How to Generate a Cash-Flow Surge
In Your Business!
By Eric Ruth
Let’s talk about generating a cash-flow surge in your business. Sounds pretty appealing, doesn’t it?
Here’s the proven equation for generating your own cash-flow surge.
Targeted list of high quality prospects + irresistible offer = cash-flow surge
TP + IO = CFS
I want to focus on the second part of this equation, the offer.
Recently, Brandy and I flew down to Myrtle Beach, SC, over Valentine’s Day weekend, in a private jet to look at waterfront homesites.
Makes me sound like a real high roller – a mover and shaker – a man about town!
Yeah - right.
I make a good living, but I’m pretty conservative with my money, so there’s no way in hell I would pay for a private flight to SC when commercial suits me just fine.
Nope - there had to be an irresistible offer to get me on that flight - and there was.
It was practically FREE.
Stick with me while I explain what happened to us over the Valentine’s Day weekend because there’s a powerful lesson in it for you.
I’ll start at the beginning.
Around the middle of January Brandy calls me from her office and says, “we’re flying down to Myrtle Beach for Valentine’s Day weekend on a private jet, we’ll stay in a nice hotel for two nights, we’ll get gourmet chocolates, champagne on ice, a bouquet of flowers, chauffeured shuttle service to and from the water, a romantic sunset cruise with shrimp and champagne dinner Saturday night and helicopter tours.”
“That sounds really nice,” I say, “but how much does it cost.” (Hey, I’m a guy. Romance is great, but what’s the bottom line?)
“$39 per couple, all inclusive,” she tells me.
“Wow! What’s the catch?” I ask.
“We have to spend one hour on Saturday looking at newly developed waterfront homesites,” Brandy explains. (And resist what I’m sure will be a killer sales pitch for the homesites.)
Well, it just so happens that Brandy and I are considering relocating to the Carolinas anyway, plus I’m always interested in seeing how really good salespeople operate, plus this offer is too good, too irresistible to say no.
“Okay,” I agree, “let’s go.”
Later that night I want more information from Brandy on how she heard about this offer. Here’s what she told me.
Brandy received a mailer at her home that was addressed to the previous resident (who hadn’t lived there for two years, but the address label had his name “or current resident” on it, so it got delivered).
FIRST RED FLAG GOES UP – poorly targeted mailing. (Keep in mind that it was just coincidence Brandy and I were interested in Carolina property, plus Brandy lives in a nice $350,000 townhouse, but in this area upscale homes start at around half a million dollars.)
Brandy called to inquire about the offer. She explained to the salesman who answered the call that the mailer was not addressed to her, but she’d like to take advantage of the offer.
The salesman said she was welcome to take advantage of the offer, but he did not ask her a single qualifying question (i.e. what’s your job – Brandy’s got a great job in sales and makes good money, but he had no way of knowing if she made enough to buy a resort home; how much do you make, do you currently own real estate, are you looking for a resort home, what is your age – Brandy’s 29 years old, hardly the demographic they were looking for).
SECOND RED FLAG GOES UP – failure to qualify the individual.
All he asked of her is for the name of her husband who would be accompanying her so he could put the second airline ticket in his name.
Brandy told him that she was bringing her boyfriend, me. The salesman didn’t hesitate (although he should have – how many prime candidates for a second home in a resort location are boyfriend and girlfriend? Again, their target demographic should have been married boomers close to retirement with high disposable income.)
Anyway, I’m listening to Brandy tell me this story and just shaking my head. This company spent a lot of money to put this package together and to mail a very expensive, well-designed, four-color mailer to generate leads, yet they did such a poor job of qualifying the leads. My estimation of this company is steadily dropping, but because the offer is so irresistible, and we are interested in Carolina property, we make plans to go anyway.
We get to the airport on Friday, February 14, and proceed to the gate where our charter flight is. It’s a 727 jet, and there are about 170 other folks there ready to board.
Wow. They did a great job of filling the plane. But again, their offer is so irresistible, it doesn’t really surprise me too much.
About 80% of the folks on the plane fit into what I would consider the ideal demographic for this offer: 45 years or older, and at least apparently affluent.
So I’m starting to think that the red flags that worried me earlier were just a fluke. Maybe this company had targeted the right market.
Flight was great, we were treated great, hotel was nice, champagne was cold. Friday was good.
Saturday, we got shuttled over to the waterfront development site. It was beautiful. And it was a madhouse. There must have been 400 people there. The company had also marketed to folks in the Raleigh-Durham and Charlotte areas.
Our turn came to hop in one of the 25 salespeople’s Jeep Cherokees to go take a look at the home sites. It was time to “get pitched.”
Our salesman, Jerry, was very good. About 55 years old or so, well spoken, friendly, and low-key. No pressure. But a lot of urgency. He showed us beautiful sites and explained how we could buy one or more of them for as little as $8,000 (all we needed was 10% down to control the property, and they ranged in price from $80,000 to $250,000 depending on proximity to the water). He said they were writing contracts as fast as they could, everyone was buying. We could build on the site, or we could simply hold it for a year or two and resell later. Anyway, I won’t go into all the details, but suffice to say that it was a very appealing opportunity.
I’m not an impulsive buyer, but Brandy came really close to pulling out her credit card and buying some real estate.
They had a big tent set up to serve us lunch and all along one side of the tent were tables where couples were sitting to fill out the contracts on their new property. During lunch we talked to lots of people and discovered that about one in three were buying property that day.
That night they took us out on a dinner boat cruise. The director of sales and marketing for the company got up and made a little speech. He said that they sold 90 properties that day, worth over 7 million dollars (value of property, not total sales).
So, long story, short. This company put together an irresistible ROMANCE PACKAGE:
- Two round trip airfares on a private jet
- 3 days, 2 nights accommodations
- Meals, chocolates, champagne and flowers
- Helicopter tours
- Bike tours
- Dinner boat cruise
- No closing costs on properties
- 20% preview discounts on developer-owned homesites
- No payments for a full year
All for $39 per couple, all inclusive.
They did, contrary to what I thought initially, TARGET THEIR IDEAL PROSPECTS.
They, intelligently, ran this offer over a romantic holiday and positioned it FIRST as a romantic getaway for couples, and SECOND as an opportunity to buy real estate.
(By getting couples to feel lovey-dovey and treating them especially good, they engendered exactly the feelings they wanted and created an environment that was conducive to selling.)
They played the numbers game. I would imagine it cost them somewhere in the neighborhood of $400 – $500 per couple, there were approximately 200 couples, which is $80,000 to $100,000 in promotional costs (a tax deduction), and they sold at least 90 sites with a value of 7 million dollars.
That’s a damn good promotion.
Then all hell broke loose.
The President’s Day snow storm hit the mid-Atlantic, we couldn’t fly back on Sunday, they had to pay to put us up in hotels for two more nights, plus food and drink. The company came through in the clutch and treated us well, thereby solidifying the goodwill. But that little adventure is a whole other story.
Anyway, what I want you to get out of this is that creating irresistible offers is SO POWERFUL.
And one of the main components of irresistible offers is PILING ON. They could have just offered to fly us down there free of charge, and that would have been a good offer. But instead they added all sorts of additional goodies, they piled on the benefits, making it truly irresistible.
Here, quickly, are two more examples of irresistible offers.
Got a mailer from Consumer Reports the other day. I was a subscriber many years ago, now they want to reactivate me. Very smart. Always, always go back after your past clients.
Anyway, the sales letter opens like this:
Dear Eric Ruth:
I’d like to make you an offer I think and hope you’ll find irresistible. I’d like to send you:
- A sample issue of Consumer Reports ($3.99 at the newsstand).
- A free copy of the Consumer Reports Buying Guide 2003 (regularly $9.99) with hundreds of brand-name product ratings.
- A free copy of our $11.95 book, How to Clean Practically Anything. Updated, fourth edition.
Why am I making you such a generous offer? Because if you haven’t seen Consumer Reports for a while, or haven’t paid close attention, you’ve missed something very important.
Then there’s a bunch of benefit copy. And they close by saying:
Not just a promise, but a guarantee.
As you might expect from Consumer Reports, we don’t want to sell you a subscription you don’t think will meet your needs. Examine your sample issue, your free Buying Guide 2003 and the How to Clean Practically Anything book. Then, if you want to continue to subscribe, pay the $20 invoice we’ll send you. If not, return the invoice marked “cancel,” keep the sample issue and your two free books, and pay nothing.
We’re removing the risk. And your potential gain can be measured in the hundreds or thousands of dollars you can save when you use Consumer Reports’ advice.
Please accept this offer today. You need only mail the form enclosed.
Sincerely,
Ted Mattox
Director, Publishing
------------------
Things to notice:
Targeting. I’m a previous subscriber, so there’s a really good chance I’ll want to subscribe again.
Personalized salutation (they used my name).
“I” and “you” copy, particularly in the opening. This is a personal letter from Ted to me.
Comes right out and says it’s an “irresistible offer” and outlines exactly what I get.
Piling on. They’re not just offering me a free sample issue. They’re piling on the goodies to make this offer truly irresistible.
“Reason why” copy. Ted explains exactly “why” he’s making me this offer and implies that I’m missing out on something (emotional trigger!).
Satisfaction guarantee that entails NO RISK on my part.
Sampling. He’s giving me stuff for free, including a free issue, so I can sample the quality of the stuff.
Call to action. “Please accept this offer TODAY.”
Ease of response. “You need only mail the form enclosed.” I’d bet that if they had a toll free number to call, they’d boost response.
Last, but not least, I want to show you a really killer irresistible offer created by Anthony Ellis of http://www.musclegaintips.com Anthony is quietly getting RICH with this offer.
For only $79.95 you will receive:
1) Gaining Mass! Manual (240 pages)
2) Mass Program Workbook (50+ pages)
3) Fat Loss Program Workbook (40+ pages)
4) Accu-measure Body Fat Caliper
5) Tape Measure
6) Program Tracker Software
7) Membership to my Inner Circle Web Site
8) 30 pages of the Gaining Mass! Manual in e-book format
9) My personal email so that you can contact me directly
10) Access to my live chats
11) Access to my private, Inner Circle message board
12) Access to my Exercise Database of 500
exercises/stretches!
13) 100% lifetime money-back guarantee
Talk about PILING ON. That’s a lot of value for just $79.95. And that’s why Anthony is doing about $300,000 per year in sales from his web site.
If you work on creating irresistible offers and consistently deliver those offers to high probability targets, you will consistently generate cash-flow surges in your business!
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