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Mar
25

Gene Simmons… lessons from a Rock and Roll Great

By | Copywriting, Entrepreneur, Main Content, Success, Wacky marketing ideas

2 Comments

Two years ago, I was having dinner at the Grand Ole Opry hotel in Nashville, getting ready to attend the Dan Kennedy Superconference.

Just up to my right I saw someone come out of a discretely placed side door, and start walking down the hall towards me.

“Hey. There’s Gene Simmons!”

Gene was booked to speak at the seminar the next morning, but here he was wandering down the hallway all by himself. No one had even really noticed who this living legend was that was casually strutting his stuff, all by his lonesome.

So my buddy Owen and I jumped up and went to say hi.

He was incredibly friendly, offering us signatures or photos if we wanted. As we were snapping a couple pictures, people around us started to figure out who this was… and the crowd soon surrounded him.

What impressed me was watching him with the crowd.

There’s a guy that knows who pays his bills!

He was patient and friendly with everyone.

Photo? Sure.

Sign this? Sure.

He made sure every single person who wanted it, either got a picture with him or went home with something signed by Gene (the girls usually went away with some very strategically written ink on their bodies).

No rush – he was there to be with his fans.

One fascinating thing about his fans was the multiple generations that consider him the best in the world.

Grandmothers there with their grandkids – each of them as giddy at meeting Gene as the other.

The next morning he gave a fantastic talk about thinking big and success in business.

Many people judge Gene by the image he portrays in his old KISS costume, with makeup, platform boots and tongue sticking out.

If that is all you know about Gene, you will be astounded to learn how successful he has become marketing himself, his brand, and his many companies.

Seriously, Gene is a marketing genius and his Sex, Money, Kiss book gives you some incredible insights into the way he thinks, acts and grows his businesses (a warning though: if you are easily offended and unable to see past some of the points he makes, you will not enjoy this book. If you have thick skin, this is packed solid with marketing lessons).

If you watch his Family Jewels show, you catch a glimpse of how he runs some of the business and makes tens of millions of dollars a year, when most Rock-and-Roll old timers have dried up and blown away.

Did you know Gene has never used drugs or been drunk?

Most have no clue. Most don’t want to believe it.

But that’s how he stayed sober when all the rest of the band fell victim to drugs and booze.

Gene took control of the main assets and has continued to leverage his success for decades now.

He is one of the BEST at being a showman. He knows when to put on his game face, and does it incredibly well.

Some of the lessons I have picked up from Gene that are ideal for small business marketing:

  1. Make it a cool and catchy name. Many of the major successes in business are centered around products and businesses whose names are memorable (or they paid huge bucks to make it memorable).

    2. Also, Gene is big into the designs and packaging of the name you use. You cannot deny the success he has achieved with this strategy. Make the name into a catchy logo, and, the real key, make the logo attractive enough that you would wear it on a t-shirt, or baseball cap, or on a poster, etc.

    Gene has created a multi-million dollar empire out of merchandisable clothing, posters, stickers, electronic gear, etc …. all with a very catchy logo and designs.

  2. Think through each and every area that you can generate revenues from your business and offerings.
    1. Your main product or service offering – price it at the high end (trying to win the low price game is not something I ever recommend). Prices at the high end may attract fewer buyers (sometimes it attracts more buyers), but the profits are higher, and the effort required to close a high end sale is typically as easy as selling the cheapest on the market.
    2. Find ways to incorporate a membership program into your business. This is a BIG money maker if done properly (the KISS members club has a massive client base that will buy anything that is promoted). You can price your membership program monthly or yearly, definitely worthy of testing both options. With a membership, they should get some form of discount of future purchases, they should have special member-only days, they should be eligible for contests, points for purchases – redeemable for additional goods, or impressed clothing or hats.[Side note: I have been watching closely all the different places that use memberships lately, and they are, typically, one of the leaders in their market, usually VERY busy with paying customers, and usually very unique, in that their competitors are too scared to implement membership programs.]
    3. What is your conversation piece? When someone talks about you and your business, what one thing are they likely to bring up in the conversation? If you don’t have that, yet, start thinking it through.It could be the bizarre things you do in your ‘off-time’ (think Richard Branson) – it could be who you regularly write about in your newsletters (I used to write about my twin daughters extensively in my newsletters, as they taught me much about life and business).

      Find something, anything that can position you as highly unique.

    4. Have annual customer appreciation events (more frequent is even better). People LOVE a good party – give them one. Make it free for all customers – you can combine the free event with an extra paid event, but do it at a separate time and make the paid event highly valuable.
    5. Is there any way you can license your brand, your products, your services, even your marketing process or ads? Create something unique in your business and how it is perceived by others, then approach others in unrelated markets (even competitors in non-competitive areas). Sell rights to use your licensed goods in their business. For them, it gives them more to sell to their clients, for you it provides additional income streams to further grow your business and bank account.Donald Trump recently discussed the fact that 15% of his revenues come from the licensing of the Trump name. People pay him significant fees to use his name, fees are payable in advance before they do anything with his name.

      6. You and I may not have a name
      like Trump or Simmons to license,
      but we definitely have assets we can
      and should be licensing.

    6. Cross promote everything that you sell, or want to sell. Each and every part of your business needs to be selling the other parts. You can do this through inserts in your product shipments, in your electronic newsletters, in your customer follow-up pieces, you can even create catchy cartoon or graphic logos that make for great stickers – include a bunch of stickers with each shipment (this has worked great for me and the Wild West Wealth Summit and the cowboy cartoons I have used).
    7. Create systematic 1-2-3 launches for every new initiative you are undertaking this year. As you lay it out on your marketing calendar you will start seeing where the majority of your time will be allocated throughout the year- and where the overlaps are on your launches, which can be powerful in the eyes of you customers – or confusing, if not explained properly.Make sure you cross promote your different businesses as well. Gene Simmons is very good at making sure each and every one of his businesses or clients is mentioned when he is in front of a crowd.

      You just never know who is in the market for one of your other offerings!

    8. Always be asking yourself how you can make more money from your existing products or services, and how you can repackage them for bigger boosts in sales. Try surveying your clients to find out what they like most, and least, about the products and services you offer now.
  3. Brand yourself as the personality of your business. Many of the world’s great business success stories (and turnaround stories) are the result of the business leader becoming the front person and personality in all their marketing. Lee Iacocca WAS Chrysler when he turned them around. He was front and center on the television, the voice you heard on radio, and the person people connected with when they wanted to buy a new vehicle (versus all the other ‘faceless’ corporations they had to choose from).Use cartoons, if appropriate. They have worked well for me … and are working well for others. There is a major resurgence of interest in cartoons right now among adults. I don’t recall where I saw the article, but the growth in comic book sales to adults is experiencing a major spike right now – tap into it!

    How would you sell you and your company if you were a rock star? You may not want to wear makeup and stick your tongue out (or maybe you would?) – But there is something you would do to stand out from the thousands of other rock stars out there re: What is your personality you want to portray?

    Use that personality in your blog posts, in your newsletters, in your marketing and on your website – that is one of your greatest assets if you leverage it right.

  4. Work harder (and smarter) than anyone else in your industry. Despite the premise behind The 4-Hour Work Week, hard work will be the key to your success. Yes, outsourcing and systemization is critical, but if you are working half the hours as your biggest competitor – they will become the leader. Look at Clayton, he doesn’t claim to work the fewest hours to have created the level of success that he has – he works hard, damn hard – and the results from his promotions speak for themselves.

I highly encourage you to pick up Gene’s book. It gives you a powerful look into the life of one of today’s greatest showmen.

Few people in any business can make ten, twenty, fifty million a year consistently… for decades. Those that do, leave some serious clues on how you can do the same.

Even if success and wealth is not one of your ambitions, learning how a guy like that has been able to turn a flame-breathing devil into a multi-generational icon is a fun ride in itself!

To your success, Troy White

PS: This article was originally written for the weekly article I write on Clayton Makepeace’s blog at http://www.smallbusinessmastery.com

Jun
22

Success keys you may not like

By | Entrepreneur, Success

4 Brutal Keys To Success In Your Business

I say brutal because some of theses keys may rub you the wrong way – but when you step back and take a non-ego-driven look – they are all very true.  Follow them and prosper – ignore them and perish.

Sorry to be harsh – but it’s true.

1) You have no idea what your customers want. You cannot guess this, read it in a magazine, nor base it on what your competitors are offering (unless they are wildly successful with it).  It is impossible to guess what will or will not work out in the real world.  You must test various approaches, offer anonymous surveys and questionnaires. Focus groups are a useful tool for  probing  reactions to advertisements, programs and exploring concepts but they are very subjective and not statistically valid.

2) People do not change. Despite the craziness of our “proudly-busy” world – the basic human appeals and desires remain the same today as they did 1,000 years ago.  Business has changed – new products and services are coming out at an astonishing rate – but people still buy based on fear, greed, love, sex, riches, health, happiness, beauty.  A fantastic book on this subject is The Psychology of Influence by Robert Cialdini.

3) People will not appreciate you or your products – unless you tell them why they should. They will buy based on what they want – and you can totally change the foundation on what it is that they want.  Let’s say you are a widget distributor in a highly competitive business.

Your main differentiation is that you seek out 150 manufacturers every year, you screen out their hiring procedures, their quality standards must be at a 99.95% acceptance level, their warranty is the best in the business, the service is above all others. The product lasts 3.7 times as long as the next largest competitors.

Your customers have no clue about this – unless you TELL them.

They will truly appreciate you, your offerings, and your honesty if you lay this out for them in a compelling story on your web page, in direct mail, on the back page of your brochures or catalog.  Tell them what you have done for them to make their purchase the best choice – and they will buy.

4) In your advertising and marketing you must tell a complete story. This is along the lines of point 3 but very worthy of a further description.  Once you get a prospective customer’s attention in your marketing or sales effort, you must tell them a compelling story about your main benefits.

Tell them about the process you go through, how you have helped 4,577 people lead fuller lives, how you traveled the world to find your newest offering, and how you spent $517 on long distance fees finding the perfect partner company that looks after the 10 year warranty program.  There is so much to tell – that they would have no idea of – unless you tell them.

Never worry about being too long in your copy or brochures.  Everyone fights this – “too long” or “too wordy” or “no one will read all of that text” – but the FACT is – they are all wrong (This fact is based on 100 solid years of documented proof!).

You can only be too boring in your marketing – never too complete or long.  If you fought tooth and nail to get an appointment with a critically important client – would you walk in and do a song and dance show complete with juggling balls – then end at the 30-second mark abruptly?

Of course not.

You would do everything in your power to explain all the intricacies of your offering, the benefits, the proof, and the bonuses – no matter how long it took to close the sale.

More of these truisms to come!

“The victory of success is half won when one gains the habit of setting
goals and achieving them. Even the most tedious chore will become
endurable as you parade through each day convinced that every task, no
matter how menial or boring, brings you closer to achieving your dreams.”

Og Mandino
1923-1996, Author

May
05

The Action Reaction for Passionate Entrepreneurs

By | Entrepreneur, Success, Time management and productivity

The Action Reaction Formula

I was fortunate to learn early that money loves speed – and that failure is actually a form of success. You have to try things and find out what works… and it will never happen perfectly the first time.  If you aren’t trying to fail, you will never succeed.

In fact, the faster you fail – that faster you will find success.

Money loves speed.

The more speed you have in your business, the more you will attract money.  And the best way I can say it is “TAKE IT SERIOUSLY!” Don’t pretend you will try one thing this week and another thing next week. Take 10 things and try 2 of them a day! MAKE the time. If you want serious change in your life and business – make a serious change!

Me?

Many times I feel like my head is swimming as I have so many things on the go at once.  But it has reaped great rewards for me in a short period of time

Some of my daily actions I take – and I recommend you do too:

Habits – get up early and write. Huge rewards. I had a 6 month span where all I did was wake up at 5:30 am and I would write for 2 hours before my kids got up. I got so much done in an average week just from that alone. You can easily write 2 books a year at that speed. If you don’t want to write – read a motivational or uplifting book (non-fiction). BUT, I can say this: writing every day will turn into the most profitable habit you ever have! You can use these writings in numerous ways in your business, and the rewards will be great.

Nutrition – find what works best for you for energy, and a clear mind.  Eat fruit only in the mornings is a great way to feel good and clear – and keep a healthy system going. One fabulous tip I learned was the 3 apple a day technique.  3 apples a day is an excellent health foundation that will keep you healthy and thin.  Eat them throughout your morning (with no other foods) or spread the apples out so you eat one an hour before each meal. Try it for a couple weeks and see for yourself how good you feel.

Exercise. Guilty! I put on 30 pounds when I stopped kickboxing and took to running my own business from behind a computer screen. I am back to martial arts now – and that “rush” feeling is something that I missed deeply and look forward to experiencing when I am in my class. Find something, anything, that helps you work up a sweat. 3 times a week is ample for 30-60 minutes at a time.

Hire a coach. Years ago, those in business didn’t quite get this. Athletes made sense – but business? Now it is more commonly understood and adhered to.  And it makes sense. Coaches can see things you can’t – both good and bad. They can motivate you. They can hold you accountable to your actions and promises. And they can make it happen for you, versus stumbling along trying to tackle it all yourself.

My thoughts: hire one making much more money than you. And check their references.  I made the mistake of hiring one once that sounded good on paper, but was a disaster as a coach. I now have one who is phenomenal and I suggest you find one too. If you are interested, I have a small coaching program I run for a select group of people. It is not cheap – and you will be held accountable for your own results. But those results can be fabulous!

Read – lots. I am guilt of reading too many business books – and too few novels. I think the advice to read 4 business books for every 1 novel is a good one.  Business books – the reason is self explanatory (remember the one big idea philosophy). Novels – because you need to expand your mind and because much of what makes for a successful business involves building character into your marketing and day-to-day operations. Novels provide you with exceptional character building ideas… if you put your mind to it.  See the newsletter reports for more on this.

Invest in seminars. But be careful.  Seminars can be a very powerful way to fire yourself up, meet incredible entrepreneurs, and discover techniques to grow your business that you may have never even thought of before.  But, make sure the speakers are all high quality success stories.  Make sure there is some form of a guarantee. And make sure the seminar promises to help you with your existing business, not distract you with another business “opportunity”. Those are a dime-a-dozen, and are not the answer to success.  Learn as much as you can about marketing, advertising, and the mindset of the successful.  Master those 3 and you will succeed in any business you decide to take up.

Start a mastermind… preferably more than one. If you haven’t read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, go get it! It is only $10 new, and you can probably find one at your local used book store.  That one signle book has created more millionaires than any other book in existence… you think there may be an idea or two for you in there? Damn rights! One of the best ones is the mastermind principle.  In a nutshell: meet regularly (weekly or bi-weekly preferred) with 3 to 5 other driven entrepreneurs. Discuss your business challenges, and ask for suggestions on what to do or who to talk to. Keep the conversations positive and helpful. Look deep to find the right people – preferably get people from other industries as you will expand the viewpoints and not get pigeon holed into thinking like everyone else does in your industry.

The key with the action reaction is to do many things – all at once. Take MASSIVE ACTION and see what happens. Test new ads, new sales campaigns, new success mindset ideas, new client referral ideas… weekly… all at once. Some will work and some won’t. But the ones that DO work will make you a fortune.