I Am Afraid

"Let a person who has to make their fortune in life remember this maxim:  Attacking is the only secret.  Dare and the world always yields; or if it beats you sometimes, dare it again and it will succumb."  

- William Makepeace Thackeray

 

"Do the thing you fear, and the death of fear is certain."

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Poet

Do you ever fear rejection or failure? If you get a "no" does it seem like you are being rejected - personally? This a short, but very inspiring audio from Seth Godin from his new book Icarus.

All the best, 
Rick Wallace

It is Going to Be So Hard to Do

"It's so hard when contemplated in advance, and so easy when you do it."

 ~ Robert Pirsig

From Steve Chandler:  

Nothing is ever as hard as the mind makes it when thinking about it in advance. Nobody would ever get any results if they stayed in their minds, thinking about what has to be done in the future. Results happen when the mind is left behind in favor of fresh, exciting, creative action.

Nobody cares what you think. No one cares what you are committed to. Only action communicates with others. Only action commands attention.

All the best, 

Rick Wallace

What Half of Your Marketing Is Working?

"I know half my marketing is working, I just don't know what half." 

- Henry Ford 

The marketing manager of a large client of mine called me the other day after she had met with the owner. She said she was going over the pay per click ads they had been running and was so proud of the fact she had generated 495 clicks over the last 2 months. The owner was not so impressed. He challenged her:

"Well we had a lot of clicks but that cost me $500. I can't take "clicks" to the bank. I'm sure 90% of those people are just kicking tires or not even serious when they get to our landing page."

She was at a loss of words and deflated.

The company had no way of tracking the ROI on that campaign other than sheer number of clicks.

We discussed this and I introduced the concept of tracking and measuring every marketing event and campaign. With this information I explained "you can have an "Unlimited Marketing Budget" and never have to struggle justifying your marketing budget."

Yes an "unlimited marketing budget". If you knew of a bank where you could go and give them $100 and they would give you back $150 how often would you go?

Duh! Well track and measure your marketing efforts and then analyze the ROI and you too can have an unlimited marketing budget.

How do you measure? It is easy!

All electronic marketing can be tracked by lead by event, then simply each month track sales against your lead list by event or campaign that created it.

For direct mail, referrals, walk-in's, call-in's have everyone that answers a phone or greets a customer ask them if they have been a customer in the past and if not ask the simple question "Where did you hear about us". Provide spreadsheets that the employee can then note the name, email, etc. and the source of the lead.

Then keep track on an ongoing basis new sales to those leads and also include the lifetime value of that new customer.

I got a call this morning , she went back and tracked down this info for the last 6 months and was excited about the results she was going to be able to show the owner. The ROI on pay per clicks was outstanding and she has facts not guesses.

Here is a short video explaining how you can then calculate the ROI not only on the initial sales but the life time value of this new customer.

 

Profit Multiplier Video

Keep doing the marketing that returns a profit and stop the ones that don't.

All the best, 
Rick Wallace

 

Attitude Hiring Wisdom

"There's something rare, something finer far,something much more scarce than ability. It's the ability to recognize ability..."

- Elbert Hubbard

   "The biggest human temptation is to settle for too little."

- Thomas Merton

   

Hiring Wisdom: 10 Reasons Managers Accept Mediocre Employees

by Mel Kleiman

Why do so many managers continue to accept mediocre, second-rate results?

Hundreds of research studies have quantified the difference between having an "A" player versus a "C" player in a job, any job. Every one of them concludes the difference in productivity and the impact on the bottom line is anywhere from 20 percent to over 1,000 percent greater return when you compare the best, most productive employees to those who are average.

While I've never met anyone who disagrees with this data, most managers and organizations continue to keep "C" players on the payroll. This leads me to believe these managers:

1.    Are focused on the employee, not the expected or required results.

2. Do not acknowledge the consequences for hiring or retaining "C" players.

3.    Are focused on low turnover rather than for retaining the right people.

4.    They say they want only "A" players, but they are not committed to hiring and retaining them.

5.    Don't know what "A" players look like. Attitude is critical.

6.    Don't know how to recruit "A" players because most of them are not looking for jobs.

7.    Don't know how "A" players think and make decisions (which is vastly different than employees who are looking for "just a job, any job").

8.    Use a screening process designed to screen people out rather than ensure the right people get in.

9.    Don't provide "A" managers to supervise "A" employees.

10. They fear letting people go. Yes because they "hate" recruiting, they don't think they can find someone better and/or they blame themselves for the person's failure to get the results they have agreed to.

A recent study of 20,000 new hires found that 46% of people didn't make it past 18 months on the job. 11% were due to ability -- 89% failed due to attitude. Here is a service for screening recruits for Attitude. 

 

Take a look at this Topgrading endorsed evaluation tool. $10 to $20 per screen and it works for sales, technical and office personnel. Attitude matters and you have to hire people that have a good attitude, you can't coach that. Check it out.

All the best, 

Rick Wallace