The Number One Rule of Sales:  The Inner Game of Sales = Perseverance

Step Six:  Last but not least, HANG WITH THE WINNERS, people.  You will be MUCH more likely to find mentors, inspiring friends and yes, even clients when you’re with the BEST of the best.  If you’re seriously on the road to your 7 Figure Success and ready to FIND those winners (and learn from ME, in person), then you MUST be at my 7 Figure Business Summit is in April.  Seats are going fast http://www.bit.ly/5dHdCp and the early bird pricing ends in just a few DAYS.  AND, if you hurry, you can still bring a friend for half price.  (Yes, that’s two of you for $1,499.)

PS:  Here’s the link again to the 7 Figure Business Summit:  http://www.bit.ly/5dHdCp

Way too often, we’ll go rushing in to sell our product or service BEFORE we’ve done our three-step check.  BEFORE You Ask for the Deal:#1 Be SURE you have identified your prospect’s needs. If you’re NOT sure, ASK them. Sometimes the simple approach is the best approach.

#2 Be SURE you have presented a solution to your potential client’s needs.

#3 Feel confident!  You have earned the right to ask them to buy your recommended solution or service … So ASK for the deal! This is where a lot of companies and service providers blow it.  They wait for the prospect to ask THEM. People, we’re not in a bar waiting for an invite to dinner. You’re the one who does the asking here.

A PERFECT example of this three-step check is my 7 Figure Business System CD.

Number one, I identified the PAIN (um, can we say agony) that business builders go through (often, it’s systemization and almost ALWAYS it’s no mentor – or worse, the WRONG mentor).

Number two, I gathered up the 45 “must have” business documents, procedures, templates tutorials and worksheets that I insist my OWN mentees use AND I put them into a free CD for you guys (you pay only the shipping).  THEN, I put together a killer video mentoring project – and with the free CD, you get 2 weeks for FREE to try this mentoring program. Finally I made the program REALLY affordable – no kidding – solving the mentoring CRISIS that many of you go through. (After your two-week trial, unless you notify us, you will be automatically enrolled |in this $97 a month Exclusive Training Program.)

Number three, I put the offer out there!  (You can grab your copy now and ROCK the two-week trial. Supplies are limited and I have no plans to create more. http://bit.ly/97KnyV)  Be sure to get YOUR offers out there in a way that your clients see them.  Whether it be one-on-one in a killer sales meeting, or over the web to your friends, fans and followers.

ROCK your business people!  It’s TIME. 

Christine Comaford, The 7 Figure Business Builder
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
NY Times Best Selling Author

PS: Grab your copy now and ROCK the two-week trial. Supplies are limited and I have no plans to create more. http://bit.ly/97KnyV

This week, I’m all about financing.  Financing is a VITAL part of growing a real business.  This begins with a killer FINANCING PITCH.  Remember, value boosting makes your company more compelling. A compelling company gets financed. Here are the key things you need to convey in your financing pitch:

1) There is a tangible pain or huge untapped opportunity in the market: quantify the pain or opportunity in dollars and market segments and explain how you know who and where the people who need your product are. You know how to reach them.

2) You and your team are the ideal people to remove this pain or tap this opportunity: prove it! Make us believe that you, your team, your advisors, your circle of connections are positioned perfectly to pounce on this pain or opportunity. Remember—at least a dozen other people have the same idea as you and are likely executing on it. What makes your company special? What gives you an advantage over all the current and future competitors?

3) You have a well-thought out sales, marketing, product plan: You know how to build your product, people have already said they will pay for it, you know how and where to sell it and at what price, you know how to generate tons of interest that will build buzz and result in revenue.

That’s it. From there you’ll have them hooked enough to bring in the rest of the decision makers, or you’ll have to refine your pitch to hook the next prospect the next time. Refining and testing your pitch is essential—you generally get one shot to pitch your deal. Use your community, your coach, your mentor (me!) to help you refine your pitch.

Remember, you must build trust and respect with others. Making the two most common mistakes damage trust in you and also make the financier lose respect for you.  There are 2 common mistakes I see in almost every financing pitch:

1)   Asking for too much money: an entrepreneur says they need $1million in financing but their company is a pure startup with no product, a skeletal team, no real traction. They may only be worth $100k. How can they possibly raise $1 million? They should raise a super small angel round or get a loan, create some tangible business traction and achieve some specific milestones, then take that proven track record out and get the larger financing. There’s no rule as to how many rounds of financing you’ll raise. Just get somebody to take a risk on you. Then more will follow.

2)   Having unrealistic revenue projections. Don’t be like Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies. Understate the amount of revenue you expect to generate, then blow your financiers away with your massive results. Here’s a sample plan for fundraising:

Financiers like to see a decent revenue ramp, plus a controlled cost structure. Sloppy cost control will botch profitability pronto. Also, there are key inflection points that are expected in the growth of a business if it is to be considered compelling.

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.

PS: In the spirit of great free gifts with TONS of value, if you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table.  Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life and building a bigger success story.  http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

Well folks, 2009 is winding up. For many of you that means celebration DESPITE the economic downturn. Why? Because you managed to create opportunities in tough times and build a path to results NOW – because we’ve ALL learned that results later just won’t cut it any longer. Maybe your success came about by creating new product paths, by building relationships through JVs and affiliates, or maybe by obtaining financing through private investors.

If, instead, you’re one of the entrepreneurs who can’t wait to build a big bonfire and release 2009 to the ashes of yesterday and move forward to a new decade, stick with us and learn some new paths and new inroads. After all, this is YOUR life and your business. It is your right to work hard, build a great business and write a success story all around you. YOU get to create your own path to CEO freedom, and no one has the right to stop that. But remember, a mentor who has built a business or two (or ten) is vital to your success. I have a fantastic mentoring program for all levels of business – and one especially designed for NEW (or struggling) entrepreneurs. Visit http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI to sign up for my very affordable monthly mentoring program AND get my free CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business.” If you don’t do AT LEAST this to move your business forward, quite honestly, you’re declaring your right to fail.

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

PS: In the spirit of great free gifts with TONS of value, if you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table. Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life and building a bigger success story. http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

You will create a REAL strategy for success by setting up joint ventures and affiliates. Here’s the difference between the two. Joint ventures (JVs) are partners where the exchange is equal (or close to it). With JVs you’ll extend their offers to your list, and they’ll extend your offer to theirs. You may pay them a revenue share on sales generated from their list, or you may not. If you do you’ll track these sales via an affiliate link, which you’ll set up via your shopping cart or with affiliate management software. JVs are a fast-track strategy for success and create results NOW just because the other party’s list is often already pre-qualified for what you’re selling – believe me, they don’t want to JV with someone who wouldn’t be a good fit for their list.  And remember, whatever creates those results now are the paths we want to focus on.  The end game for all of us is CEO freedom, and that comes only from one thing – results.

Okay, affiliates.  Affiliates are more of an extended sales force. Some solo entrepreneurs make a decent living simply building lists and promoting third party products to them. The goal with either approach of JVs or affiliates is to get your product in front of an audience you haven’t had contact with before. Standard revenue shares for affiliates range, but I often see 30-50% for products, 20% for training, and 10% for consulting services.

Remember, marketing is an ongoing adventure, so be sure you keep this in mind as you build JVs and affiliates.  A large part of marketing success is in testing to find out what is and isn’t effective, so be sure to track and measure these efforts carefully to see which bring results now. 

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
NY Times Best Selling Author

PS: In the spirit of great free gifts with TONS of value, if you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table.  Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life and building a bigger success story.  http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

Having a killer sales page is an absolute must to creating results now and CEO Freedom, because you can do all the hard work to drive them there, but if you’re sales page isn’t top notch, you’ll never make your sale. So first you need to really know your target market and speak to their pain. Each component of a sales page is key. Here are the 10 components that my friend Jane Deuber recommends.

1. Introduction: Start with a story, best case, YOUR story as to why you created this product.

2. Problem: State what problem your product solves.

3. Agitate the problem: What is the pain of not solving this problem? Why would the prospect want a solution right now? Why can’t they wait? Remember your greatest competitor is inertia. Pure and simple.

4. Solution: Provide a basic introduction to the product and provide a glimpse of their glorious future. If you own this product, here’s what your life will look like. Dang, it’s gorgeous. (Remember, your solution is a crucial part of the path to get them to buy your product – that’s the end game – the results NOW that you’re looking for.)

5. Reasons you created this product: What you suffered from, make us feel it, and then we’ll understand why you just HAD to create this product.

6. Bullet points: This is simply a list of product details. Make them compelling, of course, and every 7-10 bullets offer the prospect the opportunity to buy now.

7. Features and benefits: An in-depth explanation of the features of your product, this is the cause and effect of your product features. There should be no less than 9 features and benefits.

8. Bonus items: Give the prospect a reason to buy today instead of waiting.  Make sure a bonus complements your product.  Just because something is free doesn’t mean it will help your sales, and sales are the results NOW that we’re looking for.

9. Guarantee: Guarantees tell your reader that you are confident enough in your product to stand behind it.  Studies have shown that the longer the guarantee, the less likely a person will ask for a refund.  Be realistic. Be fair.

10.  Order area: Make a prospect feel comfortable placing an order on your website. Some internet marketers insist on avoiding the words “No Risk”.  The word “Risk” makes people uncomfortable whether there is a “no” in front of it or not. I have mixed feelings on this. Decide for yourself — after all, this is your sales page and your CEO freedom that you’re creating.  Whatever you decide, just be sure to measure how many people visit the sales page and how many become your paying customers. Remember THAT is the only measure of results now that really matters.  Everything else is just the groundwork.

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.

PS: In the spirit of great free gifts with TONS of value, if you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table.  Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life, finding the results now that you’re looking for and creating real CEO freedom in your life and business http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

Autoresponders are pre-written emails triggered by a specific event, such as an order being placed. They are a terrific way to build relationships with your customers, follow up on orders, encourage them to use the product they bought from you, give them tips to success, etc., etc. All of this adds up to a more dynamic relationship and of course, results now.  Results “later” are fine for the hobby business builder, but for CEOs looking for CEO freedom, it is results NOW that will create your end game.

When it comes to autoresponders, consistency and tone are key. If you set up an autoresponder series, make sure they go out in a reasonable time range. To remind people of a teleseminar they’ve signed up for, you’ll likely send an email daily for the three days leading up to the event. But to check in on how they are enjoying the product they bought from you, once a week or every 10 days for a short period of time is fine. There are a zillion autoresponder tools out there. Ours is bundled into our shopping cart, which is www.MyMarketingCart.com.

Our model for client communication is:

• Touch (share something cool)
• Tell (share a success story of a client)
• Teach (provide content rich info)
• Sell (yes, only here do we sell— the other three communications are nurturing our list, sharing the love, adding value, not asking for anything). Because even though it’s results NOW that we want, we can’t do that without having a strong foundation in place.

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.

PS: In the spirit of great free gifts with TONS of value, if you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table.  Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life and building a bigger success story.  http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

Now THIS is one of my current favorite topics. Too many entrepreneurs are slaves to their businesses when they should be the masters of them. Think about it—do you sacrifice personal time for your business? Do you regularly spend more time working on the weekends rather than playing? Do you forgo social opportunities to work? If so, please consider the possibility that you are working for your business—and it’s NOT working for you!

Hey, there’s an infinite amount of work to do, and good work is “rewarded” with more work! So it’s healthy to have Conditions of Satisfaction for your business, to clearly state what you will and won’t do or tolerate. Just like in a relationship. Use the questions below to help you get a clear picture of your relationship to your business and to help you build some personal strategies for success in this area.  There is no right answer, but some answers will add complexity to your business, and thus, your life. There is nothing wrong with this. The goal here is simply to intentionally design your business – keeping in mind that the successful result is a result NOW.  That is the key to creating CEO Freedom, instead of CEO Prison. 

How many hours do you want to work each week?

What is the “end game” of your business? This is your vision for your business (do it forever and make it part of your lifestyle or build it up and sell it)?

Do you want a business you could run alone and one that requires the help of others?

Do you want employees or contractors?

How many direct reports are you willing to have?

Do you want to self-fund your business or seek outside financing?

What monthly revenue do you require?

What do you want to pay yourself?

Do you want to offer products or services?

If products, digital or physical?

Do you want to sell direct to clients or also add sales channels (such as affiliates, joint venture partners, value-added resellers, strategic alliances and retail/web channels)?

Will you document and follow SOPs and best practices or shoot from the hip?

What tasks do you want to do? Are you willing to do? Must you delegate to remain sane?

Figuring out your answers to these questions and working with others toward these shared results fosters communication and connection. Most importantly, it creates a strategy for success now and that path to CEO freedom that I talk about so much. 

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter

PS: If you haven’t gotten my FREE CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business,” you’re simply leaving money on the table.  Click here and let me help you get serious about living a better life and building a bigger success story.  http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI

How does education-based marketing fit into your future?  Well, if your end-game is CEO Freedom, then the only way to get there is to build enough results NOW to ride a wave forward. And that means SALES. Sales is about building rapport, not breaking it. When you sell, or pitch, you’re often breaking rapport because the prospect may be skeptical–no one wants to be “sold.” When you educate, you are building rapport. Your credibility is increased significantly when you start meetings with data that is of value to the prospect. Launch all your meetings by teaching your prospect something, or by offering data that establishes that you’ve done your homework.

If your local newspaper called you up and offered to teach you the seven things that make all businesses succeed, you’d probably find that pretty hard to turn down. Sure, they’d still have to talk you into the meeting, but it would be an easier sell than talking you into a meeting to pitch you on advertising in their publication. If you embrace education-based marketing you will out-market your competitors at every turn. Education-based marketing attracts buyers before they are thinking about buying. It casts a wider net, attracts more buyers, and closes a higher percentage of prospects if the education you give is of true value. This is the least expensive, most effective marketing concept you will ever use.What kind of a free education could you offer that would make your prospects want to meet with you? That becomes your #1 question and #1 focus. The answers to that question will create a real strategies for success and a very real path to results NOW. Nothing else will create the CEO Freedom that you seek and the revenue base that you’ll need to really grow your business.

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.
http://www.mightyventures.com/bai PS: My BAI weekend is the fastest way to ramp revenue and your company’s growth because it’s so intimate (I only take 20 participants) http://www.mightyventures.com/bai – I still have two spots left, and I would love to have you guys there to learn from me, firsthand, how to create MASSIVE growth and avoid HUGE mistakes.   

PSS: And the one thing you should ALL do today is get my no cost CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business” http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI.

Yes, everyone’s focused on education-based marketing – and we should be. But let’s add a new spin to it — one that will lead to RESULTS NOW (the key ingredient to creating CEO Freedom). Instead of pitching your product or service, try offering prospects actionable information. Something that shows them that you value their TIME and what THEY need – even before you have a one-on-one relationship with them. Try this and you’ll see your sales climb, improve your company’s value overall and increase the possibility of receiving financing – not to mention generating good will with your client base. In a recent conversation with one of my sales guru pals we agonized over why so many small businesses have such a tough time ramping up sales. It’s because they’re pitching, not educating. Seems obvious, right? Wrong.

Let’s say you sell telephone systems, like Company X does. Before discovering this concept, Company X would cold call prospective companies and ask if they were interested in talking about a new telephone system (yuck—this is a standard product pitch). They had four salespeople making hundreds of calls per day. The result? A whopping three appointments per week. No surprises here. First of all, every company that has a phone system that is five or more years old can probably benefit from a new phone system. Heck, more than 15 major providers of phone systems just 10 years ago are now out of the phone system business. But inertia is a powerful force. If the phone system isn’t broke—why fix it? Ready to double sales? Consider taking the following steps.

Step 1. The first thing Company X did after discovering the education-based marketing concept was target bigger companies. The bigger the company, the bigger the phone system. The bigger the phone system, the bigger the sales potential — and the more likelihood of finding results NOW (remember, that’s the key to CEO freedom — results LATER just mean more long hours and not enough revenue). Step 2. The salespeople called the 2,000 largest companies in their market with two simple questions: “Hi, we’re doing our annual telephone system survey. I just need to know two things: What is the model of your phone system and how old is it?” In two days, the salespeople had a list of 508 companies with old, and often obsolete phone systems. Step 3. Now for the real hook: Education-based marketing. The sales reps called on these larger companies with one offer: “We have a new educational program entitled The Nine Ways You’re Wasting Money on Your Voice and Data Spending.” They’d continue, saying: “We’ve been in the telephone business for 10 years now and we’ve found that every company wastes money on their voice and data spending in at least nine areas. We’ve put together a white paper to teach companies how to stop wasting—and start saving–money. If you ever need any help at all with your voice, data or telephone system needs, we want you to know about us. So we’re sending you our white paper.”

This approach increased their appointments ten fold, from three per week to 30 per week. This company’s revenue was $3 million the year prior to using the education-based marketing approach. After six months, Company X’s sales pipeline was $9 million strong.

Christine Comaford, CEO Freedom Fighter
CEO of Mighty Ventures, Inc.

PS: My BAI weekend is the fastest way to ramp revenue and your company’s growth because it’s so intimate (I only take 20 participants) http://www.mightyventures.com/bai – I still have two spots left, and I would love to have you guys there to learn from me, firsthand, how to create MASSIVE growth and avoid HUGE mistakes.

PSS: And the one thing you should ALL do today is get my no cost CD on the “6 SECRETS to Creating More Time, Money, Freedom & FUN In Your Business” http://www.bit.ly/iBmuI