You may not remember Chris – but he had a couple of big hits back in the late 70’s.  The one you’re most likely to remember was called “Fool if you think it’s over”.

As is sometimes the case, I didn’t like the specific song my friend sent me – but still it got me thinking about Chris Rea.  And it led me on a ‘lost weekend” of Chris Rea music – until somewhere in “there” I discovered a YouTube version of Chris Rea singing, “Fool”.

As it turned out, “Fool” was a song that had always touched me at some deep level.  I think you know what I mean.  It’s as if we all keep a list of songs somewhere under the cobwebs – a list that defines us as people.

No, we don’t really acknowledge that the list exists.  But it does.  Just one of those secrets that we mostly keep from the world.

Now here’s the point.  As I watched Chris Rea perform the song once again, I was awestruck at what a talent he is – especially when you consider that he was 22 years old is this performance.  I don’t know about you – but there is something almost incomprehensible about talent like that.  And for me at least – something frightening.  It’s kind of like the Boogey Man.   At some level I know he shouldn’t exist.  And yet there he is.

For me the fear is born from frustration.  When I see someone like Chris Rea perform, I want to be in the same room with them.  And I want to express to them the joy I feel in the sharing of their talent.  I want to thank them for being.  But most of all, I want to know where the song comes from.  And it actually scares me because I don’t.

So I sit in front of my computer for hours on end – writing advertising copy while singing the lyric for “Fool” under my breath.  I do that until the lyric and the melody become so familiar that it’s as if I had written them myself.  It is then that I feel the origins of the song.   It is then I’m not frightened anymore.

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]]> http://morganjamesltd.com/?feed=rss2&p=268 0 http://morganjamesltd.com/?p=200 http://morganjamesltd.com/?p=200#comments Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:52:59 +0000 J. Michael Anderson http://morganjamesltd.com/home/?p=200 Over the years, we have produced numerous documents that explain our methods in an easy to follow step-by-step format.  If you like doing it yourself, this the place to look first.

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]]> http://morganjamesltd.com/?feed=rss2&p=187 0 http://morganjamesltd.com/?p=185 http://morganjamesltd.com/?p=185#comments Sat, 03 Apr 2010 20:49:45 +0000 J. Michael Anderson http://morganjamesltd.com/home/?p=185 Our revolutionary MarketingMentor coaching services lets you tap the mind of a first tier marketing guru, run ads on radio and TV, in newspapers, on billboards, and in trade magazines – lets you engage in mass media, direct mail, internet, public relations and event marketing at absolutely minimum risk.

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Timepiece ran for well over a year before the station format was changed and I was replaced.

Recently a good friend of mine suggested that these recordings might be an interesting addition to my blog. It is with that backstory in mind that I present to you now the first of those recordings.

At one point, over 7,300,000 copies of the letter were mailed.  And although the exact profits for the letter are unobtainable, it reportedly generated well over twenty million dollars in sales. And built a company that launched Halbert’s career as a copywriter extraordinaire.

What’s astonishing about all this is that the letter was written and mailed by a man who was nearly bankrupt at the time of the mailing.  Gary himself said that the letter worked because “it had to”.  He used his last few dollars to mail the first few letters.

When I think about this letter, I think about all the failed attempts Gary made before he wrote what was destined to make him famous. He had read all of the copywriting books. He had studied all of the masters.  He had done everything that he could do to write a successful letter.  But it was only when his back was to the wall that he finally succeeded.

I think there’s a lesson here for all of us who aspire to marketing greatness.   And the lesson is that we sometimes have to reach a point of desperation before we finally hit that sweet spot that takes us over the top.

I’m enclosing a copy of the letter for you to study.  As you can see, it was a simple one page letter that sold a simple product (a copy of a coat of arms printed on parchment paper) for a token price – $2.00.

But also notice that it makes a very persuasive case.  A case so persuasive that it made Halbert a millionaire and ultimately one of the most respected copywriters in the history of the business.

But wait a minute.  Although the Dolphins went the entire season without a loss, there were still plenty of points scored against them.  So even though their record was perfect, they weren’t always perfect on the field.

Splitting hairs you say? Maybe.

But then there’s the 1959 East Pennsboro high school football team to consider.  They also had a perfect season.  But in the case of the Panthers – no one scored a single point against them for the entire campaign.  No one.  Not a single point.  Perfection.

In a recent article in the Harrisburg Patriot News, team members recalled that perfect season and shared various theories about how it happened:

• Eleven of the 15 team members had played under the same Pee Wee coach.
• Two of the team members were best friends.
• The coach of the team had already won a high school championship.
• The coach’s beloved mentor had died just before the season began.
• The team benefited from the close-knit atmosphere of a post World War Two community.
• The school had just purchased new uniforms.

But the truth is any small town high school football team could have boasted of similar attributes.  So how did they do it?

One team member explained that the whole town of Enola, PA was emotionally invested in their team. The town was part of the team.

Another team member pointed out that they really were not perfect.  In one game, they were only ahead by 14 points at half time.  In another, an opponent’s field goal attempt from the 25-yard line went wide to the left for no apparent reason.

And of course, they did give up hundreds of yards to the competition, although no points were ever conceded.

So maybe perfection isn’t really perfection.  If we say it’s all wins and no losses – someone else says it’s never giving up a point.  And if we say it’s no points conceded – then someone else says it’s never giving up a yard.

All right.  So maybe perfection is something we pursue but never reach?

That sounds reasonable.  Reasonable – but not perfect.

So what do you need to know?  Well, you need to know where the Apple store is – the destination.   But it would also help if you knew where you are now – the starting point.  It’s almost like that game that you play with your children – Where’s Waldo?

And that’s the way it is with marketing.  You have to have a definite destination in mind.  But you also have to know where you are to get where you want to be.  I’ve had this conversation at least ten thousand times in the last thirty years.  But I don’t recall a single prospect in all those years that knew both pieces of the puzzle – where he was – where he wanted to be.

Obviously, we do need to know both variables in order to be successful.   But the simple truth is – too many businesses have no clue about which way to go next.  Is yours one of them?  Then, what you need is a clear picture of your destination. You need A VISION.

It’s the vision of one day crossing the finish line at Daytona that drives the young person in his homemade go-kart.  It was vision that drove Olympic gymnast Kerry Strug to perform that final vault in the 1996 – knowing that her ankle was seriously injured.  And when Michael Phelps touched the end of the pool in the race that finally gave him his 8th Gold Medal – you can rest assured that he had already successfully run that race in his head ten thousand times before. It’s Vision.  Don’t leave home without it!

When a client or a prospect tells me that “word of mouth” is the best form of advertising I ask them to tell me about their formal referral system.  “We both agree that word of mouth advertising works better than any other concept,” I say to them. “So tell me, how you use it.  Describe your word of mouth business building system in detail.”

That question usually leads to the confession that they don’t really have a word of mouth business building system in place.  And that usually leads to my offering to build one for them.

What about you?  Do you just give lip service to word of mouth advertising?  Or do you actually have a formal referral system in place?

While you’re thinking about your answer, consider this statistic.  When I cold call a new prospect I have about a 1 in 12 chance of getting an appointment.  Yikes!  But, when I call a prospect that has been referred to me by an existing client, I cut those odds to 1 in 2.  One more interesting statistic – about 85% of my current clients came as a result of referrals.

Here’s the problem.  Most folks who decide for one reason or another to “boldly go where no man has gone before”, never come back.  To compound things, they not only lose a lot of money on some leading edge marketing ploy – they sometimes take down solid companies in the process.

The fact is that risk for the sake of risk has never been a good thing.   And as much as I like to romanticize the idea of risk in cocktail party conversation – it’s something I stopped engaging in more than two decades ago.

The truth is that most marketing risk is unnecessary because of the existence of testing.  Long ago an old mentor told me something that I will never forget.  He said, “If you’re wondering what the consumer will do in any particular set of circumstances, the best policy is to come right out and ask the consumer. And the way you ask is to test.”

If it’s a mailing list – mail one thousand names before you roll it out to one million. If it’s print, run two different headlines in the same publication.  If it’s a radio campaign, try a small inexpensive AM before you send it to the 50,000-watt monster. If it’s TV – try local cable before you buy the Super Bowl.

Testing today is a lot easier than it used to be.  Now, for less than one hundred dollars,  you can run a small ad on the Internet and find out in hours what used to take weeks or even months.  So there’s really no excuse to waste a small fortune on some untested speculation.

I know.  It’s not as sexy as betting the farm on a single pass of the roulette wheel.  On the other hand, being able to feed your family also has a certain appeal.

There came a time when he needed to find a new retail location.  One day we were walking through a local shopping center that someone had suggested as a possible retail outlet.  The first thing we noticed was that traffic seemed to be on the low side.  I suggested that maybe we had simply picked a bad time for our visit.  Perhaps traffic would be higher at a different time of day.

My client replied that maybe that was true.  He then walked up to a mixed nut vendor and ordered a bag of cashews.  After eating a few of the nuts, he mumbled, “There’s your answer.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, totally bewildered by the idea that he could figure out anything by simply munching on a few cashews.

“The nuts are stale,” he explained.  “The nuts are stale because there is no one ordering them.  And no one is ordering them because there is no one here.”

I have to admit that I was somewhat astonished by this piece of fine detective work.  And as it turned out, my client was right.  After several more visits to the center at different times of the day – we found the traffic to always be less than desirable.  And thus we knew that in terms of a good retail location, we had to keep on looking.

The takeaway?  When you’re trying to make an important marketing decision – make sure you pay attention to what’s going on around you.  Many questions can be answered by little clues.  Clues that more often than not go unnoticed.

Under the direction of producer T-Bone Burnett, the stage band included Jackson Browne, Burnett, Elvis Costello, k.d. Lang, Bonnie Raitt, J.D. Souther, Bruce Springsteen, Tom Waits, and Jennifer Warnes, along with the rhythm section from Elvis Presley’s fabled late ’60s and early ’70s touring band.

What I noticed about this lineup of stars is something I’ve also noticed with great doctors, great novelists, great actors and yes, even great marketing minds.  And that is the apparent ease with which these people are able to “deliver the goods”.

Now I’m aware of the argument that says what we’re seeing is the result of decades of preparation and practice.  But the problem with the argument is that I’ve seen too many of these people perform in their teens – and I’m telling you here and now that ability of this magnitude can’t be reduced to something as simple as hard work.

It’s something I’ve been aware of almost all of my life.  The man or woman who makes it look too easy.  The one who suddenly stands up or steps forward and delivers a performance or a solution that sends the rest of us back to the drawing board.  Whether it’s an evening of song and music, an ad that persuades us to part with our hard earned money, or a paragraph of words arranged in such a manner as to make all of us weep like children – the common denominator, in my view, is pure talent.

It makes you laugh, it makes you cry, it makes you jump out of your seat and applaud.  It creates a moment where even the most guarded of us simply give up control and are reduced to child-like awe.

I am not smart enough to tell you what “it” is, or where “it” comes from, or even what “it” says about us humans.  What I do know is sometimes there is something present that we can’t reduce to a formula.   Sometimes there are gods who live among us.

As he described the fiasco in graphic detail, it became more and more apparent that the situation was serious.  This man had not only gambled a huge sum of money on this particular speculation, he had apparently done so with funds that he could ill afford to lose.

As I listened to his ramblings, I wondered what stock he was talking about – determined never to go near that particular equity if I could help it.  It took a while, but he eventually named his nemesis and I remembered being shocked when I heard the pronouncement.

What surprised me about that stock was not so much the name as was the fact that I had just closed out a position on that particular offering myself.  But unlike my unfortunate friend in the adjoining booth – I had watched with great fascination and glee as that same stock had tripled in value from my original purchase price.

As I left the restaurant that summer afternoon, I began to reflect on the conversation I had been party to.  I also started to think about the contrast between the man’s story and my own.  Remember, we had both owned the same stock – and yet our feelings about this equity were polar opposites.

As I sat there in the parking lot, I was reminded of the opening paragraph of Dicken’s Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times…”.  What I did not realize, what I could not have known at that moment was that I was about to discover something profound in the haze of that surely accidental experience.  Something that would eventually lead me to a startling conclusion about the world of business.  Something that would start a chain of events that would ultimately change the direction and the focus of my entire business life.

This is not the appropriate forum to get into the totality of that life changing event.  But I can summarize my discovery with this statement.  All profit is made on the day you buy – not the day you sell.  This is true in investing.  And it’s also true in just about every phase of business.

Let me give you an example in the world of marketing.  I create an advertising campaign for a client.  We decide that the best way to advertise is to buy a radio schedule on a popular AM Talk Radio station.  If the schedule costs $5,000 and it generates $4,000 in sales, you lose money.  And the client proclaims the advertising to be a dismal failure.

If, on the other hand, I’m able to buy the same schedule for $2,500 and it generates the same $4,000 in sales, you make money.  And suddenly you’re an advertising genius.  Now think about it. In the one instance you’re an incompetent.  And in the other instance you’re a wizard.   But all that has really changed is the price of the schedule.  I remember some guru saying once, “It’s not creative unless it sells.”  I would like to change that to read “It’s not creative unless it sells at a profit”.

Common sense?  Yes. But the truth is that common sense is not all that common.

You and I have to do it a little bit differently.  But surprisingly enough, we can get close to sharing Merlin’s big advantage.  The answer is to imagine your business completed.  Then think about the very last step you took before you arrived at that perfect destination.  And then the step before that.  And the step before that – and so on.  Until finally, you arrive where you started – the present.  Then you simply turn around and head “back to the future”.  Completing each step in sequence.  But this time with a confidence born from really knowing.

In case you haven’t figured it out – it’s called a plan.  And if you don’t have one – you may become a part of someone else’s.

Now I should tell you that Chuck is the GM of several radio stations and is responsible for a fairly large group of salespeople.  So he’s the kind of guy that you generally want to listen to.  Anyway, Chuck said that every time a salesperson and a prospect come together – a sale is always made.

He went on to explain his concept this way.  Either the salesperson sells the prospect on the idea that he or she should buy the product or service being offered.  Or the prospect sells the salesperson on the idea that his or her product or service doesn’t really fill the prospect’s needs.  Now I don’t know about you – but I think that’s a brilliant piece of deduction.

Think about it.  When you look at selling that way – i.e., with the idea that a sale is always made – it makes the whole process seem less dire, less dramatic, and certainly less contentious.  It also creates the realistic hope that the salesperson can still make a sale down the road – at that exact moment when he or she is able to deliver a product or service that is in the prospect’s best interest.  And that moment usually arrives when we are able to tailor what we’re selling to the prospects needs.  Interesting.

Todd was one of the funniest people I ever knew.  For close to 12 years, I was lucky enough to be part of his morning cast of characters with my Jo Bob Leroy (later Leonard G. Hogg) and Perford Fern contributions. I would write and record these comedy bits the night before they were due.  But I would always call Todd and read him the scripts before producing them.  I can still hear him laughing when I got to the punch lines – some of which were either highly controversial or borderline x-rated or both.    And then he would laugh again the following morning when he shared the bits with his adoring audience.

Often times he would tell me the night before that I had really gone too far with the bits.  But he would put them on the air anyway.  And that was that.

When my first daughter Jordan was born prematurely in Pittsburgh and I was driving back and forth from Harrisburg to the hospital in Pittsburgh each week, Todd would always call or visit me and do his best to keep my spirits up.  Underneath the jokes, and the crazy lifestyle, was a caring man who loved his family, loved his audience and loved his friends.

He was a light in the lives of everyone who really knew him and loved him.  And as long as we’re smiling – we’re holding him in our hearts.

I’ve been in the marketing business for over thirty years. And still, one of my favorite pastimes is a lively breakfast meeting with vendors – media reps, yellow page people, printers, etc. But it wasn’t always that way.

For the first ten years or so, the price of admission for these meetings was simply a phone call. A vendor would call, I would check my calendar, and a meeting was agreed to. But by the late 80’s, I began to realize that many if not most of these meetings were a waste of precious time – my time and theirs. So, after some careful consideration, I changed the rules.

Instead of simply taking a meeting and getting a pitch, I told the vendor that I expected “payment” for my time. And the payment came in the form of this simple little proposal:

During the course of our meeting, I agree to share with you at least one concept, tactic, or strategy that has made me money over the years. And in return, you will share one of your concepts, tactics, or strategies as well.

The idea was that if nothing else came of the meeting – neither of us would walk away empty-handed. To be honest, I didn’t expect too much to come from this bargain. But at least it made me feel better about investing my time and energy in what seemed to be an endless chain of meetings.

Boy was I ever wrong. Not only did the new concept make the meetings more interesting, it also produced a staggering amount of business changing strategies that continue to produce revenues to this day.

Here’s just one example.

One day, I met with a man who sold yellow pages and he told me about another man he knew who had sold the Encyclopedia Britannica door to door. Now, for anybody who has ever sold anything door to door, you know that the biggest challenge is setting appointments. Well this man was apparently very good at doing just that. The problem was people would do just about anything to get out of actually going through with the meeting.

But instead of being overwhelmed and disillusioned by this fact, this particular salesman took major advantage of the situation. Two days before each meeting was scheduled to take place, he would call the husband or wife and tell them that due to circumstances beyond his control he would have to reschedule their appointment for two weeks down the road.

His reasoning was simply this. If someone was willing to reschedule an appointment with a man selling expensive sets of encyclopedias – that person was most assuredly a “Grade A” prospect for the product.

If, on the other hand, the husband or wife seemed relieved to get out of the original appointment and, moreover, reluctant to schedule a new appointment in two weeks – he reasoned that he would have been wasting his time on that particular prospect anyway.

Yes, I know, he probably missed a few opportunities with this strategy over the years. But, as you might have guessed, this man had the highest closing ratio of any Encyclopedia Britannica salesperson in the entire organization. And when he did show up for the appointment – he brought a filled out sales order with him. He knew he was going to make the sale. ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. And I might add that I’ve been using the “Delayed Appointment” strategy ever since.

So ask yourself these questions. Do you meet with vendors on a regular basis? Could you institute a “Price of Admission” strategy with your vendors? Will you?

I think you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to do. You’ll also be surprised and delighted at how hard your vendors will try to WOW you with their concepts, tactics, and strategies.

And guess what? Even if you end up with only one money making idea a year – how bad can that be? Besides, you’ve taken something that can be pretty routine or even boring – and turned it into something that is fun and thought provoking.

Then along comes a competitor with a lower price and guess what – we lose a sale.  Whose fault?  Ours (yours and mine).  By concentrating on price, we create problems – not solve them.

The simple truth is, low price is not a valid marketing strategy because all it takes to defeat it is – a lower price.

Yesterday, this point became abundantly clear.  I was shopping with my wife over lunch hour at a local supermarket and she asked me to go to isle six and pick up a can of sliced pineapple.  I disappeared for a moment and proudly returned with a can of Finast pineapple – a house label that was about 25% cheaper than the national brands.  I was so proud.

“No”, my wife said.  “That stuff isn’t any good.  Go back and get me a can of Dole!”

Obviously price was not important in her buying decision.  But something else was.  And that something else also begins with a “p”.

It’s “p” for perception.  Yes, your prospect’s perception of you is usually more important than your price.

If your prospect’s perception of you is that of a quality supplier, you’ll eventually win their business.  In many cases, “perception” is all there is to it.  Moreover, you can actually change that perception even though you might be selling the “same” product as your competition.

Don’t believe me?  Then take a hard look at the Toyota Camry L.E.  It’s a wonderful car with just about every convenience you could ask for at a relatively reasonable price.  But – if you buy the Camry in the form of a Lexus ES you will spend about $12,000 more.

Now granted, the Lexus has a few more bells and whistles than its Camry cousin.  But is it really worth an extra $12,000?

I’m reminded of a quote attributed to the late great David Ogilvy who when asked if Chivas Regal was really better than a house brand of scotch remarked, “Don’t make me laugh.  What you’re tasting is the marketing!”

Nonetheless, tens of thousands of intelligent people will spend the extra $12,000 on a Lexus – and what they will be buying for the most part is the marketing.  (Editors Note: I owned a Lexus ES300 a few years back.  Every time I got it serviced, the dealership would lend me a Camry LE – it always reminded me of the Chivas Regal story and it always made me feel foolish!)

Yes, perception is important.  Could it be that by focusing on price we set up an expectation of a lack of quality in the prospect’s mind?  It certainly seems that way.

And what about service?  By focusing on price do we create the impression that our service will be less than satisfactory?

Maybe.  Perhaps by focusing on price we set up the expectation in the prospect’s mind that he or she can “get a deal”.  In other words, if you’re dealing in what you perceive as a price sensitive market, don’t blame the prospect – first look at whether the customer has been made to be “price sensitive” by all the price marketing that’s going on.

Now please don’t misunderstand my message.  Price is most certainly an important issue.  And it always will be.  But it’s not as important as we all seem to think it is.  In survey after survey, however, price comes in third, fourth, and sometimes dead last in points to consider in the buying process.

Bottom line – if you live by price, you will almost always die by price.  It’s a crucial recognition that we all need to make.

I have validated for you a concept that is profoundly simple in use, and yet stunningly powerful in terms of the results it can produce for your business.  And it’s a concept that you can implement where you stand.  Right this very moment!

The good news is I’ve merely given you one way to use it.  Download more marketing secrets for free here:  More Powerful Marketing Secrets