As spring comes into full swing I am mindful that the first business quarter has come to an end and the next is beginning.    It’s a great time to take stock of where you are, and maybe even readjust your strategy or note what is needed to add or change to achieve the goals you have set for the coming months.

The ability to readjust your approach or tactics as you go can mean the difference between successful marketing and sales fizzling.

So the question is:

• Have you taken stock of where you are?
• Have you planned out how to schedule attacking your marketing plan?

Just like using a map or GPS system, by noting these markers you can be steps ahead of the competition just by taking stock of where you are.

Using a sales and marketing calendar is something that I recommend when consulting my clients and it is one of the strategies that I teach in my The Millionaires in Training^TM Program.  A sales and marketing calendar gives you a hands-on ability to ability to allocate time and energy for items critical to your businesses marketing plan.

If you check in with your marketing plans each quarter you will find it a useful way to monitor your progress. I will have an indication if I need to re-adjust something or if I am close to my strategic destination I may be happy to leave things as they are.

I recommend doing this “checking in” as it can allow you to acknowledge not only those things you need to adjust but your successes as well.

Your marketing and sales calendar can give you a keen awareness of which months your promotions are booked, giving you much needed lead in time to take care of the details which can make the difference between a successful outcome or a possible setback.

To build your own sales calendar I recommend taking the following steps:

• List out all your products and programs. Input them into the appropriate date.
• Block out time to spend developing your business.
• Add a sales goal each month.

As one of aspects that I teach in my The Millionaires in Training^TM Program, a sales and marketing calendar can greatly improve your success.  The Millionaires in Training^TM Program is designed to empower you even if marketing seems as clear as a foreign language to you. You will receive clear direction, answers to your unique questions and be placed in an environment where you are supported by an intimate group of like-minded individuals, specialized coaches, and my marketing experts and instructors.

A sales and marketing calendar is just one of the many resources successful businesses and entrepreneurs use to increase sales, bring in new business and maximize their growth potential.

There are 2 famous lines in the Jerry Maguire movie.  One of them is, of course, “Show me the Money!”  But the other one is the one that women always remember because it’s the romantic one – “You had me at hello.”

I think BOTH are relative to business – however, the romantic one is the one that I apply toward my marketing strategies – particularly when it comes to presentations (like teleclasses)!

Did you know that when it comes to your presentation, what you start out with is SO much more important than the last 15 minutes of the “close” at the end?

I can’t tell you how many people I’ve come across that have it all backwards – they put all their time and energy into that final 15 minutes.  But the truth is, if you’ve done your job through the first 45 minutes of your talk, you can write a simple, easy sales pitch for the end and you will create massive sales – and way more than you would have otherwise!

I taught this strategy and went through a teleseminar template that I described to Matt Bacak (Internet Marketer), and when he started using it, his sales went up dramatically and immediately.  He said my template felt “real” and “the best” to him, it made so much sense to him and he loved the new insight of “You had me at hello”.

The impact was even greater for him as before he spoke to me he had just had meeting with someone that was really salesy and aggressive, which he didn’t enjoy at all – and his sales reflected that.  But using this new structure worked for him amazingly!  In fact it was the best sales he’d ever done.

What he learned is that your best sales come from you speaking the truth, being who you are, and knowing the structure of what you need to put it in.

You don’t have to be someone that you’re not in order to make great sales!

I taught these same ideas to Eric Lofholm.  He’s a GREAT salesman – he sells to people at seminars all the time, but he admitted his teleseminar phone sales were terrible.  He actually just gave up on the whole idea of doing teleseminars!

But he simply needed a different structure, because selling on the phone is very different than selling on stage.  I taught him the structure that I teach in my Millionaires in Training (MIT) program (and honestly that one little piece is worth the price of the course alone!)

And he went from giving up (and no sales) to selling half a million of products in a few months from the 1 structure I gave him!  That speaks for itself!

You might be interested to know that the reason I put this structure together was because I was actually hired by a company some years ago that hosted 3-4 teleseminars a month for different people to sell their products, while he made a commision.

The owner brought in these people, and he made an average of $10K a month through booking these speakers – so having people that would really be good at selling was very important to him!

My job was to listen to the teleseminars and tell the owner who would sell and who wouldn’t.  And I would actually sit there listening and write down the exact time of when this speaker would lose their audience – some would lose it at 5 minutes into the call, others at 30 minutes, and some would lose them at several points throughout the call!

It was almost like having a first date and saying the wrong thing – several times!  These people were unknowingly completely ruining their relationships!  And let me tell you, you’re NOT going to get a second date when that happens!

So I would write these times down for the owner of the company, and then we would look at the printout from the phone company after the call that would tell us exactly when people started hanging up – and it matched exactly.

And it was tragic – because not only were these sellers losing people emotionally, but they were so turned off that people actually hung up!

And who knows about those people that didn’t hang up – I mean they could have been staring at their grocery list or vacuuming the house by that point – because they no longer had any reason to be invested in the call.

In these cases it was more like, “You LOST me at hello!”

So I started to realize that a lot of great business people were running into these same issues, and came up with the structure to implement to keep this from happening!

This is what Eric Lofholm had to say after he learned it:

“Thank you for the awesome coaching. I am a master at selling from the stage. However, I have done over 100 conference calls and never had success closing orders on a teleclass. I implemented over 10 ideas you suggested during our coaching session. My results were incredible. In fact my phones began to ring off the hook before the call was even completed. Your insight was awesome. I’ve added it up and I’ve profited over $500,000 since implementing your ideas. I look forward to utilizing your consulting services for years to come.”

If you find yourself running into these same issues in your marketing strategies when it comes to presentations or teleseminars, begin to implement the following:

• One of my HUGEST pet peeves on a call is when people say, “You folks”.  It doesn’t matter if there are 1500 people on the line – you need to be speaking to just one person! Say the word “You”.  You can even envision talking to a certain person in your mind to better assist you to speak in this way.  You will be surprised at what a difference it will make for you!
• AND, many people make the mistake of selling only in the last 15 minute of the call or presentation. It’s like there’s all this lead-up and then BAM – buy stuff from me! The reality is, you should be seeding your product or service throughout the entire presentation – the end is where you can give the details, but your sales pitch shouldn’t be coming out of left field!

It takes me about 60 minutes to go through the whole structured template for my clients & students, but these are probably 2 of the most important aspects of presentation and keeping that “You had me at hello” mindset.

Put these into effect in your teleseminar and you’ll begin to see changes right away!

If you want to learn more about the MIT program and the marketing strategies that have worked for people like Matt Bacak and Eric Lofholm, visit Millionaires In Training.  Then you’ll not only be applying, “You had me at hello”, but you’ll be saying, “Show me the money!” too! 

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Have you ever heard the expression ‘Junk in the Trunk’?

It’s actually a slang term that refers to someone that has a full figured bottom.  You know I’m on the treadmill a couple of times a week to reduce my back end – but in your business, you really need some junk in the trunk!

FACT:  The bigger the back-end of your organization, the bigger your bank account.

If you want to maximize your list, have additional profits centers that bring in money while you sleep and have a system in place that sells to people who already love your stuff, this is stuff you need to know!

FACT: Knowing these common niche marketing myths and understanding those ‘junk in the trunk’ implications is going to make your business easier and much more profitable.

Here’s an example for you:

Think about marketing a book. It’s often the first info-product that people create, and it is one that illustrates a valuable lesson.

FICTION: Once I take my book to Best-Seller status, I’ll be rich and home free!

It’s true – having a best-selling book gives you credibility, helps you to gain publicity and gets you media attention.  It’s also a lovely gold sticker on your book!

But if a marketing person tells you that all you need to do is get your book to number one and you’ll be set, you should run! (Or at least stop paying them!)

Here’s why: Essentially, a book is only a very large business card.  It’s your lead generator, but it should be just one of many. Best-seller status will get you into the press, it will introduce you to new customers and it will let people know who you are and what you’re all about.

Robert Allen sold millions of copies of his first book “Nothing Down”, but after the publisher’s cut and everything else, he was lucky if he got $2 a book!

In his third book (one that he actually considered to be a dismal publishing failure!), he went through and identified about 15 places that where he would give readers a special report, a CD or an audio cassette.

Essentially, all he did was put “You want this?  Contact me here and I’ll give this to you”, in about 15 different places.

Well only 10,000 people called, but 5,000 of those people paid him 5,000 dollars for one of his high-end programs.  Do the math – that’s 25 million dollars!!

Extremely successful book marketing strategy – considered a publishing failure.

So, would you rather position yourself where you have to sell at least a million books to make a million dollars? Or would you rather put your marketing efforts into selling 60,000 books that could make you 25 million dollars?

Are you beginning to see how important having a back-end marketing strategy can be?

FICTION: You need to put thousands of dollars into a marketing campaign before you can see any return.

The only people that are ever going to tell you that are:

• Advertising agencies
• Other entrepreneurs that are still working off a marketing plan that isn’t working for them

You’ve probably noticed this, but advertising in magazines 7 times or more (industry recommended) is not cheap!

There are much easier (and cheaper!) ways to get your name and product out in front. One of the best is through doing Joint Ventures – you “borrow” their database, their customers, and even their website to sell your product – all at no cost to you!

FACT: No cost and low cost strategies are very effective!

FICTION: Once I write my book, my publisher will be in charge of getting my book out there, so I don’t need any marketing strategies.

This is probably the biggest misconception out there among new authors.

In niche marketing, you and you alone are responsible for getting your product out there, creating the sales and determining your own income.

A lot of publishers today won’t even take on new authors unless the author can demonstrate that they understand all this by submitting a marketing plan that describes all the different ways they’re going to get their product out there.

You need to know this.

As the creator of your product, YOU are in charge of:

• Marketing your book, product or service
• Having a big back-end strategy that sells additional product
• Keeping your clients happy and coming back to you

FACT: Being well known or not is not the difference between little money coming in and a lot of money coming in. The truth is, it’s got everything to do with the information you have, your willingness to use it, and the model you are following.

The choice to put it into practice is yours alone.

Think about it – in your investment portfolio, you wouldn’t put all your eggs in one basket. If you wouldn’t invest that way – why would you build your business that way?

Building a back-end strategy is crucial to your business!  And don’t ever let any inexperienced marketer tell you otherwise!

About Stefanie Hartman: Considered one of America’s most influential entrepreneurial mentors to help you get clients, skyrocket sales, and become famous in your niche or field, Stefanie Hartman is known as “The Expert’s Expert”.

CEO of Centaur Strategies, she founded the entrepreneur’s “Millionaires-in-Training Mentorship Program” that literally teaches you how to re-invent yourself, become a published expert and create a six-to-seven-figure annual income from selling information you already have!

You can learn the “behind-the-scenes’ marketing, business & profit secrets from the marketing expert to the guru’s.  Visit: www.mitprogram.com and www.PrivateJVClub.com

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