Jay Abraham

https://youtu.be/qZLgf0JtEQs

Learning sound business strategies that can be applied for growth in a way that's probably not what competitors are doing which is going to give me a very powerful and distinct advantage in the world of business. If I think like everybody else, then I'll get the same results as everybody else. For this reason, I must learn to think differently

Think differently

• Industry A doesn't know anything about the methods industry B uses; correspondingly, industry C is totally unaware of the way industry B sells or markets, and on and on
  • By helping me study and identify the fundamental principles that drive the successes in hundreds of other industries, I'll be able to pick and choose the most powerful, effective state of the art breakthrough approaches to introduce to my industry
  • I should go outside my industry to see how other industry leaders are solving their problems. Odds are that they have a creative, unique way of solving their problem that is comparable to mine
• If I'm fishing and have one pole with one line in the water, I will be able to catch only a limited number of fish. But if I use ten poles and put ten lines with ten different baits in the water at the same time, my fish catching potential will significantly increase
• Breakthroughs. Incremental gains vs Quantum leaps
  • My greatest success and prosperity in business and life, will come from my ability to create my own breakthroughs
• What is a breakthrough?
  • Unconventionally fresh, superior, more exciting ways of doing something
  • Dramatic improvements in each area that make me more: impactful, powerful, efficient, effective, productive and valuable or inspiring to my client
  • Make my marketing produce twice or three times the results from the same effort or less
  • Transform my product from a commodity into a prized proprietary item no one else can offer (or directly compete against)
  • Let me control my business with fewer people, less payroll, less confusion, more productivity, more efficiency and more profit
  • Let me change the entire business game I play by allowing me to totally (but ethically) change all the rules and remake them at will
  • Let me outthink, out leverage, out market, outsell, outperform, out impact, out defend, out maneuver and continuously outwit my competition on every level
  • Right now my competitors are constantly trying to come up with new ways to take my clients, job or entire business away from me. I have got to beat them to the punch. Breakthroughs are the path to do that
  • Let me reinvent my business or career before some competitor does it to me
  • Let me maximize my successes better and longer so I can safely uncover new future successes
  • Let me ethically use other people's knowledge, capital or resources to my own maximum advantage
  • Let me lower or totally eliminate the risk in an activity, while vastly increasing the payoff potential
  • Breakthroughs make me unbeatable. Breakthroughs make people wealthy
• How?
  • Being opportunity focused
  • I must invent and constantly be reinventing my own better future
  • Where's the big overlooked opportunity here?
  • See opportunities where everyone else sees problems, obstacles, limitations, or boundaries
  • Maximizing and creating breakthroughs means more than simply getting the most profit, highest performance, greatest productivity and effectiveness out of an action, opportunity or investment. It also means achieving maximum results with a minimum of time, effort, expense, and risk…something few people practice or even think about. Think: Highest and best use of my time, money and effort. Highest and best. Always highest and best!
• Practice
  • Try and uncover at least one cash windfall for my business or employer every three months
  • My goal in creating breakthroughs is to use ideas to create more value for others
  • Breakthroughs increase in direct proportion to the amount of networking, brainstorming, and masterminding I do with like-minded, success-driven people outside my industry
  • The best breakthroughs take away risk or resistance from the other side. So it's easier to say yes than no
  • Employ as many success practices of others outside my field or industry by investigating then modeling their philosophies and methods

Three ways to grow my business

• Example
  • Lets say I have 1,000 clients. They average $100 per transaction/sale. And they make two purchases in a year
  • 1,000 * $100 * 2 = $200,000
  • 1,100 x $110 * 2.2 = $266,200 A mere 10% increase across the board expands my income by 33.1%
• Increase the number of clients
  • Risk reversal
  • § I want to reduce the risk that the targeted audience feels regarding their purchase
  • Referrals
  • § A formal client referral system will bring me an immediate increase in clients and profit. And it doesn't cost anything to implement it. A referral-generated client normally spends more money, buys more often, is more profitable and loyal than most other categories of business I could go after
  • Referral systems
  • § Step one: Every time clients deal with me in-person, through my sales staff, by letter, e-mail or on the phone, diplomatically ask them for client referrals. But first, I must set the stage
  • § I tell my clients that I realize I enjoy doing business with them and they probably associate with other people like themselves who mirror their values and quality
  • § Tell them I'd like to extend to them the opportunity of referring their valued and trusted associates to me
  • § Then help the client see a clear picture of who in their lives could benefit most effectively, and naturally, from my services or products
  • § Tell them what kind of person or business it might be, where they are, what they are probably doing, and why they'd be satisfied
  • § Show them what that person or entity would be doing or buying right now so that the picture is vivid. Then extend a totally risk-free, totally obligation-free sales offer
  • § Step two: Willingly offer to confer with, review, advise or at least talk or meet with anyone important to that client
  • § Offer to consult their referral or let them sample or get a demonstration of my product or service in action without expectation of purchase, so my client sees me as a valuable expert with whom they can put their friends or colleagues in touch
  • Target market
• § Focus my efforts and attention on the markets, prospects, and activities that offer me the highest probability of a payoff and I'll always do better
  • § But most people don't stop and question whether there's a better way, an accessible and qualified decision maker or source they can reach easier and more effectively
  • § When I do realize there are ways to focus on prospects who are more likely to be interested in my product or service, I will experience greater results with less effort, time and money expended
  • § Sit down with my client files and sales people (if I have them) and make certain I have a complete, comprehensive list of all my clients
  • § Separate my clients by their various buying patterns or interests
  • § Determine which clients buy what category of products or services. Which ones buy larger units of sale and buy more frequently. Identify people or businesses that purchase more of specific categories of products and services or far more specialized applications
  • § Note if there are similarities among various buying groups that point to opportunity trends. For example, if I discover that my biggest buyers are all doctors, or chemical manufacturers, etc., I'd be able to target more of these groups as primary prospects
  • § See if there are geographical trends, demographic indications, or general, age, family, business type and/or size factors that correlate to specific buying patterns
  • § When I recognize what these patterns are, I can then use that knowledge to fashion propositions geared more to that segment
  • Unique selling proposition
  • § My Unique Selling Proposition is that distinct, appealing idea that sets my business apart from every other "me too" competitor
  • Host-Beneficiary relationships
  • § Determine who in my marketing area is already selling to the clients I wan to be reaching, and who has their trust, respect and goodwill. They would be selling something that either goes before, goes along with, or follows the product or service that I sell to people. My product or service does not compete with their product or service, but it complements it
  • § Step One: Ask myself: "Who already has a strong relationship with people to whom I might be able to sell a noncompetitive but related product or service?"
  • § Step Two: Once I've got names on paper, contact those non-competing businesses and ask them to introduce my product or serviced to their audience. Supply them with plenty of information on what I sell, and some testimonials attesting to its high quality
  • § Once I have their attention, point out the following facts:
  • □ My product or service is absolutely non-competitive to the host's product or service. In the case where I approach a competitor, point out to them that any ancillary profits will result from reworking their list, after they have drawn all the profits they can from their products. This may be especially appealing to companies who own large, "one-time" purchaser lists
  • □ It's not going to take away or supplant any income or profits the host would ordinary realize
  • □ It augments their profits
  • □ They don't have to lift a finer or spend a dime. If they do wish to participate, that's even better
  • □ I'll create all the marketing material, subject totally to their approval, of course. I can offer to pay all the costs or avail them of the opportunity to joint-venture with me (correspondingly, their profit share should be commensurate with their capital and time commitment)
  • □ I'll indemnify and hold them harmless, plus I'll unconditionally guarantee every item or service sold
  • □ The host company can have all orders and/or services routed through them for verification
  • □ Point out that particularly in those situations where the host is far removed or totally tangential to my business, it's purely bonus income for them
• Increase the average size of the sale per client
  • Adding on Products/Services
  • List all the products and services I sell that produce a greater result for the client when used together or in logical progression. Try offering various combinations, packages, and "upsell" with these
  • Then list what I call the cycles of product/service life: All the products or services other people sell that precede, parallel, complement, or follow the use of my product or service. Find the companies who sell all these products or services and see what kind of distribution, outright purchase, or Host Beneficiary deals I can make with each in order to add their items on to my client's sale
  • Think of any logical services my client could benefit from after purchasing my product or service, like tech support, extended warranty, annual or semi-annual maintenance, pick up and delivery, etc. Could I provide any of these services to increase the value of my transaction?
  • If I have nothing else I can add, consider offering a larger, more deluxe, version of my product or service at a greater price
  • Every time someone makes a purchase from me or my organization, I have an opportunity to increase the size of that purchase. It's not just to add to my short term profit. It's all about me helping my client get the optimal benefit or advantage out of the transaction they're doing with me
• Increase the number of times clients return and buy again
  • Clients stop buying for three basic reasons:
  • § They stop buying temporarily and just never get around to dealing with me again. Out of sight, out of mind. A trite phrase, but very true. Once I stop dealing with a company, no matter how valuable the product or service, I tend to fall into a different buying pattern
  • § They became dissatisfied. There are hundreds of reasons a client becomes unhappy and stops doing business with a company. But the important thing to realize is that rarely did I intentionally offend or dissatisfy that client
  • § The client's situation has changed to the point they no longer can benefit from my product or service
  • Adding additional offers to the product line
  • § Graduate the client to a larger or superior alternative product or package of goods or services
  • § They don't have to buy it, but I have an obligation to demonstrate to them the differences in performance and outcome they can expect to receive and to make them an offer that gives them an incentive for considering trading up
  • Add-ons and cross-selling
  • § Offer my client alternatives, alternatives that perform better and which are in my client's best interests, not mine
  • § A cross-sell is introducing to the client an additional product or service that will add or increase the result of their transaction with me or my company

Other key options

• Direct mail
  • Sales letters are the most powerful prelude to telephone marketing efforts. Sending a sales letter ahead of a phone call can increase the effectiveness of the call itself by 1000%
• Maximizing what I have
  • Test everything
• Lifetime client value
  • It is amazing how few companies ever test any aspect of their marketing and compare it to something else. They bet their destiny on arbitrary, subjective decisions and conjecture
• Testing
  • By testing different ways to say the same thing
  • By trying different copies
  • By testing the pull of one magazine against another
  • By testing one mailing list against another
  • By testing one radio time slot against another
  • By testing one offer against another
  • One price against another
  • One guarantee against another
  • One sales presentation against another
  • One direct mail package against another
  • Make a list of all the major elements or variables in my business or career activities that produce measurable results. Include all regular situations where persuasion or influence are important to my success. Next, identify the key transitional elements in each of those activities (i.e., headlines, presentation openings, sales, closes, USP's, etc.). Then, come up with at least two alternative ways or approaches to these activities. Create at least two different ways to say or communicate my "message," different pricing strategies, different positionings, and presentations, etc. Then, conservatively and modestly test these different approaches against my current "control" approach. I'll be surprised at how many of my new tests outperform my own standards. Find every process in my business or career that could be improved and focus on making small incremental or large exponential improvements in each process. If I do that, the combined effect will be dramatic and geometric
• Sales Letter
  • It must get the reader's attention with a powerful headline
  • The letter must show clear and distinct advantages in the body
  • The letter has to prove or validate my claim of benefits or advantages through factual examples, like comparisons, analysis, testimonials, or credentials
  • The letter must persuade the reader to reach out and seize the advantage I promise
  • The letter must motivate the reader to act, respond, order, write, come in or send back the coupon
• Barter
  • Trading my products or services for things my business needs or wants is called "Business Barter." Barter gives me the amazing ability to vastly increase my purchasing power, sometimes by as much as 5-10 times over
  • Done right, barter also gives me the effect of having almost unlimited capital. It's like having a blank check to fill in. It allows me to acquire products and services now, but pay for them much later. And the longer I take to pay, the less it ends up costing me. I can make barter a major factor in my business growth strategy -Triangulation is the use of three separate transactions (or more) to achieve my ultimate barter objectives