You may recall my last blog about getting on the phone and making cold calls - with exceptional results. Well, we actually held the seminar last week, which was also really the launch of our new business. The outcome we were looking for from the event was to sell licenses to our System at the reduced price for our launch of around $4k. We had 12 people along on the night. Of those 2 had already bought the system, 2 were partners and one was an employee of Deb's, so we had seven prospects. A good rule of thumb for these sort of nights is to convert one in four, so I said to Deb that two sales would be a good result. So how did we go?
We had four people sign up on the night, and another one who probably will when she gets back from a holiday. Potentially 5 out of 7. Again an extraordinary result - over 70%.
What made it so successful? And am I ever going to link this back to the subject of the blog?
Let me step back a bit and tell you where the business came from. I've been coaching Debbie Roberts in her bookkeeping business for the last 8 years, and over that time she's built a great business based on great systems - the best in the bookkeeping industry. A couple of years ago I said to her that I thought she could make more money selling her systems to other bookkeepers than she could running her bookkeeping business. That idea evolved into a new venture - a business that we are running together, where Deb is accountable for producing the system, and I'm accountable for selling it.
In other words I identified a hidden asset in her business - her systems - and saw the potential of that asset to develop into a whole new business.
The night was successful mostly because the product we were selling is so good. Of course the seminar itself had good content, and the participants got value whether or not they bought the system, but I've run lots of good seminars that didn't result in that sort of sales at the end.
We were aiming to make the purchase a no-brainer - if you were a bookkeeper sitting in that room looking to grow your business, you would have to be crazy not to buy it (that's the mood we were shooting for). And I think we pulled it off based on the quality of Deb's work over the last 8 years.
Which brings me back to the subject - are there hidden assets in your business that people would pay for? This is something that marketer Jay Abraham talks about. Have you worked out a better way of doing things that other people could use? Do you do things that could be applicable to completely different industries? Could you add an arm of your business training people who are actually in your industry? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
