We’ve all heard of Merlin the Magician – the sorcerer who lived in King Arthur’s Court.  Legend has it that Merlin was born an old man – and actually lived his life backward.  So, when he was giving advice to the young King Arthur – he was not really predicting the future as many thought.  He was in fact reflecting on his own past.  For Arthur this was a tremendous advantage.  Can you imagine being able to sit down at a meeting and discuss with complete certainty the happenings of next week, next month, next year?  Wouldn’t that be sweet?

You and I have to do it a little bit differently.  But surprisingly enough, we can get close to sharing Merlin’s big advantage.  The answer is to imagine your business completed.  Then think about the very last step you took before you arrived at that perfect destination.  And then the step before that.  And the step before that – and so on.  Until finally, you arrive where you started – the present.  Then you simply turn around and head “back to the future”.  Completing each step in sequence.  But this time with a confidence born from really knowing.

In case you haven’t figured it out – it’s called a plan.  And if you don’t have one – you may become a part of someone else’s.

I was having a cup of coffee with my good friend Chuck Hertzog  the other day and he shared with me an idea that I simply can’t get out of my head.

Now I should tell you that Chuck is the GM of several radio stations and is responsible for a fairly large group of salespeople.  So he’s the kind of guy that you generally want to listen to.  Anyway, Chuck said that every time a salesperson and a prospect come together – a sale is always made.

He went on to explain his concept this way.  Either the salesperson sells the prospect on the idea that he or she should buy the product or service being offered.  Or the prospect sells the salesperson on the idea that his or her product or service doesn’t really fill the prospect’s needs.  Now I don’t know about you – but I think that’s a brilliant piece of deduction.

Think about it.  When you look at selling that way – i.e., with the idea that a sale is always made – it makes the whole process seem less dire, less dramatic, and certainly less contentious.  It also creates the realistic hope that the salesperson can still make a sale down the road – at that exact moment when he or she is able to deliver a product or service that is in the prospect’s best interest.  And that moment usually arrives when we are able to tailor what we’re selling to the prospects needs.  Interesting.

Radio personality and friend Todd Jeffers has passed away.  I knew Todd when he was part of the morning team at WRKZ (Z107) in Elizabethtown with Nancy Ryan and then later with Nancy at BOB in Harrisburg.

Todd was one of the funniest people I ever knew.  For close to 12 years, I was lucky enough to be part of his morning cast of characters with my Jo Bob Leroy (later Leonard G. Hogg) and Perford Fern contributions. I would write and record these comedy bits the night before they were due.  But I would always call Todd and read him the scripts before producing them.  I can still hear him laughing when I got to the punch lines – some of which were either highly controversial or borderline x-rated or both.    And then he would laugh again the following morning when he shared the bits with his adoring audience.

Often times he would tell me the night before that I had really gone too far with the bits.  But he would put them on the air anyway.  And that was that.

When my first daughter Jordan was born prematurely in Pittsburgh and I was driving back and forth from Harrisburg to the hospital in Pittsburgh each week, Todd would always call or visit me and do his best to keep my spirits up.  Underneath the jokes, and the crazy lifestyle, was a caring man who loved his family, loved his audience and loved his friends.

He was a light in the lives of everyone who really knew him and loved him.  And as long as we’re smiling – we’re holding him in our hearts.

I’ve been in the marketing business for over thirty years. And still, one of my favorite pastimes is a lively breakfast meeting with vendors – media reps, yellow page people, printers, etc. But it wasn’t always that way.

For the first ten years or so, the price of admission for these meetings was simply a phone call. A vendor would call, I would check my calendar, and a meeting was agreed to. But by the late 80’s, I began to realize that many if not most of these meetings were a waste of precious time – my time and theirs. So, after some careful consideration, I changed the rules.

Instead of simply taking a meeting and getting a pitch, I told the vendor that I expected “payment” for my time. And the payment came in the form of this simple little proposal:

During the course of our meeting, I agree to share with you at least one concept, tactic, or strategy that has made me money over the years. And in return, you will share one of your concepts, tactics, or strategies as well.

The idea was that if nothing else came of the meeting – neither of us would walk away empty-handed. To be honest, I didn’t expect too much to come from this bargain. But at least it made me feel better about investing my time and energy in what seemed to be an endless chain of meetings.

Boy was I ever wrong. Not only did the new concept make the meetings more interesting, it also produced a staggering amount of business changing strategies that continue to produce revenues to this day.

Here’s just one example.

One day, I met with a man who sold yellow pages and he told me about another man he knew who had sold the Encyclopedia Britannica door to door. Now, for anybody who has ever sold anything door to door, you know that the biggest challenge is setting appointments. Well this man was apparently very good at doing just that. The problem was people would do just about anything to get out of actually going through with the meeting.

But instead of being overwhelmed and disillusioned by this fact, this particular salesman took major advantage of the situation. Two days before each meeting was scheduled to take place, he would call the husband or wife and tell them that due to circumstances beyond his control he would have to reschedule their appointment for two weeks down the road.

His reasoning was simply this. If someone was willing to reschedule an appointment with a man selling expensive sets of encyclopedias – that person was most assuredly a “Grade A” prospect for the product.

If, on the other hand, the husband or wife seemed relieved to get out of the original appointment and, moreover, reluctant to schedule a new appointment in two weeks – he reasoned that he would have been wasting his time on that particular prospect anyway.

Yes, I know, he probably missed a few opportunities with this strategy over the years. But, as you might have guessed, this man had the highest closing ratio of any Encyclopedia Britannica salesperson in the entire organization. And when he did show up for the appointment – he brought a filled out sales order with him. He knew he was going to make the sale. ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT. And I might add that I’ve been using the “Delayed Appointment” strategy ever since.

So ask yourself these questions. Do you meet with vendors on a regular basis? Could you institute a “Price of Admission” strategy with your vendors? Will you?

I think you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to do. You’ll also be surprised and delighted at how hard your vendors will try to WOW you with their concepts, tactics, and strategies.

And guess what? Even if you end up with only one money making idea a year – how bad can that be? Besides, you’ve taken something that can be pretty routine or even boring – and turned it into something that is fun and thought provoking.

We (that is you and I) have more problems with price than our prospects do.  We communicate price to our prospects and educate them to give price primary consideration.  We act as if price is a winning strategy.  And we pin our hopes of success on its back.

Then along comes a competitor with a lower price and guess what – we lose a sale.  Whose fault?  Ours (yours and mine).  By concentrating on price, we create problems – not solve them.

The simple truth is, low price is not a valid marketing strategy because all it takes to defeat it is – a lower price.

Yesterday, this point became abundantly clear.  I was shopping with my wife over lunch hour at a local supermarket and she asked me to go to isle six and pick up a can of sliced pineapple.  I disappeared for a moment and proudly returned with a can of Finast pineapple – a house label that was about 25% cheaper than the national brands.  I was so proud.

“No”, my wife said.  “That stuff isn’t any good.  Go back and get me a can of Dole!”

Obviously price was not important in her buying decision.  But something else was.  And that something else also begins with a “p”.

It’s “p” for perception.  Yes, your prospect’s perception of you is usually more important than your price.

If your prospect’s perception of you is that of a quality supplier, you’ll eventually win their business.  In many cases, “perception” is all there is to it.  Moreover, you can actually change that perception even though you might be selling the “same” product as your competition.

Don’t believe me?  Then take a hard look at the Toyota Camry L.E.  It’s a wonderful car with just about every convenience you could ask for at a relatively reasonable price.  But – if you buy the Camry in the form of a Lexus ES you will spend about $12,000 more.

Now granted, the Lexus has a few more bells and whistles than its Camry cousin.  But is it really worth an extra $12,000?

I’m reminded of a quote attributed to the late great David Ogilvy who when asked if Chivas Regal was really better than a house brand of scotch remarked, “Don’t make me laugh.  What you’re tasting is the marketing!”

Nonetheless, tens of thousands of intelligent people will spend the extra $12,000 on a Lexus – and what they will be buying for the most part is the marketing.  (Editors Note: I owned a Lexus ES300 a few years back.  Every time I got it serviced, the dealership would lend me a Camry LE – it always reminded me of the Chivas Regal story and it always made me feel foolish!)

Yes, perception is important.  Could it be that by focusing on price we set up an expectation of a lack of quality in the prospect’s mind?  It certainly seems that way.

And what about service?  By focusing on price do we create the impression that our service will be less than satisfactory?

Maybe.  Perhaps by focusing on price we set up the expectation in the prospect’s mind that he or she can “get a deal”.  In other words, if you’re dealing in what you perceive as a price sensitive market, don’t blame the prospect – first look at whether the customer has been made to be “price sensitive” by all the price marketing that’s going on.

Now please don’t misunderstand my message.  Price is most certainly an important issue.  And it always will be.  But it’s not as important as we all seem to think it is.  In survey after survey, however, price comes in third, fourth, and sometimes dead last in points to consider in the buying process.

Bottom line – if you live by price, you will almost always die by price.  It’s a crucial recognition that we all need to make.

I have validated for you a concept that is profoundly simple in use, and yet stunningly powerful in terms of the results it can produce for your business.  And it’s a concept that you can implement where you stand.  Right this very moment!

The good news is I’ve merely given you one way to use it.  Download more marketing secrets for free here:  More Powerful Marketing Secrets