Monthly Archives: March 2013

Getting Comfortable with Charging More Money

The other day I asked Howie Jacobson–(author of AdWords for Dummies and definitely a guy with something to say!)–if he’d do an interview for my coaches list about money…

You see, one of the strangest things about the people who are most interested in helping people is that they’re also the ones most uncomfortable about charging for it.

The interview came out SO good, and forced BOTH of us to reveal so many interesting nuances of our personal journeys with finances in the service business, I felt it needed sharing for my general entrepreneurial audience too.

If you have even the tiniest discomfort charging what you’re worth, I’d encourage you to listen soon. (This is a relatively short one, but VERY powerful)

All my best,

Dr. G 🙂

PS – How many of you know I do the Make Them Buy Live Webinars club mostly for my own benefit? Seriously, there’s not a lot of direct money in there because most internet marketers don’t understand the relationship between traffic and conversion.  They’re unwilling to face the work involved in building a site that converts, so they stupidly chase traffic techniques instead. (Insert frustrated pirate-like sound here). But I’ve discovered pouring over other people’s sites and rank-ordering the winners in a market, then discussing it publicly with a sharp group of marketers is one of the absolute best ways I’ve found to keep growing as a marketer (and to stay on top of current conversion trends online).    Anyway, I did a presentation at the end of last year in the club itself on the TEN BEST insights of the year.  You can get that as a separate package here now.

PPS – Howie Jacobson’s blog is worth reading too.

Getting Out of the Low Margin Pricing Trap

A lot of businesses–particularly tradition local businesses selling a “commodity” service like pest control, accounting, psychotherapy, etc–feel their pricing structure is defined by the competitive landscape… thereby boxing them into a fairly narrow margin game.

But there are several not-immediately-obvious ways OUT of this low margin pricing trap…

And I do believe Ryan and I covered almost all of them in this interview.

Enjoy!

Dr. G 🙂

Conversion Optimization |  Hyper-Responsive |  Live Webinars Club | Phone Follow Ups on Commission | Research Done For You

The Google Reader Alternative

Here’s an important announcement for current and former hyper-responsive club members…

As well as anyone who’s become an avid Google Reader fan…

Here’s the thing…

Stupid Google is retiring Google Reader!

(Which we relied upon heavily in month #2 of the hyper-responsive club to organize internet intelligence on our keyword archery target)

Now, I’m not a religious person, but I like the phrase “When God closes a door he opens a window”…

Meaning that sometimes we become so reliant on our existing solutions we neglect to consider there might be something better right under our nose we’re ignoring…

And also as you might expect, Dr. Glenn’s been scrambling furiously for a few days since the announcement to determine the best alternative!

The solution’s pretty simple…

Feedly.com

It allows you to organize by folder, use tags, save for later (equivalent of “starring” in Reader), etc.

And it’ll automatically import and sync up with your existing Reader data, so you won’t have lost a thing.

What you DO want to do regardless is create an XML backup of your subscriptions in Reader and save it someplace safe just in case Feedly goes bananas and decides to close too…

But it seems there’s little chance of that since they’ve publicly announced their desire to support all the abandoned Google Reader users…

And as soon as you log into Feedly you see a “smooth transition from Google Reader” notice.

Plus they’ve put up a blog post specifically to help us poor orphaned Reader users:

http://blog.feedly.com/2013/03/14/google-reader/

OK, just wanted to keep you in the loop with the new best practices (regardless of whether you’re a current member or not)

All my best,

Dr. G 🙂

PPS – If you’re overwhelmed trying to bump your conversion month after month for a site/company that’s spending more than $10,000/mo in AdWords (or other paid traffic), you really should get a consultation with the Conversion Zoom team.

Web = $, Web x Phone = $$$$$$

If the web = $, then web x phone can equal $$$$$$ on steroids. (Someone will have to apologize to Lance Armstrong for me since I neglected to explain this to him years ago)

Listen, there’s a short list of things every entrepreneur knows they absolutely SHOULD add to their marketing mix to dramatically improve  conversion and increase transaction size… and most of them require some labor and forethought, so 80% of entrepreneurs fail to ever get around to doing it.

For example, adding 1-click upsells almost always significantly increases transaction size.  And if you do it right (generally just one hyper-related upsell that supercharges the results they came to the cash register for in the first place) your customers will be HAPPIER with you for it, not annoyed by the process.

But by far the MOST significant force multiplier internet entrepreneurs ignore is… you guessed it… THE TELEPHONE. Pick up the telephone and talk to your prospects, then watch your conversions soar.

For example, Brian Therrien took my previously Glenn-Optimized conversion from under 3% to over 26% using a simple courtesy call process after the opt in.  (NOTE: Brian says if 90% of your prospects don’t genuinely welcome your call you’re doing something horribly wrong!)

But there’s a LOT more than meets the eye to doing phone sales right…

It’s really NOT just a matter of being willing to stop hiding behind electrons and actually talk to people.  That’s just a necessary but not sufficient condition for making this work…

You’ve got to SKILLFULLY INTEGRATE YOUR INTERNET SYSTEM WITH THE PHONE FOLLOW UPS…

So that you can maximize empathy for the prospect’s dilemma and maximize the chance they’ll actually get on the phone with you, engage in a meaningful conversation, and be willing to take action at the next level (whatever that is in your business).

In this brilliant interview Brian gave me, this funny looking phone genius went through many subtle nuances of the phone process you can use in your own business, regardless of whether you’re a multi-million dollar entity with dozens of employees, or if it’s just you, your computer, and a bag of Cheetos sitting in the basement…

Have your head examined please if you decide not to  listen to this…

Because if you’re looking to the web for $, you could be looking to the web x phone for $$$$$.

Got it?

Good!

Now go pick up the phone and convert someone!

Dr. G 🙂

PS – Uhm, duh… listen to the interview first.

PPS – Brian’s looking for just a few strategic partners for whom he can implement phone sales entirely on a commission basis.  For the right company he’ll take care of recruiting, training, supervising, tracking, paying, and motivating the sales staff in exchange for a percent of the sales he generates.  (And I’ll be helping him do it by supervising the web-integration,  and persuasion/conversion arguments)


25 years and counting…

Know what Sharon and I did 25 years ago this evening at 6 pm to the hour?

We called a Justice of the Peace and said “get your ass over here now because we’re getting married!”

Best decision I ever made 🙂

(Pretty sure Sharon feels the same, but I definitely got the better end of the bargain!)

And since for the last 8 years we’ve lived a good portion of our lives publicly “on the air” via podcasts, blogposts, seminars, and videos…

And even more through your comments…

I just wanted to share.

Sorry there’s no special marketing treat in today’s post…

Except perhaps to say that when you put your most significant relationships first in your life (and your business), VERY good things almost inevitably follow.

Come to think of it, I recently had a coaching student present about a dozen different directions he COULD go with his existing business.  This guy has a kind of “green thumb” in marketing for his particular model, and when you’ve got a green thumb and feel like you COULD grow anything, what you SHOULD grow becomes very confusing.  You can easily  wind up with WAY too many plants in the garden…

Anyway at first I was very confused about what to tell him, because I genuinely believe this is a guy who will succeed wherever he puts his time, energy, and resources.  And so the “coach” in me said “be careful not to use your influence to move this guy away from HIS dreams just because he’s giving you this power”… and truthfully I kind of agonized over the response for a bit.

But in the end it was clear to me – he needed to look at his most important group of customers and figure out how he could nurture and give to them first and foremost…

Because no matter what happens in his market, with his traffic systems (think “what if Google doesn’t like me anymore?”), with regulatory agencies, etc…

No matter what happens it’s the RELATIONSHIPS with his most “significant others” (best customers) that will pull him through.

And the truth is I’m constantly amazed at what happens to people who take the time to build out a long term follow up sequence with genuinely valuable and different content-gifts.  (I’m even more amazed at how few people I can get to do it!)

So I guess I’m here to testify to the value of investing in KEY relationships today…

Because in 25 years Sharon and I have been EVERYTHING together (the good, the bad, the ugly, and the sublime)…

But putting the relationship first (and making the firm decision not to kill one another) yielded unimaginable bounty in my life, business, and my dreams.

Wishing you and yours the same,

With Love to All of You Today,

Glenn 🙂

PS – No purchasing from me today please.

PPS – Sharon’s been my hero, and I’ve been hers (in case you were wondering about the visual metaphor)