The Millionaire Messenger

Becoming an expert is simply a matter of positioning and packaging who you are and what you know so that you can help the greatest number of people in your target audience.

The best way to find your area of expertise is to ask yourself, “What is it that people are always asking me how I do?” or “What are the questions people always seem to be asking when they deal with the subject of ______?” Answer those questions and serve others, and you have an expert business.

You can’t succeed in our industry unless you have knowledge that can help other people overcome their challenges or move from point A to point B.

Are you deeply passionate about your topic and about inspiring other people to improve? What knowledge do you have about life or business that could help other people?

In the expert community we spend our time on only two things: Relating with our audience to gain their trust and understand their needs and ambitions, and Creating useful information, content, and products that add value to our audience and teach them how to live a better life or grow their businesses.

Our industry’s sales campaigns that are working essentially run like this: We send out free information that adds value to people’s lives, and then at some point we say, “Hey, if you liked that free information, I also have a product/program that you can buy, which goes much deeper.” How easy is that?

The better we know our customers and what they need, the more we can tailor our messages and methods to help them.

At some point, I was actually charging $5,000 an hour. Why in the world would someone pay anyone that much money for one hour? It’s simple—it’s not about the minutes in the hour but the difference in your life. If someone gives you ideas, information, strategies, and connections that can advance you forward in life and business, you aren’t looking at your watch and wallet.

If you ever have more than 10 employees in this industry, then you are doing one or more of the following: (a) not hiring intelligently, (b) not setting up your infrastructure intelligently, (c) not leading and delegating intelligently, (d) not partnering intelligently, or (e) not outsourcing intelligently.

If people spent as much time worrying about how to make a difference as they do about how they could make money, then they would soon find themselves rich beyond belief.

First, never forget that on the highway of life, you have come further than many others, and the lessons you have learned are both helpful and valuable to others.

By the simple act of having accomplished some fundamental tasks in life, you have built what I call “accidental expertise.” You might not consider yourself an expert, but the truth is that other people are out there, in the millions, trying to figure out something you probably already know casually.

Expert Signposts: 1. Five things I have learned about motivating myself and achieving my dreams are… 2. Five things I have learned about leading others and being a good team player are… 3. Five things I have learned about managing money are… 4. Five things I have learned about having a successful business are… 5. Five things I have learned about marketing a product or brand are… 6. Five things I have learned about being a good partner in an intimate relationship are… 7. Five things I have learned about spirituality or connecting with a higher power are… 8. Five things I have learned about home decorating/fashion/organizing are… 9. Five things I have learned about managing my life and being effective are…

I helped you brainstorm what you could teach others in the nine most lucrative topics in the expert industry: Motivation Advice Leadership Advice Financial Advice Business Advice Marketing Advice Relationship Advice Spiritual Advice Style Advice Productivity Advice

Second, never forget that experts are students first and that you can go research any topic and become an “expert” in that area, starting now.

Did you know that you don’t need to have ever done something to be considered an expert in it? You don’t have to be a “results expert.”

They aren’t even in business, and they may never have practiced business principles, but because they studied business closely enough and knew about best practices in business, they were considered experts.

I have created a rock-solid set of questions that changes people’s perspective very quickly. Here they are: 1. If you were about to invest in real estate, would you take advice from someone who had never owned a home or commercial property? Most people reply, “Absolutely not.” But then I ask, 2. But what if that person who had never owned a property had interviewed in detail the top 20 billionaire real estate investors in the world and distilled all their lessons into a 10-step system? Would you listen then? Of course, everyone changes their mind and gets the point. If someone has researched a given topic and broken it down for us, we will listen. And we will pay for their guidance.

That is the process of being a research expert: Choose a topic that people find valuable, research it, interview others on it, synthesize what you learn, and then offer your findings for sale so others can learn and improve their lives.

Complete the following starter sentences: 1. A topic I have always been passionate about is… 2. A topic I would like to help other people master is… 3. If I could research any topic in the world and help people master it, that topic would be… 4. The reason I think people need help in this area is… 5. To start researching this topic more, I could… 6. People I could interview on this topic include…

Third, never forget that people listen to those they trust, respect, admire, and follow—they listen to role models.

Expert Signposts: 1. One reason people might admire me is because… 2. I have tried to live a good life by living by the following principles… 3. When people look at my life, they can point to the fact that I have done good things, such as… 4. The traits that make me a good person and that I will show to the world include…

Have you diligently researched the topic you want to help others learn or master? Have you read at least six books on the topic in the past year? Have you interviewed at least ten other experts on the topic? Have you applied your lessons learned and gotten significant results? Are you living a good life that people will admire and respond to?

When you combine researcher, results maker, and role model, you have a magic that transcends the word “expert” and elevates you to trusted adviser.

Step 2: Pick Your Audience

What is relevant here is that you ultimately decide whom you want to serve most in your new career.

Once you have a demographic in mind, go another level deeper and consider your ideal audience’s age, including what they have been through in life, what personality types they embody, and what they do for a living. The best practice is to narrow your audience to a recognizable type of person.

Choosing an audience is akin to choosing your topic in that you want to find people similar to you. Who is passionate about the same topics you are? Who wants to learn the same things you do? Who has been through similar life struggles to yours?

Expert Signposts: 1. The audience that would most likely benefit from training on a topic like mine is… 2. The audience that would most likely pay for training on a topic like mine is… 3. The audience of people who seem underserved on my topic includes… 4. People who need education on my topic often belong to organizations like…

Step 3: Discover Your Audience’s Problems

Here are questions you can ask your audience in order to learn more about what they need from you: 1. What is it you are trying to accomplish this year? 2. What do you think it would take to double your business (or happiness) this year? 3. What frustrates you the most about your business or your life right now? 4. What have you already tried to do to improve your situation? What worked and what didn’t work? Answers to these questions help me understand the ambitions, needs, frustrations, and learning preferences of my clients.

Expert Signposts: 1. My audience often dreams of achieving… 2. My audience is afraid of not knowing enough about… 3. My audience often searches and Googles phrases like… 4. My audience likes to follow these types of people and organizations in the media or through social media… 5. My audience hates having to do things like… 6. My audience often pays good money for… 7. If I could give my audience any information that would help them improve their lives, they would probably want strategies on how to… 8. The steps my audience often misses when trying to achieve their goals include… 9. Based on all these ideas, some how-to information that I could provide to my audience that would make them very happy would include strategies on how to…

Step 4: Define Your Story

“What is a story of struggle from your past that could illustrate to your audience that you have struggled through something similar to what they are struggling through?” That story, even more than fancy degrees or a lifetime of success in your topic or industry, is often the central piece in conveying credibility.

We tend to relate to one another’s struggles more than to our successes.

Your audience wants to know that you’ve been through what they’ve been through.

Notice the ordering of that question, as I have found it to be very purposeful and powerful. Audiences want to know, in this order: 1. Who are you and what have you been through in life that I can relate to in my own life? 2. What have you overcome and how? 3. What did you figure out along the way? 4. What did you succeed at—what results did you get? 5. What are you going to teach me that I can apply now to make my life better?

Expert Signposts: 1. A story of struggle from my past that my audience might relate to is… 2. Something I have overcome in my life that others might find inspiring or feel a connection with is… 3. The main lessons I have learned from my journey include… 4. Accomplishments and affiliations I have in my life that help further my credibility include… 5. Lessons I can teach people that will help them in my topic area and their life situation include…

Step 5: Create a Solution

To begin, you simply have to choose how you would like your customer to receive your information.

The first way that people can consume your information is through reading it.

Second, your audience might want to hear your information,

Third, people may want to watch your information

Fourth, your fans and consumers might want to experience you and your information in person,

Finally, a segment of your audience will always want to master your information and get a greater degree of access and training from you.

The bottom line, though, is that in order to serve your clients and make money in this industry, you must create a program for sale.

Expert Signposts: 1. When my audience learns my information, they will probably want to learn it through these modalities the most…[choices: reading, hearing, watching, experiencing, mastering] 2. The modality I would like to teach in the most involves my…[choices: writing it, speaking it for audio, presenting it on video, training at a live event, or coaching over a period of time] 3. Based on these ideas, I think the first how-to product or program I will create for my audience will be something like… 4. To achieve results, my customers will need how-to information that helps them move from point A, just beginning, to point B, arriving at their destination. The steps they would have to take on that journey are… 5. As my customers take these steps, they will have to keep in mind… 6. Common mistakes people make as they take these steps iclude… 7. An outline for my new how-to solution for my customers could look like this…[Yes, create your outline for your new product or program now!]

Step 6: Put up a Website

They don’t want to see you brag about who you are, talk about how much you charge, or explain what you are doing with your life. They want content and training, and it is your job to give it to them, for free, on your website in order to build rapport with them and provide value to them. This is the first rule of all business: Add value.

You must capture the names and e-mail addresses of your visitors. You do this by offering free training or resources in exchange for their name and e-mail address. You have seen this at work before: Sign up for our newsletter and you will instantly receive…

On your homepage, you should feature your latest products for sale, and when a consumer clicks on the link to learn more, you should have an effective marketing strategy that leads them to buy the product.

Expert Signposts: 1. If I were to design my ideal website, the value and information I would want to provide to my visitors would be things like… 2. The main thing people would like to learn upon visiting my site is… 3. The free gift I could offer my customers in exchange for their contact information is… 4. The products and programs I want my clients to know about and buy will be…

Step 7: Campaign Your Products and Programs

A campaign is a strategic sequence of promotions that leads to a desired consumer behavior. In a typical value-adding campaign in the expert industry, we send out a strategic series of communications to customers that actually serves them with great content. We give these free content pieces, and in the last communication in the series, we effectively say, “Hey, if you like the free training I have just sent you, then you will love my new program called [insert your product name here].”

By delivering real value to customers in advance of asking for a sale, we create the kind of trust, value, and reciprocity that helps consumers feel comfortable in ultimately buying our products and programs.

The critical success factor is to make sure your free information is truly valuable and actionable.

You have to cover all the marketing basics of creating rapport, effectively describing your customer’s pain points and how your solution overcomes them, sharing your credibility, telling your customer the benefits of your solution, showing testimonials of people who have succeeded by following your advice, and giving a good price and a guarantee.

Expert Signposts: 1. To add value to people before I sell to them, I can send them a few free content pieces like… 2. The first product I want to market to my customers is… 3. The reason people should buy this product is because it helps them… 4. This product ultimately gives customers the following benefits in their life… 5. The reason this product is different from others out there is… 6. The reasons I know this product gets results for people is that it… 7. The reason the price point of this product is fantastic is… 8. To pay the price point of this product, people must believe that… 9. The reason people need to buy this program now is…

Step 8: Post FREE Content

In general, you should give your best advice and ideas away for free. Yes, for free. I’m not saying to give all your content away for free, but rather to give your best ideas away for free. I often tell people to “lead with your best work” because you often don’t get another chance to prove your value.

Simply put, if the stuff people get from you is free and incredible, then they’ll be more likely and willing to buy your other products. They think, “Gosh, if this is the caliber of stuff this person gives away for free, then the stuff they’re selling must be exceptional!”

Expert Signposts: 1. Ten short articles I could write and post on my blog include topics such as… 2. Ten short videos I could create and post to YouTube could cover topics such as… 3. The “biggest idea” I have for my customers that I should now share for free via video or articles online is… 4. The keywords I want to emphasize in my article and video posts so that they are optimized to get good search engine results include key phrases such as… 5. When I put all this free content online, my goal is for the customer to read, hear, or watch it and then take this next action…

Step 9: Get Promotional Partners

You can get your message out there only so far by yourself. That’s why it is important to start looking for other experts in the community who have audiences that may be interested in your topics and trainings. If you can get those experts to promote your message to their base of fans, followers, and subscribers, then you immediately amplify your message as well as your income.

Give and you shall receive. I believe that if I add value for other people in my industry, then they will reciprocate somehow and someday.

Build something real first; then ask others to help build it bigger.

Expert Signposts: 1. Other experts training on my topic include…[I strongly suggest making a spreadsheet with all this information] 2. The audience size they have on Twitter and Facebook is… 3. The products they offer for sale on their website include… 4. The price points they most often offer to their audience are… 5. The values this person seems to live by are… 6. The common phrases this person uses are… 7. This person’s priorities seem to include… 8. The information I have that their audience would likely value is…

Step 10: Repeat and Build the Business Based on Distinction, Excellence, and Service

The first value is distinction, being unique. If you are always mindful about being your unique self and delivering unique value and content to your customers, you will meet the kind of success others dream of. Life, and our industry, does not reward cookie cutters or copycats. The better you get at being yourself and displaying your uniqueness to your fans and followers, the more influential you will become.

The second value I encourage you to make part of your expert empire is excellence. Standing out in any role, career, or industry is simple if you are driven by excellence more than your counterparts are. To me, excellence is about giving your greatest effort and caring enough about your career and customers to make sure the value you bring is equal to or better than anything else out there. It is about striving to be a master and leader in what you do.

I think of the value of service in two ways. First, it means approaching this work from a place of service in your heart and mind. The entrepreneurial experts who ascend to making millions of dollars and reaching millions of people, those who become Millionaire Messengers, get in this business and stay in this business for the right reasons. They care about helping others. They have a deep connection with those they serve. They genuinely want to help others solve their problems and reach their potential. They create great products and information not because doing so will make them millionaires but because it will help improve millions of lives.

Expert Signposts: 1. What makes me distinct in this industry is that I… 2. The reason I am committed to being excellent in everything I do is… 3. The reason I am doing this work in the first place is to…

Money is a grand amplifier. If you want to get your message out there in a big way and you want to sustain it, having more money makes that possible.

Entrepreneurial experts make money through one or more of the following activities: Writing Speaking Giving Seminars Coaching Consulting Online marketing

As authors, experts write their advice and how-to information and charge money for it.

My clients and I have made money selling booklets (the shorter cousin to books, often 20 to 50 pages in length), eBooks (shorter electronic versions of books, often 20 to 50 pages in length), instructor guides (train-the-trainer manuals on my topics), membership site blogs (which people paid a subscription fee to read and could access with a unique login and password), article series (for other experts to license), and monthly subscription newsletters (delivered in print to my customers’ homes once a month for a fee).

As speakers, experts make money by delivering presentations on their topic in one of three formats. First, they may market themselves as keynote speakers, charging organizations a speaking fee for what is typically a 30- to 90-minute speech.

Last—and this has become wildly popular and profitable in the past decade—speakers earn an income doing “platform sales,” meaning they speak on promoters’ stages and offer their higher-priced products and programs for sale directly to the audience from the stage. Basically, they teach their topic for 80 minutes or so and then, in the last 10 to 15 minutes, offer their programs for sale to the audience. In this format, “platform presenters” do not earn a fee to speak—they make money only if the audience buys their programs.

As seminar leaders, experts host their own live events. I simply group all these live training events under “seminars,” but they are often described as workshops, conferences, educational retreats, training intensives, transformational weekends, and so on. Seminars,

As life and business coaches, experts make money by charging clients for individual or group coaching sessions. The most common form of coaching is similar to the therapeutic model—clients pay coaches by the hour for their advice.

As consultants, experts make money by charging organizations, usually by the hour or by the completed project, for their actual services in creating, collaborating on, and completing a specific project. In the new world economy, this is often the most labor-intensive

As online marketers, experts make money by packaging their advice and how-to knowledge into informational products and programs that people purchase online. This is the new “Promised Land” of experts and all entrepreneurs.

The nice part about all these roles—author, speaker, seminar leader, coach, consultant, and online marketer—is that you get to choose which best matches your style and lifestyle preferences.

To truly evolve and expand as an expert, you’ll want to begin cultivating all six areas into a multiple-streams-of-revenue business model.

1. Create a low-priced information product

In the expert industry, “low-price” is typically anything in the $20–$200 range. An “information product” is basically training material—your advice or strategies for success packaged into an educational product or program. In this price range, an information product is often a book, eBook, CD audio program, or DVD home-study course.

The value of any given program in our industry is not how much it costs to create but how much value it delivers.

2. Create a low-priced subscription program.

Just like the magazine business model, a subscription program in the expert industry is based on delivering monthly content to your customers.

Now, keep in mind that you don’t have to do a video and conference call every month. You could simply send out a specialty newsletter or new audio CD every month. You don’t even have to personally create the content or products yourself. You could hire a freelancer to write the articles or create training videos, or you could partner with other experts to send their content out to your customers.

3. Create a mid-tier-priced information product.

For reference, a low-tier price point is around $10–$200; a mid-tier price point is usually $200–$999; and a high-tier is $1,000 and above. The low- to high-tiering structure is for illustration purposes only. The reality is that mid-tier for personal development is different than for real estate or programs on building wealth, and so on.

4. Create a high-tier multiday seminar.

Running seminars is the most lucrative empire-building strategy for experts that I know.

The reality is that customers in our industry are interested in mastery, in continuing their education.

We’re not even counting the “back-end” sales: the additional product and program purchases that customers make at the live event. The back end of a seminar is often worth twice the front end,

5. Create a high-priced coaching program.

She would assess her clients’ needs and work with them to discover where they are and where they want to go. Then she would create a plan to move the clients closer toward their dream, and she would begin coaching each client to implement that plan, stay accountable, and grow as a person or professional. Most of the coaching and conversations happen over the phone. Although any professional coach will tell you there is really more to it than this—and they would be right—this is a broad overview of the business.

Never forget that people pay a lot of money to shorten their learning curve and their path to success. Look at the exorbitant sums people are paying for college these days.

In the expert space, we take education to the next level by synthesizing and systemizing specific information that helps people solve their problems, whether personal or professional, and move ahead faster in life.

Mind-set #1: My life experience, message, and voice are valuable.

If you don’t value who you are and what you have to say—your life experience, message, and voice—then you will never have a shot at feeling or becoming confident and successful as an expert. If you don’t value your voice, who else will?

They have a hunger to share and serve.

The messenger’s hunger to share their message doesn’t come from ego; it comes from obligation.

Experts often use the term “moral obligation” or “calling” to describe this drive.

If you have learned a valuable lesson in life or business, then it’s your obligation to share that with others so they don’t have to go through the same drama, struggle, or miles traveled to figure it out.

Expert Signposts: 1. One reason I have not been sharing my life lessons more with others is because… 2. If a friend of mine used an excuse like that reason, I would say to them… 3. The times in my life when I have held back my voice have been times like… 4. The times in my life when I spoke up and helped others include…

Mind-set #2: If I don’t know it or have it, I will go learn it or create it.

As any good marketer does, I always listen for the objections and concerns my customers have that prevent them from buying my products and services.

Expert Signposts: 1. The things I’ll have to learn in order to succeed in this new expert endeavor include… 2. The things I’ll have to create in order to start include… 3. The people I can model and follow to shorten my learning curve include… 4. The excuses I’ll probably make along the way, which I’ll have to overcome, include…

Mind-set #3: I will not let my small business make me small-minded.

Don’t give up on your vision or play small just because you are starting out.

Marianne is one of the greatest writers and teachers in our community. Her most famous quote from her book A Return to Love says it all: “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

Expert Signposts: 1. A grand vision I have for myself in this industry is to… 2. When times are tough I will always remind myself that… 3. To make sure I don’t play small in life or in this business, I will… 4. To play a bigger game, I am going to have to let go of…

Mind-set #4: Student First, Teacher Second, Servant Always

If you have not read at least six books in the last six months on your topic of expertise, then you are not minding our mantra. If you have not tried to interview at least ten people on your topic this year, then you are not minding our mantra. If you are not actively scouring the Internet, researching journals, magazines, and bookshelves for information on your topic, then you are not minding our mantra. You are failing to be a student first.

Expert Signposts: 1. To feel more like a student in life, I would have to… 2. My plan for learning more about my topic is to… 3. My plan for capturing everyday life lessons that I can teach others is to start… 4. The reason I feel I should be learning all this and teaching what I know is…

Mind-set #5: Mastery is a way of life.

Expert Signposts: 1. The topic area I am going to focus on like a laser for the next eighteen months is… 2. The things I am going to stop focusing on right now are… 3. The times when I lose my focus and fall off the path to mastery are usually when… 4. If, in twelve months, I looked back at my last year, I would know I had stayed on the path to mastery if I could see I had…

If it’s important to your long-term success, don’t outsource it—master it. Your success is powered by your skill sets.

Messenger Mandate #1: Positioning

This is my big-bucket term for developing a good sense of (a) what your audience wants, and (b) what it takes to ensure that your customers and other experts in our community hold you and your content in high regard.

The less valuable and less frequent your contact with them, the “lower” you are positioned.

When I finally felt that I knew the industry well enough, I had tough choices to make—the same choices every up-and-coming expert must make: How do I explain how I’m different? Why is my content valuable? How much do I charge? What “level” do I want to play at? In choosing the answers to those questions, I was essentially forming my positioning in the industry.

Also knew that my content was structured in a very practical and actionable manner. The number one complaint I was hearing in the industry at the time was that most seminars in our industry were either too conceptual or too “rah-rah.”

I often tell my clients that to stand out they have to strategically and consistently position themselves in three ways. First, they have to position themselves as a credible source on their subject. How do you do that? You put out valuable content for free in the marketplace and online so that people can see who you are and how you are different.

Second, I tell clients that they need to position their information as leading-edge training content. They need to be certain and direct in telling customers, “Hey, guys, here are the latest results and research I’ve been able to gather and get. This is cutting-edge stuff and I’ve structured it so you can quickly understand it and implement it.” The more diligent you are at creating great training, the more people will see you as a high-value content provider.

Finally, I advise clients to get very close to the other experts in their field. Go to their seminars, mingle with them at conferences, join masterminds with them, promote them, and offer to add value to them and their business.

Expert Signposts: 1. The lessons I learned here about positioning are… 2. The steps I will take to position myself in this industry are… 3. The people I need to get close to in this industry are… 4. The way I want to be perceived in this industry is…

Messenger Mandate #2: Packaging

Experts need to learn to package their information in a way that their customers can easily understand and implement.

Consultants focus less on concept and theory and more on process and practical methodology. The ordering of their information is process and system driven, geared to helping learners move directly and efficiently, step by step, from point A to point B. The goal is not so much to help learners develop critical thinking skills as it is to build an actual ability or skill set to achieve a specific outcome.

To package your information well, you must be clear about what your customer wants to overcome and achieve. Then you must create a step-by-step process that shows them how to achieve their goal.

Expert Signposts: 1. The lessons I learned here about packaging are… 2. When creating my information and my products, I am going to package them so that they are… 3. The way I want my brand to be displayed to the world shows me as a person who is… 4. The actions I am going to take to keep fit, healthy, and energized include…

Messenger Mandate #3: Promoting

The idea, as I have referenced previously, is for you to send out a few free content pieces—free calls, videos, webinars, or eBooks, for instance—over a series of days or weeks. Then say, “Dear customer, if you like those things, then you will love my new program.” The distinction is subtle but meaningful: Never sell without first adding significant value. It’s the difference between promoting and campaigning. By giving away free content first, your customers get to reengage with who you are and what you have to offer them. Then, when you say that you have something for sale, they have a better understanding of the value, and a higher anticipation and likelihood of buying.

To promote your message, brand, and products effectively, what you need is a website and a shopping cart system that will allow you to capture a customer’s contact information, send out e-mails, and process credit card orders.

Every strong sales message must begin with a claim, a bold promise about what your product or service can help others accomplish. It’s important to know that people rarely read past a headline or watch more than the first few minutes of a video.

What are the problems your customers are facing in life? How much are those problems costing them? What is preventing them from moving ahead? What will happen if they don’t resolve these problems? These are the questions that you must address to create rapport with your prospects. Show them that you understand their world and their problems. Draw attention to how “bad” it really is, and how bad it will continue getting if something doesn’t change immediately. Selling is really the art and science of illuminating other people’s problems and inspiring them to commit to your solution.

People relate to your struggles more often than to your successes. So never forget to share that the challenges your prospects are facing are common and that you have encountered similar obstacles on your path to success.

You create credibility by sharing the reasons why you are qualified to help your customers overcome their challenges and improve their life, results, or situation. For experts, this is accomplished by sharing the results you have attained in life, the research you’ve compiled and synthesized, or the reasons why you are a role model.

You must present your product, program, or service in such a way that it is obviously different and better than anything else out there.

Show testimonials of customers stating explicitly why they chose your solution. This creates social proof and begins the argument in your prospect’s mind to make a similar choice.

Knowing this, you must never present the price of your offering without first building toward a higher value. You want the prospect to think your offering is going to be more expensive than it turns out to be. You do this by price juxtaposition—showing big numbers and high value and then scaling down to a lower number but equally high value.

What are the likely objections your prospects will have to buying your solution? What do they doubt about you? What do they fear won’t happen when they get your product, program, or service? Answering these types of questions in your mind and in your sales message is critical to your success. The more objections you obliterate during your sales messaging, the more sales you make. Great marketers spend enormous amounts of time writing out the objections and frequently asked questions their prospects may have in their decision-making processes.

Making a strong close and call to action would seem like a no-brainer,

Great call to action builds to a crescendo, stacking on so many exciting benefits, bonuses, guarantees, and urgency messages that the consumer thinks, I must buy this now!

Expert Signposts: 1. The next product or program I am going to create and promote is… 2. The benefits people would get from this program are… 3. The free pieces of content I can send to people before offering this program for sale are… 4. The reasons people will feel compelled to buy this program are…

Mandate #4: Partnering

The goal of every messenger in the world should be to find more messengers to amplify their message. Even Christ needed disciples and promotional partners.

This type of approach works great because it’s based on open reciprocity (I promoted you; would you like to promote me?), value to customers (we’ll give them free stuff), simplicity (just click Send), and compensation (you make money and so do I).

Expert Signposts: 1. The promotional partners I already know I want to approach are… 2. The value I could add to them is… 3. The next campaign I launch that I want them to support is… 4. The steps I’m going to take right now are…

The foundation for all these mandates—positioning, packaging, promoting, and partnership—is one enormously important though often uncelebrated mandate. I call it the Ultimate Messenger Mandate: Serving with Purpose.

Expert Signposts: 1. If I brought more purpose into my work, this would happen… 2. The people I have seen not serving their customers have been… 3. Those who are serving with purpose and doing a great job at it have taught me… 4. The way I will stay grounded and focused on service in this business is by…

I’ve since come to believe that you can take any business or industry in the world that does not collaborate well or share best practices, and improve its earning potential by a factor of ten, in eighteen months or less, simply by helping it do so.

We have to refresh our websites to be more contemporary and interactive, which now means video-driven blogs with comment sections. We also need to make our membership sites look as if they are worth people’s time and money. People should enjoy and be proud of being part of our online communities. When is the last time you had someone mention feeling that way?

Retailers know what they are doing not just the next couple of months but in the next couple of seasons and quarters. We need to learn that skill and be more diligent about planning how and when we will add value and make sales.

Ask yourself, “If I received this communication, would I find it valuable personally and professionally, and would I be able to do something new and important after seeing it?”

I do my best to give my clients a very hard time if they don’t do what they said they would. I hold high expectations for them and for myself. I try to give my customers the checklists, samples, and resources needed to take action.