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Wouldn't it be great if making money was simple? Wouldn't it be wonderful if generating money didn't need a significant amount of time or effort? Regrettably, this is not the case. It requires extensive preparation and thought.
Sharing our ideas with someone who has had success is frequently part of the helpful advice we receive from others. And that's what we're hoping to help you with in this week's overview, thanks to Craig Garber's expertise.
Garber explains how he earns $7,500 a day in consulting fees from his home in Tampa in his book "How to Make Maximum Money With Minimum Customers." To me, that seems like a recipe for success!
Lesson 1: There Is No Easy Way
The first thing Garber emphasizes is that there is no easy way to generate money. Easy was never a part of his formula for success.
When we enter a new market or start a new business, we're often encouraged to aim for the low-hanging fruit. But, in today's economy, where is the low-hanging fruit? It's simply not there any longer.
If you're frightened of hard effort or, to be honest, if you're a slacker, your search for success will leave you disappointed and dreaming of what "could have been."
Garber's advice is to go right now. Find another method to pass the time, but understand that becoming a billionaire is not for you.
Garber challenges us to be brutally honest with ourselves. We must examine our work ethic to see if it is as excellent as it might be. We need to "get real," he says.
On a more positive side, if we have a strong work ethic, we will have a solid base on which to grow. However, suppose we have a strong work ethic but no significant success.
In that case, Garber says that we may be suffering from a mentality problem—we are unable to define success. In that situation, we may only require a clear objective.
According to Garber, our performance will increase progressively each time we set a deadline for anything or begin monitoring what we're doing.
He argues that we should also look for a role model and watch them; see what makes them tick.
The bottom line is that if you're not putting out the effort, you should accept the fact that where you are right now is probably where you'll wind up.
Lesson 2: Be Specific
Garber's success is based on his expertise. And he informs us that if we want to attract a certain audience, we must do it for a specific reason.
We'll need to develop some type of specialization. Then, within that expertise, we must discover something distinctive or unusual about ourselves to promote ourselves.
Working with us because you're a generalist isn't a really appealing rationale. When everyone does the same thing, it's tough to stand out from the crowd. Answering the question, "Why should I choose you over someone else?" is similarly tough.
In addition, being a generalist prevents you from charging a high fee, which negates the objective of your work.
Being a specialist does not imply that we must limit our market; we may target a wide range of consumers and be skilled in various skill sets.
But, when it comes to multiples, Garber advises us to divide our marketing efforts for each of these various consumers or skill sets.
The majority of individuals are obsessed with casting as broad a net as possible to attract everyone.
Instead, we want to establish several marketing campaigns, websites, and maybe even "identities" that target one or two unique and linked demands.
Here are some questions to ask to determine our areas of expertise.
- What types of clients do you currently serve?
- What types of customers or clients do you enjoy dealing with and would like to do so more frequently?
- Are there any services you're not giving that you should since consumers have requested them?
- Is there a particularly profitable demographic or line of business?
- Is there anyone else in your profession who has a specialty you'd like to have?
According to Garber, we should focus our marketing efforts on solving our target market's top problems, anxieties, concerns, or worries.
Then we should figure out ways to fulfill their deepest aspirations, dreams, and wants and leverage all of these things as advantages in our marketing.
Lesson 3: Relational Success
This is going to be as obvious as your nose. However, it still has to be said: many businesses fail because of bad customer interactions. It's also one of the main reasons they're not generating as much money as they could be.
Garber emphasizes that the frequency and intensity of interaction are the two factors that determine the strength of any connection.
He uses the following simple analogy: we are much closer to our spouses now than we were after only a week of knowing them.
Relationships in the workplace are no exception. Nobody cares how much knowledge you have unless they know how much you care.
Garber suggests that if we want to show how much we care about our list of prospects, we should contact them as often as feasible. Send them information by email or mail—in other words, communicate with them as often as possible.
If we want to establish a meaningful and useful connection, our interaction must be meaningful and valuable.
Lesson 4: Lost Prospects
We all put in a lot of time and effort to build a solid prospect database, but do we ever consider why we don't get the most out of it?
The major cause for this is a lack of prospects. Garber offers some insight into why individuals unsubscribe from our mailing lists.
- They aren't interested in what we're talking about, and they signed up for the wrong reason.
- We hadn't delivered what we promised them when we invited them to our site.
- Our list isn't hearing from us frequently enough, and when they do, we're just attempting to sell them stuff.
- We don't have a distinct personality or sense of self. People form bonds with one another, not with "emails."
- Our emails are written by so many people. This means our subscribers have no idea who they're establishing a relationship with or what's going on.
- We're sending them emails from someone who wasn't identifiable when they signed up.
- By being dull, we commit the cardinal sin of wasting our prospects' time.
- We spend far too much time on the subject. It is our responsibility to amuse, educate, and inform. And we won't be able to achieve all three of these things if we only talk about the one issue that our website or business is focused on.
Except for the first, which is beyond our control, we can handle these issues by establishing an organized and targeted communication strategy. We want to develop connections, and the best way to do so is to provide information and establish ourselves as a trusted authority in our industry.
Fundamentally, we should be disseminating as much knowledge about our field as possible.
Many people will now argue that this is handing out free advice. However, in Garber's opinion, anyone who is secure enough to have all of this information and communicate it is an expert, and expertise is valuable.
Lesson 5: Selling Balance
Nothing is bought unless you sell it first, according to Garber. There will be no sale if there is no offer. And if there isn't a sale, there isn't any money. The importance of sales cannot be underestimated.
When businesses have a sales problem, he believes one of three things happens: they don't sell enough, sell too much, or don't sell at all.
Problem 1: Not selling enough
When we're nervous about selling, we only contact our prospects once in a blue moon—and when we do, all we're doing is attempting to sell them something.
It's hardly a relationship if you just talk to someone once a month and attempt to sell them something. Many people on our mailing list are irritated by this, and many will unsubscribe as a result.
We are simply an annoying blip on the radar screen. That is until we go out of our way to get someone to remember us, be distinct, and build a relationship.
Problem 2: Selling too much
As a prospect, we are unlikely to interact with the sender if all we get are hard-hitting marketing messages.
To get around this, we need to mix it up and amuse in addition to selling. We must provide high-quality material to our mailing list subscribers regularly.
We must contact them frequently and provide them with numerous opportunities to establish a connection—over and over. Sales presentations alone will not suffice.
Problem 3: Not selling at all
If we don't like selling and would rather make a life waiting for clients to come to us, Garber says we only need one thing: luck.
But isn't "luck" a poor business strategy?
You will not make money if you do not sell. If you're not cut out to sell, like in Lesson 1, you need to get out of the game. We will gain nothing but friends by communicating with our list while ignoring the "elephant in the room sales."
What if you're not selling enough? We need to figure out how to pitch our list more frequently without sacrificing the quality of our material.
Are you selling too much? We need to figure out how to prioritize our relationship over selling.
Lesson 6: Don't Give Up
Garber's achievement did not come easily. He had to go through a lot of blood, sweat, and tears to get to where he is now. The importance of trial and error cannot be overstated.
Garber offers some encouragement: it's important to remember that just because something doesn't work doesn't mean it's a failure.
Every action we take must be subjected to some sort of testing. He claims that if we get two or three projects right out of every ten, we'll be able to make a little fortune and live life on our own terms.
What works for one individual might not work for the rest of us, and there could be more going on than meets the eye. And it is for this reason that the lessons we learn from our errors are so crucial.
And if you don't succeed, don't take it personally; it's just business.
Garber suggests that the next time we consider giving up, we should remember Theodore Roosevelt's words:
"It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming."
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