…for UK Business Owners who are serious about becoming super-successful Jun

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''The UK’s largest Membership Organisation dedicated to helping businesses grow.''

INSIDE THIS MONTH

entrepreneurscircle.co.uk

QUOTESof the

MONTH

“Your ability to learn faster than your competition is your only sustainable competitive advantage.”

“Triumph is often nearest when defeat seems inescapable.”

Arie De Gues, one of the world’s most effective business strategists

B C Forbes, Founder of Forbes Magazine

The recipient of this particular piece of feedback had just been explaining how a new customer had recently come in and explained that, whilst she had lived less than 400 yards from this particular business for the last 5 years, she had no idea it was there.

This, of course, is a positive piece of news in so far as it means that there are likely to be other, similarly ignorant people in the neighbourhood who, with the right amount of marketing, could be made aware and, hey presto, the business grows as a result.

But it’s also a stark warning.

You see, we all live in our own little worlds.

We mix and mingle, online and off-line, with the same group of people, week in, week out.

For some of us this group is quite large, for others it’s a little smaller but, in all cases, it’s inadequate if we’re to achieve the goals for our business. We need to amplify our presence. To expand our circles. In short, more people need to know about us.

Now, of course, I’m aware here that I’m stating the bleeding obvious, but that doesn’t make it any less right. The truth is that every member of the Entrepreneur’s Circle has ideal, perfect customers who are ready to rock and roll and would spend money with us … if only they knew we existed.

“You’re hiding your light under a bushel”. It was the comment from one Masterminder to another at a recent session.

SECRET?Want to know aPssssssst...

Entrepreneur of the Month Page 4

Lessons from the Pyramids Page 4

Creaser’s Got 99 Problems Page 10

Success Story Special: Kip McGrath Page 12

How to Get More Stuff Done Page 16

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WANT TO KNOW A SECRET?

Those existing circles that we operate in, that we meet with and talk to at our networking events, that we see repeatedly interacting with us on Facebook, you see, they’re not enough. Our circle needs to be growing.

This is even more pertinent and relevant if you’re one of the popular guys or gals. If you’re one of those who are often at the centre of the conversation or interaction. If you’ve got a big personality... Because we all get comfortable with the familiarity.

We forget that the most useful thing we could do today is forge a relationship with a dozen new people who’d never heard of us when they got out of bed this morning.

The truth is that too many businesses, my own included, are a well kept secret from a significant chunk of our ideal target markets. And it’s our job to fix that.

For many of us, the reason people haven’t bought from us isn’t because they’ve considered us and looked at us and decided we’re not for them. It’s because they have no idea that we even exist.

Of course, fixing this really is all about the marketing. Working out how we get out there and connect with the right people (key word that, “right”) isn’t easy – but it is doable. We can crack it.

It might take more heads than our own to work out the solution – it’s one of the main benefits of Mastermind, but the pursuit of the answer is surely the elixir and holy grail that all of us should have at the forefront of our mind every morning – especially when we start our 90 minutes.

There are several articles in this month’s edition that may help you in this regard. In particular, I commend to you my little piece on Why Google Adwords is so Important … It’s Not What You Think.

Your BGAs can help and, indeed, the May sessions on effective use of PR have, I know, been very well received – and acted on – by many members, which is hugely relevant in this regard.

But ultimately, responsibility sits with you – to either fix and solve this yourself or go out there and get the appropriate help.

If there’s more that I can do, please let me know.

I find that there’s something really exciting about a Club Lunch.

Whilst I enjoy every day working in the EC, since starting club lunches there is always something to look forward to each Friday. I’m not sure if it’s the members who attend, the calibre of conversation, the uncertainty of what you’re going to get asked and which direction the debate will veer off into, or all of the above that create such an enthusiastic, intriguing and inspirational atmosphere.

Within a few hours of the tickets ‘going live’ they’re almost always all gone, with 2-3 on a reserve list! I know other BGAs will do things their own way, but at my club lunches I sit in the middle of the table and guests. We then either run through a series of hot seats (one during starter, a second during main course and a third - and sometimes fourth, with coffee) or we’ll concentrate on a topic informed by that month’s Club+ material.

A few weeks ago, at a Club Lunch, everyone wanted to know more about Social Media and the ‘how to’ of it all, so we spent the majority of the time really getting into the nuts and bolts of what is working and what isn’t and how to resolve some quite technical issues. However, at my latest lunch, people wanted to debate and discuss the Done-For-You Marketing, which created a great lively and healthy debate as to what members have been implementing and how successful it’s been.

Everyone who attends gets stuck in (to both the food and the debate) and offers insights that prove really beneficial to the group; the conversation usually continues well into several coffees afterwards. Every lunch reaffirms just how valuable these meetings are, as they spark loads of new ideas and also strengthen some great relationships within the EC.

If you haven’t already booked onto a club lunch, do so; you only have to see the flood of positive comments on the Club Facebook page and discussion with Inside Track members ref their lunches to know of its benefit.

And if you’re not yet a club member upgrade now by simply calling 0121 765 5551 or by emailing Andreas@nigelbotterill.com

What’s in a Club Sandwich?

2

Every month our BGAs hold Club Lunches. They provide a chance for members to discuss the topic of that month’s meetings, the Club+ material for that month or any other queries and questions that crop up; as well as a bite to eat, obviously! This month BGA for the North West and Yorkshire Jay Allen is tucking in…

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GOOGLE SECRETS

If you’ve been around the Circle for more than a few weeks then you’ll be familiar with my pathological obsession with the triumvirate of Market, Message, Media as the critical three steps (in that order) when developing your Marketing Plan.

The principle’s very simple; you define, as tightly and specifically as possible, exactly who your target customers are (market); you then work out what your utterly compelling message to them is; and then finally you establish the best and most effective routes by which you can communicate that message to that market.

It’s not rocket science – but it is ignored by many business owners who then wonder why they’re not growing at the rate they would like …

Now, for the purposes of my very significant point today I’m going to break my own rules and offer up a template set of media which could apply to any business. It’s a dangerous start point, but people love ‘ready-made’ simple solutions, so here goes. Here’s my top 10 Marketing Media (ranked in order of importance):

1. Google Adwords.2. Email.3. Direct mail.4. Banner ads and ad networks.5. Facebook ads and social media.6. Affiliates and referrals.7. PR.8. Print advertising.9. Radio advertising.10. SEO.

Now, that list comes with a huge number of caveats so please don’t tell me I’ve got things in the wrong order or that you think, for your business, there's another marketing pillar that should be on the list.

I know that will all be true. The only element of that list that I care about regarding its positioning (and indeed whether it’s even on the list at all) is the item that I put at number one. Google Adwords. And the reason that it’s there is that, when you do it properly, your learnings and experience with Adwords shape and drive all the other elements on that list.

What do I mean? When let’s say you set up an Adwords campaign. You choose your keywords and you throw up your first ad.

Let’s just suppose that you start out with a 0.5% click through rate. That’s your starting point. Here’s what you do next:

1. Initially you’re getting, say, 15 clicks a day, but instead of just running one ad, you start to test two ads against each other. Four days later you’ve got 60 clicks in total and you declare a winner. Your click through rate has doubled to almost 1%.

2. You’re now getting over 30 clicks a day. You now repeat the process, testing ads against each other and within a week or so you’ll be able to declare a split test winner everyday.

3. Don’t forget, shifting your click through rate from 0.5% to 1% doubles your response rates. Hold onto this thought because I’ll come back to it later. As your number of clicks increases we can start to improve other elements of our ads. After a couple of weeks you’ll have something like 400 people click through from your Adwords and let’s say 10% of them have opted in to your newsletter, or downloaded your report, or asked for a quote, etc.

4. What you do now is start split testing different opt in pages. You try different headlines or re-write some of the bullets.

5. Within a couple of weeks you can realistically double your opt in rate from 10% to 20% and the compound impact of these changes is now starting to have a material difference on your business.

6. We then take it to the next stage and start looking at the number of people who go from your opt in pages to your order forms, say. You get the picture.

7. What you then do is take all the learnings that you can gain so quickly and scientifically from Adwords and you translate them into all the other things in that marketing list.

8. So your emails start to use the same headlines as the ads that converted best. Your affiliate and referral offers will be shaped by the things that doubled your opt in rate on your landing pages, etc.

9. In effect, your Adwords experience and refinement is your “laboratory” for working out exactly what it is that triggers the right responses and gets the right actions from your potential customers.

And that’s why Adwords is at the top of my tree: It’s why we’re continually refining and testing and why (in my own humble opinion) not running Adwords at all is a behaviour completely incongruent with your goals. Any business owner with ambition to grow should be using them.

I hope that helps…

Why ‘Adwords’ Are So Important To You...and I Promise You It’s Not What You Think!

3

One of the highlights of our trip to Egypt this Easter was an excursion to Cairo to see the Great Pyramids at Giza and the Egyptian Museum, which houses all the amazing artifacts from Tutankhamen’s tomb.

It was a long day, with a flight into Cairo and then a private tour that I had booked for the six of us (Sue, me and the four children, including Fabian who is only seven). Our tour guide was a very entertaining Egyptian chap with the unlikely name of Robbie (no, I don’t think it was real!)

Robbie looked after us really well - he made us feel very special and having toured the centre of Cairo and spent a couple of hours in the museum, we headed out towards the pyramids, which we were all very excited about seeing (they really are quite incredible by the way).

It makes you feel very humble and small to see these colossal structures (all the photographs I’d ever seen completely diminish the scale of them) and climbing inside the Great Pyramid all the way to the burial chamber is something that I think will stay with me forever (although it’s not for the claustrophobic) However, I digress…

On the way out of Cairo to the Pyramids, Robbie explained that he was going to stop off at the International Papyrus Centre, where he thought the children would really enjoy painting some Hieroglyphic characters on papyrus. In addition, he said, there were some great things for us to see.

Now, I cottoned on straightaway that there was likely to be a commercial element to this stop off, but we were having a great day, everyone was in good spirits and I was happy to go along with it.

The driver of our little minibus (there were only the six of us on board, don’t forget), pulled up outside a very non-descript building, which did indeed have above its doorway the heading; “International Papyrus Centre”- and here’s the first lesson; Calling itself that gave the establishment a sound, at least, of authority and respectability. In truth, it was one of more than a dozen papyrus shops in and around the Pyramids that we saw, but this was the one where Robbie obviously had his deal and, after all, it had the official sounding name!

We went inside and it was very beautifully kitted out; very deep pile carpet, beautifully cool air conditioning and the walls were all hung with hundreds of classical Egyptian paintings, all on papyrus, all images of ancient Egypt. Some were small, but many were huge. We were greeted by a lovely lady, whose name I forget. She welcomed us in, asked the children what their names were and straightaway sent one of her staff to bring us cold refreshing drinks.

This was the first really smart thing that they were doing here. By providing us with free drinks and going out of their way to welcome us, they were starting to put into play what I call ‘The Law of Reciprocity’.

This is a universal law, which says that if you do something nice for me then I feel obliged to do something nice for you.

In 99.9% of cases it’s a law that’s very effective and works very well. In short, the second we walked in the door she was teeing us up to spend money!

Once we had finished our drinks, she gave the children a demonstration of how papyrus was made (it was really quite interesting) and they were able to lay a few pieces of papyrus down themselves. She then got them special ink pens and showed them how to write their names in Hieroglyphics on papyrus- which is pretty cool when you’re 7, or even 13!

What was happening here was more “Law of Reciprocity”. She was providing free childcare, education and fun for my children - who all warmed to her whilst Sue and I were able to browse around the beautiful papyrus pictures on the wall! You can see exactly what was happening, can’t you?

Once she’d got the children happily inking away on papyrus, she came across to join Sue and I and explained that the very big pictures cost 2,000 Egyptian pounds, the medium sized ones were 1,200 Egyptian pounds and the smaller ones were only 800 Egyptian pounds. However, because we were friends of Robbie (!!!) she would be able to reduce these prices for us; that there was real value to be had if we bought more than one papyrus picture and that they made great gifts for family back home.

She explained in detail how her bundling worked (basically, the more I bought the less each one cost) and I couldn’t help but be impressed on the master class we were being given on effective selling.

ANCIENT MARKETING LESSON OF THE MONTH

4

She’d kicked off with the Law of Reciprocity and now she was following it through with an exemplary performance of how to package and bundle your products up. Her piece de resistance was the introduction of a deadline when Sue suggested that we might want to think about the pictures whilst we viewed the Pyramids. The lady explained that we would be going back to the airport via a different route and therefore if we wanted to take advantage of these amazing opportunities that she’d given us today, we would have to make the decision now whilst we were in the shop. It was very low-key high pressure, if you get what I mean.

Never at any point did we feel pressured but she was fully in control of the situation. Our entire time in that shop was controlled by her, and was to her agenda, BUT IT DIDN’T FEEL LIKE THAT TO US, because she did it so well.

There are more lessons to come: She then spoke to the children and asked them which pictures they liked best. This is a really cunning sales technique, because of course what happened then was that the children, having done some Hieroglyphics of their own on papyrus were very keen to each have a papyrus picture for their bedrooms. A pincer movement was now occurring as all four of my children were whizzing round the International Papyrus Centre deciding which picture they wanted on their bedroom walls. She had very subtly and cleverly instigated this.

And so it was that we ended up buying three papyrus pictures that we didn’t need, didn’t want and had no intention of buying when we set out that day.

She cut me a bundle which was a hugely reduced price - but I still spent almost £200, so she did quite well. What was interesting is that two of the children chose pictures that had the scope to be personalized and here’s where the upsells came in. Having done the deal on the pictures, she explained that if we wanted the two pictures to be personalized with our children’s names then her artist would be able to do that straightaway for us but we’d have to pay the artist separately and that her price was the equivalent of £10 per picture - so she took another 10% off me with that.

And then when she asked me how I wanted to pay and I proffered my Barclaycard, she said “Oh, what a shame you haven’t got cash, we’ll have to charge an extra 3% for the credit card charges.” Now, at this point, the pictures were all unwrapped, the personalization was underway - I had nowhere to go, she took the additional 3% as well.

Reading this back it would be easy to get the perception that we were pressured into buying this papyrus. That is not true. The reason I’m writing about this and sharing the story with you is because the whole 35 to 45 minutes that this took was a lovely, pleasant experience, for all of us. We never felt in any way pressured at all.

We didn’t feel bad about spending the money - I didn’t even have any buyer’s remorse to be honest (after all it was only £200), but the way she steered us from complete non-buyers when we entered that establishment, to spending £200 with her less than half an hour later was genuinely superb.

I told her so as well- and offered her a job if she ever came to England. I’d definitely employ someone with that amount of skill and craft in their sales techniques.

Later on in the day, I wandered into another papyrus shop and the experience was completely different. No one spoke to me, I asked the prices, I was given them and, obviously, I didn’t buy.

You know, selling is an honourable profession. Nothing happens in business until somebody buys something. One of the reasons so many businesses experienced a downturn in the recession is because, for many years, we were able to be complacent and lazy and not have to worry about selling. People were buying lots of stuff, fuelled by debt. In 2005 and 2006 you didn’t have to be an expert at selling to make lots of sales. But you do now.

The world has changed and that lady in the International Papyrus Centre could teach many, many good British businesses the tools and techniques that they need to know, learn and implement if they’re going to flourish in the months and years ahead.

Please don’t neglect your sales skills and especially putting them into practice. It really was a salutary lesson for me and very worthy of inclusion as our Marketing Lesson of the Month.

ANCIENT MARKETING LESSON OF THE MONTH

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Jez RoseJUNE 2014 WINNER…

ENTREPRENEUR OF THE MONTH

Jez Rose joined the EC in November 2011 and his first year was a whirlwind of activity. Between the implementation of new marketing pillars, Adwords, setting up new systems, banner retargeting and learning to use social media more effectively, Jez barely noticed the remarkable results; he had gained 80 new clients and increased his turnover by 200%.

These were great signs of success by any means, but the start of 2014 marked a change for Jez; he was determined to get serious, super serious, about focusing his attention on one business, The Behaviour Expert, and making that business the best. With the news that he has increased his business’ turnover to £500,000, we’d say that he was making great steps, which is why he’s our Entrepreneur of the Month for the month of June. Here’s how he did it.

Something interesting happened on 1st January 2014. Throughout 2013 I had been approached by a number of managers and individuals on executive leadership boards asking me to coach them on motivation, mindset and strategy implementation, so I sat down and began pulling my own resources and knowledge together in order to create behaviourally efficacious plans in response to their requests.

I always ensure that the advice that I give and the techniques that I present actually work, so I put them into practice and began creating a global strategy for my business in 2014.

What better place to start than the Six Pack? I poured over every single page of the Six Pack folders and every single back issue of the Circular. When the Circular comes through, I read through it and bend down the corners of pages that interest me or stand out; it might be something to swipe and deploy or it could be a strategy that would work well for me.

Then, I put the Circular away and at regular intervals throughout the year I pull on resources to help guide projects and decisions.

A key thing that I took from reading through the Six Pack was Nigel’s advice about taking a moment to stand still, take stock and take drastic measures if your numbers don’t add up.

In 2013 I had 4 fairly large businesses but the most profitable, and the one that I enjoyed working with the most, was not the one that received the most of my time.

The other businesses had, unknowingly, become time vampires - so I sold them. The last sale was completed in February 2014 and in just those few weeks since the remaining company has already seen significant acceleration in output. Focusing on just one business has given me the opportunity to develop three new services and add a premium product, as a direct result of which we’ve seen sales of more than £10,000 within just two months of implementation.

A big revelation for me since joining the EC is the concept of 90 minutes of protected time every single day. To start out with I only did this when I needed to, but now I do it seven days a week, without fail. Sometimes, if time is tight or I’m going to be doing a lot of travelling then I’ll arrange for a driver, or ask Mrs Jez to drive, so that I can do my 90 minutes on the move.

I’m deadly serious about the impact that scheduled, protected time has made to my business, and to my life, because if I’ve done my 90 minutes, then I feel like I’ve achieved the number one “must do” on my list.

It’s those 90 minutes that have been vital in securing me the time, and opportunities to get implementing - and that’s the key.

You can read books and watch videos until you’re old and grey but at some point you’ve got to stop and put it all into action.

We’re all looking for the magic wand; the magic pill that will do it all for us but, in reality, we’re guarding an empty safe.

There aren’t any more secrets - all that’s left to do is to put them into action. Take a printed newsletter/magazine for example. In the last 9 months, as a direct result of sending a monthly printed magazine to my clients, I have added £28,500 to my bottom line. I know this because I asked why the client had scheduled work with us, three times, after not hearing from them for 6 or more years.

They told me that it was because they’d forgotten all about me, but now, due to the magazine, they don’t get the chance and have actually been reminded of what they’re missing out on by not working with us.

Alongside this, we also send out regular emails and lumpy mail to stay in touch and position our key services. So far this year this has resulted in a £32,000 contract, with another £11,000 contract coming in as a result of spending £200 on personalized cards to cold clients who we’d lost touch with.

When I couldn’t find the names of a few key prospect contacts that I really wanted to get in touch with, I sent out a ‘Guess Who?’ boardgame (thanks to fellow EC member Sian Nisbett for the idea!) with a post it note on it, attached to an antelope (yes - that’s not a typo!) and complete with a cover letter and copy of our client magazine.

One was sent to Italy and another four went to addresses in the UK. As a result of those five packages, I am now in discussions about a sponsorship deal worth £45,000 a year.

7

07

We are always on the hunt

for the next Entrepreneur

of the Month winner and as

‘the voice of the balls’ says...

IT COULD BE YOU!

To enter yourself (or to

nominate another member)

simply send an email to me

at nigel@nigelbotterill.com

telling me what you have

done in your business that

makes you worthy of this

prestigious prize.

It could be

you!I’ve also outsourced nearly every role that I don’t have to do, including a few that I could do but don’t need to, which has freed me up to keep a closer eye on strategy, spend more time building key relationships and also developing new services. It’s also improved efficiency and productivity, too.

For a long time I really resisted outsourcing anything at all, and at one point I didn’t think that I had the money to, but I bit the bullet because I soon realised that I had reached capacity- that nothing more could get done with just me working in the business.

Fortunately, I found the right people and they’re now critical to the smooth running of the business today.

Three years ago the business was turning over a humble £30,000, whereas now we’re on track to reach a £500,000 turnover by the end of this financial year. But it didn’t just happen by reading things. It’s been long hours, hard work and persistent effort. I’ve had to regularly amend strategies and get my head down to JFDI.

The results, however, are better than I ever would have imagined.

My second book is due out summer of 2014, I’m touring a one-man theatre show through 2015 (which debuts on 26th September 2014 in Worthing if you fancy a fun evening out!) and we’ve been developing a TV show, which is set to air at the beginning of 2015.

The start of 2014 has been action packed for me, to say the least, but the most important thing for me has been to stay focused.

I have very clear goals, strategies for those goals and after consolidating the masses of knowledge available to me (The Vault, old editions of The Circular, The Six Pack and various business books) I’ve been able to find the space to breathe and finally start putting things into action.

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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

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You would be forgiven for thinking that they broke the mould when they made Nige, but we’ve recently had intelligence that perhaps suggests otherwise... A few weeks ago, Nigel received an email from a Nigel Botterill.

He’s a successful business owner (he started a packaging business and took it to £1.7 million in 9 years) and he’s married to a lady called Sue. Spooky, right?

Much like ‘our’ Nigel, Nigel Botterill is a huge advocator of working on your business, rather than in it.

He’s just headed up a major rebrand of his packaging business, Smart Shield, and consequently has seen a consistent rise in sales.

Will you ever see Nigel and Nigel in the same place? The chances are slim, The Other Nigel lives in Canada!

There’s only one Nigel Botterill... or is there?

Snezana KnowlesGranny’s Secret www.grannyssecret.co.uk

Granny gathers momentum...

“Once you have the interest of the customer, it’s all about keeping that momentum and holding onto it until you make the sale or close the deal,” Snezana told us when asked why the first quarter of 2014 has been so successful for her business, Granny’s Secret.

After beginning the month of April with a nomination as a New Business Finalist for Women In Business for Bristol & Bath and a Bronze Artisan Marmalade Makers Award under her belt (or in her hamper!), the start of 2014 was off to a great start for Snezana - things were about to get better though!

Snezana rounded off the first third of the year by landing two new international customers. Getting their business wasn’t without its challenges, but Snezana attributes closing the deals to her new determination to “just say yes”, even when the logistics aren’t completely finalised.

Her first new customer was the owner of the Spanish department store El Corte Ingles, who wished to place a first order of £30,000 after being bowled over by Snezana’s personality and passion for food.

This is a great opportunity for Granny’s Secret to appear in front of masses of potential customers, as there are many El Corte Ingles stores across Spain and Portugal.

However, in order to close the deal and please the customer, Snezana had to redesign product stickers, send samples and translate all emails to Spanish using the help of Google Translator. No one ever said it would be easy, did they?

After receiving a £3,000 order from a customer who had purchased a large pallet of fruit juices (just to put this into perspective, the average customer orders 10 cases, this customer ordered 178!) for his chain of restaurants over in Luxembourg, Snezana “just said yes” once again, whilst behind the scenes she was busy sourcing international shipment as well as packing and dispatching the stock within 3 working days.

To top things off, Snezana recently signed a new supplier contract and received two purchase orders from Lakeland worth £15,000. “Lakeland has been my dream shop for ages and is my ideal target,” she tells us.

By happy accident, Snezana recently entered Britain’s Next Top Supplier, a competition organized by Ocado. After entering, Snezana realised that the competition was only for suppliers who produced their food in Britain. Seeing as Granny’s Secret is not produced in the UK, Snezana assumed that she would receive a “Sorry but…” email from Ocado. However, she actually received an email saying that Granny’s Secret was not eligible for entry as it lacked the required certificates.

Snezana got back to them straightaway to tell them that she did in fact have the relevant certificates and that it was a shame that her products hadn’t caught anyone’s eye this time. Ten minutes later she had received an apology from Ocado and an invitation to a meeting called “Granny’s at Ocado.”

Whilst Snezana is still finalizing things with Ocado, this is a great lesson on how a simple mistake can lead to a great opportunity.

Huge congratulations from everyone at the EC Snezana - what a fantastic few weeks!

At the EC, we’re always keeping a watchful eye on our members. We love hearing about your successes (and at times, the not-so successes) and sometimes we feel that the spotlight should be shone on one member in particular.

This month, we’re shining the light on Snezana Knowles and her business Granny’s Secret. The start of 2014 has been great for her business, Granny’s Secret, so far and we can’t wait to see what she’ll do next…

PS: Whilst we were in the process of writing this very article,

Snezana emailed with news that Granny’s Secret would now

be listed on Amazon. It seems that Granny is unstoppable!

9

AMATEUR DRAMATICS

DIGITAL SHARECROPPING

Social Media Manager and Ace Reporter Alice Tew gets dramatic about the internet monsters coming to a city near you soon...

A couple of weeks ago LinkedIn axed their product page function, and along with it flushed a lot of information down the social media drain. These product pages were home to carefully written copy describing the services and products offered by businesses, large or small, and, crucially, they were also home to customer recommendations. Business owners had relied on these pages to store useful testimonies and information for years, but once LinkedIn gave the nod; they were all gone.

This got me thinking about an article that I’d read recently on the phenomenon of ‘digital sharecropping’ (sent over by David Kyte- you can hear more from him over on page 15)

Digital sharecropping is one of those terms that has popped up out of nowhere in response to an online phenomenon. In this instance, that online phenomenon is the distribution of production into the hands of the many and the concentration of the economic rewards into the hands of the few. It’s like a techy, web version of feudalism. Basically, anyone can create content on sites such as Facebook, but that content then belongs to Facebook.

So, going with the feudalism analogy, sites like Facebook, eBay and Google are the landlords. If they decide to get rid of you, then you’re out and there’s not much that you can do about it.

Obviously, there are some up-sides to digital sharecropping. Those landlords sure do make it easy for you to upload content, much easier than it would be for a small business owner to learn how to host all of that content themselves.

They also attract big numbers, so it’s tempting to be drawn in by imagining the amount of people who (possibly) will see your offer or blog post or video.

However, here’s why rolling up your sleeves and working for The Man is such a risky move:

Constant changeSocial media networks are constantly changing, usually at a rapid pace and without much prior warning to its users - Facebook, I’m looking at you. If those sites decide to drop a particular feature then your content will disappear; or if you’ve done something that they don’t like then your account will be, at best, suspended. To some, this might be a mild inconvenience, but if you’re relying on a social media profile as a make-do website then it’s a big problem; it means that for every day your content is missing or your account is on lock down then no one is seeing you, and if no one’s seeing you then they’re forgetting about you.

Disappearing actsSocial media networks and sharing sites can disappear in the blink of an eye. Users could have put hours of work into crafting a perfect profile or creating brilliant content for sites like Myspace and Digg, but even though the sites still exist, they don’t get anywhere near the amount of traffic that they did in their heyday.

Facebook and Google are probably going to be around for a fair while yet, but do you want to pin the success of your business on ‘probably’?

Yes, digital sharecropping puts your business at risk, but I’m by no means saying that Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Twitter are bad for your business. After all, what kind of Social Media Manager would I be if I was advising people to steer clear of social media sites?

What I am saying, though, is that social media sites should be used alongside other assets that you are able to control.

These are:

1. A well designed website with your own hosting account

2. An opt-in email list, ideally with a high quality autoresponder

3. A stellar reputation

These are the equivalent of buying your land, rather than renting it.

I hope you’ll forgive the amateur dramatics, but I had to get your attention somehow, didn’t I?

9

10

CREASER’S COLUMN

10

99But a8 nitch3 ain’t one9

problems

I hear people using it as a synonym for their business category, or their market or vertical and that’s not quite right. A niche and a vertical are not the same things, there are a few key differences – the most obvious giveaway is usually the size of the market.

Most business owners target large markets…

…the mortgage broker who’s selling mortgages and whose market is people who need to finance a property purchase

…the printer whose market is businesses who need stuff printing

…the IT support business who are targeting businesses within 90 minutes of their office

…the studio photographer who’s shooting for customers who’ll stay still for long enough to have their photo taken …the accountant whose ideal customer is a business that needs an accountant.

In all those examples, the business is targeting a sizeable market, perhaps restricted by geography. That’s not targeting a niche, that’s doing business with pretty much anyone who breaks their stride.

When you’re targeting a niche, you’re not shooting at the whole market; you’re a sniper, picking off customers with specific needs.

…the mortgage broker who specialises in selling mortgages to first time buyers

…the printer who specialises in monthly newsletters

…the IT support business who only works with professional services businesses

…the studio photographer who doesn’t do family portraits or commercial work, they only photograph new-born babies, that’s it.

…the accountant who only works with farmers.

But why would you choose NOT to promote your business to everyone who might want it, and instead focus just on a specific subset of that market?

Well, by funnelling your focal point on a specific, smaller, number of target customers, you become more attractive to those people, because they see you as a specialist or expert in solving their particular problem.

As a specialist in a well-chosen niche you’re likely to find that you’re able to charge significantly higher prices than any generalist fishing in that same pool.

Niching your Marketing

You can target a specific niche with your marketing, without making any real changes to your product or service.

Let’s take the mortgage broker as an example: there’s no special qualification for getting mortgages for first-time-buyers, no certificate for being an expert in getting mortgages on 4-bed detached properties, and the service offered will be much the same, but you’d tailor your marketing message very differently depending on which market you were targeting.

Niching your Proposition

I’ve talked on these pages before about how big businesses are tailoring their products to suit niches and micro-niches, that’s why there are 17 different types of Colgate Toothpaste on the shelves in Tesco.

In the UK we talk about “neeshes” and in the US it’s “nitches”, but it seems I know a lot of business owners who use the word “niche” wrongly.

EC’s very own M.C. (Mark CreaSer) raps about niche marketing, cars and cans... what’s your niche, and how are you going to exploit it?

1111

It’s happening more and more, in every market you can imagine.

I drove past a BMW 2 series the other day, I didn’t even know that they made one, but it came as no surprise.

In the UK, BMW offer quite a range, there’s the 1 series hatchback, the 2 series coupe and tourer, the 3 series saloon, touring and GT, the 4 series coupe or cabriolet, the 5 series saloon, touring and GT, the 6 series in 2-door coupe, 4-door gran coupe and cabriolet, the 7 series saloon, and of course the X range, which started off with the X5, and then added the X1, X3, X4, and X6, not necessarily in that order. An X7 is just a matter of time. Oh, and there’s the i3, the i8 and the Z4. Don’t forget those. And the M3, M4, M5, M6

It’s not just BMW, all the car makers are at it, designing and producing new cars that answer questions that nobody’s ever asked. Whether you want a 2-wheel drive off roader to use on road, or a 4 wheel drive on roader to take off-road, you can buy one. A saloon that looks like a bit like a swooshy coupe? It’s all yours.

Nobody wants a conventional car these days, they want something that’s just right for them.

Here’s some good news It costs a load of money to design and build a car from scratch. It’s not a cheap business to get into. So more cars in the range means more money spent on building them, so BMW must meet the point of diminishing returns, where adding a new car doesn’t mean any new sales, it just cannibalises sales they would have got anyway.

It’s true, but BMW don’t keep designing and building new cars from scratch. The 1 and 2 series are pretty much the same car, same deal with the 3 and 4 series. They just tweak a few bits here and there, but all the cars are put together from the same big box of parts.Let’s call it a remix.

So someone’s designed a decent car, now let’s put a different bum on it and call it a tourer, let’s remove a couple of doors and make it a coupe, let’s cut the roof off and make a cabrio. Perfect for summer.

Rather than taking half a dozen cars to market, BMW turns them into a range of 25+ cars, each one targeted at a really specific subsection of the car-buying market.

It’s a good approach, and one that you can easily swipe and deploy. Take your existing product or service, and look at how you could tailor it to a niche.

It’s an interesting twist on premium pricing. Instead of just adding some additional value, calling it your VIP package and charging more for it, think about how you can tailor your proposition to 3 or 4 different niches, create 4 different packages and sell them all for higher prices.

Can’t Beats It

As I write this, it seems that Dr Dre’s “Beats” business is being lined up by Apple as a $3.2 billion acquisition.Whether it’s the right or wrong thing to do from Apple’s perspective (and when you’re sat on a $100 billion cash pile, what does $3 billion really matter?), it’s interesting how Beats has gone from literally nothing in 2008 when it launched, to a multi-billion dollar valuation today.

There’s the product placement in music videos, the free headphones given to athletes, the endorsement deals with the likes of Puff Daddy, Justin Beiber, Lady Gaga, and David Guetta, the partnership deals with brands like HP, Chrysler and HTC… it all works.

It’s helped Beats go from nothing to cultural phenomenon in just a few years. Beats accounts for about 60% of the “premium” end of the headphones market, that’s a lot of headphones, and I’ve got news for you.

They don’t just sell one pair.

executive

You’ve Earned Them.

Beats Executive™ headphones are designed to take you from boardroom to the tarmac and everywhere in between. These over-ear headphones deliver the legendary Beats sound in a refined premium package that’s easier than ever to take on the road.

12

SUCCESS STORY SPECIAL

Deborah Toulson – Kip McGrath SalisburyA great email campaign brings in £10,000 for Deborah

Kip McGrath franchisee owner Deborah Toulson recently used a winning combination of our 80 Hour Cash Machine and the Club+ Done-For-You marketing to help grow her business.

Deborah used the 80 Hour Cash Machine email marketing template to connect with the parents of students who had been assessed by Kip McGrath previously, but failed to book on to a course at that time. By following up with an email a week later, Deborah brought back 5 students.

Although the link between accountants and tutoring might seem fairly non-existent, Deborah cleverly used the ‘Know Your Numbers’ headline from our Club+ Done-For-You Accountant marketing to her advantage, tying it in with their mathematics tutoring.

This campaign also attracted 5 new students, meaning that after only a few amendments Deborah was £10,000 up.

This is a great example of how ‘swipe and deploy’ can really work for your business - well done Deborah!

Jan Long – Kip McGrath SouthamptonJan Long expands her business, and ambition, to increase takings by 54%

Kip McGrath franchisee Jan Long joined the EC in June last year, after chatting with fellow franchisee Jana Meyer (Jana actually runs the largest Kip McGrath centre in the UK) at the annual Kip McGrath conference.

Since joining, Jan has seen fantastic results. After increasing her number of tutors to 7, taking on admin support and adding Science to her tutoring programme, Jan has seen a large increase in ‘bums on seats’ and her average weekly takings have grown by 54%- not to mention the fact that she’s more that doubled her profits!

Although all of the marketing tips and tricks have been helpful, what Jan finds to really make a difference to how she runs her business is “the enthusiasm, contagious attitude and constant stream of ideas” that come with being a part of the EC.“Before I joined I was being held back by my own capacity and skills, now the ceiling of my ambition has been removed,” Jan tells us.

Congratulations Jan- what a great first year!

KipMcQuotesHere a few quotes from some of the other Kip McGrath franchisees within the EC…

“Realising the power of creative and original

marketing such as ‘lumpy mail’ rather than just

sticking to the traditional methods”

12

Zoe Trodd from Kip McGrath Sevenoaks

When looking over our Success Stories for the past few months, we noticed that quite a few Kip McGrath franchisees kept popping up- so much so, that we wanted to give them their very own Success Story Roll Call! We’ve picked out just a few of our favourite stories from over the last few months.

Kip McGrath could teach you a thing or two...

13

Cerys Llewellyn-Bevan – Kip McGrath NeathCerys doubles her business in less than a year

It was the success of fellow Kip McGrath franchisee Jana Meyer that first inspired Cerys to join the EC and since becoming a member in August 2013, Cerys’ business has doubled!

Cerys has been spurred on by the inspiration provided by other Kip McGrath franchisees within the EC; they even have their own Facebook group where they exchange updates and advice.

In order to grow her business and reach her goals Cerys decided to focus on building her marketing pillars and set about implementing Adwords and Facebook ads.

In 2013, Cerys was used to an average of 8 new pupils a month, but this has now jumped up to an average 15 sign-ups per month!

At the time of publication, Cerys was off to a garden party at Buckingham Palace – the height of networking!

“Joining the EC has shown me that being a technician and always teaching wasn’t necessarily the best use of my time. So, I’ve thrown myself into marketing and am reaping the rewards!”

Jana & Schalk Meyer - Kip McGrath BrentwoodJana & Schalk think big to increase their turnover by 1122%

Jana and Schalk Meyer have been members of the EC for 3 years now, and run the largest Kip McGrath franchise in the UK, but they haven’t allowed themselves to become complacent and have recently increased their usual turnover for this time of year by a huge 1122%!

Usually, at this time of year, Jana and Schalk hold one or two 11+ mock exams for their students. However, after hearing Nigel talk about ensuring that your service is available for people the couple decided to be bold and schedule 11 mock exams.

This was a bit of a risk, as Jana and Schalk only have 40 students eligible to take the 11+ exams, but word spread and they attracted non-Kip McGrath students too! The exams were actually so popular that they have added 5 more dates! This meant that this year, they took a turnover of £11,000, compared to the usual £900 turnover for this time of year.

“This all just comes down at being around business owners and the EC team, and thinking and doing business differently,” Jana tells us. This is an amazing result! Well done to Jana and Schalk!

“Developing my ideas and creativity has enabled me to see the potential

for my business far more clearly. EC has motivation, enthusiasm and support in

abundance”

13

“Motivation, motivation, motivation!”

Claire Hitchcock from Kip McGrath Gravesend

Gareth and Clare Powell of Kip McGrath Scunthorpe

Kip McGrath could teach you a thing or two...

14

THE FAB FOUR

A Word from the ExpertsVeronica Pullen Word of Mouth Local

Adam CliffMake It Media

14

Veronica is an Online Relationship Marketer and creator of the Social Marketing Profits Blueprint™.If you want to be heard by a bigger online audience then Veronica is the lady for you! She also hosts #ECHour over on Twitter every Tuesday between 8 – 9pm, so get involved!

What’s your trip wire?

If you don’t have a ‘trip wire’ behind your Lead Magnet (the free eBook/audio/video etc you offer your social media connections and website visitors in exchange for their email address) then you are losing out on a zero effort, passive revenue stream.

The definition of a trip wire is:

“A compelling, low cost, high value offer which sets up the business/customer relationship.” When visitors fill out your opt-in box with their name and email address to access your Lead Magnet, are you sending them to a thank you page? Well, with a trip wire, you substitute the thank you page with a sales page.

And on that sales page you offer a low cost, no-risk, no-brainer offer for your newly opted-in lead to purchase something from you.

Seriously, it’s that simple! But now, your new lead is a more committed warm prospect because they’ve invested in you – meaning they’re much more likely to buy again!

Spend your next 90 minutes adding a trip wire to your lead generation funnel... and watch the value of your list multiply.

Check out my trip wire, by downloading my free eBook “8 Steps to Profitable Social Marketing” from www.veronicapullen.co.uk

Scripting for a piece to camera

Presenting to camera is a great way of introducing you and your business in a much more personal way online. You need to plan though. So, here’s some advice to help with your video masterpieces.

1. Keep the tone conversational. You’re not a book; you are a wonderful human being with a personality, so let’s make it shine!

2. Keep it short. Seriously! Some of the best and most effective PTC style videos I have worked on with our Green Screen Roadshows are the ones that stick to the key points. Try not to overcomplicate your message.

3. No long, hard-to-pronounce words. Unless you’re really talented at tongue twisters or need to use certain terminology, make it easy for yourself.

4. Not sure what to say? Try breaking your script down into this easy formula:• Introduce yourself• Remind the viewer why they are watching in

the first place (e.g. “You’re here because you’re searching for the best value accountant in Leicestershire, right?!”)

• Describe the problems your viewer is likely to be facing

• Describe how you will solve their problems• Remind them why they should buy from you

(your USP)• Make them an offer (product offer, free opt in,

etc...)• Give a Call to Action

If you’re looking for a little more detailed help with your scriptwriting and tips on how to present to camera, visit: www.businessvideoexperts.com/free-script-guide

Adam has worked alongside some of the best in UK prime-time television, including BBC, ITV, Channel 4 and even Al Jazeera. Nowadays, his vision is to bring all that knowledge, expertise and professionalism to the world of business communication.

15

Every month we ask four experts to share with us a few pearls of wisdom that you can put to good use in your business. This month we’re featuring three of our Trusted Suppliers. They’re all longstanding members of the EC that understand how to service business owners that approach business with an EC mindset. Take note of what these guys say, they’re our Trusted Suppliers for a reason!

David KyteDoodle Ads

Andy WilcoxRegional BGA for London and the South East

15

The One Big Idea...

Whilst driving to Bristol one afternoon, I was listening to Legendary Copywriter Michael Masterson, as you do. He gave me an enormous “wake up and smell the coffee” moment; as he described the power of “The One Big Idea”.

Let me explain …

Michael works with Agora, a company that sells over $600M worth of email newsletters per year. Michael has written thousands of essays for Agora.

He was analysing the tracking for his emails, articles and essays, trying to uncover the format that worked best for his content.

Michael discovered that he had more opens, more clicks and more sales when his content focussed on a “Single Big Idea”.

At this time, I was having a problem with a Doodle Ad client. No matter how I changed the script, my client was never satisfied; I couldn’t get the script signed off.

So I tried a different tack. I suggested that we focus on “What was the Big Idea?” Bingo; the script dropped out and was accepted within 10 minutes.

SO – take another look at your copy and ask yourself the same question – “What is the ONE BIG IDEA” you want to get across in this piece?

Take a look at David’s work on his website:www.doodle-ads.co.uk

Quick Tips on Public Speaking

Whether you’re speaking to a room of 1000 business owners or a best man at a wedding to 30 guests recounting the story of the groom, the pole dancer and the prison cell, we probably all have to speak in public one time or another.

When you’re performing remember VOICE:

V Volume - You need to make sure the folks can hear you at the back as they will only ask you a couple of times to repeat what you just said. So get your volume right or use a microphone. O Oh, ah, umm, so, basically – Watch your gap fillers. OK, at the end of the day, the reality is, obviously, happy days ... If you’re like me, once I clock someone’s filler word, I end up tallying how many times they say it rather than listening! I Intonation – Don’t talk like a R-O-B-O-T all monotone, or a dog talker all high pitched or an Australian where your voice goes up at the end of every sentence like a question. (I bet you just read that like an Aussie!) C Clarity – Be nice and clear when you talk, as they won’t ask you to repeat too many times, remember? E Enthusiasm – You have to be enthusiastic about what you’re talking about or how the heck will the audience be if you’re not?

So, good luck because basically at the end of the day the reality is you will obviously be great. OK? Happy days. OK :)

Hailing from a background in marketing, David truly does understand what will grab the attention of your customers when they visit your website, which is what ensures that his Doodle Ads effectively communicate your business’ story to your customers.

He’s been a paramedic, he’s been an electrician and he’s been an EC member. BGA Andy Wilcox has been where you are now and wants to share what he’s learned in business, learned from Nigel and learned in life - he’s completely committed to helping you to grow your business.

16

BIG LESSON OF THE MONTH

If you want super-success in business, you’ve got to get better at getting more stuff done. If you want to be a millionaire, then you’ve got to get really good at getting stuff done.

One of the most frequently asked questions I get from EC members, especially new members, is this:

“How do you get so much done?”

So many business owners are full of great ideas, things that they want to do, but, for one reason or another, their rate of implementation and execution is not where they would like it to be and as a result they’re being held back. Let’s be clear, right up front – the biggest difference between high income, high profit businesses and run of the mill, low income, low profit businesses is …

IMPLEMENTATION.

If you want super-success in business then you’ve got to get better at getting more stuff done. Ideas are worth diddly-squat. It’s the execution and implementation that gets results.

So Much To Do, But Not Enough Time -And No Money To Employ Staff…

There’s often a subtext when I’m asked the question about how I get so much done. People explain to me how there are all these things that they want to accomplish, but that their business isn’t yet generating enough cash to pay for an employee to come onboard and increase capacity.

Well, the good news is, you don’t need employees to start making progress here. You can access a ready supply of high quality, reliable, VERY COST-EFFECTIVE, labour in your business.

Skilled people who will create hours a week and, potentially, hours a day in your schedule to enable you to get more stuff done. Look, the reality is that, to achieve super-success, your behaviours (i.e. what you spend your time doing) need to be fully congruent with your goals.

This means that if you aspire to an earning level in excess of, say, £20 an hour (!!) then you can’t maintain that goal and, at the same time, be answering your own phone all the time or doing your own book-keeping.

Those are behaviours that are completely non-congruent with where you’ve said you want to be... So get some help.

Call HandlingGetting your telephone answered by somebody else is one of the most useful services for many businesses – especially when there’s only you.

The services provided by people like Graham Hill and his team at Verbatim or Jacqui Frost at Office Genie are brilliant. Your phone can be answered at certain times of day, by them, or all the time, or just when your line’s engaged.

You can teach them exactly what you want them to say and what you want them to do with the calls. It’s genuinely game changing – especially if you’re getting more than two or three calls a day.

Your phone gets answered by a real person who knows what they’re talking about (their systems are fab so the scripts are always consistent) and they answer the phone as if it was someone working in your business, which gives you the added benefit that it makes you look and feel like a bigger organisation and it strengthens your positioning in your market.

They can have different criteria for different types of calls, so some may actually get put through to you, but others it may be that you get an email or text with a message on.

Even with our dozens of staff at Botty Towers we still have systems in place so that some of our calls are handled by these guys and in the early days, when I was getting traction, on my own, this type of service was invaluable.

BookkeepingIf you’re a business owner and you are doing your own bookkeeping, then you are certifiably insane OR lacking in all ambition to grow OR unenlightened – and we’re about to put that right!

For most small businesses your bookkeeping will only take 3-4 hours per month. With an outsourced qualified bookkeeper doing the work it will typically cost you less than £100 a month. It will take them less hours than it will take you anyway, so let’s say, conservatively, that handing over all your bookkeeping and invoicing will probably free up at least six hours of your time per month – plus a whole load of mental baggage that you’ve been carrying around with you whilst you’ve been worrying about having to do your accounts, invoicing etc.

Now, the trick for you is to bunch that time together and use it to get new customers and new business.

Continued on p18...

How To Get More Stuff Done

17

You’re Definitely Missing Calls… Everyday, at 8.00pm, an email pops into my inbox from my telephone system! Attached to it is a PDF listing all the missed calls for that day. There’s usually 5 or 6, occasionally 10.

It tells me the number that rang and which particular extension or department they were calling when they didn’t get through.

It also tells me how long they were hanging on for (sometimes it’s only one second because all the lines were engaged!)

In Mastermind last week I asked a member whose marketing was all about getting people to call her business, how many calls she was missing a week. “None” she confidently said, “not since I hired my part-time office support person.”

She is naïve in the extreme. And probably, so are you. Unless you’re getting a report every single day, like I do, you have no way of knowing whether you’re missing calls or not. The reality is that you almost certainly are.

When you’re engaged, when you have nipped off for a wee, when you just popped upstairs to get something…

That call could have been the one that led to the large new contract, the difference between hitting targets or not this month, the ripple effect from the amazing job you would have done … if only.

I don’t know anyone that has implemented the “roll-over” call answering service (where your calls are answered elsewhere when they’re not answered in your office) who has not been pleasantly surprised by the difference that it’s made.

Your ignorance doesn’t change the facts…

Tracy IrwinTI Payroll & Accounting

01229 813 388

We at TI Payroll and Accounting know how valuable your time is when running a business, which is why we make it as easy as possible for busy entrepreneurs to outsource their bookkeeping. We use cloud-based systems that allow clients 24/7 access to their up-to-date numbers, which gives you the time back to focus on growing your company.

We’re that confident you’ll see the value of knowing your numbers after one month’s bookkeeping service with us, that we’ll do the first month for just £20 for anyone who gets in touch before 6pm on Monday 23rd June 2014.

EC MEMBER EXCLUSIVE DEAL!

Graham has pulled together an unbeatable “Get Your Phone Answered” package for EC members, which includes a full 6-week long risk free trial, with a 100% money back guarantee. He’ll even throw in a 2 week trial of his mobile app “SU”, the PA in your pocket. Call 01635 573208 before 6pm on Monday 30th June to take advantage.

Graham HillVerbatim

01635 576 700You invest time, energy and money in getting your phone to ring, but too many businesses let calls just slip through the cracks.

Those callers could be your best customers, or new customers, if you miss them, you’ll never know.That’s where Graham Hill’s company, Verbatim, can help.

EC MEMBER EXCLUSIVE DEAL!

Register your interest before 15th of June by emailing us on ecf@theofficegenie.co.uk to get our 12 week trial (worth £270 - £495) for just £120.

That’s less than half price!

Jacqui FrostOffice Genie

01604 532 022The GOK WAN of Call Handling!

The Office Genie Trial is like no other – it takes away all the guess work. You start with “The Naked Genie”, we dress her up in a range of services until you’re ready to go. You get to take home the outfit that suited you best. Accessorized only with what suits you, anything which adds weight is simply discarded.

EC MEMBER EXCLUSIVE DEAL!

EC MEMBER EXCLUSIVE DEALS

18

We’re very happy to announce that Gerald Ratner will be speaking at our Made In Britain National Event in Bolton on 7th July!

If you’re a business owner, then you’ll be familiar with the story of Gerald Ratner and, most probably, the term “Doing a Ratner”. He was the CEO of major British jewellers Ratners throughout the eighties until one joke - that joke - cost him his business, his reputation and his fortune in 1992.

But the story didn’t end there. In what promises to be a very humorous and engaging talk, Gerald will tell us how he turned everything around.

When he’s not regaling audiences with tales from his life in business, Ratner runs Gerald Online, his online jewelry business.

Gerald Online is now over ten years old, worth an estimated £35million and is the UK’s largest online jewellery retailer.

Not too bad for someone once touted as “the poster boy for failure” (Gerald’s words, not ours!)…

Come and see Gerald Ratner at our “Made In Britain” National Event in Bolton on 7th July.

You’ll also be listening to (and taking home) nuggets from Nige, so it really isn’t something you want to miss out on.

For more information and to book your ticket then go to:

www.nigelbotterill.com/events-2014

...or phone our Member Support Team on 0121 765 5551

See you there!

DOING ARATNERWe’re

(sort of...)

BIG LESSON OF THE MONTH CONT’D...

18

If you deploy some of the progressive marketing techniques that you’ve learnt through EC, and spend a full six hours focused only on getting and keeping customers, do you think you could generate more than, say, £100 in sales?

You bet you could - and the value of those customers will increase over time as well. That’s why, you and I both know that if you’re hanging onto “menial” tasks like these then you’ve got a mental blockage which is completely sabotaging your progress in business and you’ll never aspire to the heights that you dream of until you deal with it.

Fortunately, we can help you with this too, because Tracy Irwin of TI Payroll & Accounting is someone that we’ve known now for several years and lots of EC members use her services.

She uses Cloud-based systems (so you never even need to meet with her) and the benefits to your sales and profits can be really significant.All the people I’ve mentioned in this article are Trusted Suppliers so you can use them knowing that myself and the EC stand squarely behind them.

I’ve given them space in the panels below to explain a little bit more about what they do, but the smart thing to do, if I’ve struck a cord here, is to give them a call and have a chat.If you want to get more stuff done and you haven’t addressed these two elements then you know, deep down, that it needs tackling.

And there’s no time like the present...

Monday 7th July 2014National Event

19

CLIMBING THE ROCKFACE

If there is such a thing as a ‘learning rock face’, a totally vertical rock face, then that’s what my first six weeks were like- in the best possible way. If I was to list every single thing that I’d learned since joining the team, then that would be this issue filled (actually, that would have made my job much easier…), so here are just a few...

Taking responsibilityI’ve always been described as ‘responsible’. Every school report, there it was- responsible. It wasn’t until I got a bit older that I realised that, sometimes, responsible is used as gentler way of saying ‘boring’, but I try not to think about that. I was always great at taking responsibility for the things that were given to me, but was often too timid to ask for more responsibility.

I joined the EC as Social Media Manager, and I still am, but when the last editor of the Circular decided to hang up his…typewriter (?), I sidled up to Mark Creaser and said “Is there, possibly, a bit of a chance that I could, maybe, write some stuff for the Circular?” Not the smoothest, most confident proposal, sure, but I did find myself sitting opposite Nigel in his office about 4 hours later being offered the role of editor.

It’s only now that I feel like I understand ‘responsibility’ a bit better. You can’t really take on any responsibility without a certain amount of self-belief. You really have to believe that you can own something and make it great.

My almost-conversation with Mark meant that I must have had a bit of self-belief, or else I wouldn’t have even broached the subject, and luckily, the fact that Nigel was willing to take a risk on me – that he thought I could do a good job, provided the rest of that I needed; think of it as borrowing a bit of belief.

S*** systemsSometimes I am an idiot. I try very hard not to be, but sometimes it happens. Thankfully, at Botty Towers, if you’re being an idiot then it will always be pointed out to you. This has happened to me a few times, but I’m just going to stick to recalling the one, for now.I was, before the big move around, lucky enough to have two screens on my desk.

One of those screens belonged to a Mac and it was covered in Post-it notes - it was possibly the most expensive noticeboard going. Anyway, Nigel came into the office, was struck by a lightning bolt of inspiration and told me to ‘remember that for next month’s circular’. I dutifully grabbed a Post-it note, scribbled everything down and then stuck it onto my noticeboard/Mac. Nigel watched me and said “That’s an interesting system you’ve got there.”

I knew he was about to tell me of a better system, and he did- forget Post-its, email yourself. Me and my precious Post-it notes felt ridiculous. Emailing myself was a much better system- all of my amazing, earth-moving ideas would be safe and sound.

The point that this illustrated to me really was that sometimes, even when I think I’m being super-efficient and organized, in reality, my brain is being lazy. There was clearly a better way of doing this, but my brain couldn’t be bothered to look for it.

Who you hang around with (at work) matters. A lot. I spend more time with my colleagues (or work buds, I prefer work buds) than I do with my own family. So, it’s a good job that my work buds are all ridiculously smart- it’ll make me smarter, won’t it?

Before I joined the EC, I worked in very small businesses. At most, I was used to working with two other people. Not only was the office as dynamic and fun as a cheese sandwich (I’m talking Tesco Value, here) but no one really knew anything and wasn’t really that bothered about knowing anything. It’s frustrating and it drags you down.

A sports metaphor about raising your game would work perfectly here, but I’m not really very sporty, at all; so, as much as it pains me, I’ve chosen a stereotypically girly metaphor of clothes - if you’re around people who look great all the time, then you put more effort in to making yourself look great too, don’t you? No one wants to be the group scruff.

Now, I’m surrounded by people who know so much about what they do that my tiny, untrained brain can barely comprehend it- people like Nigel, Phil, Mark and even Smithy. They’re all ridiculously knowledgeable and it makes me want to be ridiculously knowledgeable too- I want to be in the club!

So, those were just a few of the little holes that you I’ve pulled myself up the rock face on (I’m no rock climber, can you tell?) over the last few weeks. It’s a rock face that I’ll never reach the end of, I’ve realised that, but what do you do when you get to the top of a big ol’ mountain anyway? Stand still? Enjoy the view?

I think I would get bored after ten minutes.

3 Things I learned in my first month at Botty Towers…It’s standard for people who come into a new job to describe their first few weeks in the role as ‘a learning curve’. Maybe, if they’re working in an intense environment, they might describe it as a ‘steep learning curve’. I thought about whether this applied to my first few weeks at Botty Towers and decided that no, it doesn’t. Not even a little bit.

“

“By Alice Tew

20

“

REBRANDING

The decision to rebrand DesCom wasn’t made overnight. It was actually the product of a seed planted in my mind at last year’s National Entrepreneur’s Convention; one thing was deeply embedded in my psyche- “It’s all about relationships.”

Now, a rebrand isn’t something you should take lightly (Hull City AFC take note…). It’s your core identity; how you’re perceived by the outside world and how you’re judged (rightly or wrongly) by those who don’t know you. We realised that as a company our identity was very ambiguous...

If you looked at our previous website and literature we could’ve been anyone. We lacked that essence of who we really are and what we stand for.

So we changed our name from Design Community to DesCom. Where did it come from? It was born out of simplicity, and a little laziness, if I’m honest.

Right from the very earliest days the company has internally and affectionately been referred to as DesCom, but it felt exciting to give the business an internal boost and to feel that the coming year was going to be amazing!

We picked April 1st (April Fools Day) as our launch date - forget April Fools Day, we wanted to promote DesCom Day.

It was time for serious action. We’d already started the build up/tease campaign on social media, newsletters and e-news three weeks beforehand. We then refined and updated our data list and hand picked 50 companies within a 60 mile radius that we wanted to work with.

Our plan was to produce bespoke cake boxes and hand deliver Happy DesCom Day party packs that contained a time limited offer to get a 27.6% discount off their first project with us.

We also produced 1,000 seperate DesCom Day Birthday Cards containing another offer – the chance to win £6,000 worth of work from us once we’d directed them to a squeeze page on our site and extracted the info we wanted from them.

All of this was backed up with full social media promotion, blogs, a series of e-newsletters, PPC and a high degree of local visibility.

The results? Well, so far they’ve massively exceeded expectations, with four new confirmed clients within three weeks of launch, three more that are close to coming on board plus loads of new leads via our competition squeeze page.

Damn you, Botterill, and your good ideas - you’ve gone and done it again!

It started with a (new) name...Nic Johnson of DesCom is no April fool...

After listening to Nige speak at last year’s convention, Nic Johnson couldn’t shake the feeling that it was time to rebrand his business. Here’s how he did it.

AN EC BAFTA WINNER!

We’d like to send a huge congratulations to EC member Jeremy Tidy and the team at Happy Graphics for their BAFTA win!

On the 27th April Happy Graphics were awarded a Television Craft Award in recognition of the outstanding creative and technical teamwork behind Strictly Come Dancing.

Jeremy’s team are part of a wider group of designers and animators who work to provide all of the stuff that makes Strictly Come Dancing, and It Takes Two, look so amazing.

Happy Graphics provide the Live Graphics systems for the show and the award is great win for them.

Just in case a BAFTA isn’t enough, Jeremy and his team have recently picked up The Voice UK as another huge entertainment show for them to provide graphics for, as well as enjoying an increased revenue of 45% for the year to date.

Well done to Jeremy and everyone at Happy Graphics!

20

“

21

COMMUNICATIONS

I know I bang on about it, but the reality is that more sales in my business are generated by emails than any other piece of marketing.

The problem though, when you’re marketing via email, is that your customer’s inbox is very crowded and getting them to open and even read your message is not a trivial challenge, and that’s before we tackle the big issue of “conversion”.

There are some great practitioners of email within EC, and I’ve talked about it and highlighted many from the stage over the last couple of years. I thought it might be helpful, however, if I shared with you the formula and approach that I use when I’m crafting that week’s emails during my 90 minute session (usually on a Monday).

Step 1 – Short or Long?

Most of the emails we send now are fairly short. Some are only a few lines.

Occasionally, it is appropriate to go into more depth, but we found, over the years, that, broadly speaking, less is better.

There’s no definitive right or wrong here though, just through testing the different types of email and tracking your open rates and click-throughs that you’ll discover the length that resonates best with your customers and potential customers.

Step 2 – The Goal

I’m not going to pretend that I spend hours mapping this out but, before I start any email. I do think about the following things:

• What do I want them to do when they read this email?

• Who, exactly, is it going to (I picture them sat the other side of my desk whilst I’m writing)?

• What is my offer?• What have we done that’s worked

before on stuff like this?

Step 3 – Write The Subject Line

Way too many people treat the subject line as an afterthought - it is arguably the single most important element in every email ever written.

Think about it, the only factors that influence whether or not your email gets opened and read is the subject line and who the email is from.

We all make decisions, every single day, to delete emails without opening – and those are the two factors. Once you recognise this you’ll start to devote much more time to getting better at crafting Subject Lines.

In the panel on the right I’ve included some of the best subject lines (as ranked by Open Rate) from our own marketing over the last 12 months, my good friend Ryan Deiss’s experiences also and from a handful of very accomplished EC members who do very well in this field. Feel free to swipe and deploy …

Step 4 – Photo/Image?

Most of our emails do rely solely on copy, but we’ve seen, in recent months, a slight increase in response when we’re using images.

This is particularly true if you want people to watch a video. We put what looks like a picture of the video with a play button on it and the whole thing is effectively a clickable link that sends people through to the landing page that contains the video. Works very well.

Step 5 – A High Impact Intro...

How many emails start with bland messages like “I can’t believe we’re three months into the year …”, “Spring has sprung …”, “How are you?”.

These people are throwing away readership at a hefty rate.

We try really hard to appeal to people’s self-interest and curiosity in the opening of our email. Often we’ll link into a story - it’s usually quite specific (certainly when we do it well!).

Step 6 – Right Call To Action

You need to make it crystal clear EXACTLY what you want people to do. I still see lots of emails, some even from accomplished marketers, that are lacking in any clear direction. You must tell them what to do. The clearer the better. Just imagine that Homer Simpson is your customer. That’s how clear you have to be.

Step 7 – Provide Proof

This can be by quoting facts and figures or using quotes from other people as testimonials. Done well it can make the email much more readable and it builds confidence and increases the chances of getting action taken. Step 8 – Write the PS

Normally your PS should restate the offer, but it can also be used to communicate other reasons that the reader should act now.

Step 9 – Make Sure You Answer The Most Important Question...

With any email, your reader is asking him or herself “What’s in it for me?”.

If you look back and reflect, honestly, on the emails that grab your attention or that you read today then the common thread will be that they all have something in it for you. That’s why you can’t become overly self-indulgent when you’re writing to your customers. They’re not interested in you, only what you can do for them.

Step 10 – Embrace Failure

I think this is probably the most important step when it comes to writing emails that sell and convert. I’ve written lots of emails that have not generated any kind of meaningful response. I learn from what happened and I try not to make those mistakes again.

One of the most useful techniques is to just picture yourself at your customer’s PC or desktop, or maybe they’re in the car sat at some traffic lights, when your email pops into their inbox. By putting yourself in their shoes and thinking how they would think you’ll dramatically increase your chances of constructing an email that they’ll want to open, read and take the appropriate action. It’s only when we forget about our customers and craft our email marketing from our own ivory tower that we get lots of things wrong.

Put yourself in their shoes … and you won’t go far wrong.

How To Write Great Emails That CONVERT

TOP RANKED SUBJECT LINES:

Facebook traffic is dead

I feel kinda sorry for you

Bad news...

Only stupid business owners will ignore this

I blame Kevin Costner

Man fights off attackers whilst holding fish and chips

I think there’s problem with your website

22

SHINY OBJECT SYNDROME

Recently, I’ve been privy to more than a few discussions that have gone a little something like this:

-“What social networks should I be using?”- “Try this, it works for us, it should work for you too…”- “The more the merrier…”- “Use the ones that you like best…”

It’s taken all my strength not to wade in and say “Woah, woah, WOAH. What happened to the three Ms? You know, the mantra that all EC members have woken up murmuring at one point or another? Market, message, media?”

Just because we’re online, it doesn’t mean that we can forget Nige’s most salient advice!

Quickly reciting ‘market, message, social media’ to yourself before you log in to your Facebook account or start scrolling through an endless stream of tweets will give your social media marketing some purpose.

Consider your MARKET, carefully. Who are they? What is your ideal customer profile?

What do you know about their interests, how they spend their leisure time, who else they spend money with and what their daily routines are?

It’s important to be clued up on where your customers are hanging out online, it’s time to get a bit Fatal Attraction on them, I’m afraid. It’s only once you know where your customers are that you can focus your social media efforts and adapt your MESSAGE to fit their online environment- the message that you’re sending out on Facebook will most likely be different for the message that you want to send out on LinkedIn, for example.

So, before you go spending any more time on social, why not just take a bit of time to reflect on your customer avatar and how it translates into social media activity.

Most importantly, do you know that the networks you’re using are actually the ones where your current and potential customers or clients actually spend regular chunks of time?

Or are you just there because it’s the new place to be and you want to hang out, virtual shades on, looking uber-cool?

If it’s the latter then, I’m sorry to be the one to have to tell you, you’re suffering from Shiny Object Syndrome. Pinterest is a great example of this.

Lots of us signed up and immediately became hypnotized by the pretty pictures, without considering whether our market are actually on there, pinning away.

When it comes to selecting your (social) MEDIA, you should pinpoint the one network that your potential customers and clients are most active on, and get really good at that and make sure you know how to get results that you want. Then, move on to learning about the next best one and how to use that one effectively- each network is different, with different slants and ninja-tricks.

Seriously, that’s the only way to cure Shiny Object Syndrome.

Please, folks – spend some time working through the Three Ms as they really do apply to social media if you want to get the best results from it. That’s the key to making every minute count and getting your triple M rating top-notch! Don’t forget to let me know how you get on!

MARKET, MESSAGE, (social) MEDIA?By ‘Exeter Gal’ & EC Trusted Supplier Julia Bramble of BrambleBuzz

SWEET TREAT

22

So recently I bought a bar of galaxy, nothing unusual - not for me anyway...

But I noticed a pretty tasty offer that I couldn’t refuse; text the word galaxy to 88802 every hour for a chance to win a Kindle. Texting was free. And who honestly would remember to text every hour?

…I still think I’m in with a pretty good shot of winning that kindle. (Ooh, I’m going to read so many books!)

But then, as I was typing the word ‘galaxy’ into a text box for the 8th time it hit me...

I’m spending most hours thinking about the word ‘galaxy’. Galaxy chocolate. Galaxy the brand.

What a bloody amazing way to get people to remember your product!

No word of a lie - on Friday I actually bought a bar of galaxy for Emma Spark (a fellow Marketeer).

I am but a pawn in this chocolatey game of chess. Being one of the crack team of Copywriters & Marketeers don’t be surprised if a few of you spot this in a future campaign! (Big shout out to my niches)

Seriously though, keep this in mind if you want to try a bit of promotional activity yourself - it doesn’t always have to be a MASSIVE offer with an intricate message.

It may be as simple as just getting people to go to your website constantly, or sending an email or in this case, a text...

Clearly it works!

See you soon! Alicja Galax- oh, I mean King...

By Marketeer and Chocolate Addict Alicja KingGalaxy anyone?

23

MARKETING LESSONS

1 2 3

Three Quick and EasiesThree rapid fire marketing initiatives that Nige has spotted this month. On your marks, get set...

Five-Star Days

Free Sunglasses Cleaner

Google’s Direct Mail

It was Mrs B’s birthday in May and, loving husband that I am (!) I got her a card!

I’ll spare you an insight into the card choice that I made (!) but what is worthy of note is the little marketing piece that fell out onto the table when I unwrapped the cellophane.

You can see a copy of it above. I have no idea who “Woodmansterne” are, but there’s someone pretty smart in their marketing department, because they’re promoting their gifts to people at exactly the right time. It’s a classic market/media match.

The message isn’t too bad either – a nice link with an implied discount code.

It could be made better, of course, with a phone number (tracking number obviously!) and I think, in this instance, the inclusion of some price indications would also drive up response, but it’s a great way for this company to get their product in the hands of exactly the right people at EXACTLY THE RIGHT TIME.

Who else is selling things to people who could become your customers?

Start talking to them, because there’ll be deals to be done and opportunities to be exploited. It rarely costs much money, but can bring about step change...

Mrs B features in this one as well, because last year she bought some designer sunglasses from a boutique in Solihull that, when she bought them, offered her a lifetime supply of free sunglasses cleaner. Very smart move this because, with a number of foreign trips pending, Sue realised she needed to keep her glasses in tiptop condition, so in she popped for a replenishment to her sunglasses cleaning kit.

Forty minutes later she walked out with a brand new pair of £350 sunglasses!

Now, easy though it would be to make fun of my wife at this point and suggest that this was all her doing – the truth is rather different. If they had not offered the free sunglasses cleaner she would not have gone back into that shop. Period. If you’re in retail (off-line or online) what can you be doing that makes it a no-brainer for people to come back and visit you? Because when they do, some of them will end up spending more money.

Again, all this requires is thought rather than money, or indeed much time/effort. But of course most people don’t think that much, which is why they languish amongst the 60% of businesses who get by or the 20% who are struggling.

To get in the 1%, the 4%, or the 15% then this is exactly the type of thing that you need to do.

Oh the irony! I got a lovely parcel from Google three weeks ago. Seven different items of paper in there, all personalised. It was a contest to win a trip to sunny California and it all hinges around Adwords and the usage of it.

What should not be lost on anyone here is the fact that Google, the world’s dominant online marketing company, who own the platform that is Adwords, are using good old fashion direct mail to get people to use it.

If that doesn’t get you thinking that direct mail ought to have a place in your business, then I don’t know what will.

It’s just media – so getting in that market and message match first is really important, but there will be lots of past customers, for instance, who would love to get something in the post from you and, when they send it, they’ll get a response.

My Mastermind Groups this year are awash with members who are getting really great returns on direct mail. It encompasses all sorts of sectors, all sorts of products and all sorts of markets. No-one’s dropping it cold - it’s always going to people with whom there is some sort of relationship already - but when it’s done properly its effect can be devastating, and our direct mail

campaigns for EC remain at the top of the tree in terms of our top performing marketing pillars.

Like I said, if this doesn’t get you into gear, and adding direct mail to your 90 minute chunks this month, then...

24

TACTICS TO DEPLOY IN YOUR BUSINESS

Success Story

In the last month we have had some amazing success stories from our members, all of whom have made real strides in making their businesses into the success that they want it to be. Our new resident success champion Alice Tew has been gathering the finest examples from across the EC and you can see them all by heading over to www.nigelbotterill.com/success

As well as this month’s Success Story Roll Call, we’ve also picked out two of the most impressive success stories from the last four weeks, which we hope will inspire you and your business.

Laura Moxham - Tech AngelsVanessa Lanham-Day - On Track MarketingDelyth Jones - AnswerMyPhoneSara Cheeney - Pure PerfectionDaniel Verrells - Beeline Data ServicesJames Nicholson - SEO DeskRachel Naylor - Rachel Naylor Tracy Irwin - TI PayrollMichael Little - Loinim MediaJoanne Sparkes - ExpedioPauline Davidson - Partners Hair & BeautySimon Eastwood - The Jonas CentreSnezana Knowles - Granny’s SecretPeter Barker - Wildgoose EventsChris Waldron - Bolton JoineryGary Walton - Sports Pro UK Mike Chance - Colour Wave PrintingHilary Nuns - Can Do CoursesNeil Dudman - Pear Tree Childcare GroupMark Hammond - Abacus Marquee Hire

When the opportunity arose for Tristan Reakes to tender for a £250,000 project situated close to his office, he decided to approach things a little differently and in doing so proved that it’s not always the price that secures the deal.

For the first time ever, Tristan suggested that the client take a look at the W. J Trotman Builders website, as he had recently completed some similar projects, the photos of which could be viewed online.

However, Tristan was aware that the photos didn’t do the work justice and so he asked the client whether they would like to visit the sites with him and view the work firsthand.

Tristan picked up the clients and showed them around the projects. They were extremely impressed and emailed Tristan the following afternoon to say that he had secured the job.

So, after a morning’s work and a few well-written emails, Tristan had managed to land a £250,000 contract and pick up 6 months work for half of his team.

Great work Tristan - this is a brilliant example of how, sometimes, price isn’t everything!

Tristan Reakes - Trotman Builders

Focusing on professionalism rather than price wins Tristan a £250,000 contract.

Roll Call

25

This year Derek Mason decided to focus on specialising and developing niche areas of his business, Super Structures Associates, one of these being Forensic Engineering; this is the process used to investigate when something goes wrong with a building or construction project.

When Derek was recently contacted and asked to assist in such a case, he realised that his skills and experience were critical to achieving success for his potential client- and he told them so! Derek also decided to raise his price per hour by 250% for this specialised form of engineering.

The client agreed without attempting to reduce the fee, meaning that this project alone earned Derek £25,000.

“It just goes to show that if you’re confident in your abilities and explain the value of your skills and experience to your client then you can increase your rates and still win the project, and be paid what you are worth,” Derek says.

“Hopefully this will encourage others in the EC to have the confidence to follow suit.”

Derek Mason - Super Structures Associates

Targeting a niche earns Derek £25,000

Eddie Johnson has been a member of the EC since January and since then he has really tried to focus his attention on building marketing pillars.

Historically, April is a slower month for Eddie’s insurance business, Isis, so he decided to work on constructing some new marketing pillars to give April’s takings a boost. Inspired by a chat with Ed Pearson, Eddie revamped a previous direct mail campaign, set up a new Google Adwords campaign and also agreed two new affiliate partnerships.

The results have been fantastic, growing the business by over 40%.

April 2014 has been the best April in 9 years for Eddie, producing £58,000 of income from completely new clients.

Going forward, Eddie has even bigger plans for May and is preparing to launch new direct mail campaigns, as well as implementing a new CRM system in order to cope with all of the increased enquiries!

Congratulations Eddie- a true testament to how focusing on your marketing can really pay off!

Eddie Johnson - Isis Insurance

Constructing marketing pillars brings Eddie £58,000

AskNigelIf you’ve got a queston that you’d like answered, just log on to the members website and ‘Ask Nigel’.

It’s not working...From: Richard Cale, Aqua Essentials

“When a customer requests a catalogue from our website we send it out the same day. One week later, if they haven’t ordered, we send out a flyer telling them more about the products we have and how they benefit them …

Seven days later, again if they haven’t ordered, they get a second flyer - which is all about them and answers more common questions.

A further week later flyer number 3 is sent out …

And ultimately 4 weeks after they requested that catalogue the final flyer goes out. After flyer number 4 we stop sending them info and give up.

I’ve been very careful with my flyers and I believe they are written well, but the problem is this approach is not working very well at all. We’re not getting any conversions. Should I be calling them after flyer 4 and asking their opinion?”

It sounds like you’ve got a reasonably good process here, but what’s missing from your question is precise numbers. Before I can give you proper advice we need to know exactly what “not many conversions” is. We can then extrapolate those numbers and see if this activity is generating any kind of positive response or not. It’s very dangerous to assume here and I won’t be drawing to conclusions without the hard data.

However, there are a couple of things that I’d definitely try which are likely to improve your situation. The first one, as you suggest, is to get on the phone and speak to them. I wouldn’t wait until week 4, as you suggest. On the contrary, I’d be jumping on the phone on day 2 or 3. I might even call them on the day they request the catalogue.It would be a very friendly call thanking them for requesting the catalogue and finding out exactly what it is that they’re looking for help with.

As you probably know, I’ve invested heavily in a new telephone sales team this year - there are currently 10 members of that team and it’s set to grow much more in the second half of the year. They have transformed the growth rate of our business.

There is no doubt that, in almost every business, the more conversations you have with potential customers the more sales you make and requesting a catalogue on your website is a great excuse to give someone a ring. Try it and see.

The other change I’d make is that I would swap out one of the later flyers for a straightforward letter. You see, a flyer is a piece of sales material and that’s not necessarily the case with a letter. Something short and sweet, that would fit on a single sheet of paper which says something along the lines of “You asked for our catalogue but you haven’t placed any orders yet and I’m just wondering why?

Are we not carrying the right products, was it not what you were looking for, have we upset you in some way? Please let me know …”

In other words, a very personal letter that specifically elicits a response. It’ll make you stand out and, certainly when we’ve used this kind of approach, has a very good ratio at generating responses.

I hope that helps.

Nige Says:

26

27

A WARM WELCOME TO...

Aaron DronsfieldAdam PenfoldAdele BryantAdrian CookAdrian MooreAgneta LindbergAlan ScaplehornAlan SmithAlan SpenceAlex YoungAlex SharmanAlex EmmersonAli ShahAlison ThompsonAmanda RourkeAmanda Jane SoppAndre HedgerAndrea WainwrightAndrew StephensonAndrew LoftusAndy SpringettAndy WilkinsonAngela HarperAnne DaybellAnnette LeeAshley WilsonAtif MahfoozBarry HaegerBas BrownBoota UbhiCarina SharpCarlton BraileyCarol SullivanCarol FennellCaroline MaunderCelia AdamsChris PodwojskiChris EmeryChris BullChris DaviesChristine WhiteClayton AingerClive CamplingClive DoyleColin Tapsfield

Craig BrookeDale LeaderDaniel MurphyDarren FawcettDarren GeorgeDave EvansDave CottrellDavid BruceDavid EmeryDavid SteadDavid CoxDean StarbuckDeborah ThompsonDermot MurphyDick BirdDonna ObstfeldFuzail JamallGareth DinnageGary JeffreyGary LeeGeoffrey GordonGirish NakerGordon FrewGraham DavisonHannah WestonHelen McCannHelen RaymondHema RajahHiten PabariIan PhilpIjaz AkhterJack MasonJames CookJames WelshJames NewberyJames LevannaisJane WoodJason SuttonJason PassJennifer BarnesJeremy KnightJim MacmillanJoanna HerveJohanne BoneJohn Oakden

John CampaigneJohn HarrisJohn McKeownJohn ThompsonJohn MillsJohn ParkinsonJohn Michael DaneJon FieldJulie NewJuliet GossJustina TorradoKamil BouzekKamlesh MakwanaKamran MiahKaren HulattKaren Whitelaw-SmihKashif SaeedKate DuffieldKatie SandreyKeith PurkissKeith DaviesKeith PettyKen WhipdayKerry OrrKevin HamiltonKim GeddesKristina FieldsLaura FergussonLinda ScannellLisa PointinLiz NewmanLiz WareLiz PriceLiza PoerksenLubna Alam-OrthsLuke ReddingLynn HiltonLynne Austin-DuttonMadeleine MorganMaggie JacksonMarcus EarnshawMark HydeMark TraceyMark BoulcottMark Ball

Mark RobertsMark NeildMark PalmerMark InstanceMartin DedmanMartin JonesMatt DavisMatthew DaviesMatthew GawleyMegan TaylorMichael WhiteMichael CassidyMichael RogersMichael GriffithsMichele JuddMick SheehanMurray MacnaughtanNeal GurneyNeil BridglandNeil MilliganNeil ThompsonNicholas GwynneNick GoodallNick JoinerNick Fenmor collinsNicole WrightNigel DaviesNigel LumsdunNigel AsbaOli GlocklerPamela CoatesPatricia NilandPatrick JohnstonPaul HaighPaul SamspsonPaul AbbottPaul HollisPaul JenningsPeter CourtPeter CrossPhil EdwardsPieter ClaassenPravin KharwadkarRachael BrockwellRachel O’Kennedy

Rakesh DediRia CarrollRichard ClappRob BirnieRobbie SmithRoman MarszalekRon WhitcherRowan ChuckRoy GwillamSally DicksonSally TomlinsonSally PeockockSam BradleySamantha EvansSandy ReesSanjeev VirdeeSarah WilliamsonSarah CookSean TooleShaun LuxtonSian ChambersSimon HutchinsonStefan BoyleStephane Xavier MagnaniStephen DochertyStephen AllisonStephen TamsSteve TylerSteve BarberSteven BrownSusan HooperSusie MackieTaher RashidTaiwo SheteoluTim MulkernTrevor TomsValari HancockVickie NorrisVictoria BushWilliam O’keeffeWillie McLaughlinYolanda KerrZia ButtZoe Phillips

Congratulations and welcome to the latest group of forward thinking business owners that joined the Circle last month. You’ve made a smart decision! Make sure you make the most of your membership by booking on to our upcoming events (both national AND local), delving deeper into the super useful content in The Vault on the members website and taking away those valuable nuggets from the monthly Circulars to implement into your business. It’s great to have you on board as part of the EC gang.

Here are the new members who joined last month:

New members this month…

28

MAY BGA MEETINGS

Your Local Meeting Dates

2nd June Blackpool

3rd June Wigan

3rd June Preston

4th June Manchester

4th June Stockport

5th June Bradford

5th June Oldham / Rochdale

17th June Blackburn

17th June Burnley

18th June Brighouse

18th June Bolton

19th June Leeds

19th June Wakefield / Barnsley

23rd June Hull

23rd June Doncaster

25th June Harrogate

25th June York

Jay Allen REGIONAL BGA NORTH

2nd June Newcastle

3rd June Sunderland

3rd June Durham

3rd June Darlington

4th June Richmond

4th June Middlesborough

5th June Kendal

5th June Carlisle

9th June Belfast

10th June Aberdeen

11th June Dundee

12th June Glasgow

13th June Edinburgh

Gemma Toner REGIONAL BGA NORTH EAST & SCOTLAND

11th June Milton Keynes

16th June Northampton

17th June Bedford

17th June Leicestershire / Market Harborough

17th June Rugby

18th June Coventry

Robin SharpeREGIONAL BGA CENTRAL

The monthly local meetings are your opportunity to get hands-on, practical help for your business.

The meetings are all free to attend for members and

timings and venues can be found by booking your spot at

www.nigelbotterill.com/local

3rd June Warrington

4th June Liverpool

4th June Chester

9th June Hereford

10th June Stoke

10th June Macclesfield

16th June Stafford

16th June Wolverhampton

17th June Shrewsbury

17th June Telford

18th June Kidderminster

18th June Worcester

19th June Edgbaston (Birmingham)

19th June Solihull

25th June Leamington / Warwick

26th June Sutton Coldfield

26th June Tamworth / Lichfield

Andrew ScholesREGIONAL BGA NORTH WEST & CENTRAL

3rd June Stevenage / Hitchin

5th June Cambridge

5th June Bishops Stortford

10th June Huntingdon

11th June Leicestershire

11th June Leicestershire / Loughborough

12th June Peterborough

17th June Lincoln

18th June Sheffield

18th June Chesterfield / Mansfield

19th June Nottingham

19th June Derby

24th June Kings Lynn

24th June Norwich

25th June Ipswich

25th June Colchester

25th June Bury St Edmunds

Adrian CloseREGIONAL BGA EAST

29

Your Local Meeting Dates

Julia Bramble 9th June Exeter

Ian George 10th June Maidstone

Julia Bramble 11th June Plymouth

Local BGAs9th June Watford

10th June Hertford / Wellwyn

11th June Central London

11th June Ealing - West London

12th June Chelmsford

12th June Stratford - East London

16th June Dartford

16th June Farnborough

17th June Barnet - North London

18th June High Wycombe

18th June Fulham - South London

19th June Hemel Hempstead

19th June Harrow

23rd June Aylesbury

24th June Luton / St. Albans

24th June Reading

25th June Richmond / Twickenham

25th June Camberley

26th June Uxbridge

Damian Smyth REGIONAL BGA LONDON & THE HOME COUNTIES

5th June Tunbridge Wells

6th June Brighton

9th June Guildford

9th June Weybridge

10th June Farnham

10th June Godalming

11th June Dorking

11th June Epsom

17th June Crawley

24th June Southampton / Portsmouth

24th June Chichester

25th June Croydon / Bromley

Karl Anscombe REGIONAL BGA SOUTH EAST

11th June Basingstoke

12th June Newbury

Tim Savage HEAD OF REGIONAL BGAS

2nd June Weymouth

2nd June Bournemouth

4th June Salisbury

4th June Winchester

5th June Swansea

5th June Haverford West

9th June Oxford

9th June Banbury

10th June Newport / Cardiff

11th June Wells / Glastonbury

11th June Weston Super Mare

12th June Swindon

16th June Gloucester

16th June Cheltenham

17th June Bristol

17th June Trowbridge

23rd June Bath

25th June Bristol

25th June Trowbridge

Andy WilcoxREGIONAL BGA SOUTH WEST

We’ve now made it even easier to book a place at your local meeting.

Just visit www.nigelbotterill.com/local

Your upcoming local BGA Meeting dates are available online!

30

And that’s the final word…

Be Paranoid.It was handled by an experienced member of my team, someone who had been with me for over two years, but it was truly awful. I’m squirming now, as I write this, four days later. There was hardly a single thing about the call that was acceptable.

It reminded me of my trip to Rick Stein’s Delicatessen in Padstow a couple of years ago, a story which many of you will be familiar with. In short, Rick was in his shop that particular sunny Saturday to stop the sabotage. It wasn’t that his staff were out to shaft him or that they were malicious in anyway, just that they weren’t doing their jobs properly in the way that he wanted, nor were they doing everything.

The fishmonger wasn’t talking about the scallops and offering them as the perfect starter and the lady on the till had forgotten all about her job to build Rick’s database by getting customers to fill in the data collection forms. Simple things that make a difference. Either way. Whether they’re done or not. And that’s exactly how it was with this particular phone call.

What’s interesting is, the customer left the call perfectly happy. She would never have complained because, from her experience, there was nothing to complain about. But, metaphorically speaking, my guy had not sold the scallops, or got the data form filled in – he was sabotaging my business in a meaningful and substantive way.

Whose fault is this? Well it’s mine of course. I don’t listen to as many phone calls as I’d like, but I do listen to a big bunch of them every month and I’m getting hold of even more now following my experience last week because, you see, I know that sabotage is happening in my business.

I know that not every interaction of a member of my team and one of my dearly beloved customers goes exactly as I would like it to.

I know we’re missing opportunities to deliver value, I know that, on occasions, we’re saying the wrong thing, that we’re not following through, that we’re not thinking as effectively as we could about every scenario.

I also know that, to a large extent, it won’t ever be thus, but that cannot and must not stop me trying to fix it. The day I get complacent and think everything’s okay is the day my business begins to die. And so it is for you too. I would not trade my “conscious incompetence” for your blissful ignorance.

Just because you haven’t heard in excruciating detail one of your team talking to your customers completely inappropriately doesn’t mean it’s not happening. And these are not bad people handling these calls, don’t forget. My guy did absolutely NOT set out to do a bad thing or to disappoint. He was well intentioned, even if he wasn’t thinking properly or clearly. He was also inadequately trained – that’s my responsibility, fair and square.

It’s seductive, for all of us, to plot and plan and dream of growth and expansion and amplification. But with such things comes increased exposure and our reliance of other people becomes more and more critical to our success. We forget this at our peril.

Right now, this week, someone is sabotaging your business and it’s your job to find out who, where and why … and stop it.

I had a horrible experience a couple of weeks ago. I was driving in my car listening to recordings of some of the phone calls into Botty Towers. I’m going to spare you the details here, but there was one particular call which absolutely horrified me.

31

And that’s the final word…

MAKE YOUR NOTES & ACTION PLANS HERE…

Please use this space to map out the things that you’re going to be doing over the next four – five weeks to move your business forward. Hope it helps …

Club level membership is the

perfect next step for switched

on entrepreneurs who are

serious about seeking out the

support they need to grow their

businesses.

Sign up for a 12-month Club

membership and you’ll get all

Starter member benefits PLUS:

• A GUARANTEED 30-minute 1:1 meeting or call with Nigel

• Access to our PRIVATE Club Class Facebook group

• Exclusive member sessions at National Events

• Priority booking on ALL events

• Two Marketing Critique vouchers worth £145 each

• Exclusive advanced content in The Vault

• Your monthly Botcast CD

• Nige’s Notes – our special done-for-you reading service

Starter

The ideal starting point for

start-ups and smart business

owners looking for practical

help that will help them and

their business grow.

• Access to National Membership Events

• Marketing critique sessions

• 1:1 with one of Nigel’s expert team

• Access to The Vault

• Fortnightly phone-ins giving you the help you need

• The monthly Entrepreneur’s Circular delivered to your door

• Regular online webinars with renowned experts

Club+

Club + is our fantastic new

membership level for 2014.

Imagine if the Entrepreneur’s

Circle’s best marketing

experts were working on

YOUR business. Well, that’s

exactly what we’re offering.

Sign up for Club + and you’ll

get ALL the great benefits of

Club Membership PLUS:

• Done for you marketing material

• “How Can We Helpdesk?” Concierge

• Legal Advice Service

• £100K Accidental Death Cover

1 2 3 4

5

CLUBmember

Coming soon...

The ultimate 12-month

business growth teaching

programme.

Six areas of focus covered in

detail during two-month long

modules; each with printed

learning material, online

teaching and live one-day

Mastery Meetings.

To find out more about the

brand new Accelerate 360

membership, text “360”

followed by your name to

88802.

3 Olton Bridge, 245 Warwick Road, Solihull, West Midlands, B92 7AH Tel. 0121 765 5551

www.nigelbotterill.com

Nigel Botterill’s Entrepreneur’s Circle

FOR INFORMATION ON ANY OF THE EVENTS OR TO BOOK, CALL 0121 765 5551

Tuesday 3rd Platinum Mastermind Group 1 – Solihull

Thursday 5th Platinum Mastermind Group 2 – Solihull

Tuesday 10th PPC with Jo Davies – Solihull

Wednesday 18th Platinum Mastermind Group 3 – Solihull

Monday 30th Mastermind Group 1 - Solihull

Saturday 28th - 1st July Masterplan Event

Tuesday 5th Platinum Mastermind 1

Thursday 7th Platinum Mastermind 2

Tuesday 12th Platinum Mastermind 3

Wednesday 2nd Mastermind Group 2 – Solihull

Monday 7th National Event North - Bolton Made In Britain

Thursday 17th PPC Workshop with Jo Davies – Solihull

Thursday 24th Mastermind Group 3 – Solihull

What’s ONJune July August

A round-up of what’s coming up!

There are five levels of EC Membership: