Leads Into Gold

Leads into Gold

Leads into Gold How to attract all the business you can handle and end cold calling forever! A Powerful Lead Generation System for Business Owners, Sales Reps, and Marketers

by Howard Jacobson, PhD. howieconnect 141 Palmer Lane Ewing NJ 08618 Phone 1-609-883-2661 www.howieconnect.com Email: [email protected]

Revised 1/29/03

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Leads into Gold COPYRIGHT NOTICES

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical or electronic, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Exceptions: purchasers may photocopy and distribute “Chapter 1: Why Most Marketing Fails and What to Do About It” as many times as they like. Purchasers may also photocopy the toolkit for their own personal use on different marketing campaigns. Published by howieconnect and written by Howard Jacobson, PhD. 141 Palmer Lane Ewing NJ 08618 Telephone: Toll Free 1-888-307-0640 or 1-609-883-2661 Fax: 1-609-671-9492 www.howieconnect.com Email: [email protected] Printed and bound in the United States of America ©2002 howieconnect LEGAL NOTICES: Limits of Liability / Disclaimer of Warranty: The author and publisher of this manual and the accompanying materials have used their best efforts in preparing this program. The author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents of this program. They disclaim any warranties (expressed or implied), merchantability, or fitness for any particular purpose. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable for any loss or other damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages. As always, the advice of a competent legal, tax, accounting or other professional should be sought. This manual contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited.

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Leads into Gold

Acknowledgments Without the following people, Leads into Gold would still be a bunch of rants in my brain: Sue Bannon, graphic artist extraordinaire, who designed the covers for Leads into Gold. Sue has the rare ability to turn her clients’ personalities and messages into graphically perfect statements that don’t look like anything else in the world. If you’d like her to design cool and effective stuff for you, reach her at: [email protected] Joe Pepitone turned my clumsy attempt at studio recording into an audio masterpiece, quickly, proactively, and professionally. If you have any audio needs, Joe’s your man. He’s a real musician (he composed the snippets of music on the CDs), so his standards for audio quality are very high. Reach Joe at: [email protected] The following people graciously let me use their marketing materials for the swipe file. They’re all masters of marketing. Visit their sites, put them through their paces, and if you have a need that they can fill, by all means use them with complete confidence. They service even better than they sell, which is saying something! Perry Marshall

www.perrymarshall.com

Pamela Yellen

www.pmiinc.com

Alex Mandossian

www.marketingwithpostcards.com

Jim Fleck and Jeff Paul

www.instantprofits.com

Susan Guarneri

www.resume-magic.com

Robert Middleton

www.actionplan.com

Yanik Silver

www.surefiremarketing.com

Bob and Shirley Hanson www.hansonmarketing.com Michael Senoff

www.hardtofindseminars.com

Reed Hoisington

www.reedhoisington.com

Thanks to all my prospects, clients, and the ones that got away. You’ve taught me as much about business as I’ve taught you. I’m honored by our association. Thanks to Peter Bregman, of www.bregmanpartners.com, who has taught me that business can make the world a better place. You know how a good coach can help you? Peter does that for entire companies. And finally, thanks to my wife, Mia, and my children, Yael and Elan. I do it all for you.

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Leads into Gold

Foreword In ancient times, alchemists spent their entire lives in search of the secret of the Philosopher’s Stone: the miraculous substance that would allow its possessor to turn base metals like lead into gold. Today, modern businesspeople still seek the magic formula to transform the base elements of their business into wealth, freedom, happiness, and purpose. Many of us also long for a decent deli within driving distance of our office. But business has become more difficult, competitive, and impersonal over the last generation. Too many vendors spewing the same boring, meaningless messages into a frenzied, overcrowded, obnoxious world. So many annoying ads and commercials that we tune it all out. So much hype and sameness that we disbelieve everyone selling everything. You hold in your hands information that will do nothing about dry lunch meats or cole slaw with too much mayo. It only addresses the issue of how to attract customers or clients to your business without your having to chase, bother, or beg them, and without flushing your advertising budget down the toilet of unaccountability. The key to this system is lead generation advertising. You will learn how to use various media (including many that no advertising sales rep will ever try to sell you!) to position your business as the obvious choice in your marketplace. You will learn how to escape the commodity treadmill, where all you ever get asked about is your price. You will discover how to position yourself as a trusted, expert advisor, so that your prospects will line up and raise their hands and beg you to do business with them. And you will learn how to measure every penny of your marketing spend, so that you get the maximum bang for every marketing buck. So, aspiring business wizard! Sharpen your quill, polish your cauldron, and light the hermetic fire (I have no idea what that means – I read it on a web site about 20 minutes ago). Roll up your sleeves and get ready to learn the secrets of modern-day business alchemy: How to turn Leads into Gold. Page 1 © Howard Jacobson 2002 – All Rights Reserved

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Leads into Gold

Introduction Leads into Gold is designed to quickly turn you into your own marketing “expert.” Throughout this course I’m going to try like crazy to convince you that marketing is by far the most important thing to focus on in your business. For two reasons. First, because marketing is the one function in business where the smallest efforts can create the largest returns. Having a great product is important. Keeping overhead low is important. But effective marketing can grow your business in a way that nothing else can. When you master your marketing, you find a sense of control, security, and freedom that no other skill can match. Second, because you can delegate everything about your business except marketing. You’re already the expert. Nobody knows as much about your business as you do. Certainly nobody cares as much about it as you do. And nobody is in a better position to explain it to the world. This course is not going to give you all the tools and experience you need to become a master. No course could. I don’t care how many pages, examples, audiotapes, exercises, CD-ROMS, videos, spreadsheets, etc. No course is going to improve your skill. The only way to get good at something is by doing it, over and over again, and paying careful attention to the results. The entire goal of this course is to give you the knowledge and support to let you take the first step. It will teach you what to do (and what not to do) and give you the confidence that you can do it effectively and easily. This course has been designed to give you just enough to start creating effective lead generation ads. Because there’s very little difference between the person who knows nothing and the person who knows everything. But there’s a huge difference between the person who’s done nothing and the person who’s done even one thing. Your job is to use Leads into Gold to help you do that one thing. And the good news is, that one thing will immediately vault you into the top 3% of marketers in your market. Your life will change for the better. Leads into Gold has seven components:

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Leads into Gold

1. Crash Course in Lead Generation Marketing - Audio These audiotapes or CDs will explain the principles of direct response marketing, walk you through a complete business analysis unlike anything you’ve experienced, and prepare you to start using lead generation advertising to grow your business without cold calling or wasted advertising dollars. I recommend that you listen to them more than once; studies show that repeated listening builds understanding without any other action on your part. Since direct response marketing is a huge mind shift for many people familiar only with “branding” and other irrelevant marketing strategies, you may need to be “convinced” in your gut long after you agree intellectually. In fact, you probably won’t become totally convinced until after the success of your first campaign. 2. The Lead Generation Toolkit The toolkit is where you do your “homework” to create a powerful and unique lead generation campaign perfectly suited to your business. 3. The “Personal Trainer” Audio Course Your own personal tutorial on cassette or CD that walks you through the toolkit at your own pace. 4. The “Unfair Head Start” Swipe File The examples at the end of this binder will give you a head start in creating your own lead generating ads and magnets. Feel free to adapt them to your specific business. 5. Additional Resources to Keep You Going A special web page with links to all the resources I describe in the audio course, as well as service providers that I can personally vouch for. 6. Crash Course in Lead Generation Marketing - Text The transcription of the audio will allow you to look things up quickly and study them at your leisure, without the need for a cassette or CD player. 7. Free Consulting Coupon

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Leads into Gold

The critique coupon is your chance to get my feedback on your first lead generation campaign. This is potentially more valuable to you than the rest of the course put together. If you follow the principles and steps laid out here, create something, and run it by me first, you’ll vastly improve your chances of a successful first campaign. You’ll also learn by doing, as opposed to by reading.

Introduction to Me My name is Howard Jacobson. I am uniquely qualified to create this course for three unlikely reasons.

I’m a Lifelong Educator First of all, my life has been about education. I have been a teacher, in one form or another, since I was 13 years old. I have taught nursery school through adult education. I have worked as an elementary school teacher, a middle school teacher, a high school teacher, a college instructor, an adult school instructor, an executive coach, a corporate trainer, and a business consultant. I have taught intellectual subjects like history and philosophy, policy courses on child abuse prevention and international health, hands-on subjects like woodworking and juggling, sports like football and ultimate Frisbee, and business courses on sales, marketing, negotiation, management, and coaching. If there’s one thing I understand, it’s how people learn and then apply what they’ve learned. While there are many marketing geniuses in the world, most of them have a hard time explaining what they mean to beginners. After all, marketers are good at getting people to take action by promising no work and immediate results. When was the last time you bought something that promised, “Work really hard and after a long time you’ll have something to show for it”? So most of the direct response marketing education I’ve seen has either been totally theoretical, or so immediately hands-on that readers were immediately disoriented and confused. Leads into Gold is designed to comfortably move the beginner to action with a solid grounding in principles.

I’m a Former Clueless Marketer Let me explain. Before I entered the business world, I spent my working life in schools, non-profits, and government agencies. The world of business was a

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mystery to me. The thought of selling anything was both terrifying and repulsive to me. If you had asked me what my picture of a salesperson was, I would have immediately described a sleazy, greasy used car salesman with a plaid jacket and a toupee. My picture of a marketer was a telemarketer interrupting my dinner. Advertising was a stupid TV commercial telling me that if I bought this car I would have lots of great sex with hot blondes. Here’s an embarrassing example to make the point: As a teacher in my 20s, I hardly even knew anyone in business. The whole thing just seemed like a secret club, and I didn’t even know who to ask for the password. Then one day I decided to become a licensed massage therapist. I enrolled in school, took the required courses, passed the required tests, bought an on-site massage chair, and set out to seek my fortune. The only problem was, I had no idea what to do. I lugged this chair around in the back of my car to businesses, to stores, to malls. I once drove to Merrill Lynch in Plainsboro, New Jersey, no appointment, and carried this chair to the receptionist and asked how I could offer seated massages to the employees. I was shown the door so fast I practically suffered injuries from the G-forces. After about two weeks of embarrassment, frustration, and the beginnings of a nagging backache from carrying the darn chair (great advertisement for a massage therapist, huh?), I just gave up and went back to teaching. Why does this qualify me to teach marketing? When I was a kid, math was a breeze for me. When I became a teacher, I was a lousy math teacher. I just didn’t understand why the kids weren’t getting it. Because I was a totally clueless marketer, I understand why marketing is hard for people. I can lead them on the same journey I took, only much quicker and easier. By the way, I now have a thriving consulting practice, helping individual and organizations attract and serve customers profitably and joyfully. I market through referrals, public speaking, writing articles, getting publicity, and of course

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lead generation advertising. I never cold call. I never get ripped off by advertising reps. My friends who “knew me when” think my transformation is the funniest thing in the world.

I Think Happiness and Goodness Are More Important than Money When I’m not being a marketer, I’m often a victim of marketers. Disrespectful, irrelevant, insulting, time-wasting, greedy, lying, selfish individuals and companies are circling all of us like sharks, all the time. One of my main motivations in becoming a teacher of marketing is to give good people the tools to be successful without resorting to horrible tactics. If horrible tactics are all you know, then you’ll be like I was: having to decide between being good or being financially successful. I personally draw the line a lot closer to Good than Rich. I am not interested in sending out millions of pieces of junk mail just to make a few bucks. I don’t believe in selling people crap to mask their insecurities, even though I know a lot of people get rich doing it. I don’t believe in rude, hardball tactics that get me customers but annoy everyone else. With me as your guide, you no longer have to choose between success and ethics, or between the demands of the market and your personal style. Thank you sincerely for embarking on this journey with me. Since I “sold” it to you without knowing you personally, I don’t really know if it is right for you. That’s why I can’t ethically sell it without a money back guarantee. Experience it, try it, and be gentle on yourself. If you find that it isn’t what you need, what I promised, or what you’re comfortable with, PLEASE RETURN IT. You have a full year to make that determination. If you find Leads into Gold helpful, however, I hope you’ll tell your friends about it. After all, when people start marketing more effectively and respectfully,

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Leads into Gold

we all win. Just imagine a world without cold calling and dinnertime telemarketing. How much is that worth? Nitpicky Language Stuff (for you English majors): One note about the words “product” and “customer”: I use product to refer to anything that you sell, be it physical product, service, or combination. I use customer to refer to anyone who gives you money for your product, be they customer or client. Also, I use the word “they” to refer to someone who could be either male or female, rather than assuming that everyone is a “he” or using some horrible construction like he/she or s/he or (heaven forbid) “shim.” I did pass high school English, and I know some people think that using “they” in this way is a terrible grammar mistake. All I can say is, tuff. Write your own course.

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Leads into Gold

Leads into Gold How to attract all the business you can handle and end cold calling forever! A Powerful Lead Generation System for Business Owners, Sales Reps, and Marketers

Crash Course (Transcription of 4 Crash Course CDs)

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Leads into Gold

Table of Contents Chapter 1: Why Most Marketing Fails and What to Do About It_________ 1 Lie #1: Sales is a Numbers Game _____________________________________ 2 Lie #2: Advertising Works by Building Brand Recognition _______________ 3 The Energizer Bunny ____________________________________________________ 3 Which Advertising Doesn’t Work? _________________________________________ 4

Lie #3: The Better Your Product or Service, the Better it Will Sell _________ 5

Chapter 2: The Basic Principles of Direct Response Marketing _________ 7 Get Permission to Communicate in Exchange for Value __________________ 7 The Cluttered and Cynical Marketplace _____________________________________ 7 Desperation ___________________________________________________________ 7 An Example ___________________________________________________________ 8 You Sell Like You Service _______________________________________________ 9

Efficiently Identify Your Prospects ___________________________________ 9 Save Time ____________________________________________________________ 9 Position Yourself as the Generous Helper, not the Selfish Seller _________________ 11

Track Accurately _________________________________________________ 12 Which Half Works? ____________________________________________________ 12 Test and Improve Continuously___________________________________________ 13

Lead Generation Marketing: An Overview ___________________________ 13 Step 1: The Lead Generation Ad __________________________________________ 15 Step 2: The Lead Generation Magnet ______________________________________ 15 Step 3: The Front End Product____________________________________________ 15

Chapter 3: Before You Spend a Dime ________Error! Bookmark not defined. Mission ___________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Who Cares? __________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Defining Your Mission _________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

Market ___________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Demographics ________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Geography_________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Affinity ___________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Sociographics ______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Psychographics _______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Buying Behavior ______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

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Leads into Gold

Message: Where the Mission meets the Market __ Error! Bookmark not defined. The “Watering Hole” of Your Market ______________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Translate Every Feature into Multiple Benefits _______ Error! Bookmark not defined. Million Dollar Marketing Secret: Start with Benefits and Back into Features ___ Error! Bookmark not defined. Using Psychographics to Craft Your Message _____ Error! Bookmark not defined. Example: Stress Management for Teachers _______ Error! Bookmark not defined. Superior and Believable _________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Concrete + Specific = Believable _______________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Massive Superiority _________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. A Note about Massive Superiority ______________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Unique Selling Proposition ______________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. USP Examples______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. USP checklist ______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. USP Generating Helpers ________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

Medium ___________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. How Most Businesses Choose Their Media _________ Error! Bookmark not defined. They Do What Their Competitors Are Doing______ Error! Bookmark not defined. They Listen to Advertising Sales Reps ___________ Error! Bookmark not defined. How Smart Businesses Choose Their Media Mix _____ Error! Bookmark not defined. Begin with Intelligent Guesses _________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Congruence – Credibility by Context ______________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Choosing the right price point ____________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Specific Media for Lead Generation _______________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Display Ad ________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Classified Ad_______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Electronic Ad ______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Direct Mail ________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Joint Ventures for Referrals ___________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Event Sponsorship___________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Trade Show ________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

Metrics ___________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Cost per Lead _________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Lead Conversion Rate __________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Cost per Sale _________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Average Gross Profit per Sale ____________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Break-even Calculations ________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Cost-per-lead Break-even _____________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

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Leads into Gold Average Annual Customer Value _________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Average Annual Value per Lead __________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Average Lifetime Customer Value ________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Lifetime Value per Lead ________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. What If You Have No Data? _____________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Ways to Cut Costs _____________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Use a Web Site _____________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Self-liquidating Lead Generation _______________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Test Small _________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Market First, Create Second ___________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Find Joint Ventures __________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

Chapter 4: Lead Generation Marketing Steps __Error! Bookmark not defined. The Lead Generation Ad_____________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Direct Response _______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Measurable___________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Trackable ____________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Sorts Qualified from Unqualified _________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Attracts Qualified Prospects ___________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Discourages Unqualified People ________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Offers a Lead Generation Magnet _________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Three Kinds of Lead Generation Magnets ________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Low Risk: “No Salesperson Will Call” ___________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Offer Irresistible Only to Your Prospects _________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Credibility _________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. The Response Capture Mechanism ________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Recorded Message __________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Live Person ________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Fax_______________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Web Site __________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. In-person Visit______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

The Lead Generation Magnet_________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. LGM Formats ______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Following Up ______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. How to Create a Lead Generation Magnet without Quitting Your Day Job _____ Error! Bookmark not defined. Write It ___________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Talk into a Tape Recorder and Transcribe ________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Get Interviewed and Transcribe ________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

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Leads into Gold Rant ______________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Use Speech Recognition Software ______________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Interview an Expert __________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Hire Someone to Write a Report ________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Hire Someone to Collect Sources _______________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Buy a Report _______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Get a Report from a Joint Venture Partner ________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Tape a Sales Call____________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Other Resources ____________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

The Front End Product ______________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Pricing ______________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Loss Leader ________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Self-liquidating _____________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Small Profit ________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Big Profit__________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Qualities _____________________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Low Risk for Buyer and Seller _________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Delivers Great Value_________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Naturally Leads to Back End __________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

The Back End ______________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Increasing Price Points__________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Continually Expanding to Meet Their Needs, Not Yours!_______Error! Bookmark not defined. Create Your Own Back End______________________ Error! Bookmark not defined. Joint Venture with Partners and Competitors ________ Error! Bookmark not defined. The Bigger the Back End, the Greater the Marketing Advantage _Error! Bookmark not defined.

Final Thoughts _____________________________ Error! Bookmark not defined.

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Leads into Gold

Chapter 1: Why Most Marketing Fails and What to Do About It Disc 1, Track 1 Congratulations on your purchase of Leads into Gold! My name is Howard Jacobson, and I’ll be your guide into the exciting and profitable world of direct response marketing. So sit back, take a deep breath, and relax. Marketing your business is about to get a lot easier, a lot more effective, and a lot more fun. What you are about to discover will radically change the way you do business. Instead of playing “chase the decision-maker,” you’ll now spend most of your time fielding inbound calls from decision makers. Instead of having to make 13.1 calls to the same prospect to get one sale, you’ll make sales on the first call, inbound, often within the first five minutes. How can I make such outlandish promises? Because I’ve seen it happen. And when you begin to learn the principles of direct response, you’ll get it. You’ll have one of those “aha” moments when you suddenly realize that you haven’t been crazy all these years. That the nagging feeling that all this cold calling was insane is right on the money. I’d had “aha” moments like that a few times in my life. And each one felt like being whipped around a corner, moving in a new direction with more energy and momentum than I’d ever felt before. Discovering direct response marketing was one of the biggies. And like the others, it was “hidden in plain sight” for a long time before I “got” it. Here’s what I found, and I bet you’ll experience it too. Within half an hour, max, you’ll be nodding your head up and down and muttering, “Of course, of course.” You’ll see how a few shifts in thinking and a few easily gained skills will skyrocket your business success. It’ll seem obvious. Your natural instinct, I promise you, will be to share it with others. And that’s when you’ll learn why these marketing “secrets” are so secret. It’s not because a bunch of evil geniuses have kept them hidden, and I finally escaped from their dark lair and brought them to the world, and now the villains

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are going to track me down and chain me to a rock and hire some eagles to eat my liver. It’s not because these secrets were jealously guarded by a secretive aboriginal tribe in Papua New Guinea, handed down from seventh son to seventh son, until I patiently gained their trust and learned their language, consisting only of eyebrow movements and the sound made when someone chews the top off their Bic pen cap. No, it’s because the vast majority of people you’ll meet have been brainwashed to believe that this stuff doesn’t work. The wrong-headed dogmas of sales, advertising and marketing are still “conventional wisdom.” People may admire you for your guts, but they’ll pity you for your lack of “common sense.” And they’ll never ever be convinced. Here are the big lies that most people believe about sales and marketing. Your competitors believe them. Your customers believe them. Your colleagues and advisors believe them. But they aren’t true, and they kill more businesses and ruin more careers than I’d like to think about. Disc 1, Track 2

Lie #1: Sales is a Numbers Game I always heard this from people who were trying to keep up their spirits during a slump. What do people mean when they say this? They mean, “No matter how badly you’re doing at the moment, keep doing whatever isn’t working and things will improve.” People hanging up on you? Keep dialing. Make more phone calls tomorrow than you did today. Prospects asking for “more information” to get you off their backs? Keep mailing. Mail more tomorrow than you did today. Selection committees requesting massive proposals and then never calling back? Keep writing massive proposals at your own expense. Write more proposals next quarter than you did this quarter. It reminds me of the carnival games where you have to throw a quarter onto a tiny saucer. That’s a numbers game too. But I don’t like the numbers. At some point I figured out – STOP throwing the quarters.

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The truth is, sales is a numbers game. But if you’re smart, you get to decide what the numbers are. Would you rather have to make 100 calls to get an appointment, or 3 calls? Would you rather respond to 50 detailed Requests for Proposal (RFPs) a year to get one contract, or just one RFP? Remember that sales ratios are averages. The average office equipment salesperson has to make 100 (or whatever) calls to secure an appointment. Believe me, there are office equipment salespeople who fill their calendars with appointments with eager buyers without making a single outbound call. Let’s say the average sales cycle for a management consulting gig is 18 months. There are consultants who get a phone call from a prospect, and start work (check in hand) the following week. Now, no sales methodology will work every single time. But some work a heck of a lot more often than others. Why work 50 times as hard and 50 times as long, when you can simply use a more effective methodology and increase your skill level? Direct response marketing has two huge “numbers” advantages over cold prospecting. First, the numbers are much better. Infinitely less grunt work for much greater return. Second, direct response marketing has a built in tracking function, so you can determine exactly how well each part of your sales mix is working. When you can measure it, you can constantly improve it. Disc 1, Track 3

Lie #2: Advertising Works by Building Brand Recognition The heart of the Leads into Gold system is advertising. So it’s important to understand that most advertising doesn’t work. Now, since it is impossible to determine Return on Investment (or ROI) on this advertising, I can’t give you exact figures. But let’s look at one famous example.

The Energizer Bunny Remember the award-winning battery ads with that bunny? People loved the ads. They were funny. They were hip. And they’ve been running for about a decade. So they must work, right?

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Well, which battery do those bunnies sell? In a survey, most consumers thought it was Duracell: the Duracell Energizer. And, by the way, the only battery company to significantly increase market share during the 1990s was RayO-Vac, which didn’t spend a penny on television advertising at all. The bunny sells Eveready Energizer batteries. And if he were a real salesman, with territories and accounts and quotas, he’d be in a petting zoo by now. Because clever and amusing as he is, he doesn’t make the numbers.

Which Advertising Doesn’t Work? Advertising that is about the seller, the brand, the product, the service – doesn’t work. Because what’s the message of these ads? It’s: “We’re great. Give us your money. Pleeease?” Now, these ads are often clever. They contain puns, funny tag lines, arresting graphics, lots of white space, harmonious design elements, and absolutely no sales power. Because it’s impossible to measure their effectiveness, they keep running. The ad agencies and marketing firms know how to create beautiful ads and commercials that stroke their client’s egos. Have you ever noticed how the advertising industry loves to give itself awards based on everything except whether the ads worked? The buzzword in marketing today (2002) is branding. People will buy from you, the theory goes, when the mention of your name gives them a predictable, positive, warm, fuzzy feeling. At some level, this is true. Branding is a shortcut. When Toyota comes out with a new car, everyone assumes that it’s dependable and a good value. How hard would Kia have to work to convince the public that its new offering will last for 200,000 miles? For another example, when Procter & Gamble makes a new laundry detergent, you can be pretty sure it will at least get clothes clean. P & G isn’t likely to risk coming up with electromagnetic laundry disks that change the polarity of your water and magically draw dirt particles out of your underwear. And if they did, people would assume, until proven otherwise, that it was a proven technology. The issue is not whether to brand or not. In fact, you can’t help branding yourself. You either do what you say or you don’t. You treat customers right or

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you don’t. You honor your guarantees cheerfully or you don’t. You innovate or you don’t. Your store is clean or it isn’t. At this level, branding is just a measure of how congruent you are – how much your actions and words look the same. It’s not bragging – it’s simply how you do business. The issue is whether to spend money pre-branding yourself to the vast universe of people who will never be your prospects, or whether to target your brand message to your prospects while you sell and deliver, at no additional cost or effort. Unless you are Coca Cola or Nike, you can’t afford to spend money putting feel-good messages into the air. You must target your messages to your prospects, and talk about them, not yourself. Because they don’t care about you. They care about themselves. Because “image” or “branding” advertising can’t be held accountable, the advertising industry can make this amazingly self-serving claim: “People need to see your ads at least seven times before they’ll remember it, and 12 times before they act on it.” How convenient for marketing agencies and media outlets! The answer to ineffective advertising is – MORE ADVERTISING!! Disc 1, Track 4

Lie #3: The Better Your Product or Service, the Better it Will Sell Don’t we wish it were true? “Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door.” Right? When you see people who believe this, it’s very sad. The very best, most honest auto mechanic in town wonders why he struggles to stay afloat while the chain store repair shop is always busy. It’s just not fair! The mostly highly trained psychologist, with hundreds of peer-reviewed research papers and several university-published books, rails against the idiotic pop psychologist on public television who sells millions of books a year. It’s just not fair! The truth is, high quality is often a marketing problem.

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You see, your market usually can’t judge the quality of your stuff. You’re the expert, they’re not. So the best and the worst often look just the same to them. And until they experience the difference in quality, all they see is the difference in price. And higher quality usually costs more. So the better products and services are competing against cheaper products and services that can make the same claims. And all the buyer sees is the price difference. In some industries, being ethical is a downright disadvantage. Look at the mortgage industry. Bait and switch mortgage brokers can offer imaginary deals, and then reveal five-digit closing costs after the consumer is locked in and has no other choices. Honest loan originators look more expensive to the price-sensitive shopper, even if they are ultimately a much superior solution. If you have a superior solution for your market, then you have a moral obligation to market it as aggressively and successfully as you can. I’m not talking about an obligation to yourself and your family to be successful and make a lot of money. I’m talking about more than that. How would you feel if a family member or friend got stuck with an unethical or inferior vendor just because you couldn’t find an effective way to tell the truth? Well, even if that won’t happen to your friends and family, why should it happen to mine? Not marketing to the best of your ability, when you think about it, is downright selfish, and you ought to be ashamed of yourself. No, not you. You bought Leads into Gold. You understand your moral obligation to your community. But I’m sure you know plenty of really good people who feel awkward or sleazy when they market or sell their stuff. Please convince them to do the right thing. In fact, you could actually tell them to go get this kit, and learn how to do it for themselves. I’ve given you permission to photocopy the transcript of this section as many times as you like, as long as you keep the copyright information intact. Now that you understand how important it is to market effectively, let’s begin learning the techniques and skills that will enable you to end cold calling forever and attract more business than you ever thought possible.

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Chapter 2: The Basic Principles of Direct Response Marketing Disc 1, Track 5

Get Permission to Communicate in Exchange for Value People value their time. In order to get them to pay attention to you, you have to offer them compelling value in exchange for that attention. Without permission to talk, you have virtually no chance of being heard. There are two main obstacles to gaining permission to talk to your prospects. The first one is the cluttered and cynical marketplace, and the second is your own desperation.

The Cluttered and Cynical Marketplace Now, traditional marketing and advertising methods have hit a wall. There’s too much clutter in the marketplace. We click away too many commercials. We battle too many annoying sales calls at dinner. We strain to ignore too many animated banner ads on the web. There’s just too much for us to take in. So we try to ignore most of it. And we don’t believe most of what we hear. We correctly assume that sellers are biased in favor of their own products and services, so we discount everything they say. We’ve seen too many deceptive companies, corrupt politicians, hypocritical religious leaders, drug-abusing athletes, and plagiarizing professors to take anything at face value anymore. We develop powerful filters to keep all this garbage out of our consciousness. We only let in those messages that are really really really relevant to us: to our needs, to our pains, to our desires, to our goals. For an entire book on the subject, check out Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing.

Desperation The second obstacle is desperation – your own. Now you know you can’t get permission to talk to your prospect if you don’t offer them something valuable. In order to know what your prospect cares about, what they think is valuable, you’ve got to focus on them, and not on yourself. Now, it’s confession time. I was not a popular little kid. When I was little, I spent most of my time with adults, not other kids. In elementary school I was picked on, and had few friends (mostly other outcasts and victims). By the time I

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discovered girls, I was pretty sure that none of them would have anything to do with me. So the minute a girl was nice to me – not remotely interested, but merely polite – I pounced. I instantly became such a pain, such a pathetic puppy dog, such a desperate slob, that I chased them away. People can sense desperation. It’s unattractive, and it clearly says, “I’m no good. If I were any good, I wouldn’t be this desperate.” Desperate people are always in a rush. Desperate daters ignore natural rhythms of a relationship. And desperate salespeople try to force themselves on others. When you’re desperate, you’re thinking about one thing: yourself. The essence of marketing and dating and just about everything else is putting other people first. Thinking about what’s important to them. Striving to see the world from their eyes. One of Steven Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is, “First seek to understand, then to be understood.” Desperate people can’t do that.

An Example I wrote the notes that this talk is based on in my public library. There were about 50 other people there when I was writing, and I didn’t want to talk to any of them. I was on a deadline. Writing was just about the hardest thing that I had to do. So, I’m sitting there, I absolutely refuse to make eye contact, to smile, to offer help to little old ladies carrying too many books through the door. I’m armored against all these people, because they have nothing to do with my big goal: to get this damn thing done. (Excuse my language.) But, unknown to them, I have a problem. My laptop battery is running out of juice. I don’t have a power cord. I’m starting to bum out. Do you think I would respond differently to the following two approaches? 1. “Hey, excuse me. I sell life insurance. I’ve got a great deal on a 20 year whole life policy. Stop what you’re doing and look at it right now.” 2. “Excuse me, I noticed that you have a laptop that isn’t plugged in. I sell a laptop battery charger that completely recharges your battery when you squeeze this rubber bulb five times. Would you like to try it, no obligation? Both approaches are total interruptions. But the second one asks for my permission based on an observed need. It’s about my needs, not the seller’s

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needs. You’d better believe I would have squeezed that rubber bulb five times. And even if I did need to increase my life insurance coverage, I would instinctively recoil from the disrespectful approach shown by the life insurance salesman in my example.

You Sell Like You Service Here’s where branding becomes important. If you approach your prospects out of your economic need, you’re communicating that you care about yourself, not them. Think about it: Would you do business with someone who basically wanted to use you to get what they want? If you approach your prospects as a helper, asking for permission to solve their problems, you’re communicating that you care about them. And wouldn’t you rather buy from a friend than an opportunist? Gaining permission to talk by offering value is the most respectful approach you can take, and it helps your prospects remove their armor and let you through their filters. Disc 1, Track 6

Efficiently Identify Your Prospects Direct response marketing relies on your prospects to make themselves known to you. Instead of the grunt work of cold calling, cold visiting, and chasing decision makers, you create a lead generating mechanism one time and wait for qualified prospects to contact you. This saves a huge amount of time, and positions you as a helper, not a peddler. Let’s look at both of these.

Save Time I remember the worst week of cold calling I ever did. Projects were ending. The economy was tanking. The top of the sales funnel was empty. I panicked. So I researched 250 prospects online. I didn’t take the time to learn about the companies (these were all small financial services firms in Manhattan). I didn’t even bother with the names of my prospects. I didn’t have time.

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So I consulted my collection of sales books for a last minute dose of inspiration. Then I locked the door and started “smiling and dialing.” I had an Excel spreadsheet open, but soon resorted to scribbling on a yellow pad. •

“Who’s in charge of that?”

•

“Oh, how do you spell that?”

•

“Oh, when will she be back?”

•

“No, I’ll wait.”

•

“Press what to hear the options again?”

•

“Yes, I’ll be happy to send you some information.”

•

“Hi, I’m calling to find out if you received the information.”

•

“Sure, I’ll send it again.”

•

“Oh, she’s on another business trip.”

•

“Hi, this is Howard Jacobson, and this is the seventeenth voice mail message I’ve left. Are you sure that you’re going to return my call as soon as possible?”

Sound familiar? Boy, I HATED how much time it took. I HATED how many times people said “No” before one person said “Yes.” I HATED being lied to: “No, Ms. Prospect is in a meeting and cannot take your call.” I HATED leaving dozens of unanswered voice mail messages after the recording that went, “Leave me a message and I’ll call you back as soon as possible.” After all this, I found exactly three companies that needed what I was selling, out of 250. I got two phone meetings with low level managers, and left voice mail messages for three weeks with one decision maker, until I finally got her on the phone and forced her to admit she was going with another vendor (because she never would have told me if I hadn’t pushed). No new business. Imagine: if those three companies had identified themselves to me, I could have avoided like 247 unnecessary sets of calls. I could have focused my

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attention on their particular needs, and I would have been talking with decision makers, or at the very worst, lower-level employees directed by decision makers to contact me. Even more important than saving all that time, what if those companies had called me? Would that have changed the dynamic and made it more likely that I would have succeeded? You had better believe it. And that’s the second part.

Position Yourself as the Generous Helper, not the Selfish Seller When someone calls you, the entire dynamic of the relationship is different. You’re not trying to sell them anything. How could you? You didn’t even know they had a need. When someone calls you, you’re automatically their first choice. You represent the solution, and not one possible vendor of solutions. The business is yours to lose. All you have to do is not screw it up. Finally, when someone calls you, you get to use reverse psychology, or “takeaway selling.” Takeaway selling is when you say things like, “I’m not sure if we really can help you…. There are less expensive options that might be sufficient for you…. Not everyone needs such a robust system…. I wasn’t planning on taking any new clients right now….” When the prospect call you, you get to position yourself as in demand. This activates one of the most powerful instruments of influence, social proof. It goes like this: If others want you, then you must be good. Whatever is scarce is more valuable. Supply and demand. You get to charge a premium when the demand is high and the supply of you is low.. Back to my life. As soon as I got a girlfriend, I was amazed at how much easier it got to talk with other girls. Because I wasn’t chasing them, some of them actually started chasing me. Whoever has the fewest needs in a given situation will have the upper hand in that situation, because they have the most options and the most flexibility. If your prospect acts like they need your solution more than you act like you need their business, then you have a much better chance of getting it, and at favorable terms. There’s a difference between a position and positioning. Your position is the reality. I don’t have the time to help all the people who ask for my help. That’s the truth.

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But I would never have gotten there unless I had adopted that positioning before it was the truth. If you want to be treated like a successful person, then act like a successful person acts. If you want to be treated like a saint, act like a saint acts. If you want to be rich, act like a rich person acts. People will treat you exactly like you feel you deserve. Disc 1, Track 7

Track Accurately The third principle of direct response marketing is the ability to accurate determine the return on every single investment of your marketing campaign. This is crucial for two reasons. First, you can ruthlessly eliminate every investment of time and money that doesn’t work. Second, you can ruthlessly test what’s working so that you continually improve its effectiveness.

Which Half Works? There’s a famous advertising quote, attributed to many business leaders over the past hundred or so years. It goes like this: “I know half of my advertising dollars are wasted, I just don’t know which half.” Can you imagine a salesperson making 20 presentations, and making 10 sales, but not being allowed to find out which 10 presentations led to the sales? How can they possibly improve their presentation and their hit rate without that feedback? They can’t. Can you imagine an investor putting their money into 20 stocks, and not paying attention to the return? Which stocks went up? Which went down? I dunno. I just like buying and selling stocks. But that’s how image advertising works. You spend a ton of money on ads, “create brand awareness” or raise public consciousness, and have no idea what the effect is on sales or public behavior. As in the case of the battery bunny, you may be increasing sales for your competitors. You just don’t know. Because direct response marketing relies on getting and measuring a direct response, we get to find out exactly which half works.

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Test and Improve Continuously There’s a wonderful story about an accidental change to the headline of an ad that quadrupled sales. The ad sold a home-study piano course, and ran in magazines for years with the headline, “Put music into your life.” It pulled a certain predictable, reliable amount of sales each time it ran. Then, due to a layout error, the headline was changed. One single letter was added. And sales went through the roof. Know what the change was? Simply, the first word was now “puts.” So the headline was, “Puts music into your life.” Now the psychology of that is beyond this course, basically something gets done for you, rather than you having to do it. But the point is, the original ad was considered very successful. There was no incentive to change it. It took what was essentially a random mutation to show that the product’s potential was far greater than anyone realized. Direct response marketing gives you the tools to test your message, your medium, and your offer with almost no risk and with practically unlimited upside. You’re not sure which headline will pull better in an ad or a sales letter? Try them both and track results. Are you unclear what the selling price should be for your product? Make two different offers and see which one increases sales and/or profits. Unlike ad agencies, who can be creative and more creative and more creative still and not have any basis for their decisions except general information about “cultural trends,” you make changes to your marketing by listening intently to your market. I don’t care who you are – you’re not clever enough to know how your market will respond to your offers before you make them. That’s why the best marketers – even the best marketing consultants, who get paid like $30,000 a day for their advice – test everything on a small scale before rolling it out in a big way. Disc 1, Track 8

Lead Generation Marketing: An Overview OK. So far we’ve been talking about the philosophy of direct response marketing. What works, what doesn’t work in marketing. Let’s now take a look at an overview of what this kit is specifically about. Leads into Gold prepares

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you to conduct a specific aspect of direct response marketing called lead generation. Lead generation means that the primary objective of the marketing campaign is to get qualified prospects to identify themselves to you. Note that the goal of the first step is not to make a sale. In fact, it’s often to give something away. There are two reasons for this. First, despite what you may have heard about people not reading long sales letters or copy-intensive advertisements, the fact is that selling in print often takes a lot of words. The amount of line inches or airtime you need to sell a $150 product or service will often be prohibitively expensive if you’re broadcasting it to the entire universe. And the higher the price point of your initial sale, the more words you’ll need to make that sale. Why is it so expensive? Because 99% of the people you’re reaching with you ad or your commercial aren’t your prospects. But you have to pay to reach them, even though you don’t want to. So instead of buying enough space or time to tell your whole story, you buy much less space or time to offer something of great value to your prospects at very low risk. The deal is, they tell you that they’re interested and give you permission to sell to them in exchange for the value that you give them first. Second, your prospects will be much more open to your sales presentation once they have gone to some effort to get it. People will go to great lengths to be consistent, to act today in a way that validates the way they acted yesterday. Once they have responded to your lead generation ad, they will continue to view you in a positive light unless you blow it and give them reason not to. In other words, having people call you reverses the burden of proof. When you approach someone, you’ve got to convince them that you’re OK. When they approach you for help, they’ve already convinced to a great extent that you can help them. And all you have to do to reinforce their opinion is to do it – to provide them great value. So here is the entire system of lead generation in three simple steps. The rest of this course is designed to help you get these three steps right. Step 1: The Lead Generation Ad

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Step 2: The Lead Generation Magnet Step 3: The Front End Product There is kind of a Step 4, the back end, which we talk about, but it’s way beyond the scope of what we’re going to get done here. But it’ll come into play when we start looking at the calculations and the metrics (yes, there is going to be a little bit of math here, but it’s nothing that you haven’t done in third grade, and I promise you it won’t be painful). Let’s get back to the steps.

Step 1: The Lead Generation Ad You advertise an irresistible, risk-free offer of interest to your market and only to your market. Unless you sell a very inexpensive product, don’t even try to sell your product in the ad. Instead, use what we call a “two-step” technique. Sell a free or very inexpensive lead generation magnet, something that will cause your prospects to stand up and raise their hands in front of your face, and will not cause any reaction in people who will never buy from you.

Step 2: The Lead Generation Magnet The best lead generation magnet is most often one of two things: valuable information, or a sample of your product (of course, if you sell information or give a service, it can be both at the same time). In general, there are very few cases where a well-written free report (paper, audio, or digital) will not work. A free report is my favorite for a bunch of reasons: it’s very cheap to produce and mail (free, if it’s electronic), it can differentiate you from your competition in terms of expertise and trust, and by educating prospects about solutions to their problem, it can persuasively sell you and your product.

Step 3: The Front End Product This is the first thing you’re going to sell to your market. It’s usually a low price point item, compared to everything else you sell. And its main goal is to painlessly turn a prospect into a buyer. Once someone has demonstrated buying behavior, it’s much easier to get them to buy again than to turn a non-buyer into a buyer.

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That’s it. The whole system. Do you see how it turns traditional prospecting on its head? You no longer chase your prospects. They chase you. You’re no longer desperate. You’re in demand. Anyone who’s ever dated successfully understands this process intuitively. The job of the rest of this course is to give you enough tools and confidence to go out and apply it successfully in your business. The next thing we’re going to talk about is going to take you through the most thorough and powerful marketing plan you’ve ever created. You’ll be tempted to skip it – please don’t. The brain work you will do in crafting your message and understanding your market will practically give you superhuman marketing powers. Unless you understand what you offer and what people want, all the tricks, tools, and techniques in the world will be nothing but weights on your shoulders. Once you are clear about who you are, and what you offer, and why your prospects should care, those weights turn into wings.

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What People are Saying About Leads into Gold "More Paying Customers and Greater Control of Your Destiny" "Lead generation advertising is something that very few small businesses are any good at doing. That's extremely unfortunate, because in many cases this one ingredient is the deciding factor. It's the difference between a business owner hoping and praying that he can meet payroll this week, vs. having a steady stream of customers coming in day after day. It's the difference between the sales person who spends four hours a day pounding the phone, and the sales person who's consistently talking to interested, qualified prospects." "Leads Into Gold does a very thorough job of walking you, step by step, through a process of sharpening your sales message, putting it in front of the right people, and getting them to take action." "If you just follow Howard's simple system, I'm confident that your efforts will be rewarded with more paying customers and greater control of your destiny."

Perry Marshall Perry Marshall & Associates B2B Internet Marketing Guru

"Increase Sales and Profits" "In this unbelievably thorough package, Howard Jacobson takes you through a thought process that's bound to help any small business increase sales and profits (and have more fun)." Seth Godin

Author Permission Marketing

"Worth its Weight in Gold" Howie Jacobson has set out to do one of the toughest things imaginable: laying down the core principles of effective marketing from the ground up, starting with the most basic concepts and moving

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into specific tools and advanced applications. If you have never sold anything before in your life, this course will be worth its weight in gold to you by saving you countless weeks, months and years of frustration and wasted effort. Intermediate marketers are going to find their knowledge base broadened rapidly and painlessly. 'Old pros' will find Howie's program to be a superb refresher course and something they can give to employees, partners, friends and family members who need to get smart about marketing fast. I wish something this clear and comprehensive had been available when I was getting started. "Leads Into Gold" is a great place to start for anyone who wants to improve their results. Ken McCarthy

The "System" for Internet Marketing http://www.the-system-seminar.com

"This Stuff Really Works!" '"I struggled for several years to figure out a way to get my message out to potential clients. I tried everything from cold calls to partnerships with CPAs and nothing seemed to get me off first base. I knew that I could really help businesses improve their benefits and spend less money, but couldn't find a way to reach customers. Then I discovered the methods you teach in 'Leads into Gold,' and it changed my business and my life. "In the first two months alone I signed up two new clients! That might not sound too good, but these were much bigger clients than I had ever gotten before, and really about all I could handle at the time. In fact, I even had to cut back the amount of marketing I was doing - it was working too well! "Using your methods, I've been able to build a terrific business made up of exactly the type of clients I want. This stuff really works!" Best regards, Bernie Heer, CFP

Martinsville, New Jersey

"PS: Thanks also for helping me with the copywriting of my materials."

“On track to add 60 prospects… in 1month!”

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“I got your materials the other day. Very interesting. So interesting as a matter of fact that the next morning I sat down to redo one of my boring web pages (the ones that look like every other MAS90 software reseller) into one that I believe will help me capture the leads that I need. It's www.s-consult.com/schulz1.htm.” Fast forward 60 days...

"Someone just called me for a reference on Leads into Gold and I've given you a rave review. "I think it's been about 2 months since I started implementing your ideas and about 1 full month of 'really trying.' So far in that month I'm on track to add 60 prospects. That's in 1 month! And the cool thing is that all of these people asked me for information. No cold calling!" Wayne Schulz,

Wayne Schulz Consulting Glastonbury, CT

”Leads into Gold has opened my eyes” “Leads into Gold has opened my eyes. Given me a whole new way to look at advertising, which in the past I always turned my nose up at. But given the information in Leads into Gold, I know this is the way to truly advertise – with direct response advertising. And what’s so great about Howie’s tool is that it gives you the step by step procedure so you can do it yourself. “As soon as we come home from vacation we have to decide where we’re going to put the direct response ad!” Trudy Bryson, BV Systems Gift and Incentive Specialist Chesterfield NJ

“No one who wants to be successful in business should be without it”

"WOW! I’ve listened to the first CD of Leads into Gold and I am very exciting to go to the next CD. I found the material to be

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fantastic and a great motivator for anyone who’s ready to take the necessary steps to grow their business. "You explain the concepts of direct response marketing in an easy to understand and engaging way. I've already gotten several ideas to grow the commercial lending book of my own bank. "Leads into Gold is great and no one who wants to be successful in business should be without it. I highly recommend this information, this approach, and this system to everyone." Marge A. Callahan

Vice President of Commercial Lending, Grand Bank Hamilton, NJ

“A must have for every business”

"Leads into Gold offers an informative look into the world of direct marketing in a format that is both interesting and entertaining. A must have for every business. Jacobson offers dramatic insights into customer behavior that will change the way you market, no matter what your business!" Roe Fisher

Real Possibilities, LLC Cranbury, NJ

“An inspiration” "Thank you for Leads into Gold, it has been an inspiration. I have begun to develop the front end reports and a lower priced initial product to promote a web hosting service for small public companies. "You are a continual source of great information, and have been for me a tremendous motivator. Thank you!"

Rori Bishop Sasaki Boulder, CO

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”I hesitated for about two months” “I’m the president of a strategic marketing company located in northern New Jersey. I’ve been in the business of sales and marketing for the last 15 years, and I’ve read hundreds of books and listened to numerous informational CD-ROM programs on the topic of marketing. “Now I thought I knew all there was to know about marketing – after all, I’ve worked in the business for the last 15 years, and I’ve read and listened to all the material that the so-called ‘world’s best marketing gurus’ have produced. “When I came across Leads into Gold, I hesitated for about two months before I bought the program. And the reason that it took me so long to purchase the program was because I wasn’t positive I wanted to invest in something I was sure was going to be another regurgitation of all the other marketing programs out there. “And I’ll tell you what broke me down was Howard Jacobson’s strategic follow-up system, that I found not only to be very intelligent and effective, but also refreshing. Because based on my experience, Working with many different types of businesses over the years, I find that most companies all too often let selling opportunities slip through the cracks. It was Howard’s marketing strategy and execution that got me to buy. And he teaches you how to do this in the Leads into Gold program, along with many other great things. “When the program arrived, I spent the time to listen to the CD’s in their entirety. And frankly, I haven’t stopped listening yet. I found the content to be extremely informative and fresh. “I would highly recommend this program to anyone who would like to become an intelligent and effective marketer.”

Joe Cerbo

Pine Brook, NJ

“WOW” "All I can say is WOW.

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"I'm dead convinced that you're a great communicator with a talent that I should consume intently. Thanks for the direct honesty, I both need and appreciate that. The time you spent looking at my site and doing that write-up was worth the purchase price alone. That tells me you really have a real desire to help and much more to offer. I deeply appreciate your sincerity and time." Two weeks later...

"I am cruising around with notebook and tape recorder capturing all the ideas you're helping me generate. I appreciate your 'step by step' approach, there is a huge difference between general knowledge (everywhere) versus concise actionable methods (what you've provided). It's nice to have someone say 'sit down and do this first, then...' as it cuts right through the clutter."

Carson Sweet

Principal Consultant Security Methods, Inc. Fairfax, VA

Why wait? To stop cold calling now and forever, and to attract more business than you can handle through fun, respectful, and effective marketing, click here to order Leads into Gold. You have 60 days to return it for any reason, and a full year to put it to the test. This offer obligates me, not you. If you are not delighted and thrilled with your results, I insist on buying it back!

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