Market Research – Orren Prunckun

Orren Prunckun’s Marketing & Sales Q&A – Episode 2: The 5 things you should have in a marketing plan

Orren Prunckun — Mon, 20 May 2019 05:16:11 +0000

In this episode you’ll hear me answer a question about the 5 things you should have in a marketing plan.

So, listen here as I discuss this!

To be featured, first go to http://speakpipe.com/orren and record your number #1 marketing or sales question as an audio file.

Then click send and I will answer it for you for FREE!

Transcript:

Question

Hi Orren Michelle here having a sales and marketing plan and budget is clearly important when starting out what would be your top five must dues or must-haves in that plan for a start-up in Adelaide?

Answer

That’s a great question so I’m just assuming based on what you’ve given me that you are a startup that is pre-revenue not actually making any money someone couldn’t take that as the assumption for your question so the one thing that I’ll be checking yes sorry I’d be looking at currently with that position is I would be concentrating on a business model rather than a business plan and basing this on all of the work done by Steve Blank so in the lean startup and startups really are searching to find a correct business model and then companies then trying to execute on that business model and companies the ones that are creating plants and from all my experience that work with startups over probably the last five six seven years now is that a lot of them have gone in with a lot of thinking around what a plan is and I should just really be looking at a higher level model so I’m really gonna start kind of with that assumption and what I would do is break it into two sub categories of what are you selling and how are you selling it so in terms of what are you selling I’ll be looking at what places like McDonald’s and Hungry Jacks do so there’s kind of a infamous case study that floats around the internet that costs and I’m not going to get the figures right but a cost McDonald’s let’s say $1 to acquire a customer and what a customer does it does is they come in and they purchase this dollar product usually a burger and you can see you know particularly in Australia Hungry Jack’s does all the time you notice every time you go past 200 Jack’s they’re gonna have a big banner ad out the front of their physical locations just saying you know $1.00 those or whatever so they’ve got these $1 offers to entice you to come in and then when you come in you spend the dollar but they basically make no profit off that and then what they do and if you notice they’re like especially Hungry Jack’s to say would you like that in a meal so they try it up solely to the meal and then next minute you know you’ve got chips and you’ve got a coke and if there’s someone sitting next to you they’ve got a meal and then you’ve got the family meal and you’ve got dessert and then you drive out forty dollars later so they make all of their money in their profit particularly after that initial sale so I’d really be concentrating on what you offer in terms of things like that so what are your upsells from what you are initially selling you’ll probably only find that by going and actually out and talking to real people and seeing where they currently are in life so what the goals are to get from where they’re currently up to something in the future and also that kind of pain point or that need where they’re currently out and then finally in the future what are some of those fears if they don’t actually get that and what are some of the dreams if they do so you’ve kind of got if you’re picturing an axis of the timeline going on the x-axis and then on the y-axis you’ve got positive and negative you’ve got kind of four quadrants and be really worth going out and talking to who your customers are I’m working out whether I currently what my future looks like both in terms of positive and negative and you’re gonna really find out what they want now in terms of what you’re selling again I would also be looking at that progression in a logical order so when they purchased the burger what’s the next thing that they want and you kind of want to have chips because they’re delicious and then you don’t have a drink to wash it all down and then once you’ve had that you’ll want to finish it off with a dessert like this is nothing new you know if you look at potato is half the world has moved on potatoes because they’re super cheap you know Russia USSR living on you know millions of people living on potatoes you look at a soft drink all it is literally water, flavouring, sugar and then just a ton of profit in there so just looking at what that logical progression is to get whatever that person a once now currently and whatever they want in the future and how can you speed that up or automate it or make getting that desire result much quicker or with less effort in terms of how you’re going to be sewing and how you communicate that the main thing I really want you to think about is what is your hook or how are you different than everyone else at a marketplace so a really great book called the blue ocean strategy is really about creating a blue ocean in an ocean full of competitors were all the shark eating all of the fish so having thoughts about who you competitor desert sort of competitors are what they are offering and positioning yourself different to what they are putting out to the marketplace so really having a look at we competitors doing and competition is fine in my opinion it means that people have a need in people of wine but differentiating yourself from those people but also when you differentiate them make sure that there is a clear line in people’s minds what you offer compared to what they offer so the next thing I would be looking at is the customer journey so really smart guy named Eugene Schwartz wrote a book breakthrough advertising and in the breakthrough advertising book and came up with a model called the market awareness model and it goes through five stages go through someone being unaware that they have a problem then becoming aware that they have a problem then the third step is once they’re aware that they have a problem being aware there are actually solutions out there to create the change and then for stepping now that they know there are solutions and obviously hopefully one of those solutions is yours they become aware of that solution and they become product aware particularly of your solution and then once they become product aware and I like your solution and they become most aware because they’ve got the solution and they’re most aware of how it works because elves the consuming it or using it so within that model you can’t really go to most aware from unaware there’s who accept exceptions or examples where you can do that but a lot of people before they actually buy from you they’ve got to you know that I have a problem they need to know you can solve it they need to like you and then once they’d like you they really need to trust you and then when all those factors are there they’re going to purchase so what I would be really looking at is how that bits in with that kind of McDonald’s example that I gave you one of the easiest ways to get people to either know that they have a problem or know about you even if they know they have a problem it is giving them some sort of revelation or some sort of notification so that revelation could be I’m getting them aware that they have a problem and once they’re aware that I have a problem which is notifying that hey you are someone that could potentially solve it and in terms of getting them to like you just helping them is a really good way for someone to like you and once they like you they need to trust you and way you build trust is you make a connection and that connection lasts over a matter of time and they able to see that you make a promise and then that you deliver on that promise and you keep your promise and then you repeat it over and over again and they can trust you and that takes time that takes a relationship and that takes connection and then they are open to you selling what you are currently doing so I really think about how you can get people to know they have a problem know you like you and then trust you before you can go out and sell and then basically on that point of selling what I would be doing is going to people in real time so not necessarily online or offline but I wouldn’t be automating this process and I’d be going out and talking to people and trying to go through that whole process again just know you like you and trust you and then selling to them in person or online but in real time that way you can actually have a conversation with people it doesn’t matter if it’s email or as text or its phone or you go to a cafe but at least you can have a conversation with them back and forth to way so you can really work out what they respond to and what they don’t respond to only at that point then I would start automating things I see that trap with a lot of people they just go straight to automation and unless you’ve been doing marketing sales for a long time will be selling your product for a really long time you may or may not know what is sticking on what is not what some objections people have and what some objections they do not have and also really working out what they really, really want and you can only really find that out through a real time conversation what I would also be doing while you’re trying to go find those people to go sell to them is a big component while you’re trying to solve those people in person it’s really just going out and finding those people and I’d really suggest going to your initial network because they already know you they already like you and they trust you but beyond that really figuring out who has the problems that you’re trying to solve currently which I talked about before but also in the future and working out what the common denominators are in terms of their demographics are who they are where they’re located and so on their psychographics who their interest in their beliefs and then also the behaviours that they that they display based on those psyche graphics and those demographics so really find out who those people are that could potentially use your solution in other words who has that problem currently now that they want to get out of and have some dream to get some different place in the future that if they don’t get that they then potentially fear some implication of that so really that’s probably all I have got off the top of my head and I think and I have been counting but I believe we’ve got two five or the top five things that you asked for so hopefully that helps go out and try it and see what happens.

Marketing Ideas – Episode 1: Facebook Now Allows You To Steal Customers From Your Competitors

Orren Prunckun — Sat, 30 Mar 2019 07:48:51 +0000

Facebook has just release Ads Library.

This is a game changer for brands as it allows you to spy on the advertising of your competitors for free.

In this video I go through:

What Ads Library is;
Why it is important; and
How you can use it for your brand.

Enjoy!

Transcript:

Facebook has just made an announcement and I want to show you how you can spy on your competitors and use that to your advantage so this is really transcended time sensitive so only give you some context around this video so if you’ve been following the news Robert Mueller has come out with a report on Russia’s influence on Trump’s 2016 election there’s been an allegation of several allegations that Russia interfered with that election in 2016 by using Facebook and particularly using Facebook ads so basically what Facebook did in relation to that was they set up what they’re called is a ad archive and I did that about a year and a half ago and it was only available for political campaigns that were advertising on Facebook it basically was a bit of a transparency play for them to go and publish anyone that was making ads creating ads sorry for political purposes so now two days ago so when this is the 31st of March 2019 so two days ago Facebook has now I can publicly what they call an ad library and basically what that does is it is a searchable database that shows every ad from every page that has been advertising on Facebook over the last seven years now this is a game going along with their lines of helping out watchdogs and also being more transparent about what they do on their platform particularly ads and particularly around political campaigns now this is a huge announcement for brands so if you’re advertising or not advertising on Facebook currently this actually is really, really good for you so basically I just want to give you a bit of an overview of what you can do so with this ads library you can search any competitor or any brand particularly for competitors for this video and you can see how much they’re spending how much how many people they’re reaching in terms of impressions you can hear you can see if the ads been approved or disapproved you can tell what demographics they are targeting can also sue the ads the actual ads but in terms of imagery and message of the ads that they are currently and have run completely searchable it shows when page names have been merged when pages were created you can see all these kinds of things particularly around the ads and where those ad clicks or lead to so what landing pages and squeeze pages that your competitors are using now this is freely accessible to everyone now it’s not the first time something of this caliber has come out there’s been quite a few other services over the years that have done this so there’s a website called builtwith.com and that would basically show you what technology the websites were being built in and it pulled out various different information around what was being run behind the scenes on those pages including Facebook retargeting pixels and pixels for a drove people one of the doing remarketing and things like that it was really super basic you had to have a bit of technology to actually interpret what all that stuff men semrush.com did something very similar but it’s unpaid comprehensive in terms of you can view what I had to being run and it has a lot about SEO backlinks and so on but a game is paid and it’s pretty expensive and the website called what runs where as in what ads run where on the internet used to be freed but if free but now is paid and you see actually are about to see what a lot of the information Facebook is now publishing or the rock what runs where didn’t actually solely be specifically on Facebook as it was just then ads and other advertising channels and mediums as well so similar to what runs where is Add Beat calm it’s not as comprehensive but it is freely it’s got some basic information about what ads are being run and how long they’ve been run and it’s only really particular around banner ads at this stage another website similarweb.com is basic it’s free it doesn’t actually show you what ads are being run but it actually shows you what channels are being utilized in terms of traffic sources of its direct or SEO and so on so Facebook Ads is currently probably arguably the biggest ad platform currently it has really, really good targeting criteria a lot of advertisers are using Facebook ads just for the sheer volume of cohorts it can go out and target with this ads library they are doing what all of these other websites are doing but they are doing it for free and they’re revealing all of this information which is a huge boon for brands so why should you actually care about it so one of the principles are followed for many years is model what works and this is particularly relevant to around what competitors are doing they have found who responds to a certain message and what that message is so competitors have already gone out and spent a lot of money and a lot of time figuring that stuff out and if you an just go see exactly what they’re doing behind the same spy on them and then go model what works necessarily saying copy what they are doing but model what is working particularly around their messaging and also their targeting strategies now look I’ve been known to do this with my some of the Instagram accounts that I own and control what I’ve been adding some of these accounts up to about 100 people only because I am targeting exactly who my competitors are targeting and I’m not gonna get into strategy behind that and how I actually go do it but I’m talking exactly the same competitors on Instagram for some of my accounts and I’m growing those accounts by up to about a hundred followers a day which is huge no paid advertising everything is organic and I’m not spending a ton of time on creating contact in fact some of them I don’t even actually create content some of those other platforms are certain accounts on Instagram I’m adding in about 40 or 50 a day only because I’m wondering what’s worked so those brands have actually gone out and done the hard yards for you and what Facebook Ads library has done for you is revealed all that information for you for free which is as a brand and if you’re trying to grow it is a huge boon now the flip side is if you are about that brand and you are trying to conceal of this too bad so sad it’s all out in the public now so going to get access you just go to facebook.com/ads/library and what really wonder was this go type you know what your competitors search for all of the information that they are using within that all of the things I just mentioned before you know around the messaging and the ads go out and take as many screenshots as possible put it into a folder see if you can now analyze all of that information you’ve got see if there’s any trends once you’ve got all the trends of what all your competitors are doing is like a common denominator then once you’ve done that try to go out and do outdo them in terms of what you’re offering in terms of your messaging and create something that’s slightly better or slightly different and then just go out and implement it as simple as that all the information is out there for free and it has been released within the last two days so I really want you to go out and try that and/or really hope this information and that announcement is useful to you.

Start By Marketing And Selling Offline, Manually First

Orren Prunckun — Sun, 20 Jan 2019 23:33:38 +0000

I hear this all the time from entrepreneurs:

“I need a website!”

And I always ask why?

And the response is:

“So I can sell my product, service or solution.”

Wrong!

You don’t need a website.

In fact, all you need to sell your product, service or solution is:

A prospect;
A sales script; and
A receipt book.

Nothing more, nothing less.

I then ask them if they carry around a receipt book.

And they say, “no”.

How in the hell are they going to sell anything without a way of taking money?

Beyond that, a website only scales marketing and sales.

What I mean by scale is that a website can market and sell as effectively to one prospect as it can to 1,000,000 prospects.

If you have a new product, service or solution, you’re simply not at that stage yet.

How do I know this?

Because you don’t know:

The qualifiers that make prospects turn into customers; or
The objections they have.

The only way you will know this is selling initially one-on-one to find these out.

Once you know them you can start to automate them by adding:

Your qualifiers to your pipeline; and
Their objections to your communication, sales scripts and content.

So if you are going to market and sell online, you need to start by marketing and selling offline, manually first.

But never before.

How To Sell

Orren Prunckun — Mon, 27 Aug 2018 05:36:10 +0000

The Sales Process (How To Sell In Person)

Market Research

Identify prospects (who are you customers)

Marketing

Suspect for Prospects (finding your customers)

Marketing/Sales

Initiate Outreach (bridging the gap with your customers)
Target Outreach (qualify/disqualify your customers)

Sales

Needs Analysis (find your customers specific needs)
Solution Presentation (present your solution to your customers)
Trial Close (ask your customers to buy)
1. Negotiation (address any customer concerns – if required)
2. Close (ask your customers to buy again – if required)

The Sales Process (How To Sell Online)

Market Research

Identify prospects (who are you customers)

Marketing

Suspect for Prospects (finding your customers)
Initiate & Target Outreach (qualify/disqualify your customers)

Sales

Solution Presentation (present your solution to your customers and address any customer concerns)
Close (ask your customers to buy)

Rapport Script

Helps you build trust quickly:

“Hi, how are you? *Handshake* My name is X. What’s your name? (Emotional Willingness & Polite Conversation)
“How is your day going? Would you like a (related to product or benefit), they are free? (Facts & Information)
I love that piece of clothing you are wearing (Compliments)
I have the same at home (Commonalities)
“Great, I’m guessing that means you are into (benefit of product)? Cool, do you use already (similar product)? Are you happy with it? That’s sounds positive/negative! (Ideas & Opinions)
Why do you say that and feel that way? (Feelings & Emotions)
Hi5 (Anchor)
I think I can help you – I’d love to give you some ideas. Is that okay or are you just saying that to please me?” (Authenticity & Congruence)

Rapport!

1 Initiate Outreach

Description:

Once you have found prospect contact information you need to initiate outreach to start qualifying them. This step is about making contact and finding the correct decision maker. You need to find the prospect (or decision maker) and get implied permission to contact. If you cannot Initiate Outreach, you need to go back to the Suspect For Prospect step. Use the following scripts…

Location:

The scripts should be sent from your full name from generic email domain such as Gmail or Hotmail, not a branded domain. You will use the same email Subject line and thread. Load responses into CRM.

2 Target Outreach (Qualify)

Description:

Once you have found the correct decision maker you need to start qualifying them for interest in your product. This is not a sales step. If you sell here, you could be reported for SPAM. If you cannot Target Outreach, you need to go back to the Suspect For Prospect step. If you do not hear back send the No Reply Script. If they are not interested send the Not Interested Script. If they are too busy send the Not Now Follow-up Script.

Location:

3 Needs Analysis

Description:

Once you have contacted the prospect or decision maker and qualified them for interest in your product, you then need to find out more about their needs. This is not a sales step. If you sell here, you could be reported for SPAM. If they want to talk to you based in the Needs Analysis In-Person Script then use the Needs Analysis Script. Use the following scripts, as a guide only as their response will be dynamic.

Location:

The Needs Analysis In-Person Script should be sent from your full name from generic email domain such as Gmail or Hotmail, not a branded domain. You will use the same email Subject line and thread as in the Target Outreach Step. The Needs Analysis Script will be delivered in-person if possible or via phone as an alternative, but not via email. Neat casual attire is required. Load responses into CRM.

4 Solution Presentation

Description:

Once you have received permission from the prospect or decision maker to discuss their needs and discovered about them, if the prospect does not have a need, then move back to the Suspect For Prospects step. If the prospect has a need, you then can start selling. The script sequence should follow: Story, Solution and Offer Scripts. Use the following scripts as a guide only, as their response will be dynamic.

Location:

The scripts should be delivered in person if possible or via phone as an alternative, but not via email. Neat casual attire is required. Email should only be used for sending follow-up and written information after conversation. Load responses into CRM.

5 Trial Close

Description:

Once you have presentenced the product, you then should ask for a Trial Close. If the prospect accepts the solution, move on to the full Close step. If the prospect does not accept the solution, move on to the Negotiation step. Use the following scripts as a guide only, as their response will be dynamic.

Location:

6 Negotiation

Description:

If you have asked for a Trial Close and the prospect does not accept the solution, you then need to determine their objection(s), then answer their objection(s) and negotiation with them. Use the following scripts as a guide only, as their response will be dynamic.

Location:

Determine The Objection

The main objections prospects may have (in rough order) include:

Have no need or willingness to pay;
Have the wrong timing and it’s not urgent;
Have no buying authority or ability to pay;
Have no budget or ability to pay;
Do not know what they get with the product;
Do not like or trust your brand;
Do not believe (i.e. trust) the product, service or solution will work;
Do not believe (i.e. trust) the product, service or solution will work for them; and
Do not think the product, service or solution is valuable.

Beyond not being qualified (1-4 above), objections raised usually come down to not enough information or rapport.

These main objections could be expressed in the following ways:

“I’m not interested”;
“I can’t afford it”;
“I can’t make the decision”;
“Not right now”;
“How do I know it works?”;
“This is risky for me”;
“I don’t know you”;
“What do I get?”; and
“I’ll think about it”.

Answer the Objection

After you have determined their buying objections, it’s time to address them so they become buyers. Here are some tried-and-true ways to address the sales concerns:

Ask them demographic and psychographic questions to re-qualify and segment them, explaining what type of buyer the product, service or solution is intended to benefit and those it cannot help;
Re-contact them at a later date, inject scarcity and provide incentives or bonuses along with the purchase;
Same as 1;
Ask them demographic and psychographic questions to re-qualify and segment them and ask who the decision maker is;
Explain the product features;
Give them your product, service or solution expertise, credibility or credentials in the form of informational and educational marketing and sales content to teach about your brand and give them the brand story behind the product, service or solution;
Provide them with social proof in the form of testimonials and success stories, give them the story behind the product, service or solution, give them your product, service or solution expertise, credibility or credentials in the form of informational and educational marketing and sales content to teach about your brand and explain what type of person the product, service or solution is intended to benefit and those it cannot help ;
Provide social proof via case studies, provide a risk reversal in the form of a money back guarantee, give them the story behind the product, service or solution, give them your product, service or solution expertise, credibility or credentials in the form of informational and educational marketing and sales content to teach about your brand, show them the benefits, advantages, results or outcomes that your product, service or solution provides and show your product, service or solution is different or unique; and
Give them the product, service and solution price and translate the value of that price for them into different currencies such as time and effort.

7 Close

Description:

Once you have answered their objections and negotiated with them, the prospect has an increased chance of accepting the solution now, so you then need to ask the Close again. If the prospect still does not accept the solution, you need to move back to the Negotiation step and repeat. Use the following scripts as a guide only, as their response will be dynamic.

Location:

Competition Hacking: How To Hijack Your Competitors To Save Time, Money And Effort And Increase Profits

Orren Prunckun — Mon, 13 Aug 2018 14:00:05 +0000

Facebook wasn’t the first social networking site, Myspace was.

Google wasn’t the first search engine, Yahoo! was.

It’s much harder to invent something new; then it is to copy something existing.

And it’s usually better to be a fast follower than a leader in this instance.

This method works as the competition has tested for you as you don’t need to re-create the wheel.

You can do the same for your business and grow.

Sorry to say this, but that you are not Steve Jobs.

The likelihood of your creating a million dollar invention is slim.

To prove my point, if you were Steve Jobs, you wouldn’t need this guide.

But no all is doom-and-gloom!

It’s possible to be a fast follower and be really successful, and that is what this guide is about.

Specifically, you will be a fast follower of a wildly successful:

Product, service or solution; or
Marketing campaign.

Depending on where your brand is currently.

You are going to do this by hacking your competitors.

This guide is for two types of people:

Those with a new product, service or solution; or
Existing product, service or solution.

Why Competition Hacking Is Important

So, why would you want to hack your competitors?

Simply because it will save you time, money, effort and increase profits.

Sounds great, right?

Sure does!

What Competition Hacking Is

In broad terms, you are doing competitor intelligence.

Or put another way, you will be doing a marketing hack.

A Hack could be defined as:

“Using something to make it do what you want.”

Or:

“To obtain unauthorized access for gain.”

We will be doing both.

A marketing hack is therefore:

“Using your competition to save you time, money, effort and increase profits by obtaining unauthorized access.”

Sound fun?

Let’s get started.

How To Hack Your Competition

To give you a board picture, we will find what your competitors are doing that is currently working well for them, that is, making them money.

We will then redirect existing traffic that is already there, from the internet firehose to you, instead of going to your competitors.

This works because, if there is competition, especially if the competition is purchasing advertisements, then that competitor is making money.

The existence of advertisements means a brand is making or has an advertisement spend.

If they are spending money, they, by default need to be making money.

Not to be consumed with profit, as the sales may be loss leaders.

But nonetheless, this still means it’s a proven market with proven sales.

Where there is competition , there are customers.

Of course, there are acceptations to this, but this is a rule of thumb for this guide.

With that in mind let’s explore the step-by-step method…

The first step we come across our first decision tree.

We want to know who you are.

We need to determine if you are a startup business or an existing business.

If you are an existing business (with a product, service or solution, then skip this first step and move on to step 2 Hack Competitors.

If you are a startup business (without a product, service or solution yet), you need to Find Products, Services or Solutions.

This process follows:

Find Passion;
Find Advertisements;
Find Products; and
Profit decision.

Let’s start with…

1) Find Products, Services or Solutions

1a) What is Your Passion

The first part of Find Products, Services Or Solutions, is to find your passion.

1b) Find Ads

The second part of Find Products, Services Or Solutions, is to find advertisements.

Not just any ad, ads for products, services or solutions that you are passionate about (Step 1a.)

Here is how to find ads.

You can:

Search Google for keywords related to your passion;
Scroll through your Facebook feed;
Etc.

Then you need to click on the ad and find the retail price.

1c) Find Products

The third part of Find Products, Services Or Solutions is finding products and suppliers.

You need to determine what type of product it is.

Here is the next decision tree:

Is it Physical or digital?

Depending on your answer you need to find the product in the original advertisement.

Once you have found the products retail price, if it is a physical product, you need to then go to search Google for the following:

site:http://aliexpress.com + any keyword that explains the product.

Or:

Save the product image and Google reverse image search for it.

If it is a digital products or service, go to fiverr.com and search for the products keywords.

Find a service provider who offers the same service or multiple services providers that you can bundle to be the whole service.

If you can’t find suppliers you need to abandon that product, abandon it as it will be too hard and start again at 1b.

If you can find a supplier, then you need to find the wholesale price from the supplier or manufacturer from these sites.

1d) Profit Decision

The fourth part of Find Products, Services Or Solutions is a decision if you should pursue this product, service or solution.

There is a market, but you need to know if it is profitable.

Margin is revenue take costs.

Margin is the difference between the retail price and wholesale price.

Mark up is cost multiplied by a factor to give revenue.

Mark up is the wholesale price as expressed as a multiplier or percentage.

Don’t worry about margin, so aim for a 10x mark up to be profitable.

Based on this, you need to decide if you want to pursue that product, service or solution.

If it is not at least 10x markup, then abandon it as it will be too hard.

If it is unprofitable, then you need to repeat this step until you find a product, service or solution that is profitable.

If it is profitable, then move on to step 2, Hack Competitors.

2) Hack Competitors

The most important factors for Hacking Competitors is knowing the following:

Pipeline;
- Landing pages
Brand and Marketing and Sales Communication;
- Ads
Content;
Traffic sources; and
Engagement.

Without that, it will be very hard to hack them.

Well find these out by the following:

Market Research;
Collect Swipe;
Find Market Trends;
Out Do Competition;
Implement Changes;
Measure Changes; and
Repeat.

Let’s start with…

2a) Market Research

The first part of Hack Competitors is Market Research.

Once you have a product, service or solution, you need to hack your competitors.

You need to search Google for your product, service or solution or industry keywords to find your competitors, both direct and indirect – those up or downstream from your product, service or solution.

Upstream means a product, service or solution that is used before your product, service or solution.

Downstream means a product, service or solution that is used after your product, service or solution, usually a next sell or affiliate offer.

You need to list all in a spreadsheet including:

Name of website;
URL of website;
Product, service or solution offered;
Direct, up or downstream from you; and
Contact details.

Each URL will, of course, give you following Hacking Competitors factors from before:

Landing pages (via URL).

Next, load each competitor’s URL into Similarweb (https://www.similarweb.com.)

Similarweb finds and collects intelligence about websites.

Similarweb will show you:

Traffic quantity and quality (useful for partnerships);
Traffic Sources (Top Referring sites);
Amongst many other things…

This ticks off the following Hacking Competitors factors from before:

Parts of Marketing and Sales Communication; and
Traffic Sources.

Of the Traffic Sources (Top Referring sites) listed on Similarweb, copy those URLs into separate browsers to find ads that run on those sites that lead back to your competitor’s site.

For example, a competitors site, abc.com, may have a traffic source from xyz.com, so you would go to xyz.com and find ads on that site that direct to abc.com.

You also want to know the answers to:

How much traffic does each competitor get?
Where do they get traffic from? Referrals? Search? Display – Ads/publishers? What search Terms? What Social?

2b) Collect Swipe

Swiping is the marketing term for collecting competitors marketing materials.

The second part of Hack Competitors is swiping all their Hacking Competitors factors from before:

Pipeline;
- Landing pages;
Brand and Marketing and Sales Communication;
- Ads; and
Content.

This means you need to start swiping and collecting data on everything via screenshots.

You will start by going to publishers/referrals site, clicking on a competitor ad, then follow their entire marketing and sales pipeline:

A pipeline usually goes like this:

Ad with offer;
Landing page with offer (such as an opt-in or purchase);
Upsell/email follow-up offers;
Purchase Thank You page; and
Remarketing on other sites, you visit.

Basically, you are following their entire marketing and sales sequence, including purchasing, to see exactly what your competitors are doing to get, keep and grow prospects and customers, so you can reverse engineer and copy (without breaching copyright) to save you time , effort and money testing to see what works the best for your business.

Purchasing is important because after the purchase there are many things that occur for customers only and aren’t available to the public (AKA prospects).

The purchasing ticks off the final Hacking Competitors factors from before and allow you to go behind closed doors and see what else they do for:

Engagement.

Finally, you want to ask to join their affiliate program, again there are many things that occur for affiliate only and aren’t available to the public (AKA prospects).

Once you have done this, you need to repeat this for the rest of your competitors.

2c) Find Market Trends

The third part of Hack Competitors is to find trends in the Market.

Once you have completed your market research, you then need to start looking for trends and common denominators among all your competitors:

Pipeline;
- Landing pages including Upsells;
Brand and Marketing and Sales Communication;
- Ads including Retail Price;
Content;
Traffic sources; and
Engagement.

Capture all of these trend insights into a document with the same headers.

2d) Out Do Competitor’s

The fourth part of Hack Competitors is out doing your competitors.

Once you have found market trends, you then need to work out how your business can be better than all of these.

This comes down to a better value proposition, but also specifically:

A more premium brand ;
More persuasive Landing pages;
More compelling Brand and Marketing and Sales Communication;
More persuasive Ads;
More valuable Content; and
More valuable Engagement.

But it shouldn’t be on price.

2e) Implement Changes

The fifth part of Hack Competitors is implementing these changes you identified to outdo your competitors.

Once you have outdone your competitors, you then need to implement the changes.

This includes setting up:

Ads, paid content, affiliate or referral offers on the same referral and display site they do;
Setting up the same SEO keywords and backlinks on your pages they do;
Insert the same SEO keywords into your internal content;
Setting up same social media platforms and distributing content they have;
Setting up similar landing pages;
Setting up similar pipeline sequences for Engagement and Marketing and Sales Communication;
Etc.

2f) Measure Changes

The sixth part of Hack Competitors is measuring your implemented changes.

After you have implemented changes, you need to measure that your new changes are actually working.

You do this through split testing.

2g) Repeat

Now that you have finished this, it is a never-ending process of split testing, so you will repeat by going back to 2a).

The Future Of Marketing: Predictions For 2018

Orren Prunckun — Thu, 28 Dec 2017 22:30:17 +0000

Approximate read time: 4 minutes

The New Year is almost upon us…

So it’s worth looking forward to spot opportunities.

I also work heavily in the marketing, and I get to see a lot that has happened and is currently happening in this industry.

Each year, I think about what the future looks like for marketing, particularly:

What will work in the next 12 months?; and
What will work in the next 5+ years?

Thinking about these answers will help you get ahead of your competitors.

There are some big shifts and trends occurring in marketing, and I outline areas that matter in your business and what you can take advantage of:

Let’s get started…

Predictions For Market Research

The following will become opportunities for smart marketers with their Market Research:

Machine Learning (that is, the replication of how humans learn) will allow brands to pre-emptive marketing and predict (without a search trigger) when a purchase will be made, even before the prospect consciously knows they will purchase;
Computer Vision (that is, visual and audible perception) will allow brands to monitor attention, monitor visual representations of their brand as well as monitor demographical information all in real time; and
Sensors and biometrics (that is tracking human functions) will allow brands to measure prospect attention, emotion and activity in real time.

Predictions For Marketing & Sales Pipelines

The following will become opportunities for smart marketers with their marketing pipelines:

Users Interfaces (as opposed to User Experience) will become more important for brands, as long as the Users Interface is consistent and congruent in its design with the brand perception; and
Marketing & Sales Pipelines will become more mixed, distributed and integrated.

Predictions For Marketing & Sales Communication

The following will become opportunities for smart marketers with their marketing and sales communication:

Facebook’s Messenger app will take over email communication for being the marketing and sales communication delivery tool of choice for consumers.

Predictions For Marketing Content

The following will become opportunities for smart marketers with their content marketing:

Vertical (unless on Snapchat), short video content that has the option of no sound and user controls will rise as a modality of choice for content consumption;
Likewise, image content will also rise as a modality of choice for content consumption;
Live and semi-live (Snapchat Snaps, Snapchat Stories, Facebook Stories, Instagram Stories) content rise as a modality of choice for content consumption;
Virtual and Augmented Reality content will start to become a viable modality for content by brands;
Brands will need to optimize all content for mobile;
Content will become more entertainment and experience-based;
Content will become more mixed, distributed and integrated; and
The free-line will move more to the free side and brands will need to think hard how they deliver and capture value based on that.

Predictions For Advertising

The following will become opportunities for smart marketers with their advertising:

Vertical (unless it’s on Snapchat), short video ads, that has the option of no sound and user controls will become a popular ad option for brands;
Likewise, image content will become a popular ad option for brands;
Virtual and Augmented Reality ads will start to become a viable ad option for brands;
Brands will need to optimize all ads for mobile;
Incentive-based and interactive ads will become popular for brands due to their increased user engagement;
Ads and content delivered by social media “Influencers” will become a popular ad option for brands;
Machine Learning will allow brands to dynamically serve targeted offers from a vault of ad creative at the right time to the right prospects based on real-time targeting criteria;
Drone ads will become a viable option for brands; and
Ad offer will work better if they are for content and land on content.

Predictions For Search Engine Optimization

The following will become opportunities for smart marketers with their search engine marketing:

Computer Vision will allow prospects real-time visual recognition of products and allow them to visually search for them via existing search engines, which will also recognize and index video content;
Speech recognition via Siri, Google Now, Google Home, Amazon Echo will allow prospects real-time interactive product search; and
Brands will need to adhere to Search Engine Optimization best practice for all product images and video content.

Predictions For Social Media Marketing

The following will become opportunities for smart marketers with their social media marketing:

Social media accounts will replace websites as the digital catalogue allowing users to stay native on the platform and platforms will reward brands for that retention by delivering more attention; and
Social Media distribution of content will take over as the dominant content distribution channel.

Predictions For Brand Sharing

The following will become opportunities for smart marketers with their Brand Sharing:

Incentivized, user-generated will become important for brands.

Predictions For Sales

The following will become opportunities for smart marketers with their Sales:

After the stabilization of volatility, Cryptocurrencies will again become a viable payment option;
1-on-1 and unique experiences will become vital for offline sales; and
The Internet Of Things will allow brands to pre-emptive marketing and predict when prospects needs arise.

Predictions For Marketing & Sales Engagement

The following will become opportunities for smart marketers with their marketing and sales engagement:

Online and offline will begin to be more integrated and seamless; and
Online will begin to replicate the offline User Experience.

Try these out over the next 12 months and let me know how they go for you…

You can get 21 printed lead generating Process Maps for free, here.

And if you’re serious about marketing and selling more, the logical next step is to contact me to help you do it yourself, have me do it with you, or have it all done for you.

This may be the momentum you need to get great marketing and sales results.

Or do you simply want more like this?

Join below to be notified immediately about new content and more. No annoying daily emails and no spam – just good content when it’s posted.

How To Change People’s Minds

Orren Prunckun — Sun, 17 Dec 2017 22:30:10 +0000

Approximate read time: 4 minutes

It’s really hard for someone to change their mind.

And if you do, you run the risk of buyer’s remorse because they will think they have been duped.

Partly due to the Commitment and Consistency effect in psychology.

When people make a commitment, they act and think in ways that are consistent with that.

For example, if someone thinks kink is wrong, they will act and think in ways that are consistent with that.

The other part is that the way people think and act has served them well all their life.

People have their strong suits and winning formulas for a reason.

Think about it this way; they wouldn’t have survived if they thought and acted differently than they have done.

Although there are some ways that can help change people’s mind.

The first is crucible style events.

A crucible event is “a situation of severe trial, or in which different elements interact, leading to the creation of something new.”

That something new is a new belief.

Beliefs create thoughts.

Thoughts create emotions.

Emotions create decisions.

Decisions create actions.

Actions create results.

Getting cancer is crucible event.

Getting dumped by the love of your life is a crucible event.

Losing your life savings is a crucible event.

And so on…

What these situations do is drastically change one’s perspective.

We see the world one way.

Then a situation of severe trial comes along.

Then we see the world another way that is different than before.

In a new way.

A new belief.

You can replicate crucible events for people, without the tragedy:

Humans are motivated primarily to move towards pleasure and away from pain or both.

You need to know what this pleasure or pain is.

Next, you need to show that person what they are doing is not moving towards pleasure or away from pain or both.

Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity is relevant here: “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Next, you need to show that person a new approach is needed.

Due to opportunity cost, people only switch approaches if it is faster or easier.

Speed or automation.

In the simplest form, money, time and effort are really the only currencies we have.

You then need to show them this faster, or easier way will move towards pleasure and away from pain or both.

This all requires a deep level of trust and your genuine investment helping them, for them, not for your benefit.

And of course, trust is “confidence placed in a person from the building of rapport by saying what you will do and then doing what you said,” or saying what you will not do and then not doing what you said.

But how do you get there?

Trust is built through the mutual exchange of:

Emotional Willingness;
Polite Conversation;
Facts & Information;
Compliments;
Commonalities;
Ideas & Opinions;
Feelings & Emotions; and
Authenticity & Congruence.

The later elements can’t be done without the former ones.

And you can’t skip any of them with someone new, but once you have established one of them, you can skip right back to that point.

When trust is present, there is rapport.

Rapport being a close relationship.

And a lot of the time, you just can’t change people, but you can CHANGE (swap) people, by screening for alignment at the start.

Proviso BankStatements ProvCon 2017 – Personal Branding

Orren Prunckun — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 22:30:02 +0000

Why personal brands are important to you and your career
Theory on brands, perceptions and relationships
How to Evaluate, Elect and Embody a personal brand
Provide next actions once the session is over today

A Brand is… “The real-time, sum total experience, idea or concept of you inside the minds of others”

Positioning is… “Influencing the perception, idea or concept of you so it has a certain

position or attribute in the mind of others.”

STEP 1: How To Evaluate Your Current And Intended Personal Brand

STEP 2: How To Elect Your Intended Personal Brand

STEP 3: How To Embody Your Personal Brand

Take Action Step 1:

What are the important attributes for the career you want?
What are you current attributes?
Create a Blue Ocean Graph for you and your peers.

Take Action Step 2:

Pick a position no one else owns, does well or you can do really well.

Take Action Step 3:

What touch point do people have with you?
Determine how your position will be congruent at each of these?
Determine how your position will be consistent at each of these?
How will you give “deposits”?
How will you take “withdrawals”?
What publicity or pre-framing tools will you use?
What publicity or pre-framing channels will you use?
How will you maintain your position?

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The Market Research Process: How To Discover Exactly What Your Market Wants And Needs And How To Use Those Findings In Your Marketing And Sales

Orren Prunckun — Sat, 21 May 2016 23:33:21 +0000

Approximate read time: 5 minutes

Market research is success insurance!

What is market research?

Market research “is any organized effort to gather information about customers.”

Amazon.com uses a process called “working backward” for new product, service or solution creation.

Amazon’s CTO, Werner Vogel, said: “Start with your customer and work your way backward until you get to the minimum set of technology requirements to satisfy what you try to achieve.”

They write the press release, the Frequently Asked Questions and user manual all before the product, service or solution is created.

One of the best quotes I have read on this is by serial entrepreneur, Steve Blank:

“Marketing’s primary role at a startup is to drive sales. Marketing’s job is to make the VP of Sales the richest person in the company. How does marketing do that? Well, marketing’s job number one was to understand customers’ needs, desires, etc. and make sure engineering understood those as well”.

How do you do this?

Here are the elements:

STEP 1: Contact Database;
STEP 2: Market Research;
STEP 3: Confirm Findings; and
STEP 4: Add Findings.

Let’s begin with…

1) Contact Database

…This step is about your contact database.

Here you have the first decision tree.

Do you have a contact list of prospects and customers?

If you don’t have one, then you need to build a seed list of prospects and customers.

If you do have a contact list of prospects and customers, then you need to ask if you can talk to them about their pains and gains that your product, service or solution can solve.

Of course, the exact details of how to do this are beyond the scope of this guide.

So in summary, this step is about contact database.

This leads us to market research…

2) Market Research

…This step is about market research.

Once you have a contact database, you come across the second decision tree.

If your prospects and customers do not want to talk to you about their pains and gains that your product, service or solution can solve, then no further action is needed with that segment.

If your prospects and customers do want to talk to you about this, then you need to ask them specific market research questions.

The questions revolve around a few main areas, both external and internal:

Demographics;
Pains;
Gain; and
Solutions.

The process of asking or interviewing them, in the first instance, is qualitative research, which is investigative research to understand their answers deeply by asking further questions if necessary.

This means it is best to talk to people face-to-face or over the phone and not use email or surveys.

There is a place for surveys, which comes later.

Offering a survey at this stage means that you run the risk of asking leading questions.

In law, there is an evidential question called a leading question.

A leading question is a question you ask to hear the information you want to hear.

Put another way, it is a question that prompts or encourages the answer sought.

In other words, it’s information that will confirm any bias you already have.

A survey only has limited information that has no scope for organic follow up questions like an interview does.

It misses a lot of vital information you don’t know or don’t know that you don’t know.

You need to be asking the “5 Why’s” behind each answer to get to core of the answer:

Why, why, why, why, why!

Your bias and assumptions may not actually align with what your prospects and customers truly want.

These biases are not helpful in the context of marketing and sales, as it will mean you are not addressing exactly what your prospects and customers need.

After you have done this with one prospect or customer, you need to repeat it at least 20 times with 20 plus other prospects or customers, or until you see answers with common denominators starting to emerge.

Don’t count the outlines.

The reason for this is statistical significance.

Of course, the exact details of how to do this are beyond the scope of this guide.

This step is about market research.

This leads us to confirm your findings…

3) Confirm Findings

…This step is about confirming your findings.

Once you have completed your market research, then you need to confirm and validate this research via a survey.

Here is where surveys are relevant.

This is quantitative research.

You need to add the common denominators to the survey and ask if they are true.

You need to repeat this at least 20 times with 20 plus prospects or customers, or until you see answers with common denominators starting to emerge.

Don’t count the outlines.

The reason for this is statistical significance.

Of course, the exact details of how to do this are beyond the scope of this guide.

This step is about confirming your finding.

This leads us to add your findings to your marketing and sales…

4) Add Findings

…This step is about adding your findings to your marketing and sales.

Once you have your qualitative and quantitative research findings, you will then need to add your findings to your marketing and sales.

This could be to inform your content and conversion.

Of course, the exact details of how to do this are beyond the scope of this guide.

Take Action

You made it…

You now have a solid plan for discovering exactly what your market wants and needs and how to use those findings to your marketing and sales.

That’s the full Market Research Process, and it will be more than enough for you to get started on your own.

You can get the printed illustrated Process Map of this and 20 others for free, here

And if you’re serious about marketing and selling more, the logical next step is to contact me to help you do it yourself, have me do it with you, or have it all done for you.

This maybe the momentum you need to get great marketing and sales results.

Now let’s learn about The Brand Creation Process.

Or do you simply want more like this?

Join below to be notified immediately about new content and more. No annoying daily emails and no spam – just good content when it’s posted.

The Marketing & Sales Processes: How Market And Sell Your Product, Service Or Solution

Orren Prunckun — Sat, 21 May 2016 23:31:49 +0000

Click here to embed this infographic.

Approximate read time: 14 minutes

The fundamental parts of marketing and sales are quite simple.

In order to effectively, consistently and predictably market and sell products, services, or solutions, particular marketing and sales processes should be followed step-by-step.

I have outlined several critical marketing and sales processes to help you market and sell products, services, and solutions.

Here they are…

STEP 1: The Human Purchasing Process;
STEP 2: The Market Research Process;
STEP 3: The Brand Creation Process;
STEP 4: The Marketing & Sales Pipeline Process;
STEP 5: The Marketing & Sales Communication Process;
STEP 6: The Content Creation Process;
STEP 7: The Lead Generation Processes;
STEP 8: The B2B Lead Generation Process;
STEP 9: The Partner Recruitment Process;
STEP 10: The Partner Co-Enrolment Process;
STEP 11: The B2C Lead Generation Process;
STEP 12: The Search Engine Optimization Process;
STEP 13: The Positive Publicity Process;
STEP 14: The Social Media Marketing Process;
STEP 15: The Sales Script Process;
STEP 16: The Sales Negotiation Process;
STEP 17: The Marketing & Sales Engagement Process;
STEP 18: The Marketing & Sales Launch Process; and
STEP 19: The Promotional Partner Launch Process.

Let’s begin with…

1) The Human Purchasing Process

…This is about how to navigate hardwired buying psychology to inform your marketing and sales.

This process lays the foundation for all processes that follow and helps you understand your prospects and customers.

This leads us to The Market Research Process…

2) The Market Research Process

…Once you have a foundation for all processes that follow and understand your prospects and customers, you need to understand The Market Research Process.

This part is about how to discover what your market wants and needs and how to use those findings in your marketing and sales.

Understanding their personas helps you enter the conversation your prospects and customers are having in their own mind.

This leads us to The Brand Creation Process…

3) The Brand Creation Process

..Once you have an understanding of processes for marketing and sales communication, you need to understand the Brand Creation Process.

This part is about how to evaluate and create or recreate an unforgettable brand.

It lays out the specific process for brand creation.

This leads us to The Marketing & Sales Pipeline Process…

4) The Marketing & Sales Pipeline Process

…Once you have an understanding of the conversation your prospects and customers are having in their own mind, you need to understand The Marketing & Sales Pipeline.

This part is about how to use a marketing & sales pipeline to market and sell more products, services and solutions to prospects and customers.

It also lays the structure and sequence to the rest of the processes.

This leads us to The Marketing & Sales Communication Process…

5) The Marketing & Sales Communication Process

…Once you have an understanding of the structure and sequence to the rest of the processes, you need to understand The Marketing & Sales Communication Process.

This part is about how to communicate with your prospects and customers at the various steps in a marketing and sales pipeline.

It also lays out the processes for this method of communication.

This leads us to The Content Creation Process…

6) The Content Creation Process

…Once you have an understanding of the brand creation process, you need to understand The Content Creation Process.

This part is about how to create powerful lead generating and lead converting marketing and sales content and increase the number of prospects, AKA marketing and increase the number of customers, AKA sales, AKA prospect conversion.

It lays out the specific process of content creation.

This leads us to The Lead Generation Processes…

7-14) The Lead Generation Processes

…Once you have an understanding of the process of content creation, you need to understand The Lead Generation Processes.

This part is about how to generate leads and increase the number of prospects, AKA marketing.

It includes:

The Digital Traffic Firehose Process;
The B2B Lead Generation Process, AKA Cold Email;
The Partner Recruitment Process, AKA Affiliates;
The Partner Co-Enrolment Process;
The B2C Lead Generation Process, AKA Advertising;
The Search Engine Optimization Process;
The Positive Publicity Process, AKA PR; and
The Social Media Marketing Process.

It lays out the specific process for each of these methods for generating leads.

This leads us to The Sales Script Process…

15) The Sales Script Process

…Once you have an understanding of the process for generating leads, you need to understand The Sales Script Process.

This part is about how to write irresistible sales communication to sell your process, services and solutions and increase the number of customers, AKA sales, AKA prospect conversion, increase the value of customer transactions, AKA upselling, and increase the number of customer transactions, AKA retention.

It lays out the specific process for creating sales scripts and how to handle sales objections and why prospects don’t take action on offers.

This leads us to The Sales Negotiation Process…

16) The Sales Negotiation Process

…Once you have an understanding of sales, you need to understand The Sales Negotiation Process.

This part is about how to overcome common sales objections.

It lays out the specific process for addressing these concerns.

This leads us to The Marketing & Sales Engagement Process…

17) The Marketing & Sales Engagement Process

…Once you have an understanding of the process for creating sales scripts, you need to understand The Marketing & Sales Engagement Process.

This part is about how to engage your prospects and customers to be loyal and encourage others to buy.

It lays out the specific process for engaging your prospects and customers.

This leads us to The Marketing & Sales Launch Process…

18) The Marketing & Sales Launch Process

…Once you have an understanding of the process for engaging your prospects and customers, you need to understand Marketing & Sales Launch Process.

This part is about how to launch a new product, service or solution successfully with no resources as well as how to launch with partners the right way by tying together Parts 1 to 8.

It lays out the specific process for launching a new product, service or solution.

This leads us to The Promotional Partner Launch Process…

19) The Promotional Partner Launch Process

…Once you have an understanding of the Marketing & Sales launch process, you need to understand how to leverage partners in the process.

This part is about how to launch a product service or solution with partners.

It lays out the specific process for launching with partners.

That sums up all The Marketing & Sales Processes.

Take Action

You made it…

You now have a solid overview of several critical Marketing & Sales Processes to help you market and sell you product, service or solution.

That’s the full Marketing & Sales Processes, and it will be more than enough for you to get started on your own.

This guide is designed as a choose-your-own-adventure, where you pick-and-choose what you want to understand and improve on in your marketing and sales.

You don’t need to consume it all from start to finish, but I encourage you to do, as you’ll be in a better position to market and sell more products, services and solutions.

So let’s start with some questions to help you decided where to start…

Then explore the guides for each process.

These will be more than enough for you to get started on your own.

Do you have too many customers?

If you do not have too many customers, this guide will help you get into a position where you can say yes!

How?

Answer the rest of the questions to find out…

If you do have too many customers, then this guide will help you get more revenue from them more often.

How?

Again answer the rest of the questions to find out…

Do you understand your prospects and customers, AKA market research?

If your answer is no, then you need to learn about Market Research and Human Purchasing Psychology.