I need help ... Theory of Constraints Mafia Marketing

We all want to increase sales, but getting new customers can be a challenge. In fact, this was the number 1 challenge readers of this newsletter listed (click here to sign up).

And it’s no wonder, according to a 2009 Marketing Sherpa study if you have 100 opportunities only 4 are likely to move from “sales ready lead” to “qualified prospect” to an actual customer.

And those numbers are based on “averages”. If you have a more technical sale (which many of you do) requiring a higher quantity of information transfer where the quality of that information, the timing of the delivery and the method/quality of that delivery can all cause your actual average to be lower.

But there is some good news. One proven way to increase conversion rates is to get the prospect to seek YOU out.

How much do you love it when a customer or prospect comes to you with what basically amounts to “I need help…”? If you’re like me, you LOVE it LOVE it LOVE it!

WHY do we love it?

* Because if they were willing to ask for our help:

* They know enough about what we do that they think we have the expertise to help; and

* That they, at some level, already trust us.
Which means the normal conversion rates don’t apply -- we have a much higher likelihood of winning this business.

If you didn’t trust someone, would you ask them for help?

If you didn’t think someone could help you, or thought they were an idiot, would you ask them for help?

No! So if someone does ask you for help. This is a really good thing.
So one of the key marketing questions (if you want more sales) is – how do I get more existing customers and new prospects to ask me for help on work I want to do and I’m qualified to do?

Here’s the formula we’ve been using to elicit the "I need help" response:

1. Shine a light on the problem. (there needs to be a message to market match)
2. Verify or validate the problem.
3. Show that it's even worse than that. (don’t exaggerate, be truthful in all of this)
4. Provide the light at the end of the tunnel.

And yes, for the Theory of Constraints fans out there you’ll notice that this is based partially on the TOC Buy-in process. Step one would be equivalent to “Agree on the Problem” and step four would be equivalent to “Agree on the Direction of the Solution”.

Let’s go through this with an example. Let’s say that I sell tooling for machine shops. And shops that use my tooling can reduce their setup times typically by 25%.

1. What problems do your customers or prospects have, that are significant, but that you can help solve?

They have long setup times. So long that a fair amount of their production capacity is spent setting up machines. Capacity that could be used for shipping more jobs.
2. How can you verify or validate this problem?

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST.gov) reports that US manufacturers waste 25% to 65% of their capacity being “ineffective”[1]. That’s a large portion of US manufacturing capacity that is not productive.

[side note: I had to go find this statistic, but it wasn’t hard to do. And look at the power of having a government agency showing that what I’m writing about is important.]

3. How is it even worse than that for your particular target market?

And custom machine shops are undoubtedly at the highest end of that spectrum. Machine shops rarely have the luxury of staying in one setup for any length of time. The nature of a custom business is small runs that don’t often repeat.

4. What kind of hope is there for solving this problem?

But, a number of custom machine shops are turning these statistics around using tooling that’s designed for quick setups. This tooling costs the same as traditional tooling, the only catch is that you will need to do a little up front work with your tooling supplier.

Now, I do not sell tooling. But if I did, I could use this information in my marketing to get existing customers and prospects to respond and fairly quickly ask for help designing tooling that will reduce their setups. Will everyone? No, of course not. But the best ones will (the ones that really relate to the problem) and they are much more likely to turn into a sale.

The response you’re after could be to get them to download a report on using tooling to reduce setup times or to sign up for a webinar or to sign up for a consultation with you (depends on your sales process and what you’re selling).

We are closing over 67% of the people who contact us from this type of marketing. That means 67 sales out of 100 instead of 4. And selling Velocity Scheduling System and Mafia Offer Boot Camp is not only a technical sale, it’s a counter intuitive one. So before you go dismissing this technique, convinced it won’t work for you – I suggest you give it a try.

If YOU generated your marketing materials or wrote your newsletter and articles with the objective of getting prospects to ask for help – would you get a few more quality leads?  (that's Mafia Marketing)

If you wanted help applying this concept to your business -- getting more customers and prospects to contact YOU – wouldn’t you contact me? :-)

Let me know what you think, by leaving a comment on this post.  I read ALL your comments!

Wishing you success,

Dr Lisa
President, Science of Business
P.S. FOR CUSTOM JOB SHOPS ONLY: The next Velocity Scheduling System Coaching Program starts on March 28.

P.P.S. Ready to increase sales? Need a Mafia Offer? The ON-LINE Mafia Offer Boot Camp is open for registration!

Mafia Offer Theory of Constraints Marketing Theory of Constraints Sales

We have dramatically REDUCED THE PRICE of our ON-LINE Mafia Offer Boot Camp which is based on Goldratt's Theory of Constraints.

You have no excuses! --> Theory of Constraints Marketing

Interested in an in-person boot camp? Check our our GROUP, and PRIVATE Mafia Offer Boot Camps at www.MafiaOffers.com

Theory of Constraints Mafia Offer + Sales Process Engineering = Explosive Growth Equation

The 2 Leading Theory of Constraints Sales & Marketing Experts
Justin Roff-Marsh and Dr Lisa Lang
discuss what happens when ...
A Mafia Offer Meets 10 Times the Volume of Sales Appointments

Here’s a limited opportunity to participate in a test Webinar featuring a conversation between Dr Lisa and Justin Roff-Marsh.

Justin gets asked (almost) daily if our approach to sales (Sales Process Engineering) complements Dr Lisa’s approach to marketing (Mafia offers). Dr Lisa finds herself regularly answering the same question.

Of course, the answer’s yes: philosophically we’re both coming from the same (TOC) place, so how could our approaches possibly be in conflict?

But the practical implementation – and integration – of these two approaches is the really interesting subject to explore. And that’s the purpose of this Webinar.

This is a test event – our first one. This means that we are only promoting this event to the TOC community.

If you like to be first to discover new ideas and you don’t mind if this event isn’t as polished as we hope it eventually will become, please reserve you seat now.


We are going to accept 20 registrations for 14 spots. So sign up now, and arrive early to make sure you get in.

The format of this event is simple. Dr Lisa and Justin will each present an overview of our approaches – and, after each overview, the presenter will be interviewed by the other.

While this is occurring, we’ll be assimilating questions from delegates and, to conclude the Webinar, each of us will pose delegates’ questions to the other.

It should be fun, and informative!

Go here to sign up: http://explosivegrowthequation.eventbrite.com/

A Process Of On-Going Improvement (POOGI) - Part 20

We are continuing our series based on The Goal by Eliyahu M Goldratt.

What are the problems associated with marketing and sales? A few of the typical problems include:

• To prospects, what you say sounds the same as your competitors
• You have nothing unique or compelling to offer that is different
• Prospects aren’t aware of you
• You aren’t aware of enough prospects
• You have a collection of sales individuals, not a sales team
• You have difficulty getting in to see your prospect
• You have a long sales cycle
• You have a low closing rate
• You have difficulty quoting as many jobs as you would like
• Quote turnaround is too long
• There are peaks and valleys of booking sales

Yikes! That is a lot of problems! Where do we start to improve marketing and sales?

We recommend you start with your market offer or as we like to call it, your Mafia Offer. Without differentiating yourself from your competitors, it is difficult to determine what else is wrong with your marketing and sales process, and how to improve.

...to be continued.

Here's to maximizing YOUR profits!

Dr Lisa Lang(c)Copyright 2008, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.

Dr Goldratt offers his new book Inherent Simplicity at no charge, click here to get the details: http://www.scienceofbusiness.com/dr-lisa/eliyahu-goldratt/goldratts-new-book.aspx

2008 Odyssey Program. Click here to learn about the low cost life changing event for young adults. You WANT to send your kids to this! http://www.scienceofbusiness.com/events/2008-odyssey.aspx

NEXT Group Mafia Offer Boot Camp: July 30, 31, Aug 1 2008 in Denver. More information at www.MafiaOffers.com. There are also PRIVATE and On-line Mafia Offer Boot Camps.

NEXT Maximizing Profitability Event (no charge): July 29, 2008 in Denver from 1:00 to 5:00 pm at the Science of Business Training Center. More information at www.Viable-Vision.com

Also check out our FREE Theory of Constraints videos. New videos added weekly! http://www.scienceofbusiness.com/free-stuff/free-videos-audios.aspx

How to Sell Your Mafia Offer - Part 9

We started this discussion about how people are more interested in avoiding (or reducing) pain than they are in increasing pleasure. We discussed how to present a Mafia Offer (based on Goldratt's Theory of Constraints) consistent with that desire.

Because mafia offers are business deals we also discussed how to get in to the right level to make your offer. See Executive Access Boot Camp below.

The next questions likely are: Who should we target with our offer? and How should we roll it out?

Here are some guidelines:

STEP 1

•Examine the different market sectors you serve, evaluating the extent which your mafia offer solves solves a significant problem for each market sector. What are the consequences of not solving that problem for each market?
•Examine 3 (prospective) clients per market sector (less than 3 may risk looking at extreme case, more are not needed).
•Based on the above identify the preferred market sector(s) to leverage YOUR offer.

STEP 2

Having looked at where the problem (that you solve) is the greatest, now let’s look at other considerations:

• Is there a market(s) that yeilds higher Throughput than others?
  Past experience can point to the type of clients/market-sectors/product-types that yield better Throughput. A particular client may yield less Throughput initially but would enable you to win good future business (penetrating a client, establishing reputation, gaining experience, steady annual income).
• Is there a market(s) that are more quickly accessed or has shorter sales cycles than others? Some big organization clients have decision processes which prolong significantly the sales cycle. To win the business of some types of clients/market-sectors/product-types, you may need to invest in qualification. In some regions/market sectors, you have much less sales infrastructure than in others.
• Is there a market(s) that are bigger than others?

Based on your answers to these questions, your marketing and sales core team should evaluate returns and barriers to create a proper sales plan - a plan that aims at increasing business in the short and medium horizon while preparing the ground for bigger sales in the future.

... stay tuned for STEP 3 in Part 10

NEW We have developed a REMOTE (on-line) Mafia Offer Boot Camp. Click here for an informational video and a FREE Preview of Session 1: http://www.MafiaOfferBootCamp.com

Next GROUP Mafia Offer Boot Camp in the US is January 30, 31, February 1, 2008 in Denver. Sign up today, registration is limited to 5 companies. $10,000 per company.

Next GROUP Executive Access Boot Camp is February 28, 29, March 1, 2008 in Denver.

$1,875 per person for all 3 days.

Here's to Maximizing YOUR Profits!

Dr Lisa Lang

(c)Copyright 2007, Dr Lisa, Inc. All rights reserved.