I’ll have to admit, I’m not a huge fan of Halloween.  I’ve just never understood the point of dressing up in a silly costume, going from door to door threatening some mischievous act if the home owner doesn’t fork over some candy. 

However, when viewed from a capitalist point of view, it really is the perfect storm.  Think about it.  Adults often times get into it even more than the kiddies do, which ultimately translates to TONS of potential revenue for those businesses that capitalize on it.

Unfortunately, I’ve been slow to heed my own advice about taking advantage of Holidays and other events to promote your business, and I didn’t do anything this year for Halloween.  Well, a big time ‘Shame On Me!’

Really, the only thing I can say is, ‘next year will be a much different story’.

Okay, now onto the big announcement I promised yesterday.  Well, unfortunately, I ended up having more bugs to work out than what I thought I did.  As a result it looks like I’m not going to be able to give you ALL the information today.

However, I didn’t want to leave you completely hanging, so I’ll give you just a little bit of information about what I’m getting ready to announce.  It’s something I’ve been working on for quite a while and am SUPER excited about what it will allow me to do.

What I’m referring to is something I’m calling the Lawn Care Champions Circle and my goal with this new program is to become your virtual marketing department.  It will be a monthly membership where you’ll have access to me almost as if I was your full-time employee working on campaigns, programs, and systems for marketing your business like a seasoned pro.

There will be 2 membership levels.  The first will be for those looking for a source of motivation, inspiration, and guidance on how to effectively marketing their business.  More so than what I’m able to provide in these frequent emails.

The second level will be for the LCO looking for some serious help growing their business.  This level will grant access to a vast collection of ready made sales letters, ad templates, marketing insight, new marketing campaigns every single month, a copy of my monthly customer newsletter, a weekly email newsletter template you can use to send to your own customers, and numerous opportunities to interact with me one-on-one to get my help on your specific marketing problems. 

As I already said, I’ll basically become your full-time marketing employee at a fraction of the actual cost.

Now, my plan is to invite a small number of serious business builders to join this Champions Circle between now and the end of the year.  You see, the site is still being built out and resources are being added daily and I need help making sure everything’s all buttoned up before I begin a huge marketing campaign around the 1^st of next year.

So, in addition to getting unlimited access to the huge library of resources that will be available, these early members will also get a significant discount on the monthly membership fee.

My plan is to charge $19.95/mo for the lower level access and $97/mo for the higher level access.  However, for those willing to be BETA testers for the site, I’m offering monthly memberships at $9.95/mo and $29.95 respectively.

Now, these prices will be available only to the first 25 members at each price level before they’ll start to go up.  In fact, I’m only allowing 75 members in at any type of reduced price before they’ll be gone forever.

On top of getting the significantly reduced monthly membership fee, you’ll also have the assurance that your fee will NEVER go up for as long as your remain an active member.  So as long as you maintain an active membership, the most you’ll ever pay is either $9.95 or $29.95.  And that’s even 5 years down the road when I’m charging $250/mo.

So, as much as I’d LOVE to give you all the details about what’s going to be included I have just a few more tweaks to make before I can do that.  So I guess I need to ask for just a little patience while I finalize thing and get them all ready to go.

I promise that once it’s ready to go it will be a HUGE asset to you as your work to grow your business.

In the meantime, if you have any questions about this Lawn Care Champions Circle, please don’t hesitate to ask.

I don’t say this enough, but thanks for the opportunity to help you grow your business and I sincerely do look forward to hearing about your successes.

Have a safe and Happy Halloween!

I’m going to change things up today. Instead of talking about marketing, I want to share something incredibly inspirational with you. It’s quite possibly the most inspirational thing I’ve seen in years and I hope it provides just a bit of encouragement to you as well.

It’s a story about a guy like most of us: Questioning his existence … measuring himself against others … never believing in his own abilities or his worth.

One day, his passion outgrew his fears as he stepped onto a stage, a stage that took him to a place beyond his self imposed prison.

Please take a moment to watch this video now. It could change your life.

I want you to pay close attention to the faces of the judges as this guy walks out on the stage. You can almost see what they’re thinking as they pre-judge this guy based on his looks and the fact that he’s a cell phone salesman.

Turn up your computer speakers and click the link below — then read the rest of story …

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9oxTy7KIAaA

Now, here’s the amazing conclusion to this story:

Paul Potts’ first album was released on July 16, 2007.

It has reached #1 on the UK Albums Chart. The album had been at number one from its release until August 12, and it was certified gold on its first week for sales of almost 130,000 copies sold. The album has now sold over 250,000 copies and is heading for a platinum certification.

In Australia, the album opened at #4 on the ARIA Top 50 Albums Chart. It has so far reached Gold Status (35,000 copies sold). Four weeks later (2 September 2007), it reached #1.

In Sweden, One Chance debuted at #1, reaching Gold Status (20,000 copies sold) the first week of its release.

In the US, the re-release of One Chance debuted at #30 on the week of September 29, 2007.

Paul Potts is now a multi-millionaire. He is adored by fans all over the globe. He’s living his most impossible dream.

Amazing what a little courage can do – isn’t it?

So what’s your impossible dream?

Is achieving your dream worth taking the risk of ridicule and failure?

If you say “Yes” – and mean it – it’s only a matter of time before you, like Paul Potts, personally experience how far a little courage can take you.

So, next time your fears about growing a highly profitable business start to creep in, just think of Paul Potts and what his little bit of courage did for him.

Here’s a fantastic article from one of the few daily e-newsletters I read, Early To Rise. This one’s by Bob Bly, a very well known copywriter and business consultant. Even though this article refers to a real estate brokerage, the principles DEFINITELY apply to a lawn care or landscaping business.

Ding, Dong, Foxtons’ Dead

By Bob Bly

After eight years, Foxtons, the NJ-based discount real estate company, is planning to shut its doors forever, and is filing for bankruptcy. I couldn’t be happier.

Glenn Cohen made a splash when he founded Foxtons in 1999, promising to save home buyers and sellers money. How? By cutting the company’s commission for its agents from the traditional 5 or 6 percent to just 2 percent. And its collapse is a much-needed reminder that discounting - competing based on price - is a lousy long-term business strategy.

The average real estate agent working at a brokerage that charges a traditional commission has a modest income - around $47,000 a year. So what kind of professional do you think you can hire by paying him just one-third of the commission his colleagues are getting?

Discounting stinks as a business strategy, because the more you lower your price, the less money you make. Eventually, you end up working for peanuts - a terrible way to live - for customers that don’t value your service, experience, or knowledge.

Also, if low price is your only selling point, what happens when the guy across the street undercuts you in a price war?

Low-priced vendors and their employees resent working for so little, which translates into crappy service for the customer.

Nobody wins.

So instead of being the low-priced bidder, think about how you can add value to your service - and, by doing so, command premium rates. You’ll make more money and attract a better class of clientele that will respect you more and be happier with what you’re doing for them.

Everyone wins.

Ironically, Glenn Cohen was honored in 2002 as one of 10 New Jersey Entrepreneurs of the Year - apparently by a committee that doesn’t know squat about business in the real world.

(Source: The Record)

One of the biggest sins you can make with your marketing is to be boring. People are constantly bombarded with one type of advertising or another and as a result, it’s important to make yours stand out.

A great way to do this is to tell a story. People LOVE stories, especially ones that speak to a particular problem they might be having. That’s where you can really clean up.

Next time you send a sales letter or postcard, tell a story about one of your customers that had a problem you helped solve. As always, include an offer, some urgency, third party proof, and a call to action, but wrap them all up in an interesting, compelling story.

In fact, you might even create a series of short stories and send them over a period of time. Get your customers familiar with the characters and get them involved.

Try this next time you need some ideas for a killer marketing campaign.

It’s the middle of the week and I debated whether or not to send a quick marketing thought today, and when it came right down to it I figured you could always just ignore it if you’re tired of hearing from me.

Anyway, here’s a real quick marketing tip for today.

If you think having an ad in the phone directory is a complete waste of money, you’re not too far from the truth. While it is losing popularity with many people because of the internet (you do have your website, right?), it still garners a decent bit of attention. So it’s not a complete waste to run an ad there.

However, if you’re going to run an ad in the phone directories, please, DON’T be like everyone else. In fact, here are 6 quick tips to help you maximize the return on your phone directory investment:

1. Use an attention grabbing headline and NOT your company logo at the very top. This is the most valuable piece of real estate and it’s totally wasted space if you put your logo there.
2. Be sure to make an offer. Don’t just list your services. Give the people reading your ad an incentive to pick up the phone and call. And make it something more than just the ‘Free Estimate’ that everyone else offers.
3. Tell your prospects EXACTLY WHAT TO DO. Don’t assume they know they need to pick up the phone. Tell them to call and the times to call.
4. Include some type of third party endorsement or testimonial. Let your satisfied customers tell your story for you.
5. Whatever you do, DON’T let the ad rep design your ad for you. It’s a guaranteed waste of money if you do.
6. Look at every other ad in the ‘Lawn Care’ or ‘Landscaping’ section, and do the complete opposite. Chances are as you start looking at the ads your eyes will start to go cross-eyed because all the ads look so much alike.

So, if you do have the budget to advertise in the phone book, follow these 6 steps and I GUARANTEE you’ll see a vast improvement over anything else you’ve run previously.

And even if you don’t plan to advertise in the phone directory, these are still some good marketing principles to follow!

Today I wanted to share with you some bits of a conversation I had with a client on Friday. He was expressing to me his frustration about all the time he was having to spend selling his services. He said numerous times it felt like all he was doing was meeting with people either not qualified for his services, or not at all interested in what he was truly offering.

As I dug in further and asked about what kind of marketing he was doing, his answer turned out to be very similar to what most businesses in his industry would do, display ads, some newspaper ads, a little bit of direct mail, but mostly cold calling.

Now, as our conversation continued I explained to him the importance of combining both your sales and marketing efforts so they can piggyback off of one another to deliver 10x’s the results he’s currently getting.

You see, I really think sales and marketing are just different phases of the same thing. Marketing is the very beginning of the sales cycle and its goal should be to spit qualified, ready-to-buy prospects out the back-end so the sales cycle can easily convert them to customers.

What I consider to be selling, is really nothing more than answering any last minute questions or helping the prospect over the last few objections or hurdles they have. I view it like this because if I’ve designed my marketing processes correctly, they already know everything they need to know in order to decide if I’m the right guy for the job.

So, what did I tell this fellow in order to cut down the time he spent ‘selling’?

The first thing I told him to do was to stop wasting his money on ineffective ‘image’ type advertising and to start using direct response marketing. I instructed him to change his display ads and newspaper ads to include an offer and call to action, specifically in the form of a free report.

The same thing goes for the direct mail. Present your prospects with an opportunity to learn more about your business and why you’re the best option out of all the available choices. Doing this will move them through the sales cycle considerably and make your sales job a whole lot easier.

On the back-end of these initial marketing efforts, we’re going to create some educational materials that further educates his prospects about his business and why he’s the ideal choice, as well as presents them with some trial offers to get them to take a chance on him.

The whole goal of this new marketing system is to not only generate qualified leads, but filter through the tire-kickers before he wastes any time with them face-to-face. This will give him a considerable amount of time back to spend working on other parts of his business or to continue improving his marketing systems.

So, what could you do with your business to improve the results of your marketing and to cut down on unnecessary waste?