Gettting Everything You Can out of All You’ve Got

Citation

Abgrab, N.J. (2002), "Gettting Everything You Can out of All You’ve Got", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 166-168. https://doi.org/10.1108/jcm.2002.19.2.166.1

Gettting Everything You Can Out Of All You’ve Got is a fascinating guide for anyone who has a home‐based business or ever thought of starting one. This book is simply written in two sections – Part I – “How To maximize what you have”, and Part II – “How to multiply your maximum”, with hundreds of examples of people and companies who have successfully used the author’s techniques. Jay Abraham has found creative methods to simplify the art of “acquiring more customers” that will challenge, excite, and stimulate the business‐minded individual, from the entrepreneur to the business expert.

In Part I, the flight begins by identifying the endless number of connections that exist to dramatically increase income, power, and influence to be applied in all areas of life in order to be successful. Abraham states that there are only three ways to increase your business:

1. 1.

   (1) increase the number of clients;

2. 2.

   (2) increase the average size of the sale per client;

3. 3.

   (3) increase the number of times clients return and buy again.

By using a database to keep valuable records of when (recency), how often (frequency), and how much (monetary value) each client spends on purchases, one will be able to restructure their internal operations. Lifetime service programs, extended warranties, and continual maintenance contracts are some recommended for success.

The strategy of pre‐eminence is designed to attack the market from multiple positions while increasing business prospects. The lifeblood of a long‐lasting, rewarding, and profitable relationship for the business, the client, and everyone involved in the transaction will provide for a deeper, more meaningful, and more rewarding association for all parties. Trust, respect, goodwill, and guarantees help to reduce business risk (financial, psychological, and/or emotional risk factors), increase income and success, and allow one to offer a benefit that can be stated as a unique selling proposition (USP). Knowing the competitive marketing area and complementing the product and/or service offerings will yield major values and referrals. Abraham suggests using the powerful tool of direct mail (sales letters, e‐mail, brochures, and proposals) to make a strong impact and to communicate with both prospects and clients. Sending a sales letter ahead of a phone call (telemarketing) can increase the effectiveness of the call itself by 1,000 percent.

Simply put, one should expect to learn how to achieve dreams, raise the bar, accomplish goals, and attain a vision of accomplishment. By skipping levels and making quantum leaps, focusing on other industries’ successes, and ethically and logically adapting those ideas to personal business situations, one will totally eliminate or lower the risk of an activity, and practice the theory of performance‐maximization. Being visionary and having a possibility‐based mind‐set will allow the opportunist to create breakthroughs by capitalizing on rethinking, what everyone else sees as limitations. Constant evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the changing business environment are a necessity. Always question the target market, the business relationship, and learn how to understand the true unfulfilled needs, tasks, and values of everyone involved in the process. Always respect the importance of the clients’ time limits, discover their sense of security, and focus on their level of comfort. Continuity selling, back‐end repurchasing, and USPs can be combined to integrate one marketing gap with another and help to identify client lifetime value. Remember to focus on niche markets, to search for new challenges, to retain good channels of communication, to always be honest, and to test all promotional vehicles often.

Part II – “How to multiply your maximum”, suggests putting a formal and aggressive referral‐generated client system into place. A “get‐a‐friend” program is self‐perpetuating. Try asking your best clients for referrals and/or communicate with your inactivate clients (possibly by offering special inducements) to significantly improve order size and frequency of purchase. Abraham recommends following this template to success:

1. 1.

   (1) discover what are the demographics of your ideal prospects;

2. 2.

   (2) find out who can refer these prospects to you;

3. 3.

   (3) set the stage for getting referrals; and

4. 4.

   (4) help your clients locate the referrals for you by asking them, “Who do you know who _______?” (fill in the blank for as many different groups of people and scenarios as possible to jog their memory).

Use direct mail (a sales letter) to generate leads, to introduce new products and/or services, to promote and build store traffic, and to develop and penetrate new markets, niches, and opportunities. The components needed to achieve action on the part of a prospect are detailed in Chapter 13, “Your ten‐thousand‐person sales department”.

The author believes that it is critical to qualify prospects (a target who is capable of buying a firm’s products now). Various list broker/manager services provide assistance with the selections of quality clients similar to those already being served, who may show an interest in the offerings of the company. Telemarketing (voice mail, e‐commerce, Internet) indicates to business or professional clients that one is customer‐oriented. Mastering the art of telemarketing will be a very powerful tool for getting more people to respond to previously sent letters and/or catalogs. There are eight steps to follow:

1. 1.

   (1) start the process by mail (as indicated in previous chapters);

2. 2.

   (2) test before you telemarket;

3. 3.

   (3) price your offer right;

4. 4.

   (4) stair‐step the telemarketing presentation;

5. 5.

   (5) ask the right questions in telephone selling;

6. 6.

   (6) create a sample script;

7. 7.

   (7) use several telemarketing techniques; and

8. 8.

   (8) follow‐up when the prospect calls you.

It should always be noted that complete honesty, respect, courtesy, knowledge, and interest in an open and meaningful communication will usually capture the prospect’s interest.

Enriching the lives of your clients through the use of the Internet uses the same selling and relationship‐building steps that exist in the physical world, enhanced by a 24/7 availability. There are only three things one must do:

1. 1.

   (1) offer very high quality products and/or services to meet the visitors’ needs;

2. 2.

   (2) create a great Web site that sells effectively; and

3. 3.

   (3) generate high quality, qualified traffic to the site cost effectively.

One must provide products that serve various cultures (there might be language issues) in the constantly changing global marketplace, and attract attention in a fun and innovative way that makes prospects want to visit and shop.

Trading products or services for things the business needs or wants is called business barter. When one barters, purchasing power is created almost at will. The concept defined as triangulation refers to a third party who has some goods or services that a business might like to start selling who would also consider trading whatever they make or sell with someone else in order to start a new business relationship. To be an agent of change in a formal referral system, one must be visionary and not myopic in the potential opportunities available for success with this format. Always put the interest of the client first and become a success‐practices investigator by observing and reading everything around. One’s first priority should be to identify the needs of the business, be motivated to change dramatically the life of both the business and the client, and follow every path to acquire those results.

Breakthroughs fuel growth thinking. Growth thinking seeds/breakthroughs … the two go hand in hand. One needs to get maximum results from minimum efforts. Time, opportunities, efforts, and investment must be used to the best of one’s abilities. Always remember that selling is providing solutions to problems, not merchandise. As the author so eloquently states, “With little effort on your part, we should be able to engineer stunning advances for your business, career, and life, and leave everyone else in your dust”.