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I’ve been sick the last few days, and it could have been worse but Johana nursed me back to health with love and attention and her grandmother’s soup recipe.

I told myself I would only publish hard, practical marketing advice, and stay away from the kind of stuff you saw in “The Secret.” You’ve probably heard all you want to about gratitude, especially this time of year.

But here it is. Expressing gratitude, or even just feeling it, has a hard practical value. Maybe it will also magnetize the universe and attract all the good things you want. I don’t know. But here’s something practical you’ll certainly gain by just taking the time to feel grateful.

Your mood and your confidence will soar. Think about all you’ve got, all you’ve done, and especially all that’s been done for you and you know you can’t fail.

This confidence is critical when you’re selling anything. Gratitude makes you more approachable, attractive, and sincere when you meet a potential client. You’ll naturally be coming from a place of helping your client make a purchase decision, rather than trying to push a sale through.

I could go on about this, but let me leave you with a practical tip. Take a few minutes every day to just think aobut what you’re grateful for. It will start to change the way you think and feel about your life. And ultimately this will enhance your marketing and selling power.

I’m grateful that you read this.

If you’re in southern California, and the fires have affected your home, you’re in my prayers. If anyone wants to help the relief efforts, click here.

Many people are seeing the end of 2008 with a heavy heart.  But it’s time to think about next year. January is always a time of optimism and renewal. People let go of their worries and troubles, and get excited about how they’ll do better.

Gym memberships go up, and new years resolutions can be a goldmine for hypnotherapists, yoga instructors, and personal trainers.

Likewise, businesses have a fresh ledger for a new tax year. The departments of larger companies are looking at how to spend the new budget.

The easiest time to sell
No matter who you are or what business you’re in, January can be a bonanza. January is the month that people buy the fulfillment of plans, dreams, and hope. If you’re like most business owners, you’ll send out Holiday Greeting cards in December, and maybe do some advertising in January.

This year I want you to do something different.

Strike the iron while it’s glowing red hot. No matter what the economic reality they face, most of your prospects will be ready to let go of the pain of 2008 and start over with a clean slate.

They’ll at least do this psychologically, even if they realistically can’t escape from the damage of the 4th quarter. They’re looking for new opportunity in January. You need to be there for them, as frequently, vocally, boldly, shamelessly, even recklessly as possible.

Don’t offer a discount. Offer something creative and inspiring. Whatever your product or service, what you’re really selling in January is hope and optimism and the giddy thrill of radical improvement. Reflect this in your marketing at the beginning of the year.

Start planning and thinking about it now.

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When I was a kid I couldn’t throw. Even though I was taller and faster than most of the kids my age, I turned into Droopy when you put a ball in my hands.

My friends said I threw like a girl. This confused me because my sister was an outstanding athlete who could whip my butt in any kind of competition.

Then about 15 years later, my buddy Chris and I were throwing rocks at a rusted old truck in the middle of a field in North Dakota. He pointed out that I was holding my elbow a few inches too low.

I moved it up, and right away the next rock felt more natural in my hand than all the thousands of clumbsy baseballs I had tried to lob across the wet grassy fields of my childhood. My arm felt like it was doing what it was meant to do all along.

That rock went sailing fast and far, and it hit the truck with a loud, satisfying “clunk.” Ever since, I’ve been able to nail anything I aim for. That minor adjustment erased 20 years of awkwardness and humiliation.

If Chris had been a personal trainer I would have paid him a fortune for that 30-second throwing lesson. Wouldn’t it be worth it?

The story of the plumber with the hammer

This is just a real-life variation on the story of the plumber who charges you $150 to pound one of your pipes with a hammer–five dollars for the pounding, and $145 for knowing where to pound.

Ultimately, he fixes your sink, and that’s what you’re paying for.

When you really get this, you’ll experience a big shift in the way you think about your knowledge and skills, and the way you bill your clients. They’re not paying you for the number of hours you put in, or how hard you work–they’re paying for the outcome.

You’re an expert. Someone out there might need to have their elbow moved up or their database reindexed. But they don’t know this.

They know they have a problem or a wish. They’re paying you for the outcome. As long as your marketing focuses on the outcome, you’ll sell more and earn more and you can even charge more.

We could get a little silly here and start making up formulas like “Outcome = Income” but we won’t.

In some aspect of their personal, professional, or financial life, your client “throws like a girl,” or the equivalent of that. Your job is to fix it, improve their swing, adjust their posture, raise their FICO score, or whatever.

As long as you deliver, especially if you go beyond what they’re expecting, you’ve earned your keep. But don’t sell your time, your work, or your product.

Sell the outcome.

To get ahead in business, you have to stand out from the competition. You have to do something different. You have to be bold.

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(Click Here to subscribe to the Bold Words newsletter, and you’ll get tips and content you won’t find posted on this blog.)

The funny thing about wine is that it makes everybody think they need to act sophisticated.

You’re supposed to detect hints of chocolate and bleu cheese with a leathery finish, whatever that means. If you say it tastes like exquisitely fermented grapes, you run the risk of being called a peasant.

The Stanford Graduate School of Business did a study that measured the brain activity of subjects as they sipped two samples of wine.

Both samples came from the same bottle, but the subjects were told that one sample came from a $45 bottle while the other one cost only five bucks.

You would expect most of the experimental subjects to say they preferred the more expensive wine sample.

And that is what happened, with a weird twist.

You see, the MRI machine revealed increased activity in the prefrontal cortex as subjects drank the wine they thought was more expensive.

This might be a placebo effect, but the result is the same. When you merely think something is more expensive or valuable, it actually causes your brain to experience more pleasure.

You can tap into this phenomenon in your marketing.

Will All Your Clients Pay More?

You’re probably expecting me to tell you to raise your prices. And you might be wondering whether your clients will go along with that, expecially these days when everybody’s supposed to be running out of money.

Luckily there’s an easier way.

Just offer a “deluxe” version of what you already do. Add some extras, maybe even mark up a complimentary service, and you may be surprised at the number of takers who line up to buy it.

If you’re really ambitious, add a continuity program to the mix. (I’ll tell you how in a future newsletter.)

The Stanford Study suggests that some of the additional satisfaction your clients will feel actually comes from the hefty price tag you’re going to put on these extras. So mark up your services. You deserve it.

You’ve probably heard more than you want to about the devastating plight of retailers. Yet the luxury brands like Louis Vuitton and Burberry are on a winning streak.

How would you like to be the Christian Dior of your industry? Find a way to charge more, at least some of the time. Go a few extra miles, send your premium clients a bottle of wine every now and then, and brand yourself as the luxury option.

To get ahead in business, you have to stand out from the competition. You have to do something different. You have to be bold.

Click Here to subscribe to the Bold Words newsletter, and you’ll get tips and content you won’t find posted on this blog.

Click Here to subscribe to the Bold Words newsletter, and you’ll get tips and content you won’t find posted on this blog.

There are probably a lot of reasons a 4-leaf clover stands for good luck. First, they’re rare (I’ve only found 3 of them in my lifetime).

Second, they attract 25% more energy from the sun than a 3-leaf clover can.

Add another leaf to your clover!

Most of your competitors’ businesses are 3-leaf clovers. Read more…

There really is a marketing lesson to this. Bear with me.

For the last year and a half I’ve been dating a beautiful young librarian.

Before I arrived on the scene, a lot of book-toting Romeos tried to ask her out, but most of them just talked to her once, asked for her phone number, and gave up.

They never learned that repetition works for both love and money. Most business people do their selling and marketing the same Read more…