Issue #2051
- WEALTHY: The number one skill of successful traders (Charles Delvalle)
- HEALTHY: 2 ways to prevent, control, or reverse diabetes (Dr. Al Sears)
- WISE: John Mackey on the purpose of business
ALSO IN THIS ISSUE:
- The ready-fire-aim program for turning $5 million into $22 million (Michael Masterson)
- Reach the top 10% in anything you do (Peggy McColl)
- It’s Good to Know… about your rights as an air traveler
- Add "efface" to your vocabulary
Imagine if There Were Only 6 Numbers to Choose from When Buying a Lottery Ticket!
Wouldn’t that be great?! Of course, the less the number of choices, the more likely your chance of success, right?
How many choices are there when buying and selling shares? Errmm… a LOT! Hundreds… One of the reasons I enjoy such consistent success from trading, is because I only have 6 options to choose from! Except this is even better in a way, because the lottery is pure luck…
… I only have 6 choices AND have a VERY good idea about which choice to make because of the insider signal. Click here to learn more…
- Patrick Coffey
Patience Pays
By Charles Delvalle
The number one skill you must learn in order to make money trading stocks is patience.
A patient trader will be able to control the impulse to buy a stock because, even though its price is skyrocketing, it never quite made it down to hit his targeted "buy" price. He will also be able to keep himself from selling when his position in a stock makes a slight move against him.
A patient trader understands that opportunities to make money in the market are always present. This allows him to pass by trading setups that are less than ideal and go only for those that give him the best chance of making money.
By simply having patience, you demonstrate confidence in your trading system and in the knowledge backing up your decisions. This pays off very well in the trading world.
[Ed. Note: Charles Delvalle is a contributing editor to ETR's Investor's Daily Edge newsletter, and a regular contributor to INCOME. INCOME lets you in on the safest high-dividend-paying companies, with the goal of providing you with a total return (dividends plus capital gains) of at least 14 percent per year.]
"For us, our most important stakeholder is not our stockholders, it is our customers. We’re in business to serve the needs and desires of our core customer base."
John Mackey
How to Grow Your Business 500% in 5 Years
By Michael Masterson
When you think about growing your business, you probably think about acquiring new customers. That is usually the right strategy. But you can also increase sales by persuading your existing customers to spend more money with you. One way to do that is with "back-end" sales – selling your customers more specific, and usually higher-priced, versions of the first product they bought. Another way is with "ancillary" sales – selling them similar and similarly priced but different products.
At a recent marketing seminar sponsored by my largest client, SW, the CEO of a European division, gave a great presentation about ancillary sales. She explained that her division went from $5 million to $22 million in five years, based on a policy of launching about twice as many information products as they were accustomed to launching.
To produce more products in the same amount of time, she knew would have to either hire more people or increase the speed at which the new products were developed. "I didn’t have the budget to add new people," she said, "so I opted for speed."
When SW introduced the policy, a few people quit because they didn’t want to do the extra work. "But most everybody else was excited by the challenge," she said. "It turned out that once we got the system figured out, we were able to have more fun producing more products in less time."
What SW did impressed me. Borrowing from something she had seen another division do, she chucked the old, laborious, two-year launching program and replaced it with a streamlined, ready-fire-aim approach.
When they get an idea for a new newsletter, for example, they start by creating a short business plan that answers some basic questions:
- How is this product new or unique?
- How does it fit in our existing product line?
- Who will it be marketed to?
- What is the size of that market?
- What is the potential size of the business?
- What will the offer be?
This won’t tell them if the newsletter will succeed, but it will indicate whether they have made any major errors in thinking. One common mistake that even experienced marketers make is planning to produce a product for which there isn’t a sufficiently large market. Another one is projecting sales without having a realistic marketing plan based on what they know about selling similar products to the same market.
Once the obvious and avoidable mistakes have been eliminated by this very minimal amount of planning, they have a creative meeting to create a rough sketch of what the newsletter will do, how it will look, who will write it, etc.
Then they hire a writer and give him a three-month contract to produce prototype issues. They explain to him that the newsletter is completely experimental and might not continue at all if they find there is no market for it. They also explain that even if it continues, they will likely require him to change it a great deal during those three months – and that even if they are happy with the changes, there is no guarantee they will use him to write future issues.
With that accomplished, they locate a good copywriter and have him produce a relatively short (four to eight pages) sales letter to recruit a test panel from their existing subscriber base. They run this ad on their website, offering 100 readers the chance to get the new publication for free in return for their willingness to provide feedback.
They usually get several hundred volunteers right away. They select 100 of them and begin fulfilling the new service by Internet delivery (even if it is intended to be produced in print later on).
"During this time, we ask [the sample subscribers] a lot of questions about what they like and don’t like about the newsletter," SW told us. "And at the end of the 90-day trial period, we bring our team together for a full-day focus group.
"We end up with a much better product than we had at the beginning, because of all the specific feedback we get," SW added. "And we also have better ideas about how to sell it."
This is a superb, ready-fire-aim approach to launching information products. Aside from the fact that it results in a better, more saleable product, it cuts their start-up time in half – from six months (which was already pretty good by industry standards) to less than three months.
I love the idea of writing a sales letter to recruit a panel of sample subscribers, because it forces the publisher to think about all the important selling considerations from the get-go:
- The promotion’s "big" idea
- The product’s "unique selling proposition"
- The prospects’ core emotion as it relates to the intended sale
The sooner you begin thinking about these and other key marketing questions, the better. They are the questions your prospects are going to be asking themselves when they see the ad you will ultimately be using to attract new subscribers.
Another thing I love about this approach is the idea of launching the product through your existing customer base – because your existing customer base should always be your best market. If the new product doesn’t sell quickly (especially when you’re "selling" it for free) to your house list, it almost certainly won’t work when you advertise it elsewhere.
I also love the fact that there is little cost involved in producing the product – nothing but the three-month contract with the writer. A conventional info product launch is expensive, because the publisher has to gear up for print. even though the initial quantities he’ll need will be very low.
I like, too, that the writer can get gradual feedback directly from a group of sample subscribers over the course of 90 days. That is much better than getting speculative suggestions from an editor who may know no more about how future readers will react to the newsletter than the writer does. Getting writers to cooperate with suggested changes is always difficult. Done this way, I’d think it would be much easier.
All that feedback has got to give the advertising team plenty of strong, new ideas for future marketing campaigns. And out of 100 free subscribers, they are likely to end up with several dozen compelling, personal testimonials on the value of the product – some of which might be expressed with dramatic stories that can be used in later promotions.
One more thing about this approach to new-product development that I want to mention: By announcing to your house file that a new product is being tested, you create anticipation. And, to keep them interested, I would recommend that you continue to update them on the progress you’re making with it, including the changes you’re making. That way, when the product is finally released, many of them will subscribe.
I’m going to recommend this program to my other clients. You might want to adapt something like it to your business, too.
[Ed. Note: If you decide to implement a new-product-development plan like this in your business, we'd be interested to hear from you - to learn how you did it and how it is working. Write to us at ReaderFeedback@gmail.com.
In the meantime, if you want to launch your own brand-new Internet-based business, consider signing up for our 5 Days in July Internet Business-Building Conference. You don't need a website, a product, or even any experience with the Internet. We'll help you develop a REAL online business that will throw off profits for years to come. Spots are filling up quickly, so sign up now.]
Beat Diabetes With 2 Overlooked Minerals
By Al Sears, MD
Lowering your blood sugar should be your first goal to prevent or reverse diabetes. And there are two nutritional supplements I often give my patients to provide them with a powerful support system to help handle more blood sugar and restore good health.
Vanadium, a crucial trace mineral, mimics the action of insulin. That means it helps move glucose from the blood into the cells where it can be used as energy. It works by making cells more sensitive to insulin, which stimulates the movement of glucose into them. It also inhibits the absorption of glucose from the gut, reducing damaging glucose and insulin spikes. In one study, people with diabetes took a vanadium supplement for three weeks – and the average participant’s blood sugar levels dropped by 10 percent.
Chromium is another important mineral to help control or reverse diabetes. In one study, a group of diabetics took chromium picolinate for 30 days. By the end of that time, participants’ cholesterol had dropped an average of 19 points, with their LDL cholesterol (the kind that can contribute to heart disease) dropping by more than 10 points. Even more important, their average fasting blood sugar level fell by 26 mg/dL.
Take vanadium as vanadyl sulfate, 150 mg once a day with meals. The most effective chromium is chromium picolinate. Take 600 mcg once a day with meals. Both are widely available.
[Ed. Note: Dr. Sears, a practicing physician and the author of The Doctor's Heart Cure, is a leading authority on longevity, physical fitness, and heart health.]
Confidence!
By Peggy McColl
Years ago, when I was a vice president of corporate development, I created a system that was used to evaluate our employees and determine the amount of their yearly bonuses. And I found it curious that when the employees were measured against the standards of my system, very few had performed at the highest level.
While all of them had earned a bonus, only 10 percent had gotten the full incentive that was available to those who met all their performance goals.
I asked the president of the company, "If you look at the people in this top 10 percent who achieved the maximum bonus, what do you think they have in common?" Without hesitation, he said "Confidence. They exude confidence, so they get results."
Confidence is a belief in yourself and your abilities that delivers to you the things you want. What you desire may not come exactly when you expect it, or in the form you’d imagined, but make no mistake: Confidence is a tremendously powerful emotion that will change your vibration and bring you what you hope for.
Confidence will lift you up no matter what the challenge, helping you access all your personal resources. By feeling faith in yourself, you’ll be aware of your many gifts and be able to use them to make your situation better. If you’ve lost your job, you’ll remember all your strengths, talents, and connections with other people who can help you find a new and better one. If you’ve ended a relationship or friendship, you’ll know for certain that you’ll attract a loving, wonderful partner or friend, and your confidence will draw them in just as if you were a magnet.
Don’t talk yourself out of feeling self-assured, and don’t let anyone else try to either. Only you know what you’re capable of and the passion you have for your goal. Your confidence will be like a strong tailwind pushing you toward your destiny.
[Ed. Note: This article was adapted from Peggy McColl's book, Your Destiny Switch: Master Your Key Emotions, and Attract the Life of Your Dreams.]
It’s Good to Know: Your Rights as an Air Traveler
Delays, cancellations, and missed connections are a common feature of air travel, and passengers who don’t know their rights can be taken advantage of by airlines. Major carriers have filed "conditions of carriage" with the U.S. Department of Transportation that spell out what they will provide travelers with under various circumstances, including free meal vouchers, hotel accommodations, phone calls and other services, as well as booking substitute flights on other airlines and even full refunds.
Travel experts recommend that you carry a copy of your airline’s "conditions of carriage" when you travel. Don’t count on the ticket agent to have a copy… or even know his airline’s policies.
(Source: Mytravelrights.com)
Word to the Wise: Efface
To "efface" (ih-FAYS) – from the French – is to (1) wipe out or erase, or (2) shyly/modestly make yourself inconspicuous.
Example (as used by Sylvia Plath in The Bell Jar): "Glancing at her – myopic, spinsterish, effaced – I wondered how she knew she had graduated at all, and, unlike her clients, was whole and well."
[Ed. Note: Become a more persuasive writer and speaker ... build your self-confidence and intellect ... increase your attractiveness to others ... just by spending 10 VERY enjoyable minutes a day with ETR's new Words to the Wise CD Library.]
Michael Masterson
Copyright ETR, LLC, 2007
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