Understanding The Big Marketing Picture
By Eric Ruth
It’s critical that you have an understanding of the big marketing picture.
What are the goals? And how do you achieve those goals?
The ultimate goal is for you to have marketing systems in place which automatically, consistently and predictably generate a steady flow of new and repeat business.
A marketing “system” is simply a proven method for doing something that is completely duplicatable and provides consistent and quantifiable results each and every time.
A good example of a simple, but effective marketing system is the McDonalds classic upsell method (now mimicked by 1000’s of other companies) called, “Do You Want Fries With That?”
I know you don’t eat at McDonalds, but I have – only as part of my study of marketing methods, I assure you… really.
When you order at the drive-thru or in the restaurant, if you say, “I’d like a quarter pounder with cheese,” the attendant will say, “do you want fries with that.”
Actually, that’s the way it began, now McDonalds, being the leader in effective marketing strategies for fast food, has improved on this “system” by having the attendant say, “do you want the quarter pounder combo meal (fries and drink with that)?”
And the logical extension of this strategy is the “supersize” “system” they use. If you order the quarter pounder combo meal, the attendant asks, “do you want to supersize that?”
These are systems for up-selling customers. And they work. Last I heard, the “do you want fries with that” up-sell accounted for something like $200,000,000 in additional sales company-wide for McDonalds per year.
Who knows how much additional cash they’re pulling in as a result of the combo meal and supersize upsells.
The key to this system’s effectiveness is the CONSISTENCY of the approach. It’s not randomly or haphazardly used. It’s used EVERY SINGLE TIME a customer places an order.
And a CONSISTENT percentage of customers respond favorably.
So how can you apply this system to your business?
Well, first you have to understand that the #1 BEST TIME to up-sell a person is RIGHT AT THE TIME OF SALE.
While they’re in “heat.” (Think about the McDonald’s example, or think about grocery shopping while you’re hungry – you up-sell yourself!)
If you’ve got a prospect sitting in front of you who has just agreed to become a client and (for example) has chosen a 16-week package of training sessions for $799 ($50/session) from you – NOW is the time to up-sell.
You could offer to “supersize” that order by giving a discount – right then – on the purchase of a 24-week package for “only” $299 more, a savings of $100 ($45.75/session). Or offer an additional package of (for example) 8 group cardio sessions that normally cost $160, for a reduced rate of $120 if they take advantage today.
Now, you may be thinking, “why should I offer a discount on these services – won’t I be losing money?”
That’s MYOPIC thinking.
You are not losing $100 on the 24-week deal – you are gaining $299 you may not otherwise get. You are not losing $40 on the group deal – you are gaining $120 of revenue you may not otherwise ever see.
Plus, you are introducing this person to another service you offer, which she may decide to renew at the full price after the 8 sessions.
I’m DEFINITELY not an advocate of marketing on price. You should ALWAYS command high fees and never position yourself as the “low cost provider” because someone can always come along and undercut your prices. It’s a loser’s game. Build value and charge high fees!!
But when UP-SELLING, you need to offer a compelling reason for them to buy NOW. You could throw in additional bonuses or add value in some other way if you don’t want to offer a discounted price on your up-sell. But the point is you must incentivize the prospect to take advantage of your up-sell today.
It is absolutely critical to your success that you think long term about your business. If you are always caught up in thinking about how to maximize your net profit on your front-end sales, you will go through your career chasing sales instead of chasing relationships. You will be cutting off your nose to spite your face. And you will be missing out on the biggest back-end profit centers of your business.
Net profit margin is very important, but you also want to maximize gross sales, and therefore cash flow, plus the bigger the commitment in time from your new client, the more time you have to sell her other things, program her for referrals, leverage off her to build your business, and a whole host of other benefits. If your fees are high enough, you should have a generous price cushion to work with when it comes to up-selling.
Okay, that was a really long-winded explanation of one example of a marketing system.
Now that you understand that, I want to talk about the big picture – the ultimate goal – and how the integrated use of various marketing systems enables you to reach that goal – fast!
As I mentioned earlier, the ultimate goal is for you to have marketing systems in place which automatically, consistently and predictably generate a steady flow of new and repeat business.
I teach that there are five levels of people within your particular market:
- Suspects
- Prospects
- Customers
- Clients
- Champions
A “suspect” is someone who you suspect may be interested in improving his/her health and fitness.
A “prospect” is someone who has raised his/her hand to you indicating definite prospective interest in their health and fitness and/or your services. (They raise their hand by responding to any one of many different direct response lead generation methods I teach.)
A “customer” is someone who has purchased something from you other than personal training services. Remember, you are the health and fitness RESOURCE for all your prospects, so if they need ANYTHING related to health and fitness, you are the one they are buying from, or coming through for a referral. You should have the “toll position.”
A “client” is someone to whom you’ve sold your training services. “Client” simply implies a higher level of customer because there is a greater commitment of time and resources, the total sale amount is usually much greater, and therefore there’s a stronger “relationship.”
And finally, a “champion” is anyone who has referred business to you. They don’t have to be a suspect, prospect, customer or client in order to be a champion.
Champion is the highest level. Because anyone who refers business to you is showing the ultimate commitment to you and, belief in you. Even, it could be argued, to a greater degree than a client. Think about when you refer someone to another business with a high-ticket item for sale like personal training services. You are explicitly giving that business your highest possible endorsement, because if that business fails to deliver in some way, the person who you referred there essentially holds you accountable. Giving a referral of this kind is a MAJOR thing.
Plus, a referral is like FOUND MONEY. You have invested little, if any marketing dollars in obtaining this referral.
Closing a referral is MUCH easier to do – very little “selling” involved because the referred person trusts in you by “default” as a result of being referred by someone he or she obviously trusts. That trust is transferred to you.
And last, but certainly not least, (drum roll please… because this little nugget of information is absolutely golden and can make you a ton of money if you really understand what I’m about to tell you)…
PEOPLE WHO REFER ONCE, WILL REFER OVER AND OVER AGAIN!
Getting people to refer the first time is 99% of the battle. Once someone has referred to you once, however, if properly recognized and rewarded, they will refer over and over and over again…
As long as you BUST YOUR TAIL to treat that referred person like the king of Siam.
Oh, I almost forgot to mention another golden nugget for you…
Clients who come to you as referrals are infinitely more likely to become a source of referrals themselves!
All you have to do is effectively program them about how you rely on referrals to build your business, and then they will refer – therefore becoming Champions themselves.
Okay, we’ve established that within the universe of your market, you have suspects, prospects, customers, clients and champions.
The “big picture” is that you want to use direct response marketing to steadily move people down the progression of steps – or down what I like to call your “marketing funnel.”
Move from Suspect to Prospect
from Prospect to Customer
from Customer to Client
from Client to Champion
Obviously, the progression does not have to follow a particular order. As I mentioned earlier, a Champion doesn’t even need to be a suspect, prospect, customer or client.
A person could jump right from suspect to client – any combination is possible.
The point is it’s easier to get a “visual” on this if you think of it as a funnel.
Hundreds of suspects are just outside the top “mouth” of your funnel. When they become a prospect, they have entered the mouth of the funnel. The goal is to get as many as possible to drop out the bottom of the funnel in the form of customer, client or champion.
And the way to do that is to build your “house list” (your list of suspects, prospects, customers, clients and champions – your personal “network”) using any number of the strategies I teach, and steadily work to improve the quality of people on your list – moving them further and further down your marketing funnel.
That, my friend, is a true marketing “system.” (One system can contain numerous other systems, just as your body – a system – contains a respiratory system, circulatory system, etc.)
And when you start using systems to market your business, instead of relying on haphazard, knee-jerk marketing, you begin to realize automatic, consistent, predictable, reliable, quantifiable RESULTS.
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