Spotting the Leaders - by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

This is a story my Fripp Associate David Palmer, PhDtold at our recent speaking skills class. Hope it makes you think and act like a leader.

It was 1952. The Korean War had been going for three years...and the North Koreans were short of resources, especially soldiers.

Both sides continued to take POW's, but it took money to build high-security prison camps...and a lot of soldiers to guard them.

After studying the problem for a number of months, the North Koreans discovered an innovative solution...that worked. New POW's were put in a large, open camp and watched carefully for three days. Then 2% of the prisoners were cut from the group and transferred to small, high-security prison camps. The rest were transferred to large, low-security camps, thereby saving money and especially soldiers.

Who were the 2%? The leaders, most likely to try to escape.

Were they just the officers? No, officers and enlisted men.

And how could they tell, just by watching? Behavior.

And what drove that behavior? Knowledge, values & passion.

Leaders don't simply accept their fate, they want to do more, learn more, and be more!

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is a San Francisco-based executive speech coach, sales trainer, and award-winning professional speaker on Change, Customer Service, Promoting Business, and Communication Skills. She is the author of Get What You Want!, Make It, So You Don't Have to Fake It!, and Past-President of the National Speakers Association. She can be reached at: PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com

We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Patricia Fripp's name and contact information is included. PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com

10 Tips to Make Your Copy Get Results With Killer Copy Tactics

Advertising Headlines That Make You Rich The Secret Behind Million-Dollar

by David Garfinkel

Want a little secret to turn your advertising into an irresistible magnet for customers?
Dale Carnegie knew the secret, and that's one reason his book How to Win Friends and Influence People has sold more than 15 million copies. In fact, British Airways recently named it "The Business Book of the 20th Century."

It's a great book. But if Dale had titled it "How to Remember People's Names and Curb Your Incessant Urge to Argue", do you think it would have sold as well? Probably not. There's great power in good titles. What you may not realize is the words "How to Win Friends and Influence People" are not only the title of the book. Those words were also the headline of a mail-order ad, which sold the book. The ad ran successfully for many years and sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

So what does this have to do with turning your advertising into an irresistible customer magnet?
Here's what. Behind the title and headline is a "secret code" that makes it powerful. Dale knew it. Great advertising copywriters know it. And now, you're going to know it, too.
The "secret code" is actually a generic formula that gets attention and creates desire in your prospect's mind. Every winning headline has a unique generic formula hidden inside. Here's the formula in Dale Carnegie's book title and headline:

How to _____ and _____.

Let's see the formula at work. Say you are an executive recruiter, and you help companies find new executives. In reality, your biggest problem is finding the executive candidates in the first place. So, to increase your group of candidates, you decide to run an ad in your local business journal. Here's how you could use this formula to write a headline for your ad:

How to Get a Better Job and Make More Money

... and right after reading that headline, anyone who's even a little interested would want to read your ad immediately. Then, if your copy (text) is even halfway decent, you'd get plenty of calls. Or, let's say you run a martial arts school. Here's how you could apply the formula in an advertising headline to get you new students:

How to Stay Fit and Protect Yourself

Do you see how powerful that is? You've just zeroed-in on people who are likely to be interested in learning martial arts.

The brutal reality of advertising: An ad with a good headline and even mediocre copy will get you a response and generate sales. But with a poor headline, even the most brilliant copy will get you little or no response. Why? Because without a good headline to get their attention, most people won't read any further.

The good news is, once you have identified a good headline that works in one industry or market, you can adapt it (like we did with the Dale Carnegie headline, above) for your own business. Great headlines work as subject lines in emails, titles on Web pages, and of course as headlines in print ads and sales letters. Great headlines will literally transform your sales.

How does this work in today's economy?

Recently a client asked me to help him introduce a new service to Internet Service Providers. (Note: To understand what you are about to read, you should know that ISPs call their suppliers "backbone providers.") I wrote a direct mail letter and my client sent it out to ISPs. Because my client was revealing new information his prospects hadn't heard before, we used the following "teaser headline" on the front of the envelope:

What Your Backbone Provider Isn't Telling You

Was this an entirely original headline? No. I had seen a similar "teaser headline" on a successful mailing to promote an investment newsletter:

What Your Broker Isn't Telling You About High-Tech Stocks

So I merely identified the "secret code" in the original winning headline, and applied it to my client's market, ISPs.

The response to the mailing was overwhelming! Nearly 10% of the entire ISP industry responded to our letter ­ and my client has added eight figures of new annual revenues as a result of the business that developed.

I'm telling you this not to brag, but to point out the awesome power of good headlines. While many people spend hours and hours trying to come up with "the perfect headline" for their ads, there is an easier way. Find proven headlines that already work for another business in another industry, and adapt them to your business.

Then prepare for a flood of new customers!

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is a San Francisco-based executive speech coach, sales trainer, and award-winning professional speaker on Change, Customer Service, Promoting Business, and Communication Skills. She is the author of Get What You Want!, Make It, So You Don't Have to Fake It!, and Past-President of the National Speakers Association. She can be reached at: PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com

We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Patricia Fripp's name and contact information is included. PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com

Customer Retention and Loyalty: Find Out What Your Customers Want Before Your Competitors Do - by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Customer Service, Retention and Loyalty By Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Satisfy your customers... or someone else will. Your prospects and customers can give you important feedback, both directly and indirectly. After addressing a group of sales contest winners in Hawaii, I was on the shuttle bus headed for the airport. My usual custom is to ask questions, so I said to the driver, "I bet your passengers tell you what they really think about their stays at these fancy resorts because they know you don't work for any of them."

"Oh, yes," he replied. "In fact, once a month, the general manager of the hotel where you stayed comes to the depot with a big box of donuts and has coffee with the drivers. While we eat his donuts, we tell him everything we've overheard about his hotel -- and about his competitors' hotels."

That is what I call Box-of-Donuts consulting. The hotel manager could have paid large fees to a research firm that would phone 1,000 guests and ask what they liked and didn't like. But that information couldn't possibly be as up-to-date or as honest as these drivers' feedback, nor would it give him valuable information about his competition.

Do you get, keep, and deserve your customers by finding out what they really want from you? The most frequently overlooked low- tech method is to talk to someone who talks to your customers and has no vested interest in their opinions. But this doesn't mean you don't also interview them formally.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotels, famous for customer service, do regular formal surveys with cards in the rooms and mailings. Someone asked their president, Horst Schulze, "Why don't you offer a 'frequent guest' program?" (Such programs are a major investment of organizational time and philosophical strategy.) Schulze replied, "We don't because only two percent of our customers have asked for them. What our customers do want is to have a bowl of fresh fruit in the room when they check in." So that's what the Ritz- Carlton Hotels provide. When you know what people really want, it is rarely difficult or expensive to make them feel special. Schulze was doing exactly right.

My friend David Garfinkel, author of The Money-Making Copywriting Course, says there are five important answers you need to get from your customers, directly or indirectly:
1. What do you like about buying from us?
2. Why did you buy from us in the first place?
3. What problems did you have before you bought from us?
4. How did we help you solve those problems?
5. How are things better for you now?

"That last answer," says David, "is very important. It's what a positive result looks like to a real customer, and it's going to look the same to your other customers and prospects when you tell them about it."

Start some creative brainstorming. Consider who else might know what your customers are thinking. Is there some comfortable and ethical way you can talk with these people? One- on-one questioning? Maybe invite a group for a breakfast? Think about who in your business knows what your customers want. Is there a service that can provide you with an effective, economical market sample?

Finding out what your customers want may seem obvious, but too often it's overlooked. After my morning program for a Fortune 100 company, I found the attendees were spending the afternoon seated at round tables, brainstorming the topic, "How can we give our customers better service?" Very innocently, I asked my client, "Oh, and where are the customers you've invited to sit in with your salespeople?" There weren't any. (This was like doing a survey of what hospital patients want by asking the doctors.)

Research your competition so you know what they're offering, then research your prospects' wants and needs so you can do more for them as customers than your competition. For example, a Federal Express executive, Gurn Freeman, told me how, early in his career, he decided he wanted to go into the moving business. First, he opened the Yellow Pages and saw 128 movers listed. He phoned the first twenty-five and made an appointment for someone to come and talk to him, saying he was moving to Phoenix. At the end of every interview, he took notes on what they had done right, how they could have done better, and anything they did wrong. Next, he put together his own sales strategy.

Gurn quickly became a top mover's representative. "My secret was to do something none of those other reps had done for me. If I had an appointment with someone who was moving to Phoenix, I would call the Phoenix Chamber of Commerce and get all their free information and brochures for my prospective customer. I made it obvious that I had done my research before the sales appointment so I deserved their business. And I nearly always got it."

Of course, you will come up with great ideas for serving your customers, but there is nothing like asking them what they need, want, and appreciate. (The Ritz-Carlton Hotels changed the style of their room locks three times in eleven years to address the changing preferences and security concerns of their guests.) Asking shows your customers how important they are to you. It's how you satisfy them and keep them from going elsewhere.

Why should you try so hard to find out what your customers really want? Because your best customers are also the hottest prospects for your competitors. Satisfy them before someone else does! If other salespeople win over one of your loyal customers by offering more ideas and more service, maybe they have more right to the business than you do.

When you lose a customer, you lose two ways:
1. You don't get their money.

2. Your competitors do.
If you're not quite sure, isn't it a good idea to go to your customers and say, "Tell me in your own words what I have done for you"?

HOMEWORK
1. What are you doing right now to deserve your customers' business?

2. How will you research their wants and needs?

3. How will you research what your competitors are offering?

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is a San Francisco-based executive speech coach, sales trainer, and award-winning professional speaker on Change, Customer Service, Promoting Business, and Communication Skills. She is the author of Get What You Want!, Make It, So You Don't Have to Fake It!, and Past-President of the National Speakers Association. She can be reached at: PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com

We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Patricia Fripp's name and contact information is included. PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com

Sell-Yourself Tips for Consultants - by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

Sell-Yourself Tips for Consultants
by Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

As a consultant, you are continually selling yourself to a committee or Board of Directors. Present the best product you can.

Rehearse your opening. You have only thirty seconds to grab the interest of your audience. Don't waste it.

Wrong: "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for the opportunity..."

Right: "In the next ten minutes I am going to convince you that the best decision you can make is to invest in my services."

Focus on the bottom line. Stress the results you will get for them.

Don't offer backup information unless or until you are asked for it. It can interfere with the "big picture."

Be "up." Low energy and monotony will kill any presentation. Show genuine enthusiasm.

Be visual. People remember what they "see" in their imaginations. Paint a vivid picture in story form of how things will be when you have the job.

"...six months from now, when your business has increased 15%, your market share is 5% higher, and your sales teams are in harmony for the first time...".

Have a strong closing. For example, "Your next decision is not whether to hire me, but whether can you afford not to!"

We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Patricia Fripp's name and contact information is included. PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634 3035, http://www.fripp.com

Patricia Fripp is an award-winning speaker, sales trainer, and speech coach, who delights audiences, transforms sales teams, and shares her secrets for powerful presentations. Meetings and Conventions magazine calls Patricia "one of the country's 10 most electrifying speakers." She is author of Make It! So You Don't Have to Fake It and Get What You Want, and contributing author to Speaking Secrets of the Masters and Insights Into Excellence. Patricia was the first female President of the National Speakers Association and is a Hall of Fame recipient. Kiplinger's Personal Finance named her Speaking School as one of the best ways you can invest in your career.

If you find this article useful, you will enjoy and learn from Patricia Fripp's CDs, DVDs, Videos, and Books: http://www.fripp.com/publicspeakingresources/

If you are interested in speech coaching check out: http://www.executivespeechcoach.com

7 Ways to Profit from Speakers' Bureaus in Hard Times - an Article for Professional Speakers

7 Ways to Profit from Speakers' Bureaus in Hard Timesan Article for Professional Speakersby Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE

"Why don't I get booked more often?"

"How can I get booked more often?"

Both are burning questions in today's difficult economy. I talked to Mark French, President of Leading Authorities, Inc. about his solutions.

Mark French was pragmatic. "In difficult economic times, there is always an excess supply of speakers. At the same time, customers' expectations are higher than ever. They want every speaker dollar to count double. Speakers must understand this new terrain and develop a successful strategy for getting booked.

"One good strategy is to make the most of speakers' bureaus. Bureaus like to work with speakers that they can book easily, effectively, and profitably. More bookings are coming through bureaus right now because clients are placing greater emphasis on value, choice, safety, and flexibility. Your job is to increase your competitive advantage and probability of winning the business for which you qualify. Start by increasing and improving the quality of your communications with your speakers' bureau or bureaus."

Mark French offers some practical steps on how to turn a difficult market into a great opportunity.
1. Get to know your speakers' bureaus owners and agents. Let them get to know you.
2. Provide them with first rate materials. Speakers with great videos, bureau-friendly websites, good PDF files, and quality print materials are easier to book.
3. Keep your bureaus informed, providing them with your latest news and information.
4. Consider offering them a higher commission rate during tough times. It's a great incentive for agents to book you.
5. Call your agents after an event to offer spin-off and client leads.
6. Highlight the bureau that booked you during your presentation.
7. Thank your bureau representative after you've been booked. After all, bureaus are made up of people who appreciate a personal touch.

Like everyone else, speakers' bureaus want to work with people they know and like, and with whom they feel a sense of partnership. Speakers who recognize this fact have an enormous advantage in the marketplace.

Mark French is President of Leading Authorities, Inc. which now offers Leading Authorities Creative Media News, an online business newsletter for speakers with timely ideas on increasing business and maximizing marketing potential. http://www.leadingauthorities.com/

Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE is a San Francisco-based executive speech coach, sales trainer, and award-winning professional speaker on Change, Customer Service, Promoting Business, and Communication Skills. She is the author of Get What You Want!, Make It, SoYou Don't Have to Fake It!, and Past-President of the National Speakers Association. She can be reached at: PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com/

We offer this article on a nonexclusive basis. You may reprint or repost this material as long as Patricia Fripp's name and contact information is included. PFripp@Fripp.com, 1-800 634-3035, http://www.fripp.com