Getting Everything You Can Out of All You've Got

Oof, what an upleasant book. A bunch of outdated marketing advice told in the worst airport-bookstore manner. I did love the part about using the internet for sales in 2000, though!

Noted on May 21, 2024

Extremely cheap paperback copy, looks like the cheesiest used-car salesman business book. Aesthetically a turnoff but we can still look at it dispassionately, can’t we?

Jay: I’m a marketing consultant who has worked with thousands of companies and here’s the 21 best ways we’ve found to work with assets you already have:

1. Flight plan. Uh, you need to sell, everybody is in sales. easier to sell more to existing customer than lock in a new one, etc, blah blah
2. Breakthru. Break out of conventional approaches in your industry. Open your eyes. World is big and strategies are everywhere.
3. Assess your current success. 50 questions to answer like ‘how did you get your first clients?’ And ‘when somebody becomes your client who else are you creating a client for?’ Eg, real estate agent => title company. These are actually probably a good exercise.
4. Strategy of Preeminence. Put your clients needs ahead of your own. Success follows. Their REAL needs - security, money, family, etc.
5. Understand LTV. It’s OK to break even or go into the red to acquire a client when their LTV makes up for it. Don’t miss the forest for the first-sale-tree.
6. Vive le difference. You need a USP and it needs to be something you talk about ALL THE TIME.
7. BTRF: Customers are scared to waste money. Make It easy to say ‘yes’ by offering a ‘BTRF, Better Than Risk Free guarantee. Like 110% money back!
8. Would you like the left shoe, too? Add-on products, volume, time. Addon sales are easier than the first one.
9. Never fall off a cliff. Testing things. Test your products, test your adds, etc. Lean startup basics here.
10. Help from friends. Host-beneficiary approach. Find people already marketing to your market and get in on their action.
11. Someone you should meet. Referrals baby! Just ASK your clients for referrals, diplomatically. You need to know what a good client looks like and be able to communicate that. You don’t have to make an affiliate bonus fee. People want to help you.
12. Prodigal client. Regain your old clients! Go thru your rolodex and reconnect.
13. Ten-thousand-person sales department. Direct mail. It works, it works across all kinds of industries, and its battle-tested. Just follow a template. Write a sales letter. A lot of stuff here that’s in cold-email templates.
14. Fish where the big fish are. Don’t market with a shotgun, use a rifle. Target your likely prospects and the best ones.
15. Telemarketing. Seriously that’s what this chapter is about. But advises you combine with direct mail and specific targeting.
16. Bigprofits.com. Heard of the internet? You can sell there too. (Delightful bit where he says to ignore the hundreds of other search engines and focus on the top 8, Lycos, Altavista, HotBot, Northern Light, Excite, InfoSeek, WebCrawler, and Yahoo!
17. Bag of beads. Consider bartering. You buy stuff for your business, could you barter your services for them?
18. Leave a message after the beep. Call your clients regularly.
19. Over the rainbow. Set reachable goals.
20. Never-ending success. Plan for more success. I guess?
21. You’re richer than you think. World’s full of opportunities, you just need creativity and hustle.


Matt’s takeaway: Eh, I hated this. But it's evergreen sales advice, probably still things to learn here.

Noted on July 25, 2024