We watched an old 1966 movie last night, called OSCAR, in which the Maitre D’, a failed film star, tells the famous film-star just how precarious the film star’s position really is.

It’s human nature to avoid reality, wear blinders, and stick our heads in the sand, but facts are facts. Your eager replacement is waiting in the wings. If you don’t perform, you will be replaced fast, and the scary part is that you won’t even know it until it’s too late.

Earn the Right

We all buy life insurance, houses, websites, holidays, cars, furniture, and many other things, and we are free to decide whom to purchase from.

I had someone call me and ask me, “Why didn’t you buy from me?” My response was very simple: “You didn’t earn the right. You need to earn my business. You didn’t.”

Last week I had someone ask me to recommend a realtor. I know a few realtors, but there was not one that I would recommend – they didn’t earn the right.

I am currently in the process or replacing one of my service providers, and he is blissfully unaware that his replacement is already waiting in the wings. Why? He has been unreliable, unprofessional, and unresponsive. So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodnight. When he wakes up and wipes his eyes he will realize he has lost a fortune in future business and referrals. Too late for tears.

A Few Pointers to Not Only Keep the Business You Already Have, but to Add to it Significantly

Pride comes before the fall. Take people for granted, let your service slip, and before you know it, you’ve been replaced by a hungry competitor. In order to avoid this unhappy and costly predicament, here are a few pointers to allow you not only to keep the business you already have, but to add to it significantly:

1. Respond promptly to e-mails, calls, and letters. That means FAST.
2. Pay on time. If I have to remind you, I might suspect you never intended paying.
3. Go the extra mile – add unexpected value.
4. Communicate effectively, respectfully, and regularly.
5. Reciprocate with referrals, invitations, and recognition.
6. Constantly improve your service and products.
7. THANK people for the business they send you with money or other real value.

Differentiate Yourself

Your replacement is eagerly waiting in the wings. He wants to take your business, and he’s ready to earn it.

DollarMakers specializes in showing people how to add massive value and differentiate themselves from the competition with no additional cost, through the use of Joint Ventures.

Knowledge and skills will always come to your rescue.

In a recession, when advertisers are scratching at the door and losing business hand over fist, you can set up a lucrative Joint Venture with them, as well as with your Joint Venture partners.

Advertisers have space to sell, and it’s a perishable commodity; if it’s not sold, it’s lost forever, whether it’s space ads in magazines, newspapers, or billboards, or whether it’s radio or TV time or banner ads on websites or e-zines.

How to Set Up the Deal with the Advertiser

You simply offer to pay them for RESULTS, not promises. It’s called Contingency Advertising.

It doesn’t cost the advertiser anything, since he or she already has the space, and you only pay for converted leads / sales made. Any set-up fee, artwork, or other incidentals will naturally have to be paid for, but it’s a fraction of the cost of the advertising itself.

This way, even if there are no initial sales, you get great exposure and branding, and, when the advertiser sees this concept working, he will never run open space again.

Only EVER Pay for Results

We have done this for more than twenty years in every conceivable kind of media for ourselves and our clients, and it really is “no money, no risk” – it‘s a win/win.

I never pay salaries or for advertising – I pay generously for results, so I’m not easily disappointed by big promises and BS.

Do the Math and Propose it Like This

First ask the advertiser if he believes advertising with him will make sales.  Of course he will say “Yes” and if he doesn’t, it’s easy to show him the door.

When he says “Yes”, propose something like this: If you pay an average of $100 per sale and a $2,000 advertisement generates 40 sales, the advertiser doubles his money.

Ad responses can go via the advertiser for tracking and spot-checking purposes.

Joint Venture Brokers can triangulate this system to earn residual income from other people’s businesses.

Many years ago, a relative of mine made an appointment to confront an evil church pastor about a serious issue of hypocrisy and double-dealing in her church. She prepared her case very well, and there was no doubt about the fact that the “pastor” was, in fact, a wolf in sheep’s clothing. I’ll never forget what she told me when she got home from that meeting.

She said she felt as though she had imagined the whole thing; he made her feel foolish, he actually laughed at the facts she presented, and she left feeling convinced that she was wrong, that he was right, that she was guilty of being disloyal and negative, and that she actually owed him an apology for wasting his precious time.

The Deceptive Art of Distraction

Politicians and psychopaths are good at diverting one’s attention from the important things and questions they would rather not answer. They know that attack is the best form of defense. Salespeople are singularly adept at sleight of hand or legerdemain:

• Answer a question with a question.
• Baffle with unimportant facts.
• Use complicated explanations and trickery to throw your pursuers off track.
• Make light of exigent issues.
• Brush off serious accusations with a condescending smirk.
• Hug them while you knife then in the back.

Magicians use distraction all the time.

Even Good People Do This to Avoid Responsibility

My point? I used to attend regular, weekly sales meeting with a group of other SMI Distributors. At every meeting, we Distributors would tell our amazing stories to the meeting leader.

We would talk about all the leads we had “in the pipeline”, all the sales we had narrowly missed, all the things we were “working on”, and all the promises we had heard from our prospective buyers. We also spent a good deal of time making excuses, blaming the weather, the competition, holidays, pricing, traffic, the products we sold, the packaging, the economy, and of course our leader.

At one meeting our leader got up before anyone could start mouthing off, and his words have stayed with me to this day. He said,

“Today, I don’t want to hear any stories, promises, excuses, or lies. Don’t you dare say a word, any of you. This is a silent meeting.

Walk up to the board, take the sharpie, and write down the amount of sales you made last week. That means PAID sales. I will check your figures. Then get out of here, and don’t contact me until the next meeting.

I am only interested in results. Next week, I will fire the Distributor with the lowest sales. Now get out!”

We doubled our sales as a result of that valuable lesson.

Shape Up or Ship Out

Losers and underachievers specialize in the deceptive art of distraction. They will:

• ask you irrelevant questions
• create rumors
• seem very busy
• make excuses for everything

If you allow this kind of behavior, you reinforce their failure to take responsibility and you encourage them to become parasites and posers.

When you focus on results and refuse to be distracted, you’ll get them to shape up or ship out. And you’ll save loads of time.

Talk is cheap, and money buys the whiskey.

I went to the jewelry store to buy my wife a piece of jewelry. The sales clerk showed me the cheapest item in the range to start with. I said I wanted to see the most expensive item, since my wife deserves only the best.

When I had purchased the item, I asked the clerk why she offered me the cheapest piece, and she replied that she would rather have a bird in the hand than two in the bush.

She didn’t’ understand how to “drop down”, but she also didn’t understand that you get what you ask for, and you will be surprised what you will get, if you just ask for it.

Think abundance, not scarcity.

You Literally have Access to UNLIMITED Resources

You can go to the beach with a teaspoon and a cup and get some seasand, or you can go with a forty-gallon drum and fill it with sand. Or you can take a dump truck and fil that – the sand won’t run out. You can take a train and fill it with sand. Sand respesents, in this case, money.

You can make as much as you like if you simply offer a great product and service and then go ahead and ASK.

Be audacious, be courageous, and expect great wealth.

Mark These Words

“I bargained with Life for a penny,
And Life would pay no more,
However I begged at evening
When I counted my scanty store.
For Life is a just employer,
He gives you what you ask,
But once you have set the wages,
Why, you must bear the task.
I worked for a menial’s hire,
Only to learn, dismayed,
That any wage I had asked of Life,
Life would have willingly paid.”

Adjust Your Estimation Skills

Bamboo grows more rapidly than any other plant on the planet. It has been clocked surging skyward as fast as 47.6 inches in a 24-hour period.

We’ve all heard, “First year it sleeps, second year it creeps, third year it leaps.” Bamboo trees grow very little for the first 4 years. But then, suddenly in the 5th year, they grow 80-90 feet tall.

We tend to overestimate what we can do in the short term, but we vastly underestimate what we can do in the longer term. Be the bamboo!

How to Double Your Sales Immediately

I once had a life insurance salesman ask me how he could double his sales. I answered, “If you’re presently asking people to buy $200,000 worth of life cover, start asking them to buy $400,000 worth of life cover. It’s that simple. But you should start off by making sure that YOU personally have at least $400,000 worth of life cover.”

Think BIG. Expect great things. ASK.

I saw this on BBC World this morning:

“One Quarter of the Honey Industry in England Destroyed.”

Yes – a mite infestation wiped them out.

• Beetles in Canada closed down lumber mills.
• Locusts invade an area in Australia, just as the farmers are about to reap.
• In Vancouver, the new Skytrain development on Cambie street, in preparation for the 2010 Winter Olympics here, bankrupted local businesses that depend on their walk-in trade.
• The digital photography development caused thousands of conventional photographic businesses to go under.
• Fires destroy properties and businesses in California.

Are You Putting All Your Eggs In One Basket?

When you have 90% of your income based on one anything – one geographical area, one product or service, one industry, one major marketing system, or one or two big clients or key employees, you’re in a precarious and dangerous position.

When you slave for three weeks per month just to cover your payroll and overhead, you’re on a slippery slope.

Beware of People Pitching “Focus”

People who pitch “Focus” usually have a selfish, vested interest in taking everything they can get out of you. This is particularly true of the Network Marketing business. Although I enjoy being involved in that business, it is only one income source amongst many, but most MLM companies operate more like cults than businesses, demanding absolute focus and attention, in spite of the fact that there is a higher way.

What Joint Ventures Has to Offer

Joint Ventures offers you the opportunity to:

• spread your risk
• lower your overhead
• remove all limits from your income potential

Your JV’s can be designed to “feed” each other, resulting in exponential growth through strategically created synergy.

Understanding business, value, supply and demand, and most importantly, Joint Ventures, removes the ego and desperation that most business owners demonstrate in the way they operate. An inclusive, reciprocal, unthreatened approach shows an abundance mindset and maturity and sophistication that is scarce in today’s world.

Don’t Panic… Profit!

As the world-wide recession bites deeper, Joint Ventures becomes the only viable alternative to conventional sales and marketing, and will save many business owners from bankruptcy, shortage, and loss.

DollarMakers is the world leader in JV’s for small and medium sized businesses and professionals. We provide the training, access, and support that will open your eyes to a whole new way of running a successful, bottom-line oriented business.

• Do you have trouble convincing people to buy / accept your idea, product, service, Joint Venture, or suggestions?
• Do you find your offers and proposals being rejected too often?
• Is it hard for you to get appointments and time with successful people?
• Is your closing ratio / conversion ratio too low?
• Do you want more access, acceptance, sales, acknowledgment, and buy-in?

You Can Do Something About It

First, recognize that if someone else in the same area, industry, and environment, with similar products, services, and offers, is doing better than you are, then there is definitely something you can do about it. That’s good news. So here are some pointers that will work for you:

Tip #1 – Up Your Enthusiasm

Your level of enthusiasm and belief will open many doors. Enthusiasm is contagious, and if you don’t believe in yourself and your offer, nobody else will. The higher your confidence level, the more impact you will have.

How can you increase this?

The word “Enthusiasm” ends with the letters IASM – I Am Sold Myself. You have to believe in, buy, and use your own product or service. You have to be “a product of the product.”

You increase your confidence and self-esteem by knowing everything there is to know about what you’re selling, the benefits, and the details, so training and learning about what you’re selling is essential. The more you learn, the more you will earn. Disciplined learning will increase your self-esteem and expectations.

Tip #2 – You have to look (and act) like a million dollars before you earn it.

Your personal presentation is important. If you’re badly dressed with bed head, sleep creases on your face, cat hair on your coat, and unshaven, no winner will want to talk with you. BO, halitosis, showing up late, not delivering on your promises, and a bad haircut will simply destroy any credibility you might have had.

You have to look successful and act successful in order to BE successful. Look like a million dollars before you can earn it. BE – DO – HAVE. Remember that. People DO judge a book by its cover, and first impressions are lasting impressions.

Tip #3 – Keep It about the Other Person

Talk in the interests of the other person, get your ego out of the way, and don’t waste your prospect’s time. Be very well prepared with a specific sales strategy.

Tip #4 – Look Good On Paper Too

If you have anything in writing, keep it concise, to the point, professional, bottom-line oriented, and on good paper. You will be judged by your written material, hand-outs, and spelling mistakes. Your prospect is looking for clues, so make sure the clues he finds are good ones.

Tip #5 – Set the Bar High and Be Ready to Walk Away

Self-respect, selectivity, and setting the bar high will label you as a professional to be taken seriously. If you’re desperate, needy, broke, and tense, you will frighten any winners away fast.

Be relaxed, well prepared, and ready to walk away from any deal. The more prospects you have, the easier this is, so use Joint Ventures to procure on-going streams of qualified prospects.

See yourself as your prospect’s equal. Be strong and focused.

Tip #6 – Carefully Choose Your “Field of Battle”

Choose the environment in which you present yourself carefully – the Four Seasons is better than a Mac Donald’s.

Tip #7 – Craft a Win/Win Offer…

Make sure your offer is genuinely win/win – think about what’s in it for the prospect, his return on investment, and his goals.

Try to remove the risk and cost from both parties as much as possible.

Tip #8 – …And Craft an Offer that’s Too Good to Be Refused.

Sweeten the pot through the use of Joint Ventures, by adding massive value – “an offer too good to be refused” – this takes preparation and thought, but you can differentiate yourself from your competition by adding four times the value, at no cost top yourself, through Joint Ventures.

Tip #9 – Stop Blaming Outside Circumstances

Stop blaming others and the economy for your poor ales – take personal responsibility – that is the mark of a winner.

Tip #10 – Remember to “Yahoo”

Finally, be sensitive – when someone makes it clear they’re not interested, walk away fast.  There are many fish in the sea, you have many options, and walking away from uncooperative prospects will increase your self-esteem and therefore your income.

Remember “Yahoo”.  You Always Have Other Options!

DollarMakers provides on-going, ever-improving training and support, access and information on how to be a successful and professional Joint Venture Broker, based on our own experience and the changing marketplace. JV’s will help you to increase sales, whether you have a business or not, and we’re here to help.

Flying somewhere in the world almost every weekend, I have learned an important lesson:

Don’t talk to the person sitting next to you!

Why this anti-social choice? On a five or eight hour flight, even on a two-hour flight, you run the real risk of being locked into a one-sided conversation about the other person.

It’s like attending a “Business Networking Meeting”:

Ask someone, “What do you do?” and be prepared for a torrent of verbal trash and unadulterated BS that only stops when the other person decides that you’re not going to buy from him, at which time here turns you off fast, turns his back, and turns on his next unsuspecting victim.

People are Not Interested in You

You should realize that when people ask, “How ya doin’?” they really don’t want an answer. When they inquire about your business, they’re only trying to find out if you will buy their products or services – they’re looking for sales signals or buying signs; they’re prospecting. They are not interested in you, your welfare, or your opinion – unless it leads to buying their stuff.

Why This Poor Behavior is GREAT for You!

Sell, tell, push, and pressure – it’s amazing how so many broke, self-employed salespeople, has-beens and wanna-be’s, think that if they inundate you with enough egotistical, boring, self-aggrandizing information, you’ll eagerly whip out your check book and buy from them. And that, dear reader, is excellent news.

Why?

Because it gives you the opportunity to benefit from this mindless and desperate behavior. It offers you the lucrative opportunity to get people to send you more business than you can shake a stick at, using a simple, yet highly effective approach.

OK, so here is your action plan:

#1 – Only talk with successful people.

First, only talk with successful people who are capable of sending you lots of business, and many, qualified prospects.

#2 – Don’t talk about yourself.

Second, don’t talk about yourself, your products or services, your needs, opinions, or family. Nobody cares. Get used to it.

#3 – Recognize and drop losers fast!

Third, if the person you’re talking to looks at his Blackberry, interrupts you, or answers his phone, drop him like a hot cake. If he’s badly dressed / groomed, or appears arrogant or distracted, move away fast. If he’s a loser, he will refer you to losers.

#4 – ONLY talk about the other person.

Fourth, only talk about him:

• his products
• his family
• his goals
• his challenges
• his pain
• his needs
• his dreams
• his hopes

Dig deep with open-ended, strategic questions to find his Hot Button.

• What keeps him awake at night?
• What are his secret desires and fears?
• What does he want, or want to avoid, most of all?

Sincere, focused attention on him will make him like you and feel connected. Match and model his movements, speed, tone, and personality type to get in harmony with him, without going over the top (he sneezes, swears and burps, so you do, too).

#5 – Find solutions to bring relief for him through other people or their resources.

Fifth, find solutions, bridges, and relief for him through other people or the resources of others. That’s what Joint Venture Brokers do, and we get paid by the businesses providing those solutions. (This is what I specifically teach at our DollarMakers Bootcamps or through the Home Study Course.  You can read more about that here.)

We like people who help us, relieve our pain, and protect us, don’t we? We tend reciprocate when people do us favors and make us feel good about ourselves. The more value you can create for the other person (while getting paid for the referrals, of course,) the more likely he is to want to reward and repay us.

#6 – Set up reciprocation (that is also in his favor).

Sixth, after solving his problems, (not before,) alleviating his pain, and making him feel like a million bucks, show his specifically and exactly how he can reciprocate and return the favor, and how that will earn him generous commissions and favors from you that can be applied directly to his previously revealed Hot Button.

This is where you can set up a Referral System, Piggyback Mailing, Host Beneficiary Relationship, Endorsed Mailing, or other Joint Venture, again speaking specifically in the interest of the other person, never your own.

Solve More Problems = Get More Business

Zig Ziglar said:

“You can get anything you want out of life, if you’re prepared to help enough other people to get what they want.”

He didn’t say, “Run your mouth, blow your own trumpet, bore them with your false promises, and they’ll buy from you just to get rid of you.”

Solve the problems of good people and they will send you more business than you can shake a stick at.

Joint Venture Brokers get paid for solving, not selling.

We see every problem and goal as an income source, or dollarmaker. We understand that knowing what someone’s Hot Button is and knowing how to release the resources required to help others get what they want, with no cost or risk, is the way to wealth and strong relationships.

Most entrepreneurs have been taught that you have three options with any prospect:

• First, you can sell them something.
• Second, you can sell them more than once.
• And third, they may refer new business to you.

This is a linear, traditional way of thinking.

Use Joint Ventures to Maximize Impact

In today’s world, we have to think in terms of viral marketing and multiple impacts. In order to illustrate a simple Joint Venture scenario, let’s use the example of someone who recently joined the DollarMakers Joint Venture Forum. We’ll call her Carol. She has one thousand clients who know, respect, and trust her. How can she use Joint Ventures to make a serious amount of money, fast?

Make Real Money with a Replicator Website

I suggested Carol start off by leasing a Replicator Website, which will track all business and pay her up to 50% of all sales, including the sales of audio downloads, training, Memberships, more replicator sites, my book, etc. I would then write a very compelling letter for her to send to her database and friends, inviting them to visit her site and obtain a complimentary audio download, which I would create specially for her clients – applicable to their specific type of business. Carol would send out this email and two follow-up e-mails, which could make her a significant amount of money.

Build Your Back-End with Gift Certificates

Then she would send each of her thousand clients five Gift Certificates as a Thank You Gesture for their loyalty and patronage. Each gift Certificate would offer her clients a complimentary service worth at least $100.  For example, a business consultant might offer a complimentary consultation worth $150.

• Each Gift Certificate would be designed to provide real value and entice the user to buy more of the service.
• The supplier of the service would pay for the printing and postage.

Carol would have negotiated an ongoing percentage of all the business resulting from each of these 5,000 Gift Certificates that she distributes. In other words, when any of her clients started using the business consultant, accountant, lawyer, yoga trainer, spa or coach, Carol would receive a monthly check from that service provider of 20% of the total monthly bill.

This would create ongoing, multiple streams of passive income for her.

Leverage Databases with Prizes

Then, Carol could offer her clients a range of special prizes, all sponsored, which they could win. The way they could win these prizes would be to get everyone they know onto a certain conference call or to attend a seminar, which I would present, and the client who put the most people onto the call or into the seminar, would win the top prize. That way, Carol would use viral marketing to access her clients’ databases with their permission. One of her clients has 10,000 people in her database. Any sales resulting from the Conference Call or Seminar would earn Carol additional income.

Add Value AND Make Money

I could go on all night with different ways in which Carol could continually add value to her clients and make more and more money, in more and more diverse ways, as well as significantly grow her database.

Make $15,000 without Spending a Cent

In the above scenarios, Carol did not spend one cent. She continually gave away valuable information, prizes and services to her clients at every turn, as a thank you gesture for their patronage. She never tried to sell them anything. I would conservatively expect her to make at least $15,000 and an ongoing revenue stream in addition to that. This is all pure profit to her.

This system of accessing databases, giving stuff away at no cost, adding massive unprecedented and unexpected value and continually, exponentially expanding the options and reach, is typical of the atomic power of Joint Ventures.