You read of entrepreneurs hustling. But it’s hard to imagine how they can do so many things and still be successful. Here’s the hard truth: They aren’t that successful.

Look, you need to be aware of the entrepreneurial impulse to say “yes” to everything.

But the real secret to success is to make decisions about what not to do or what not to do now. Remember, it’s a lot easier to get into something than it is to get out of it.

A good way to help yourself make the right decisions is to frequently ask yourself: “What do I really want?”

Let’s take marketing as an example.

So, if you are a business owner, you’re probably looking to your marketing & sales people to bring in new customers.

You might want a new advertisement, a new sales page, a new website, etc. You have these expectations because you want new leads, clients, and customers.

A reasonable strategy–but also the wrong strategy.

What you should focus on more are the customers who you already have. You likely have all this money in your business sitting there–but you’re not even bothering to dip into it.

Why spend all the effort & money on getting new customers when you can get more business with existing customers? With current customers, you get a a lower cost per sale. They already know you and trust you.

These insights are hard to implement without a certain degree of experience and “professional distance”. Oftentimes, entrepreneurs are too close to their own product & processes to think about these things.

Luckily, I help businesses navigate these questions all the time so they never leave money on the table.

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

How can you tell if a marketing campaign is any good? Aside from the money it brings in, obviously…

The answer: Great marketing doesn’t “look” like marketing at all.

Instead, good marketing is conversational. Imagine I was sitting across the table with you over coffee. Imagine that during this coffee session, I was having a heartfelt discussion with you over a business opportunity. Imagine as if I was talking with you as a friend.

Now imagine if I came out you like an infomercial? You would find any excuse to end the conversation as soon as possible.

Most of marketing suqs because it tries to hard to sound like “marketing”. Some ads sound salesy because their writers don’t really understand psychology. Some ads try way to hard to be creative because their writers want to show off how clever they are. Some ads miss the mark because their writers are trying to copy the style of other writers–without any understanding of context, product, audience, etc. In one of these ways, nearly every serious advertising failure is a result of not understanding the purpose of marketing.

Such conditions call for going back to the basics of marketing & selling–not hiring interns so you can cut costs. A good performance marketer who has mastered the basics can other means cannot accomplish. And it is wrong to cling to mediocre ways when thousands of entrepreneurs know a way that is better.

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

There’s a horrifying revelation coming sometime to the folks who “follow the experts.

They have yet to discover the true extent of their brainwashing.

Here is an example….

The Wall Street Journal recently came out with this article:

The Next ‘It’ Diet? Not Trying to Lose Weight

More people are starting to build an anti-diet movement, driven by shifts in what it means to be healthy

The gist of the article is that certain overweight people are tired of being held to the expectation that they need to lose the pounds. So what’s their strategy? Claim that you can be fat and still be considered healthy & attractive.

If you are brainwashed and plugged in the Matrix– you will think there is nothing wrong with this thinking.

If you are not plugged in the Matrix and not brainwashed–you’ll see this article for what it really is: A way to feed (pun intended) the egos of undisciplined people to make them more complaint consumers.

My advice?

Let these people eat themselves to death. It’s not our problem;

If you want to be successful in business and life, you need to stop caring what “normal” people do and think

Being physically and emotionally healthy gives you a huge competitive advantage in our day and age.

So make an effort not to identify with “normal” people

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

If you’re in the B2B (“Business to Business”) space, you might be making things harder on yourself than they need to be.

Businesspeople are human. There’s no need to treat them like robots. Each CEO, CFO, and department head puts their pants on one leg at a time like anybody else.

The trick is to talk to each of these different roles in a way that will get them salivating. The business you are pitching to might be one legal “entity” but the people running it have different agendas.

For example, I used to be a hospital manager. Let me tell you, hospitals are a great case study for learning about B2B sales psychology.

Let’s take the hospital Chief Executive Officer . The CEO’s concern has a lot do with his reputation & image. He cares about what the board thinks of him, what donors think of him, what the local media is saying about him. If he’s currently running a small or medium sized hospital, he wants to move up to a bigger hospital.

But the priorities of Chief Financial Officer are completely different. For this guy, it’s all about money. “Are we making money? Are we losing money? Do we have enough money to pay our bills? Do we have enough cash to build a fat loss center? 

With the CFO, the priority is all about expense management.

So when you pitch to the CFO, you’re messaging will sound like this: “You could have your credit rating downgraded if your numbers aren’t right and that’s gonna be your head in the guillotine….. if all these losses are discovered, you’re going to get thrown under the bus…. If the CEO wants to build a new opoid addiction clinic, do you want to be the guy who says ‘Sorry, we can’t afford it’? We can help you avoid all that. 

My entire business–my sole concern of income– is helping startups make money. I do this by getting startup leaders in front of CEOs and CFOs to have these kinds of conversations.

I deal with performance marketing & process improvement. In that way lie the biggest modern money-making possibilities, by multiplying outputs and reducing selling costs.

This efficiency is what made me so successful as an Agile coach at Boeing and the telecom industry. It’s how I’m helping startups as a performance marketer.

P.S Respond to this email and let me know what your top selling challenges are.

I won’t pitch anything to you in response–I’d just like to know more about your challenges.

Elon Musk once thought drivers would want to drive electric cars instead of regular cars. People laughed at him –but  he built the Tesla electric car empire

Another entrepreneur—Dietrich Mateschitz- thought of soft drinks. He looked at companies like Coca Cola. He noticed such  drinks were very sweet, tasted great, and were cheap.

Dietrich thought, “What if we produce a costly & slightly revolting caffeinated drink in a tiny can?” 

That was years ago. This drink is Red Bull.

The experts laughed at Dietrich too. Soft drink customers also laughed at him when they heard about the idea. What is the result? Now millions of people can’t imagine a trip to the grocery store or gas station without grabbing a Red Bull.

Red Bull has gone from being the drink of choice for truck drivers in Thailand to a global phenomenon.

Today Red Bull Is an 18 billion dollar empire. Hundreds of imitation companies are trying to follow Red Bull’s lead.

So don’t let people discourage you if you have a great idea. Run with it and let the market decide.

How can you come up with-and implement-ideas faster than your competition?

I got you covered. Check out my book on cash-boosting creativity here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

Let me show you how not to make bad business decisions. We don’t want anything to take the wind out of your sales, after all.

Stephanie Matto first gained fame by appearing on the  “90 Day Fiancé”  show. She also founded a X-rated subscription site called Unfiltrd.

Being the ambitious entrepreneur , Stephanie decided to launch a line of products.

So far, so good. But here’s where things get stinky.

Stephanie  decided to launch a business selling her jarred farts. Apparently, she “thought it’d be a hilarious publicity move that would get a lot of people’s attention.”

Well, Stephanie got more than just attention. She made over $200,000. 

“OK”, you might think, “It’s not a business I’d get into but if she’s making money, more power to her, I guess.”

Unfortunately, there are bloody hard logistics behind all this farting. Every business has some overhead, you know.

To keep up with demand, Stephanie had to squeeze out around 50 jars’ worth of farts weekly – and her devotion to customer service made her want to make these farts particularly pungent. This fart peddler would consume protein shakes &  big bowls of black bean soup to add some extra “punch” to her product.

But, alas, a dedication to excellence has its costs: Stephanie experienced gas pains so bad she thought she was having a heart attack. She’s had to stop the business.

There are lots of  lessons to take away from this story if regardless if you are a Fortune 500 CEO or a smell business owner but I’ll just share one lesson for now

Make sure your business is scalable

As a business owner, your #1 priority is to bring in new business and make current customers happy. Everything else should be delegated. So, for example, Stephanie could have outsourced the farting to a line-up of beautiful  IG models to satisfy the bizarre fetish of her customers. 

I mean, just because you are  a self-proclaimed “fartrepreneuer” doesn’t you mean you have to do all the farting yourself.

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

Let’s put it up to your decision—the question of which headline is more interesting.

But first—some context: COVID immunity is a hot topic in the health market right now. As a result, a bunch of headlines selling various types of supplements are talking non-stop about immunity. Below are two different headlines selling the same kind of immunity-boosting product.

A) “How to Boost Your Immune System by 1000%”

B.) “How Not To Drop Dead”

The second headline is what the great alternative health marketer, Carline Anglade Cole, created. Test these headlines out with your friends and family- and see what pulls more interest.

Here’s the lesson that you as an entrepreneur can learn from this little headline test. A lesson that goes beyond just headlines in advertising:

When everyone zigs, you zag. Look for opportunities to NOT follow the crowd. That way, your product can stand out. If you are just starting out as a startup founder, you’re probably advised to go look and see “what’s working now” (e.g. every headline talking about immunity) to better figure out what to do product development, sales, or marketing.

The problem with following “what’s working now” is you become a follower. Followers don’t stand out. Followers aren’t interesting. Followers don’t make as much as leaders, I’m sorry to say.

Real blockbuster breakthroughs come from entrepreneurs who have the ballz to try something different. Entrepreneurs who are OK to go against the herd.

Is that you?

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

Today is Martin Luther King (MLK) Day. The man was an incredible leader & speaker. But this email isn’t going to be a dry account of MLK’s life. That’s what the History Channel is for. Instead, I’m going to talk about the leadership & sales lessons you can take from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and apply to your business today.

Here are the 3 MLK principles of sales :

1.) Connection with Your Audience 

 Dr. King had a rock-solid connection with his audience. MLK engaged so much with his followers that he could tune into the energy of the room as he was speaking. This made any presentation of his more than a mere speech–it was an experience.   An experience that moved people to risk their lives and take action.

If you take this principle to business, you’ll notice that the top sales reps close more revenue per deal. They are better at learning how much each prospect can buy and get paid that much. These reps can do this because they make an effort to learn as much about their prospects as possible. Discovery in a sales interview is something the richest salespeople take seriously.

2.) Have A Backbone 

MLK was arrested 30 times over the span of 12 years. He continued to write and speak for the  Civil Rights Movement from jail. It wasn’t just racist politicians who opposed him, either. MLK got criticized by other Africa American  leaders  who thought his non-violent approach was weak. But he was also criticized for allowing children and families to be in harm’s way if a protest turned violent. Still, MLK didn’t let the critics stop him from doing the right thing.

The best businesspeople are also resilient.  Take a  look at good salespeople. You’ll find they tend to discount less. The top sales reps are confident in what they are selling. And bad reps fall back on the only tactic they are good at  — discounts.  But slashing prices often creates more harm than benefit.

3.) A Powerful  Drive 

Dr. King had intense motivation as the leader of the Civil Rights Movement.  He never gave up. His vision and drive continued to move his followers even after his death.

The application to business should be obvious. The top salespeople are serious and direct. They know how to deal with objections and answer difficult questions. They don’t just rely on canned scripting from their sales manager. Instead, the best reps close better and faster because they are motivated to understand each prospect and situation—and act accordingly.

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free. Get it here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/

Each successful sales pitch or marketing campaign mainly hinges on believability.

Buyers need to believe–at an emotional level–that you are telling them the truth.

Believability–not cleverness or creativity–is what obliterates apathy.

Your prospect is a tougher critic than any manager, coach, or consultant you’ll ever know. I came to writing sales copy from background in business writing. I was well-trained in good schools to make sure arguments flowed logically and every factual point was correctly sourced and cited.

Fast forward into adulthood and working as a health-care manager and consultant, my executives would nitpick statistics and push hard to get details. It could get tough but there was one thing they never pushed hard on- a whether or not they truly believed the business plan.

As long as I made a well-formulated business case, my bosses and colleagues didn’t really care if my content was believable and struck the right emotional cords.

And why would they care? They didn’t need to put their own skin in the game and invest their own personal cash in what I was writing about. Their hopes and dreams didn’t hinge on what I had to say . But with sales and performance marketing, the story is drastically different .

One thing it took me a while to understand intuitively is that simply reciting features and benefits doesn’t convince most prospects. A mere factual claim—even with solid proof– is not always enough to make the sale. Prospects—-because they are humans and not robots—- have to feel what you were saying is true.

This is something I talk at length in my book, Business Baroque.

Lets’ be honest, a lot of the MVP software sold by startups can be created in a weekend hackathon. By the end of the weekend, you can have a pretty decent SaaS platform. You could have lots of interesting features– maybe even features more advanced than the competition.

But all that is still not enough to get trust from the buyer.

Now you’re not going to get trust because trust takes a long time in human relationships. Instead, what you need—according to the insightful Oren Klaff– is status. Done correctly, status is a good replacement for trust. The higher status you are, the more people will believe you.

So how do you convey status in your marketing—without coming off as a braggart ?

Well, part of it comes from experience– including failures and learning what not to do. Part of it comes from learning how to communicate effectively in an emotional way. Part of it comes from learning about persuasion.

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/ 

If your income relies on making high-ticket deals, then you’re going to want read below.

My sole appeal to companies wishing to advertise their services/products is to look for the tales the results tell.

Entrepreneur’s who judge by their “tastes” rarely agree– on vendors or on projects.

But businesspeople who judge by results and who know the results, unite in one opinion about solid performance marketing .

Don’t feel like marketing is important in your sales cycle? Well, read this story and make up your own mind.

I heard an experienced sales trainer mention how he had a group of guys from a a major consulting firm meet him around 2 years ago. To protect their confidentiality, let’s call them the McChad Group. This group recently earned a $100 million fee by closing the sale on a big account.

Apparently, the McChad Group was full of Type-A, sophisticated personalities who were in the business of high-stakes, enterprise deals. These guys regularly meet with the CEO’s of Fortune 10 companies to pitch.

The McChad Group would win 1 out of 10 accounts.

You might not think that’s much but these deals are worth anywhere between 20 to 110 million dollars. Still, here you have guys who are perceived to be the best in the world with a 10% closing rate. And it’s not for lack of credential, either. No no one else pitches better, has more credibility , has more degrees from Harvard ,Yale Stanford, 20 years at McKinsey, etc.

And yet even these guys don’t have a reliable system for generating qualified leads and closing deals.

How do you do get these leads to come to you? Follow the advice of the world greatest living copywriter, Gary Bencivenga: “Advertising is MULTIPLIED salesmanship. A superstar direct response copywriter can close 1,000 or 100,000 clients AT ONCE!” 

To flesh this quote out a little more, most salespeople in other fields can close only one sale at a time and are generate revenue for their company accordingly.

What a skilled direct response copywriter-like Mr. Bencivenga- can do is use just words and images to close 1,000 sales or even 100,000 at once.

P.S. My book shows business owners and entrepreneurs the exact steps for using creativity to make lots of money. It costs around $30 everywhere else, but if you join my daily email list by clicking the link below, you can have a digital copy for free.

Get it here: https∶//powerpersuasion.net/