One-Word Shortcut to Success in Business

Want a shortcut to success in your business?

Try kaizen.

Literally, the two Japanese characters in kaizen mean "change" and "good."

But for our purposes, let's use this definition: Small, daily improvements.

It's a simple concept that produced a small fortune for me a few years back.

Here's the story.

In a nutshell, I spent 60 minutes a day trying to add $10 net profit to my business. Day in, day out, like clockwork.

At first, the gains were ... small. A buck a day here, $20 there.

After about 3 months, however, I found a sweet spot of lead-generation promotions and Google AdWords ads that produced $2.1 million in revenue.

Here's the thing: Had I spent my time looking for a single $2.1-million jackpot, instead of many tiny revenue streams ...

... I would probably still be looking. And no closer to success.

But, by searching for small, daily gains, I discovered a huge breakthrough.

I'm convinced that kaizen worked for me then for the same reason it can work for you now -- buy-in from your brain puts your butt in gear.

Because my brain bought into the idea of adding just $10 a day in revenue ("That's easy. I can do this!") it put my butt in gear ... and I did it. Again and again, until the results really added up.

So: What small improvements can you make to your business today -- and every day?

Ideas for you:

* add $10 in revenue, or find $10 in savings -- or both

* add one email to your autoresponder series

* write one short blog post (which add up to articles, which add up to books)

* call one client to ask how they're doing and how you can help

* write and mail one thank-you note to a client, prospect, vendor, or referral partner

* send one article to one prospect, with a note that says: "Saw this and thought of you"

Those aren't big ideas, are they? That's the point. They're small. But done every day, they can produce big gains for your business.

Caution. There's no getting around the two essential parts of kaizen:

  1. small improvements
  2. every day

If you can't commit to that simple process for never-ending improvement, your butt may never get in gear and you'll just keep doing what you've been doing. Are you okay with that? 

One more thing.

If you want more clients like your best clients, go here

American Pharoah: The Big Payoff of the Slight Edge

Did you see the Kentucky Derby?

American Pharoah won by less than a length.

Take a look at the photo below ...

That picture is incredibly important for you and your business because it illustrates the principle of the Slight Edge.

You see, American Pharoah won by just a slight edge over the #2 horse. But he took home a LOT more money.

How much more? Check it out ...

1. American Pharoah - $1,240,000 payoff

2. Firing Line - $400,000 payoff

That's a difference of $840,000 -- more than three times as much.

Is American Pharoah three times faster or better than Firing Line? Of course not. He was just a little bit better. He had a slight edge.

Is that fair? No.

Is that life? Yes.

All you need is just a slight edge over the other guy ... and you can take home a paycheck that’s so much bigger, it’s almost unfair.

Tip: Always be looking for tools, ideas, and strategies that can give you a slight edge in your business.

Because you don't have to be three times better to take home a three times bigger paycheck. You just have to be better, period.

One more thing: If you own a business, there's a box of 11 Marketing Multipliers waiting to be shipped to you. You can try it Free. Click here now. 

Marketing Optimization: Who Else Wants a $462,363 Windfall?

Marketing Optimization.

It's the process of getting more revenue from the time and money you invest in your marketing.

Everything you do to optimize and wring more dollars out of every visit to your web site, every transaction, every customer -- that's marketing optimization.

Lots of people talk about it. Few do it.

But I do it ...

... and by optimizing a web site for one of my clients, I just added $8,891 a week to his business.

Sales rate before Kevin: $18,899 a week.

Sales rate after Kevin: $27,790 a week.

Now my client, who we'll call Mr. X, is on track to add $462,363 a year EXTRA to his business from the same ad spend.

That's called a windfall.

Take a look at the graphic below to see the results of our optimization test ...

How did I cause a 43% surge in sales overnight?

I made a small change to the headline at the top of his web site. The version with banners was what he had been using for months. The new version, with no banners, was my suggestion.

We sent more than 1,880 visitors to each version of his web site to let the market decide which version was more profitable. This is called split testing.

The new version I tested took me less than 5 minutes to create ... but it was based on 20 years(!) of writing web page copy and building marketing funnels. Yes, I've been at this since 1995.

And the results speak for themselves -- 43% more sales from almost the same number of visitors. Without optimizing, that extra $8,891 a week my client will likely make, from the same amount of web traffic, would have never materialized.

(In a perfect world, I'd let that test run until reaching a 90-95% chance of beating the original. But other factors behind the scenes gave us overwhelming confidence above the 86.2% probability shown.)

Here's the thing: My client is an outstanding marketer. He advertises nationally and his ads are very good.

But his team wasn't testing systematically ... and they needed an extra pair of expert eyes. So he put me on retainer to optimize for him. Now there's no limit to how far he can go. If I don't add an extra $2 million to his business this year, I'll be sorely disappointed.

Takeaway: If you're not continually optimizing your marketing -- testing new headlines, new email subject lines, new scripts on the phone, new sales letters, etc. -- you are absolutely, positively throwing money away.

Just like a surgeon who can fix a broken hip with one well-placed screw, you can unlock big profits with the right tweaks to almost any website (along with the upsells, re-marketing, follow-up, etc.).

One more thing. IF your sales are between $500,000 and $20 million annually ... and you have a good website you know could be doing better ...

... we should talk about how I can optimize and supercharge your profits.  To schedule your Free Discovery Session, click here.

3 Ways to Boost Sales This Week, Without Advertising

I just consulted with the owner of a tutoring school with 3 branches. He really needs to grow his sales.

Before prescribing any marketing "medicine," I asked a few questions to diagnose his condition.

Turns out that his average student stays for 9 months, paying $250/month, for $2,250 in lifetime value.

Before joining, prospective students pay $200 to take an assessment test. And 33-50% of those prospects sign up at his 3 branches (he couldn't be specific about the exact conversion percentage).

After a few more questions and answers, I gave him these 3 easy ways to boost his sales ...

1) Find out the exact conversion percentage at each school. That way, you know who's marketing well and who needs help, so you can prioritize your efforts.

2) Find out exactly what the manager says and does at the school with the highest conversion percentage. Then, roll out their "script" to the other 2 schools.

When you know what works and you do more of it, you are guaranteed to increase sales. So following steps 1 and 2 are a slam-dunk certainty.

(Wait. What about you? What works best to turn prospects into clients for your business? Are you doing as much of it as possible? Why not??)

Here's my last suggestion to the school owner ...

3) Waive the $200 fee on initial assessments, for anyone referred by an existing student.

I told him NOT to worry about the $200 he'll lose by not charging these prospects for tests. Because they walk into his lobby with $0 acquisition costs.

He can still charge the general public $200 for testing, but when people are referred and get the assessment for free, they feel part of an exclusive club ... AND they feel obligated to reciprocate in some way for receiving a $200 gift ... which will likely boost conversions above the current 33-50%.

And I told him to focus on the figure $2,250, which is the lifetime value of every new student who signs up during the "Free Assessment" referral campaign. That's a very motivating number.

(Wait. What about you? What's your lifetime client value, or LCV? Don't know it? Then how can you know how much you can afford to "buy" new clients for with your marketing?)

I hope you find these 3 ideas helpful. None of them will cost you a nickel in advertising. None requires any investment in new technology. And all can be done this week.

Meanwhile ... if you want to put an end to "feast-or-famine" syndrome in your business, my free Client Cloning Kit can help you. Grab your copy here, while they last.

Script Your Day and Save Your Life

I love writing about time management.

Because it's really life management.

You can't do good things with your life until you do good things with your time.

Yesterday I wrote about how moving the email icon off the home screen of your smart phone can help you get back at least 2 hours of productive time each day.

Today, here's another simple idea: Script your day.

In other words, you should know at least 24 hours in advance everything you're going to do on any given day, from what projects you'll work on and whom you'll call to what you'll have for lunch and when you'll answer email.

But don't take it from me ...

Here's what Joe Girard, known as "The World's Greatest Salesman" for selling more than 13,000 Chevrolets -- including 18 in a single day -- says about scripting your day ahead of time:

As a salesperson, I didn’t leave home without organizing my appointment book the night before and charting every move I was going to make. Most people don’t know where they’re going. I didn’t start my engine unless I knew the route I was taking. That approach was tested on the firing line for 15 years.

Another way to think of scripting is as if you were a Hollywood director.

Do you think Steven Spielberg turns up at the set each morning without knowing EXACTLY what he's going to accomplish that day, right down to the minute?

Of course not.

So: Plan every minute and every hour of every day, as if you were shooting a big-budget movie and every minute cost you big bucks.

Because time is money.

Actually, time isn't money. It's more than that. Time is everything.

In the words of Dr. Bernie Siegel, "Time is the only thing we really have."

Resource: If you want to put an end to "feast-or-famine" syndrome in your business, grab your free Client Cloning Kit here.  

Productivity For Busy People: Move Your Email

Last Friday, I returned to my alma mater, Michigan State University, for homecoming.

After wandering around campus all morning, I had lunch with a successful member of the university administration.

He said something that struck me: "One of the biggest challenges of my job is email. I spend hours every day reading emails that I've been cc'd on and trying to answer others as quickly as I can."

We spent the next 30 minutes brainstorming ideas to help him overcome this challenge. I gave him 4-5 proven ways to reclaim at least two hours of productive time every day. And if he implements just one or two of them, the savings to him and his employer will easily add up to $30,000 every year.

Here's the easiest of those productivity tips: Move the email icon off your smart phone's home screen. 

What do I mean?

Take a look at the white circle in the screen shot below ...

See the email icon? No, you don't.

I moved the icon for email, which is 100% reactive, to the last screen on my iPhone.

I replaced it with the Dragon Dictation app, which is 100% productive.

Now, when I turn on my phone, I'm never distracted by a little red number showing how many emails I need to read. There's no temptation to dive into trivia and no loss of physic energy worrying about the chore that is email.

Instead, I get to live my time on my terms. Which is the only way to live. Productive, too.

Resource: If you want to put an end to "feast-or-famine" syndrome in your business, grab your free Client Cloning Kit here.