Frankly, I Cheat. You Can, Too.

Hear Memo.

I became an advertising salesman so I could buy groceries. A college dropout with no financial safety net, I installed aluminum guttering on houses during the day and changed reel-to-reel tapes in an automated radio station at night. Our format was radio preachers who needed your money to pay for the airtime we sold them.

We were the number 23 station in a city of 23 stations. Our best ratings book showed us with a cumulative weekly audience of 18,000 people in a city of 1.3 million. We had between 400 and 800 people listening at any given moment. That sounded like a lot of people to me. One day I asked the manager why our station played no ads.

“You think you could sell some ads?” he asked.

I nodded like a bobblehead doll.

“Do it,” he said as he walked away.

I asked the back of his head how much I should charge.

“Whatever you can get,” he answered, without ever looking back.

When you sell ads on the tiniest station in town, you don’t compete with the other stations, you sell only those businesses with too little money to afford anyone else. In fact, the money my clients gave me every month was usually all the cash they had. If my ads didn’t work, I’d have groceries in my pantry but my clients wouldn’t. A man learns fast in that environment.

The first thing I learned is that people are bored by advertising for the same reason they’re bored by anything else: lack of relevance.

When ads are relevant, customers respond. Are your ads relevant, or are they answering questions no one is asking?

My job at the radio station paid $3.50 an hour plus 15 percent commission. Within 3 years I was making about $6,000 a month. That was doctor/lawyer money 30 years ago.

Strangely, I never made that many sales calls. Most of my clients called the station to ask if they could buy ads from me. Usually, a friend had told them how much money they were making as a result of the ads I was writing and they wanted in on the action.

“What does it cost?” they’d ask. These people didn’t care about the radio station or its format. They just wanted to grow their businesses.

When the owners of my radio station sold it for 11 times what they paid for it, I decided I’d rather become a self-employed ad consultant than move to Los Angeles and become a station manager for them.

The second thing I had learned, you see, is that good ads work no matter how they’re delivered. I saw my ads work on virtually every radio and TV station in the city and with tiny variations these same ads performed as direct mail letters and fax machine blasts.

The secret wasn’t in reaching the right people. The secret was in crafting a message that would be relevant to the public.

My ads worked because I cheated: I insisted my clients let me deliver a message guaranteed to move the needle on the “Who Cares?” meter.

Ads fail when no one cares.

An extremely common mistake is to believe that discounting the price of a product is guaranteed to win the interest of the public. But I’ve seen that strategy fail dozens of times. A half-price turd is still a turd.

When a client belligerently demanded that I write some magic words to help him sell a load of crap that no one in their right mind would ever want to buy, I looked down at the ground, dropped a wad of spit on the toe of his shoe, then looked up into his face and said, “No.”

Yes, it was a rude and vulgar thing to do but I can assure you it shortened the argument. Word of my little stunt spread. Some saw it as the action of an egotistical lunatic. It’s possible these people were right. But others saw it as the mark of a young man who had the courage of his convictions. These people may have been right, too.

Every business owner is on the inside, looking out, and what they see is entirely different from what their customers see. Customers are on the outside, looking in.

Great ad writers remain on the outside, looking in. They are advocates, not of the business owner, but of the business owner’s customer. This gives them their great advantage.

Do you have the courage to learn what your company looks like from the outside, looking in? Would you like to know what your customer is thinking?

Twice a year I gather my Wizard of Ads partners from around the world for 2 days of continuing education in Austin, Texas. This year we’re looking for 7 business owners willing to be guinea pigs for us on February 25, the second day of class. These selected business owners will be responsible for their own airfare and accommodations. Since this is not a Wizard Academy event, we can’t offer you a room in Engelbrecht House. Sorry.

In return for your investment of time, travel costs and courage, you’ll receive 1 hour of focused attention from the brightest ad consultants on earth.

If you own a business and are interested, email PaulBoomer@WizardOfAds.com or call Paul Boomer at (573) 268-4109.  Please, no advertising professionals.

I hope to see 7 owners of interesting businesses in Austin on February 25.

It is good to be a guinea pig.

Roy H. Williams

Two of my business partners sent me the same email last week. Tim Miles of Missouri and Chuck McKay of West Virginia each reported they’re being approached by record numbers of new clients. Their question: “What do you think is causing this?”

Here what I answered: “My take on the current business climate is that a growing number of business people are beginning to realize they must reinvent themselves to survive.”

Small Business Owners (by my definition, businesses doing less than 100 million a year,) hunkered down and hung on when subprime mortgages and the war in Iraq melted the American economy. They tried not to internalize the fact that our post-Enron government watchdogs were still sufficiently asleep to let Bernie Madoff scam 13,500 of America’s richest citizens out of billions of dollars. They swallowed hard when China signaled the world, “We’re in charge now,” during the closing ceremonies of the Olympics.

They swallowed hard and sighed, looked at the ground, then woke up and began plotting their next course of action.

That’s where we are now.

Or are you still sighing and looking at the ground?

Come to Austin. - RHW

If you answer, “everyone”, your business is destined for mediocrity at best.

It takes courage to stand tall and openly tell a group or groups of people that your product, business or service is not for them.

“It’s not what you include, but what you exclude that defines you.” - Roy H. Williams

“By choosing which customers to lose, your business creates a point of differentiation that’s needed to successfully compete against your competitors. Remember, your company’s success is related to standing out – not fitting in.” - Tom Wanek

Need an example?

Read Tom’s post, Choosing Which Customers To Lose.

Today’s memo is a long one, but worth reading if you want to make money.

Blind Spot

If you knew it was there, they wouldn’t call it a blind spot.

Hidden within your blind spot is your limiting factor, the thing that holds you back and limits your success.

Find your blind spot and stare your limiting factor in the face. Acknowledge the reality of it. Then decide whether or not you want to overcome it.*

That’s right. It’s entirely possible that your blind spot – and within it your limiting factor – is simply an extension of your fundamental worldview.

You may already know your worldview is wrong but you’d rather continue being wrong – and suffer the consequences – than change it.

I can respect that. I have no problem with a person who is willing to pay the price for their self-indulgence. What I can’t respect is:
     1.    a person who is wrong and can’t admit it.
     2.    a person who makes a choice and then whines about the price of it.

I don’t want to get all sappy and personal with you, so let’s move this discussion to the marketplace. Blind spots and limiting factors are easily observed in business.

Here are the most common limiting factors hidden within the blind spots of business owners:

1.    Market Opportunity

(A.) Opportunity is staring you in the face and you can’t see it. SOLUTION: Open your eyes.

(B.) You’ve overestimated the potential of your trade area. Consequently, you’re bumping your head on the low, glass ceiling of a small population. SOLUTION: (a.) Expand your product offering or (b.) open in a second trade area.

2.    Product Appeal

(A.) Your product is flawed and you can’t see it. SOLUTION: Find someone who has the courage to tell you the truth. Then correct the problem they show you. Don’t live in denial.

(B.) Your product has a characteristic whose appeal you’ve underestimated. SOLUTION: Promote the newfound characteristic.

EXAMPLE: My partner Peter Nevland recently bumped into the owner of a bottled water service who asked him for some free advice. Peter asked, “Why should the customer of another water service switch to yours?”

“We’re locally owned.” “Ten percent of our profits go to charity,” blah, blah, blah.

Peter was unimpressed.

Exasperated and grasping at straws, the man mentioned his water had recently been voted “Best Tasting” by the readers of an obscure, local business journal.

“Why do you think you won?”

The man hung his head, “We cheat.”

“How?”

“Our water is saturated with dissolved oxygen, twice the amount found in regular water.”

“What does that do?”

“Dissolved oxygen is what makes water taste good. It’s why cold water tastes better than warm water. Cold water contains more dissolved oxygen.”

“You’re saying your room temperature water tastes like cold water?”

The man nodded his head.

“Do you always saturate your water with dissolved oxygen?”

“Yes, why do you ask?”

SAD ENDING: Peter was unable to convince the man to promote his better tasting water with dissolved oxygen. I swear I’m not making this up. The man remained convinced his ads needed to say, “We’re locally owned and give ten percent of our profits to charity.”

3.    Staff Competence

(A.) Your front-line people see opportunities and solutions you don’t see. You limit your success by not listening to your people. SOLUTION: Listen to them.

(B.) Your people aren’t nearly as smart as you think. You keep listening to them and they’re wrong, but dammit, they’re enthusiastic and they make sense and they’re just so sincere! SOLUTION: Make some executive decisions. Be the leader. Tell your employees what you want. If they can’t get on board with it, let them swim in the cold waters of unemployment. (If that suggestion horrifies you, then it’s almost certainly your limiting factor.)

4.    Message Clarity

(A.) You understand the benefits of your product but have been unable to communicate them persuasively to the public. SOLUTION: Hire an experienced ad writer with a history of success. (I know a lot writers like Peter Nevland. You can meet them and read their stuff at AmericanSmallBusiness.com.)

(B.) You don’t understand how the public views your product category. Consequently, your ads are irrelevant to them. EXAMPLE: You’ve been saying, “We guarantee our work” when your customer’s real anxiety is, “Will these people show up on time or will I have to wait around all day?” SOLUTION: Speak to what the customer actually cares about.

5.    Message Delivery

(A.) You have a song to sing, you just haven’t been singing it. (In other words you haven’t been advertising.) SOLUTION: Sing, little bird, sing!

(B.) You know who would be interested in your product, you just can’t figure out how to reach them.

EXAMPLE: You sell engagement rings and want to reach people who are about to get engaged, or you sell houses and want to reach people who are about to go house shopping.

SOLUTION: (a.) You can reach the online crowd with Google Adwords and/or use Search Engine Optimization to lift your website to the first page of search engine results. (I have 7 partners who specialize in this. Contact them through their posts at AmericanSmallBusiness.com.)  

(b.) Reach the general population with a memorable message using mass media and then wait for them, or one of their circle, to need what you sell. Become the solution people think of immediately and feel the best about. Build your reputation with ads that have a high Impact Quotient.

6.    Competitor Strength

(A.) Your category has a strong leader and it isn’t you. SOLUTION: Use the leader’s reputation like a basketball backboard. Connect yourself to them through indirect acknowledgment.

EXAMPLE: Avis came out of nowhere to become a major contender to Hertz with the claim, “We’re Number Two. We Try Harder.” Burger King separated themselves from McDonald’s with the statement, “Have it your way at Burger King.” This statement would have made no sense if the public had not been acutely aware that McDonald’s made all their burgers the same.

(B.) Your category has never had a leader because it’s a category that makes people yawn. SOLUTION: Say something memorable. Do something ridiculous. Push far enough beyond the norm to get criticized. Just make sure they spell your name right. Choose who to lose as a potential customer. You can’t have insiders without having outsiders.

It’s not what you include, but what you exclude that defines you.

How are you defining yourself?

Most people limit themselves because of a blind spot. The things they exclude are excluded unconsciously.

The purpose of my note to you today has been merely to suggest that you choose consciously, rather than unconsciously, what you will exclude from
1. your business,
2. your reality,
3. your life.

Open your eyes. Look in the mirror. Make some choices. The clock is ticking.

PS. KUDOS to my Wizard of Ads partner, the lovely and talented MIchele Miller, for her Wonder Branding blog being named by Forbes magazine as one of the Top 5 Marketing Blogs in America. Read the Forbes interview of Michele before you dive into the rabbit hole.

Discover Your Blind Spot: Spend a Day With Roy H. Williams, The Wizard of Ads.

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“The good news is that most people in an industry are blind in the same way - they’re all paying attention to the same things, and NOT paying attention to the same things.” -  Gary Hamel, Leading the Revolution

Ready to grow your business?

Sometimes it takes an industry outsider to help you pay attention to the right things.

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What to do with the surplus you ask? Many turn to the stock market, however business success doesn’t automatically mean investing success.

My good friend Jason Fittler of RBS Morgans offers us some sage advice.

The 10 Most Common Mistakes in Investing

By Jason Fittler

1. Treating stocks like property.  You should never buy stocks and simply just hold. You must keep up to date with what is happening to your company.  Companies are living breathing entities; in short they are people making decisions - some good, some bad.  A house is a lump of concrete which goes up and down based on the economy, a company can change focus and the price can over shoot, as such regular monitoring of your stocks makes sure that you take advantage of the opportunities and cut any losses.

2. Focusing on transaction costs not profit.  If you’re worried about the transaction costs on a investment chances are it is not a good investment. Profit is what counts not costs.

3. Trying to cherry pick only good investments. What happens in the market is out of your control, to reduce risk you need a diversified portfolio. Some shares will go bad it is a fact of investing, deal with it and move on.

4. Buying hot tips. You might hear one of these a year. I hear about 20 a week. 99% fail.

5. Using discount brokers.  Yes they are cheap, but you need to put in considerable time to make sure you have researched your stocks and keep up to date with current issues in regards to your stocks. If you do not work this would suit. If you do work, always consider if you will make more money working a little longer and paying someone to look after your investments or by spending your time on doing the investments yourself.

6. Buying magic software. (Charting programs) These are a scam. If the program was fool proof why sell it to the public you would make way more money trading with it.

7. Holding bad stocks.  If a stock does not turn out how you plan, sell it and move on. Nothing is gained by holding.

8. Not taking profits. Do not hold a stock and try and suck out every dollar. If you make a good gain take it and move on. You will never go broke taking a profit.

9. Not sticking to the game plan.  If you buy a stock for a short term gain, only hold short term. If the announcement does not come, get out and move on. If you are buying for a long term hold and the price dips, continue to hold for the long term. Stick to the game plan, know when you will sell before you buy.

10. Taking advice from the media, friends, family or taxi drivers. Get professional advice. Do the research or pay someone to do the research. Investing is a long term full contact sport.

Are you making any of the above mistakes?

Jason sends out a newsletter with advice like this every week.

You can subscribe here.



Two questions that can change your life from Daniel Pink on Vimeo.

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