Internet Marketing | Lead Generation

OTO, One Time Offer | First Call Discount | Selling Techniques

As many of my regular readers will know, once upon a time, I was a Double Glazing Salesman.*

Anyway, “us” DG Salespeople had a reputation is some parts of being hard CLOSERS – PUSHY and if truth be known, not really that nice of people. Of course this was a Generalisation and I have to say, many of the most successful sales people I have met in the Double Glazing Industry are the nicest people you can imagine – individuals who care about their customers and provide amazing service.

Ok, back to the theme of this post – in the Double Glazing Industry there is a sales technique called the First Call Discount / FCD – basically a discount, offered one time only, on first visit of a sales person to a prospects home.

Now, I am not going to get into the rights and wrongs of this technique, but recently I have been seeing a rather similar technique being used online, called the ONE TIME OFFER / OTO

In fact I came across a rather powerful example of it the other day.

You may have noticed, at the top of my blog pages there is now a new style of link (called a STRIPE AD) – it is away for me as a website owner to draw your attention to offers / special content etc – or indeed, a place for me to place adverts on behalf of advertisers.

This STRIPE AD is controlled by means of a WordPress Plugin – which I downloaded for “free” from: Pawan Agrawal at MaxBlogPress.com

I was very impressed with this Plugin and to tell the truth, I was surprised Pawan Agrawal was offering if for FREE

And, yes, it is FREE – but before I could download it I was “subject” to an OTO / One Time Offer. Now, I am not complaining, I think it was perfectly fair in the circumstances – and some of the products offered with Great Discounts – ONE TIME ONLY – would be ideal for Newbie or Intermediate Bloggers – but alas for the Developer I did not buy anything. Still, it explained why he could make the offer for FREE.

Go check it out yourself at – MaxBlogPress.com

Feel free to let me know your thoughts on this technique.

* — Double Glazing is a form of Replacement windows

Viral Marketing Lesson

What can I say?

This one really surprised me - Dean Hunt made a post at Streetlessons.com - which was “just” an image of an unusual clock - a Clock for Nerds as Dean put it.

If I am honest - it was for want of a better word a “filler” post.

But the thing is, that single post has brought over 25000 visitors to Streetlessons.com in just 12 hrs yesterday - such is the power of DIGG etc

Just goes to show - you can never predict what will catch peoples imagination - or put another way - one should not allow ones own lack of Intellect to stand in the way of a GREAT POST!

See the Post Here: The Perfect Clock for NERDS

Bill Hicks - The world is like a ride at an amusement park

I had only relatively recently discovered Bill Hicks

I can’t explain why, but I keep feeling myself drawn to Bill Hicks.

I keep coming across quotes by Bill Hicks and other bloggers giving him and his sophisticated rants about the world credit and only today I discovered there are videos of him in YouTube. WOW!

Bill was not afraid to speak his mind and I suppose to some, he was a sort of an evangelist for an alternative message. I won’t pretend I agree with everything he said - but for sure, it makes you THINK. Indeed, there is a lot of what he said, I cannot agree with - but there is enough of the GOOD STUFF to keep me coming back for more.

Bill died in 1994, aged 32. One wonders what his message would be today.

Anyway, whatever your belief system I hope you find the video thought provoking.

Bill Hicks has a view on life that we should embrace, after all life is a ride - so Enjoy!

As an entrepreneur and marketer you are always on the look out of new ideas, suggestions or angles that can be transferred from one market to another.

For me, this includes when travelling, reading local newspapers, listening to other business owners and observing traders and their customers and the interaction that occurs.

Notice the word LISTEN here.

I mention this because I had one of those remarkable AHA! Moments this week when listening to a Market Trader and his customer on a Open Air Market Stall in London.

I say AHA not because I learned something new, but because it reminded me of something I already know very well and should never forget - and that is THE POWER OF QUESTIONS

It was early morning and the stall holder had not quite got all his goods out on display (a range of very interesting ROCK STAR photographs that had been digitally altered and enhanced) but he was already having some interest in his display.

One young man of around 18 or 19 was particularly interested in one photograph and enquired the price to which the stall holder replied:

“�35 to include frame” and that this was his “Special Early Morning Just Getting Started Price”

“Normal price �43″ or so he said.

Almost with out stopping to even think the young man responded:

“Thank you very much, but can I have your late on a rainy day when you have taken almost No Money Price instead?

The Stall Holders face looked a bit surprised and taken back to start with but his face quickly changed to a smile when he said:

“To you young man �22″

A remarkable �13 discount or 37% Discount just for asking the right question!!

Sometimes in negotiations, and in particular when negotiating with fellow, self made business people - you can get the most remarkable results for just having the CHEEK to ask!

In this case, I’m sure the Stall Holder was so impressed with the young man that he felt compelled to reward his INITIATIVE.

Well Done that young man - and remember in Selling and Negotiation, the POWER OF ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS

Recommended: Confessions Of A Salesman

Yanik Silver Underground Seminar - My Favourite Speakers

A very nice feature that Yanik has at his Underground Seminars is that the Audience gets to vote for their favourite speaker - and that speaker gets a cheque for $10000 to give to their favourite charity.

This year the winner was a remarkable 23 year old called Jermaine Griggs - our final presenter on Sunday, who really has an amazing story.

Jermaine Griggs is a 23-year old piano extraordinaire, entrepreneur, and minister, who has taught thousands of people how to play the piano by ear. Well done Jermaine.

To be frank selecting a winner out of so many great speakers is not at all easy and for me personally, they were all great - but here is my attempt to at least make a short list of those speakers who had the most personal impact on me.

By the way, the speakers are not in any order, but hopefully it will give you an idea of the quality of people Yanik brings along

Darren Rowse
Darren is the guy behind ProBlogger
If you know anything about Blogging - then you know of Darren. Indeed, in my opinion, Darrens site is a must read website, no matter if you are a blogger or not.

Perry Belcher
Perry is a personal friend and a fellow Masterminder - who literally blew the house away with his presentation.
If ever the term: serial entrepreneur could be applied to anyone it is Perry Belcher

Perry is also famous for his Perryisms - take for example:

Markets Are Like Girlfriends, You Have To Pick Them Wisely�

�But Unlike Girlfriends, You Can Be Involved with As Many Markets As You Want�

Perry is currently involved in: 75 Different Markets

Just one of them is: stanchions4less.com

Andrew Lock - The Renegade Online Auction Seller
Andrew is a friend, a fellow Brit and fellow Masterminder

What can I say? Just out of this world. If you don’t think you want to be an online Auction Seller then I think Andrews presentation, will make you think differently. I know it did for me. Some very very clever ideas, that currently you will not hear anywhere else. I won’t reveal too much here, but just lets say, my ears picked up as this has something to do with Lead Generation, something that I am particularly interested in.

Check our Andrews website: sendmyfreegift.com and in particular the Video Testimonial by Dr. Joseph Mercola

Finally, but by no means least: John Du Cane

John Du Cane is the founder of Dragon Door Publications

John made an amazing presentation which showed just how well an offline Direct Marketing business can be “married” with an Online Marketing business.

Not only a great speaker, but John also was one of the nicest people you could ever hope to meet, as I discovered over dinner at the Friday Evening Networking Dinner. Thank you John.

Yanik Silver Underground Seminar | Washington DC

As some of you know, I was in Washington DC last weekend for Yanik Silvers Underground III Seminar.

As expected, an awesome experience with amazing speakers.

“Officially” attendees cannot go into great detail about the content and the revelations made by the speakers - so I am afraid, I will not be revealing anything too extraordinary here.

This said, I will just make a couple of points which I felt was worth repeating

The first point is a simple one: TAKE ACTION.

So often when I am in a room of Internet Entrepreneurs or wannabee Internet Entrepreneurs this point more often than not impresses upon me.

You see in business success, it is very often not intelligence that counts most, but taking action that makes the difference. With the greatest respect to the speakers, I’m sure there were people in the room who could claim to be more intelligent than them - but the point is, they are up on stage, revealing the business success, more often than not, because they TOOK ACTION.

Don’t let intelligence or an over analytical brain get in the way of taking action and business success!

Of course if you can combine a reasonable level of intelligence with ACTION, well you are just about Unstoppable!

The second point is not related, but none the less perhaps equally valuable for those of us already online:

Add Testimonials To Your Order Form

A simple - but no doubt effective Idea

Watch out for my personal review of my favourite speakers coming soon

As an Irish man this article in The New York Times got my attention.

An interesting story about two entrepreneurial Irishmen who are making money shipping Irish soil to the US and selling it in 12 oz. bags to Irish-Americans who literally want a piece of the “old country.”

Straight from the Auld Sod Export Company in County Tipperary � well, via a warehouse in this eastern Long Island town filled with 12-ounce plastic bags labeled �Official Irish Dirt.� Pat Burke, one of two Irishmen who founded the company last year to capitalize on the sentimental symbolism of Irish soil to Americans, said it had shipped $2 million worth to the United States since November, when it started its Web site, officialirishdirt.com

Perhaps the kind of idea it would help if you were Drunk in the first place, in order to think of it, but impressive none the less!

Entrepreneurs and their creative ways to make money always amaze me. So often, the simplest and perhaps “daftest” ideas turn out to be the Real Winners. Well Done Pat Burke and Alan Jenkins (his business partner)

As a marketer I am always looking out for new angles and new “spins” on ideas and this one caught my eye today.

The one thing I have learned about Viral Marketing is that it is often the silliest and most daft idea ideas that goes Viral.

Who would have thought that a video of a car driver hooking up four GPS devices at the same time (Which ends up with a maelstrom of voices and a nightmarish conclusion) would have been such a hit on YouTube?

At time of posting this is a video that has 1,728,545 views, 1461 Comments and been Favorited 1125 times.

See the Video below:

Mind you, the “clever” bit was having that idea in the first place - a clear case of thinking outside the box, well done that man/woman! Not so silly after all

PS: I never ever thought I would be using the term “Gang Bang” on any website of mine - if my Mother could see me now!

This is an excellent read - some trends all us online and offline business people should be aware of:

TOP 5 CONSUMER TRENDS FOR 2007

In particular the point I see increasingly being made is that: Lifestyle is more important than money

Business people would do well to keep this in mind, not just for themselves, but for the lifestyles of their customers

The times they are a-changin - they really are.

How to Maintain Business Focus in Joint Ventures and Coaching - and protect your self from Business Wannabe Energy Vampires

One of the hardest things in business (or life) is to keep our FOCUS.

For me that personally means using my time as productively as possible. Occasionally something comes a long that appeals to our “ego” (sorry, can’t think of another word) - and while there is nothing necessarily wrong with that - it is in my experience those things that distract us the most from our objectives and goals and ultimately make it more difficult to reach our goals.

For example, I pretty regularly have people approach me with ideas and Joint Venture proposals - but almost without exception these approaches are from less “successful” people than myself. (Hey, I know successful is a subjective word)

I even have requests for coaching and proposals offering shares in future profits. Now these approaches are flattering (well, for the ego at least) and if I was not more careful, I would find myself getting involved in quite a number of them

You see, TIME (not money) is the most precious thing we have in business and the idea of giving up any of your time to focus on anything other than your core business objective has to be treated with caution. Many the potentially great business have remained a mediocre business because the owners could not maintain their focus or allowed their EGO to get the better of them.

You see, with that time invested in my own business, using my skills and contacts, I could “earn” considerably more in the long term by building up a new business that could be sold etc than I might ever in a JV or individual coaching.

The other issue that I have with “coaching” (not so much consulting) is that when you coach, you almost inevitably become responsible for that other persons “success” or “failure”. Now of course, professional coaches have ways of “re-framing” this so it is not their responsibility but none the less it is I believe an issue. I have several friends who are coaches and they have said this is one of the “negatives” of what they do.

People even come along and offer you a share of their “profits” (it has happened to me) - but that in my opinion is a JOKE, as frankly those profits would not be there had it not been for your involvement.

As a generalisation - I will only ever Joint Venture with someone who I at least consider my “equal” or someone who can bring something to the table that I cannot. Someone who is not yet successful on the web, who is offering you a share of his / her future profits and you have to JV / Coach them is not in my opinion an “equal”. They need you a whole deal more than you ever will need them. For me, one expression of ENERGY, IS MONEY and BUSINESS SUCCESS and anything that drains me of Energy (like listening to other people and their issues and why they are not successful) drains me of business success - so I avoid it whenever I can.

The only realistic alternative I would consider - is in the longer term to offer an “apprenticeship” or “mastermind” program - but I don’t feel that can be offered until your existing business is highly successful and is running almost on auto-pilot or perhaps even better, after you have exited your existing business.