By: Stefan Aarnio
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Last night we held our monthly Manitoba Real Estate Investors Association (MREIA) Meeting at The Hampton Inn on Berry Street. If you missed it, you gotta get to the next one. But here are the highlights.
It started off with my presenting the three ways you can generate cash flow in your business. Those three ways are sales, marketing and branding. Now the purpose of sales, for lack of better words is to generate quick cash. I will get to that momentarily.
The purpose of marketing though is to eliminate sales. If you have to sell, then your marketing sucks.
The purpose of branding is to eliminate marketing. Your ultimate goal is to create and build a brand strong enough give you zero resistance sales. Which in my case means, people call me up and say, “I have a million dollars I want to give you to invest. Will you take it?”
So Let’s talk about sales first and what are the key metrics for sales that you must measure? They are…
- Calls which equal the amount of numbers dialed. When I raised capital I knew that every number I dialed was worth $7 to me. So track your number of calls.
- Conversations, which is the number of prospects you spoke with. Now a conversation is not a spouse or leaving a message with a child or on a voice mail, but an actual conversation with a qualified prospect.
- Closes which means money and paperwork change hands. Remember without this exchange it is not a closed deal. Verbal deals are not closes as they have no validity until the paperwork and money change hands.
With sales it is usually product or service driven. There is very little leverage involved as well, as you are trading hours for dollars.
It is for this reason that you should use a script instead of winging it. It will allow you to maintain a higher energy level. If you need quick cash, then you need to be making the dials.
Now let’s talk about replacing sales with marketing and what are the key metrics you must track with your marketing. They are…
- The number of dollars invested to generate a lead. Now a lead is when you collect a name and phone number. A lead is someone who is in your funnel, but has not requested information or purchased anything from you.
- Then you also need to measure the dollars invested to the conversions. A conversion would be someone who has agreed to a meeting, requested information, or has come to an event. They are not a customer yet as there is no deal at this point, and no money or paperwork has been exchanged.
- Finally the dollars invested in marketing for every sale that results from the marketing. Now The accepted ratio I spoke of last night was you should get at least three dollars back for every dollar you invest in marketing. That is sustainable.
Other things to consider with marketing is that it is all about creating a list and diving offers to that list. It does enjoy a higher leverage than selling, and it can give you quick to medium cash flow into your business.
The most important thing about marketing is you need to have an offer and a way to track its efficacy.
Branding is the one thing you want to achieve for your business. It creates zero resistance sales for you because of the positioning the branding has given you.
It really revolves around who knows you, and not what you know or who you know. Branding is high leverage, unlike sales and marketing, it revolves around your story or reputation.
Although branding is a long term cash strategy, it offers you the most leverage and gives you the competitive edge that separates you from your competition.
Now that the members and guests attending last night discovered the difference between sales, marketing and branding, the master brander himself, Raymond Aaron took the floor.
Now Raymond offered some unique insights last night. In Canada, the average family income in Canada is just 72 000 per year. That the top 1% of income earners earn an average income of $250 000 per year.
He shared a secret that the wealthy know, that the rest of us don’t know. Don’t worry I will share that secret with you here, even though you missed last night’s MREIA meeting.
What you need to do to create guaranteed wealth for life, whether you work or not, is to follow four simple steps to escape what he called the sea of sameness.
Those four steps you need to progress through are…
- Invisibility. Everyone starts here. You say and do what everyone in your industry does. Very little differentiates you, and you customers have little to no reason to select you over your competitors. Take a look at the retail flyers that come to your home tomorrow. They are all the same. Nothing different about them. Stuck in sea of sameness
- The next step is visibility. It is the first rung of the ladder to separates you from the herd of competitors clamoring for your customer’s business.
- After you become visible, you need to become credible. You answer the question of why should your customer choose you over the competition. At this point when you have visibility and credibility you have become branded.
- When you have become branded, you cannot stop the wealth from flowing into your life.
Now there are four ways you can get yourself branded.
- You can get branded through association. When you go through my website, you will see pictures of me taken with my coaches, mentors, and the movers and shakers in the world of personal development and success. By being associated with these successful people, I receive some of their visibility and credibility which helps my branding.
- You can brand yourself by using testimonials. If you have the book “Cashflow Quadrant” by Robert Kiyosake (if you don’t, you need to get it) on page 187, there is a very public testimonial and endorsement from Robert Kiyosake to Raymond Aaron regarding his tapes in goal setting. That testimonial was worth millions of dollars to Raymond Aaron, and launched his branding to a whole new level.
- You can brand yourself with your achievements. Do something extraordinary and amazing and get recognized for it. By achieving something amazing and extraordinary you will elevate yourself from the rest of the crowd in your industry.
- Finally you can brand by using the WOW factor. Apple is one of the best companies that have branded by WOW.
After all that, Raymond asked us if we wanted the simplest, easiest and fastest way to get our selves branded. It is a way you can elevate yourself and associate with giants like Tony Robbins, Brain Tracy, Sir Richard Branson, Jack Canfield, Mark Victor Hansen a many, many others. It is a way to get testimonials and reviews. It is something few if anyone does in your industry, and by doing so, you blow away your competitors and WOWs your customers.
Would you like to know what it is?
Okay, I will tell you.
Write a book.
Think about it for a second. When your competitors are leaving brochures, proposals and business cards behind, and you leave a book, who instantly becomes more visible, credible and WOWs the customer? That’s right, you.
When you look at my real estate investing business, what turned it around and allowed me to raise over $5 000 000 in capital? To win the awards and recognition I have received in the last three years. It was publishing my first book, Money People Deal.
Writing a book allowed me to go from Invisibilty to Unlimited Wealth, bypassing the visibility and credibility steps altogether and opened up opportunities for me that I hadn’t even thought of four years ago.
Raymond then went to to explain how he has simplified the process of writing a book with his 10-10-10 program. Having gone through that program myself three years ago, I can personally attest just how simple and easy it is to write a book when you know how, or have a coach like Raymond Aaron to help you. I can endorse and recommend this program to you.
It was an amazing night last night. The members and guests that came down last night walked out with the knowledge and tools to get out of the sea of sameness and get themselves branded.
Now you do as well. I hope you take action and use it.
If you haven’t done so yet, please pick up Self made. You’re going to love it. If you don’t love it, give it to someone else who loves it and I’ll send you your money back.
Respect The Grind,
Stefan Aarnio
P.S. Please share article if you found it enjoyable.
P.P.S. Make sure you come back on tomorrow morning. I will be sharing with you highlights from Raymond Aaron’s presentation at the Manitoba Real Estate Investors Association meeting tonight . Don’t miss it.
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Get Stefan Aarnio’s NEW book Self Made at SelfMadeConfessions.com
