Business Coaching

In the last post we started our series on word of mouth and talked about how to make your customers’ purchasing experience short and easy. We are going to continue with that theme a bit today. We’re going to talk about the power of word of mouth and how to mold it to your advantage.

The reality is that everyone needs an advisor to guide them to make a decision. We rely on the expertise of others to make the right decisions as they are explained to us. When you take the time to understand exactly what and how word of mouth works, you’ll see all the great advantages it has to offer you. Remember this path when working to understand word of mouth:

• Accelerate the decision making process for increased profits.
• You can accelerate product making decisions by making the process easier.
• Instead of low-ball advertising and the used car salesman approach, try delivering on your word of mouth promises.

Traditional advertising draws about one response for every thousand ads, and most of those are only to seek out more information before the customer even considers purchasing. When you get information from a friend, you are more likely to take their word for it and act. On average customers purchase two out of every five recommendations their friends make. That’s a HUGE difference.

So, what exactly is word of mouth? We know how powerful it can be, but to define it: Word of mouth is a communication that occurs between a customer and a potential customer. There is usually a relationship of some kind and an established level of trust between these two people.

Now, compare this to advertising where you are providing a message to a potential customer in which they have not established a relationship or level of trust with you. Who are they more likely to take advice from? The answer is clear!
We talked above about the benefits of word of mouth, now let’s take a look at some of the reasons it works:

• The information is custom tailored to the potential customer because of the friendly relationship of the referrer.
• It is more personal, relevant and believable.
• It is customer driven.
• It is self-generating and can take on a life of its own, especially with the information age of the internet.
• It becomes part of the product’s description.
• The source of word of mouth can be important and more effective when coming from an expert.
• Word of mouth saves you time and money.

To fully utilize word of mouth you need to understand:

1. Where is your word of mouth coming from?
2. What products are being affected by word of mouth?
3. How is your word of mouth traveling?

Once you know these things you can work out a plan on how to trigger more word of mouth.

This wraps up this lesson on word of mouth. If you need help understanding word of mouth and how it can impact your business, feel free to contact us.

Next time we’re going to dive into the nine levels of word of mouth. These levels help you understand which word of mouth is positive and which is not.

Stacey Sagues              Stacey@pegcoaches.com       404-951-9023

Philip Lewis                 Philip@pegcoaches.com        713-823-8253

Over the past year or two we have introduced a unique concept to help save your self-funded plan on retiree healthcare costs. This is NOT Medicare Advantage or some other type of retiree plan, it is pure cost savings!

Here are some things to consider:

• Pre-65 retirees have average costs 40% higher than employees of the same age.
• Disabled retirees have average annual costs 70% higher than healthy retirees.
• Retirees with Medicare reduce the cost to an employer plan by more than 80%.
• Average spending by Medicare on inpatient and outpatient care per year is $10,350.
• By identifying just one Pre-65 retiree as eligible for Medicare, the plan will save, on average, $52,000 in future medical costs (assuming 5 years until age 65).

Profit Enhancement Group’s one of a kind process in conjunction with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid has saved our customers Billions.

No upfront fees and we are not selling anything. We are coordinating customers’ benefits with Federal benefits to shift cost liability WITHOUT negatively impacting the retirees!

Want more information on our Medicare Coordination Services, or to discuss strategies?            WWW.PEGBENEFITS.COM

Stacey Sagues               Stacey@pegcoaches.com 404-951-9023

Philip Lewis                 Philip@pegcoaches.com   713-823-8253

Over the past year we have met with hundreds of brokers around the country. Most of them are struggling with their business in light of the ACA law and are looking for ways to transform their business to keep up with the changing environment. DAS (Disability Advocacy Service) has been viewed as a great fit for their portfolio and has allowed them to differentiate themselves from others in the market place.

A few brokers have even decided to purchase DAS themselves as a value add to their health care and other voluntary products (Broker paid!) as a way for them to bring more value to their clients. The brokers are now calling DAS the “Blue Collar” LTD plan, and it opens up terrific new sales opportunities for them. With DOUBLE COMMISSIONS right now!

If you are looking to add a new product to your portfolio that addresses a large segment of the working population, DAS may just be the thing!

To learn more, just give us a shout!             WWW.PEGBENEFITS.COM

Stacey Sagues                        Stacey@pegcoaches.com               404-951-9023

Philip Lewis                           Philip@pegcoaches.com                713-823-8253

Disability Advocacy Services is an alternative to LTD sales contest; DOUBLE commissions first year!

Open enrollment season is fast approaching and we are all gearing up to have a great year in sales. We would like to provide an additional incentive to you by offering double the first year’s commissions on all NEW DAS sales. We are having tremendous success in offering DAS through the agent and broker network, and we want you to share in that success. Remember, DAS is a perfect fit alongside your voluntary products and offers an affordable comprehensive income protection plan when combined with an STD, CI, Hospital or Accident policy. Some of the current markets DAS is being sold into include:

City Employees

Housing Commissions

Tool and Die Workers

Restaurant Workers

Dentist Offices

Doctors’ Offices

Home Healthcare Workers

Child Care

Plumbers

Insurance Agents

Teachers

Nurses & Hospital Workers

Law Firms

Custodial Workers

Auto Dealerships

Veterinarians

Optometrists

Property Management

Office Workers

Tire and Auto Centers

Cleaning / Maid Services Rehab Offices

Collision Shops

PEO Services

Many more

If they can’t afford LTD or get underwritten for it – they are a perfect DAS case!

Double the commissions for the first year and the ability to offer your clients a low cost valuable service, a win-win opportunity!

For more information on the contest feel free to contact me at any time! Good luck and have a great open enrollment season!

WWW.PEGBENEFITS.COM

Stacey Sagues | Stacey@pegcoaches.com | 404-951-9023
Philip Lewis | Philip@pegcoaches.com | 713-823-8253

The last few posts have talked about how to multiply the resources that you’ve worked hard to maximize. So far we’ve covered:

1. Call in the Troops
2. Bring ‘Em Out of the Woodwork
3. Black Sheep Clients
4. Olympic-Size Sales Staff
5. Open Water Fishing
6. Call for Back-Up
7. Go Big Online
8. Bartering with the Best
9. Give Away the Farm

Today we’ll finish up this series with the last three ways to multiply your maximized resources:

1. Finding Your Pot of Gold
2. Stay at the Top of Your Game
3. Wealth from the Inside Out

These areas are all key to keep up the momentum you’ve found in making what you have work harder for you.

Finding Your Pot of Gold

You must always have a goal you’re working toward in order to stay on course. Your goal needs to be something you can attain that will utilize your full potential. Don’t be afraid to aim high, just make sure you are clear on what your goal is and exactly what you need to do to get there. You need to continue to hold yourself accountable to your goal and raise the bar as you accomplish the steps toward it.

Stay at the Top of Your Game

Once you’ve mastered these areas, you need to make sure you are staying competitive and constantly coming up with new ways to use your new tools. Don’t rest on one success when there are more on the horizon. To continue to be successful your business must continue to learn and revolve.

Wealth from the Inside Out

Wealth and riches are defined within yourself, not by your profits or the world beyond. You can use all these strategies in both your business and your life to find a greater level of success. When you naturally reflect who you are and what you mean, you will automatically attract the right people to you. This will happen in life and in business.

You are capable of reaching your goals as long as they are well-defined with a solid road built to them.

Throughout the last seven lessons we’ve talked about how to take a hard look at the resources you currently have right in front of you and maximize them to get the most out of what you already have. Then we showed you how to turn around and multiply those maximized resources to take them to the next level.

If you need help with any of these areas, steps or processes, we could be a great resource for you.

Stacey Sagues – Stacey@pegcoaches.com    404-951-9023
Philip Lewis- Philip@pegcoaches.com          713-823-8253

Over the last few posts we talked about how to multiply the resources that you’ve worked hard to maximize. So far we’ve covered:

1. Call in the Troops
2. Bring ‘Em Out of the Woodwork
3. Black Sheep Clients
4. Olympic-Size Sales Staff
5. Open Water Fishing
6. Call for Back-Up

Today we’ll cover the next three:

1. Go Big Online
2. Bartering with the Best
3. Give Away the Farm

Go Big Online

There are businesses who solely operate online, there are those with only physical addresses and there are those who do both. Those who do both are by far more successful than the previous two. When you take the time to establish an online presence you open up your business to the entire world, through a few clicks of the mouse.

To successfully sell products or services online, you need to:

1. Offer high-quality products/services that people want.
2. Build an attractive, effective website that’s user-friendly.
3. Generate high-quality traffic at a low cost.

With all of these things in place you can find success with your online exposure.

Bartering with the Best

If you’ve ever gone to a yard sale and paid the sticker price, then you need to up your bartering game. Everything is negotiable and you need to take the time to barter with your suppliers. Companies are always open to bartering and when all is said and done you could find yourself saving significantly on the things your business needs to operate smoothly.

Give Away the Farm

Ok, so not literally, but you have to be willing to stay in contact with prospective clients and offer them products and services they are going to need. You don’t know what they need until you offer them everything you’ve got, then work with them to put together the perfect package to fit their needs.

When you take the time to put yourself at the front of their minds, they are more likely to work with you going forward. You can do this by offering free newsletters, a free consulting session or other valuable tools.

This wraps up these three areas of multiplying on the resources you’ve maximized. If you’re not sure where to start or are feeling a bit overwhelmed, we can help.

Next time we’ll finish up this series with the last three ways to multiply your maximized resources:

1. Finding Your Pot of Gold
2. Stay at the Top of Your Game
3. Wealth from the Inside Out

Stacey Sagues –  Stacey@pegcoaches.com   404-951-9023
Philip Lewis –  Philip@pegcoaches.com        713-823-8253

Last time we talked about how to start multiplying on the resources you worked on maximizing. We covered the following areas:

1. Call in the Troops
2. Bring ‘Em Out of the Woodwork
3. Black Sheep Clients

Today we’ll talk about the next three:

1. Olympic-Size Sales Staff
2. Open Water Fishing
3. Call for Back-Up

Olympic-Size Sales Staff

Now we all know you can’t have a sales staff of 10,000 who work around the clock for free, but there is a tool that will do exactly that – direct mail marketing.

Direct mail is a written piece of sales and informative copy that offers information about your company and your products/services to potential customers/clients. It can be sales letters, brochures or proposals to be mailed out to a list of leads.

This approach will not only open your door to thousands of new customers/clients, but it can save you thousands of dollars in advertising.

Open Water Fishing

You have to be careful not to waste your time on clients who are simply not interested. You have to focus on bigger fish. Remember the previous lessons about how you should always be targeting higher-quality prospects.

To do this you have to take the time to research and learn about your potential clients to make sure you are targeting the right companies to work with. Make sure they are companies who will benefit from your products/services over a long period of time.

If you’re not sure where to start in finding big fish clients, go back over our previous lessons or look into purchasing a direct mailing list that specifically targets the clients you need. You can purchase or rent lists with name, title, job specs and contact information. This gives you a jumping off point in finding high-quality clients.

Call for Back-Up

Don’t be afraid of telemarketing. It’s a powerful tool than can be done tastefully and is highly effective. However, keep in mind, when not handled correctly it can bring about negative reactions. To be successful with telemarketing you need to use these tips:

1. Your first line of defense should be mail marketing.
2. Test before you start a telemarketing campaign.
3. Set the price for your offer.
4. Use a progressive approach with your campaign.

Progressive contact helps build trust and allow the potential customer/client to establish a positive relationship with you. These are the progressive steps you should take:

1. Put your prospect at ease.
2. Present your offer in a natural, conversational way.
3. Avoid being argumentative or pushy.
4. Always be honest.
5. Perfect your 30-second elevator speech.
6. Clearly state your name, business name, reason you’re calling and where you got their information.
7. Offer the benefits of your products and services.
8. Mention one of the features that back up the benefits.
9. Ask preliminary questions that give you more information about the prospect.

These step-by-step methods can help you be successful with a telemarketing campaign and avoid a negative response, which could stigmatize your business forever.

This wraps up these three areas of multiplying your resources. We’ll continue with this series for the next two posts to give you all the resources you need to get the most out of your current resources.

If you need help working through any of these processes or areas, feel free to reach out to us.

Stacey Sagues – Stacey@pegcoaches.com   404-951-9023
Philip Lewis – Philip@pegcoaches.com       713-823-8253