Lessons

Lesson Info

Building Relationships

we'll be talking about first is what I like to refer to is male, right? There's so much mail that's really out there. We get mail every day at our house, we get email and here's a crazy statistic. There's million. I mean 1,000,000,000 emails sent every single day. The question is, how many of ours into this whole Waldo thing? Where's Waldo? Who played that as a kid, right? It's you play that at this kid, always in Australia. Sometimes he's in Australia, right? Isaac. But how are they going to find your particular email? And there's actually 10 steps you can take, and I know Chris has been waiting for this. 10 steps you can take in order. Find that now. The most important one is the title of the email. 80% of the reason that someone opens up on email is because it's titled. We saw some of these things earlier today, saw this and thought of you. You've gotta make it personal. And as we're saying before and Rina, I'm gonna address this one to you because second time's the charm. Of cours...

e you can have my wife things that having an affair And what was the punchline to that? Of course, with my business, Of course. So do something like that. Now, this has been shown to be successful over and over again. When Barack Obama ran for president in 2012 one of his highest grossing emails that raised so much money simply was titled Hey, h ey, I tried. That didn't work for me, Chris. But I know maybe because of what? He's running for it. So remember, the title has to be something very, very provocative. That's gonna make someone open it up. All right, now in the title, Believe it or not, you've got to go negative. I know this is counterintuitive, and I know most of us like Sally were very, very positive people. But negative titles get open more than positive tiles. So if you use the words like worst absolutely wrong, they're definitely gonna open up. So let me give you a great example of that. What not to include in your return policy will get opened up mawr than what to include in your return policy, because people are more afraid of making a mistake than doing something right. So number three, you've got to be exclusive Anytime. You mentioned the words like V I p Invitation Limited time only. The deadline is Thursday. Right? Are SVP for this you get a free gift those kinds of things that always works. So, for example, your exclusive invitation to a once a year event. So we got a couple of things going on is right, its exclusive. It only happens once a year. Can you not gonna want to miss this, are you? Not absolutely. Number four, No capital letters because what all capital letters mean in email, you're screaming at them, right? We don't want to be screaming at people, so no capital letters. And also it has a chance a higher chance of going into spam. The 5th 1 is you've gotta be controversial, but you have to be controversial within your own brand. So I remember when Marissa Mayer from Yahoo said that she wanted all the Yahoo employees to come back to work, that she didn't want them to work from home. And so I wrote an article which was called Marissa Mayer was right. People should go back toe work now most A lot of the thing was saying that mercy. Maher was wrong. Anybody could read an article like that. But you have an email saying Mercenaries, Right? People want to open that up. That's important. Number six. OK, so here's some words you absolutely, positively have to avoid. Free help, percent off and reminder Why do we avoid those words with First of all, they get caught up by the spam filters. Secondly, these are the four most over word used in email. Everyone's trying to help or give percentage off a reminder number seven, and I know you're gonna find this really hard to believe in. Chris and I were talking about it earlier, off camera that numbers really matter, right? Everyone wants to know the seven steps, the five steps of three steps of the 13 steps because basically wanted laid out for us. That's what people open. Has anybody ever read a posting? It said the Seven steps toe. We'll do it all the time, right? You have to use odd numbers and the number 10. So, for example, when we used earlier five reasons, stupid people make more money than you. That's the kind of thing that people will open. Keep it short remember over 50% of time people are going. Teoh, be looking at whatever email you're standing on their mobile device. I use the word mobile for Sally's thing on their cell device, right? 25 characters or less because that's all they're going to see. Or if they're looking at, perhaps in one of their inbox applications, it cuts off many, um, after 25 characters. Do you want to make sure they see the whole thing? Number nine. There's a lot of ways to actually get help. There's a website called Tweak Your business dot com, which will create titles for your emails if you just put keywords in there and they'll give you 50 different choices that you can try out that have a really good chance of getting open now one. The most overlooked thing is what people look in the from field one. The biggest mistakes that a lot of companies make is they say this is from my company. This is from yoga stream, or this is from filling your company name. Whatever it is. People don't like to get emails from companies. They want to get e mails from people, so pick the most recognizable person inside your company. Don't use the word sales at or info at or something like that. It's really impersonal. Now, I've got a lot of these tricks, right? But remember, they're just tricks. Content is always King. People are gonna open up really good content. And it's not just gonna be any, you know, these kinds of these kinds of tricks. So do you have any questions in these areas when you're doing what kind of problems have you run across when you're trying to send email? How often? How often? This is an excellent question, Rina. Some people say, Well, you know, I'm afraid to send it to often. Should I send it every day? Should I send it once a week? Should I send it once a month? It all depends on how often you condition your audience to hear from you. I really believe that it has to be on a weekly basis. Think about that. You know how many emails do you actually receive every single day? Would you say total total? Yeah, like 100. So let's say you received 100. Let's say every civil hundreds, probably that number is probably low, right? Let's say you receive 100 so over a week you might receive 700 emails. If you send one email out a week to each of your customers, do you think that they will be bothered by one out of 700? Probably not. Some people say one. Do it every single day. The key is also the Ask your customer prospect how often they want to hear from you, and you might have a couple different lists. I really think that the more often you do it, the better. I'm not a daily person. I'm a weekly person, but a lot of people, they're very successful doing it daily. But that's an excellent question. Any other questions about your email marketing? Try it out, using email market system to see what works. Yes, you're gonna say something, Karen. It's tough to know who read it, who read it right. So there are a lot of email markets. Is we talked about a Weber and male champ and infusions soft? That will tell you actually who opened it up and who click through now. I know believe that they're always that reliable, but it'll give you a general sense. The important part is two things. One is you want to know how emails do one compared to the other. And then you want to know who actually opens up who actually clicks through, because then you could do other actions with those people. And they're very sophisticated systems that will allow you to do that. Sally, I'm interested in What about when you want to include an image with the email? You know? So So you don't make it too big. But you want to show you something. This is I know. You always want to show something, right? I don't sound. I'm not a big believer in sending images and e mails. I really think that it should be text on Lee again. People are opening these things mostly on mobile devices. And so you want to load very, very quickly, Because remember, what you're trying to do is you're trying to be. We put it before one of the 21 you want him to either click through are just recognize who you are. I think the picture many times is best left to social media and Facebook and things like that, or click through to a picture. I think that you want to open up and to see the message as quickly as possible. And I think it should be short. I am not a big proponent of long newsletters that I'm gonna send you. Here's my monthly newsletter has this topic in this topic in this topic because people see it and they say, Oh, I'll read that later, And when do they read it? Never right. But if you have a one or two sends email and they can deal with it right away, Either they click through or you get the benefit that won 21 times, so these are excellent questions. But try some things out, using email marketing system to see what works and what doesn't work. All right, The next topic that I want to talk about is we have a problem when we're doing sales and marketing is that we have to focus on features rather than the benefits right. We have to understand that if you're selling a product that is a commodity, you've really got a problem because, let's face it, anything that any of us sell, people get it anywhere right. There's a lot there on his good financial virus and Miyoko. But you know, we can get that anywhere right. We get yoga from any place we could get help for with our media, any place we can get music help for our musical instruments, who are what we want to do anywhere. So we have to differentiate ourselves. And the way to do it is not in product is how we used to do it, because we used to do it. I worked for IBM for the better part of the eighties, and we use something which I on their forget is we use the sales technique called fud. F u D. That was fear, uncertainty and doubt. Right? And so we did was we actually talked about how our features were better than everybody else's right? And if you didn't buy our features, something bad was gonna happen to you. Now that has really, really changed, because you can no longer say it's faster. It's cheaper. It's better because as a small business owner, if you try to do that, I believe it's a race towards the bottom right, because there's always only someone who's smarter or who's got more money than you that's really gonna be able to do that. And just because you build it doesn't mean really, really they're going to come. And remember. Most people think about all the proxies services you use. You only really use 20% of that product or service. Think about all the different kinds of software that we teach. How do you know your eyes on Creativelive? The reason that people take our classes is because they only use a very small amount of it right, and unfortunately, most people do that. And that's how it is with these things. The perfect match that you're looking for is we talked about for how the emotions match your brand identity and remember what John Janse was talking about. And he has this book out called Duct Tape. Selling the sales person's job is not to educate about features anymore, right? It's really to build that relation because customers of these days, if they want to know about features, what do they do? Well, they do. If they want the future, they go on the Internet, right? So think about the last thing that you bought. You go on the Internet and you research it first and it's a little bit different, and people get stuck in what I call this double helix trap were talking about before. Right where they're not, don't have any system in this area. People have to build trust relationships instead of selling on features. Think about how you buy from Amazon. Let's talk about how I buy from Amazon. I dual Why dough I buy from Amazon. Why is Amazon so successful? Because, you know, when you order the product, what's gonna happen, you'll get it. Now. That may seem really kind of silly, but in this day and age you'll get it. You'll know when you're gonna get it, and it's not gonna be there. They tell you not going to get it and you can return it. Most cases free of charge. So they built a trust in relation with me and because I have a trust relation them. I want to buy whatever I can from them because I know it's going to get here. But as John Janse said, you really can't rush trust. John alluded to this idea, and this is his diagram, where you have to know, like trust people then try by. Repeat, refer. There's no place on here where people say you've got the best features. Believe it or not, people don't care about features if you think about anybody that buys from you. For example, Miyoko people buy from Yoko because they trust her right. You have to go through this entire process. They have to know, like and trust you, and that's really what we're doing. And here's the other chart that we already brought out. Remember, people trust people they don't even know right? So if you get good, represent referrals, that's really good. And we keep telling the stories over and over again if we have a bad story. So this is a story about I went to this bagel place called Great American Bagel, and I ordered a dozen bagels. Here we go with the bagels against Sally, right? And and I asked them to slice the bagels for me and they said, Sure, that's five cents extra per bagel. I was shocked. I really didn't say much right, But I've retold the story many times, over and over and over again, right? So is that know like and trust kind of factor and I've really never back. The problem that most of us face is that customers love to complain. Here's some great research from Harvard Business Review. The first thing is 25% are People are likely to speak positively about you and your business, but 65% of likely speaking negative, right? That's what I mean. If they have a good experience, 25% will say something nice, but they have a bad experience. 25% of people won't say something bad. 65% of people will say something bad. 23% of customers at a positive service experience tell 10 people, but 48% of customers had negative experience. Tell 10 people. It's really you know, it's really, really crazy. So and it's not about just low price. Because, as I said before, if you look at all of these wonderful cos they don't just compete on price, they could be looking Southwest Airlines, the airline that probably it's in tops in the U. S. As far as having won the best on time, right? Wal Mart and Costco, they really focus on service, not low price, so you can't really focus one of my features is really gonna be low price. One of the problems we face in these days is something called showrooming, right. I'll go into a retail store. Perhaps I'm looking for some kind of musical instrument. I'll get the information I want. And then where do I go? I go the internet, I go on Amazon to to bite. So what you need to do is you need to make sure that in whatever you do, you build value. This is one of my clients, Scott Starbuck. He has a store called City Souls. He has something called Cities Souls TV, where when people come into a store, he actually has a little IPad that actually that people can play a little video with headphones that tell them about the shoe and where it was made and shows it with different kinds of clothes and things like that. So he's gonna give them a lot of information and a lot of value rather than okay, I feel like buying this pair of shoes. I'm just gonna go on the Internet. He also has a compliments guarantee. If you don't get a compliment on your shoes, you can bring them back to their guaranteed to get compliments, so he does those kind of things. Another thing that we can do is we actually can bundle things together, create special kinds of things, like if you buy this, get this and unique things other people really can't offer. Another area where we don't really spend a lot of time is we don't spend enough training our staff, and this slide is really a proposed where it says we have to train them again and again and again and again because they represent you. Everybody's got to be talking about the same thing, the big rage and a lot of retail places, and Apple was one. The first ones that came out with this in a retail store was the mobile point of sales, where I don't no longer have to go up to a counter to check out. I work with a sales person, and when I decide to buy something, I buy it from them right then that makes all the sense in the world because I already have a relation with that sales person. There isn't the opportunity to lose the sale from the time that I get the item toe when I go up there, so that's really important. The other thing is you've got to be able to do things from a mobile standpoint. If people can't get in touch with you or camp by Mobley, that's really not gonna work for you. And finally, I really believe you have to have a no hassle return policy. Whatever you dio, and you can't have things like no refunds, you must have your receipt to exchange. We cannot exchange clothes that have been warned. No checks accepted outside 100 miles of the area. If people aren't satisfied with your product or service, why would you want them to keep it? Because remember the idea about reputation management? Do you really want someone out there who's really dissatisfied? What kind of return policy do you have? Shane In your business? Usually it's hours for, you know, an actual refund after that point in store credit. But a lot of times were willing to work with people, especially around the holidays. For Christmas, someone will buy a guitar three weeks before Christmas will. Obviously they don't know. His little Johnny's gonna want that guitar like that color. Tell them okay within a week after Christmas, if he decide he wants the red one is that if the blue one you come back in, exchange it. No problem. But we do the bundles as well. So it gives a lot of incentive for them to do business with us versus go to Target or Wal Mart or wherever to get. But they wanted bundles. Do you dio? We bundle lesson packages with instruments. We've also bundle accessories with instruments. So if you buy a guitar than you get either a free strap or a discounted bag or case or something like that type of thing. So it creates more of a relationship with him. Yes. So if you have products in inventory, it's a little more difficult to offer refunds any time. But if you think about is any ever bought from a catalog called Hammacher Schlemmer? Have your bowel from that Sally haven't bought from it, but I hang on it a bit. Eso do you know what makes them special? Do you know what makes Hammacher Schlemmer special about the return policy done? I've never actually bought anything. We have actually from hammering this Limerick sell. You never have to buy anything because I believe when I buy stuff from Hammacher Schlemmer, I'm really only renting it because you could return anything a hamburger slimmer any time over the life of the product. That's their guarantee. Now when you go by from their catalogue, it's not the least expensive, right, cause they have great products, but you can return it any time. That's kind of their selling point, because I really believe mostly You really don't want a dissatisfied customer out there because remember, you know who they're telling all sorts of, Ah, all sorts of people. So the other issue that holds our custom, our companies back is we have a lot of customers either who threatened to do business with us, right? I always say people don't threaten the new business, May or or they actually do business, you and they're really weighing you down. We've all had that situation where you call it milk. I'm sure you've had this where you call on someone and they say, Wow, that was a really great presentation. I'm gonna do business with you. I want Teoh set up a fund with you. I want to set up a trust with you, and then you call them and they never return your phone call, right? I mean, that happens, right? They're going to visiting a do busy you. And it's not the issue that they've never do business with you. But we hold on to that someday. Wouldn't do business with them. So, in fact, what we do is we don't call on other customers because we know we have this big fish coming in or this is gonna be our big break. And so what I think we have to do is we really need to let go of things. They're never gonna happen. Remember, people buy from people buy from they know, like and trust. And people buy when they're in pain. Have money, solve the pain. If people don't call you back, what does that mean? Does that mean lady, right? They're not ready. Right? Neither don't have the pain or the money to solve the pain. If I'm gonna go sell something to someone, what's the best answer they can give me? What's the very best answer they can say? Yes. Yes, I'll take it. You got a lot of practice of that. I think I'll take it. Right. What's the second best answer? I think you know what's the second best answer? This is very important. What? No. So, Chris, why is no the second best answer? It's definite, You know that they're not part of your market anymore. All right, well, we'll go on to someone else. Well, nothing former, but they're not buying now. It doesn't mean you don't put them back in the marketing phone. You start some email, you stay in touch them. You said I'm content, but you know, not now. So you don't waste money with them. And that's really important. Waste time with them. You don't think they're really gonna do business with you, right? They don't. Too busy. There's somebody else. But we all have a hard time letting go of those customers. So this how you do it, you need to contact them four times before you let him go. The 1st 1 is you contact him right away. Contacting a week contact in two weeks, and then you send them. What I call is the letter. Right now. Here's the letter. This letter will get you an 80% response. rate if someone hasn't talked to you. Right? And so who's really here? Really good at sight reading who can really read? Well, you're good. OK, we'll take Shanna. Shanna, why don't you read this letter for us, right? And then we'll talk about Dear John. I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to reach you and provide the information you requested. This typically means one. You've just been busy, but are still very interested talking with me about how I can help to. You are no longer interested being a business person. I know you can appreciate the position I'm in. I want to provide you with excellent customer service and all the information you require to make an educated decision that will benefit your business. What I don't want to do is bother you with something. If you are no longer interested, could you please help us by letting me know which of these two situations were in? This will allow me to better allocate my time while still providing you with the amount of attention you desire. Thanks again, Barry. She's so what? What proposition does this set up for people? What does this mean? You're sort of gave him a safe escape. You gave myself escape. You say, let me know which one I know. You're busy. Just tell me if you're busy having come back or you're really not know if you know, I never said that's okay. I'll go on to somebody else. So that's really great. Now there actually is another letter that I send that gets a 95% response rate and Creativelive would not let me include it in the slide deck. But I'll give you what the title is that good? It's 95% of the time. If you send this email with this title, you'll get a response from the customer you've been trying to reach Is people want you want to see what that is? Okay, so this is what the title is. Title is. I thought you were dead. Now I will tell you'll get a 95% response right now. You may never do business with them, but you will get a response rate response from that. And it was really funny. So I was speaking at a conference last year and this guy comes up to me with this. He goes, I'm not dead yet. That was really, really quite, uh, quite funny. So But again, the most important thing here is really to let go of people that tell you maybe. And why do people tell us Maybe, Why don't people tell us? Maybe, you know, what are people saying? Maybe us? Because they don't have guts to say no. Because most consumers I wouldn't say they're cowards, But you know, there's uncomfortable telling someone know they want to give you hope or things like that. But maybe is really a no. So the better time that you just push him off the side, put him in your marketing file, the better off you'll be.