“You Need Advertising Skills And A Good Marketing Budget To Get Clients - Right?" WRONG!
3-minute read
The following message is going to unlock your brain and make you rethink what you have been told...
Let's dive into Positive Leverage and how to benefit from it!
I could describe positive leverage as a hidden benefit to something you already own.
Let's (hypothetically) say you have a secret recipe for a jam you want to sell. This is all you have.
You secured a deal with a supermarket owner to place your product on the shelves. Great!
There is only one problem here…
The supermarket wants to know your manufacturing and distribution plan because they want to make sure you can keep up with the demand. They don't want to see empty shelves and delays.
Now, you might think…
Solution No1:
Hmmm, ok, I need to build a production facility.
It will take me 6 months to build it and I am afraid I might lose the opportunity because my client won't wait so long.
Don't forget the stuff. I need to hire, train, and make sure we comply with all regulations, etc.
I need also some mini-vans and drivers to distribute my product.
Calculation:
Total time to apply the idea: 6-8 months
Total cost for the idea: $450.000
Total work and headache for the idea: High
Ok, let's see another approach to the problem…
Solution No2:
I find someone who already produces jam, has the facility ready and can produce even more.
I give him a percentage of the profit to produce my jam (together with his jam) and I leverage his production and his distribution channel.
The facility owner runs the facility at full capacity now, makes more money, and we do the least amount of work required.
I contact a legal team to safeguard the recipe and partnership so I can sleep at night.
Calculation:
Total cost for the idea: A dinner at a restaurant and legal fees.
Total time to apply the idea: Probably a week or two.
Total work and headache for the idea: Low
Do you see the difference between solutions 1 and 2?
There is one question you need to ask yourself when you face such a problem…
“To whom my biggest problem is his/hers biggest solution?”
Most of the time, the problem you are facing can solve somebody else’s problem in your industry.
In this example, we leveraged our supermarket deal in order to contact the jam manufacturer and create a revenue-share proposal.
We leveraged his whole distribution and manufacturing facilities and we get to keep our percentage.
Smart, right?
Let's take another hypothetical example.
Let's say you are a carpet cleaner who needs new clients. You don't have advertising skills, you don’t have a website, and you don’t have an email at all.
All you have are your communication skills, your carpet cleaning knowledge, and a mobile phone for customers to contact you.
5, 4, 3, 2, 1…. let’s roll!
The first thing for you to realize is…
You can only make money once you are inside the house of a customer. Not outside.
The advertising is done outside and has the ability to send you inside.
If you figure out a way to be inside the house you don't really need advertising skills.
How to get inside your customer’s house without ads?
The solution is the answer to the following question...
"Who has the customers I want and what can I give them for FREE in order for both to win?"
You visit retail and e-commerce stores that sell carpets in your area.
You give them the following proposition:
"I will provide my cleaning services for 1 carpet to each of your clients for FREE. This is the area I can cover for the service. You can give the service as a bonus or you can charge for it half price.
The profit is yours.
All you have to do is print a coupon code twice in order to validate the free service. Your customer will get the coupon code and I will get his name and address.
People will have a reason to buy from you because they will get a free or half-price carpet cleaning worth $X. I will get new clients.
It’s a win-win for both of us."
Now, let’s analyze the proposition.
The cost to fulfill the free service for 1 carpet is much lower than the actual selling price of the service.
You are in a continuity business model because all your clients will need you more than once during the year (especially if they have pets).
By giving a free one-time carpet cleaning, you are inside your customer’s apartment and you can upsell other services or packages.
Most people don’t have only 1 carpet, they have many. You can offer them a discount for the second one and profit the same day.
You can ask for a referral.
You can sell them a package where you visit the house every 2 months and clean their carpets for the entire year.
As you see, there are many ways you can make a profit once you are inside the house.
To get inside, all you had to do was to leverage the existing customer base a retail store or an online store had and create a win-win business proposal.
No advertising skills were required. No website was required. No email marketing was required.
Just a strategic partnership and a risk-free offer.
Everything has upside leverage.
Use it as much as you can.
You don't have to do the entire work yourself.
You don't need to be an expert on everything.
There are other people who will happily do the work and give you their expertise. Leverage them!
To your success,
Alex.
"Everything has Upside Leverage. Find it and use it."
