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Why Less Is More

By: Bill Glazer on: December 6th, 2010 5 Comments

When I first began speaking at Boot Camps, conferences, and seminars, I was always flattered by how many people would come up to me after my presentation and tell me that they would like to go into business with me.

Of course, I seldom ever took them up on the offer even if I thought they actually had a good idea.

Why?

Because each activity you undertake eliminates the opportunity to pursue alternate (and more profitable) activities.

This is a very BIG problem that I often see with clients. They are so busy chasing the next thing that they never perfect the current thing. This then inevitably creates a whole new problem for them. Because they ignore the current thing, it leads to problems that require attention and fixing. Another waste of time!! (Or as Dan would call…Time Vampires.)

Instead, you should always ask yourself this question: “Is what I am doing bringing me closer to my objective than an alternative activity that I could be doing?”

Only concentrating on ‘winners’ will help maximize your profits and make your life a whole lot more fun.

Now, let me take this a step further for all of you out there that have employees. Not only do you want to make sure that YOU focus on those activities that will bring you the highest level of success, but you also have to make sure your team is doing the right things. This is clearly a leadership component that is up to you.

Anything that decreases focus on these right things inhibits progress. Along with this thinking, investing unlimited effort in failing projects also does not create success.

So, here are some other smart questions to ask yourself:

Are you focusing on doing the things that you do best?
Are you eliminating activities that decrease focus?
Are you focusing on the fewest, but most important activities?
If ‘Less is More’ are you committed to the right “less?”

In your next post, Dan will be back and will be discussing the idea of knowing exactly what a customer is worth to you and why that one question is so critical to your bottom line.

What It Takes To Succeed

By: Bill Glazer on: November 30th, 2010 4 Comments

I wanted to take this opportunity to write about a subject that I often get asked about…… what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur.

My father retuned from World War II and almost immediately opened up his own small menswear store. The evidence indicates he took to the task naturally, with true entrepreneurial drive. He was one of the best salesmen I ever saw and would think nothing about working thirteen hour days, six days a week in order to insure the success of his business.

In studying my father and other successful entrepreneurs, I have made the observation that a commonality that they all have is the feeling of being their own boss and the fact that their future is in their own control.

Entrepreneurs come in every shape, size, gender, and socioeconomic background. Some, like my father, were entrepreneurs from the first day they opened their businesses. Others became entrepreneurs out of necessity. For instance, I know of HUGELY successful entrepreneurs who got fired from jobs. Downsizing in corporate America has created armies of new entrepreneurs.

Now here is an interesting twist to being able to being a successful entrepreneur. You also need to be able to recognize and accept failure. I’m told Babe Ruth struck out 1330 times, but he’s best remembered for hitting 714 home runs. So, in spite of missteps, entrepreneurs are a very special breed who do not give up on the larger goal.

Do You Want An Easy Prescription To Become A Successful Entrepreneur?

I’ll bet you do!!! We’ll if you want to know one of the real secrets to becoming a successful entrepreneur, this is a BIGEEEEEE… Seeing & Seizing Opportunity Before Someone Else Does

Exploding the Response of Your Direct Mail

By: Bill Glazer on: December 15th, 2009 9 Comments

This is the transcript from an interview Bill Glazer did with Keith & Travis Lee:

What we are going to be talking about today is a particular type of strategy, although it’s very, very far reaching, which is involved with the use of my favorite media that there is by far and away is direct mail. That’s really where I originally cut my teeth in marketing, and its one that I prefer to do over any other one. And, this is the use of something that we have recently called 3-D mail, although there are some other names for it which are similar to it and we will get into it.

And, I am joined today by the current Glazer-Kennedy 3-D mail aficionados, the famous father and son team, Keith and Travis Lee. How are you guys doing?

Keith Lee: Just great, Bill.

Travis Lee: Doing good Bill, thanks.

Bill: So, we want to talk about 3-D mail and you guys have sort of taken on that mantra of being the experts of that. And, also in those interesting being the suppliers of 3-D mail objects which we will let people know later, if they want to, how they can learn more information about that. I don’t know which one of you want to jump in first, but let’s talk about making sure that people know what we are talking about, so what is 3-D mail?

Travis: 3-D really says it all when you are talking about 3-D mail. It has length, it has width, and it has depth. It is bulky mail stuff that comes in your mail and it doesn’t look like anything else in the mail that you are getting that day. Many other people have called it lumpy mail, or dimensional mail. They all pretty much mean the same thing. And in a lot of cases it’s not even just an envelope that can be lumpy. You know you put a lot of things in an envelope that can give it some shape and some form. But, it can also be like a trashcan, or a treasure chest, or a message in a bottle. Any number of different things that are going to cut the clutter in your direct mail and set you apart from everything else your prospects or clients are getting these days.

Bill: We are going to be talking later on in this call about why it’s so important to be thinking about 3-D mail. I’ve used it and continue to use it often in my marketing. Certainly in my former business as a menswear retailer I used it often, and I still us it now to market Glazer-Kennedy. And, we will be talking about why that’s a smart thing to do, but you guys formed this company. Keith, I am going to let you answer this question. You guys formed this company which is called the 3-D Mail, and so why did you decide to start this whole business to provide people with what they need in order to incorporate 3-D mail?
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What the Sam Hill is an Information Marketer?

By: Bill Glazer on: October 1st, 2009 38 Comments

In case you’re wondering, Karen and I don’t indulge too often. We just don’t find we need to spend money frivolously and we have a very happy life with our 2-children and Chocolate Lab…Homer.

We do like to take a least one nice trip every year. We’ve practically traveled all over the world.

But one thing that I had wanted for some time is a Porsche and a couple of years ago I picked up my dream car, a brand new custom made Porsche Carrera 4S and while I was signing the paperwork, Rachel Day, who is the dealership’s Financial Services Advisor asked me a question that I hate getting…but I get it asked often.

She asked…

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The 5 Elements of a Good Direct Response Ad

By: Bill Glazer on: September 28th, 2009 19 Comments

This is my quick checklist of ESSENTIAL Elements of a good direct response ad

1.) REASON FOR ADVERTISING other than your desire to get customers or sell something. BIG NEWS (other than announcing a new logo), BIG IDEA, a breakthrough solution to somebody’s problem. The biggest reason for advertising failure is advertising just because you need to advertise.

2.) ATTENTION-GETTING HEADLINE that telegraphs the news, the idea, the breakthrough…and”sells the ad.” The Headline’s first job is to compel the reader to stop whatever he’s doing – like reading the news in the newspaper- to, instead, shift his attention to your message.

3.) AS CLOSE TO AN ‘IRRESISTIBLE OFFER‘ AS YOU CAN GET. Most ads have no offers or weak, dull, plain vanilla offers. You have no right to response when you offer little.

4.) URGENCY:REASON(S) TO ACT IMMEDIATELY, made believable.

5.) DIRECT,CLEAR ‘CALL TO ACTION’ which connects #3 and #4 to INSTRUCTIONS to the customer of how to respond and what will occur when they do.

There are many additional helpful elements – such as proof, credibility,celebrity, pre-emptive answers to skepticism and reasons not to respond,risk reversal, and others.

But the above five are the absolutely mandatory components.

If you lack any, you do NOT have an ad at all.

What’s Your #1 Job?

By: Bill Glazer on: September 24th, 2009 20 Comments

I had a recent consulting call with a client. I asked him about his progress on what we talked about during our past call and he reported that hardly anything got done because he had a lot of other things to do in running his business and was constantly being interrupted by employees with questions or who required advice.

That’s when I went into my rant that…

“What we talk about and agree to get accomplished should NEVER take a backseat to anything else he needs to get done. I reminded him that his #1 job as the owner and President of the company was the MARKETING!”

After all, it’s the marketing that’s driving sales and withOUT sales there is no need for anyone else to work in the company. No need for an accountant, customer service representatives, buyers … no one.
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Bill Glazer Shares 7 Small Business Marketing Tips About Offers

By: Bill Glazer on: September 23rd, 2009 11 Comments

You should have one! Never, ever fail to make a specific offer or offers, and have a clear call to action. So much bad advertising fails to tell the reader/listener/viewer exactly what is expected of them, what to do next, and how to do it, in clear terms. Most ends vaguely: here’s where we are, here are our hours, here’s our phone number.
Build an appealing offer. Most are very unexciting, plain vanilla. A strong offer inspires the prospect to rush – RUSH – to respond. Has him excited about everything he’s going to get.
Tie the “here’s everything you get” part of the offer back to previously presented benefits. Don’t stop at listing products or services.

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How Gene Simmons Can Put Your Small Business Marketing On Autopilot

By: Bill Glazer on: September 17th, 2009 9 Comments

Celebrity P-O-W-E-R!

I first learned about the power of celebrity from Dan, but I really didn’t fully embrace it until I saw it with my own eyes. Dan has often used his client, Guthy-Renker, as an example of how they have become the ‘top dog’ in the infomercial world by using famous celebrities such as Victoria Principal, Jessica Simpson, and Sean John (a.k.a. P-Diddy).

Why is a celebrity so powerful? Think about it. What happens when you’re up late at night and you’re pushing the remote control button while watching TV and all of a sudden you arrive at a show where you see Jessica Simpson (or some other celebrity you recognize)? What do you do? It makes you stop channel surfing and say to yourself…what’s Jessica doing on at 2 AM in the morning?
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Hey….Don’t Forget Space Ads in Your Small Business Marketing

By: Bill Glazer on: September 17th, 2009 7 Comments

Let’s talk about newspaper and magazine advertising which is commonly referred to as “Space” advertising.

In many ways, this form of advertising is one of the harder media to make work in small business marketing. Mainly because it typically is a rather costly media and depending on the size of your transaction, it can be very difficult to earn a return on your investment (ROI).

Of course, ROI can vary between whether you are only looking at how much the ad costs verses how much in sales revenue it generated or how many new customers you acquired from the ad and what is their lifetime value to your business.
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3 Common Habits Of Successful Entrepreneurs

By: Bill Glazer on: September 14th, 2009 3 Comments

As you might imagine, with tens of thousands of GKIC Members and actually working first hand with nearly 200 people in Peak Performers, VIP-Mastermind, Info-MASTERMIND and my personal clients, I see a lot and learn a lot about Entrepreneurs. I was thinking the other day about the traits that the most successful ones have in common and I’ve identified the three most common ones.

HABIT #1: They READ a lot…especially books. In fact, when I first discovered “Planet Dan” way back in 1995 the first thing that I did when I figured out that this Direct Response stuff really works is to become a veracious reader. I first began with the classics like John Caples, Robert Collier, David Ogilvy, Gary Halbert and of course everything Dan Kennedy wrote.
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