AA - 7 - Your Idea Godmine

8/9/2019 AA - 7 - Your Idea Godmine

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Your Idea Goldmine

How to use creative thinking to increase your salesby 25% (or more) in the next 90 days...

With the compliments ofAmundson & Amundson

www.amundson.co.nz


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Introduction:

Hello and welcome to this special report called:

Your Idea Goldmine-how to use creative thinking to

increase your sales by 25% or more in the next 90 days

To drastically increase your sales results in any businessyou need to do something different from what you aredoing right now. This report is designed to help you dosomething different.

The Better Way Concept:

How many businesses are there in the entire world that are selling similar products andservices at similar prices to the same type of customers as you sell to?Obviously there are a lot!

Now, how many of these businesses are getting better sales results than you are right now?Would there be quite a few? The answer again is yes there would be a lot.

If these business who sell the same type of products and services as you do, to similar typesof customers at similar prices are getting better sales results it only means one thing.

They have a better way of doing some part of what they do. It could be a betterway ofmaking a sales presentation, getting repeat sales, getting referral business, resolving

customer concerns. These people may have a betterway of lead generation, a betterway ofgetting customers to trust them or a betterway of doing something. If you want the sales toimprove in your business your responsibility is to spend a bit of time each week looking forone or more of these betterways.

Because when you find it and implement it your sales will increase. And often dramatically.

Example:

A personal trainer of mine in a local fitness centre was earning $19,000 a year. He used justfour betterways to sell his services. In the following 18 months he earned over $161,000 in

extra income using these four ways of selling better. For your business there are dozens ofbetterways to increase your sales. Use this report and I guarantee you will find them!!

In this report you will learn how to use a simple creative thinking method to generate yourown ideas to increase your sales by 25% or more. For best results you will need to practisethis simple creative thinking method. When you do use this creative thinking method regularlyyour sales can go through the roof.

Graham McGregor


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1 Your Idea Goldmine Notes

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Your Idea Goldmine-How to use creativethinking to increase your sales by 25% ormore over the next 90 days

By Graham McGregor

Before you start, please keep one thing in mind:

There are always a number of better ways to improveyour sales results and usually they are simple andobvious.

Many people will often miss these simple and obvious

ways to increase their sales because they get stuck inrigid patterns of thinking.

They think that this is the way we have always donethings so they often miss simple obvious ways tomake more sales.

Here is a short exercise to illustrate this point.

Exercise:

These five numbers are in a simple logical order fromleft to right.

You have sixty seconds to write down what this simplelogical order is.

8 5 9 1 6 2

Spend 60 seconds and try and work it out now.

(The answer to this exercise is on page 3)

Most people get this exercise wrong because they getcaught in rigid patterns of thinking.

The answer is very simple and obvious yet only oneperson in a hundred sees it.

Its the same in your business.

There are dozens of ways for you to increase yoursales that are simple and obvious. Yet to find them

you will have to practise the creative thinking idea inany one or more of the ways we suggest.


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Right lets get started...

Please answer the following questions in writing.

1: What type of business do you have?

For instance you might have a florist shop, a flooringbusiness, a restaurant, a printing business, anaccountancy practise or a car dealership..

What type of business do you have?

2: What type of products and services do you sell?

You might sell flowers, carpet and vinyl, accountancyservices, restaurant meals, new cars etc.

What products and services do yousell?

3: What type of customers buys these products

and services?

They might be business people, they might be acertain type of business person, they might bemembers of the public etc.

What type of customers do yousell to?

4: What is the average size sale you make?

It might be $10 if you owned a small retail outlet, itmight be $10,000 if you sold cars.

What is youraverage size sale?

5: How often does the average customer buy fromyou?

It might be once a year, once a week, daily or maybe

once every three years.

How often does your average customer buy from you?


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6: Please list all the methods you use to getcustomers to contact your business about buying

your products and services.

You might use signs, radio advertising, direct mail, youmight use word of mouth, you might use a systematicreferral system etc.

What methods do youuse to get customers to contactyourbusiness about yourproducts and services?

Please do not continue until you have answeredthese questions.

Answer to exercise from page 1:

The six numbers are in alphabetical order from left toright.

Eight Five Nine One Six Two

Most people when they see numbers try and work theproblem out mathematically which is incorrect in thiscase.

Here is the creative thinking method you will beusing throughout this report to help you increase

your sales by 25% or more.

Its called the 20 idea method.

To use this method you will need a pen, paper, 10-15minutes of time and discipline.

Here's how to use the 20 idea method to increaseyour sales

Step One:

Write down at the top of a clean sheet of paper a salesgoal you want to achieve.


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Example "Increase my sales by 25% in the next 90days.

Be very clear about the exact result you want. In otherwords rather than Increase my sales make itIncrease my sales by 25% in less than 90 days.

Step Two:

Write down 20 answers to this question.

Step Three:

Take one of the 20 ideas and implement itimmediately that day.

Comments and further instructions on thesesteps.

Step Two is the hardest part initially in using thismethod. It's like going to the gym for the first timewhen you're unfit and doing some exercise. (It's hardwork!!)

It may take you anywhere from 10-60 minutes tocomplete this exercise the first time. Most people findthat the first 5-10 ideas are pretty simple. The next 5are more difficult

The last 10 can seem like squeezing blood from astone.

Here is an example of the 20 idea method beingused on the goal of increasing sales by 25% in

less than 90 days.

What can I do to increase my sales by 25% in lessthan 90 days?

1. I could talk to 25% more prospects in the next 90days.2. I could increase the average value of each sale by25%.3. I could get my customers to each buy 25% moreoften.

4. I could improve the effectiveness of my closingtechniques by 25% this month.


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5. I could get five good quality referrals from each ofmy existing customers.6. I could do a joint venture for lead generation with

another person in a non competitive field.7. I could talk only to potential customers who couldspend 25% more than my average sale right now.8. I could put my prices up 25%.9. I could speed up by 25% the time it takes for mysales presentation so I get more presentations in lesstime.10. I could get 25% more prospects to enquire thismonth about my products or services.11. I could improve my conversion rate of enquiries tosales by 25% in the next 90 days.

12. I could spend 25% more time actually doing salespresentations.13. I could develop a new sales presentation that is25% more effective than my current salespresentation.14. I could concentrate on selling my products andservices 25% better.15. I could differentiate our products and services soour customers perceive them as 25% better than ourcompetitors.16. I could get 25% more sales people to sell ourproducts and services.17. I could get 25% more repeat business fromexisting customers.18. I could find 25% more benefits for my products orservices and tell these new benefits to potentialcustomers.19. I could get existing customers to startenthusiastically recommending my products andservices to all their friends and colleagues.20. I could reduce by 25% some of the common

reasons customers give us for not buying our productsor services.

Step three.Look over your list and implement one or more of theideas off your list today.

Example.

In the sample exercise above you may want to simplymeasure your conversion ratio which is mentioned in

answer number 11.


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Your conversion ratio is the number of sales you makedivided by the total number of enquiries you had aboutyour product or service. So if you had 10 sales and 50

enquiries your conversion ratio is 10/50 or 20%. Youmight find that all you have do to increase sales by25% is to improve your conversion ration to 25%which is 12.5 sales for every 50 enquiries.

The key to success with this creative thinking methodis to use it regularly and implement one of the ideasyou come up with.

The more ideas you generate using this method themore likely you are to come up with a good idea that

will actually work.

(By the way this creative thinking method can be usedto help you make improvements in any other part ofyour life as well as increasing your sales.)

Example:

A business client of mine was a manufacturingjeweller and a wholesaler of gift products. He supplied jewellers and gift shops around the country with arange of products most of which he imported. He hadan overdraft with his bank of $50,000 which he used tofinance the importing stock from his overseassuppliers. In October one year his bank decided tocancel his overdraft because of a policy change at thebank.

This business man was in a panic because he neededto send $50,000 within the next 10 days to one of hislargest suppliers to fund stock for Xmas for all his

clients. He had no assets he could use to raise$50,000 and was facing ruin if he couldn't supply stockto his clients. He had talked to five other banks andthey had all said no. He was at his wits end.

He learnt the 20 idea method and decided to try it.

He wrote down the question;

"What can I do to get $50,000 legally within 10 days?

He then spent two hours answering the questiontwenty different ways.


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He phoned me back in 10 days and said "Graham I'vesolved my problem."

One of the ideas he came up with was so simple itwas amazing.

He contacted all his customers by phone and fax.(This all happened around 20 years ago and beforethe days of the Internet.)

He explained that his bank had cancelled his overdraftand he needed to organise money to send to hisoverseas supplier.

He then made the following offer to all his clients.

Instead of paying for your normal Xmas stock order inJanuary, how about paying for it in advance just thisonce. If you do, Ill give you a number of extrabonuses. (These were some free stock and severalother incentives.)

He got over 135 customers who agreed to hisproposal and they sent him full payment for theirorders now. He received over $53,000 interest freewithin 10 days and saved his business. All from onegood idea. And he got the good idea by using thetwenty idea method.

There are only three ways to increase the sales inyour business:

These are to:

1. Get more customers.2.

Get your customers to spend more (which meansyou increase the average size of each sale theymake.)

3. Get your customers to spend more often.

So when we use the 20 idea creative thinking methodweve just shown you it will be useful among otherthings to use it on these three ways to increase yoursales.

For instance:

You might use the 20 idea method on questions likethis:


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How can I get my existing customers to buy 10% moreoften?

Then list 20 answers to that question.

Or what about

How can I increase my average size sale by 10%?

Then list 20 answers to that question.

Or how about

What can I do to get 10% more customers this week?

Then list 20 answers to this question.

I CANT STRESS STRONGLY ENOUGH THEIMPORTANCE OF YOU DOING THE WORK OFPRACTISING THE 20 IDEA METHOD AT LEASTONCE EACH WORKDAY ON QUESTIONS THATDIRECTLY AFFECT YOUR BUSINESS.

Its only when you do the exercise that you will come

up with the ideas. The ideas are often very simple andobvious.

Example:

A commercial real estate client earned a $73,000 realestate commission in 17 minutes using the 20 ideamethod. No money changed hands between the twoclients he used the idea on yet he was paid a largefee.

Heres how he did it:

He had just leased a large building to a client for threeyears and had earned a great commission on thelease. He sat down over a beer with a few of his workmates and used the 20 idea method on the followingquestion.

How can we get another fee from this client with nomoney changing hands?

They came up with 20 ideas and implemented oneidea that day. They asked if their new tenant wouldconsider signing a new lease extending his term from


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three years to six years. If he would he could havefree naming rights on the building. The client said yes.The commercial real estate went to the owner of the

building and said the tenant has now signed a longerlease so the building is worth more. We would likeanother commission. The owner was happy to pay it.

The key here is that the commercial real estate salesperson actually usedthe 20 idea method.

An important part of the 20 idea method is to takeaction on one of the ideas you come up with. Youmust do something.

When you take action on one of the ideas you aredoing something different in your business. Thatswhen you get changes.

The more times you practise the 20 idea method themore creative you will become. You will find ideascoming up even when you arent using the exercise.

Here are some more questions to use the 20 ideamethod on to help your business increase sales by25% to 50%.

How can I get 25% more prospects to contact me thismonth about my products and services?

This question looks at lead generation in yourbusiness. In other words how can you get morepotentially interested customers to say Im interestedin what you have. Tell me more.

There are hundreds of answers to this question. You

might do a joint venture with another business personwhere they promote your products and services totheir clients. You might use a free premium to identifycustomers.

I have a real estate client who wrote a short bookletcalled 8 secrets to sell your home for the highestprice

He gives this free to people who are thinking of sellingtheir home. He delivers it personally and has an

opportunity to talk to a qualified prospect.


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You might use fax marketing, you might use a threestep letter campaign. You might implement a simplereferral programme etc.

Here are some other questions to use the 20 ideamethod on.

How can I make my sales presentation 25% moreeffective so 25% more people buy when I talk tothem?

When you come up with 20 answers to this questionyou will do things like show more benefits for yourproduct and service, you might use testimonial letters

from happy clients, you might ask better qualifyingquestions etc.

What about this question?

How can I make my product or service seem a lotmore attractive to my prospects?

When you come up with answers to this question youcan often change dramatically the way you sell.

Example:

A company marketing a home cleaning service wasstruggling. They thought they were marketing aservice that would come in and clean your home. Alltheir competitors were marketing the same service.When they asked themselves how can we make ourservice more attractive they came up with a new idea.Now they were offering a service that allowed thecustomers who used their service to have a lot more

free time. They started explaining this new idea tobusy business people. This company is now a 600million dollar a year company!

Example:

The number one insurance sales person in the worldat one point sold a billion dollars of insurance in oneyear. While other insurance sales people were sellinginsurance policies he was selling the benefits of usingthese same policies as tax shelters. He just made the

same product seem more attractive.


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Here are more questions for you to use the 20 ideamethod on.

How can I do my sales presentations 25% faster so Iget more sales presentations in the same time?(A salesperson began using a simple visual aid he hadmade using cardboard and coloured felt pens. Withthis visual aid he was able to explain a complicatedbusiness service in 2 minutes rather than 11 minutes.As a result he outsold every other sales person in thecompany by six hundred percent.)

How can I eliminate some of the common objectionscustomers give us for not buying our products and

services.?

This could easily increase your sales.

A company selling training programmes on video gotthe common objection Our people dont want tospend time watching a video screen.

So they got the customers who did buy a seminar towrite a letter commenting on the video part of theseminar. They all said that being on video made itinteresting and fun to attend the seminar.

They then showed these letters in every presentationand never had the objection again.

Also their sales went up.

How can I get my existing customers toenthusiastically tell everyone they know about myproducts and services?

We know that word of mouth advertising is the best ofall.

An appliance shop does this very well. Ten days afterthey make a sale to a customer they send out bycourier a little pot plant and thank you note. (Thiscosts about $10 to do) The customers love theunexpected gift and tell lots of their friends about theappliance shop.

A salesperson at a car dealership takes a photo oftheir customer with their new car. The sales personthen sends this customer a desktop calendar with this


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photo on. This is done for a few dollars at the localcopy centre. The customer loves the calendar and thecar dealers get a lot of repeat and referral business

from it.

How can I reduce my buyers fear of making a mistakewhen buying my products or services?

When you come up with answers to this question youoften make huge increases in sales.

All of us have had the experience of making a badpurchase somewhere. The product or service didntwork, caused problems etc and other people criticised

us for this purchase. This felt uncomfortable so wedont what it to happen again. This means we are all alittle bit reluctant to spend money in case we make amistake.

When you reduce this fear you increase sales.

A pest control service used this idea well. They wouldoffer a commercial pest control service (insects, rats,fleas etc) for restaurants and hotels.

They added a unique guarantee to their service.

Firstly if the hotel or restaurant lost a booking becauseof a problem with pests the pest control companywould pay for that lost booking.

If the hotel or restaurant was ever closed down by ahealth inspector for a pest problem the pest controlcompany would reimburse them for any lost revenuethey might have had.

The guarantee went on to cover 10 other points. Thispest control company is twice as expensive as anyoneelse in their field. They also have 80% market share inevery area they go into.

Best of all they have a simple insurance policy thatcovers them for any money they might have to payout. What they have done is dramatically reduce thecustomers fear of paying for their pest control serviceand it not working.

I saw an interesting example of reducing risk from acar dealer recently.


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On the next few pages are some worksheets to helpyou practise the 20 idea method to increase sales inyour business.

Helpful Resource:

I publish a free monthly marketing newsletter calledEasy Business Successthat comes out by emailonce a month. Its easy to read and each issue haspractical ideas to create new sales and profits inany business with very little effort.

Here are just some of the ideas youll learn inthe first few volumes:

How to get a completely unfair businessadvantage over every one of your

competitors.

How to boost sales in as little as sixtyseconds

How to create hundreds of dollars of brandnew profits in less than five days

The magic power of the dripping tap.

And many more field tested strategies to

instantly improve your business results.

To subscribe to Easy Business Successjust go to

www.EasyBusinessSuccess.com


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Day Date

What can I do to increase sales by 25% in the next

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Which of these 20 ideas are you going to do today?


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90 days?

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Which of these 20 ideas are you going to do today?


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Which one of these 20 ideas are you going do today?


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Which one of these 20 ideas are you going do today?


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AA - 7 - Your Idea Godmine

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