I think I’ll just go take a nap in my hyperbaric chamber after I write this post.

No I’m not really old…I am, however, at that age when I start realizing there have been substantial changes to the world since I was a young whipper snapper….I can see me on the porch gripping at “those damn delinquents” down the street if I don’t watch myself!

You see, the other day my daughter, Morgan, had a friend, Hailey, stay over at the house.  When Hailey’s mother dropped her off she asked Rach to make sure Hailey called before bedtime.

No problem!

Once Judy, Hailey’s mother, left and we got settled in, suitcase put away, ground rules laid, etc. Before the children disappeared to play, Rach thought to ask Hailey is she knew how to use the phone.

Understand, Hailey’s not a baby…She’s a 10 year old girl, so certainly she knows how to use the phone…right?

Don’t you bet on it…Our phone is a real land line..not a cordless or a cell.  It has a cord from the wall to the phone and a cable from the base of the phone to the handset…Hailey had NEVER seen that kind of phone before.  She had no idea how to use it!

Of course, once Rach showed her she was fine.  It’s not that different from any other phone. Problem is, I felt like I was 100 years old! 

Children today have never seen a real phone that plugs into the wall!?!?!

I was assuming knowledge on the part of little Hailey that she didn’t posses, and I bet you are doing the same thing with your customers!

You believe they know stuff they don’t! 

It’s common knowledge that different roofing shingles are different qualities, right?

Not unless you’re a roofer!

It’s common knowledge Chiropractic is being proven correct more and more every year, right?

Not unless you read the Chiropractic trades!

It’s common knowledge that “lol” is text language for “lots of laughs,” right?

NOPE!

When you assume knowledge you miss the sale.  And you can’t assume knowledge on the part of ANYONE!  Better you should treat someone like an idiot and explain every little thing to them rather than risk assuming they know something they don’t.

If you’d like to see a startling example of this, go get some of Johnny Carson’s monologues from the Tonight Show and then watch Jay Leno’s…Jay has to explain the jokes Johnny never did!

A sign of the times…and a hurdle you MUST overcome!

Now where did that Hyperbaric Chamber go?!

To your Success
Everte Farnell

PS.  I am putting together a new program…a system to attract more leads, convert more leads to sales, increase your average ticket price and get customers to do business with you more often, create an intense relationship with them and build a fence around them…making them almost immune to advances from your competitors.

If you have any interest in learning more about this system, leave a comment on this post and let me know.  It’s very early, I don’t even have a website up…so just comment here and let me know you’re interested!

Kilts are a pain in the back side to iron!


I dry clean my kilts, because they are custom made. But because they are custom made the local cleaner won't take them, so I've had to learn how to use the home dry cleaning kit.


It's good stuff, really. I can throw the kilts in a bag, put a sheet soaked with the dry cleaning agents into the bag, med heat for 30 minutes in the dryer and clothes are clean and ready to go.


If there's a stain it's a bit more difficult…I have to use some stain remover and a special pad to get the stain out…but not the end of the world, no matter what.


The only problem is when I forgot to take the kilts out of the dryer and it sits there and wrinkles.. OUCH!


That's exactly happened the other day and by the time I noticed it I didn't have time to run the kilt in the dryer to relax the wrinkles, I had to grab it and run. So I got one of my kilts out of the dryer, hit it with the iron and in pretty short order it was ready to go.


(I learned to iron in the Army, where you have to hurry up with everything so you can get where you need to go and wait for someone else.)


While I was ironing, my beautiful daughter said to me, "You're getting your GMS ready for tonight?"

(not to be confused with GMO – Genetically Modified Organism)


"GMS?" I queried.

<snickering> "Yeah, Glorified Man Skirt!" <snicker, snicker>


I won't lie, my pride was a bit bruised. I know people poke fun about kilts, and it doesn't bother me by and large, but for my daughter to poke fun was unexpected and disturbing.


I explained to her the joke wasn't appropriate and asked her not to say something like that again. She walked away a little upset, but OK all in all.


After a few hours to think about it, I started to snicker a little myself. That really was kinda funny, GMS! Not appropriate but funny.

The most important thing is I didn't stop wearing the kilt because of her comment…and unfortunately all to often that's what entrepreneurs do with good marketing… they stop doing something that works because someone pokes a little fun or says how dumb looks.


There's even a guy, believe it or not, who spends $50K a year on brochures for the sole purpose of giving his wife something she can show of at her society events…it's cheaper than alimony! He trashes what he doesn't use and mails ugly marketing pieces…that work!


I had one prospective client who I did some spec work for who had his wife look at the ad and refused to run it based on her opinion. She had been a marketing executive for Phillip Morris in the EU. Sounds like she should know what she's talking about…and for a huge company like Philip Morris she probably did. But for a small entrepreneurial business whose gross yearly receipts were likely less than one quarter's worth of marketing budget she used to manage, she was clueless!


But he refused because she said he should…c'est la vie. He was local…and now he's out of business.


(This is why I rarely, if ever, do spec work anymore.)

Here's the key…RESULTS. Not opinion, not hope, not whether you would respond to it, not whether Phillip Morris would run it, but does it bring results we can make money with?


If the answer is yes, nothing else matters!!


To Your Success

Everte Farnell

January 22nd, 1984.  I was 11 years old and the Redskins were playing the Raiders in Tampa Stadium.  I didn't have tickets...my mother didn't earn nearly enough money to take us to a Superbowl, but I was into football at the time and I was old enough to know the Raiders had a smash-mouth, take no prisoners attitude.  

They were known as the NFL's bad boys...and the Redskins were defending champs.  Do you remember the 74 yard touch down by....who was it?....Allen (Hope I spelled that right.).  Dude ran 74 YARDS into the end zone!  

FABULOUS!!

Even back then I loved the renegade type...the smash mouthed team that brought it to the field.  They won that day by a larger margin than any other Superbowl to that point!  And maybe since, not sure about that one.

For as much as I loved that game, it wasn't the part of that broadcast which effected me most in my life.  

It was in the 3rd quarter a gray column of people marching in line, all dressed in the same dingy gray clothes, in what was a spooky beginning to a commercial.  Then someone dressed in bright running clothes carrying a sledge hammer. Incredible!

In the end the person with the sledge hammer....the individual...destroys a large screen with some talking head going on about how we are all one.  Then some words about the Macintosh computer.

It was Apples 1984 commercial and it was the most powerful advertisements I have ever seen.  No it's not direct response, but it launched the Mac and a cult following. Sometimes, at that level, the rules are different.

Most of the Superbowl commercial pale in comparison.  This year was very disappointing for all but a few commercials.  Ram's was nice.  Good feelings linked to Ram trucks.  Buds Clydesdale as was touching...Bud usually does a good job.  

Bud Light was embarrassing, but c'est la vie.

The worst part is too many business owners will see these ads and think they should duplicate them...I mean really, if they're doing that and they're so successful, shouldn't we all?

The answer is NO! And the reason is as I said before...the rules change at that level.  When you can spend millions and millions on ad budgets every year, you can afford to do some branding.  The ads during the SB often have as much to do with investor relations as they do with driving business.  

These companies are not wasting money, but they are spending ad dollars in a less than efficient way when measured by ROI.

The ads are cool, and they work on one level, but they ARE NOT what YOU should be doing.  Don't be fooled by some ad exec whose college training taught him how to work for the big guys, not you....or some sales rep who doesn't want you measuring the ROI on the ad you're placing with her.

Direct Response, tracking, insisting the ad - the system you put in place - as a trackable, tracked and positive ROI!  That's where you want to be with your ad dollars...period!

Everte Farnell

PS.  I'm going to be speaking about this topic and and in general about direct response copywriting at the Wealth Enthusiast Event in a couple of weeks here in Tampa.  If you aren't already registered I don't know why.  These guys put on a great event every year...I've known Mira (one of the Wealth Enthusiast partners) personally for 7 or 8 years now and I'm telling you he's a stand up guy and knows his stuff!  

If you're not registered yet, Everte , then shoot over here:
https://yw105.infusionsoft.com/go/WE2013Squeeze/EverteFarnell
and get signed up.  It's gonna be fabulous!!

Cornbread Red was a legendary one pocket player and a road hustler extraordinaire!  When people used to come into the Rack and Cue in Detroit and want to gamble on a pool game, no matter how much they said they wanted to play for, Red's standard answer was, "We don't play for peanuts around here!"

Didn't matter if they said $1000 a game or $100,000 a game..."We don't play for Peanuts around here!"

He wanted to have them out of they comfort zone when they were playing...he wanted them nervous about the amount of money up for grabs, while Red was cool as a cucumber because he had backers, or stake horses, so it wasn't his money he was playing with.

Red was one of the best gamblers in the country...and understand I don't mean he was a great pool hustler, which he was, I mean he was a great gambler.  

For example, Cornbread was down and out on a trip to Vegas one time.  He was with another hustler who had a good day at the tables.  Red put the pinch on him for some money he could do something with, and the other hustler gave him $2k.

48 hours later, Red showed up at the other guys door with 120,000 big ones!  He had a run on the craps table and turned the $2K in $120k in 2 days!

The other hustler's cut...$60k!  

The end of the story isn't nearly as nice as the beginning, though.

A few days later Red was back at the Cue and some road hustler walked in saying how he wanted to play some one pocket for $20K a game.

Red ran home, got his $60K and got down with the guy....3 games later Red was broke and the road hustler left with $60K more than he walked in with!

Seems to me, based on the stories I hear about Red, he did a lot better with other peoples money than he did with his own.

Too many business owners do the same thing, they get a flood of business or get some extra money in the door and run out to buy a new car or a motorcycle or something else. 

When I start working with an entrepreneur the first thing I do is figure out how to start a cash flow surge.  Then I design a plan to use that money to increase the lead flow and the closing rate.  From there it's the average ticket price and lifetime value of the customer.  

Point is, we don't use the increase in cash flow to buy a car...we invest it in money making systems the business can use.

And that's the way you increase sales by 100%, 200%, and even 300% in year over year figures.

To your success!
Everte

PS. You might notice, you now have a part of my formula for creating huge sales increases.  Why would I give it to you in a FREE blog post?  Because I know you'll find it valuable and I want you to find value AND entertainment in these posts. I also know you're aware I'm not gonna give away everything I know...so I figure it's more likely you'll fax me to get a consult if you see some value given FREE!  (941-761-5167)

It seems impossible to believe, but 10 short years ago I was living in a house that was in foreclosure (not odd today but back then it was scandalous!) drinking myself to sleep every night on Southpaw beer, and eating a bowl $.99  of vegetables everyday as my only food.  

Today, it's an existence that mystifies me.  Today, my wife and I own and I run the fastest growing contracting company in the State of Florida – one of the top 5 residential reroofing companies in the Tampa/Sarasota market, by volume – I'm married to the woman of my dreams and have 4 children running underfoot…and I am changing careers because I don't find the contracting company fulfilling and it removes me from my family too often.  

How does one simply change careers the midst of such success?

Well, to put in bluntly, it's because I have the trump card of skills…the 2 skills that give ultimate freedom to do whatever I want to do professionally.  I can carve out any market niche, design any kind of business I'd like – bricks and mortar with employees or virtual with no employees, I can exploit any opportunity, move with the speed of light in business terms…

I have learned how to sell and how to write compelling sales copy.  That's the secret, period!

Those 2 skills have raised me from a drunk in a house I could've been kicked out of any moment to a respectable, financially stable businessman and father…and make no mistake, these skills allows me to earn the living my family deserves.

(Random thought: This is a pet peeve of mine.  To many people believe children and born evil because of "original sin" or some such nonsense.  Anyone who can look into the face of a new born baby and call him or her evil is a sick, twisted person, in my never humble opinion!)

I want you to understand, your business isn't different!  If you have a queasy feeling about selling, take some Rolaids and get over it!

I entered the contracting business without any idea how build anything.  The joke in the office is I'm the only guy running a contracting company who doesn't know which the of the hammer to hit a nail with.  But yet, I've grow that business by a factor of 10 times in 2.25 years.  Unheard of!

The fact is there's 3 parts of any business – the sales and marketing, accounting and bookkeeping, and the technical part or the deliverable.  Of the 3 parts, the sales and marketing is the most valuable, because without that part…nothing else matters.

Notice 2 out of the 3 business areas are exactly the same.  It's only the deliverables…the "technical" portion of the work that's different.  

I do sales and marketing best, which is why I can get such dramatic business growth in a business for which I have no technical proficiency.  

And it's why I can do the same thing for your business as well.  Yes it's a blatant commercial statement, but honestly, you understand I've been posting these blogs for a reason, right?

And that reason is because I want to help you experience dramatic increases in your sales.  The kind I've experienced, 200%-300% year over year, with premium priced products and services.  But you have to know how to get those kind of results, and I do.  I've gotten them for myself, my own businesses.  I have first hand, practical, real world experience in doing this exact thing.  Experience where it was MY money on the line, not a clients.

OK, enough prattling on about me.  You either get it or not at this point.

I've come a long way since Southpaw every night and veggies…just think where you might be in 10 years starting from the considerable more stable life you have today than I had then!

To your success
Everte Farnell

PS.  If you'd like to talk about working together, simply send a fax to 941-761-5167 and let me know a little about your business.  My office will call and set a phone appointment, and we'll talk.

That's right, little ol' me used to run IRS agents a merry chase for clients all over the US.  I even had one client fly me out west to attend an IRS meeting with him.  We had the agents chasing their tails, I'll tell you what!

I really was able to talk these folks into the ground.  They were used to people who kowtowed to them, and when they had to argue with someone who is a great debater and knows enough to be dangerous, they had a heck of a time.  It was funny to see a 27 year old, college drop out put these agents in their place.  

Once I interrupted lunch with my girlfriend at the time and stepped outside to talk to an examiner about a clients return.  They wanted to audit, which we wanted as well.  Without getting into the specifics, we took the position that the person being audited had certain due process rights which the examiner had to make arrangements for.

I knew all of the standard answers to our demands...the rebuttals normally given by the examiners, so every time he gave me an excuse or tried to steer the responsibility to someone else, I quoted statute, regulations, and rules which nailed him to the wall.  Eventually he just dropped the client into the "I'll audit him never" file and let him sit there.  

They didn't except the return but they also didn't make any findings that he owed money... kind of a tax limbo.

But that was a lifetime ago, and I don't do that stuff "no mo'" since a Federal Judge in Tampa made a very thinly veiled threat about throw me in jail!  That'll make you wanna change careers, promise!

There was something I figured out which has served me well over the course of my business life, and I figured you might like to hear it as well.  It's about pricing and selling in bundles.  

While I was independent, the organization I worked with had suggestions about how to price my work.  They wanted me to price per return, per letter, per hour for phone work, etc.  

I knew 2 things very quickly...

1. I was not nearly organized enough to keep track of all that stuff, and

2. I wouldn't be able to support myself collecting $35 here and $100 there, etc. 

I decide charge a large upfront fee for each year and do all the follow up work free.  Instead of nickel and diming for each letter I would just charge a chunk up front and go from there.

Worked like gang busters!  I made enough dough to pay the bills, not much more, only had to work 15 hours a week though, and the folks I worked with knew what they were paying in advance.  

The trick is, they paid up front for work I may or may not have had to do, instead of paying a small amount as the work trickled in.  It's called prepay, and it's great for business owners and clients alike.

The question for you is, what can you pre-sell, collect for now and deliver at some point future in your business.

It's just the reverse of Wimpy from the Popeye comics..."I'll gladly collect your money today, for a hamburger I'll bring you on Thursday!"

To your Success
Everte Farnell

Last Thursday, when I came down from my office, Rach said – in her best speed talking voice, “I want to go to Old Town!  Robbin and Winburn (Sister and Brother-in-law) and going this weekend for their anniversary and I want to go.  We can get one of those old pictures done again.  We don't have one with Amber and I'm getting tired of the one we have on the wall.  Let's go, OK?”

“Whoa, what?  Where?  Old Town, yes OK. Robbin and Winburn, Alright, got it.  You mean the Old West Pictures?”

“Yes!”

“OK, sounds good.  Let's do it!”

“Really!”

“Sure, if you want to go. Can you call and make the reservations?”

“I'll do it tonight!  When can we leave?”

“How 'bout Saturday evening?”

“Saturday Morning?”

“Baby, you know I have to work on Saturday.”

“Yeah but we'll leave early and I'll clear out the hotel room so you can work!”

“OK”

Big smiles of excitement from Rach and the children!  In 20 minutes we were reserved at Saralago resort, not to be confused with Maralago.  This place, it turns out, was a bit substandard..but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Saturday about 3:30 we get on the road for Kissimmee (where Old Town is).  

Yeah, that leave early thing so I can work in the hotel…out the window!  

We arrive at Saralago, and from the outside it looks really cool.  We had a suite, and the price was incredible…shoulda been my first clue that we shouldn't stay there.

It's off to Medieval Times for a dinner show, and a really cool show at that.  I've been going to Medieval Times for 20 years now and I wouldn't dream of going to Kissimmee without a stop by the place.  It's a $250 meal for me and my wife and our 4 children, seriously reasonable, and an incredible show!

Back to the room for an uncomfortable night sleeping on, what I believe was, a box spring.  Ughh!!

Then to Old Town for our photos.

And this is where the business lesson is found.  

Remember, the entire show for my wife and I and our 4 children the night before, including a HUGE show with trained cast members all over the place, was $250.

However, when we went to get our pictures taken it was $110 for 8 pictures and a couple cheap frames.  The frames were nice, but they were commercially available, maybe 2 bucks each in bulk.  The pictures were printed out on a printer and on photo paper…maybe a $1 each including ink and paper and wear and tear on the printer.

How can a picture place get $110 for a few pictures?  I mean, really, the cost to price ratio is WAY off kilter for the pictures vs the dinner show.  

And lest there be any question, the photography studio is ALWAYS standing room only with a wait.  The staff is ALWAYS jumping, there are people lined up to get their pictures taken.  

It's incredible!

It's also an experience, and there is the secret.  

The studio dresses you up in costumes, gives you props, and takes pictures that look like they came from the 1800's or the 1920's depending on your choice of stages.  

It's a hoot, far more interesting than a regular group picture, and they have you in and out in about 45 minutes, after you actually get in for the shoot.  The waiting period, before it's your turn, can run a bit longer.

So here's the question…what are you doing to increase your prices by creating an experience for your customers?  

I know, your business is boring and no customer could ever be interested in any experience you could offer.  That's what they said about the roofing business when I got into it.  After I 10X'd the business in 2.25 years and built the business into one of the largest residential re-roofing companies in the Tampa/Sarasota area…those same people were biting their tongue, and hating me.  But as the kids say…”haters gonna hate!”

No matter what your business is, you can create experience and you can push your price point.  It's just a matter of figuring out how.

To your success!
Everte Farnell

PS.  I asked the other day if anyone would be interested in a serious, back to basics type of sales training seminar.  I have received some very positive feedback, but would like to see if there's anymore interest.  If you are interested and have NOT let me know, please hit reply and do so now!

PPS.  You can catch the pics on my Facebook Page they should be up in a day or so.  Just go to Facebook.com/Everte.Farnell and click friend or subscribe or whatever you're supposed to click.

PPS.  If your a professional photographer I know $110 is not a lot to pay.  However, keep in mind when someone hires you for a shoot, you're going to them and doing a completely custom shoot.  This is a cookie cutter, everything set up, just point and click studio.  I know your time is valuable, however these folks have the "get the people in and out" program down to a science.  They aren't doing what you are doing.