Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
June 29, 2009
Issue #463
- The hard truth "get rich quick" gurus never tell you …
- What it really takes to hit the big time …
- Why what you do the rest of today matters …
- Much more …
Dear Business-Builder,
My mom’s cousin married Ty Cobb’s son, Herschel. Since I’m not good at math, I can’t really tell you what that makes me. Ty Cobb’s grand nephew once removed? I dunno.
But still, I’ve always been proud to be related — even distantly — to the man who invented modern baseball. So a few years ago, I read Cobb: A Biography by Al Stump and later, watched the movie starring Tommy Lee Jones.
Great book; good flick. Not because they heralded Cobb’s exploits on the field, but because they painted a crystal-clear picture of the man behind the legend.
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Posted by:
Clayton Makepeace
March 16, 2009
Issue #630
Why polls and focus groups
may be the best way ever invented
to spring to the worst conclusions
about what your prospect wants …
And the ONLY way to get the answers
that will actually rocket your response.
Dear Business-Builder,
You’ve just helped me a great deal. You couldn’t have known you were helping me, but you did anyway and I’m grateful.
Over the past year or so, nine or ten of the more than 600 articles in our archives have addressed this economic crisis – a situation that was about to affect and still is impacting your ability to succeed.
At first, I simply offered advice to help you prepare your business and your family for the great economic crisis I saw brewing. Later, hoping that learning what caused this crisis might help us avoid repeating it, I tracked the blunders that put our nation and our world in this precarious situation.
That meant each of these articles had plenty of political content. I spared nobody in Washington; laying the blame for our current economic crisis squarely at the feet of villains in both parties.
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
November 19, 2008
Issue #549
Dear Web Business-Builder,
Several years into my career in corporate, business-to-business selling, I realized there are a few key things you can find out about someone that will dramatically increase your odds of making a favorable impression and getting them involved with your product or service.
Even before this realization, I was already outselling pretty much all of the other sales people at the companies I worked for. It was because I was a ruthless qualifier …
I simply refused to spend time trying to persuade unqualified buyers … while the other salespeople often wasted their valuable time and energy trying to sell to people who couldn’t buy … or with companies who shouldn’t buy because one of our competitors was better able to serve them.
This meant I was dumbfounded when my prospects often failed to see why we were the absolute best solution to their company’s problem.
To me, their behavior was like denying two and two make four — until I discovered my failing …
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Posted by:
Daniel Levis
October 22, 2008
Issue #529
Dear Web Business-Builder,
People often ask me:
“Is there a method for getting inside the heads of a target market? You talk about the importance of understanding a target market’s desires, fears, frustrations, beliefs, and so forth … but how do I do that?”
This is a great question …
EVERYONE marketing online should be asking it. So I’ll give you my answer today …
Some marketers seem to be psychic. They just seem know what people want. I’m not one of them. And in my experience, most entrepreneurs are not.
Most of the business people I’ve worked with, even IF they’ve been working with a particular market for years, generally DO NOT have a good handle on what’s going on inside people’s heads when those people are online trying to solve their problems.
One of the biggest mistakes a freelance copywriter can possibly make is to take what a client says about their target market at face value. I say this from personal experience.
Your clients are either too close to their own businesses to be objective, or they just don’t understand the online dynamic.
There is a lot of guess marketing going on. And guessing probably isn’t going to give you the stellar results you’re looking for.
See here’s the deal. To sell effectively online, it’s essential you demonstrate extraordinary empathy for the people you’re selling to. He who demonstrates the most empathy wins.
And having an accurate read on your target market’s desires, fears, frustrations, and beliefs is the foundation on which that empathy is built.
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Posted by:
Michael Masterson
August 11, 2008
Issue #478
We all have dreams. We all carry movies in our minds about how life could be for us in a better world. Sally dreams of a big house with a built-in pool. Harry dreams of an eight-car garage filled with vintage Porsches. Jill fantasizes about painting pictures at the seashore. Jack wants that corner office with the view.
Chances are, Sally and Harry and Jill and Jack will never get what they dream about. They will go on playing those mental movies for themselves or talking about them to friends and family members.
Failing to live your dreams is not necessarily a bad thing. Lots of people are perfectly happy dreaming of one life but living another. The problem arises when the gap between fantasy and reality results in unhappiness or even depression. When this happens, it’s time to master plan a new life. And the first step is to establish goals.
Goals are different from dreams in four ways. They are specific, actionable, time-oriented, and realistic.
Specific: Being rich is a dream. Developing a $4 million net worth is a goal.
Actionable: Winning the lottery is a dream. Winning a foot race is a goal.
Time-Oriented: Developing a $4 million net worth is a goal. But developing a $4 million net worth in five years is a better goal.
Realistic: Developing a $4 million net worth in five years is probably reasonable. Developing a $4 million net worth in four months is not.
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