Profit Boosting Case Study 2 – Self-employed entrepreneurs

How To Boost Your Results By 300% In Less Than 30 Mins... Without Additional Effort, Resources Or Money!

In this case study you will see how anyone, even a self-employed 'lone ranger' salesperson (not a big-budgeted company), can use my strategies to explode their income.

Most of my clients comprise of small and medium businesses. However, I also have quite a few self-employed clients who are willing to invest in my services. And this clientele is increasing (after all, I guarantee I'll bring in more money for them than their investment in my services).

To cater for this group of clients who are extremely budget conscious, I use shoestring strategies that are low cost and extremely effective. Many of the strategies I implement don't even incur additional cost for my clients.

"How would you like to triple your results without spending anything more than what you're already putting into your business?"

That question almost always closes the deal for me.

(Hint: creating an irresistible offer is one of those no cost strategies that will produce massive results for you!)

(Note: Names mentioned has been changed by request to protect competitive advantage.)

The client, KJR, is a real estate agent in Singapore, so some of the technical real estate stuff might be different from other countries. Pay attention to the principles and strategies instead as they can be applied to any business, anywhere in the world.

Also, just because this case study is on marketing a realtor's services doesn’t mean that only realtors can benefit from it. The principles and strategies can easily be applied for other industries.

The Challenge

KJR was doing average sales before he came to me. But 'average' also means that his results were largely affected by the market’s ups and downs. In months when the real estate market was doing great he would close several sales. Other months when the market is quiet, he would have no sales at all.

He came to me to see whether I could help him improve his results. So I asked him what kind of marketing efforts he was already doing (if any) and what kind of results he was getting then.

It turned out that he was only doing the standard flyer farming, which was typical of the practices in the industry. This is basically the regular distribution of flyers to letter boxes within a certain niche geographical area. 

• He would distribute 10,000 flyers to a group of estates in his niche area.

• The costs of printing and distributing the flyers was about $300 - $500 each time.

• For every 10,000 flyers distributed, he would get about 1-3 responses that eventually became his clients.

• The average sales commission he got per sale was $5,000.

• This meant that he was doing about $5,000 - $15,000 per 10,000 flyers sent out.

But at times he wouldn't get any response at all from the flyers. This was because the flyer wasn't the one pulling in the responses. Instead, it was the realty market that was doing most of the heavy lifting. If the market was good, then the flyer was just at the right place at the right time and he would get calls from prospects.

It was during one of those low times that he attended one of my trainings and eventually asked for my help with his marketing tool—his flyers.

Distributing flyers is a great tool for lead generation. But most of the flyers out there in that market are just a waste of paper. They are boring, wimpy and most sadly don't convert well.

But is it possible to create a jump in profit just from modifying the flyer? Absolutely!

Here's how…

Creating Your Position

How you position yourself from the start can make a huge difference in the response you get. One of the profit principles I teach and use is…

"You're responsible for the response you get."

This means that I'm responsible for generating a specific response from my prospects, whether in person or through my materials. If they are not responding the way I want them to, then it's on me, NOT them, to change something to get the response I want.

Obviously when you're communicating to the masses, it's not possible to get the response you want from 100% of the prospects. But it's still a great guiding principle as it prevents you from blaming other factors such as the economy, the government, the prospects, etc, like most other businesses do.

Unfortunately… or actually fortunately for us, most people (self-employed individuals & corporations alike) don't take the time to actually think about their business identity and positioning. Most just jump in and focus on the activities and transactions.

If you just take a bit of time to strategize and create a position by design, you can practically dominate your niche.

Forget 'Political Correctness'

And Refocus On Human Nature

While "Don't judge a book by its cover", "Don't compare with others" and such teachings might be good as moralistic principles, it's not good advice when it comes to creating profits.

The fact is we're always judged by the first impression we create. That's just human nature. No matter how you try to deny it, you just can't. It's part of our make up.

Let me ask you this: Will you perceive a sloppy salesperson dressed in a coffee-stained shirt, with flaring nostril hair and brownish gobs stuck on his tooth, the same way you judge a clean-cut, tidy salesperson?

Who do you trust more? You notice that I didn't mention anything about the individuals’ characters or personality. Yet just from my superficial physical descriptions, you have already formed a certain impression and judgement about the two different salespersons, haven’t you? That's just human nature.

So instead of fighting it, you should embrace it and use it to your advantage. Create a strong positive and powerful impact the first time round to connect with your prospects, and establish your positioning. You can get results FAST when you differentiate yourself right from the start!

While positioning can be a complex process, I've distilled it into 2 critical ingredients to help you create a positioning easily:

Great Positioning =

Offering Value (Benefits & Solutions) + Being Different

Offering Value: To be successful, you must offer great value to your target market. The value can be the benefits and solutions that they are looking for at that particular time. Value can be perceived or real.

Without offering value, you won't be able to survive in the long term.

Being Different: If your value offering is the same as others, then you're just a dime a dozen. So it's crucial to stand out from the crowd. The natural instinct of businesses is to equate being different with being better. "We're different because we're better."

But being different is not just about trying to be better. Being different can mean offering an inferior product/service at a much lower price, or only focusing on one aspect of the industry (niche). In many cases being different is more important than being better.

However, just being different alone without offering relevant value that the target market is looking for will only make you look like a fool. So these 2 ingredients must co-exist.

Another way of looking at this is to answer the following question:

"Why should your target market buy from you compared to any other competitors available in the market?"

I underlined the word 'compared' because in reality, positioning doesn't exist in a vacuum. The idea of 'being different' means that you're being compared with the rest. Your prospects are always comparing your offers to other available choices in the market.

Think about your own business for a moment. How do you compare to your competitors? Are you offering value to your target market? Are you different from the rest of the competitors?

Ok. Let's explore this principle in this case study:

Singapore is an extremely small island state. It's just 3.5 times bigger than Washington DC. And we have more than 10,000 registered real estate agents competing in this small area. Obviously competition is razor sharp.

At any given week I personally receive dozens of flyers from real estate agents promoting their services, stuffed in my mailbox and on my front door. What's interesting is that almost all of the flyers are very similar and don't have any differentiation whatsoever.

Check out some of the examples below:

(Note: Names, photos & phones have been edited to protect the innocent)

Punggol (that's the area where I live) specialist. 9 years experience.

Punggol specialist. 12 years experience.

Let's up the ante:

15 years experience. "Possess Persuasive Power". Sure sell!

Punggol. 9 years experience. Sure sell! (This lady even put on a halo of stars on her head!)

King of Punggol. 200% committed. Sure sell!

Punggol specialist. 300% committed.

The above are 2 flyers from 2 different agents, from 2 different companies. They are practically identical! They even have the exact same words and offers. They probably go to the same printers. I wonder whether they took the advice of the printer, "blue colour is for men, red colour is for women". (Pardon the sarcasm).

You have just seen 8 different flyers that are basically the same and don't offer anything different. I have more of the same, but I think you get the picture.

The Glaring Problem...

They all claim to be a 'specialist' in the area. They all have years and years of experience. They all claim to have ready buyers. Most claim to have a 'sure sell' system. They are all over-committed.

In an attempt to outdo each other they come up with ridiculous claims like 200%, 300% committed. One of them even claim to ‘possess persuasive power’! And what about the one with the star-like halo on her head? Is she trying to be angelic? Will that give her more credibility and translate to better conversion? As I mentioned earlier, if you create a difference without offering relevant value you tend to look just foolish!

In the end there is no significant differentiation among them. If they are all specialists, does it matter who you call?

“But I’m really different from the rest. I have more experience, quality, etc…!”

Frankly, if you're not able to communicate your differentiation immediately at the point of contact, then it just doesn't matter how different you think you really are.

"Well, then I guess they will learn about me eventually…"

That's the common self-assuring excuse most people turn to when they can't think of other ways to better communicate their differentiation.

Remember the "You're responsible for the response you get" principle? That's right. It's not on them. It's on you to think of better ways to communicate your difference.

So How Can You Be Different In Such Highly Competitive Industry?

One of the simplest principles I teach my clients to differentiate themselves is to see what their competitors are doing, and do the exact opposite. I call this powerful strategy Polarity Positioning.

Since everyone is positioning themselves as 'specialists', 'top producers' and 'experienced', I deliberately went against that.

I positioned KJR as someone who reveals the truth about the dirty little secrets that all other experienced 'specialists' are hiding from the house buyer/seller.

This has a very powerful subconscious psychological effect. I'm taking advantage of the fact that potential house buyers/sellers would probably have a certain level of distrust towards those 'specialists'. Because it’s not possible for every single realtor to be a 'specialist' and 'top producer', is it? (If you're interested in stealth, psychological persuasion techniques, I cover more of this on Profit Booster DVD 13: Working With Human Nature. More info below.)

If everyone is a 'specialist' and a 'top producer' then maybe the titles don't mean anything. By copying and trying to outdo each other they have actually sabotaged themselves by making themselves homogeneous.

So here's the headline I created for my client's flyer:

Let's break down this headline to its elements:

The pre-headline “Warning all Home-Sellers!...” is a common formula used in many sales letters. I chose to use it here as it fits perfectly with the idea of KJR revealing the dirty secrets of other realtors.

"High Ranking Top Producer": while I'm positioning KJR as a rouge agent who 'spills the beans', it was important to indicate that he was an authority figure in the industry. By showing that he is also a high ranking top producer makes him an authority insider. Someone who knows the workings of the trade and the shocking dirty trade secrets.

"5 Simple Tests": this makes the claim that are dirty secrets more credible as there are actually 5 specific tests you can do to check on other agents.

"Worth Their Commission": this part taps on the basic (conscious or unconscious) fear of the house owners being taken advantage of by their real estate agents. It also alludes to the positioning that KJR is an agent who is worth his commission.

Other Possible Positioning Based On Micro-Niches

There are many other ways to differentiate and position yourself in the industry. Another positioning strategy is to focus on the niches within the residential housing niche. Below are some examples:

The “first-time home buyer” specialist. So far the specialists are geographically (estate/location) related. You can be a specialist within a certain demographic that needs special attention.

The property investments expert (investors love to work with those who understand their investing needs, someone who is not just another agent).

Divorce cases specialist (they definitely have different needs as compared to the usual buyers). And the best part of this micro-niche is that you are getting 2 deals at one time because they need to sell their matrimonial house AND find alternative housing.

And many more!

As you can see, it can be easy to develop a position and a brand for yourself if you just spend some time to think about the various (niche) markets available.

Once you've solidified your positioning you can roll out your marketing efforts and engage in branding, public relations and other marketing activities.

(I cover more in-depth strategies of profiting from niche markets in Profit Booster DVD 10: Power Positioning And Creating A Niche. More info below.)

Instant Credibility Booster

After the headline I immediately followed with a credible testimonial from one of his satisfied clients:

Note that the testimonial again reinforced that KJR is worth his commissions. And that he was an expert and a professional. But all these were said by a third party, which made it much more credible.

As you can see, the testimonial is not one of those boring and vague "he is great/wonderful/etc". It is very specific and helped to answer the inherent questions and concerns the prospects might have.

How can you get such great testimonials?

There are a few strategies to get fantastic and persuasive testimonials. Here are a few useful tips:

1. First of all, timing is critical. The best time to ask for testimonials is when you have just closed the sale and your clients are satisfied with the results. This is because they are still in a 'happy they made the purchase' state.

The longer you wait the higher the chances that they will lose that feeling and get caught up with their daily grind. Once that happens, it's harder to get rave testimonials as your client might not be feeling the happy emotions.

2. Second, it's very useful to provide them with some trigger questions to stimulate their thoughts. This is important because in general, people don't write testimonials for others. So they won't know what to write or which experience to highlight. This is probably their first time writing such things. (This is especially true in Asia where praising others is not as common compared to the Western countries.)

3. Third, gear the testimonials to answer the various possible concerns of other prospects. You can do this by asking your client to describe their initial concerns before engaging you. Most of the time their concerns will be similar to the rest of your target market.

Then ask them to share the 'after' part of their buying experience, when you have delivered your promise. This is the basic 'before' and 'after' storyline you can use in your testimonials.

(You can find specific trigger questions and the exact template I use for my clients to get raving reviews in Profit Booster DVD 6. More info below.)

Solidify The Position

Then I worked with KJR to come up with 5 questions that played on the home owners' basic fear of being taken advantage of by real estate agents. An example is below:

• Do they offer you the 25 Activity Commitments? This will ensure your house gets maximum exposure in the shortest possible time. All my clients receive this as my Commitment Guarantee!

Here KJR was offering a specific real value. A 'commitment guarantee' that he would carry out specific activities in his efforts to sell his clients’ houses. Most other real estate agents just don't do that. While some do offer a commitment of certain activities, they are not specific and don't announce that upfront.

Again this question plays on the conspiratorial 'they didn't tell you about this, did they?' fear of the house owners. At the same time it positions KJR as a highly credible authority.

I added a simple call to action for a no obligation consultation at the end. This played off well with the initial pre-headline theme of "don't commit to others until you talk to me".

After getting the necessary information from KJR I took about 30 minutes to totally revamp his flyer.

The Bottom Line Result!

Just by changing his positioning and clearly communicating that to his target market, KJR more than tripled his response rate.

From making $5,000 - $15,000, he is now making $15,000 - $45,000 per 10,000 flyers that still cost him only $300 - $500!

How's that for an effective, shoestring, no-cost strategy? When was the last time you tripled your results without spending an additional cent?

Escalation

As good as this may sound, there are still a lot of ways to improve KJR's results. What if I can easily triple the results again? Are you interested to know how?

I thought you would…

As mentioned, distributing flyers is a great lead generation tool. But so far KJR is only using it as a 1-step lead generation tool. This means that the flyer is geared towards getting people who are ready to sell to contact him.

However, this excludes those who might not be ready to sell at that particular moment, but may be looking to sell just a couple of months later.

In general people don't start collecting flyers a few months before they sell their home, even when they know they are going to. They will just start collecting the flyers they receive nearer the date of their planned sale.

With the current 1-step lead generation strategy, KJR might be missing out on those people.

A simple way of increasing the number of quality prospects would be to use…

The 2-Step Lead Generation Process

This strategy is more widely used in online businesses. That is no surprise as most successful online businesses are based on direct-response marketing principles. Offline businesses need to leverage more on this simple strategy.

Here's how it works.

At the end of the flyer, instead of just asking prospects to call for a no obligation consultation, offer an irresistible FREE Special Report titled something like:

"How To Get The Best Price For Your Apartment In The Fastest Possible Time!"

By offering this free special report, people who are thinking of selling their apartments in the next few months will be interested to get it. Once they ask for it, they have qualified themselves as priority prospects.

Provide good content in the special report as well as pre-sell yourself and your services in it. Just by implementing this ‘option’, you can easily triple your list of highly qualified prospects again.

(I explained in detail how anyone can use this system in their business in Profit Booster DVD 5: Practical Applications Of Marketing Strategies. More info below.)

I hope you've enjoyed this case study and learnt from it. Whether you're self-employed or own a business, you can apply the strategies and benefit massively from them. Don't fall into the "My business is different" trap. That is one of the most destructive trap I've seen in business.

Every business is different. The point it for you to use the strategies and fit it into your business and make it work. They have worked for hundreds of other business, why not allow them to work for yours?

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to post them at my blog. I love to hear from you and interact with you. You can post your comments and questions here:

>> http://www.maneuvermarketing.com/blog/case-studies/

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To your profits,

Sant Qiu - The Profit Strategist

PS. You can get more in-depth profit strategies from the "Profit Booster DVD Set" that I'll be releasing on 20 November, Tuesday. Only 70 sets are available. For more info on this subscribe using the above form.

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