QUOTE OF THE WEEK

"Every sale has five obstacles; no need, no money, no hurry, no desire, no trust."
- Zig Ziglar

There's an old story about a King who gathered together the brightest scholars in his kingdom and gave them all a task – to gather together the wisdom of the ages.

At first they returned with truckloads of stone tablets.

There were so many trucks filled with knowledge that the trucks wound three times around the kingdom.

The King surveyed all the trucks from his balcony.

He ordered the scholars to condense and simplify.

So the scholars went away and returned with an impressive two-volume encyclopedia, carefully written on parchment paper.

Once again, the King eyed their work but demanded they condense and simplify – he was, after all, looking for the simplest possible version to summarize the wisdom of the ages.

So the scholars went back to the drawing board.

Finally, after many months, they returned with one single sentence:

There is no such thing as a free lunch.

We all know there is no such thing as free, and when a company says you're getting something for free, you're not.

Yet somewhere, deep down, we'd all like to believe we are.

I learned the no-free lunch principle the hard way when I bought my first house in the USA just before the last recession. I responded to an ad offering a "free analysis of my drinking water."

The "water technician", aka the sales guy, enthusiastically pumped my hand at the front door before bustling his way to the kitchen. He opened his briefcase, pulled out an impressive array of test tubes and carefully filled each one with water from the kitchen faucet.

The water tech, looking very concerned, "showed me" how horrific my water quality was because the test tubes turned an array of ominous colors.

Then, just when I thought my death from arsenic poisoning and 103 other toxic elements was imminent (it was Los Angeles water, after all), the water technician swiftly provided me with a life-saving solution – a $10K, state-of-the-art water filtration system.

The technician then proved the effectiveness of his system by running the water through it, performing the same tests (which no longer turned ominous colors), and pouring a glass for me so I could taste the difference.

I didn't realize it at the time, but I had just witnessed an incredibly powerful marketing technique called "the visible demonstration."

Always a sucker for a good sales pitch (and worried about halving my life span), I bought the water filtration system on the spot.

This experience is an excellent example of using something of value, given away for free to get a high-quality sales lead.

It's a strategy used by almost every marketing-savvy business on the planet - from giving away a free book explaining everything you need to know about how to make a smart purchasing decision, to free consults, free samples, and free food.

But what about using this same technique of gifting something of value to close the sale?

In marketing speak, we call this sales gift or incentive a premium. It's something the buyer gets for free when purchasing something else.

Using premiums in your sales process is an especially powerful tool when used correctly to sell big-ticket items.

Selling high-ticket items, as you know, often results in a longer sales cycle and requires a great deal of marketing and sales skill.

Using premiums is one strategy to help add value to your client, build the relationship and give them something else they really want.

I love using premiums in some of my businesses.

For example, with Lunch Break Books, our written-for-you and published book packages start at $10K and go up to $50K – depending on the length and style of the book.

We regularly gift an array of marketing services and tools to help the authors become Thought Leaders in their market – everything from offering premium book marketing and public relations services to even spa certificates and TedX Talk trainings.

In my real estate business, we use premiums at the point of sale by gifting ski lift tickets and ski instructor packages for stays of eight nights or more.

Here are some tips on how to use premiums in your business:

- Be strategic. Think carefully before giving away the same things that you sell so that you don't devalue your products or services. For example, if you're a plastic surgeon, it would be a mistake to include another surgical procedure for free, but it would be a good idea to gift skincare products or a series of laser treatments that would help the patient achieve the look they want.

- Think outside the box and offer premiums that your buyers might want for themselves. Even if you're in business-to-business marketing, this strategy can work well. For example, one of our clients made hundreds of millions in the seminar business by gifting the latest iPhones and iPads. Another real estate client gifts all their clients with two months of house cleaning or yard clean-up services.

- Make the premium offer relevant to your clients. It doesn't necessarily have to be relevant to what you are selling – for example, another client provides financial-related services to high-net-worth individuals. Their "new client welcome gift" is a week's stay at the company's condo in the Cayman Islands. They use six weeks for staff to vacation, which leaves 46 weeks to gift to new clients.

You can use the free-lunch sales technique in many different ways to increase your lead generation and sales of big-ticket items.

Whether you use it at the front end of your sales process to generate a high-value lead or at the point of purchase to incentivize and add more value, don't overlook how powerful and universal this approach is!

On a Personal Note
This is a book on my night stand at the moment - leadership insights and strategies for how "the Crimson Tide" took six of the last 12 national titles. One statement that really hit home with me is the advice of Coach Saban's father “if you don’t have time to do it right, where do you find the time to do it over?”
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Ouch!
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Hope you have a great week!

Julie Guest
Marketing Consultant & Chief Strategist
​Bolder&Louder - Extraordinary Advertising​
​Premier Physician Marketing​

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THINKING OF AUTHORING A GOOD BOOK YOUR DREAM PROSPECTS WILL LOVE?
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​Author Tip #4 Choose a Book Title That Will Magnetically Attract Your Dream Prospects​
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​What's in a book title?

Actually, everything. It's the most read part of your book. It will determine who your book will appeal to, and most importantly, it will show your dream prospects why it's worth investing a small amount of their precious time to read it.

Let's take Alec Broadfoot's Lunch book book below. Alec is the CEO of VisionSpark - a premium search firm for entrepreneurial companies. His ideal clients are successful founder entrepreneurs looking to scale and who know what a Number 2 leader is (that's inside terminology for EOS training which his ideal clients attend).

Do you see how the title of his book magnetically attracts his best clients? And, if you weren't one of his dream clients, his title would likely slide under your radar saving both you and VisionSpark precious time.

When we're crafting headline ideas for clients we come up with a list of at least 10 great titles for them to choose from. Don't be afraid to brainstorm your list and keep brainstorming until you've found the right one.

A good formula to use for your book title is one that answers your dream prospects's most pressing question or greatest pain point that you help them solve. Think of the biggest obstacle you have to get your prospects over, or the number one thing you wish they all realized about your company that makes you so muchy better than your competitors. That's a great place to start!

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About Lunch Break Books
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​Is it time to make authoring a book "someday," to today? We make authoring a good book your dream prospects will love incredibly easy, time efficient and very effective.
Using our proprietary "Capture Your Genius" method we turn your wisdom into a brilliantly written book that captures your voice, uses ethical stealth selling techniques to build trust and rapport and motivates your prospect to take action. Your book will become your most powerful marketing tool. But our help doesn't stop there. We also guarantee to get your book national publicity to help elevate your expert status and build your brand.

Learn More About Lunch Break Books

Season 3 of The Client Stampede Podcast is launching soon.
Meantime there are 125+ episodes to help you get more clients. Each episode is usually short sometimes funny and always packed with tools, tips and strategies to keep your business ahead of your competitors.

Subscribe on iTunes.
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CLASSIC EPISODE # 3

It's crazy to me how many businesses - large and small just blow through massive amounts of marketing spend because they don't understand this one simple premise - upon which ALL successful marketing is founded. This is pure gold for your business and you'll never think the same way again ...
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LISTEN NOW

Listen to more Client Stampede podcast episodes on iTunes.

Here are the eight most popular episodes trending:

8. Episode #1​6 Brilliant Beer Company Marketing

7. Episode #106 The Real Reason Prospects Push Back On Price

6. Episode #23 The Disaster Audi Buying Experience

5. Episode #100 How to Become an Expert to Your Dream Clients and Author a Good Book in 60-Minutes

4. Episode #93 A Funny Branding Story

3. Episode #94 Branding Demystified

2. Episode #95 How To Build A Power Brand

1. Episode ​#21 Don't Make Shaquille O'Neal's Multi-Million Dollar Mistake

Is Your Business Doing $2M to $50M+?​
​Ready to Scale? Want More Clients?

Your roadmap is waiting

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Monday Marketing Gold is produced by Julie Guest and Bolder&Louder © Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved.