millardgrubb.com

I was thinking the other day about a client I had who just didn’t get it.

We had spent quite a bit of time looking at the way he ran his business. He had experience in the promotional arena, but was now in a completely different field. When he brought me onboard, he agreed to listen and take my advice to heart.

It worked for a while.

He sang my praises instantly in the beginning. What I showed him was remarkable in his eyes. He saw himself building a large business. He saw himself hiring more people. He saw himself moving ahead.

Then we hit an impasse. Instead of doing what I advised, he wanted me to do it all for him. He didn’t have the time.

I said OK. But, I added, it would cost him XXXX for me to do it.

Here is the bombshell.

It wasn’t worth it to him for ME to do it at that price.

We discussed the fact that doing the things he asked me to would bring in X more clients at X more profits, for X more dollars in the bank.

What the real story was…. After I had made some money for him, he did not want to KEEP paying me!

Most of the business owners do not see what a silly mistake that is.

It’s like the old story of a full line of machinery breaking down and a tech comes in and taps a little place on the machine. Everything working now, so the tech wants $250.

For a little tap, you’d think that was high. But for getting a large machine back in order, it was cheap.

My former client didn’t think I should be paid to do some valuable business development work for him (He said he could do it himself.)

Where is he now?

Still locked up in his small plant, unable to get out, because he hasn’t grown.

Paying the price now, pays off big time later.

My wife and I were at the pool today. This is a public pool and for our small town is quite large. It was about 11 am and we were the only adults in the water.

The local park district had a busload of youngsters at the pool so they could enjoy the summer cooling off.

As I got in the pool, 5, 6, and 7 year olds made a point to tell me that they could swim. “Hey, watch this,” they cried. One boy jumped into the pool near me and said, “I can do cannonballs. Want to see me?”

As I laughed at the excitement of the kids, my wife took me aside and told me to watch out that I didn’t get too close to the youngsters because their teachers were watching. She didn’t want the teachers to think I was some sort of pervert.

Later as we were talking in the pool, she mentioned that she would keep close, so I wasn’t alone “with the kids.”

I remarked to her how silly it was, but got to thinking about it for a long time.

Isn’t it interesting that society has made ANY male suspect if he is alone with a child?

It doesn’t matter if the child is his or not, all men are pigs, you’d hear some say.

My wife loves me and truly wants the best for me is the reason she made mention of the kids to me in the pool. She did not want people to get the wrong idea.

It really shook me to the core because I have spent a good portion of my life educating kids, performing for kids at schools, and working with families for years. I know how precious children are to their families. I’d sooner lock myself in a room somewhere than hurt one of these young ones.

But, you see, the children did not know this was going on. The kids blissfully played, jumped, laughed and did what kids do.

They smiled and ran.

A lot.

Young people don’t remember when kids walked to school with no fear of being taken. Young people don’t remember a time when mothers just whistled outside the door for them to come in, no matter how far afield they had run.

Let the kids run. Let them dance.

Soon enough, they’ll learn to be afraid of every little thing.

Sad.

I was talking with a nice young lady who was trying to sell me a little advertising so I could tap into my local market. In the course of the discussion I told her that almost 100% of my clients were from out of state or out of the area.

She plowed on.

Then I asked if she could tell me how many clients she had who could state that they got X amount of customers from a listing, banner ad, or radio promotions.

She couldn’t tell me.

She plowed on.

Then I mentioned that I have a systematic referral program that brings clients to me, so I didn’t need her services AND BTW, almost everyone I talk to is out of town…

She plowed on.

It was if I was speaking another language or just plain gibberish.

She didn’t understand.

Finally, after my publishing a new book came up, she said she wanted one. I told I would personally bring it by.

That seemed to break her pattern of plowing through whatever a prospect says to get to the sale.

After I hung up, I remembered the times when in the beginning of my career where I wouldn’t take no for an answer and kept plowing ahead.

Anything other than a “yes” was gibberish to me.

Since then, I’ve had to learn to slow down and really listen to what someone is saying without loading my guns behind my back, ready to fire.

A lot more gets done that way and i have a lot less egg on my face.

Whew…

I’m tired of leading blind men.

A few days ago, I was talking with a potential client about how I could help bring in more restaurant customers. Of course, we need to find out how many customers, where they are coming from, the competition, prices, what has worked, what hasn’t worked, etc.

As we began to discuss their situation, I saw a pattern. I mentioned it. I spoke about alternatives. I mentioned techniques that had worked EVERY time we used them.

YAWN. So what?

I got my answer to working with that potential client, then and there.

I dropped them. Yep, like a scratching cat.

Why?

It’s like fishing. When you have some really good bait and the fish don’t bite, they aren’t hungry.

If you give some of your BEST stuff away and someone DOESN’T get excited, you need to move on.

If a client or potential client doesn’t get excited with your BEST stuff, then when you are working with that client trying to help them do something simple or mundane, you are going to be in trouble.

When I look for a client, I check to see if they are hungry… They want to change their situation… They want to do what it takes to move ahead.

If they don’t, I back away.

My clients should not have to fight me every step of the way. I make sure they want to work with me, not against me. That is why it is so important to have clients CHASE you.

More on this later.

I’ve been talking to a few friends in the offline marketing world. There are a lot of internet marketers who’ve jumped on the fast train to success selling to brick-and-mortar business the idea of internet success.

Let’s face it. You’ve got to be on the web to market now-a-days. But, a lot of these guru marketers miss out on a boatload of cash that is laying on the table when marketing to these offline businesses.

Helping a business is not just about getting sales and new customers… it’s about making profits.

If you get 1000 new customers and it costs you 10 dollars a customer, and you make only 7 dollars on the front end… with you hoping to make sales on the back-end… BUT YOU LOSE HALF THE CUSTOMERS before they buy again… then you are going down. This example of NOT CLOSING TRHE BACK DOOR is just one case of focusing on marketing and not the big picture.

At the cost of shamelessly promoting what I do… Very shortly I am releasing a few copies of my system of using online marketing with the offline world as it REALLY is… My videos will be up for FREE in just a short time… Keep watching!

You’d think everyone on the planet was joining Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and other social media sites.

I admit it, I joined too.

However, the vast majority of business owners know nothing of these special sites. Those that take the time to learn how to use these media sites for business will win in a big way. On the other hand, those business owners who continue to do things the way they have always done them will have as much a struggle as a salmon fighting to go upstream to spawn.

It’s tough to change habits… To try something foreign to most people. But sometimes change is good.

The change in the business community with the launch of the world wide web was massive.

Can the change in using social media be just as great? Who knows?

But if the numbers are any indication (Facebook 250 million), social media MUST be looked at.

Feel free to let me know how Facebook, Twitter, Digg, YouTube, and other sites have changed the way you do things.

I’ll keep you posted on my end.

My wife and I made a quality choice to lose weight. And as we started to lose the unwanted pounds we noticed some things.

We had more energy. We felt better. Our clothes hung on us like sacks.

But we noticed something even more interesting than these things.

People started to treat us differently.

I hate to say it but, it’s true.

There seems to be an unspoken, but very real sense that people just TREAT you DIFFERENT when you have extra weight.

I am NOT talking about getting an extra big chair or people giving you extra food because they KNOW you like to eat, etc. I am talking about people looking DOWN on you because you have some how missed the boat and because you are BIG, you don’t belong.

SIDEBAR: I’ve got to admit that for years I did not really care about what I ate because for years I was THIN… too thin… 6′ 3″ 160 pounds thin. But after a while I just started packing the food and the weight on. It was creeping poundage. I didn’t like it.

My wife and I finally got tired of it and asked Almighty God for help.

We got it.

My wife has gone down several dress sizes and I have lost eight inches around my waist.

Let’s get back to what my wife and I discovered. As we lost weight we started to get invited more places. We started to be accepted.

This is something we both experienced.

Is it real? Or has our perception changed? Who knows?

What I do know is that overweight people actually can be shunned by others, just because they are different.

This is not the way it is supposed to be.
However, this is the REALITY right now.

What can we do? Look at people for who they are. Accept them, encourage them.

If there are physical issues that are causing health problems, then help those folks overcome those problems.

I’ll talk more at a later time as to how my wife and I were helped with our food cravings.

As I go about talking to business owners I hear the same thing all the time.

Do they want more customers?

Yes.

Do they want more profits?

Yes.

What seems to be a common thread is not what everyone thinks. Sure, customers and profits are at the forefront of every business owner’s thinking.

But buried deep inside is the hope and dream that the business owner can get a little freedom. This freedom to spend more time with the kids… go out on a date with the wife or husband…. just to have a little time to do some personal stuff.

I keep seeing business owners juggling so many balls in the air, it seems like a talent show at the local high school.

The vast majority of the time, the owners are trying to get new business or make more sales using methods that get old fast.

If business owners would just try to use the internet effectively to get qualified leads and keep track of customers, that would save a lot of time. In addition, having a practical, systematic, referral program would save time as well.

As the days roll on we’ll take some time to talk about ways business owners can get more time.