"You May Not Have What It Takes"

I was pretty shocked to receive this in my email this morning.

It certainly made me open the email. Would you have done the same? I guess so since you're reading this.

Turns out it was from Jay Kubassek, Car bon Copy PRO Founder and CEO. He's a very successful online marketer and entrepreneur. He doesn't pull his punches either, getting straight to the point.

What he's trying to do is to scare away 97% of the people who come to our websites to check out the opport unity. And I believe he's doing it for three very good reasons.

1. To protect people from themselves. Most people (the 97% who end up failing) don't have the
"teachability" or "willingness" or determination to understand and then put the teaching into practice.
Car bon Cpy Pro is not about "get ri ch quick." People who are looking for that may be very disappointed, whether they join C C Pro or any other Internet Bus~iness.

2. To protect the people already in C C community. You see there's a strong alignment between people and their sponsors and others in the 'Pro community. Sponsors invest a lot of time to help new people get started and to grow, while also building their own busi~ness. So that's why there is an application process and the need to show commitment on joining.

3. To protect the brand and its values. The ethos is about giving back. To colleagues, to the market and to our local communities. Our mission is not just about what we can get out. It's about how we can help others. To do that we need firstly to be successful and then to have the mindset to give to others.

I respect these values. I've seen them in action. I've benefited from the coaching of very successful people who are willing to share the latest tips about online marketing, about running a business and personal development.

I am still learning, and, since I subscribe to the 'Lifelong learning' principle, I hope I continue to learn for the rest of my life. It's also in my nature to share with others. Maybe with you. You decide.

Mark.

Lead generation - the importance of a Sales Funnel

Online or offline, any business needs to be generating a continuous stream of leads. Just as high-street retailers need foot-fall - people coming through the front door of the shop - so an online shop needs visitors to its store. An even if your business doesn't take money online for sales the web is still a very effective method of lead generation. Developing a sales funnel makes your lead generation more effective.

All customers, or potential customers, are not the same. They may well have different problems that they want to solve, where your product or solution can help them. They may take a different approach to buying, different timescales, and need different levels of reassurance, to pick just some differences.

Creating a sales funnel with products or solutions at multiple price-points increases the probability that the prospect can find something that meets their needs and budget. The early stages may actually not be a purchase at all, but a registration for some information or communication.

The cost of acquisition of new customers can be reduced, by offering many choices and many ways for them to engage with your business, rather than a single decision, to buy or not to buy.

To provide some numerical examples:

If you generated 1000 visitors to your website for £100 and converted 1% to make 10 sales the cost of acquisition would be £10 per sale.

However, if you provided multiple offers the same 1000 visitors might produce the following spread of results:

• 10 sales for product A as before
• 5 sales for product B
• 2 sales for product C
• 25 downloads of a white paper or report - with email addresses you could follow-up
• 10 registrations for an educational auto-responser sequence - with email addresses
• 5 registrations for a webinar - with emails addresses you can follow-up

And so on. So, your £100 marketing spend has now generated a much greater return, with more short-term sales for different things and different price points, and also produced email addresses that you can market to subsequently, for people who may not be ready to purchase from you just yet, for whatever reason.

Structuring and developing your sales funnel like this is just one way to maximise your lead generation activity develop and grow your business.

30 day detox

This piece and these ideas are based on the thoughts of John Jackson – Carbon Copy Pro Mentor.

In order to get more done and become a better leader John outlines 8 behaviour changes. He challenges us to try these for 30 days and see how we feel as a result. I’ll be working on these too!

- Read positive, uplifting material for 15-30 minutes a day.
- Avoid the TV for 30 days. Create time for other activities.
- Leave the Radio switched off for 30 days. Switch to CD or MP3 music.
- Cancel the newspapers and focus on now and tomorrow rather than yesterday.
- Choose our associations carefully. Spend more time with positive people, less with ones who drag our emotions and energy levels down.
- Drink more water to re-hydrate so you think more clearly and have more energy.
- Excersise more which can be as simple as a walk around the block or to the shops.
- Have some daily reflection time to give thanks for the good and great things in our lifes and focus on our goals.

Get the right things done by knowing what can be left undone. Train yourself to get into the zone and develop tunnel vision for high priority activities.

Focus on high yield activities. One of the highest is sharing a vision with your team. Communicate your vision to others by what you say but more by what you do.

Thanks for sharing John.

Mark

Mission - what's the purpose?

If you’re looking for a ‘get rich quick’ scheme then you’re in the wrong place. 

If your primary mission is to become a millionaire then you may want to step back a moment. 

By all means have this as a goal or as an objective, but as a mission? Yes, this organisation has an objective to create 100 millionaires by 2012. However, the way you achieve that success and what you can do as a result of that success are worth considering. For example, a great way to achieve success is to give before you receive. 

An approach that attracts prospects towards your offer is much more appropriate and successful these days. You’ve probably heard the saying; “Give a man fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” 


Our mission is the latter; to teach people how to market online, to start and run a business and to manage and grow their wealth. 


Along the way we may sell a fishing rod and net, but teaching folks how to use them is provided as part of the package. 

Momentum – any business needs to generate leads.

Momentum – any business needs to generate leads. It's worth saying it twice!

Without leads you don’t have a business. If you can crack the lead generation challenge you’ve overcome one of the major reasons why a new business venture fails. 

Selling to family and friends, previous customers and clients, walk-in business etc. dries up sooner or later. 

Developing a process for online lead generation using a mix of the many and expanding range of options will accelerate the growth of your business. 

Working with a tried and tested blueprint process and support will significantly improve your chances of success. 

Mark

Mindset

As an entrepreneur it’s vitally important to have the right mindset. 

What does this mean? It's having the right thinking about yourself, your products and services, about your customers, and the way you run your business. 

If you’re making the transition from being an employee to being an entrepreneur then having support, coaching and mentoring during this process will significantly improve your chances of success. 

Many self-help, how-to, and get rich quick schemes ignore this vital step and focus only on technical skills. 

This is just one element that sets this programme apart from the crowd. 

We are primarily a training company, providing an incubator environment for budding entrepreneurs.

Here it’s about joining a community of entrepreneurs, created and built to support and encourage the success of every member. 

Resources - what do you have?

Resources – your time and your money are two of your most valuable resources. 

For most people they are directly linked – people trade time for money as an employee. The more hours you work the more money you earn. As skills and value increases so the hourly rate increases. 

But in many cases you have to work the hours your company sets, even if they are anti-social or if they mean you miss out on family time. And you have commute time as well, which reduces your hourly rate and increases your costs. 

Your ability to increase your hourly rate may also be limited, if someone else is prepared to do the same job for less than you then your chances of a raise are very low. 

And your employer wants to take their slice of profit as well. 

And then global competition and the recession has a massive impact.

If you want to increase your productive time and your hourly rate you need to look at increasing your value and leverage. 


Education and training to increase your skills in in-demand areas will increase your value. 


Your leverage can be increased by moving from a 1:1 application of your skills to a 1:many and a 24/7 availability. 


These are both achievable through use of online publishing techniques. 


These are just some of the ways people are preparing for and moving into the new economy.