Archive for the ‘Starting New Business’ Category

So, Are You Good At What You Do?

Saturday, May 21st, 2022

If so, does everyone know that or are you a “Best Kept Secret” in your own marketplace?

There are really two different sides to your business…

There’s the “inside reality” and there’s the “outside perception.”

The inside reality has to do with all the things your business does that makes you valuable to your customers… from a product, operations, and management standpoint.

It’s what gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace. The reason we call it the inside reality is because there’s a good chance that the reality of what you do, and the customers’ perceptions of what you do, aren’t necessarily the same.

You’ll find that these two words—reality and perception—are very important to this process of winning in business.

The inside reality encompasses everything you do and everything you are that makes you good. It’s all your skills, your people, your expertise, your service to the customer—before, during, and after the sale—your systems, your operational procedures, your commitment to excellence, your passion, and the way you conduct your business.

If you asked your customers why they bought from you, they could tell you something quantifiable, specific, and instantly obvious.

If the “inside reality” is about what you do and what you are that allows your business perform better, then the outside perception has to do with how customers and prospects perceive your company.

An invariably, the inside reality and the outside perception are different.

See, regardless of how good you are, or how good your “inside reality” is, your prospect is more than likely going to be, initially at least, apathetic.

And it’s not because they don’t like you or they think your business is bad, or anything like that… it’s because trying to figure out how good you are is the last thing on their priority list.  Ask yourself this question–How many competitors, either direct or indirect, do you have in your business?

Whatever that number is, that’s how many choices your prospects have, and how many businesses they have to sift through to try to make a buying decision. And that’s assuming they want to buy what you’re selling!

The problem is that most businesses don’t have the ability to communicate via advertising and marketing their “inside reality” to the outside world. They can’t lead prospects to the conclusion “I would have to be an absolute fool to do business with anyone else but you.”… even if they ARE good.

Now, there are a whole host of books, workshops, and trainers that try to help you with your “outside perception.” You’ve got books like Guerrilla marketing, Marketing Warfare, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing… and you’ve got sales and marketing gurus galore that all try to help you make your business look good to the outside world.

The problem is, that none of these books or trainers pays any attention to how good your business actually is. They are all almost strictly technique oriented.

But I have a big problem just teaching techniques… let me tell you a quick story to illustrate why…

My friend, Rich has a little boy named Sam, and sometimes they go to McDonald’s drive thru together and get French fries.

When Sam was really little, like 2 or 3, sometimes the French fries would come out too hot for him to eat, so he’d ask his dad to cool them down. Well, how do you cool down a hot French fry when you’re in the car? They invented a technique: they would hold the hot fry up to the air conditioner vent and crank it up for a few seconds until it cooled off.

One time Rich looked over and saw little Sam holding a French fry up to the a/c vent. But there were two problems—one, the French fry wasn’t hot, and two, the air conditioner wasn’t turned on!

Little Sam was executing the technique to perfection—it’s just that the situation was totally wrong; he couldn’t understand what conditions had to exist before that technique would work.  Or in other words, he didn’t understand the principles, just the technique.

And that’s how it is with sales techniques and marketing techniques and advertising techniques.

Take direct mail for instance.

Back in the 70’s, guys started coming out of the woodwork teaching techniques for tricking people into reading their junk mail. Remember the technique of sending your sales letter in a plain white #10 envelope with no return address? People would get it and go, “Wow! A letter from someone who forgot to write his or her return address! I wonder who it is!” Then they’d open it.

What do you do with a white #10 envelope now with no return address on it? You pitch it without even opening it! You know it’s junk. You know it’s a waste of your time. But people are still using that technique—just like a 3 year old holding a cold French fry up to an a/c vent that’s not even turned on

And that’s what most sales and marketing programs teach you to do…. implement a bunch of little techniques to trick people into believing that there’s some kind of value in doing business with you. Techniques, I might add, that frequently don’t work when you try to use them in the real world. But you’ve got to work on both of the perceptions in your business.

If you concentrate all your efforts on the “inside reality” but you can’t do marketing very well, you’re setting yourself up for frustration.

You’ll be pulling your hair out trying to figure out how anybody could be so STUPID to use your competitors when you’ve obviously got the better deal. Or if you’re focusing all your efforts on the “outside perception,” that could lead to problems, too.

Here’s what I’ve found from years if doing this – most businesses could stand some improvement in both areas…. but they struggle the most with the “outside perception,” or in other words… with all of the competition that exists, they have problems differentiating themselves in the marketplace.

Regardless of your situation, or where you’re at now, that’s what the my system is all about… improving the inside reality and outside perception of your company.

About 25% of the system deals with innovation and how to make your business competitive from a product, operations, and management standpoint; and then about three-quarters of the system deals with how to do the marketing—whether that be advertising, direct mail, web-based, or whatever—so that it effectively separates you from your competitors in the minds of the prospects.

The great business philosopher Jim Rohn probably summed it up best in his lecture about communications. He was talking about personal communications, not business communications, but I think the principles are identical. He says to be a master communicator, all you’ve got to do is follow this simple three-step process:

First, have something good to say. Second, say it well. And third, say it often.

Does that make sense to you? Have something good to say, say it well, and say it often.

I can show you how improve the “inside reality” of your business so you have something good to say.

I will show you how to improve the “outside perception” of your business, or in other words, how to say it well so people will buy from you.

Can you see why it’s imperative that these two factors be considered at the same time? Just teaching you how to innovate leaves you with a wonderful, innovative company that nobody knows about. Just teaching you sales or marketing or advertising will drive in business that won’t stick around because there’s no value.

You have to consider both the inside reality and the outside perception. You have to first have something good to say, and then say it well.

Call me at 303-884-0859 or email joemcvoy@gmail.com and let me show you how to do this in your business.

 

I Found The EASY Button!

Friday, July 12th, 2013

Hi,

easy button

I’ve always said there is no “easy” button to making money.

Guess I was

wrong,

wrong,

wrong . . .

There is a 9 year old company in Europe coming here to North America that has a system for making money that I’m sure you are going to love.

You get paid to shop!

This is not an MLM or traditional type company. Here are a few bullet points about it.

1. It is FREE to join

2. There are NO monthly, annual or any other kinds of fees.

3. You make money by shopping at participating retailers. And these are not small stores you have never heard of.

Retailers you can get paid to shop at include,

Walmart,

Target,

Home Depot,

Exxon,

Kohl’s,

Outback Steak and hundreds more.

You can also make money by shopping online at over 7,000 web stores.

Now don’t misunderstand me, this is not a simple loyalty program that pays you 1% on your own shopping . . .

Well, actually it is, but there are 9 more ways to get paid and tiny commissions on your own purchases are the smallest.

One way is that when you refer other free members, you get paid on their shopping, and the people they refer’s shopping and so on. The big dollars come from when you are getting paid on the shopping done by hundreds of other free members.

How hard should it be to sell a free program than deposits money in your bank account?

I think that even I might be able to “sell” that!

If you are willing to take the time to watch a few videos that explain the details, email me back and I’ll send you the URL’s with the passwords.

joemcvoy@gmail.com


This is so new, I have to sign up free members with you one-on-one with the phone and web site. The sign up process will be more automated by mid-August, but why not start now and be getting paid on dozens or hundreds of people by then?

Let me know if you think it’s worth it to watch a few videos about this . . .

Warmest Regards,

Joe

Need Money Or Advice To Buy, Start Or Expand Your Business?

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Whether your business or idea is in need of getting a product on the shelves at Walmart or taking your business or service coast to coast by franchising, joint venturing or licensing, my team can help.

We don’t just talk about it, we’ve done all of the above as consultants, business owners, and as investors so we can help you too. So, whether you need money, advice or both, give me a call for a no charge, confidential consultation. Call me at 720-890-8760.

Start A New Business For Free If Your Product Is Sold In Stores

Thursday, September 30th, 2010

One of the best things I ever did was to do a consumer mail in offer on my consumer product packaging. Most companies either do nothing or have people mail in a “guarantee registration” that never gets used for anything.

I put a “mail in offer” for a different assortment of my products than was being sold in stores on my packaging and had people send enough for postage & handling to pay for both me sending them whatever they requested as well as a catalog of my other products.

Because my offer was not something stores could sell, and because I used the UPC codes on the retail package as worth $1 off the “mail in” offer, (my product only sold for $1 retail), buyers loved it. In fact, the WalMart buyer asked me to note my offer right on the front of my package – instead of only the backside where I had it. . .

Back when I did this, $1.00 was enough to pay for the product I sent people along with a catalog of my other products. As a result, we created a direct mail catalog company selling to consumers at a cost of NOTHING!