During my 17 year career in sales I have tried several hundred marketing ideas. Some of the ideas have worked great. Some worked before the economy crashed and are no longer working. There is one idea that has always worked.
I thought of this idea today because when I was watching the Giant’s baseball game tonight on TV McDonald’s ran a commercial where they used this idea. I will share what McDonald’s did a little later on.
This marketing idea continues to work even in the current economy. In fact I am getting more business right now from this marketing idea that anything else I am doing right now
I learned the idea from Jay Abraham. He didn’t invent the idea but he has used it to generate lots of business for himself and his clients.
When I worked for my first mentor, Dante Perano, he used the idea to acquire hundreds of clients per month.
When I worked for Tony Robbins he used the idea to generate more than 1,000 new clients per month. The marketing idea is to offer something of value for free.
When I worked for Dante he teamed up with Mike and Irene Milan. The Milan’s would offer a free real estate investment seminar. At these seminars Dante offered his Treasure Map Course which sold for $795. Dante regularly acquired 40 or more new clients per seminar.
When I worked for Tony Robbins I used to give free motivational speeches in companies. I would be a guest speaker at the weekly sales meeting. During these talks I would regularly sell 3 tickets to Tony’s seminar generating his company $1,000 per speech. I would routinely give 40 speeches per month. Tony had 10 people just like me working for him at the time.
In my business I offer free seminars, free conference calls, free reports, free consultations, and free speeches. I have mastered offering free things as a way of generating leads and acquiring new clients. Think of how you could use the marketing idea of offering something for free to help grow your business.
Here are 2 great free offers for you. I would like to offer you a free sales script critique. A script critique is where you will work with my script writing coach John Kurth for 30 minutes for free. During the 30 minutes John will review one of your sales scripts with you. If you don’t have a written sales script he will share ideas with you on how to create one. To request a free sales script critique go to http://www.freesalesscriptcritique.com/
I regularly do free sales trainings for sales teams and network marketing teams on a conference call. How it works is I would do a customized training for your team on the topic of your choice. I will do this for you for free. My most popular topic is How to Sell in the New Economy. To request a free conference call email me your name, company name, and phone number. My email address is eric@ericlofholm.com. I will have my assistant contact you back with all the details.
What is great about this blog post is this is what I am doing in this economy to acquire new clients.
Here is how McDonalds is using this idea. They just started McCafe Monday’s. They are offering free coffee to acquire Starbucks’ customers. They are betting that if people try McDonalds coffee on Mondays they will create a new habit and get their coffee at McDonalds in the future. When I get lattes I know go to McDonalds. I no longer go to Starbucks. The first time I ever tired a McDonalds’ latte it was free.
Eric