The Underdog Millionaire Blog

The Pomodoro Technique–How to Do More In Less Time

Joshua Black — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 13:42:43 +0000

I’ve been yapping away a lot lately about how to make more money, how to find hidden assets in your business, and how to attract customers. However, there are plenty of customers and piles of money to go around, but only a FINITE amount of this thing.

TIME.

We all only get a small box of time. You can’t buy it. You can’t take a bottle of vitamins and make more of it and as a business owner, you are constantly racing against it.

I just recently acquired a new freelance writing client that I’ve been doing some work for, and in this process I discovered a new (yet not that new) technique that has been sweeping small circles of the Interweb.

It’s called the Pomodoro Technique.

Basically, a pomodoro means tomato in Italian. This technique was developed by Francesco Cirillo around 1980 while he was a student in Rome, eventually writing a book about it, which I will give you for FREE in a minute.

In a nutshell, the Pomodoro Technique takes your daily tasks and breaks them down using a simple kitchen timer. You set the timer for 25 minutes and do NOTHING else but work on the task at hand for that amount of time.

When the timer goes off, you take a short break, then back to another 25 minute cycle until the task is finished. On the surface, this may sound a little lame, but it’s so simple and it works so well, that it’s scary.

It’s a trick that I use myself when I’m trying to be ultra-productive and want to buckle down and get through a task. You end up ramping up your output, because you feel as though you have to fit it in within 25 minutes. I never knew that there was a name for it until just a few days ago.

It gives you a tremendous amount of focus.

It gives you the power to pack in a ton of productivity in one, tiny package.

Most of all, it gives you back more time.

Now, the crazy thing about all of this is that Cirillo didn’t invent this method first. Eugene Schwartz (one of the best copywriters in the world) used this technique to run his entire business, working only 4 hours a day and getting as much as a “normal” person could pack in 10 hours.

I talked about his technique in this old post on problem solving.

However, Cirillio has made this his life’s work and has created a powerful web site completely devoted to this process of getting in control of your tasks and doing a lot more in less time.

Now, I told you earlier that I would have a little gift for you today, so I’m not going to disappoint.

You can get his whole book on the Pomodoro Technique for FREE. This is not an affiliate link and I am in no way associated with this dude. I just thought that it would be a really good tool for the Underdog Millionaires to get their paws on.

So here you go: Get the Pomodoro Technique Here.

He also gives you all kinds of other resources and worksheets to download, in addition to the book. I give it the Underdog Millionaire seal of approval.

Let me know what you think about this technique. Are there any small business productivity techniques that you like to use when you are really putting the pedal to the metal? Don’t be shy. Leave a comment below… share this with your friends as well and smack that Twitter button while you’re at it.

In your service,

Joshua Black

www.attract-customers.com

P.S. I just recently revealed all of the added bonuses for the people that purchase the Underdog Marketing 101 book during the launch week, but I only told the people on the list so far.

If you want to get in on all of the hidden gems available to you, you might want to get in on the list as well. I will be posting the added bonuses on the site, probably sometime this weekend.

Click the image to get the FREE

Underdog Millionaire wealth Pack!

*******************************************
Copyright 2010, Outer Limit Productions LLC.
All rights reserved.

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

http://www.attract-customers.com

http://www.product-pricing-strategy.com
http://www.how-to-business-network.com
http://www.ranking-higher-seo.com
http://www.UnderdogMillionaire.com/blog
http://www.sales-letter-system.com
http://www.closing-the-sale.com
http://www.information-product-report.com
http://www.UltimateUSPcreator.com
http://www.underdog-success-formula.com

_________________________________________

Niche Marketing-Bring New “Fire” to Your Business-Courtesy of a Lucky Golfer

Joshua Black — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 14:08:26 +0000

Over the weekend, a crazy chain of events led to a golfer making a wild shot that hit a rock, creating a spark, and eventually starting a blaze that burnt 25 acres of California forest.

Now, this little shot was quite unusual, but there’s an important niche marketing lesson at stake here, one that can’t be avoided.

Today’s Underdog Millionaire Tip Sheet is all about niche marketing.

Now, if you’ve been paying attention for the past year or so (even if you haven’t) you will know that I like to talk about marketing a lot. Without marketing, your business will dry up like… well… something really DRY.

What does niche marketing have to do with a crazy golf shot that caused the biggest fire in golf history (ok, I made that part up, but who knows)?

It has to do with TARGETING your customer with pin-point precision and then causing an EXPLOSION of sales in the process. When you focus all of your marketing efforts on just a tiny segment of the population you become really aware of exactly what they’re looking for.

If you want to attract customers in your niche, then you need to be aware of these 5 rules:

Make sure that the customer niche you’ve picked is an inch wide and a mile deep, meaning-target very specific people and enough of them to keep your business afloat.

Create your products based on the wants of your customers. Don’t create the product first and then try to find a niche to pitch it to.

Make sure that your marketing message is consistent, starting with your Unique Selling Proposition (USP) as the background for your entire marketing campaign.

Make sure that you spend at least 25% of your working time on marketing your business and attracting new customers.

Once you’ve found your niche, keep feeding that niche with OTHER products and services they want, so you can keep them as customers for a long time.

Small business owners that try to sell to EVERYONE, end up selling to no one, because they cannot target their product to a particular niche of customers.

When you focus all of your efforts on one niche area, you can start a wildfire of sales, because you’re the only game in town helping that particular group of customers.

When you focus your efforts on one group, you end up creating a rock-solid position in that niche, which makes it REALLY hard for your competition to get in there and make any kind of a dent in sales.

Light fires. Take no prisoners. Niche market your way to big bags of money.

What’s your fire-breathing golf shot? Give your fellow Underdog Millionaires a tip that could light a flame under their sales as well.

In your service,

Joshua Black

http://www.attract-customers.com

P.S. If you want 101 ways to light up your bank account with new customers, then get on the Underdog Marketing 101 notification list ASAP.

Click the image to get the FREE

Underdog Millionaire wealth Pack!

*******************************************
Copyright 2010, Outer Limit Productions LLC.
All rights reserved.

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

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How to Attract Customers With A Giant Tarp and A Skateboard

Joshua Black — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:51:40 +0000

There’s a new trend emerging across the country in the world of skateboarding. These guys are now taking huge, blue painter’s tarps and “surfing” through them on skate boards in large parking lots.

If you want to see videos of this, they’re all over the Internet.

Now, on the surface, this looks pretty lame, but these guys are causing the sales of giant tarps to fly off the shelves in many cities, and you’ll probably see this in a parking lot near you within the next year.

What in the Sam Hill does skateboarding on a tarp in the parking lot of a local grocery store have to do with your business? EVERYTHING.

Why?

This is about re-purposing your product, content, or services. Surfers wanted a way to keep surfing even when there weren’t any waves. They invented the skateboard. Skateboarders got bored and wanted to pretend there was a huge wave in the parking lot of the local Winn-Dixie… so they whipped out the big, blue tarps.

It’s about taking something that you’ve already created and breathing new life into it.

Drug makers do this all the time.

Bloggers re-purpose content and create e-books from it.

Service providers can take a certain skill they have and bring it to a whole new industry.

When times are tough, re-purposing your existing products, even “sleeper” products that aren’t selling so well, can be a huge money maker for you and can be just what your small business needs in a tough economy.

It’s really time-consuming to invent something new. It’s also very risky. You already have an expertise, so why not milk that knowledge for all it’s worth.

Your homework for today is to go out and find that big, blue tarp in your niche. Find that thing that you can do to re-package, re-use, re-distribute your product in the hot, little hands of a whole new set of customers.

Speaking of ways to attract customers, I am going to be revealing the list of extra goodies to the Underdog Marketing 101 pre-notification list sometime this week. If you want to be able to cash in on everything there is to offer during the launch week, you might want to sign up on the notification list ASAP (upper right corner of the blog)

Have you ever re-purposed a product or service, especially in tough times? Let’s hear about it in the comments below? Have you ever surfed on a tarp? Let’s hear about that too.

In your service,

Joshua Black

http://www.attract-customers.com

Click the image to get the FREE

Underdog Millionaire wealth Pack!

*******************************************
Copyright 2010, Outer Limit Productions LLC.
All rights reserved.

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

_________________________________________

How to Get Your Competition to Help You Sell More Stuff

Joshua Black — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 16:12:00 +0000

FIRST, before I go an further- The sales page is up for the Underdog Marketing 101 book. If you want to take a peek at everything that it has to offer, you can click on the image at the right, or click this link: www.attract-customers.com

Ok, let’s get down to it.

I know this might sound a little crazy, but bear with me. Once you have learned this little technique, you will have the ability to shortcut your small business education by YEARS.

Whether you’re just getting started or you’re stuck in a selling rut, this technique will help you get more customers and close more sales in no time. It’s not very fair, but hey, it’s business right?

Here’s the deal:

Find 2-3 successful businesses that are outside of your current niche. If you are a lawyer, go for the chiropractor. If you sell a health product, go for the company selling collectibles. The idea here is that you want to mix it up a little bit.

When companies in one niche are all doing the same thing, selling with the same technique, selling the same product to the same folks… well, guess what?

They all get the same results.

If you’re just following along with your “industry standard,” then there is no way for your business to get ahead of the pack. You have to go a different route and pick a slightly different strategy.

…an Underdog Millionaire strategy.

Once you have your 2-3 businesses selected, this is where all of the magic is boing to happen. Call them up and act as if you are a buyer. Get them to take you through their entire sales process, even send you follow-up information in the mail.

Take as many notes as your little fingers can manage. Even better, record the call with a digital voice recorder.

You can do this with infomercials (hint: Bowflex has one of the best sales systems out there, but be careful- they may talk you into buying one…)
You can do this with service businesses
You can even do this with your local dry cleaner

Call upon any successful business in a non-related niche and have them walk you through their sales process as you act like a tough customer.

Sales school in a box.

Just make sure that you don’t take too much advantage of this process and definitely don’t rip-off their process completely. Just take the best parts and make them your own.

Some things to pay attention to:

How many rebuttal speeches do they have?
How is their sales process organized?
How many people do you talk to?
Do you get voicemail at any time, or talk to a live person first?
How long did they keep you on the phone?
How many follow-up mailings did they send?
Did they change the mailing slightly, or mail you the same thing repeatedly?

Just by going through this exercise and then adapting these great processes to your own business, you can attract more customers and bring in more sales than you ever thought possible.

…all without having to crack open a book or attend a single class.

pretty cool eh?

If you want to know 101 MORE ways to attract customers, then I suggest you sign up for the Underdog Marketing 101 notification list as soon as possible… HUGE bonuses for the chosen few that are tough enough to get on the list.

Have you ever used this technique? I’d like to know how it worked for you.

In your service,

Joshua Black

P.S. Just a side note, there is a new picture of me up on the blog, under the “Who Is Joshua Black?” tab, just in case you want a better look at my mug shot.

5 Ways to Get Customers Lined Up Like A Chinese Traffic Jam

Joshua Black — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 15:27:03 +0000

In case you haven’t seen the little blurb on the news lately, there was a 60 mile traffic Jam in Beijing that lasted 11 days before people could get through.

Well, that traffic jam was something that NO ONE in their right mind would want to go through, except for the entrepreneurs that were selling things to the people trapped in their cars- Way to go Underdogs!

However, I’m talking about a different traffic jam today.

One that you’re gonna like. One that you’re gonna develop for your own business so that you NEVER have to worry about your level of customers again.

If you want to get pile of customers you’re going to have to work for it. However, I am going to share a few VALUABLE tricks with you today, that will help you get that line started outside your door.

Here are 5 tips that you can use to get customers lined up like a Chinese traffic jam:

1. Don’t be afraid to toot your own horn- The world full of customers is not going to come banging down your door. You have to show them what you are made of. You have to jump up on the table and shout how you can help them solve their problems. Market. Advertise. Network. Strategize.

2. Learn the power of the strategic alliance- If you don’t have many customers right now, get hooked up with another business that DOES have your customers. There are many business owners that sell complimentary products to the ones that you sell, without being in direct competition with you.

For example- Let’s say you sold ice cream on the boardwalk in Atlantic City, New Jersey. You could go around to all of the t-shirt stores, food shops (without desserts), carnival rides, and other touristy places offering coupons.

On this coupon you can give 50 cents off the purchase of some ice cream. Those alliance stores now have something of value that they can give to THEIR customers as a thank you for doing business with them.

3. Give them MORE of what they want- Once you have a customer, think of complimentary products that you can add. Find out what else they are looking for. Remind them that you have these other products or services that would benefit them greatly. Don’t just go for that one sale, keep them coming back for more. Keep them anticipating what you will offer next.

4. Stop repeating yourself- If your same, crappy sales system keeps giving you the same results, then stop doing it. I know I have been guilty of this myself, in the past. Sometimes it’s much easier for us to do MORE of our current ways of getting customers than dipping that proverbial toe in the scary waters of CHANGE.

Bottom line- if your current method of attracting more customers is NOT attracting the customers that you want, then STOP.

5. If they zig, you zag- Look at what the rest of your industry is doing. If everyone’s blog or website looks the same with the same ads on the side and the same offers, why would a customer want to go there?

If your business is selling the same thing at the same price, with the same offer as the next gal, then why should a customer do business with you. Be brave. Try something different. Take the road less traveled.

There is an old saying about how to get rich that says “look at what everyone else is doing and do the exact opposite” …there’s a TON of truth in that.

What’s your number 6? What’s a way that you like to use to get your customers lined up out the door?

In your service,

Joshua Black

P.S. If you want to know 101 different ways to get customers lined up outside YOUR door like a Chinese traffic jam, then sign up for the notification list for Underdog Marketing 101 -right now (upper right corner of the blog).

The people on the list are already voting on the final cover design. Don’t get left out from all the benefits of being the first to know. There is a ton of valuable stuff for the people on the list during the launch.

Click the image to get the FREE

Underdog Millionaire wealth Pack!

*******************************************
Copyright 2010, Outer Limit Productions LLC.
All rights reserved.

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

_________________________________________

Consultative Selling- This Ain’t Your Grandma’s Close

Joshua Black — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 14:26:15 +0000

Today’s Tip Sheet is (hopefully) gonna knock the socks off your current selling strategy. It’s something that YOU may already know a little bit about, but the majority of people that are selling their products or services, completely ignore.

If you want to become a grand master of closing the sale, then you need to keep on reading.

Have you ever read a book or listened to a tape on selling, where it’s nothing but a pitch-fest, with rebuttal after rebuttal until the customer is so worn out that they just give up and say “ok, ok, I’ll buy anything, just leave me alone?”

This is a dandy way to make one sale, but it’s a dirt-poor way to make a CUSTOMER… and that’s what we’re all about over here at the Underdog Millionaire. We wanna make some serious customers.

So, what am I getting at, you may be asking yourself…

We’re talking about a strategic sales technique called consultative selling.

When you become a consultative sales person, you start to do the same thing that I do when I analyze a business for hidden assets. You talk to the client and find out what is REALLY going on, what they really need. Not what they are asking for.

Before you get that glazed-over look from having to learn a new word, let me ‘splain a little better, Lucy.

Let’s think about what happens when we go to the doctor:

1. Something is hurting, festering, or falling off so we go see the doctor.

2. The doctor asks us a lot of questions, performs diagnostic tests, and waits for the results.

3.The doctor then makes a recommendation, prescribes some sort of concoction, or tells us to see a specialist, because he/she cannot help with our problem.

Now, at no point during that visit does the doctor say “you don’t have to tell me anything about you. I have just the right thing,” and then hands you a lollipop to fix a broken arm that he didn’t know you had.

…but that’s the way that many people are selling.

They just try to make the sweetest deal possible and then jam it in the customer’s mouth before they can mumble out what their problem really is.

Well, you are an Underdog Millionaire.

You. Know. Better.

Therefor, when diagnosing your next “patient,” you need to think more like a doctor and less like a sales person.

Here are a few tips to help get you going:

Ask a lot of questions and shut your mouth while waiting for the answer.
If you don’t have a product that can truly help the customer, recommend them to someone who does (they will forever respect you).
Take the time to form a diagnosis of the problem. Create cheat sheets and other tools that you can give to the client so you can decide the best way to help their problem.

Once you have the consultation completed, you tell the client what you found and make a recommendation to solve it, hopefully with your product.

There is no SELLING.

There is no CLOSING.

There is no SPOON! (sorry, that was for the Matrix fans out there)

There is nothing but a consultation, a diagnosis of the customer’s problem, and the recommendation.

You can do it too. It’s just a simple adjustment in the ol’ thinker between your ears. Consultative selling is the way to go and the best way to build a relationship with your clients.

If you want to know even more ways to build sales relationships and to keep customers for life, check out the Underdog Sales Bible and become a master at closing the sale without selling at all.

What do you think? What is a sneaky, little Undedog Millionaire sales technique that you would like to share with your brothers and sisters? Add a comment below and Tweet this puppy to everyone that you know…thanks.

In your service,

Joshua Black

www.closing-the-sale.com

Click the image to get the FREE

Underdog Millionaire wealth Pack!

*******************************************
Copyright 2010, Outer Limit Productions LLC.
All rights reserved.

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

_________________________________________

Sales Tips from Bob Vance-Vance Refrigeration

Joshua Black — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 13:37:03 +0000

I am a huge fan of the US version of the show The Office. My fiancee and I watch re-runs of it almost every night before bed.

One of the best things about that show, is that it’s a complete bastardization of real-life office events, but there are some really good tidbits for small business owners to learn from.

Today’s tip sheet is all about one of the minor characters on the show. His name is Bob Vance. He owns a refrigeration company and shares part of the building with the Dunder-Mifflin paper company characters that are the main focus of the Office show.

Anyway, to make a long story short, Bob Vance has a unique way of introducing himself every time he shakes hands with someone. He always says “hello, Bob Vance-Vance Refrigeration.”

There is NEVER a doubt in anyone’s mind what this man does for a living and this is the point that I want to bring home today.

When you are in a social situation, and you are being introduced to new people, you never know who you’re going to meet and what their needs might be.

Let Bob Vance be your guide.

The next time that you’re in this type of gathering create a really tiny elevator pitch (Unique Selling Proposition) for your business. These are just 1-3 words that you throw in each time you introduce yourself.

“Joe Blow- Joe’s Plumbing and Heating”

“Sally Smith- Smith PR”

“Frank Jones- Jones’ Bar and Grill”

You will be so surprised at how many new contacts you can come up with this way. If a person shows a hint of interest, you can also hand them your card, or ask for their contact information and then get back to them later.

Don’t take over the social situation and try to close people on your services, just make sure that you have made an excellent impression and then use that meeting as a spring board to get business from them later.

…If Bob Vance can do it, anyone can.

Speaking of Bob, if you would like to learn 101 more techniques for attracting new customers for FREE, then hop on over to the upper left hand corner of the blog and sign up to be on the notification list for Underdog Marketing 101.

If you are on the list, you’re going to get some amazing stuff if you order during the launch. If you aren’t on the list, you’re going to miss out. I was supposed to have the sales letter up over the weekend, but I promise that it will happen this week.

In your service,

Joshua Black-Underdog Millionaire

(sorry, I just had to say it)

Click the image to get the FREE

Underdog Millionaire wealth Pack!

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

_________________________________________

9 Sneaky Little List-Building Secrets to Attract More Customers

Joshua Black — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:56:12 +0000

Since you are a small business owner (or hope to be one soon), you already know the importance of having a customer list. Long-lasting businesses are build around the fact that their customers keep coming back, instead of just buying one time and then vanishing forever like a cheap magic trick.

One of the most Underdog and inexpensive ways to build a customer list is to collect the one thing that they read almost every day, their email address.

When you have that golden little piece of information, and you RESPECT it, you can make the customer very happy, as well as your own bank account.

Here are 9 sneaky secrets that you can use to beef up your email list:

1. Create a squeeze page-Just like my UnderdogMillionaire.com page, you can create an email capture page where the prospect is encouraged to join your list before you show them the goods.

2. Create a “hover ad,” or email pop-up box- These are supposed to be highly effective in grabbing the most names, because an annoying box shows up on top of the page that you are reading. This is not something that I like personally, but it may work GREAT for you.

3. Only add BUYING customers to your email list. If you sell any kind of introductory product, or any product at all, wait until the customer has made a purchase before you add them to your list. In the future, when you market additional products or services, you will be marketing to an entire list of buyers only. This beats 20,000 Twitter or Facebook friends any day of the week.

4. Give them some INCENTIVE to hand over that precious email address- Your customers are tired of spam and they already have a full inbox as it is. If you give them something of VALUE in return, such as an audio recording, a coupon, or free report, they will happily sign up.

5. Sign them up automatically if they are a buying customer. All them to opt-out at any time, but if a customer has made a purchase from you, feel free to add them to your list, just let them know why you are now sending them emails, because they might forget that they did business with you and mark it as spam.

6. If you have a service business or physical store offer them discounts or a similar report for giving you their email address.For example, there is a local carpet cleaner in my area that sends out a newsletter telling customers how to get different stains out of their carpet with ingredients in the pantry.

7. Don’t pitch in every email- If you send your customers sales pitch after sales pitch, with no substance for them, they will unsubscribe in a heartbeat. On the other hand, if you offer them real value in each email, you can also contain a call to action at the bottom if they want even more information. That will lead to your products and services.

8. Make sure you always have a call to action- Although you are not going to directly pitch in every email, you need to ask the customer to do something in return for the information. After all, you are in business to make money, right? Therefor, no email should ever leave your shop without having some kind of call to action.

9. Entertain your customers- People don’t want to be lectured at like they are in a fourth grade classroom and they REALLY don’t want to feel dumb about the previous choices they have made. Try to give them information, but in your own voice, and be a little entertaining in the process. Heck, I am juggling flaming chainsaws for you right now, you just can’t see them

Now, what would an Underdog Millionaire Tip Sheet Be without a little call to action eh? If you have not already done it, I highly encourage you to sign up for the Underdog Marketing 101 notification list.

ONLY people on this list will get all of the free goodies during the launch, and they are going to be a serious pile of ‘em.

Over the weekend I will be posting the sales letter for the new book, so you can really get into it and see what it’s all about. Just to give you an idea, there will be 101 different ways that you can bring in new customers into your business for FREE… yep nada, zip, nothing.

Inside you will see:

How you could get $18 million dollars worth of free advertising for your business.

How a tiny piece of paper that you keep in your pocket could bring more spontaneous clients than any other way.

A trick used by Hollywood mega-stars, pro athletes, and politicians to have everything that is being written about your business (on the Internet)delivered to you for FREE whenever you want it

…and much, much more.

It’s my biggest project to date and I can’t wait for you to see how much it will help ANY business get more customers from many different sources.

Upper right hand corner of the blog…sign up right now.

So, what’s your number 10? Are there any list-building techniques that you use in order to bring in new clients that you would like to share with the rest of the Underdogs out there?

In your service,

Joshua Black

Click the image to get the FREE

Underdog Millionaire wealth Pack!

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

_________________________________________

Preemptive Marketing Strategy- A “Game-Changing” Can of Dr. Pepper?

Joshua Black — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 13:28:59 +0000

It’s Wednesday, so that means it’s time for some small business consultation discussion. In my consultation practice, one of the most important things that I try to do for my clients is to make sure that they show their customers how their small business is DIFFERENT than any other option out there.

I hope that today’s Tip Sheet will help your business out too.

If you take NOTHING else away from what I say here at the Underdog Millionaire, it is my hope that today’s message is one of the sticking points.

One of the ways that I like to help my clients show their world that they are different, is through the use of preemptive marketing.

Preemptive marketing is a strategy where you take unique features in the development, manufacturing, processing, installation, research, or some other process in your business that is not well-known and you EXPLOIT it in your marketing.

When you use this strategy, even though your competition may produce their product in the same way, since you’re the one that used it first, they’ll seem like a copycat if they try to use it later. This is one of the key strategies that you can use when you create your Unique Selling Proposition (USP), which is the absolute foundation of all your marketing.

Claude Hopkins first did this with Schlitz Beer, where he exploited the way that the bottles were washed and sanitized in the bottling process. At the time, all other beer was made the same way, but Schlitz was the first one to capitalize on it. This worked so well, Schlitz became the number one beer maker (for awhile).

So what does any of this have to do with Dr. Pepper?

Well, awhile back Dr. Pepper was also trying to regain some market share and they chose a preemptive strategy in order to bring their brand back out of the grave.

They use 23 different flavorings in their “top secret” soda pop making process, in order to get that weird cherry/prune/eggplant (who knows what to call it) flavor in their beverage.

…pretty much every other soda pop manufacturer uses a whole batch of crazy chemicals as well, in order to get their secret recipes, but Dr. P was the first one to stick it on the can.

Their tactic gave them a marketing stronghold, where if any of their competitors tried using the same thing, they would look like a bunch of rip-off artists.

Now, unfortunately Dr. Pepper completely botched their preemptive marketing strategy and has since ditched the effort after a very short-lived campaign. Now they are over the place with using KISS as their sales campaign, which in my mind is product suicide, because they are selling the band and not the product.

…we’ll see how it goes.

What do you think? This can be a very powerful tool, especially if you have a commodity-like business. What are you going to do with your marketing to show that you are DIFFERENT than the other guys?

In your service,

Joshua Black

www.UltimateUSPCreator.com

P.S. Make sure you get on the notification list for the Underdog Marketing 101 launch party. There is going to be a huge bag of extra goodies for the people that are on the list come launch day. (Upper right hand corner of the blog)

Click the image to get the FREE

Underdog Millionaire wealth Pack!

Download these other great products to help
your business earn huge piles of moolah:

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How My Dog’s Ear Infection Can Help Your Business

Joshua Black — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 13:35:33 +0000

If you have been around Ye Old Underdog Millionaire Tip Sheet for awhile, you’ll know that I have a secret marketing weapon that is not available to anyone else on the planet.

You see, my dog happens to be one of the best sales and marketing mentors around. He’s been with me when I came up with many new ideas for products and today is no exception.

My 90-pound friend has an ear infection. The only reason I know that is because he told me. At first he shook his head a little more than usual. Then he scratched more than usual. When I didn’t get the hint, he would pace around the house and dive-bomb the carpet so he could slide across his head, like a baseball player sliding into home.

…I finally got the clue and today we are going to the vet.

So, what on earth does my dog’s rotten ear have anything to do with your business? Plenty. When something is not quite right in your business, there are many tell-tale signs that were given BEFORE the bigger problem occurs.

Maybe you lost half your customers to your competition. However, for months before that, you were slacking off on your customer service, you went cheap on your marketing, or maybe you didn’t call a few people back, because it wasn’t convenient.

Perhaps you overheard a customer’s negative comment. Maybe you got a few emails out of the blue, asking you to fix certain things about your business.

These are all signs of a small business ear infection. They are completely reversible, but will take some actual work on your part. A business does not go south overnight.

When a business gets in big trouble is right about the time the owner has stopped tuning in to the signals, or even worse, has lost passion and excitement for the business.

If you want to avoid a goopy ear in your business then you need to make sure you address the little things as they happen. When you get a single email from a customer about something, it usually means that there are hundreds of others thinking the same thing, with only one brave soul letting you know.

Don’t assume that all complaints are immediately wrong. Just because it’s your business does not make you the “super-fancy king of the universe.” The only reason you are around is because your customers allow you to be. Without them, you are left holding the penicillin.

There are other times when your business is running like a well-oiled machine, your customers love you, but you just aren’t growing. This is most-likely due to the fact that you’ve not branched out in enough directions to get more customers (and you may need to increase the dollar amount and frequency of each sale).

If you’re looking for 101 different ways to get customers completely for free, no matter what business you are in, then you might want to sign up for the Underdog Millionaire 101 notification list (upper right hand corner of the blog).

This is a separate list from the Tip Sheet, and only people on it will receive a big ‘ol pile of extra goodies on launch day.

Until tomorrow,

Joshua Black

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