Onslaught Gets Personal

Hello all,

This week I am going to get off topic a little because sometimes you just need to stop and take a look around.

I just finished a re-write of my hit marketing workbook Survival of the Fittest, and I am working on another project that is real time consuming also.

Add to that daily marketing tasks for clients and myself (yep, I still run my window cleaning company). So I need to market Onslaught and window cleaning, help people with projects, read and keep up to date, research... that was just today!

Then there is this blog and forums I participate on.... where is me time? Where is family time?

Why do you want to make more money? These days it's to pay bills, what a passion killer. What are your personal goals right now? Name 3 out load. How did you feel calling out your goals? Did it get the fire burning or was it like calling for the cat?

So many of us drown in the daily minutia. Hopes and dreams become "not another Monday". The smiles fall from our face, but most importantly the flame inside is dim.

I sit and think about results all day- Mailing results, flier results, website results. What about Paul results? How is Paul right now? I'll tell you how I feel, I feel like I live in a vacuum. I feel every time something gets me stoked, something else sucks it right out of me.

So when I sat here working on my vast array of projects, I had a revelation. I am going to focus on the people I work with as well as help them grow their business. I will not only focus on excellent marketing tactics and strategies, I will focus on people and their personal goals.

Sometimes our business needs to take the back seat so we can see where we are heading. I am tired of working for empty promises and flat-lined dreams.

So as I see this mountain of work all around me. As the phone never stops ringing. As the emails keep coming, for once in a long time I feel excitement. Like being 12 years old and going to Disney Land. When is the last time you felt that type of excitement, pure and clean.

Be sure to write a down list of your personal goals, in fact take time to do it right now. If you do not mind I would like to share some of mine.

• Take my family to Rome for a week
  
• Build a complex on my land for homeless/mistreated pets and find them homes
• Buy a Mercedes sports car (I am still debating which one :)
• Get to my final rank in my mixed martial arts school (about 3 years of hard work)
• A cruise for me and my wife
• Get buff ( I want muscles!.. my wife does too lol)
• Participate in a marketing seminar, live on stage

These are not just passing thoughts anymore because I wrote them down and I told you. These are goals that I will be working hard for. So when I am burning the midnight oil and I am fried, I will look at my list and know that because of what I am doing right now, Rome is just around the corner.

My focus now is finding ways to create more "me time". I will cut down on all this stuff I do because it is literally never ending. Everything I am involved in is a living changing thing. Everything is hands on and needs to be handled daily... that is coming to an end soon.

My real business goal is to create enough income to outsource as much as possible. Put others in charge of tasks (especially low profit areas). I am 40 now and I will wake up tomorrow and be 60. I don't think I will be satisfied looking back at a million hours sitting behind a keyboard while 20 years has gone by.

If you really want to step up, leave a comment with your personal goals for us to see. Start empowering yourself right now.

Have a great weekend


Paul

Learn From Infomercials

If you watch a lot of TV you will see many channels with infomercials. If you don't see those you certainly see the mini versions. (like the "Snuggie" or the "Clapper" commercials).

Most of you may not realize what the difference is in these type of commercials over other products advertised. The difference is one is a direct response commercial and the other is brand awareness.

Your companies sole focus should be on direct response and not brand awareness in your ads. Do you know what builds brand awareness? people buying your service. Your goal is to entice as many people as possible to sign up. I don't care how much money your competition is throwing at display ads, a fleet of painted vehicles or whatever. You can beat them and profit more than they do.

It is VERY costly to try and go the branding way and it is not a measurable marketing system. You will have no idea why people call or when they will call. It could take years to establish your presence and many thousands of dollars... plus you need to do it right or it wont work anyway.

If you build it they wont come without a good reason.

Do you know why infomercials work so well (and believe me they do). First they slam you with wonderful benefits of the product. They show you people enjoying/using the product (that is a psychology tactic) and after all of that they give you some great free gifts if you run and CALL NOW!

If you sit and watch infomercials with a pen and paper and write down what catches your interest, do that to your ads. The best direct response marketers in the world are hired to make these commercials. You can glean a lot from them.

Look for infomercials that are on all the time (that means they are killing it and making amazing $). Scribble down notes from what you see at the very beginning (that is when they pull out their hooks to grab viewers) to the free gift at the end. Those hooks and "limited" freebies are what you need for your ads. Notice how the commercial builds momentum totally reeling in interested prospects, then they hit them with the offer.

You can use this exact method in your advertising, more so if you are still putting your company name at the top of the ad. The sooner you realize it is about them and not you the faster, easier and cheaper you will notice a real brand awareness.

Most of you will not do this. Most of you will flounder with your current efforts.

Success is not given, it is earned

Go get some!


Paul

Window Cleaners Take Heed

Yikes, I am a day behind on my post... damn I hate that.

Anyhow today's topic will be focused on the residential window cleaners of the world.

This is going to be a super sized edition today as I want to cover two areas of cash flow. One being continuity and the other being lost opportunities.

First we will start with creating forced continuity. Forced continuity is someone signing up for service on a predetermined schedule (i.e. get their windows cleaned every x months). I find WAY too many businesses overlook this for whatever reason.

You should begin implementing some things immediately:

• Create something you can leave at EVERY job. You want to make a sales page that discusses the service options (i.e. in and out cleaning or exterior only). I would leave a place on the page to hand write a price for each service for their home. Of course the price needs to be right, full price will fail. There needs to be a perceived good deal here-

Only $79 for all exterior windows cleaned inside and out

• Choice on scheduling- every 2, 3, 4, 6, etc.. months. I would offer deeper discounts for more frequency-

Take $10 off if you sign up for bi-monthly cleanings!

• Be sure to remind them why your service is so great for them. Also tell them about how great it will be to have care free clean windows all year long.

For those of you thinking this is not worth it, you should re-think that. I average $300 more per customer I have signed up per year. That is $300 I would not have. That is work in the winter or "off" months. That could mean thousands it total gross revenue per year and spending nothing on advertising it.

Do you know what else you get? A monster force field around your customer! They are not going anywhere, ever. (unless you screw it up). To say this is a HUGE missed opportunity for you is an understatement. If you have multiple services try this on any of them or all of them.

Lost Opportunity #1

In this time of economic peril, we need to make sure we are covering all of our bases. When you advertise your window cleaning do you ever advertise a budget friendly version? Do you have a super sized version? Why not? One size fits all?... not likely.

Most companies have just straight up window cleaning. No grand version, no simple version. You may be saying to yourself that "we are not going to cut the superior quality or extras like screen cleaning or sill cleaning". No? what if there is people wanting to give you money for just that. Keep in mind they read your "budget" package and they are all for it. They know that it does not come with the bells and whistles and want to sign up now because of that.

What if you don't have this choice, do you think they will just pay more? What if $200 is too much but $150 schedules the job? It will take less time because you have less to do, so throwing money out the window because of some weird sense of pride is not smart.

Now the opposite is also true. You need some high end choices too. I mean you use the great soap that leaves lasting shine, you power scrub tracks/sills, you hand clean screens, you clean their bathroom mirrors, whatever. I call this my All Inclusive Package. You know when they call on this they are expecting to pay more and expecting amazing results. You give it and they give you a fat check. Everyone is happy, but more importantly you just earned more money with zero extra advertising and got a customer you may not have otherwise got.

Did I mention you also separate yourself from your competitors?

Lost Opportunity #2

If you happen to advertise a special price like- Up to 20 windows cleaned inside and out only $175

Do you have an out only price? I make a killing doing this because it is far easier to get those that will not pay $175 to pay $79-$99. I can't tell you how many people say "I do my own windows, I just don't want to do the outs". You may allow your weird pride to barf up a "but their interior windows will still look like crap"... so? They know why and they will just get to work on cleaning their own inside windows (likely to have you do it next time). YOU do not reflect a bad impression.

The lost money we could be talking about is 10s of thousands of dollars per year. It cost NOTHING more to advertise these things. Your customer list will explode in size in one year. Referrals will be everywhere (if you do good work and are not a schmuck)

Now go get some!


Paul

p.s. I still operate my window cleaning company in Minneapolis

The Wal-Mart Effect is Making People Crazy...

I am going to address an issue I have been seeing getting taken out of context. It seems a lot of of small business owners are looking to go the way of Wal-Mart and go "lowest price".

Before you end up on craigslist selling your service for $25 an hour, you better realize that will not save your business. In fact it will likely kill it.

Most of us who give homeowners a service like window cleaning, house cleaning or carpet cleaning don't usually service Wal-Mart folks. I can tell you right now I would be surprised if any of my customers shop at the discount juggernaut. Go sit on the bench by the door and count how many of your type of customers walk through. I could sit there all day and not see one.

People are saying "but Wal-Mart's sales are steady while Target's sales have dropped". Yep, that is true. The misleading part is that Wal-Mart is not taking Target's customers, Target's customers are just buying less in these uncertain times. There is also FAR more low income shoppers that have to have cheapest price to live.

We want to target consumers with disposable income. Sure they may be holding their money a little tighter, but that is okay. Just stay patient and keep your price elastic.

How do you not become a bottom feeder?

• Instead of cutting prices, offer limited specials.

The Financial Aid Deal

While our country is working out the economic crisis,
we are offering you the best price we can.

For a very limited time you can get 20 windows cleaned
inside and out for only $179 (normally $199)

Expires May 15th, don't forget- Call now!

If you do not give a reason and deadline you risk not being able to raise prices back up. If your competitors come down in price, now the entire industry standard drops. Quality will fall, customer service will fall. The only thing that will increase is frustration and hatred for your business.

Another thing you can do instead of lowering price is add on a freebie. Build value into the offer rather than decrease dollar amount.

The Stimulus Package

Sign up today for a full interior and exterior
window cleaning and receive gutter cleaning for FREE!

This $79 service is your FREE if you call now!

Offer expires May 15th, call now

Of course these are just made up prices and service add ons. Look into your business and see what kind of add on service or product you can give away to maintain your price. Don't focus on what the freebie is costing you. When your phone stops ringing you will not be selling much of either, you might as well sell one for full price now and sell as many as possible.

By doing this you really do not lower the price of the freebies regular price or your main service price. Once the market bounces back you are golden.... and your competition has to figure out how to raise their prices back up without losing all their customers.

Until next week

Go get some!

Paul