At CHI, we’ve never been shy about sharing the strategies our own company has used to achieve success. Since you purchased LeadPages, I wanted to show you something really cool:
A few weeks ago, our friends at LeadPages asked if they could profile our company in a case study. I didn’t just say yes—I told them:
“I’m going to be the best case study you’ve ever had.”
Businesses routinely see impressive conversion results when they start using LeadPages’ landing pages and other tools, but I’m not sure anyone would have predicted we could take our sales conversion rate up by 1,100%.
I want to share with you exactly what I did to grow our business while taking our operations into the digital age. In this post, we cover:
How Content Can Build Excitement: This sequence of emails and lead magnets kept people highly interested from opt-in to purchase.
My Exact Campaign Flow: Step by step, you’ll see how I turned tons of people from cold leads into members of Chet Holmes International.
The Four Templates I Used to Build My Campaign: You’ll even get a direct link to download them yourself when you read the post.
I’m still a little wowed by the results we’ve seen, and I think you will be too! The post is full of strategies you can apply to your own business. You might get some good ideas about what you can do with your LeadPages tool, check it out here.
Enjoy!
Small Businesses are known for being positive for community advancement - they are involved in their communities by establishing strong relationships with patrons and networking with other industry professionals in their regions. Most smaller companies do a good job of maintaining their local reputation, but with the emergence of the Internet, these enterprises have more opportunities to expand their reach outside of their communities.
While small companies still bring in a significant part of their revenue from local customers, they can miss out on increased sales and clientele by ignoring their Web presence. Ecommerce presents a greater chance of small business success as it allows owners to attract new patrons from all over the country.
However, before embarking on the ecommerce journey, there are a few things that you, as a small business owner, should keep in mind to ensure your Internet operation is delivering the results you want.
Ecommerce not prevalent among small companies
The fact that small businesses are not as invested in the online sale of their products and services as their larger counterparts shouldn’t come as a surprise. After all, smaller organizations don’t have the budgets of large retailers and therefore don’t have the same amount of resources.
On the other hand, the Web has become an extremely helpful tool for organizations of every size, and small companies should no longer ignore the use of the Internet in their business operations.
According to a recent study by MasterCard, the cost of the necessary technology appears to be the largest obstacle standing in the way of smaller enterprises and ecommerce efforts. Forty-six percent of respondents cited this as the No. 1 reason for the hesitation to adopt ecommerce strategies.
Another main reason was a lack of knowledge on how to sell products online, as 31 percent of owners gave this reason for their slow adoption of Internet sales strategies for their companies.
Use big data to make ecommerce work
However, none of the previously mentioned reasons should hold small businesses back. After all, when weighing the costs of adopting the needed software and hardware against the revenue that online sales can bring in, it should be clear how this strategy can lead to small business success.
Small Business Computing spoke with Kevin North, CEO of ecommerce analytics firm Terapeak, and he stated that big data can play an important role for small business ecommerce. Implementing this technology doesn’t mean that small companies need to spend large amounts of money, North said.
Taking the time to shop around to find the right deal and the right technology to fit your needs will help you adopt the best ecommerce strategy for your company. Big data gives you insights into what your patrons prefer and how you can shape your online sales methods to grow your operations.
The payoff will be increased revenues, higher customer satisfaction and ultimate small business success.
Customer service is defined as the assistance and advice provided by a company to those people who buy or use its products or services. The attitude of a business towards its customers or clients need to permeate the entire culture of an organization to be effective, and is critical to portray a consistent image of the entire corporate brand. Most businesses strive for excellent customer service leading to raving fans, which will return over and over… and refer others. The following is a true story of a small adjustment in mindset that drastically changes the customer experience for the better.
Several years ago, working with 19 partners, I was part of launching a long distance phone company. We had the vision, business plan and people, and we needed to make it successful. However, we grew much faster than expected… and literally had over 6,000 customers before we could actually provide the service! What ensued was a barrage of daily calls to our customer service call center. People were upset and their anger was taking its toll on our normally friendly representatives. It was like a vicious cycle of frustrations from clients leading to frustration on the part of our representatives. One day, we decided to change one small thing to turn things around. We held a “Mighty Mouse” training with the call center. We actually had them run around the building singing “here I come to save the day.” Then we changed their call answering script to “It’s a great day at (name of company/changed over the years), how may I help you.” The result was amazing. The customers started saying “It’s a great day? … Does that mean service is coming?” The overall opinion of the clients was that if the call center was upbeat and positive, then everything was going to work out, and it did and still does today. It’s now known as inContact.
The founder of Chet Holmes® International™ always said “the client is king.” I agree. In my years in business and training businesses, there are many companies that are known for their exceptional customer service. Let’s look at two examples.
One is the World Famous Pike Place Fish Co. It’s a historic, open air market in the heart of Seattle. Purchased by John Yokoyama in 1965, an employee at the time, and on a tight budget with his car payment taking most of his $150 weekly pay. He decided he could do better as an owner… and looking back all these years later, it is remarkable how he turned it around.
He created an incredible experience that people come from all over to see and participate in… they throw fish to and from people passing by in the market! (You may have seen clips when Seattle Seahawk games are televised from their home field). Training sales people for a major retail store, we used their model to motivate the sales people creating a contagious energy that exuded to the customers and staff alike. Pike Place chose to make work fun for their employees and customers by throwing fish to each other.
Now, you may not want to throw fish around in your business, but can you imagine the confidence and perception that would be portrayed if you and your team adopted the attitude of Pike Place? They refer to themselves as the ‘World Famous Seattle Fish Market.’ What would happen in your business starting tomorrow if your representatives began referring to your company as the “World Famous (fill in the blank)?”
The other is from Bob Farrell, author of Give ‘em the PICKLE! Bob Farrell and his partner are known for Farrell’s Ice Cream Parlour & Restaurant. Have you ever experienced what I call the “coupon police?” I’m referring to the employees who don’t understand that the purpose of a coupon is to get people into your business and not to point out that the coupon has expired. Well, similar to that is the story of a customer of Bob Farrell’s establishment. He had come in weekly for over three years and always ordered a hamburger and chocolate shake… and, an extra pickle slice. One day, a new waitress said she could sell him a side of pickles and he asked her to speak to the manager. She returned saying she could “sell” him a pickle slice for a nickel. The long time regular customer left and wrote to Mr. Farrell saying he was not coming back if that is how he was going to run his business. Fortunately, he signed his note and the owner not only contacted him, but instituted his “Pickle Principle.”
It has since been implemented in many businesses and stands for how “silly” our business representatives can be about customer service. This story points out how simple it is to go the extra mile for a customer setting yourself apart from your competitors. It has to do with service, attitude, consistency and team work. It has to do with everyone in your business understanding the overall mission and vision of the company.
So, I ask you to consider your own business. Is everyone portraying the image and brand you want your customers to perceive and experience? Does everyone know how the simple things in a conversation, sale or other business experiences reflect on your business? Maybe it’s time to do a check-up and see if the following attitudes are in place:
The “Mighty Mouse” simplicity giving confidence to those who must deal with your customers.
The Chet Holmes belief that the client (or customer) is king (queen).
The Pike Place Fish Co. theory of creating such a fun environment that employees, customers and ‘soon to be’ customers are engaged.
Mikki M.A. Shepard
President, Client Relations/Ombudsman at Chet Holmes International
Expand your knowledge through the New York Times Best Seller, The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes that started it all here at CHI on how to double your sales. Get Now!
Over the decades that I knew Chet Holmes, he taught me quite a bit. A good deal of what was imparted was, understandably, about business development.
So, how does that help you? Well, having been in business and applied many of Chet’s principles, I wanted to distill what may be of the most value to any and all business owners, such as you, seeking a better way to achieve more.
One of the most powerful principles is the “The Buyers Pyramid”. One of the biggest eye-openers in this is the miniscule percentage of people, at any given time, who are actively in the market to buy a product or service like yours.
Whether you saw or heard Chet speak, or read the top-selling book, “The Ultimate Sales Machine” I wonder if you remember the answer (or fully appreciate its significance). This is important as it has huge implications regarding your potential for greater success.
The Chet Holmes® Method breaks down the entire audience of buyers in any market into 5 key categories:
Percent who are interested in buying “right now”
Percent who are “open to consider such a purchase”
The amount who are NOT thinking about it at this time
Those who don’t “believe” they are interested (based on the info they have at hand)
Those who are definitely NOT interested
You see, Chet polled audiences by the thousands during his live events. He asked for a show of hands if people where “in the market” for such things as tires, cars, home remodeling, carpeting, technology, etc. What he found was, across the boards, only 3% of any market is in the “buying mode” now.
Well, if you pick up the newspaper on a Friday you will see may ads for automobile tire suppliers. They are directed at that 3% (but they do nothing to move those other potential buyers closer to choosing them when the time is right…which could be very soon). You never know when someone’s Maximum Motivation Date to buy may occur.
The goal here is to move any outliers into a place of choosing your solution sooner and to be sure that whenever the time comes, they think of your company first. To do this your message has to be powerful and it has to be education-based to resonate.
The lesson here is to teach your “prospects” what they need to know to make a smart buying decision and position your solution as the “obvious choice”.
One of the key ways to do this is to offer “insights” and “education” to help people make a better buying decision when the time comes (and to move them through the sales funnel rapidly).
Let’s keep with tires as an example, mostly because it’s easy to see how a small shift has huge benefits.
The typical full-page tire ad has the company name at the top and some sort of “SALE” predominantly placed. They are often ineffectively competing on price for their share of that 3% of people who are buying now.
Consider, instead, having the ad began with the headline, Warning: Do Not Even Consider Buying New Tires Before Reading Our Free Report ,“What You Don’t Know About Buying Tires Can Cost You Money and Threaten the Safety of Your Family”. Many more people would be compelled to read your ad. If you then present “public service announcement-like” information you will stand out from the crowd in a huge way.
Also, that report would include information that gets people to consider getting new tires even before they believe they need to (because you’ve educated them to the fact that even when not fully worn, their tires may no longer be safe or may be costing them fuel efficiency).
You can move those people from ‘not buying right now’, or ‘not even thinking about it’, to becoming your client/customer more surely and more imminently. You just need to actively and skillfully create your Ultimate Sales Machine through a formalized tried and true system.
Share your education-based marketing approach with us on Twitter @ChetHolmes and include hashtag #newbuyers.
By, Ralph Napolitano, President Client Services Division at Chet Holmes International and small business owner
![[Case Study] This Boosted Sales 1,100% for Chet Holmes International](../../2015/06/amanda-holmes-case-study-image1.jpg)
