Positioning Systems Blog

“Most business owners don’t get good because it requires discipline.” We tell our clients to work at One Thing, and the message from Chet Holmes is if you just focus on one thing you will double sales if you master it. The problem is, despite providing us with the 12 skill sets we absolutely need to master in business, giving every business owner the greatest secret, they fail. Why? Because they simply won’t do it.

Who is Chet Holmes? Warren Buffet’s partner Charlie Munger calls Chet, “America’s greatest sales and marketing Executive.” He ran 9 divisions of a company for Munger and he doubled the sales volume for each, in four consecutive years. How did he do this?   “It was a constant focus on 12 competencies,“ Chet offered. He shared his 12 core competencies with us along with insights and stories. His book The Ultimate Sales Machine, Turbocharge Your Business With Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies is on the business best seller list. 

So what is his single greatest secret? It’s pigheaded discipline and determination. 

A carpet cleaning company hired Chet to increase sales revenue. The company had 30,000 customers who used their services on average every 2 ½ years. If they could increase their usage they could increase and even double sales. A key to remember with your marketing effort is to recognize that market data is more motivating then product information. Chet discovered the company he worked with had market driven data.  The EPA had done extensive studies on the impact carpet had on health in the home. The company‘s advertising focused on how carpet cleaning could make your home 1500% cleaner and healthier so you and your family wouldn’t be sick so often. Every time a customer or prospect called in they developed a script to address this concern and offer the customer a 10% discount if they would make a dual purchase for another cleaning that could be used anytime in the next year.  

They first tested this system with their best salesperson. This was another of his suggestions to not roll something but to the test it first.  Make sure you test it with your best people. The week after the test Chet called to ask how it had gone. The owner said it had failed. He asked their sales person [he was the only one involved in the testing period] what happened. He indicated it hadn’t worked. Chet queried deeper, asking what do you mean it didn’t work? You didn’t sell anybody? The salesperson replied, oh yes they had sold two. Chet further discovered he’d only asked ten people. That’s a 20% increase in sales! Without this discovery this plan would have died. As it turned out with a little bit of training they were actually able to increase the conversion rate to 40%, plus they discovered they weren’t selling other additional services they offered [like carpet padding]. They doubled sales with these two tactics. How? Pigheaded discipline and determination.

Don’t give up when something doesn’t work as you’d hoped immediately. And don’t allow your people to make decisions without a good look at the numbers and what they mean. Next Blog, more Chet Holmes and his 12 core competencies, how to become a publisher, and ideas on how to Guerrilla market from an expert.

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Positioning Systems helps business owners and entrepreneurs transform their business.   We provide the tools and coaching to help you take control of your business -- rather then having your business control you.