I don’t usually brag about clients of mine but Bill Kipp definitely deserves the honor. I’ll let the video speak for itself. Wow!

Your Customer Could Be Cheering!

OK so here’s the deal. I’ll put an explanation up here about every day or so until they are all fully explained. And if you found this on it’s own…YOU HAVE TO WATCH THE VIDEO FIRST.

1. Cash Follows Clarity – Be Clear

On this I could write for a month! Easily. Many, many approaches to sales are flawed from the beginning because they do not follow ONE simple ratio: Benefit, Advantage, Feature. 95% of your message should be about the Benefit to the customer, in THEIR words!!! 4% should be about the advantage your product or service provides. And 1% should be about the features or the technical aspects. Even though this is TOTALLY OBVIOUS almost no one does this. Most ads or sales scripts or otherwise brag about how our thing does this thing with this statistic to back it up. But we forget: NO ONE CARES HOW IT DOES THAT TECHNICAL THING. You care because you know how key it is…BUT YOU ARE NOT YOUR CUSTOMER. THEY DON’T THINK LIKE YOU. THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU KNOW. They are ONLY interested in one thing: Benefit.

Here’s an easy example: Anti-lock brakes

Most business owners would make the mistake (and professional marketers too!) of going on about how the disc mechanism fires 300 times per second, with titanium alloy, reinforced hydraulic control system, blah, blah, blah. In fact, that would be most if not all of the advertisement or sales script. If you don’ think so, open the news paper, go on to any major website that posts advertisements. It’s totally insane!

Maybe there is also some content on advantage. In this case, that anti-lock brakes allow you to steer better during extreme situations.

But left far behind, usually, is the most obvious thing: THE BENEFIT: ANTI-LOCK BRAKES CAN SAVE YOUR LIFE! That message should dominate the language, the look and feel, the tone. EVERYTHING should be about this.

So, what’s YOUR marketing look like? How much Benefit is there? If it’s not there like it should be, then your marketing is NOT clear. And therefore…no cash. Cash Follows Clarity.

1. Educate Your Prospects (Coming Next)
2. Be Honest About What You Can’t Do
3. Get Interactive
4. Create an Easy Win/Win
5. Be Authentic
6. YOU Have to Go FIRST
7. Take Them All The Way to WOW!
8. Be Passionate! (It’s contagious)
9. Establish Value BEFORE Price
10. Be Clear on Payment Terms
11. Make it Clear You Understand Your Customer’s Desires and Needs
12. Ensure an Atmosphere of Partnership
13. Demonstrate True Concern for their Well-Being
14. Respect Their Time
15. Tie It Back to Your BRAND

Bonus #1: Acknowledge Early Adopters

Bonus #2: Differentiate Honestly

Here’s a VERY clear example!

Subject: Re: Should I get my wife a stun gun for her anniversary?

Hi Charlie, I was going to keep this a secret but I thought that I should forewarn you if you ever have similar thoughts.

Last weekend I saw something at Larry’s Pistol & Pawn Shop that sparked my interest. The occasion was our up-coming anniversary and I was looking for a little something extra for my wife Ruth. What I came across was a 100,000-volt, pocket/purse- sized tazer. The effects of the tazer were supposed to be short lived, with no long-term adverse affect on your assailant, allowing her adequate time to retreat to safety….??

Harmless. Right?

WAY TOO COOL! Long story short, I bought the device and brought it home. I loaded two AAA batteries in the darn thing and pushed the button. Nothing! I was disappointed. I learned, however, that if I pushed the button and pressed it against a metal surface at the same time; I’d get the blue a rc of electricity darting back and forth between the prongs. AWESOME!!!  Unfortunately, I have yet to explain to Ruth what the burn spot is on the face of her microwave.

I Will Be Good!

Okay, so I was home alone with this new toy, thinking to myself that it couldn’t be all that bad with only two triple-A batteries, right? There I sat in my recliner, with “Shadow” a small dog we take care of looking on intently (trusting little soul) while I was reading the directions and thinking that I really needed to try this thing out on a flesh & blood moving target. I must admit I thought about zapping Shadow (for a fraction of a second) and thought better of it. She is such a sweet dog. But, if I was going to give this thing to my wife to protect herself against a mugger, I did want some assurance that it would work as advertised. Am I wrong?

So, there I sat in a pair of shorts and a tank top with my reading glasses perched delicately on the bridge of my nose, directions in one hand, and tazer in another. The directions said that a one-second burst would shock and disorient your assailant; a two-second burst was supposed to cause muscle spasms and a major loss of bodily control; a three-second burst would purportedly make your assailant flop on the ground like a fish out of water. Any burst longer than three seconds would be wasting the batteries.

Not Me!

All the while I’m looking at this little device measuring about 5″20long, less than 3/4 inch in circumference; pretty cute really and (loaded with two itsy, bitsy triple-A batteries) thinking to myself, ‘no possible way!’ What happened next is almost beyond description, but I’ll do my best? I’m sitting there alone, Shadow looking on with her head cocked to one side as to say, ‘don’t do it dip,’ reasoning that a one second burst from such a tiny little ole thing couldn’t hurt all that bad. I decided to give myself a one second burst just for heck of it. I touched the prongs to my naked thigh, pushed the button, and . .. HOLY MOTHER OF GOD . . WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION . . . WHAT THE HELL!!!

I’m pretty sure Jessie Ventura ran in through the side door, picked me up in the recliner, then body slammed us both on the carpet, over and over and over again. I vaguely recall waking up on my side in the fetal position, with tears in my eyes, body soaking wet, both nipples on fire, testicles nowhere to be found, with my left arm tucked under my body in the oddest position, and tingling in my legs? The dog was making meowing sounds I had never heard before, clinging to a picture frame hanging above the fireplace, obviously in an attempt to avoid getting slammed by my body flopping all over the living room.

Pain Train!!!!

Note: If you ever feel compelled to ‘mug’ yourself with a tazer, one note of caution: there is no such thing as a one second burst when you zap yourself! You will not let go of that thing until it is dislodged from your hand by a violent thrashing about on the floor.. A three second burst would be considered conservative?
IT HURT LIKE HELL!!!

A minute or so later (I can’t be sure, as time was a relative thing at that point), I collected my wits (what little I had left), sat up and surveyed the landscape. My bent reading glasses were on the mantel of the fireplace. The recliner was upside down and about 8 feet or so from where it originally was. My triceps, right thigh and both nipples were still twitching. My face felt like it had been shot up with Novocain, and my bottom lip weighed 88 lbs. I had no control over the drooling.  Apparently I pooped on myself, but was too numb to know for sure and my sense of smell was gone. I saw a faint smoke cloud above my head which I believe came from my hair. I’m still looking for my nuts and I’m offering a significant reward for their safe return!

Uhhhh

P.s… My wife, can’t stop laughing about my experience, loved the gift, and now regularly threatens me with it!
If you think education is difficult, try being stupid!!!

I was recently in LA for a International Karate Championship. It’s by far my favorite tournament for many reasons but this year held a surprise. Having an affinity for all things “traditional Japanese” – simplicity, efficiency, discipline, etc., I was thrilled to meet an actor and accomplished martial artist who starred in Tom Cruise’s The Last Samurai.

His name is Shin Koyamada and he was gracious enough to share a photo with me! Read his story here. What an inspiration.

Shin Koyamada & Eric Beck at L.A. Tournament

My Teacher in the middle - Shihan Edwards

For more on my martial arts path you can go here.

Here are some other pictures from the LA tournament:

Japan Nat. Champ, Me, Tan

Shihan Edwards & Japan Nat. Champ

Senior Instructors

Taiko - Japanese Drumming

War Fan Kata Demonstration - Tessenjutsu

This goes in the category of “When on your way to LA”…

The Grand Canyon

i cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in waht oerdr the ltteres in a wrod are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is taht the frsit and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it whotuit a pboerlm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!

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