THE TEN THINGS YOU MUST TO BECOME A MILLIONAIRE SELLING SERVICES

Although the trend isn't entirely clear yet, we're probably entering a deflationary cycle where, as they say in those brokerage ads, the only way to make money is the old fashioned way, to earn it! Is this a cause for alarm? No way! If you're willing to follow a few simple, easy-to-understand steps you'll find that making real money in the 'nineties is not so difficult after all... and that your prospects for becoming a millionaire -- a real millionaire and not one whose wealth evaporates when the property market declines -- are very good, indeed.

Desire: The First Prerequisite

Most people, whatever they say to the contrary, don't have the one crucial prerequisite they need for success: desire. Oh, sure, they'd like to be rich... they'd like all the benefits of being rich. But being rich isn't a priority with them.

You know the type I mean. They tell you things like "Don't sweat it"; "Money isn't everything"; "Sure I want to be rich, but there's more to life than money, you know" and all the other things that allow them to justify their present -- and chronic -- lack of financial success. I've never once in my life met a person who earned his money who's ever said anything as fatuous as these lines, and I've never met a person who's said them who wasn't relatively disadvantaged, generally scraping the bottom of the barrel.

The first thing you've got to do if you're going to become a millionaire selling your service is search your soul. Do you really desire the money? Which means do you desire it sufficiently so that you're willing to do all the work that is necessary to make it? If not, no plan is going to help you because you don't have the ardor it takes to achieve success. You know yourself willing to make do with less... you'll accept the less good house, the less comfortable lifestyle, the uncertainly of living without resources you can tap. If this is acceptable to you, so be it. But you're never going to be rich.

#2 Commit Yourself

The millionaires I know, including myself, are COMMITTED. We not only desire wealth, we are committed to achieving it. And how are we committed?

First, in writing. When you begin your wealth quest, write down just how much money you want and just when you want to achieve it. These statistics, of course, will mean nothing until you finish the rest of the exercise outlined in this report; they're just estimates. But even though they'll probably have to be redone, write down something now.

Once you've written down the amount and the destination date, draft a contract with yourself. Say, "I promise myself that on (date), I will have at least $1,000,000 in real net worth." Now sign this contract and date it. Put a copy in your wallet where you can see it daily. Post another copy where you're sure to see it every day... on the refrigerator door... on the bathroom mirror. And then if you're working for something specific -- like a new house... or college educations for your children... post pictures of what you want. This is called Imaging, and it is another way of helping you to remember and reinforce what you want.

Or consider posting a Million Dollar Bill so you can see it every day. These bills look and feel like real money and provide just the right note of authenticity. They help you feel that the objective is real... and give you constant inspiration towards reaching your target. (Details about getting one follow in the Resource Box.)

#3 Find Out How Much Business You Must Really Do To Reach Your Objective

Almost without exception, service sellers who are relatively disadvantaged and likely to stay that way can't tell you how much business they've got to do to become a millionaire. Future millionaires can. They know just how much business they've got to do over what stretch of time so they can reach their objective. They're not working to 1) make ends meet or 2) get through the day; they're working to get rich. They're exchanging portions of their life and units of their service for the consideration that will, in some defined period of time, make them rich.

Finding out how much business you're going to have to do to reach your objective is not difficult. Basically you've got to look at two key variables: the cost of your overhead, including service cost, and the cost of your marketing.

These expenses must be deducted from the cost of the service you sell; the remainder is your profit, or capital.

Take a piece of paper and divide it in two. On the left hand side list your overhead expenses for one year, including rent, utilities, telephone, heat, office supplies, insurance, etc., etc. Do not add a salary category, unless you have personnel costs for others besides yourself. One of the first barriers you must break through is considering yourself a salaried employee. People who work for salaries, even if they pay that salary, never get rich. You should be considering how much real money you'll make, not how much salary you'll be bringing home.

Second, figure your marketing expenses for the next year. This necessarily entails developing a marketing plan. Just how you develop that plan is beyond the bounds of this report, but if you consult my book MONEY MAKING MARKETING: FINDING THE PEOPLE WHO NEED WHAT YOU'RE SELLING AND MAKING SURE THEY BUY IT ($39.50 postpaid), you'll be able to develop a suitable marketing plan... and figure out how much it costs.

Once you know your costs, it's time to figure out how many units of service you'll have to sell to meet not only these costs but your profit objectives. Say you've decided to become a millionaire in ten years. Say that it costs you $40,000 a year to run your business and that your service sells for $1000 and takes 20 hours to implement. Say that after reviewing your investment objectives (below) you figure you need to invest $60,000 a year to reach your millionaire goal. Say it takes you another $40,000 a year to maintain your current lifestyle. To reach this objective, you must work at least 54 hours every week of the year. There can be no holidays... no time off... no sick days... no lag time... no down periods between assignments. Given the current way you do business, you may well decide this is an impossibility... and begin to think of how to run your business so that you can plausibly reach your goal.

While the knowledge that reaching your overall objective in a decade doing business the way you're doing it now is very likely an impossibility may initially depress you, it shouldn't. Making money always necessitates a system. If the system you have now isn't going to work for you, it's high time you knew it... so you can make the necessary adjustments. This knowledge is the necessary root of invention.

#4 Assess Your Market & Your Competition

-- Customers To rich millionaire status, you must sell your service (or, better, the benefit you offer) to a sufficient number of customers in a designated period of time. You must design your business territory sufficiently broadly so that you're bringing your benefits to the attention of the greatest number of people who, responding to your marketing, can easily be served by you. When you begin, you'll necessarily be uncertain about just how broad your reach can and should be. But by experimenting you'll learn.

-- Competitors While every resource on selling services focuses on getting customers, virtually none deal with the other necessary aspect of getting rich, namely understanding and outpositioning competitors, yet this is crucial. If you want to get rich faster, you must understand and outposition your competitors. You must seek to understand why they are making money (or failing to make money), what kind of market they seek, how they approach it, what benefits they offer, how much they charge, etc. No one should ever go into business who isn't willing to spend the necessary time and resources thoroughly reviewing their competitors.

Why? You want to see what works about their operation (and what doesn't)... and see how you can position yourself before your customers in such a way that your service is seen as an undeniable improvement on what is currently available... even if your cost is higher! This means spending time thinking through alternatives that will improve your service and enable you to market it as an enhanced value. Are your competitors closed week-ends? Don't they pick up and deliver? Don't they offer customers the possibility of paying by credit cards? Be glad! Their omissions have given you the means of demolishing their business.

#5 Understand The Anxieties And Aspirations Of Your Market

Thus, to help yourself reach millionaire status quicker, probe the condition of your prospects. What do they want? What are they afraid of? The more you know about this, the better, because these data become the basis for all your marketing documents.

And how, pray, do you discover this information? Easy! Read professional publications, review technical papers, gather survey data, solicit others in the field for their opinions... and, most of all, ask your customers. They'll tell you how they feel. And the extent to which they open up to you, because of your empathetic concern, is the extent to which you can target all your marketing to entice others like them to profit from the benefits of your service.

#6 Develop Client-Centered Marketing Documents

Is Ready For You!" And phone inquiries immediately started setting records... and continue to do so. In short, give people what they want and don't ask them to spend time figuring out what you've got. Everything you write has got to be about the client... about what he wants to achieve... about his pains... his objectives. Remember these magic words, "Don't sell...

Solve!" While you'll have to read my book CASH COPY: HOW TO OFFER YOUR PRODUCTS AND SERVICES SO YOUR PROSPECTS BUY THEM... NOW! to fully master this important subject, right now you can improve your response by focusing all your marketing communications on these four words: "You get benefit now."

#7 Perfect A System That Produces A Steady Stream Of Prospects

Creating this kind of system means work. You need to explore:

• direct mail
• card decks
• classified and small space ads
• free publicity
• networking
• workshops and seminars,
  etc.

Now let me tell you something: take the time to understand how each of these techniques work. Each has secrets and each must be studied. Don't be arrogant about marketing. Stay curious and open minded. Just recently a well known figure in direct marketing wanted to run a card in my card deck. He told me he'd always had bad responses to his cards but that he wanted to try my deck. Knowing him to be an expert, I allowed him to run just the card he wanted, although I knew it to be weak and unfocused. He was an expert, I reasoned, and besides he was gruff and unwelcoming of advice. The card ran... and his card returned the worst results in the deck. People who were new to card decks, but who had taken my advice, pulled many times what his ad did... although he had the basis for a good offer. When I called to discuss the ad with him and why it had pulled so badly and to share the results of others, he was withering in his comments about all card decks. He didn't want to listen. He wasn't willing to be educated. He knew everything. The truth was that his ego was blocking understanding. As a result, he's lost a very powerful advertising medium... and I've lost a potential customer. All because he thinks he "knows." The basis of marketing is motivating people. The means of motivation change. Techniques change. Suitable means change. You've got to be willing to change too... or you'll make as many costly and entirely avoidable mistakes as my know-it- all friend who at sixty-something has become a veritable fossil.

#8 Convert Your Prospects Quickly

Ask questions like these:

• "Are you ready to get started enjoying (the benefit you're marketing)?"
• "I can get started helping you (today? tomorrow? next Thursday?). Is that good for you."
• "What will it take to get you to get started now?"
• "How badly do you want to achieve (benefit you're offering)?"

If the person is just looking, you need to know and prioritize them accordingly. If the prospect is ready to act, you need to know that, too. Don't treat them both the same. They don't deserve it. People who aren't ready now shouldn't get the same treatment... the same consideration as those who are. Remember, you're running a marketing system, not a charity bazaar. You need to generate a certain number of prospects to reach your objective... you need to convert a certain number of these to become clients in a given period to reach your objective. Giving the customers what they want is important... reaching your objective is important. But catering to prospects who haven't the desire or the resources to get what they want and enjoy your benefits isn't important. Tell them what you'll do... tell them what they need to do. Then go on to more qualified prospects without a backward glance.

#9 Diversify

First he tried to handle all the leads himself. But he recognized that was futile; with leads coming in daily, he'd never catch up. After all, each lead represented someone who wanted a brochure, ad, cover letter, marketing program, or more... and these couldn't be completed at the rate of even one a day.

Finally, at a moment of desperation about all the leads he was wasting, a lightbulb went on in his head: he would make money faster by diversifying, by bringing in more copywriters to handle the leads he got and by focusing on keeping more leads coming. At this moment, he recognized a fundamental truth about becoming a millionaire: you'll get there faster if you don't do it all on your own. As a result, he started recruiting other copywriters and started farming out the business, taking a percentage from each, while keeping a good fraction of the most lucrative accounts for himself. Net result? After saying a couple months ago he didn't need any more leads, he promptly bought another 100,000 cards from me to keep his flow of leads -- and cash -- going. Smart!

Thus, to become a millionaire faster:

• stop doing all the service work yourself and organize others who do the same and related things; take a percentage of their earnings and handle the marketing and administration, and/or
• take the problem-solving information at your disposal and create products like audio and video cassettes, booklets, Special Reports and books so you can expand into the national or even international marketplace.

#10 Invest

Look upon investment this way. You're given so many bright ideas in your life... and so many natural resources including health, stamina, energy, etc. This is your natural capital. You can either expend it willy-nilly. Or you can use it to generate the financial capital that becomes the basis for both your investment program and your eventual security.

Personally, I'm an investment fanatic. I invest money every single day of my life and have been doing this for years with significant results. From the very beginning, I never expected my natural resources to last forever... and neither should you.

Arrange your marketing program so that you can comfortably invest at least 10% of your gross receipts yearly. Yes, this is a lot. Yes, at the beginning it will mean sacrifice. But without sacrifice you cannot generate capital and without capital you will never really have security. That's why creating an investment program is a necessarily component of any marketing program and deserves equal attention to your marketing plan.

Conclusion