1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,340 Tell me about your vision. 2 00:00:02,340 --> 00:00:07,240 Well, my vision is simple. 3 00:00:07,240 --> 00:00:13,080 I want to help business owners take full advantage of marketing 4 00:00:13,080 --> 00:00:15,940 to drive growth. 5 00:00:15,940 --> 00:00:19,560 And when I talk about this, I talk 6 00:00:19,560 --> 00:00:24,800 about really powerful and effective marketing 7 00:00:24,800 --> 00:00:26,640 is a two-sided coin. 8 00:00:26,640 --> 00:00:33,600 It creates value for customers as well as for the business. 9 00:00:33,600 --> 00:00:36,000 And that distinction is really important. 10 00:00:36,000 --> 00:00:40,480 That distinction really informs an awful lot 11 00:00:40,480 --> 00:00:42,920 of how we look at marketing and how 12 00:00:42,920 --> 00:00:46,360 we look at the relationship that you 13 00:00:46,360 --> 00:00:49,120 need to build with customers and with your audience 14 00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:55,460 in order to create a sustainable entity that brings value 15 00:00:55,460 --> 00:00:57,560 to you as a business owner but also brings 16 00:00:57,560 --> 00:00:59,760 value to your audience. 17 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:06,480 And when I audit websites, when I audit digital marketing 18 00:01:06,480 --> 00:01:11,840 programs, the most common problem I see 19 00:01:11,840 --> 00:01:15,440 is an absence of strategy. 20 00:01:15,440 --> 00:01:19,180 And that absence of strategy, the end result 21 00:01:19,180 --> 00:01:22,560 is you've got a successful business, 22 00:01:22,560 --> 00:01:24,440 you've stopped DIYing this, you've 23 00:01:24,440 --> 00:01:26,200 hired a digital marketing agency, 24 00:01:26,200 --> 00:01:30,880 you've told them to go do stuff, and nobody 25 00:01:30,880 --> 00:01:33,240 comes to work with the intention of doing a bad job. 26 00:01:33,240 --> 00:01:35,240 They're going to go out and do the best they can, 27 00:01:35,240 --> 00:01:38,680 and they're going to probably do a better job executing 28 00:01:38,680 --> 00:01:41,400 the tactics than you are. 29 00:01:41,400 --> 00:01:46,840 However, pretty tactics without strategy 30 00:01:46,840 --> 00:01:48,800 is still digital noise. 31 00:01:48,800 --> 00:01:53,480 And digital noise does not build your business. 32 00:01:53,480 --> 00:01:55,160 What does? 33 00:01:55,160 --> 00:01:58,160 Building your business is involved by, 34 00:01:58,160 --> 00:02:02,400 and it's an old, old idea, it's a direct marketing axiom, 35 00:02:02,400 --> 00:02:05,160 get the right message to the right person 36 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:07,920 at the right time. 37 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:10,600 For the right price. 38 00:02:10,600 --> 00:02:13,560 Price becomes less of an issue if you're 39 00:02:13,560 --> 00:02:16,920 building on that commitment. 40 00:02:16,920 --> 00:02:19,480 Building on that kind of issue. 41 00:02:19,480 --> 00:02:21,760 Because what you're looking for is 42 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:28,520 you want the sale to be the next logical step in their journey. 43 00:02:28,520 --> 00:02:32,040 So they don't feel like they're being tricked into something. 44 00:02:32,040 --> 00:02:36,640 They feel like they're giving value and getting value. 45 00:02:36,640 --> 00:02:37,400 Wow. 46 00:02:37,400 --> 00:02:41,440 I'm getting more and more excited. 47 00:02:41,440 --> 00:02:46,120 James, where would you say this vision, amazing vision, 48 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:48,040 that I agree with come from? 49 00:02:50,760 --> 00:02:53,320 Many years ago, I was working when 50 00:02:53,320 --> 00:02:56,040 I was an executive vice president at a large ad 51 00:02:56,040 --> 00:02:57,800 agency in Chicago. 52 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:00,600 We were working with a telecommunications company, 53 00:03:00,600 --> 00:03:04,920 and they were having huge problems with churn. 54 00:03:04,920 --> 00:03:08,720 People signing up and then leaving. 55 00:03:08,720 --> 00:03:13,680 So they hired us to help them develop a loyalty program. 56 00:03:13,680 --> 00:03:18,320 And part of that effort was we commissioned a research study. 57 00:03:18,320 --> 00:03:21,960 We hired a guy who specialized in loyalty research. 58 00:03:25,080 --> 00:03:27,240 I don't remember any of the details 59 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:29,600 from the output from the research study, 60 00:03:29,600 --> 00:03:35,120 but I remember one sentence that he said in his preamble. 61 00:03:35,120 --> 00:03:37,480 Now context, this is incredible. 62 00:03:37,480 --> 00:03:40,440 Now context, this is a guy whose profession, 63 00:03:40,440 --> 00:03:43,120 whose years and years of experience 64 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:45,920 doing research on customer loyalty 65 00:03:45,920 --> 00:03:49,320 for many different brands in many different categories. 66 00:03:49,320 --> 00:03:53,200 And he said, 90% of loyalty problems 67 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,840 can be traced to a flawed sales process. 68 00:03:59,160 --> 00:04:03,080 So that one sentence got me really thinking 69 00:04:03,080 --> 00:04:07,240 about the sales process and what's involved 70 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:14,920 and what parts of it are flawed and how can you 71 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:17,480 change your mindset around these things 72 00:04:17,480 --> 00:04:21,320 so that you're generating sales for the right reasons, 73 00:04:21,320 --> 00:04:25,000 getting the right message to the right person at the right time. 74 00:04:25,000 --> 00:04:28,720 And building a, and then another thing 75 00:04:28,720 --> 00:04:34,120 as I did more research into this, 76 00:04:34,120 --> 00:04:38,240 a guy named Reichelt wrote a book called The Loyalty Effect. 77 00:04:38,240 --> 00:04:44,120 It's really old, but I imagine the ideas are still valid. 78 00:04:44,120 --> 00:04:48,720 And he points out that when you analyze customer bases, 79 00:04:48,720 --> 00:04:52,360 a loyal customer brings revenue to a business 80 00:04:52,360 --> 00:04:53,600 in five different ways. 81 00:04:57,520 --> 00:04:59,200 It basically builds on the concept 82 00:04:59,200 --> 00:05:01,840 that the most important sale is not the first sale, 83 00:05:01,840 --> 00:05:04,360 it's the second sale. 84 00:05:04,360 --> 00:05:06,320 Because if you can sell them the second time, 85 00:05:06,320 --> 00:05:09,080 the chances you'll sell them a third, fourth, fifth time 86 00:05:09,080 --> 00:05:11,560 are exponentially improved. 87 00:05:11,560 --> 00:05:13,160 Yes. 88 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:16,960 And when I did work with companies like, well, 89 00:05:16,960 --> 00:05:20,120 Bank of America and Visa, I've had both of them 90 00:05:20,120 --> 00:05:21,560 as clients at various times. 91 00:05:21,560 --> 00:05:24,000 And we've had the opportunity to do analysis 92 00:05:24,000 --> 00:05:26,480 in their customer data. 93 00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:30,440 A 1% to 2% improvement in loyalty 94 00:05:30,440 --> 00:05:35,960 would generate anywhere from a 60% to an 80% improvement 95 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:38,640 in the net present value of the customer base. 96 00:05:41,200 --> 00:05:46,280 And that leverage is because of this idea 97 00:05:46,280 --> 00:05:49,760 that loyal customers contribute revenue to the business 98 00:05:49,760 --> 00:05:50,960 in five different ways. 99 00:05:53,600 --> 00:05:58,320 So having strategy, underpinning, 100 00:05:58,320 --> 00:06:01,560 understanding who your customers are, 101 00:06:01,560 --> 00:06:04,280 you may have heard described as the customer persona 102 00:06:04,280 --> 00:06:06,040 or the customer avatar. 103 00:06:06,040 --> 00:06:08,760 They're kind of synonyms for the same concept. 104 00:06:08,760 --> 00:06:10,320 Who is your customer? 105 00:06:10,320 --> 00:06:14,000 Demographically, what are their characteristics? 106 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:17,040 What is the pain they're trying to solve? 107 00:06:17,040 --> 00:06:21,160 And what is the gain that they get from working with you? 108 00:06:21,160 --> 00:06:23,240 The customer avatar. 109 00:06:23,240 --> 00:06:26,760 And then the other side of that coin, 110 00:06:26,760 --> 00:06:28,760 everything in life is two-sided. 111 00:06:28,760 --> 00:06:32,840 The other side of that coin is mapping the customer journey, 112 00:06:32,840 --> 00:06:36,240 understanding what events happen in their life that 113 00:06:36,240 --> 00:06:40,680 cause them to start, I think I need to consider this, 114 00:06:40,680 --> 00:06:42,640 whatever it might be. 115 00:06:42,640 --> 00:06:44,960 And then they go into consideration mode, 116 00:06:44,960 --> 00:06:48,680 where they start doing research around what are their options? 117 00:06:48,680 --> 00:06:49,520 What are their choices? 118 00:06:49,520 --> 00:06:51,880 I haven't done this for a while. 119 00:06:51,880 --> 00:06:54,520 What's out there? 120 00:06:54,520 --> 00:06:57,160 And then that moves into the prospecting phase, 121 00:06:57,160 --> 00:06:59,360 where they're making a choice around, OK, I've 122 00:06:59,360 --> 00:07:03,320 got two or three different options here. 123 00:07:03,320 --> 00:07:05,400 Which one's the best for me? 124 00:07:05,400 --> 00:07:07,320 And then there's the bottom of the funnel, which 125 00:07:07,320 --> 00:07:09,760 is the decision-making process. 126 00:07:09,760 --> 00:07:12,640 Everybody understands and recognizes the marketing funnel, 127 00:07:12,640 --> 00:07:14,600 which I've just described. 128 00:07:14,600 --> 00:07:19,160 But what they don't do is actually sit back and document 129 00:07:19,160 --> 00:07:21,360 what are the questions and obstacles 130 00:07:21,360 --> 00:07:26,560 at each stage of this process from the customer's 131 00:07:26,560 --> 00:07:27,440 perspective. 132 00:07:30,840 --> 00:07:33,320 Because when you can do that, circling back 133 00:07:33,320 --> 00:07:36,720 to the hub and spoke idea that I talked about before, 134 00:07:36,720 --> 00:07:40,400 now you can create a content and messaging strategy 135 00:07:40,400 --> 00:07:45,080 that's in alignment with what the customers are looking 136 00:07:45,080 --> 00:07:51,440 for at the stage that they're in in their journey. 137 00:07:51,440 --> 00:07:53,760 This builds trust. 138 00:07:53,760 --> 00:07:55,560 It builds relationship. 139 00:07:55,560 --> 00:07:58,240 And it means that at the end of the process, 140 00:07:58,240 --> 00:08:01,600 the purchase decision is the next logical step 141 00:08:01,600 --> 00:08:05,920 in their journey versus being tricked into buying something 142 00:08:05,920 --> 00:08:07,000 that they're not sure about. 143 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:11,760 The value that you shared today, James, is amazing. 144 00:08:11,760 --> 00:08:15,240 And to me, this information is not new. 145 00:08:15,240 --> 00:08:19,120 But to our audience, probably most of it is. 146 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:23,560 And I can see if they grasp what you just said, 147 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:30,280 they have like, their mind will be blown into, like, oh, my gosh, 148 00:08:30,280 --> 00:08:32,200 I had no idea what to do. 149 00:08:32,200 --> 00:08:35,160 And I can see that they're not going to be able to understand 150 00:08:35,160 --> 00:08:37,960 like, oh, my gosh, I had no idea what this could be. 151 00:08:37,960 --> 00:08:41,080 What? Oh, my gosh, I do not think this way. 152 00:08:41,080 --> 00:08:42,240 And that's the key thing. 153 00:08:42,240 --> 00:08:43,560 You do not think this way. 154 00:08:43,560 --> 00:08:47,400 Nothing I said was revolutionary. 155 00:08:47,400 --> 00:08:49,960 Everything I said was stuff that everybody will go, 156 00:08:49,960 --> 00:08:51,480 yeah, I've heard that before. 157 00:08:51,480 --> 00:08:55,480 But the way it's put together, that's 158 00:08:55,480 --> 00:08:56,720 what makes this different. 159 00:08:56,720 --> 00:09:00,600 That's what makes this because you're not a business 160 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:03,920 owner standing on your rooftop shouting at the world at large 161 00:09:03,920 --> 00:09:05,320 about how awesome you are. 162 00:09:07,520 --> 00:09:12,800 You are building a commercial relationship with ideal customers 163 00:09:12,800 --> 00:09:16,200 in a way that the ideal customer appreciates. 164 00:09:18,560 --> 00:09:20,920 Because it's bringing value to the customer. 165 00:09:20,920 --> 00:09:24,160 Like I said, good marketing brings value to the customer 166 00:09:24,160 --> 00:09:25,240 and to the business. 167 00:09:27,600 --> 00:09:32,360 And if people listening, if you don't get anything 168 00:09:32,360 --> 00:09:35,480 from what we just said, please get this. 169 00:09:35,480 --> 00:09:41,240 This way of thinking is what gets you farther ahead 170 00:09:41,240 --> 00:09:43,040 than anything else. 171 00:09:43,040 --> 00:09:45,760 Thinking from the customer's perspective, 172 00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:47,360 what the customer is experiencing. 173 00:09:47,360 --> 00:09:50,720 If you just optimize that in your business processes, 174 00:09:50,720 --> 00:09:54,080 you would have created a machine on one side of the equation 175 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:55,880 that would be a force to be reckoned. 176 00:09:55,880 --> 00:09:59,240 But people would love talking about the experience they 177 00:09:59,240 --> 00:10:00,680 had with your business. 178 00:10:00,680 --> 00:10:04,000 And they'd be like, my gosh, that was amazing. 179 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:04,920 Right. 180 00:10:04,920 --> 00:10:08,600 And they'll start to be more open. 181 00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:12,720 When you're communicating with them after the fact, 182 00:10:12,720 --> 00:10:15,960 the sales messages stop being sales messages 183 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:18,560 and start being valuable information. 184 00:10:18,560 --> 00:10:20,520 Yes. 185 00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:24,720 That telecommunications example I used to talked about, 186 00:10:24,720 --> 00:10:26,600 we've followed through with them. 187 00:10:26,600 --> 00:10:28,400 They accepted our recommendations. 188 00:10:28,400 --> 00:10:32,840 It took us about a year to put the plan together. 189 00:10:32,840 --> 00:10:38,560 But for four straight years on a $2 billion base of business, 190 00:10:38,560 --> 00:10:41,120 we were generating 20% revenue growth. 191 00:10:43,840 --> 00:10:45,480 That's amazing. 192 00:10:45,480 --> 00:10:50,560 But for $2 billion, 20% revenue growth is $200 million. 193 00:10:50,560 --> 00:10:53,200 Year over year for four straight years. 194 00:10:53,200 --> 00:10:55,080 That's amazing. 195 00:10:55,080 --> 00:10:57,280 The four straight years, that's $800 million 196 00:10:57,280 --> 00:10:58,720 in extra generated revenue. 197 00:10:58,720 --> 00:11:00,360 I'm a little confused, Matt. 198 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:01,200 Right. 199 00:11:01,200 --> 00:11:06,160 And we ended up, I mean, it was an interesting conversation 200 00:11:06,160 --> 00:11:08,240 sitting down with the chief marketing officer 201 00:11:08,240 --> 00:11:12,320 and explaining that they needed to spend less money. 202 00:11:12,320 --> 00:11:13,800 Wow. 203 00:11:13,800 --> 00:11:17,960 Because they were kind of marketing to everyone. 204 00:11:17,960 --> 00:11:21,600 And we're like, you don't want to market to everyone. 205 00:11:21,600 --> 00:11:24,040 80% of your revenue is being generated 206 00:11:24,040 --> 00:11:26,360 by 20% of your customers. 207 00:11:26,360 --> 00:11:27,320 Yeah. 208 00:11:27,320 --> 00:11:30,200 We need to market to that 20%. 209 00:11:30,200 --> 00:11:35,520 The other 80%, all the marketing in the world 210 00:11:35,520 --> 00:11:38,720 is not going to change somebody's needs state. 211 00:11:38,720 --> 00:11:40,520 They don't need what you're offering. 212 00:11:40,520 --> 00:11:44,760 I mean, you're just swimming upstream. 213 00:11:44,760 --> 00:11:49,920 That 20% who are heavy users, who are heavy category users, 214 00:11:49,920 --> 00:11:52,120 they really care about what you're doing. 215 00:11:52,120 --> 00:11:54,480 They really care about what you're offering. 216 00:11:54,480 --> 00:11:58,720 And they really care about the solutions you're providing. 217 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:02,560 They're much more likely to continue 218 00:12:02,560 --> 00:12:04,520 to spend that money with you. 219 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:08,800 It's another old direct marketing concept called RFM. 220 00:12:08,800 --> 00:12:09,920 Yeah. 221 00:12:09,920 --> 00:12:11,840 Recency Frequency Monetary. 222 00:12:11,840 --> 00:12:15,160 The customer who buys from you most frequently, 223 00:12:15,160 --> 00:12:16,840 who bought from you most recently, 224 00:12:16,840 --> 00:12:18,800 and who spent the most money with you, 225 00:12:18,800 --> 00:12:22,000 is the customer most likely to buy from you again. 226 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:23,280 Yep. 227 00:12:23,280 --> 00:12:26,520 A lot of times, actually, that's probably most of the market. 228 00:12:26,520 --> 00:12:28,760 We see, and I don't know if you've read the book, 229 00:12:28,760 --> 00:12:31,320 E-Myth or not, in that book, there's 230 00:12:31,320 --> 00:12:35,240 a pretty staggering statistics where 96% of businesses 231 00:12:35,240 --> 00:12:37,320 are failing within the first 10 years. 232 00:12:37,320 --> 00:12:40,240 That's a pretty bad, bad number. 233 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:44,680 And coordinating that number with what people are doing, 234 00:12:44,680 --> 00:12:49,600 I've asked this question multiple times on a podcast, 235 00:12:49,600 --> 00:12:52,960 before and after the podcast. 236 00:12:52,960 --> 00:12:56,760 People can describe to me their ideal customer. 237 00:12:56,760 --> 00:12:59,560 They have spent way too much time, money, and effort 238 00:12:59,560 --> 00:13:04,240 into targeting the unideal customer, 239 00:13:04,240 --> 00:13:06,280 that they forget about the ideal customer, 240 00:13:06,280 --> 00:13:11,560 and their focus is dispersed into not effective marketing 241 00:13:11,560 --> 00:13:14,240 strategies, which is crazy. 242 00:13:14,240 --> 00:13:15,760 And that's what they've been taught. 243 00:13:15,760 --> 00:13:16,640 It sucks. 244 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:19,440 It sucks, but it is the truth. 245 00:13:19,440 --> 00:13:22,560 It is completely true, and I see it all the time. 246 00:13:22,560 --> 00:13:29,240 And it's hard. 247 00:13:29,240 --> 00:13:31,760 David Old will be old ad agency guy. 248 00:13:31,760 --> 00:13:34,440 One of his famous quotes is, the essence of strategy 249 00:13:34,440 --> 00:13:35,040 is sacrifice. 250 00:13:38,840 --> 00:13:42,920 You have to stop trying to be everything for everyone, 251 00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:45,040 because when you are everything for everyone, 252 00:13:45,040 --> 00:13:46,640 you are nothing for no one. 253 00:13:46,640 --> 00:13:48,960 No one. 254 00:13:48,960 --> 00:13:50,040 That's awesome. 255 00:13:50,040 --> 00:13:52,960 You didn't correct me when I told you $200 million, 256 00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:57,640 $2 billion, the math was $400 million for 20%. 257 00:13:57,640 --> 00:14:04,000 And that four years is $1.6 billion. 258 00:14:04,000 --> 00:14:04,520 That's right. 259 00:14:04,520 --> 00:14:05,800 It was a big program. 260 00:14:05,800 --> 00:14:07,920 It was a very successful program. 261 00:14:07,920 --> 00:14:10,440 That's amazing. 262 00:14:10,440 --> 00:14:13,520 Imagine having 3% retention on that, on increase of that, 263 00:14:13,520 --> 00:14:14,880 for the rest of your life. 264 00:14:14,880 --> 00:14:17,280 Right, and I've taken these ideas. 265 00:14:17,280 --> 00:14:21,520 I've tested them with automotive manufacturers, 266 00:14:21,520 --> 00:14:25,960 with credit card folks, with banking. 267 00:14:25,960 --> 00:14:29,920 And it works across lots of different sectors. 268 00:14:29,920 --> 00:14:35,240 And we did an analysis of Bank of America's customer base 269 00:14:35,240 --> 00:14:38,720 and showed them that 120% of their profit 270 00:14:38,720 --> 00:14:41,880 was being generated by 10% of their customers. 271 00:14:41,880 --> 00:14:44,400 Yeah. 272 00:14:44,400 --> 00:14:47,800 It's like free checking is not a good idea. 273 00:14:50,240 --> 00:14:51,720 Thank you for being here today. 274 00:14:51,720 --> 00:14:54,160 I'm really happy that you tuned in to Vision Pros Live. 275 00:14:54,160 --> 00:14:56,800 I'm looking forward to seeing your reactions 276 00:14:56,800 --> 00:14:59,040 as these episodes continue to move forward. 277 00:14:59,040 --> 00:15:00,760 This is going to get more and more fun. 278 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:02,600 We'll have more and more engagement as well. 279 00:15:02,600 --> 00:15:04,680 We'll invite people to participate in the show. 280 00:15:04,680 --> 00:15:07,080 And thank you for giving us your time and attention. 281 00:15:07,080 --> 00:15:09,800 Have an excellent time building out your vision 282 00:15:09,800 --> 00:15:14,560 and becoming a Vision Pro yourself.