“We’ll show you how to get on the Oprah show”
“Some of the graduates of our program have gone on to appear on Tony Robbins’ stage!”
“We’re always getting calls from publicists who want to know who’s hot right now so they can put them on Oprah.”

Have you heard any of these claims before? Maybe someone was trying to sell you a public speaking course, a public relations program, or your very own internet radio show, and they used what I call the “Oprah and Tony Marketing Strategy” to do it.

What is the “Oprah and Tony Marketing Strategy?” It’s a sales and marketing technique that’s based in another old strategy I like to call the “overpromise, underdeliver” strategy. They promise you the sun, moon, and stars, but deliver very little in the way of usable content or implementation. The Oprah and Tony Marketing Strategy is basically the “overpromise, underdeliver” strategy on steroids.

Let’s face it, if you’re a writer or an expert of any kind, if you have a message and you think it’s your life purpose to deliver that message to the world, then getting on Oprah’s show or Tony’s stage is your path to greatness, right? After all, Oprah changed the lives of Dr. Phil, Rachel Ray, and Dr. Oz, among many others. And Tony Robbins’ stage is the Holy Grail of public speaking, shared only by the best of the best.

Of course you want to get noticed by Oprah and Tony. And that’s what smart marketers and salespeople are counting on.

Let me tell you what happened to me the other day:

I received an e-mail on Facebook from a producer of an internet radio show company, subject line “Media Request.” He said that his company was developing a new internet radio show about small business and that I’d come up on his “radar” as a credible expert. He said he wanted to talk to me to see about having me host the show.

Luckily, I had heard of this company before, otherwise I might’ve been flattered by the “media request” (which, btw, is typically reserved for interview requests). I have to confess, I already didn’t like this company to begin with, because they named their company specifically to take advantage of a well-known classic in American radio, in the hopes, I think, of confusing people into thinking they were going to be appearing on that program or station.

But the thing is, I wanted to know what they were selling – I know some people who have been taken in by them, so I wanted to know how much they charge and what they promise. So I set up the meeting with the guy and settled in for the sales pitch.

As expected, this was a perfect example of the Oprah marketing strategy. I heard all about the many famous authors this guy had produced shows for, the implication being that if I did the show, then I’d become a famous author just like them, nevermind that none of them were currently paying him a dime, nor could I get confirmation that they had paid this particular company for this particular service. The fee was $6,700 for a 13-week internet radio show, and the guy said they’d help me produce it and then market it for me, so all I would have to do is call in each week, do my show, and then go on my merry way, doing nothing whatsoever to market the show after that. And by the way, publicists, PR reps, agents, and producers for shows like Oprah listened in on this particular company’s broadcasts all the time to find new talent, and they call this guy all the time to find out “who’s hot” and who they should bring on their shows for interviews.

See how slick that is? So basically, for a mere $6,700, I could get famous with my own radio show, have to do virtually none of the marketing stuff we all hate, and get on the Oprah show??? And you know that’s what most people hear.

But you have to listen in between the lines and know enough to know when you’re getting scammed. The marketing services they offered were minimal, some were unnecessary, and frankly, you could do much better yourself.

More importantly, there are companies that offer the same services for free, or with cool add-ons, up to $999 for an entire year of your own internet radio show. So why would you pay almost seven grand for this? Oh yeah…because you might get on Oprah.

Let me tell you another story. This time, a woman who found me on Facebook contacted me and set up a phone meeting to talk about a public speaking training program she was developing. She wanted to ask me (as well as several others) what I would want in such a program, so she could make sure to include stuff that people really wanted to learn. When we talked on the phone, she dropped several well-known names and bragged about how she can get people on Tony Robbins’ stage.

People? Seriously? When someone is trying to sell you something and they tell you they can get you on stage with Oprah or Tony? Hang up. Delete the e-mail. That is one of the biggest red flags of all time. Unless you’re talking to Oprah’s producer or reading an e-mail from someone with an e-mail address ending in tonyrobbins.com, stop falling for this nonsense! None of the big names you know were overnight successes because they paid for an internet radio show, a public speaking program, or anything else.

And I hate to say this, because for some of you, this might sting a little. It might seem harsh, but it’s the truth, and you need to hear it.People use the Oprah and Tony Marketing Strategy to prey on people who believe that the world is waiting to discover them. These are the same people  who have been told that all they have to do to be successful is find their “life purpose” or their “passion” and then everything will be easy.

Small business is not easy. It requires work. You have to work hard and you have to work smart. Don’t be fooled into thinking you can build a million-dollar (or multi-million dollar) business on a 4-hour work week! Sure, there are ways to work smart so that you don’t have to work a 40 or 60 hour work week, but please, stop looking for the easy way out. Stop looking for the easy answers or for the magic bullet and start taking responsibility for yourselves and for your success, and remember that unless you’re hiring a reputable publicist with a solid, proven track record, the likelihood of you getting on Oprah is…unfortunately…slim to none. Not impossible, but unlikely. And Oprah is not the only path to becoming notable. So settle down and pay your dues wisely, and it’ll be easier to spot the scams.

Brian Tracy recently suggested that I try out his new Business Growth Strategies program, and who am I to say no to one of the greatest minds in small business success and personal development? Brian Tracy has consulted for more than 1,000 companies and addressed more than 4,000,000 people in 4,000 talks and seminars around the globe. He’s the top-selling author of over 45 books that have been translated into dozens of languages and has written and produced more than 300 audio and video learning programs, including the worldwide, best-selling Psychology of Achievement. So, you know, he’s major. And you simply have to know that Brian is the best at what he does.

Obviously, if someone like Brian Tracy personally recommends that you try something out, well, even if it’s his product, I just think you do it. So I immediately took the $1 trial and gave it a whirl.

*BTW, in the interests of full disclosure, please note that I do not have any sort of affiliate relationship with Brian Tracy. Period.

Business Growth Strategies: What is it?

Brian Tracy’s Business Growth Strategies is a seriously high-powered system of videos and written instructions to take you from where you are now to where you want to go with your business.

You start with a Business Profitability Assessment that examines 30 areas of your business. It’s comprehensive, but don’t be afraid- the whole assessment only takes about 10 minutes. That said, beware: this assessment shines a fairly harsh light on your business. I thought I had a pretty good setup with my business, but darned if I didn’t discover pretty quickly that there were at least 12 major areas where I could stand improvement.

What’s pretty cool, though, is that throughout the process, Brian is there, walking you through via video, and he’s just such a nice man and so encouraging that it helps soften the blow when you realize how much help you need (even if, for some bizarre reason I have yet to understand, the videos do tend to remind me a little bit of those Darma Initiative videos from Lost, which also strangely makes the whole thing even more pleasant…if you figure that one out, let me know).

Once you’ve gotten through the assessment, you learn all the areas where you need help and you can start getting into the actual meat of the content.

What you’ll learn:

Business Growth Strategies provides tangible help with just about any aspect of small business growth that you can think of. You learn a lot of theory about business growth, from setting up the right systems, making sure you’re properly capitalized, business planning, sales, marketing, time management, effectiveness, advertising….there’s almost nothing that isn’t covered. Business Growth Strategies is more comprehensive than you can possibly imagine. There are 52 lessons with more than 250 videos recorded by Brian Tracy himself, and every lesson comes with written materials, exercises, and action steps.

Pedagogically speaking…

From a teaching standpoint, the combination of mediums is really smart. You need to watch the videos to get the most out of everything, and probably it’s better if you watch them all more than one time, but you can download and (if you’re so inclined) print out the written instructions to make a pretty awesome workbook with exercises and action steps, so you know exactly what you’re supposed to do.

Although you can skip around the program and focus on whatever topic you want, they’ve set it up so that you get a lesson plan based on your Business Profitability Assessment. That’s pretty wise, because without that lesson plan, the massive amount of material available can get a little overwhelming and daunting.

If you go into this and want to be successful, I’d probably recommend that you plan to stay in the program for six months to a year. That way you can do one lesson a week and really maximize your learning and have plenty of time to take action and implement the recommended strategies.

Who does Business Growth Strategies rock for?

Business Growth Strategies is awesome if you’re just starting a business. You’ll start out the right way and with Brian as your de facto coach, you’ll have a clear plan and strategies in place to smooth out the often bumpy startup road.

It’s also great if you’ve been in business for awhile, especially if you’ve flat-lined. Your business will get a sound tune-up, you’ll find out exactly what you’ve been missing, and you’ll be back on an upward swing.

And, Business Growth Strategies would work especially well for people in a brick-and-mortar businesses who are looking to grow their businesses in traditional ways.

What do I wish Business Growth Strategies included?

Business Growth Strategies is soundly grounded in old-school business principles. You’d expect nothing else from Brian Tracy. So there’s no doubt in my mind that the content is top-notch and of the highest quality.

Still, as much value as the program brings, I’m left wishing that Business Growth Strategies had a small injection of “new school” business principles that factored in newer technologies like internet marketing and social media networking, which is an interesting thing to say since the entire program is internet-based.

That said, business is business, and too many folks in business today think it’s okay to bypass class business principles and as much as we entrepreneurs just love to fast-track stuff, in the end, that just doesn’t work as well. So as much as I’d like to infuse the program with just a wee bit of new school stuff, it’s probably okay that it doesn’t include much of it, because there’s plenty of that out here already.

Overall thoughts…

Do I recommend Business Growth Strategies? Yep. It pretty much rocks the house. It’s solid content, through and through. I didn’t feel sold on other stuff, and really, once you’re in, you’ll just spend time in the program learning. And learning. And learning. Brian Tracy just continues to prove over and over that he’s still got it, and he shows no sign of slowing down.

In preparation for my recent interview with Bob Burg (if you missed it, download the recording here), I invited subscribers to share with me their top business challenges. I wasn’t surprised by the answers:

“sales,” “communicating with potential customers,” “sales,” “the telephone,” “sales,” “how do I increase my lead pipeline?” “how to market my business,” “where will I find my next client?” “growing my business,” “sales,”

90% of the questions I got were about sales and marketing, and the reason is that folks believe that sales and marketing are where you actually make the money. Well…you’re wrong.

If your top small business concerns are sales and marketing, you’re focusing on the wrong stuff.

“But…but how can that be true, when there’s an entire industry just build around sales and marketing???”

Ah, there’s the rub. Well, I’m not saying sales and marketing aren’t important. I’m saying that sales and marketing shouldn’t actually be your biggest “challenges.” And yes, I’m prepared to back that up. Here goes:

1) You should know your target market inside-out.

I’ll bet if you’re struggling with sales and marketing in your small business, you don’t know your target market well enough. If you did, you’d know everything from what their likely objections are to where to find them to what kind of marketing they’ll respond to. And when you know that, you really don’t have to wonder if your branding appeals to them or if you’re meeting their needs. You’ll know.

How do you get to know them? Well, first, you have to choose them. Narrow down the people you serve into a clear, definable subset of the population. It’s okay to do this, I promise. It doesn’t mean that you can’t work with people outside your target market. My target market is primarily female entrepreneurs in their 30s and 40s, but I work with women and men, and I have clients in their 60s. Your target market is who you work best with, who you understand the most, and who you like working with, combined with who wants what you have to offer.

Second, once you’ve narrowed down who your target market is, if you want to get to know them, ask them. Survey your list and if you don’t have a big list yet, look for places to find your peeps and invite them to take your survey. It’s not rocket science, but I do have a few recommendations: 1) Offer a high-quality freebie as a gift for taking the survey, 2) Limit your survey to 20-25 questions and only about 25% of those questions should be open-ended, 3) Ask them what you need to know as well as what you want to know. Get basic demographics, but also ask what keeps them up at night.

When your survey is over and you tabulate you responses, you should know a lot more about your target market, where to find them, and what they need and want. Everything else flows from there.

2) Once you know your target market inside out, you can focus on meeting their needs and providing value.

The people you serve are people. I’ve been saying that for a long time. They’re real people with real worries and real fears that keep them up at night. How can you serve them? How can you help address those worries and fears so that they can rest easy and get some sleep? If you’re addressing those needs and bringing enough value, not just in your products and services, but in how you’re showing up in the world, sales won’t really be a challenge anymore.

And remember, bringing value comes in many forms, too. This isn’t necessarily about giving your services away for free (although there may be times when that makes sense). As Bob and John talk about in Go-Givers Sell More, you can bring value in several ways. Bob and John mention five key ways to bring value that I really love: excellence, consistency, attention, empathy, and appreciation. And sometimes, just listening brings value. Who knew?

3) If you focus on bringing real value to people’s lives, sales will follow as a natural consequence.

One of the great things I picked up in my interview with Bob is that the top 10% of successful people in the world understand that giving and receiving are two sides of the same coin. They’re a part of the same thing – as Bob put it, they’re like inhaling and exhaling.

So many of us think that “it’s better to give than to receive,” but actually, being a “go-giver” means you’re focused on giving value, but you’re open to receiving. And as such, if you’re focused on the other person and bringing real value, the natural consequence is that you’ll be rewarded. One of my favorite lines from Go-Givers Sell More is, “The task here is not to create value in order to create a sale or in order to anything. It’s to create value, period…Right now, your total job is to focus on one thing and one thing only: providing value to other people. If you do that well, sales—and money—will find you.”

The bottom line is that sales isn’t about sales. It isn’t even about the thing you sell. And marketing isn’t about the thing you sell, either. They’re both all about value. What value do you bring to the lives of other people? That should be your biggest challenge. Once you master that, sales and marketing shouldn’t be an issue.

I’ve spent a lot of time feeling uncomfortable and uneasy with the sales process. When I have a call with someone who’s expressed interest in working with me, I often worry that I won’t know how to “close” the sale or when to ask for the sale…and I have to admit that my sales have suffered as a result. If you’ve experienced anything like this, I’d like to invite you to join me this Wednesday evening for a frank and in-depth interview with my friend, Bob Burg, author of Endless Referrals and co-author of The Go-Giver and his brand-new best-seller, Go-Givers Sell More.

Bob and I will be talking about authenticity and how to bring more value to your clients and frankly, everyone around you. We’ll discuss how to make the sales process feel less smarmy and more genuine, and then I’ll open up the lines so you can ask Bob your own questions about sales and networking.

My interview with Bob is this Wednesday evening (2/24) at 8 PM Eastern.  And on Thursday evening (2/25), at 8 PM Eastern, I’ll be hosting a follow-up Q&A call. I’ll do a brief review of the interview with Bob, and then I’ll open up the lines and answer your small business questions live. We’ll be recording, so if you can’t make it, sign up anyway, and I’ll make sure you get the recording. Both calls are free, and you’ll receive MP3 recordings for both calls.

This is actually the first call in The Experts Series, my yearlong “interview-and-integrate” teleseminar series, where each month, I’m interviewing a different small business expert and helping you integrate their ideas into your own small business.

See you on the calls!

Warmly,
Susan Baroncini-Moe

So someone said no. You asked someone to participate in a joint venture, tried to close a sale, invited someone to be your social media friend, and they said no. And you felt that uncomfortable feeling of having put yourself “out there” on a limb, only to look over and see that someone’s sawing the limb out from under you. It’s a weird, stomach-turning feeling, isn’t it? But it doesn’t have to be.

1. Someone will always say no. Someone else will say yes.
   Previous results are no indicator of future success. So if you’ve gotten a bunch of nos, so what? You might get a yes tomorrow. And if one person says no, that has no bearing on what the next person will say.
2. If you get a no, you’re no worse off than before you asked.
   This one I learned from my hubby Leo. Before you ask, you definitely have a no. If you don’t ask, the result is the same as if you get a no. If you ask and get a no, you’re in exactly the same boat. If you ask and get a yes, though, you’re off and running. If you put your ego out there, though, that’s when you get a little damaged. That’s why you have to move to #3.
3. When you ask, don’t attach yourself to the answer.
   When you ask for the sale or whatever else it is, you can’t be attached to the answer or you will get hurt. The “no” rarely has anything to do with you. If you’ve invited a big name to be a part of a joint venture or a conference, they might say no because they’re overwhelmed with time commitments. If you’ve asked someone to hire you, they might say no because they can’t afford you. Don’t attach yourself to the answer, and you’ll handle those nos with grace.
4. Handling a no with grace can mean future business.
   If someone says no now, they may be willing to say yes later. Handling a no with grace means you’ll have no hesitation about going back to them next month or next year to bring something else to the table.

It’s not exactly rejection when someone says no. It’s more than likely that the no has nothing to do with you anyway. If you stay detached from the results and stay engaged in your business relationships regardless of the outcome, you’ll have no problem continuing to go out on that limb over and over.