As promised, I’m back today with a quick preview of tonight’s Champion’s Circle tele-seminar. 

The focus of tonight’s call will be on the process of creating a powerful, magical marketing system that allows you to build your business without the usual stress, headaches, and hassles most businesses experience.

The 1^st step to creating this system is to understand everything it needs to accomplish.  At a high level, your marketing system should cover every aspect of the 7 Step Sales & Marketing Cycle.

If you’re not familiar with this 7 step cycle, here are the 7 steps:

1. Create a marketing plan – a detailed action plan of what needs to be done and when it needs to be done by
2. Attract attention – the most expensive and difficult step in the process
3. Educate your prospects – don’t sell them, help them sell themselves
4. Convert your prospects to customers – gain enough trust that they are willing to give you their business
5. Provide exceptional customer service – now that you have their trust, KEEP IT
6. Convert satisfied customers into your unpaid salesforce – no one sells your business better than satisfied customers
7. Build a 50ft wall around your customers – your goal should be to take them off the market FOREVER

Your marketing system should cover every single one of these steps.  In fact, one of your goals should be to design a marketing system that does your selling for you so that when you meet with someone face to face, it’s to either get a signature on a contract and/or a deposit for the project.

Now, I’d love to say creating this system is easy, but truth be told, it’s not.  However, understand WHAT this system needs to accomplish is a very important first step to making it happen.

Also, as you begin the process of creating this system, don’t expect it to materialize overnight.  It will definitely take some time.

However, once you’ve managed to get all the pieces in place, your business will experience more growth in a shorter period of time than you ever thought possible.  Plus, you’ll have more time to focus on providing better customer service, training employees, spending more time building relationships with other business owners, providing charitable service, or just spending more time doing things you’d much rather be doing.

If you’d like to get more insights about how to create this powerful marketing system, I invite you to join me on tonight’s Champion’s Circle tele-seminar.  We’ll begin promptly at 8:30pm EDT and it will last approximately 60 minutes.  I’ll even leave some time at the end for you to ask questions if you’d like.

Anyway, you can get all the details about the Champion’s Circle and join right here:

www.LawnCareChampionsCircle.com

You’ll need to sign up to get the call-in details, but in addition to tonight’s call you’ll also get access to lots of valuable business building resources.

So, if you’re on the fence now’s the time to get off.

With Thanksgiving just days away, I’ve been thinking a lot about the importance of letting your customers know just how much they mean to your business.  In fact, it could be the MOST important element of any successful marketing plan.

I know I’ve talked a lot recently about the importance of developing a solid relationship with your customers, but it really can’t be stressed enough.  That being said, I’ve decided to list several different ways you can let your customers know just how important they are to your business.

• Send them a ‘stick’ letter after their first purchase – A stick letter is simply a letter, postcard, or other small ‘something’ letting them know you appreciate their business, you hope they were satisfied with the service, and the fact you look forward to continuing to serve them.

• Communicate with them EVERY month.  And an invoice DOESN’T count!  You’ve got to do something above and beyond what they would receive from any other LCO.  It could really be anything, but I highly recommend a monthly, hard copy newsletter you send via snail mail.

If you’re not sure where to start, I do offer a newsletter template each month you can easily customize for your business.  You can get more details here: 

• Call them periodically to check on them and their service.  You’ll solidify many relationships by simply taking the time to reach out to your customers to find out what they think.  And if you’re expecting them to reach out to you to let you know what they’re thinking, you’re crazy.

• Send them an unexpected greeting card.  Again, it’s the small, unexpected surprises that really build relationships and by sending a ‘Grandparents Day’ card (just an example) with a reason why the ‘holiday’ made you think of them would be a HUGE hit.

• Stop by a day or 2 after a service visit to review the work and get their feedback.  Like the phone call, it’ll really go a long ways towards demonstrating your commitment to providing exceptional service.

So, as Thanksgiving comes and goes this week, take a few minutes to think about some ways you could express your appreciation to your customers.

If you’re at a total loss, I’ll be adding some GREAT customer appreciation campaigns and tools this weekend.  And even though Thanksgiving won’t be coming around for another year, these are resources you could and SHOULD be using year round.

Anyway, have a great next few days and if you’ll be traveling ‘over the rive and through the woods,’ I hope you do it in safety.

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!

Here’s a quick bit of insight for you before the week’s out. Remember this the next time you put together a marketing campaign.

One of the biggest mistakes any business can make is to send out materials that are dull, boring, and mind numbing. That’s right. Being boring is a HUGE mistake!

Think about it for a moment. How much advertising are you subjected to on a daily basis? Of all this advertising, is any of it really interesting? Or at the very least memorable? Unfortunately, probably not.

So, don’t be like everyone else! People LOVE doing business with real people. People that live, breath, have emotions, face daily challenges, and put their pants on one leg at a time. So, why not show your prospects and customers you fit that very bill?

How can you inject some personality into your marketing?

Well, the first thing you can do is to be yourself and don’t be afraid to reveal who you really are. As an example, I’m a HUGE sports nut, as if you need me to remind you. One of the ways I inject some personality is to periodically talk about my favorite teams. It’s not much, but it at least lets you know I have interests outside of marketing and hopefully, it lets you know I’m a real person.

So, next time you put out a marketing piece, no matter what it is, be sure to inject some personality and don’t let it be boring!

Thanks to a few people that let me know yesterday, but the links I sent out with the supposed discounts for both the Fall Aeration letter and October’s customer newsletter weren’t showing the proper discounts.

So, to eliminate the whole ‘discount’ thing, I’ve gone back and created a special page where you can order the packages at the promised prices. So no having to deal with lame-o discount links and stuff. Here’s the new page:

October Lawn Care Marketing Special

Anyway, I can’t send you something without at least offering one small bit of marketing insight. It just wouldn’t be right, so here you go.

Anytime you communicate with your customers or prospects, present them with some type of offer. It doesn’t matter what services you’re already providing them, what offers you’ve already made to them, or what services you’ve already provided them. Present them with an opportunity to buy regardless.

If you do it in a way that positions the offer as adding value, it shouldn’t come across as to ‘salesy’ so if that’s a concern, don’t worry about it. Besides, you’re in the business of making money and to do that you have to make sales. Right?

Now, since I wouldn’t be a very good teacher if I didn’t practice what I preach, here’s my opportunity to make you an offer.

If you don’t already have a website, seriously now, what are you waiting for? I can’t say it enough, but a website will do more to help grow your business in the coming years than anything else you could invest your money in. I have absolutely no doubt about that.

So if you’ve been sitting on the fence, it’s time to get off. For the next 7 days, I’ll give anyone that wants to add a website to their marketing mix 10% off the total price. Just shoot me an email and let me know you’re interested in getting a new website and I’ll take care of the discount for you.

If you want a website, but aren’t convinced I can provide you with a great one, don’t worry, you won’t hurt my feelings. There are plenty of fantastic providers out there. Just find one!

Yesterday I promised you a killer marketing idea today so here it is. This one’s called the Power 100 team. With the temperatures starting to drop and the growing season coming to an end, it’s a great project to tackle over the cooler winter months. Now, this isn’t necessarily going to add profit to your bottom line right now, but over the long haul it will add a TON of new customers to your roster.

Basically, the goal behind this marketing system is to become the ‘go to guy’ for your customers and prospects when they’re looking for other service providers. After implementing this system you’ll have prospects and customers coming at you from every conceivable angle.

Okay, here’s the way it works. The first thing you need to do is to make a list of all the different types of service providers that might service your target customer. This list could include cleaning services, accountants, plumbers, electricians, tailors, real estate agents, financial planners, insurance agents, etc. List as many of these types of non-competing businesses as you can think of.

Once you have this list, your next task is to list an actual business next to each item. You may be able to fill in many immediately with businesses you either know the owner of or have used previously. For the ones you don’t know, you’ll want to either ask for recommendations from friends, family, neighbors, or even your customers.

Now, you’ll most likely need to explain to these businesses what’s going on so here’s what you tell them. Basically, you’re trying to create a directory of RECOMMENDED businesses your customers can call on. So, anytime they need a good accountant they pull out your little directory and can know it’s someone that comes highly recommended. The same goes for the cleaning service.
And the baby sitter. And so on and so on.

However, it doesn’t just stop with your own customers because you will also offer this directory to the businesses you have on the list. So you’d send this directory to the real estate agent on the list and tell her to send it to her customers as well. And the same for the plumber. And the electrician. And so on and so on.

As a result of this system, you’ll provide your own customers a valuable service by helping them find reliable, trusted service providers for their other needs, but you’ll also be gaining access to literally HUNDREDS of additional prospects.

Now, setting something like this up will DEFINITELY take some time and effort, but I promise you it’ll be well worth both.

If you have any specific questions about how to make this work, please feel free to drop me a line and I’ll do my best to clarify any questions you have.