Before I turn things over again to David Johnson from Epiphany Marketing, I want to make sure you’ve reserved your spot on this week’s conference calls.  They start tonight!  (And for those outside the US… in just a matter of hours!)

Both Michael and I have written recently about the economy.  Obviously it’s been on the minds of a lot of people, and certainly some industries and regions have been more affected by it than others.  Either way, the battle is definitely heating up — regardless of external economic conditions — especially for those of us who are believers and whose work and purpose is about expanding the Kingdom of God and not just “making a buck.”

I’m not certain (although I do have a few guesses) where this notion came from, but somewhere along the way in the Church, we got this idea that if God is “blessing” your life and/or your business, things will be easy.  You’ve probably heard it.  There’s a “flow.”  Things are “smooth.”  Doors open for you.

Listen, friends.  I don’t want to deny the supernatural power of the blessing — not even in the slightest.  But one thing I’ve learned is that while we may have seasons where there is less pressure, the notion that things will be easy is absolute garbage.  Don’t get me wrong — we can and should experience greater levels of peace and greater freedom from stress, especially in our interior life.  And we can walk in confidence, knowing that we are being led by the Holy Spirit and carrying out the purpose of God for our lives.

But take a look at what Jesus said Matthew 11:12.  Here it is from the Amplified Bible:

“And from the days of John the Baptist until the present time, the kingdom of heaven has endured violent assault, and violent men seize it by force [as a precious prize–a share in the heavenly kingdom is sought with most ardent zeal and intense exertion].”

Let’s face it, if God has called you to the marketplace, then you are on the front lines of taking territory for the Kingdom.  That’s where the battle is the hottest.  Be encouraged today that you are operating in a sin-cursed world system dominated by powers that do not want you to be fruitful nor succeed.  There is and there will be resistance — just like swimming upstream.  But friends, we have access to all the resources of the Kingdom, and we can put them to work today.  If the battle is hot where you are right now, remember the “ardent zeal” and “intense exertion” is par for the course in this fight.  All who take territory will do so because of intentional effort at times when it would be easier to give up.  Take a moment and reach out for help from heaven!

Now, I’m not someone who believes that more revenue is necessarily the answer to every business challenge.  But, if you’ve taken a hit because of changes in the economy or in your business, then here’s a fact: you won’t succeed at fulfilling your purpose (in business or otherwise) unless you connect with those who you are called to serve — those who need what you have to offer.  I urge you to join Michael and I are on our conference calls this week so we can share with you some tools to help you do exactly that.

In the meantime: be encouraged!

“In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides].” (Ephesians 6:10)

Friends, as you can tell, David is as passionate as I am about advancing the Kingdom.  There are 4 opportunities to participate in this week’s conference calls.   If you haven’t already done so, choose your best time.  We’ll talk to you then!

My fellow marketplace warriors…
Here is the invitation I promised you to join me for a meeting this week.  If you’ve been with us for a while, you’ll recall that we held a meeting with David (whose marketing thoughts you’ve probably been reading recently) just a few months ago and had an overwhelming response.

If you’re a newer subscriber, you may not yet be aware that our mission is to help believers worldwide build successful businesses so they can in turn (with their profits and influence) make a significant and lasting impact on the culture within which we live. How you make that difference is up to you. Helping you succeed in that calling is our privilege and our mission.

20-Fold Increase…
Recently, I was evaluating some statistical information related to our business.  It seems like it wasn’t all that long ago (in fact, it was just a couple of years ago) that I was getting excited about the 1,000 or 2,000 visitors coming to our website every month.  When I saw the more recent information, I found out that we’re averaging 10,000 visitors to our site every single week!  This has been due, in large part, to the efforts of David Johnson from Epiphany Marketing, who we retained just over a year ago to help us expand our reach.

Even more than multiplying the number of visitors, what has excited me is when I found out why they’re finding us… David showed me how to view the terms that people are typing into search engines like Google in order to find us.  Wow!  It’s amazing how well-targeted the results are.  We are connecting more than ever with the people who need what we have to offer.

David wants to share information with you…
…about how you can experience similar results.  And, more importantly, how to apply timeless marketing strategy to every facet of your business so that you’re best prepared to create relationships with the people you are reaching out to.  In fact, David would also like to introduce some of the people he’s been training for the last couple of months so you can hear directly from them about what they’ve been learning.

David and I have set aside several time slots Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to discuss specific strategies to help you experience similar results. This is not for everyone, but if you want to grow your business using 21st-century strategies, you are welcome to join us. Register here now so you can be sure to reserve your spot on one of these conference calls. (As always, we are limited on the number of callers we can have on each conference call, so it’s a first-come, first-served basis.)

Warmest regards…

Michael Q. Pink

P.S. I know you probably checked your calendar previously, but I urge you to choose your best meeting time now… these calls will fill up quickly!

Here’s the next in a series of messages I’ve asked David Johnson of Epiphany Marketing to write for you. I hope you enjoy the thoughts on strategic marketing as much as I do…

Did you ever stop to think about the fact that “marketing” is happening all the time in your business — whether you want it to be or not?  Here’s an example to illustrate what I mean…

Picture yourself walking into a restaurant for dinner with your spouse.  It’s a reasonably nice restaurant with an energetic atmosphere.  There’s plenty of activity… you might even say it’s “alive” with excitement.  You’re looking forward to a nice meal.  After a friendly greeting and a brief wait, you are shown to your table where you sit down to look over the menus.  “At any moment,” you think to yourself, “someone will come by to take our drink order and tell us about the specials.” But you wait…

You chat with your spouse and even comment on how unusual it is for you to wait this long.  10 minutes go by.  A large group at a nearby table is served their piping hot meals.  Everything smells good.  People are talking and laughing and having a good time.  Your stomach growls.  You and your spouse exchange small talk and odd looks as you wonder aloud about the service.  You consider going to find someone to ask about your server, but you don’t want to ruin the evening for your spouse…

Ever had this happen to you?  Isn’t it frustrating?  At that moment when you’ve waited for 15 minutes and even tried to get someone’s attention, what message has that restaurant sent to you?

“You’re not important.”

“We don’t care.”

The business owners reading this are probably getting antsy.  Despite our best efforts, sometimes we inadvertently treat customers poorly and send them the wrong message.  We don’t intend to do it, but it happens sometimes.

This is one example of how we are always marketing in business.  In hundreds, perhaps even thousands of small (and big) ways, our business is constantly sending a message — to our customers, future customers, referral sources, and even partners.  My point — and one that my clients and students will tell you is one that I harp on — is that if you don’t intentionally design this message and execute a strategy for communicating it, then your chances of sending an undesirable one go way, way up.

What message is your business sending?

Registration begins today for the conference calls that David and I will be conducting this week.  I’ll send you a link a little later so you can sign up, but for now, check these time slots in your calendar (times shown in US Eastern Daylight Time — click for your time zone):

• Tuesday at 9pm
• Wednesday at 1pm
• Thursday at 7am
• Thursday at 4pm

Good morning friends… One of the ways we’ve been getting practical and helping folks grow their business revenue is through the internet. I’ve been relying on David Johnson of Epiphany Marketing for our internet marketing expertise for the last year and the difference has been quite substantial. Our site use to get a few hundred unique visits per week. Now we are in the five figure range each week, and we’re ramping up for quite a bit more in the near future. I’ve asked David to share a few posts with you to give you some practical help. Hope you enjoy!

How to Drive Off Your Customers

Too busy at work?  More than enough revenue?  Here are some ways you can keep those pesky customers and prospects away…

 

#1: Make Sure Your Marketing is All About You
After all… people who want to spend money with you want to understand how your products & services benefit them, so if you focus on you, your company’s history, your features, etc., you’ll be sure to keep people from bugging you.  Whatever you do, don’t use pictures of the people most likely to actually buy from you, and avoid connecting their needs and wants to aspects of your business most likely to appeal to them.  Instead, just subtly communicate the notion that you’re in business for your own benefit and that you really aren’t interested in customers.  They’ll smell this a mile away and bug someone else instead.

#2: Ignore the Web
If your website hasn’t changed since the Clinton Administration, you’re on the right track here.  Even better: no web presence at all!  If you must have a website, make sure it doesn’t show up in any search engines… and whatever you do: don’t add fresh new content on a regular basis!  You should convey to visitors that you might already be out of business just by the aged look of your site.  To support this notion, hire a neighbor’s kid to build it — especially if he/she has no design experience whatsoever.  Websites that have that “we don’t care” feel do wonders at keeping people away.  If you’re still having response from your site, just bury the information that your customers want to find and add some contact forms to your site that do nothing and go nowhere.  If you can get them to generate an error message, it’s even more fun!

#3:  Keep Your Marketing Efforts Unfocused
If people have a clear idea of who you are and what you’re all about, they’re much more likely to pester you.  So, make sure that there’s no unifying theme to your marketing.  Buy ads at random, and always let whoever who sold you the ad design it for you.  This way, all of your ads will come out looking different from each other.  Make sure that your marketing doesn’t target any one type of customer, and stick with the “shotgun” approach.  Otherwise, your marketing might actually connect with someone, and then they’ll show up or call, expecting service from you.

I hope these tips are helpful for you.  We’ll continue this on another blog entry soon.  And… Michael and I will be holding another marketing teleseminar next week!  If you’re already busy enough and don’t want any new customers, don’t join us!  It could be dangerous!!

Michael here… watch your inbox on Monday morning for dates/times for next week’s event!

Today’s message is a guest entry from David G. Johnson of Epiphany Marketing, LLC.

Folks, today I participated in one of the most amazing conversations of my entire life.

Michael asked me if I would jot you a quick note to tell you about it and also to invite you to hear the recording at no charge.

First of all, you’ll recall from Michael’s recent messages that Pastor Sunday Adelaja has established something called Club 1000 in Ukraine. Its stated purpose is to produce — from his congregation — 1000 millionaires within 10 years. They thought it would take from 2-5 years on average to turn someone into a millionaire.

Well… things didn’t go according to plan.

Pastor Sunday told us the story of a 21-year-old girl who, in just over a year, has gone from making a few hundred dollars per month to millionaire status! She’s now making over $50,000 per month, and what’s interesting is that she still only actually lives on $300 per month! In fact, she just bought her first car last week!

Friends, what Pastor Sunday is doing is pouring into these people in Club 1000. But he has also put some things in place that are mechanisms that actually produce accelerated results in the people that are participating. You need to hear what Pastor Sunday shared with us about what they are doing and what he and others are teaching his people.

Michael and I were so blown away by this conversation that we decided to make it available to you right away. You can hear the conversation on a teleseminar next Tuesday, April 22nd at 1PM US Eastern time. It is being presented by ChristianBusinessDaily.com and would normally only be available to members, but we’ve arranged for you to get a free pass to attend this event.

Sign up right away using this link to get your free pass.

You’ll want to try to make it to this event. There will not be anything for sale. Pastor Sunday isn’t promoting a product. (I can assure you that you’re going to want to read his book, Church Shift, but that won’t even be available for purchase. You might out to grab it from your local Christian bookstore or from Amazon.com as soon as you can).

However, this 1-hour event will afterward only be available to ChristianBusinessDaily.com Gold & Platinum Insider Members or by purchasing the recording. So… this is your one chance to hear it absolutely free if you’re not a member of that website.

Click here to get your free pass.

This is quite frankly a paradigm-shattering conversation that Michael and I both believe is very important for those in the Body of Christ who are interested in advancing the Kingdom of God. Please don’t miss it.

Blessings,

David G. Johnson

Today’s message is a guest entry from David G. Johnson of Epiphany Marketing, LLC.

“AND THERE was a famine in the land… and Isaac went to Gerar, to Abimelech king of the Philistines. And the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘Do not go down to Egypt; live in the land of which I will tell you. Dwell temporarily in this land, and I will be with you and will favor you with blessings; for to you and to your descendants I will give all these lands, and I will perform the oath which I swore to Abraham your father.’” (Genesis 26:1-3)

We’re hearing so much this year about the economy, the housing market, the falling dollar and business conditions in general. Hopefully, your business and family are not being affected by it personally, but whether you are or not, hearing about it frequently can have a mental, emotional and even spiritual impact.

With a variety of industries suffering in the local community here, I’ve had this passage from Genesis 26 on my heart quite a bit lately. Isaac found himself and his household surrounded by difficult conditions, and it’s hard to imagine how that may have weighed on his mind. As casual readers, we sometimes forget that his household was most likely substantial, with a lot of mouths to feed and a lot of people looking to him for answers. Today, he might be the owner of a small company — perhaps with 50 employees or more.

What to do?

What’s interesting to me is that when Isaac heard from God, the instructions he received were very counter-intuitive. Egypt would’ve been a safe haven for a nomadic family like his to go and find trading partners. But God instructed him to essentially start a business in a failing industry in an economy that was suffering, and in physical conditions that would not support his new venture. When there’s a famine, it’s generally not the best time to go into agriculture!

But when you have instructions from God, you have hope that others do not have! We’ll pick this subject up again in the next message, but in the meantime, consider this question: Are you getting instructions from God in this season, or are you allowing the conditions around you to shape your thinking?

Dear Friends:”Who cares?”

That was my first thought when I heard that Michael Pink was doing research in the rainforests of Panama.

Candidly, I thought it was a bit of a stretch to learn biblical business principles from a rainforest. Sounded even a little “New Age” to me.

At best, I expected to see a few clever metaphors about how a rainforest is similar to a business.

But after seeing the results, it seems I seriously underestimated the significance of the research.

I started to get fired up after I heard Michael share the information a couple of times… but I’m not interested in just getting excited about something…

Frankly, I wasn’t completely sold until I saw the impact the findings made on Michael’s company. You see, I work closely with Michael as a marketing consultant. When he finished his research, he started applying these principles to his business. I watched first hand, as these principles — from the research that I initial questioned — literally TRANSFORMED Michael’s organization… tripling his staff, and increasing his revenue a lot more than that, all in less than 90 days.

As a Selling Among Wolves reader, you’ve undoubtedly heard about Michael’s rainforest research. But if you’re wired like me, you might be inclined to investigate further too.

But my friend, I’m here to tell you that you need to take a look at this! It’s transformed Michael’s company, and many other Christian organizations who have put it to work for them.

There are seven principles in all - each with a number of ideas within it. For example, principle #6 “The Brazil Nut Effect” talks about interdependence - and harnesses 3 relationships models that will help your business soar to new heights, while describing a fourth type of relationship that you should avoid at all costs.

And today is a great time to take a look, because Michael is letting people access the downloads for $20 off and there are also some free bonus gifts!!

Click here to learn more

I wasn’t convinced right way that it would help me, but I can tell you that this is something you need to check out! Click here to read more about the rainforest principles. This is now something that I recommend (require, if I can get away with it) for all my clients.

Blessings,

David Johnson
Epiphany Marketing, LLC

Last chance! Still 2 calls to go with David Johnson from Epiphany Marketing. Here’s the last round of guest content from him…

Yesterday, we talked about focusing on your customers. I’ll be the first to admit that without intentional effort, it’s easy to begin to drift away from listening closely to them. But in business, this can be a costly mistake - even when times are good and business is strong. In those times, missing out on subtle cues from your customers can cause you to miss the opportunities to serve them that you’re leaving on the table.
In the 21^st century, however, we have some amazing new tools for listening to what customers want. If you have a website, for example, you should be able to monitor a variety of statistical information that lends remarkable insight into what your customer base is looking for and, in fact, how close to the mark you’re getting.

Visits
For example, which pages on your website are getting visited? Where is the traffic coming from. If your website is strategically set up (in other words, it doesn’t just “look” good), you’ll have different “pages” of content that focus on various product or service offerings. Websites that are set up according to the methods that I use are getting large percentages of their traffic from search engines. This means that traffic coming in to the site is arriving because our content is attracting them to the particular pages they are visiting. By evaluating traffic data to your site, you can see which offerings are doing all that attracting.

Search Terms
Your website statistical information should also tell you exactly someone typed into Google (for example) to cause them to arrive at your site. This helps you in a couple of important ways. First, it tells you if you’re attracting the folks you want to attract. If your website talks about auto repair in Indianapolis, and you’re getting traffic for the Indy 500, then you need to re-evaluate your content (or if better yet: sell ads!). If the search terms line up with what you have to offer, then the second thing those terms are telling you - very specifically - is what your customers are asking for. If you evaluate this data over a meaningful period of time, you can check your product and/or service offerings and see if you should consider doing some repackaging or some new promotions.

What I’m describing in today’s content is really the tip of the iceberg. But, this is the type of strategic information that most companies who have invested in the web have not been trained how to use. I hope you find it useful to you.

Today at 1pm & 3pm (US Eastern) are your last opportunities to join David and I. Click here to choose which time you’d prefer to join us. We’ll talk to you then!

By now, you’ve been enjoying what David Johnson of Epiphany Marketing has been sharing with us on marketing for several days. Don’t forget our conference calls beginning later this morning. Now here’s David…

Yesterday, we talked about listening to your customers to pay attention to the “why” behind their purchases. Today, we’re focusing more on the “who.” It probably goes without saying that another critical component in getting to know your customers and clients is that you gather as much demographic and psychographic information about them as possible.

If you’re a larger company or if you serve multiple market segments, then you need to compile this data for each of your major product or service offerings. Look at factors such as whether they are businesses or individuals, single or multiple decision-makers, one-time or recurring purchasers, their age, gender, location, background, likes and dislikes, etc. My clients and students use a 16-point questionnaire as a starting point to build a profile of their typical buyer.

The main goal for this is that when you’re working to craft a message that will impact your customers (or future customers) meaningfully, you must be intentional about who you’re “talking” to in your marketing. Your customers will ignore (read: not take action on) your messages that they don’t connect with personally. This seems obvious, but for some reason we tend to get temporarily stupid when we get to this point. Many a potentially great marketing effort has been stymied when the intended audience is left out of the equation. We end up with efforts that are focused on us and not on them - in more ways than one.

I say it often: you are not your customer. I frequently have my clients and students find a photograph that represents their ideal customer, and hang it on the wall. Then we have them craft everything as if it were intended for that one person.

Take some time to look back at your previous marketing efforts. Be honest with yourself and ask yourself how narrowly focused you’ve been on your ideal customer. Notice any trends?

Tomorrow: why it’s so easy to focus on your customer in the 21^st century. Don’t miss it!

Here’s your last chance to get in on today’s conference calls with David and myself. Does Friday work better for you? Choose your best time right away!

Have you signed up for one of the conference calls yet? Details will follow today’s guest content from David G. Johnson of Epiphany Marketing…

So far this week, we’ve focused on you and your identity as a business. Now it’s time to do something every bit as critical and just as important, if not more so: focus on your customer.

Something that continues to amaze me is how easy (and common) it is for businesses to lose touch with their customers and clients. Just as you must know your own identity, you must also get clear on the identity of your customer. This is both harder and easier than it sounds. Customers are diverse, which is why it seems to be a daunting task to keep in touch with who they are. That being said, it is critical to look for and discover the common factors in your customers that are keys to the big question: why are they buying from you?

One of the easiest - and most often overlooked - means of getting to that answer is to very simply ask the question. When was the last time you got a list of some of your best customers and called to ask them, out of the clear blue sky, “Why did you buy?”

Let me guarantee you something. If it’s been a while since you’ve done something like this, you may have some ideas about what they’ll say, but the answers will surprise you. You will learn something. And what you learn will be important.

The fact is, we tend to give lip service to the idea of listening to our customers. Listening to and getting to know them is something that occurs only deliberately and with focused, intentional effort. It’s a lot like a marriage. If it’s going to last, it’s going to take work. Sometimes it’s easier to let customers slip away due to neglect than it is to face the painful fact that they may tell you something that you don’t want to hear. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather hear that thing I don’t want to hear because I asked than by letting them speak with their dollars.

I may have to give up my pet project that is missing the mark. But, when there’s a good match between my identity (which I’m hopefully now clear on) and what the customers are begging for, shouldn’t that be my pet project anyway?

More on this subject tomorrow…

In case you missed my invitation, please join David and me for one of our conference calls tomorrow and Friday. Some of them are already nearly full, so you need to choose your best time slot right away!