive list and list b is your negative list – will the user see the ad?)
Therefore, for the initial setup of our remarketing campaigns (this may change in the future); I’m setting up several lists; and then I’ll use negative lists at the ad group level and CPC manipulation to determine which shows (i.e. if a basic list is worth $0.25 and a more advanced list is worth $1, even if someone is on both, the should see the $1 CPC ad copy for that list).
Here is a list of the remarketing lists that we created and where we put the codes across our website:
| List Name | Purpose | Placed | Cookie Duration |
| All visitors | Reach everyone who examined in the offer | Global Footer | 30 days |
| PPC Tools | Reach those who examined the Tools section | PPC Tools pages | 60 days |
| AdWords Tutorials | Reach those who entered the tutorial section | AdWords Video page | 60 days |
| PPC Community | Reach those looking for community engagement | PPC community page | 60 days |
| Pricing | Reach price conscious shoppers | Visited price page | 60 days |
| Shopping cart abandonment | Reach consumers who showed intent to buy but did not finish | All pages except confirmation of cart | 90 days |
| Converted: Free email training | Free 5 email training message for sneak peak. Reach these consumers who showed high interest in system. | Thank you for subscribing email confirmation page | 90 days |
| Converted: Subscription | If someone subscribed, want to make sure we don’t serve them ads | Thank you for subscribing page after billing info entered | 360 days |
Once the lists are created and the scripts placed on the appropriate pages, then it’s time to create the Ad Groups that reach the various audiences.
Remarketing Ad Groups
We are creating an entirely new campaign for our remarketing lists for four reasons:
- Budget. We have a much higher budget than for our placement and discovery campaigns.
- Blocked domains. We don’t want our usual blocked domain list to affect remarketing ads (at least to start)
- Geography: As this product has international appeal (and we’ll do international billing); we are going to start with a few different countries in our campaign list (and refine from there).
- Reach & Frequency: We want a different frequency caps for the ads than our other content campaigns.
Once a new campaign is setup, it’s time to map out the ad groups. The reason to create various remarketing ad groups is when you want to show different ads to different audience lists. At an ad group level, you can add both positive and negative audiences and set a different bid by audience. Therefore, we’re going to build our ad groups from the ads that we’re going to be showing.
In addition, it will be common for some users to be on multiple lists. Therefore, we’re going to use a lot of negative lists to ensure the most relevant ad is being displayed. In cases where someone is on multiple lists, we will also use bids to ensure the more specific ad is being shown (so our bids will be the lowest on general ads and highest on close-to-converting individuals).
Ad Group 1: Non-Engaged Users
This ad group is for users who visited the site but did not enter a specific section of the site. Therefore, these are the absolutely least qualified of all the visitors. This is the reason the cookie duration for this list is only 30 days, the shortest of all the lists.
The positive list: All visitor
The negative lists: All the other lists. If someone is on any other list; we don’t want them seeing our general ad; we want a more specific ad served to that user.
The ad: Showcasing all benefits.
Bid: Lowest of all the remarketing lists. These visitors went to at least the homepage, and possibly an interior page; but not one of the very specific pages that is useful for tailoring a separate ad for that user.
Ad Group 2: Price Shoppers
This ad group is for users who visited the pricing section.
The positive list: Pricing
The negative lists: All others except non-engaged users list.
The ad: Showcasing that your time is worth money, and then show how Certified Knowledge can save you time.
Bid: Second lowest of all the remarketing lists. Price conscious users can be difficult to convince. In addition, I’d rather the more specific ad (the ad groups below) be shown to consumers instead of this ad. If someone happens to be on both the non-engaged user list and the price shoppers list, they should see this ad because its bid will be higher than the non-engaged user list.
Ad Group 3: PPC Community
This ad group is for people who visited the PPC community page. I expect that most people who visit this page will also visit other pages across the site. Therefore, while this will be an ad we show, we’re going to put less importance on what I expect the stronger benefits to be: Tools & Training. However, if someone did visit this page, we’re willing to show them this ad (in addition to other ads they may see from the more specific ad groups).
The positive list: PPC community
The negative list: All others except Price Shoppers and Non-engaged users.
The ad: Showcasing the benefits of having access to an active forum, email, and news system.
Bid: Third lowest. Higher than Price Shoppers; lower than PPC Tools & AdWords Tutorials.
Ad Group 4: AdWords Tutorials
This ad group is targeting consumers who examined our tutorials. As we’re going to have many pages explaining the tutorials, this might be broken down into two lists over time: main tutorials page, all training subpages. That sectioning will help us identify those who just glanced at the tutorials versus looked at our videos and read more about the AdWords lessons.
The positive list: AdWords Tutorials
The negative list: Converted subscription, Converted email training, Shopping cart abandonment. If someone converted, or was closer to converting than just visiting the features pages, then I want them to see the more specific ad.
The ad: Showcasing what Certified Knowledge can teach you about AdWords with more than 50 lessons, and more than 100 coming by the end of the year.
Bid: Higher than PPC Community and lower than the three negative lists.
Ad Group 5: PPC Tools
This ad group is targeting consumers who examined our toolset. As we’re going to have many pages explaining the tools, this might be broken down into two lists over time: main tools page, all tool subpages. That sectioning will help us identify those who just glanced at the tools versus looked at our videos and read more about the tools.
The positive list: PPC Tools
The negative list: Converted subscription, Converted email training, Shopping cart abandonment. If someone converted, or was closer to converting than just visiting the features pages, then I want them to see the more specific ad.
The ad: Showcasing the benefits of the PPC tools we have developed which will save you time in creating ad copies, geographic keywords and keywords. They will help you bid, find quality score issues, find broken links, and help you analyze your site. While most of the ad groups will contain two or three image ads to start (by themes, each theme will have different sizes); I expect this ad group will have more test ads to see what message resonates better.
Bid: Same as the AdWords Tutorials. I expect it will become slightly higher than the tutorials over time as tutorials are one to three time views for most consumers, and many repeat views will help refresh your knowledge. The tools will be used daily, weekly, or monthly depending on what you’re trying to accomplish inside your account; and therefore, I think will be more valuable over time.
Ad Group 6: Converted Free Email Training
This ad group is for targeting those who signed up for a ‘free lessons training’ via email. Many people who sign up for free training do not have an intent to buy as they just want the free stuff. Others want a trial of what you are offering and have a high chance of converting. However, email open rates can be sporadic on free training offers. Therefore, these ads will both remind them about Certified Knowledge, but also serve as a reminder about the emails delivered to them.
The positive list: Converted Free Email Training
The negative lists: Converted subscription, Shopping Cart Abandoners
The ad: Showcase the Certified Knowledge tutorials with messages to remind them about their email subscription. I’m not sure if they will be something like: “Did you enjoy your free email training from Certified Knowledge? Learn how you can access all of our training” as that might seem a bit creepy to people that we know they have the email – or if they’ll be images more aligned with the training aspects of Certified Knowledge.
Bid: To start, a bit higher than AdWords tutorials & tools lists as these users were willing to give us a name and email address to receive the information. Overtime, the bidding for this list might change significantly up or down.
Ad Group 7: Shopping Cart Abandoners
This ad group is for targeting those who entered the shopping cart but did not convert.
The positive list: Shopping cart abandoners
The negative list: Converted subscription, Converted Free email training
I’m making an assumption here that I might change in the future. I’m considering these users more valuable than the converted free email training list as these shoppers were within a submit button of entering their credit card information and becoming customers. I think they will be more valuable than the Converted Free Email Training list – but I might be wrong; therefore, I might test this exact same ad group minus the email training list as a negative list in the future.
The ad: One ad will showcase the Certified Knowledge benefits. One will show a phone number with the benefits that talks about support for any problems. As we start to map out sign-up objections, then we will base the ads around the most common ones.
Bid: The highest of all the lists.
Are all these lists necessary?
Outside of the time to create the actual ads per ad group, setting up one list and one ad group versus seven ad groups and lists is only a few minutes of additional work. We’re using WordPress for this site’s CMS; so adding some custom code to the pages is very simple and will take less than a minute per list. I’m expecting the entire setup (outside of the ad copy creation) to take less than ten minutes. I’ve already set up some remarketing campaigns for the AdWords Seminars and it took less than a minute to setup the list and add the code to the pages for each created list.
The advantage of showing an ad to the consumer based upon their main interests in the site should significantly outweigh the work involved.
The Next Step
Once everything is in place, then remarketing success is all about ad creatives and measurement.
Remarketing has a higher potential of success than almost all other forms of marketing because the user was already involved with your website. Most marketing drives some users to your website based upon a common interest (keyword, placement, email list, etc). Remarketing engages users who have already been on your website and are somewhat familiar with your offerings. This type of campaign can be the final push that someone needs to realize how valuable your service can be to them.
| Read Brad's Newest Book: Advanced Google AdWords | |
 |
Advanced Google AdWords will provide deep insight into AdWords functionality and advanced features, explaining how they work and providing tips, tactics, and hands-on tutorials that readers can immediately use on their own PPC campaigns. |
| Certified Knowledge: Online AdWords Training, Tools, and Community | |
 |
Certified Knowledge is an online tools, training, and community site brought to you by Brad Geddes & bg Theory. We are currently accepting beta applications. In interested, please see more at CertifiedKnowledge.org. |
Related posts:
- Creating Limited Time ‘Sale Campaigns’ in Google AdWords Many companies run limited time sales. Creating ads with creatives...
- Beginners Guide To Creating Mobile AdWords Campaigns My latest Search Engine Land column is out entitled: Beginners...
- The Guide to Creating AdWords Pay Per Action Campaigns Google AdWords recently launched pay per action advertising. This advertising...
Important Split Testing Innovation
Like everyone else in direct marketing, I spend a lot of time extolling the virtues of split testing. As well I should, because with ongoing, small improvements, implemented like a bull dog, you can radically change the performance of your whole sales systems.
Unlike everyone else, I urge people to have the patience to do their research and competitive intelligence thoroughly and precisely, so they’ll have the RIGHT INPUTS for their tests, to maximize the probability of results.
But here’s something I haven’t talked much about, which I really should (but Howie beat me to the punch)…
“Testing Juice” is a limited resource. We only have so much traffic and money to pay for it, and every test we do eats some of it for a while. Accordingly, it’s vitally important to PRIORITIZE your tests correctly.
Howie Jacobson, author of Adwords for Dummies, has developed an excellent paradigm for doing just that. In this MP3 interview (and accompanying slides) you’ll hear him walk you through it.
Of course, I won’t hide the fact that this is also a blatant attempt to get you to attend Camp Checkmate via my affiliate link (which entitles you to the EARLY BIRD pricing if you order soon, even though the deadline’s passed). But as always, both Howie and I took extra special care to ensure the content itself should be immediately valuable to you.
Enjoy!
Dr. G 
SURVEY: Implementation vs. Procrastination in Marketing
* ANONYMOUS IMPLEMENTATION SURVEY:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/296821/Implementation-Survey
I’m developing a series of FREE teleseminars to help with the actual IMPLEMENTATION of the marketing principles and strategies that I teach.
If you have any specific questions or issues on which you’d like to receive additional coaching, guidance, or clarification from me — then I’d love to hear what topics would be most helpful to you.
Would you kindly take 2 minutes to help me out with this quick survey?
Much appreciated, thanks!
G:-)
* ANONYMOUS IMPLEMENTATION SURVEY:
http://www.surveygizmo.com/s3/296821/Implementation-Survey
Do you know about Gmail’s Funbox?
The 'Funbox' is a little known reference to the top ad spot in gmail, and guess what? You can target it as a managed placement in your AdWords content network campaigns.
So how do you target the fun box? The fun box is not found in the placement tool, so you need to add this in manually as a managed placement (in the networks tab):
Also, one of the most common mistakes is to try and target gmail by adding 'gmail.com' as a managed placement. It's important to know that to target gmail, you need to add the following as a managed placement:
If you see gmail is performing well for you, it's best practice to create a separate campaign that targets only gmail users.
Here are the benefits of creating separate gmail targeted campaigns:
- Write specific ads tailored to Gmail users
- Develop keyword themes around Gmail messages (advanced strategy)
- Controlled budgets
- Transparency of performance
It's not necessary to create gmail targeted campaigns when you are first testing out Google's content network. The best strategy is to first start with a keyword targeted (or contextually targeted) content campaign, and monitor the performance of mail.google.com on the networks tab. If you see traffic and conversions are high, it's a good idea to go ahead and separate out mail.google.com traffic into a separate campaign.
Years of “Missionary Work” & Nothing to Show For It
My first few years in sales were a long, hard road.
I pounded the pavement for months, educating every company I could find about the marvelous benefits of my hot new technology. I crisscrossed the Chicago area in my beige Ford Taurus seeking anyone who would listen to me.
I sponsored lunch & learns, Dog & Pony Shows, demonstrations… catered lunches, gave impassioned presentations… I pumped myself up in the mirror every day. "You're good enough, you're smart enough, and people like you."
I reassured myself, "Dude, one of these days all these deals are gonna start popping and yer gonna get yerself some mighty fine commission checks."
At one point I started to notice that every time I went to see a customer, I would see a little book on his desk. My competition had written a booklet and they were offering it for free in all the trade magazines etc.
Their handy little book was going out everywhere. It was saturating the industry. My competition was cherry-picking the best customers and wowing them with great demonstrations and credibility.
One by one, all those "awesome deals" I was about to reel in started falling apart.
Again and again customers would wanly smile and shake my hand. "Perry, we decided to go with BRAND X instead. But thanks for all the information and advice. It helped us a lot, really it did."
You're welcome, sir. Glad to have provided the wonderful education and free doughnuts.
I would drive home and tell my long-suffering wife I'd lost another sale.
Ain't it fun, living out "Death Of A Salesman" every day? I did not get one single technology sale, even though I broke the ice and did a year of costly missionary work.
One of the most powerful spells your competitors can ever hold against you is to seem like they're "everywhere." Nobody can go anywhere in your industry without hearing their name repeatedly… bumping into their information… getting their perspective instead of yours.
If you're on the negative side of that equation, you do the hard, back-breaking missionary work and SOMEBODY ELSE swoops in at the last minute and steals the sale.
If you're on the positive side of that equation, other people do the hard, back-breaking missionary work and YOU swoop in at the last minute and steal the sale.
Which way do you want it?
In days to come I will be offering a new approach that blankets your market with proof that YOU are the guy or gal to do business with. Your rivals do the missionary work and *you* get the rewards.
I challenge you to make a decision that you're going to do everything in your power to win the positioning game every time. After you've experienced life on the good side of the credibility tracks, you'll never want to have it any other way.
Perry Marshall
Google’s New Match Type Now Live – Modified Broad Match
I was lucky enough to be in the beta of modified broad match and have been using this match type for a couple months now to great success. Google lifted the veil of secrecy today about the new match type and let me know that I can now blog about it.
Broad match increases reach. Phrase match increases relevancy. The new modified broad match gives you the flexibility of broad match with the control of phrase match.
Broad match is useful because: “20% of the queries Google receives each day are ones we haven’t seen in at least 90 days, if at all?” – source.
While the fact that so many queries are unique often led people to using broad match – the returns often aren’t there. This new match type gives you some control over how a broad matched word can be matched.
To use this match type, go to your account and add a + (plus) symbol in front of one or more words in your keyword phrase. Then, the word/s with the +sign must either be in the query or a close variant must be in the query. A close variant is a misspelling (flor instead of floor), plural (flowers instead of flower), or stemmed version (running instead of run).
| Keyword | Possible Matches | Notes |
| running +shoes | running shoes running shoe tennis shoes |
The word +shoes or it’s variant ‘shoe’ is in every query |
| +running +shoe | running shoes running shoe run shoe shoes for running |
Both +shoe and +running must be in the query or have a variant in the query |
| +extra +wide running +shoes | Extra wide running shoes Extra wide exercise shoes Extra wide walking shoes |
All the words are matched or closely matched except for ‘running’ |
The use of the new modified broad match will help expand your possible matches while still keeping those same matches under control. Broad match and negative keywords do work well together, and this new match type will open up some new possibilities for broad and negative match combinations. Just remember that these new matches will still not convert higher than your exact match keywords.
If you wish to try this out, I’d suggest picking a few select ad groups where you are having problems gaining the exposure you desire, and then following these steps:
- Create a new ad group using those same keywords with the new plus modifiers
- If the old ad group has all broad match, then set a higher CPC for these new match types
- If the old ad group has all exact and phrase match, then set a lower CPC for these new match types
- Let the ad group run and collect some data
- Run the search query report examining these two ad groups and their variations
- Set appropriate bids based upon conversions
The reason to create a new ad group in this example is that you can only see search query data at the ad group level. While you can see the match type; you cannot see the keyword and match type combination that triggered a query. Over time, you might get rid of one of these ad groups and combine the keywords back into a single ad group. However, this is a new match type and there are bound to be some odd combinations that you will be shown for.
When trying out a brand new function with AdWords, it can be useful to look at the new features in isolation from other variables.
| Read Brad's Newest Book: Advanced Google AdWords | |
|
Advanced Google AdWords will provide deep insight into AdWords functionality and advanced features, explaining how they work and providing tips, tactics, and hands-on tutorials that readers can immediately use on their own PPC campaigns. |
| Certified Knowledge: Online AdWords Training, Tools, and Community | |
|
Certified Knowledge is an online tools, training, and community site brought to you by Brad Geddes & bg Theory. We are currently accepting beta applications. In interested, please see more at CertifiedKnowledge.org. |
Related posts:
- Your Broad Match Keywords Are Not Converting Higher than Your Exact Match Keywords I was recently looking at an AdWords account where: The...
- Quality Score is Based on Precise Match Not Exact Match I made a comment on Twitter that stirred up some...
- More on Advanced Match Advanced match works differently than broad match. The system analyzes...
How Drew Carey can explode your Traffic & Sales
Anytime someone says “group exercise” you probably roll your eyes and think of one of those corporate “Team Building” and “Trust Building” shindigs. Me too. I’m not into cheesy deals where people fall backwards into other peoples’ arms, sing Kumbaya and all that.
That stuff is for weenies.
But at our Florida Roundtable Meeting in January, Howie Jacobson gave us a revolutionary group brainstorming exercise that expanded our ad-writing power.
This was brilliant and almost everyone in the room DID experience a breakthrough. Including ME. I beat a long-standing Google control ad. Also got added inspiration for my “Swiss Army Knife” technique, a smash hit I then introduced for the first time in Maui.
Plus it was super fun. The time flew by and suddenly we all had a new set of tools for persuading customers.
This brief exercise was barely the tip of the iceberg. Howie is an immensely creative guy and he’s been formulating a very special 2-day experience for a year now. He’s holding it in Chicago June 10-11.
*See some of the improv games that inspired Howie’s workshop on the Drew Carey show:
http://www.perrymarshall.com/improv
*See testimonials from my Roundtable Members about their “WOW” experience, doing this together live. And test-drive Camp Checkmate, FREE:
http://www.perrymarshall.com/campcheckmate
I know you’re reluctant to travel – everybody is. But this is something that is IMPOSSIBLE to experience over the web, via teleseminar, or any other kind of distance medium. It must be felt in person and it’s MAGIC. There is a level of discovery that goes down to the core of your being, and it *only* happens when you’re with other people.
Howie’s Guarantee:
“If you do the assignments I give at Camp Checkmate and you don?t ?
* double your CTR, OR
* slash your cost per click in HALF, OR
* increase your AdWords-driven revenue by 20%
by the end of 2010, then I’ll refund your entire tuition. And you get to keep both lunches.”
If you have any kind of real business on the web, it’s a no-brainer.
I can’t wait. I’ll be speaking on the 2nd day of the event, as will Glenn Livingston. I’ll reveal the Swiss Army Knife, in detail, which is a perfect complement to Howie’s magic workshop:
http://www.perrymarshall.com/campcheckmate
Perry Marshall
Straight path to earning $250K/year as a consultant
One day in the Dilbert Cube job, I had a phone session with a business consultant.
He'd given me a great new angle. Then I hung up the phone and thought: "This guy has his own business. Wow… he didn't call me, I called him. What would it be like to be him instead of me?
What would it be like to be independent, to not be under somebody's thumb, not having a boss run your life? What would it be like to do life on YOUR terms?"
I spent the next few minutes salivating, longing for liberation, before I went back to my work. I wanted to be free in the worst possible way.
In the world of "biz op", a lot of people talk about things like "walk away income" and "residual income" and "multiple streams of income" and all that.
Admittedly, a consulting business is not a walk-away income. (In 20 years I've never seen anything advertised as a walk-away income that actually was.) HOWEVER…. a consulting business is the *perfect* doorway to all manner of multiple streams of income. It's the first step to living life on your own terms.
15 years ago the firm I worked for as an engineer was run by a guy who, as a consultant, had leveraged a buy-out of the company. He made himself president and CEO. His consulting work had uniquely positioned him to see golden opportunities inside his client company. He made many millions from that one deal.
It wasn't a walk-away income, but he most certainly made enough money to "walk away."
(That's how REAL walk-away incomes are made, by the way.)
When you're a paid consultant with real life gigs and real clients, your access to new opportunities is 10X superior to everyone else's. Here's why:
- You have an insider's view of real products being developed, new markets being opened, launches, campaigns and income streams. Alliances, political situations, sudden departures, unfilled needs, and under-valued people and resources. (Isn't it a lot better to finally be on the positive side of that stuff, instead of the negative side?)
- Your peer group becomes other consultants who also have this 24/7 visibility to new opportunities – you're in a stimulating, "scan the horizon for lucrative, exciting trends" culture instead of that stifling, lethargic, "punch the clock" mentality
- You're privy to all manner of unmet needs, possibly across dozens of markets
- You become accustomed to seeing the world as an endless supply of needs you can fill, rather than being like most people who hope that a big break will somehow "show up" somewhere
- If you properly position yourself, the supply of potential clients always exceeds demand. You stop worrying that your income stream will dry up or that your position will be eliminated.
- There are many ways you can transition from merely being a consultant to partnering, joint-venturing or having an equity position in a new business venture. One winning project produces income, contacts, recognition and multiplied
- You can consult in the evenings and weekends do you don't have to give up your main bread and butter
- If you have Internet skills, they're 10X more valuable in someone else's business than they are in your own brand new startup. (At first, anyway. Not putting down startups, but existing businesses have more leverage.)
Bob Bly is a *highly* respected marketing and business consultant. He's been doing it for almost 30 years and he's forgotten more than most people know. He's produced a very affordable course on how to play this game like a pro and I encourage you to check it out.
Your investment in this course can easily pay for itself with one TINY consulting project – just for sticking your toe in the water. It's at
www.perrymarshall.com/blyconsulting
If you're working at a job you hate (or even just a career that no longer inspires you) don't wait for something to happen. MAKE it happen.
Perry Marshall
