Making Your First Million.pdf - Association of Net Entrepreneurs and ...

Making Your First Million
survived on the knowledge I am sharing with you. You don't have to get big or get out.
But you do have to get smart. Understand your customer. Look after her well. Whenever
I travel I take my top 500 customers mail list and in the boring times I write them a
postcard. Whenever I send a postcard I get a 35% response within a week and a 70%
response within 2 months. I sent a postcard to my top customer purporting the photo to be
a view from the farm. He rang and said: "Is that really the view from your farm?" I told
him: "No. Poetic license. It's the view near the farm. Why don't you come and see for
yourself?" He came for lunch the following week with his family and the week after that
spent $27,000 with me.
Get close to your customer. Get to know her. I say "her" because 80% of retail customers
are women. A man tends not to shop. But he does buy and will often outspend his wife on
a single outing so don't neglect him. To get close you will need information. And to get
information you will need to ask. I am amazed at what people will tell you when you ask.
But you will do better if you reward them. You will need a database and I find if you give
people something for nothing or even the chance to win $25,000 (the chance to win a $1
scratch lottery ticket. How miserable can you get?) they will tell you everything you ask
them.
To build your database you'll need the following information: 1) Her first name. 2)
Surname: 3) Address 4) Her birthdate 5) What she wants to buy next. 6) Phone and/or fax
#. 7) Email address 8) Partner's first name. 9) Partner's birthdate 10) Wedding
anniversary 11) The names and addresses of friends with similar interests etc. Give her a
VIP club membership card and number and each time she purchases you build an
increasingly useful profile. From this it is easy to send her a letter targeted to her needs
and interests. We could send her husband a letter reminding him of her birthday or their
wedding anniversary. We could automatically fax or email birthday greetings or discount
vouchers. In March a customer rang to thank me for her birthday fax. She was in Ballina
and her Canberra staff had rung her to tell her she had received a birthday voucher from
my company. I told her that the computer had done it, that I had had no hand in it, and
that I send 6000 birthday faxes a year. She's my sister so I thought I'd better come clean.
To start thinking outside the square you'll need a computer. One of the fringe benefits of
computerizing your business is it makes it more efficient. The computer will control all
your stock, payroll and accounts but it will also automate much of your marketing. One
of the most successful strategies is the VIP club membership card which automatically
prints a small discount voucher on the receipt valid for the next purchase with a 2 month
expiry date. Businesses using this technique report a better than 70% response. Powerful,
compelling and totally automated. Automation. If it isn't easy you won't do it. It has to be
totally automated, transparent and, naturally, computerized.
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